Why we need to decriminalize drugs

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

 

I've never taken illegal drugs, so I'm not some hippie who wants to smoke pot. None the less I've become convinced that we need to decriminalize drugs. All drugs.

They should be regulated. There should be stiff penalties for driving or operating equipment or anything else dangerous while under the influence of anything. But there should be no penalty for anyone to use drugs in their own home.

It is clear that people will die. Many people will die because they will be unable to control themselves and so they'll take more and more and more drugs until they kill themselves. This is a choice people will have to make and many will choose poorly. Many more who don't die will none the less destroy their lives because they'll be unable to stay sober for work (companies should be completely free to fire anyone under the influence). All these things will be sad.

However if our current situation is the alternate scenario then all of the above will be vastly more humane than our current situation. I would rather let ten guilty people go free than to falsely imprison one person. In the same way I'd rather let ten drug addicts die by their own hand than to have innocent people killed in a drug war (I don't particularly care if drug armies kill themselves).

But things have gotten much worse lately. The drug wars in Mexico are bad enough, but we need to realize that black market drugs are funding terrorists. You take a hit, and you give money to make a bomb to kill some child somewhere.

If we could control drugs then I'd say ban them and let no one do drugs. But we can't control them. That's all there is to it. They're too valuable to too many people. How many "Just say No's" and "Wars on Drugs" must we go through before we see we're not changing things!

If we decriminalize them, and put on some regulations to control quality then they'll become cheap. When they're cheap they will no longer fund the black market. All those drug lords and a big chunk of terrorism will simply go away because there won't be any money any more.

People will still die, but it will be of their own doing.

 

 

The following are appalling, and I'm ashamed that my nation provides the money for this evil.

Revenge in Drug War Chills Mexico                 [Archive]

Mexican drug gang massacres family of hero in revenge for boss's death                 [Archive]