Damon Linker gleefully lambasts self-proclaimed conservatives:
The biggest problem with this line of argument, as hordes of merciless Twitter critics have pointed out, is that alcohol is legal, despite the fact that it produces numerous negative personal and social consequences, and arguably more of them than marijuana does or ever will. If we were starting over from scratch, dispassionately examining the comparative effects of alcohol and marijuana, we would likely conclude that both of them should be legal or both of them illegal (depending on our views of personal freedom and our willingness to pay the costs of those negative consequences).
You can ban them both as far as I'm concerned. Cigarettes, too! No. I am not serious, but wouldn't we be better off if people did not get hooked on any of that crap?
3 comments:
This is a tough one. On the one hand, having worked in prisons for a brief period of time, it is rather ridiculous that young people wreck their lives by being busted for drugs and acquiring a criminal record. Also, there was the fact (this was 30 years ago) that alcohol played some role in half or more of the crimes that got those guys locked up. In other words, without drugs and alcohol, we would have very few criminals.
Alcohol prohibition -- we might call it the War on Booze -- was about as effective as the War on Drugs has been.
I wish there was a way to decriminalize drugs without giving them a de facto endorsement. Marijuana is not harmless, though it might fall between tobacco and alcohol in terms of damage for most people. And then what do we do about cocaine and heroin and meth, et al?
In your place I might have voted for legalization. People ought to be free to make their own choices. Less government's good and all that. Still, it's just not right, and we should not be sending the message that this is acceptable.
Mushroom,
It is great to hear from you! Thanks for commenting.
When I did child protection work, the statistics were even higher for drug and alcohol use among parents who were abusing or children.
Your last paragraph sounds exactly like my final thought processes as I entered the voting booth; except I voted no.
I should mention that my thought processes mainly focused on my children; my hopes that they will avoid getting hooked on one addiction or another.
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