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Politics : Bush-The Mastermind behind 9/11? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rock_nj who wrote (3149)	9/29/2003 12:08:29 AM
From: LPS5	Respond to of 20039

I think your post really boils down to this one question. (If I've missed another/others, please let me know.) I know libertarians generally favor drug legalization. What do you think? I am in favor of drug legalization on several grounds. First, because - as with drinking - the laws against drug use police what is in and of itself a harmless act via an anticipatory theory. Second, because the price being paid for our ever-losing "war" on drugs is increasingly measured in more lives lost, more freedom lost, and billions of taxpayer dollars with no success in sight - as if success were a worthwhile goal, in this case. And third, because the societal impact of drugs is being framed through the lens of the prohibitionist and not, as some of us would like to consider it, through a market framework. While I don't touch any of them (alcohol, drugs, soft drinks...), I've had far more problems with those excessively consuming alcohol than with individuals utilizing any of the commonly-cited illegal substances out there. And I would certainly rather have pot smoking neighbors than heavy drinking buffoons, that's for sure. With respect to the harder stuff (and this ties to my third point above) - cocaine, heroin, etc. - the ills that people see or which are described to them are a direct function of the illegal status of the drug. Similarly, there would be thousands of filthy, hardcore, poverty-striken and otherwise degenerate alcohol drinkers if their habit were restricted to a dangerous, black market distribution system of unrefined, take-it-as-it-comes white lightning. If hard drugs were refined, tested, legalized, and marketed for recreational use, their use could resemble that of cigarettes, caffeine, or alcohol. LPS5