Yet Another Column On Legalization

This one from libertarian John Tierney at the NYT, debunking the meth panic.

Eh, I have no strong opinions on this. I agree strongly with Mr. Mackey -- "Ummm, drugs are baaaad, mmmkay?" -- and I don't buy the whole "make them legal and all the problems will go away" line.

Still, I think if you weighed all the plusses of our anti-drug efforts (reducing drug use, chiefly) and all of the minuses (too many to count-- invasions of privacy, cops being used for secondary-priority tasks, costs, jailing many people who are either just hurting themselves or providing the means for others to voluntary hurt themselves, etc.) the balance sheet would come out pretty close to zero at this point.

But as Kurt Vonnegut said, arguing against anti-drug laws is like arguing against glaciers. Pointless. There will always be glaciers.

But arguing against the use of drugs, and trying to enforce anti-drug laws, seems like a campaign against glaciers too.

Thanks to See-Dubya, guest posting on that slacker My Pet Jawa's site. He's a lot more riled up about Tierney's legalization stance than I can manage.

posted by Ace at 11:40 AM

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