It doesn't matter whether pot harms users or not--or even whether it harms friends of users or not. Speaking as someone raised by chain-smoking drunks, our society is morally obligated to either ban alcohol or allow pot.
I use neither, nor does my spouse, so I gain nothing personally from either choice.
But by choosing to make the lesser evil illegal and the greater one legal, society practices a terrible hypocrisy that fosters disrespect for the law and for society.
The argument that one is bad enough, we don't need two, is pure sophistry. Society rests on being fair--one law for everyone. When the legal drug is the one used by legislators and judges, and the banned one is the one used by "those people" the pretense of fairness goes out the window.
It's true that alcohol used in moderation is not dangerous. But that's equally true of pot (especially when it's eaten, not smoked).
If we legalize pot for adults, more people will use it than before--but most won't. It's not physically addictive, unlike alcohol. And most Americans don't want to wander around in a daze.
As for driving while stoned--I regard it the same way as I regard driving while drunk: premeditated attempted murder.
So legalize pot but treat as premeditated all crimes committed under the influence of any mind-altering substance that was voluntarily ingested.
That should make the law and order types happy. But if you don't support legalizing both or banning both you aren't serious about law and order.
2 comments:
I agree. I would go further and allow a legalization and regulation of cocaine and heroin as well. Addicts would get their drugs on prescription and these drugs would be pure and safe under FDA rules. Coca and Opium Poppies could be grown on American farms, providing further jobs for farmers. Factories to turn the raw material into heroin and cocaine can be built in high-unemployment areas.
Additionally, by moving these drugs into pharmacies, criminals who profit from illegal drugs will be unable to compete against the new regime as the price of legal heroin and cocaine would be much, much lower than the cost of illegal shipments, so say goodbye to drug barons and drug dealers. The cost of buying the low cost prescription cocaine or heroin would also prevent drug related property crime (addicts stealing goods, reselling them and then using the money to buy their drugs), not to mention the reduced insurance premiums enjoyed by homeowners.
And also think of the producers of illegal Coca and Opium poppies - with production switching to the US, farmers in these nations will be forced to plant different, more legal crops.
Of course such legalization would require certain caveats to prevent the creation of new users, but the current prescription system tends to prevent certain legal drugs (eg morphine) from being abused by anyone except the rich and famous.
I agree with all of this. I didn't mention it because we can make the best case for pot, since it isn't physically addictive and it's nontoxic (unless you smoke it--smoking anything is dangerous because burnt organic matter is carcinogenic and inhaling hot gases kills esophageal cilia).
So for me this is the camel's nose in the tent--in a good way. The anti-legalization crowd can point out the physical dangers of heroin/cocaine etc., making the arguments for legalizing them somewhat different.
One thing at a time. It'll be hard enough to get pot truly legalized.
And pity the poor pot farmers, since it grows like a weed in the States--making the nickname so very apt.
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