I'm not sure what to think of the narcotic legalization debate. It seems totally obvious that our black market is fundamentally fueling the world narcotics trade, replete with gang and militia violence. On the other hand, it is hard for me to imagine walking into a bar and seeing people snorting cocaine. I see no problem with marijuana though. I found it a little discomforting to see hoards of stoned people in the coffee shops of Amsterdam, but it is no more disconcerting than seeing a group of drunks at a frat party. Eventually, I suppose drugs should be totally legalized. Perhaps this can occur when old fogies like me either pass on or get over our prejudice. Allowing people in the US to voluntarily destroy their lives with drugs seems more acceptable in the big scheme of things than permitting poor neighborhoods all over the world, including the US, to be run by thugs with guns.
A simple but convincing line on this debate is from the Huffington post, via a NY Times blog.
Huffington Post: Norm Stamper, a retired police chief and member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, reviews the pot vs. booze debate on 4/20 day:
Over the past four years I’ve asked police officers throughout the U.S. (and in Canada) two questions. When’s the last time you had to fight someone under the influence of marijuana? (I’m talking marijuana only, not pot plus a six-pack or a fifth of tequila.) My colleagues pause, they reflect. Their eyes widen as they realize that in their five or fifteen or thirty years on the job they have never had to fight a marijuana user. I then ask: When’s the last time you had to fight a drunk? They look at their watches.
I don't know why this country continues to pay huge sums of money to fight weed. If we legalize it annd control it, the country could make so much on tax money and savings from fighting weed, we could fund so many programs, like education. Weed is a lot better for the body than alcohol.
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