It wasn’t a joke, Mr President
Sunday, March 29th, 2009I’m not a pot user, and I never have been. I never saw the point, but that’s just me. The few people I’ve been around when they were high seemed happy enough, but they acted and talked pretty stupid. I’m not their judge, but I’m not interested in it either.
That said, why the heck are we throwing people in jail for it? They may be stupid while they’re high, but who are pot-heads actually hurting? Most research shows that they aren’t even hurting themselves anymore than if they were taking an occasional cigarette. Nearly every problem we have with pot - the gangs, the rising costs of prisons and law enforcement - would all disappear if it were simply legal. And not only would we have a reduction in crime, but we’d be able to regulate it, tax it, and restrict it from being sold to minors far more effectively than we can now.
But I’m not going to try listing more reasons why it should be legal. In a free society you don’t NEED reasons to make something legal. Things should be legal by default unless there is a reason for them not to be. So the real question is: why ISN’T pot legal? Every reason I’ve ever heard (it impairs judgment, it makes people act stupid, it’s unhealthy) is at best an argument for helping people get treatment, but more likely an argument for moderation and self-control by individual users - same as we expect from people who drink beer.
I was pretty annoyed at Obama’s flippant response to millions of his constituents who came to the same conclusion I did. Why shouldn’t we legalize pot, tax it, and regulate it? It wasn’t a joke to them, and most of them voted for him in the elections.
Instead of arming the cartels, the money we spend on drugs like marijuana and cocaine should be staying in this country - going toward the production of safer drugs, as well as taxes that fund drug rehab programs. The war on drugs has been such a dismal failure, and such a waste of money, that the public is finally starting to call for a change in tactics. Let’s hope the politicians start paying attention.