RE: A Hot Topic

The following is a response to an argument found on Can’t Touch This.

The blog mentioned above contains a post pertaining to the subject of the legalization of marijuana. Like this blogger, I myself have never used the drug and don’t plan on it, but feel that marijuana should be legalized in the U.S. However, I’ll go a step further by saying that all drugs should be legalized. I know that may sound a little unorthodox, but hear me out on this one.

My belief that drugs should be legalized is based on the principle I hold that government should be limited in what it tells you to do with your body, but there are other factors as well. I am a strong believer in individual choice. I don’t feel it’s in the government’s interest to declare a “War on Drugs,” especially since it has backfired. Ever since Richard Nixon declared this “war” drug use has actually increased.  I don’t feel that drug use will necessarily go up if the “War on Drugs” is lifted. There cannot be a real war on drugs because people find a way to use them whether they’re illegal or not.

If drugs were legalized, it would save a ton of money on government spending on prohibition and produce an increase in state tax revenues. Marijuana more specifically could also be used for medical purposes for patients who need it.

We’ve got drugs worse than what’s illegal that’s available to Americans right now. This is where a major inconsistency is found (we don’t tell Americans they can’t smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol because they’re two of our biggest industries). It’s a bad idea for the government to decide for us what’s too harmful for us and what’s not.

Most of the problems we have in this country dealing with drugs happen because drugs are illegal. People steal to get drugs because drugs are expensive because they’re illegal. People get hooked on drugs because they can’t admit they have a problem because drugs are illegal. Why criminalize drug users and put them in the same category as murderers? We imprison over 800,000 people a year while spending $700 a second unsuccessfully trying to curb the use of drugs in this country. Incriminating these drug users does not fix the problem of drug use; it simply fills up our prisons and slows down the court systems.

Once again, I don’t plan on using drugs at any point in my life.  There are plenty of others out there like me who are personally against drug use, but feel that it’s not the government’s role to declare what we can and can’t put in our bodies. The “War on Drugs” is a form of prohibition which violates the principles of a limited government embodied in the Constitution. For too long this country has looked at the problem of drugs in society the wrong way, instating laws that do nothing but make the problem worse. With the current government attitude being “drugs are bad, so let’s throw money at the problem,” I believe a serious change is in order.