Prohibition

Recently, I heard a discussion about legalization of marijuana. The debate was quite heated although it did remain civil. It did get me thinking, however, about just what I think about the issue. Let me start by stating my position. I do not support prohibition of drugs. I support legalizing them and controlling them.

Let us consider the alcohol prohibition as attempted by the United States in the early twentieth century. This failed completely. Speakeasies appeared and a massive underground market and culture grew up around alcohol. People wanted alcohol so they found ways to get it, despite the laws at the time. Eventually, the United States was forced to reverse the prohibition.

At a quick glance, I fail to see how the prohibition of alcohol is any different than the prohibition of marijuana. Alcohol impairs judgement and ability to react and has deleterious effects on the user’s health. So does marijuana. So does nicotine. (I do not intend to debate that point on anecdotal evidence. If you wish to debate it, provide scientific research.) Obviously, the quantity and the user’s physiology will affect the result.

We, as a society, permit the use of alcohol and nicotine, both of which have clearly deleterious effects and one of which causes significant impairment. Yet we disallow marijuana which, at least on the surface, appears to have less of a deleterious effect than alcohol. We spend a great many man hours and dollars capturing and incarcerating marijuana users. Why? Is it truly any different than tobacco?

I contend that we should legalize marijuana and regulate it in some manner just like we do with alcohol and tobacco. We can put in place quality controls and collect income and sales taxes from it. We can create a legal market for something that people clearly want. We can make it illegal to sell to minors, just like we do with alcohol and tobacco. Operating a motor vehicle while impaired by marijuana should be just as much of an offense as operating a motor vehicle while impaired by alcohol.

Note that I’m not saying that legalizing marijuana should give everyone carte blanche to do what they will. I hear a lot of the opponents of legalization saying that we’ll have a massive upswing in crime if we legalize it but they can’t point to just how that will happen. A great many people already use marijuana but don’t cause trouble. They would not suddenly go on rampages just because their drug of choice became legally available.

Proponents of legalization like to claim that we would save significant resources that are currently directed at enforcing the prohibition. I do not contend that this is the case, however. I contend we would save money by not incarcerating many people simply due to their possession or use of marijuana. Law enforcement would still be as over worked as it is today as there will always be a class of crimes perpetrated by those who abuse marijuana just like there are with those who abuse alcohol.

Basically, I’m saying that rather than simply accepting the propaganda promulgated by the media and government that says that we must win the war on drugs, think about it. Can we truly eliminate the use of these drugs? Can we even markedly reduce it? If the answer is no, then there is no point in a war on drugs. Rather, efforts should be directed at minimizing the impact and risk to those who choose not to use them. After all, a great many things people do are dangerous (sky diving, eating, breathing, walking, running, etc.) but they are not prohibited.

The astute among you may have realized that you can replace marijuana anywhere in the preceeding discussion with many other things. In my opinion, prostitution fits into the same basic argument structure. There are likely many other drugs that could also be argued the same way.

So, to sum up. We should legalize marijuana and institute some controls on quality and use, similar to alcohol and tobacco.