So-called "progressives" have been telling us for decades (if not centuries, if one counts the Puritan movement within Christianity) that things like alcohol and recreational pharmaceuticals are bad for us, and that since we won't stop doing what's bad for us (usually because it's fun), they'll darn well make it illegal.
It didn't work with Prohibition in the 30's. Well, honestly, it kind of worked--drinking rates dropped, at least--but at a cost most sane people were unwilling to pay: the rise of La Familia. Organized crime.
We are seeing the same results with illegal drugs: criminal syndicates (usually foreign) come in and import and sell drugs illegally. Most (with the obvious exception of marijuana) aren't safe, but since they're illegal, there's no way to regulate the purity and potency of recreational pharmaceuticals. And that doesn't even count all of the crime that, for some strange reason, accompanies the criminals dealing in the drugs.
Honestly, what I'd like to see is a total, across the board legalization of all drugs. With the understanding that anyone who chooses to use said pharmaceuticals will be legally barred from taking advantage of any social safety net program out there . I don't, however, think that that would fly...so, I'm unwilling to see the harder, more damaging and deadly drugs legalized.
Marijuana, however, should be legalized on the same level as tobacco and alcohol: restricted to adults, and possibly taxed out the wazoo, but legal for medical or recreational use.
And, apparently, in holding that opinion, I am in agreement with California for the first time in my entire life.
20 minutes ago
...and I was born in California!
ReplyDelete....and I might not mind paying a
tax on POT if I had to buy it.
It's more than taxes---the relief to law enforcement, judicial system, prison relief....would save a few $$ and/or let the cops got after real criminals.
Once legal, alcohol consumption will drop--and the costs savings will be come life saving (with all the related expense).
Pass it over to me.......
Agreed. When the eighteenth amendment was repealed, the cops' jobs got easier, the jails got less crowded, and organized crime scrambled to find something else. A lot of organized crime just...fell apart.
ReplyDeleteLegalize it. America was founded on personal freedom, and this is infringing on that, with results that are more disastrous to law enforcement than to the average citizen.