De-fang marijuana

Arizona Star ^ | 31 July 02 | Rich Lowry

[Minutemen]

No way. still dont believe any of that crud should be legalized. Pot is not harmless to your body and driving under the influence of it is not any safer than alcohol. Heroin addicts are flakey people that have no control over themselves. If you are so anti-drug, account for your position on legalizing pot.

[Zon]

I'm so pro freedom that I'm pro decriminalize vices among consenting adults. Your #30 post was straw man rhetoric. At least have the integrity to make an honest rational argument. But your anti-freedom stance won't allow you to do that.

[Minutemen]

I'm not. Adios, goodbye

[TopQuark]

We are in agreement; I never said that it is the role of the government to control the values. In fact, I stated the opposite. I do not think that legalization is an answer, however.

[LloydofDSS]

Lets try and simplify the problem. Suppose 100 people live on an island by themselves. A few poeple, say 10 have discovered that smoking pot makes them feel good. The other 90 people have been told by their leader that pot is dangerous and harmful, so they propose to put the 10 potheads in a stockade.

Now is there any burden of proof on the 90 that pot really is harmful? Or can they just arbitrarily use their "majority" power to imprison their neighbors?

It seems to me that any time we propose to imprison a group of people for any reason, we have a very high burden of proof to show that the behavior is in fact very very harmful to those who do it.

The very fact that people freely choose to smoke pot is evidence to the contrary, so the burden is even higher.

[tacticalogic]

We are in agreement; I never said that it is the role of the government to control the values. In fact, I stated the opposite. I do not think that legalization is an answer, however.

If you look at the history of marijuana prohibition, it is clear that this was an exercise in government attempting to control the values. Do you want that precedent to stand?

[bassmaner]

We've got one side of the aisle trying to moralize socialism, and the other side trying to socialize morality. If you close your eyes, sometimes you can't tell one from the other.

Bump for a great observation! Republican drug warriors are as socialist and anti-freedom as any Democrap comsymp.