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To: i_robot73
Marijuana is essentially decriminalized where I live. Anyone who wants one can get his marijuana card.

Morality, as everyone should know, cannot be legislated.

I'll quibble a bit to see what you think. You are right as far as it goes, because the proper dynamic is the reverse. Law rests upon a moral foundation that must exist prior to law.

Law which is not rooted in morality is not respected as law (Natural Law philosophers will say that law not rooted in morality or consistent with it is not law at all). In the absence of that foundation what we think of as "rule of law" doesn't exist, you have only raw exercise of power.

Freedom also cannot be legislated. The will and capacity to govern oneself exists prior to the laws that codify it. That will and capacity rests upon the same moral foundation as the rule of law and liberty itself. They rise naturally from it.

Freedom and Liberty do not ‘cost’ anyone. Cost is only associated with a Socialist State (community over the individual).

I think I know what you mean, and I don't think that is my argument. Freedom does cost of course, it requires that we willingly assume the cost of our own decisions. Once people are no longer willing (in general) they will demand an intrusive state.

You CAN build a Free country containing those unwilling/unable to govern themselves. We have had it and will always have them.

I agree. Freedom does require as a prerequisite a generally moral people. It doesn't require that everyone be moral or share the same moral views, but it does require a critical mass of people who generally are willing, able, and insistent on governing themselves, willing to pay the cost of their decisions, and it requires a certain level of trust of your neighbor. A few bad eggs (even a lot of bad eggs) can be dealt with by cops or neighbors with a rope.

The problem is when you pass the tipping point where the moral capacity for self-government is no longer general.

I'll repeat what I said earlier. You can safely legalize (or decriminalize) drug use as long as its use is marginalized to a distinct minority and there is sufficient public disapproval to keep it marginal. Once Madison Avenue gets involved, all bets are off. It is possible to have a free republic in which drug use is legal but rare. It is not possible to sustain freedom if drug use ever becomes accepted and mainstream.

83 posted on 02/25/2013 7:28:07 PM PST by marron
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To: marron

Well reasoned, well stated.


87 posted on 02/25/2013 8:56:54 PM PST by C. Edmund Wright
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