In
his column in the Ventura County Star for August 13 (and other papers), Tom Elias
usefully reminds us of the risks involved in marijuana use and, (therefore,
marijuana legalization. Still, we need to put such arguments into larger
contexts.
Anything
worth doing is worth taking some risks to do, and human beings have found
getting zonked one way or another worth doing for as long as we've been
civilized, and possibly going back to the First Agricultural Revolution some
12,000 years ago: we may've grown grain as much for beer as for bread. The
issue with psychoactive drugs from beer and wine to heroin and amphetamines is
how to regulate them to minimize harm.
Our
current system includes aggressive pushing of privileged drugs such as
pharmaceuticals and ethyl alcohol — there are TV ads for medicines and beer —
and criminal punishment for selling and possessing DRUGS!!! not
favored by people in power. This system does more harm than good, and there
will be a net increase in the public good in changing it to one that deals with
all drugs in our culture sensibly and handles addiction and other drug abuse as
public health issues.
Yes,
there will be problems in legalizing marijuana and, I hope, other drugs. For Americans
generally and currently targeted minorities particularly, the lost and ruined
lives will be far fewer with legalization.
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