My opinion has always been that the Welfare State needs to go first. Get rid of it. Push the idea of personal responsibility, Make people stand on their own two feet. Government is not a crutch.
Then, as a second step, feel free to legalize drugs. If people can consume drugs and still stand on their own two feet, that’s fine with me, But if they get into trouble, I don’t want it to be my problem. I’m not going to rescue them.
To me, that SHOULD be the Libertarian position. In that order. Because if you switch #1 and #2 around, you will achieve the new #1 (legal drugs) but you will abandon all hope of ever getting the new #2 (ending Welfare).
the Welfare State needs to go first. [...] Because if you switch #1 and #2 around, you will achieve the new #1 (legal drugs) but you will abandon all hope of ever getting the new #2 (ending Welfare).
Nonsense - those people who before legalization were responsible enough to avoid marijuana use because it was illegal, will after legalization remain responsible enough to not use themselves into welfare dependency.
And since alcohol dependency is several times more prevalent than marijuana dependency, if legality means no end to welfare then that goal is dead already.
Exactly as I see it. And ending welfare enables us to end a whole host of other government problems.
For example, end welfare and people will be more liable to pick wise career choices instead of the ones government pushes us to (i.e. college oriented "careers" many of which don't work out well).
End welfare and people are more liable to not do drugs to begin with. (Look at how little drug abuse there was before the welfare state -- because people would see the few people in the gutter and not want to wind up like them).
End welfare and people will eventually go back to saving for their future like the greatest generation did -- less need for government "help" for senior citizens.
End welfare for farms (the farm subsidies that pay farmers to not grow food, ideally to prevent a food surplus which makes farmers go bankrupt) and produce won't be so expensive (thus less need for food stamps).