A few points, pd:

1) Many “addictive personalities” have indeed been “controlled”, if you will, in therapy, counseling, etc.. Do you view this as a bad thing? Millions of people have been brought back from the brink of destruction and countless families have been reunited because society (via it’s laws) sent that individual to court-mandated rehabilitation. Does it have a 100% success rate? Of course not. As you note, a person must want to change in order for the change to take place. However, I’ve honestly never met a drug addict that WANTED to be lost in their addiction. They stayed there because, among some other factors, their families and society essentially gave up on them. We shouldn’t scrap our anti-drug laws simply to avoid dealing with such “hard cases”.

2) I’ve also never met anyone who dreamed of going into prostitution when they were growing up. Do you honestly see selling one’s body as just another “career field” to be taxed?

3) Laws directed at “improving our morality”, as you put it, are certainly not perfect, as I said before. However, you don’t seem to acknowledge the message that would be sent by repealing our drug/prostitution laws. True, some kids may believe the thrill of drug use would be gone, but does that mean they still wouldn’t use (once “the government said it was ok”?) As JP noted above, it would be like the government surrendering to the problem, while at the same time attempting to cash in on it via taxation. It would be one of the most pathetic and cynical displays in history.