“We Don’t Want Society Getting Behind It”
That was the stupendous thought uttered by Bill O’Reilly in a discussion of marijuana legalization. For you see, apparently making the “drug” legal entails society sanctioning its use. Is he serious? Has he no concept of the difference between illegal and immoral or unadvised? Has he never heard the expression “vices are not crimes”? Just because something is legal does not mean that “society” must approve of that legal thing. Marijuana users may well be shunned, denied employment, undergo family “interventions,” whatever. Yet the grass may still be legal to produce or use, meaning that cops won’t crack your skull for a smoke. Surely, the combination of “legal yet tacitly disapproved” is conceivable, happens all the time, and does not constitute “society’s getting behind marijuana smoking.”
I mean, we can argue that a nagging wife or a stingy person has a bad character trait. “Society” certainly does not get behind such nasty vices. That does not mean that nagging or stinginess ought to be outlawed.
Moreover, it is not even clear that we ought to disapprove of marijuana use (as opposed to abuse). When legalized, marijuana’s quality will improve dramatically, as big and small companies enter the industry to serve the demand and quality and price competition commences.
And for goodness’ sake, don’t scare us with the vision of children lying in the streets in a smoked (or drunken) stupor. I thought only left-liberals used “it’s for the children” trick. Parents protect their children from numerous harms; they can easily extend this protection, as they do already, to unadvised marijuana consumption.
I mean, look, Mises was right to have written that the harm one can do to one’s soul by consuming bad ideas is far greater that the harm one can do to one’s body by smoking some pot. Seen in this light, freedom of speech is the worst thing that befell us since the bubonic plague epidemic. If paternal and benevolent government censors had been empowered to protect the masses from bad ideas, perhaps socialism would never have reach such popularity. Perhaps O’Reilly own show is dangerous to the public; what if he infects the body politic with vicious ideas?
Where does protecting people from themselves end? Must we enslave the populace? The Drug Prohibition is a policy at war with itself.
Posted: September 3rd, 2010 under Politics.
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