Hits from the blog: a rejoinder.
Monday, March 30th, 2009
I am reluctant to quarrel with Akhbar, one of the most correct men I know. But I must respond to this:
The bigger issue, though, is that this marijuana-centric outrage is complete bullshit. If you want pot legalized because you think it’s harmless and you enjoy smoking it, then knock yourself out. But once you bring up tax revenues, personal freedom, or the evils of the drug war, you really owe an explanation for why you’re focusing on marijuana. And while I’d love to hear it, I doubt that explanation would be very convincing.
I would focus on marijuana, for what I think is the very convincing reason of humility. It’s a certainty that legalizing drugs would have both good and bad effects; what’s uncertain is the exact nature, ratio, and pattern of those effects. It’s also certain that the effects, both good and bad, of legalizing cocaine would be more dramatic than those of legalizing marijuana. Why not then legalize marijuana first and observe the results? Then, after a time of say ten years, we can decide whether we want to legalize cocaine; assuming we do, we’ll know better what to expect and be able to legalize the other drugs in a more elegant way, maximizing the good and minimizing the bad.
