What he said.
People who know me are often surprised that I support legalizing drugs. Judge Jim Gray does a better job of articulating my position that I could do myself.
FWIW, I've been to the Netherlands. It's obvious that what many fear would happen here (us turning into a nation of drooling stoners) has not happened there...
But its a slippery slope isn't it? I actually agree with the sentiment but whats the next narcotic that gets legalized?
ReplyDeleteReminds me of an old anti-drug PSA that had a guy taking a hit of a joint then tying on his surgical voice. The deep eerie voice over spoke "...do you want him performing surgery on you?"
I always laughed thinking what the difference between that and a shot of Jack Daniels....
I don't think the important question is "What's the next narcotic that gets legalized?", but rather "Why is ANY drug illegal?". In other words, why are we letting the government take away our freedom of choice about what to put into our bodies?
ReplyDeleteThe only argument I've heard about why governments should regulate drugs that resonates with me is to protect the public. The idea is that drug users hurt other people (which they incontrovertably do -- just look at alcohol), so we should stop people from doing those things. Murder is illegal for this reason, so why not drugs?
Here's the difference: we know from experience (Prohibition, the current Drug War) that making drugs illegal has awful consequences of its own. Unintended and unfortunate, but unavoidable by any means mankind has ever discovered. It seems very clear to me that the consequences of making drugs illegal are far worse than the consequences of having governments stay out of the issue altogether. This is demonstrably not true with murder - we're all much better off with murder being illegal and punished. No multi-billion dollar businesses have sprung up to supply illegal murders. There is evidence that punishing murder is a deterrent to others who would commit murder (the opposite is true of drug use, especially amongst young adults).