The Enlightened Despot

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.

The Patron Saint of Hyperbole strikes again on his new favorite subject, marijuana legalization. In reference to Obama’s response to a question on the topic at his press conference, Sullivan says:

The chuckle suggests a man of his generation. The dismissiveness toward the question of ending Prohibition as both a good in itself and a form of tax revenue is, however, depressing. His answer was a non-answer. I’m tired of having the Prohibition issue treated as if it’s trivial or a joke. It is neither. It is about freedom and it’s deadly serious. As for your online audience, Mr president, have you forgotten who got you elected?

There are a lot of hysteria warning signs here. First, note the capitalized ‘Prohibition’. When Sullivan starts introducing terminology, you know you’re in for it. Then there is the weird claim that this was a “non-answer”. What he actually said was ‘no’. That might not be the answer Sullivan wants to hear, and it might have been nice to hear the rationale behind the answer, but this is as clear-cut an answer as you could hope for. And, finally, Sullivan provides a fairly insane Easy Question of the Day: has Obama forgotten who got him elected? No, he no doubt remembers that he was elected by a coalition of people who knew he was publicly opposed to legalization, people who didn’t know and didn’t care, and people who hoped he was in favor but were too lazy to look it up and can presumably be counted on not to notice now, either.

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.