Things that piss me off #8: Existing narcotic legislation

It just doesn't work. How many examples does mankind have to see before realising that making something illegal only makes it more desired and therefore expensive. Try these:

• Prohibition in America worked wonderfully - Al Capone laughed all the way to the Bank. Even now the remnants of prohibition i.e. the draconian law of making it illegal for under 21s to drink alcohol leads America to have one of the highest juvenile alcohol abuse statistics. The same applies to Sweden - very high alcohol prices (to try and deter people from drinking), but a very high general alcohol consumption.
• The ban on Pornography in Ireland - every young adolescent I knew had a playboy under the bed and worst of all the numbers of sex offenders, paedophiles and rapists in Ireland is horrendously high.
• Case for the accused: The Netherlands. I have no statistics to back me up here but from my general feeling, the Dutch have definitely got a lower percentage of sex crimes and drug related offences than most other European countries.