Marijuana Decriminalization Bill Passes — and the Issue Isn’t Going Away
Excerpt: We can and should continue to debate what are the best ways to regulate the drug trade while doing the least harm and protecting the most vulnerable. But if the federal government is not going to enforce criminal laws related to marijuana (other than importation), then those criminal laws should be repealed. I’ve observed a few times that, contrary to trendy sloganeering, we do not have an over-incarceration crisis (imprisonment rates are down significantly, and the vast majority of current inmates belong in custody). What we have is an overcriminalization problem: too many criminal statutes and regulations. Laws that are not being enforced should be repealed, since their continued presence on the books invites capricious enforcement, which violates equal-protection principles. [McCarthy makes some great points. The USA has been on every side of the “drug issue” starting long before the first federal criminal laws about them were introduced with the FDA authorization. There are probably still two or three people old enough to say they were born before those laws were passed a few years before WWI started. In those days, all the opiates and herbals were legal and easily obtainable from the corner drug store. As recently as WWII, “hemp” was a “strategic war material” for the making of ropes for the armed forces, and if some got “accidentally” mixed into a tobacco pipe mixture, no one noticed or cared much. A few years ago, Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly approved the decriminalization of marijuana. Along with a lot of other conservatives, I voted for it even though I don’t use it. My objective was to take away the vast sums of money the criminal gangs were making selling the stuff. If it was legal, it ought to be cheaper, right? It didn’t quite work that way. Instead of allowing a free market in it, the legislature appointed a “commission” to study it. They came back with a mandated retail about equal to the prevailing street price–and then tacked on a hefty tax (28%), so it remained cheaper to buy it illegally on the street than in a legal “dispensary.” When I see stuff like this, I have to wonder whose bright idea it was to encourage the continuing illegal sales. We need to face up to the fact that “the war on drugs” has been lost. Just like it was with Prohibition. Yes, that stuff is bad for you. Yes, it can destroy your family and your life. But government can’t live your life for you. You have to do it for yourself. Government can only encourage and teach. The rest is up to you. I added emphasis. Ron P.]
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