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I kind of regret my last post, as it was flip and this is a serious subject. My overarching issues are two.
The first is philosophical. I think what someone wants to put in their own body is their business. I support the notion that an individual has the right to take their own life, so it would be hypocritical (sp?) for me to say "but you can't poison yourself a bit at a time."
Jack was incensed by my "self medicating" comment, but I was serious. People in pain from chemo, or the woman who just lost her case in SCOTUS who's been suffering from back pain, find relief smoking pot. I just can't see that it's anyone else's business. Now I think that a lot of people medicate when they shouldn't and I support education, intervention, and other methods to get and keep them off drugs, but feel that the decision is their own.
My second objection is purely pragmatic. What we are doing hasn't worked. When I was in college a gram of cocaine went for $100 and I'm told, was generally about 25% pure. When I asked, while having a discussion not dissimilar to this one, what that same gram of cocaine would run today, I was told (by a narcotics officer who works an interjurisdictional task force [I think Sneaky knows who I'm referring to]) that it would probably be LESS than $100 and would probably be closer to 40% pure. So in twenty five years the price has fallen, pretty dramatically when one adjusts for inflation, and the quality has gone up!
We've spent untold millions, lives have been lost and others ruined and we're no better off than when we started. So even if I didn't have severe philosophical reservations about "the war on drugs" I have grave practical reservations.
I don't kid myself that my proposal solves all the problems, but this is something that I've thought a great deal about and it's the best that I've been able to come up with.
The thing about freedom is that if you want to be free you have to support other people's right to be free even if you know they're going to do some really stupid shit.
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