Family Guy (the TV show) tonight was focused on Marijuana legalization.
According to Brian, the reason for making Marijuana illegal was the competition of hemp vs. the established industries. Â A campaign of fear and lies was started with the goal of creating anti-drug laws.
That’s not why I’m talking about drugs.
For the record, I’ve never done any recreational drugs except alcohol (yeah, it’s a drug) and one cigar (tobacco). Â For years, I was very anti-drugs, because I felt that their effects on people were solely negative, and that they should be prohibited.
In the last few years, however, I have arrived at a different conclusion, for a variety of reasons.
Legalize drugs. Â Plain and simple. Â My reasons:
- Sure, there are going to be people who abuse them, but hell, people abuse everything else anyway, why should we give drugs special treatment?
- Taxable revenue: the government can GET money from drugs–sales taxes, etc, like tobacco or alcohol.
- Less enforcement spending. Â Come on–we probably spend billions of dollars trying to prevent drug use.
- It’s not our business! Â People should be allowed to do what they want to do to themselves. Â We make laws to keep OTHERS from doing bad things to OTHERS. Â Why are we controlling what people do themselves?
- Destroy gangs/terrorist groups/bad countries’ sources of income. Â If drugs are legal, they’re cheaper. Which means the sellers won’t make as much money. Which brings me to my next point:
- Lower crime. Â If drugs are cheaper, people don’t need to steal from others (or mug or kill) to get money to support their habit.
So if you’re concerned about where society will go if everyone has the legal right to use drugs, don’t be. Â A company can still have the ability to tell an employee not to use a drug while they’re on the job, just like people can’t come to work drunk.
