I’m not moved when alcohol being legal is mentioned as a reason to legalize anything else. It’s a pretty irrelevant augment. Is it “fair” to potheads, one might ask? I don’t really give a crap.
That the world’s most popular (by far) and historically popular (by far) drug is legal and trying to ban it was a failed experiment is not relevant when talking about legalizing weed, or smack, or crack. The fact is if you legalize any of those their usage would increase, possibly by a whole hell of a lot. That would cause major problems that we don’t need. While it’s true that booze causes major problems we don’t need, that’s not a reason to make the problem worse.
So sign me up for some “statism” when it comes to keeping the dregs of society from getting stoned and spreading misery to the rest of us. If you (not YOU personally but a figurative “you”) wanna leave your kids at home, buy (not rent) a farm and go out there and snort cocaine till you think you’re Tony Montana and you start milking the chickens and plucking the cows, go right ahead (and hope PETA doesn’t find out). If you’re out in the world, sorry no. Your freedom stops when it infringes on the rights of others.
The war on drugs causes plenty of “problems we don’t need”.
There are plenty of laws on the books to regulate the “drugged” behavior you reference. And regulations. And rules. DUI for instance. Drug tests for employment. But the very drug laws you say we need, well a lot of people think that they cause more harm that good. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are pro-drug. I could mean that they are against the money machine that is the court and prison system. And/or that they are against our prisons being filled with non-violent drug offenders.
There is no doubt that American citizens liberty is being infringed every single day by the War on Drugs. Some are not for that. Some are. There could be a debate on that except if you lean on the side of freedom then you are considered by many to be a drug addict or in favor of drugs. Or, to use the Global Warming crowds words, a denier.
Amen.
Yes, and Freedom starts when it DOESN'T infringe on the rights of others.
Merely possessing a contraband item, or being under the influence of one, does not infringe on anybody's rights.
Advocating imprisonment for possessing the wrong plant or medicine is as totalitarian as it gets. Such reasoning is used to justify numerous Tyrannical laws, and the only thing left wing authoritarians and right wing authoritarians apparently disagree on is whose version of Tyranny should prevail.
If somebody is smoking, drinking, or recreating, and NOT infringing on anybody else's rights, then they shouldn't be subject to arbitrary imprisonment, no-knock warrants, and other such unconstitutional follies.
The phony War on Drugs is one of the most Tyrannical, unconstitutional abominations ever conceived. It's a totalitarian's wet dream. Those who embrace it embrace Tyranny, all the while taking pride in their own shallow concept of Liberty.
Those on the Right cannot decry the authoritarian tendencies of the Left while simultaneously endorsing the same theories of nanny-state arbitrary Law which the Left embraces.
I'm not interested in submitting to statists from any side of the political spectrum. Their Tyranny is antithetical to true Liberty, and they simply disagree on who the individual or collective Tyrants should be. Majority Tyranny is just as evil as other varieties, often even moreso.
Embracing contraband law is tantamount to embracing the same notions of arbitrary authority that are used to destroy true Liberty, and I, for one, reject such Tyranny, regardless of which side of the phony political spectrum it comes from.
Infringement of someone else's rights is where legitimate authority begins and ends.
In the absence of such infringement, each individual's vision of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness is subject to their own interpretation, and does not have to conform to anyone else's narrow-minded concepts. This is the only way it can be in a truly Free society. All else is Tyranny.
And that is true whether you're talking about legal drugs such as alcohol (clearly the worst drug on the face of the earth) or illegal plants (LOL) such as marijuana.
One cannot support both inherently Tyrannical contraband law and Liberty. The rationalistic somersaults exhibited in those who try to do so are both amusing and alarming.
So, yes, my Freedom (and yours) stops when it infringes on the rights of others, and it similarly begins, in all its challenging manifestations, whenever that is NOT the case.
Is it “fair” to potheads, one might ask?
That's not what I asked.
That the world’s most popular (by far) and historically popular (by far) drug is legal and trying to ban it was a failed experiment is not relevant when talking about legalizing weed, or smack, or crack.
Those bans have failed in all the ways Prohibition did.
Your freedom stops when it infringes on the rights of others.
Using alcohol or other drugs doesn't in itself infringe on the rights of others.