With the issue at hand being discussed, over the last few days I've watched a discussion between bloggers on legalization over at the paleo-conservative/libertarian website
Taki's Magazine. The truth is, no issue has the ultimate perfect answer for every person and every situation but the more information, the more thoughts, facts, ideas we have on this or any other issue gives us the best chance of coming close. At the same time, I happen to believe it's important for each and every person to be free to choose his or her own path. That can get complex and complicated at times so we'll leave the philsophoical for another time.
Being
ignorant, (an easily corrected condition) if you will, and laying all your hopes and dreams on a gov't or society leaders to always do the right thing is IMO about like believing in the tooth fairy or Santa Claus. It will only work if someone is there to pretend to fill the role and keep you ignorant of the truth.
That said, here are links to the series of posts discussing the issue from several different angles so hope you find them informative whether you agree or not!
A Second Thought on Legalization
A Third Thought On Legalization
Re: A Third Thought on Legalization
A Final Thought on Legalization
BTW: I think this is one of the better threads we've had because of a variety of perspectives and I appreciate those here who shared personal downsides of what drugs can do in the wrong situation. One common thread the horror stories all share is that the culprit of the problem if you will were not organic compounds in their natural state but had been processed, synthesized and concentrated to achieve a highly powerful dose in every smaller quantities. Some of that has to do with the substance being illegal and therefore the risks of transport demand the highest value in the smallest quantity. Even moonshiners learned to manipulate formulas by reading bubbling content which indicate the concentration of alcohol. Organics in their natural state can't be synthesized in the same way, thus my earlier comments in the first paragraph of post #6 in this thread.
I do think this nation needs to have an open and honest discussion of this issue and I think folks of my generation (late 1960's to mid/late 1970's) should be more open and honest about what they did in those years. Sure, there are the many funny stories but the tragic ones as well. A good friend of mine back in school about 10 years ago put a bullet in his head but the abuse wasn't drugs, it was alcohol. If alcohol were gone tomorrow from the face of the planet, it'd make absolutely no difference to me but I'm not going to crusade to end alcohol because my firend's abuse of it led to his death. As many busted families and torn lives from drugs that you can show, I can show you 10 if not 100 times as many destroyed by alcohol.
Life is about choices and you can destroy lives with drugs, alcohol, debt, sex, gambling and a whole host of other "evils" out there so where does gov't stop and where does gov't not? It all comes down to the individual and the choices he/she must make for themselves. Some of us don't choose wisely and we must pay for those choices, sometimes very dramatic and tragic.