Tuesday, April 20, 2010

End Insanity Of The War on Drugs—Start With Decriminalizing Marijuana at The Federal Level

Ron Paul renews his call for marijuana decriminalization.

I'm not knee jerk about the matter, I don't think anyone should do jail time for simple possession, but these arguments would resonate more with me if they said something to address the social costs of drugs and alcohol. Alcohol prohibition was wrought with serious problems and I would never support its return, but alcohol consumption is tied to no small number of serious social problems and costs. (And it has an industry that's invested in shaping policy, beliefs and attitudes toward those problems and costs.)

As I've said before, a problem-free alcohol and drug policy is not possible. There will be problems with any policy. The question is which problems are we willing to live with and what can we do to mitigate them.

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