Thank you for the thoughtful reply. Unfortunately, too many of the legalize pot crowd don’t know when to stop. All too many would toss in heroin and cocaine for good measure. In CA, too many podiatrists etc have been issuing frivolous scripts for medical pot, making the law a parody.
If these folks were REALLY about smaller government, they would start at the bottom ... Not with pot, but with penicillin and other non-narcotic medical prescriptions. That doesn’t even occur to them.
I am not in favor of the war on illegal drugs, but decriminalization is a step that cannot be walked back.
So true. That is a slippery slope I can't even imagine the negative consequences of. Be careful what you ask for ... and all.
>>I am not in favor of the war on illegal drugs, but decriminalization is a step that cannot be walked back.<<
It sounds like what you’re saying is that you recognize that the war on drugs has had tremendous unintended consequences, but so might decriminalization. So, better the devil you know...?
I think decriminalization could be “walked back” if the consequences were too severe. And I honestly don’t view marijuana (which nearly everyone in my elderly generation tried in the 60’s and 70’s at one point or another) as the same problem as meth, heroin, cocaine, or whatever concoction they come up with next.
Cigarettes didn’t drive pot usage, and I doubt legalized pot usage would drive usage of harder drugs. In fact, decoupling of the two markets (pot vs. harder drugs) would probably work to keep people from coming into contact with those harder drugs.
Couple legalization with laws severely punishing any harder drug usage, and with laws strictly specifying penalties for being under the influence of marijuana when working, and see what happens. It’s hard to believe we’d have more of a mess than we have right now.
And, as I said when I brought this up, the Republican candidate (other than Ron Paul) who manages to broach this issue in a reasonable way might just find an unexpected amount of support from young people who voted for Obama in 2008. The risk will be how much support he loses from the base if he tries venturing into that area. I suspect no one will be willing to take that risk, unless Ron Paul continues to build support for his candidacy.