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> Yet I can not for the life of me understand why drugs are illegal

Because there's a hugely profitable industry in the policing, prosecution and incarceration of people

Also you could add racism. Most of these drugs caused social scares when they became popular with minority communities and so people pushed to make them illegal as a roundabout way to target people they were afraid of.

And until the people employed by the systems that police, prosecute, and incarcerate other people have a sufficient safety net, they will be motivated to prop up those systems.

Universal basic income just makes too much sense.

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