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... that people should be allowed to create and use chemical and radiological weapons (as long as it stays on their property) ...

With the same strawman argument you used here, once could also justify that reloading brass on one's on property should also be prohibited. After all, you're dealing with dangerous chemicals, explosives, and materials.

So where does common sense stop and liberalism begin? Right there.

The fact is that if someone chooses to use marijuana in their home, recreationally, it harms no one but the person who makes that choice, unless that person goes out and does something stupid while high. But- there are some who want to use the police power of Gov't (ie: the DEA) to tell you what you can do in your own home, because they don't particularly like the behavior or the potential that you may do something stupid while high.

If someone chooses to reload brass in their home, it harms no one, unless that same person takes said reload and goes on a killing spree. There are some who want to use the police power of Gov't (ie: the BATFE, FBI, etc) to tell you what you can do in your own home, because they don't particularly like the behavior or the potential that you might go out on a killing spree.

Using Gov't as the all powerful regulator of the behavior of personal choices that certain groups may not approve of isn't something I'd expect from someone with a 'ConservativeMind'.

Honestly, I don't want government to be that arbiter, but in a society in which I have to pay for you once your head rots too much from drugs, you've indentured me in a way that should be illegal to start. I want you to rot your own brain and you be completely responsible for that decadence.

The truth is that we have a government to be an arbiter of some sort in all of our lives, meting punishment to those who wronged us—even libertarians agree to this use of government.

The problem we are describing with government is that it has taken on the roll of pre-deciding many things as being “wrong” or “right” which were once left up to the individual or to the State. Often, once could argue such laws were for “a good cause,” to prevent things a simple majority of society thought were somehow grotesque or too risky. But our Constitution allows us to limit ourselves and others through law, so this is to be expected.

What is the point at which such regulation becomes too much? I would argue we are well past that place. However, the arguments for legalizing currently illegal substances or behavior cannot be made simply because it is a “liberty” we should have. The truth is that our laws can have a protective effect on our society from time to time. Encouraging people to take up currently illicit drugs will really only spread the problem of drug use (it will be at every drug store and supermarket) while having completely unpredictable results on “lessening the drug war.”

You see, there will always be a drug that seems “edgy” to people precisely because it isn't yet illegal, and therefore, it becomes desirable to many. So we can legalize literally all drugs in an attempt to curb the “edgy-ness” and to, from the arguments of many here on Free Republic, “defund the drug gangs.” There is absolutely no evidence that legalizing will do such a thing, but there is plenty of evidence that when you put mind-altering substances on a table at a party, that a huge number of people will try them. If they are legal, such items are freely available and, some argue, cheaper because they are mass produced (sure, they are taxed, but when the tax is too high, people again buy illegally - CrippleCreek has a link about that). Does having a cheap, readily-available supply of crank, cocaine, pot, etc. really sound like the cure for getting drug crime off the streets? Or does it remind us of Opium dens of yore?

We have enough problems with what is currently legal. Why complicate it by saying illegal drugs made legal will make using those substances easier for our society to handle, ESPECIALLY when no other society in the world has shown that works?

By the way, not even pot is truly legal to buy, sell, grow and use anywhere in the world. Why screw us up here in the US with millions more druggies causing crime and using our insurance/welfare resources?