Sure. As long as some self-righteous mob wants to throw someone in prison for merely possessing something, go for it, say many so-called nanny-staters "minimal government conservatives". It is to laugh.
And of course, we must also have the ever-expanding Police State that necessarily goes with enforcement of Contraband Law.—asset forfeiture, search which lack probable cause, no-knock warrants, increased violence at both the street level and by militarized police, and in general widespread trampling of Unalienable rights.
Threatening someone with prison for possessing one of God's own creations? A plant? What a joke. And the petty Drug War fascists have the unmitigated gall to call that Liberty?
Prohibitionists were dead wrong when they criminalized alcohol—which is hands down the worst drug on the face of the earth—worse than all other drugs combined—and they remain dead wrong about the entire idea Contraband Law in general.
Actual crime exists when someone's rights are infringed upon via force, fraud, or negligence—not just because some nanny-state zealots decide that trampling the Constitution and basic tenets of Liberty would make imposing "law and order" more convenient.
Arbitrary Law is illegitimate on its face, and is the doorway to Tyranny. Once it's tolerated—by either side of the political spectrum—it becomes equally justifiable by the other side. That's why allowing it to flourish invariably results in increasing loss of Liberty for everyone.
Those who believe in Authoritarian shortcuts (whether well-intentioned or not) are forcing others to choose whose version of Tyranny is most palatable: Left wing flavor or Right wing flavor—as if those are the only choices.
No thanks. I'll take door number three, Monty: the animating contest of Freedom; I'll take actual Liberty—warts and all—with all of its annoyances, inconveniences, and challenges, instead of demonstrably failed and shortsighted policies of over a century Prohibitionist shortcuts, which have exacerbated the problems as opposed to solving them.
Education, rehabilitation, and compassion are the answers—not incarceration. That's right: the only thing worse than decriminalization is the Tyrannical situation that exists now. Not to mention the fact that decriminalization has the minor advantage of actually being Constitutional, and consistent with the timeless principles of American Liberty...
Amen, bro. Not sure who on this thread espoused any of those things.
Well said, Sargon.