Drug prohibition is a ridiculous criminal joke that is destroying America.
Amen.
Drug prohibition is at its core a utopian social-engineering agenda that contradicts a fundamental reality of human nature. We've had 30+ years of the so-called "War on Drugs" and "illegal" drugs are more plentiful than ever, despite the fact that there are 500,000+ prisoners in the U.S. in jail for drug "crimes".
Memo to Drug War-supporting conservatives: utopian social-engineering agendas are the stock-in-trade of the socialist left, and are eternally doomed to failure. Even ex-Drug Czar Barry McCaffery once admitted that we would never be able to "jail our way out of the drug problem". It's time to admit that the best solution is the market solution: legalize, tax, and regulate, get the federal government out of the drug prohibition enforcement business, and leave regulation up to the states like it is for alcohol and tobacco.
First, I think you mean "legalize" not "decriminalize". Decriminalization means that marijuana is still illegal, but the offense is reduced to a civil misdemeanor with usually a small fine. Some states have decriminalized.
You're looking to turn the legalization decision over to the states and leaving the federal government out of it (unless, as you say, it crosses our borders or state lines).
The 21st amendment, Section 2, did exactly that for alcohol. I would suggest that we get a similar amendment for drugs if we want to go down that path.
The Public Choice effect has seldom been stronger than it is in the War on Drugs. I can think of one other case where this much effort and this much stridency went into trying to sustain an irrational and unsustainable law: alcohol Prohibition. That one created a river of blood, too.
Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
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