^^^THIS^^^
I have never understood the Republican stance on pot. Whatever happened to individual freedom and personal responsibility? If someone wants to get drunk, or high, so what? As long as they don't hurt anyone by driving under the influence, etc. or expect society to pick up the pieces if they go off the rails, why shouldn't they have the freedom to choose?
Where in the Constitution is the government given the right to decide what to do with or put into your own body?
Spoken like a true libertarian. There is a lot of overlap between conservatives and libertarians. There are plenty of conservatives who believe we should just legalize drugs, completely ending the war on drugs and taking away all the incentive of gang violence for their control.
Of course this would never happen because the police, the prison guard unions, and the judges and lawyers all have job security with the millions of arrests and convictions from the mere possession and use of narcotics, let alone all the pushers and dealers who would not exist when you could go down to Walmart and buy everything from pot to acid.
The flip side is we would need to have a society that is willing to throw the book at anybody who kills or hurts someone due to irresponsible recreational drug use, by which I mean one strike and you are out. Make the punishment so harsh that only the most stupid Americans would take a chance using out and about.
Legalize, educate and then enforce very harshly against those who damage others while high.
But that would make too much sense.
Because that's exactly what happens. They go off the rails and we have to pick up the pieces again and again and again and again and again.