Legalizing Meth (and other things)

Thanks to cvirtue for the link to this excellent article, outlining the arguments for ending the War on Drugs. (The focus is nominally on methamphetimine, but the arguments apply equally to most illegal drugs.) The author, a defense lawyer, provides a fine summary of the two principal arguments against the drug war: both the moral case (which he refers to as "The Freedom Argument") and the practical one ("The Consequentialist Argument"). Doesn't say much that's new, but he says it quite well, with ample supporting footnotes and a breezy tone that makes it easy to read and hard to argue against. Spread it around.

BTW, I have to say that I continue to be struck by the common observation that abuse seems to be worse for illegal drugs than for legal ones. Far as I can tell, modern society (especially in kids) seems to implicitly view abuse of legal drugs as tacky and weak, whereas abuse of illegal ones is seen as vaguely cool and macho. If that anecdotal observation is true, it makes an almost complete hash of the case for the War on Drugs...

Legalizing Meth (and other things)

Thanks to cvirtue for the link to this excellent article, outlining the arguments for ending the War on Drugs. (The focus is nominally on methamphetimine, but the arguments apply equally to most illegal drugs.) The author, a defense lawyer, provides a fine summary of the two principal arguments against the drug war: both the moral case (which he refers to as "The Freedom Argument") and the practical one ("The Consequentialist Argument"). Doesn't say much that's new, but he says it quite well, with ample supporting footnotes and a breezy tone that makes it easy to read and hard to argue against. Spread it around.

BTW, I have to say that I continue to be struck by the common observation that abuse seems to be worse for illegal drugs than for legal ones. Far as I can tell, modern society (especially in kids) seems to implicitly view abuse of legal drugs as tacky and weak, whereas abuse of illegal ones is seen as vaguely cool and macho. If that anecdotal observation is true, it makes an almost complete hash of the case for the War on Drugs...