California's move to legalize pot

And so it begins.

It's an interesting time for people who believe that the government has no ability to tell them what they can and cannot put into their bodies. For the first time, we're seeing substantial pull against the institutionalized prohibition that has characterized both global drug policy, and America moving ever farther from it's founding classical liberalism roots.

It's interesting to watch pro-pot proponents such as Allen St. Pierre get grilled in interviews, when alleged "hard-hitting" reporters always ask the same questions: "If pot gets legalized, what's to stop us from legalizing everything else?! Do you think we should have legal cocaine, legal meth?"

The question is of course loaded. Those drugs are harmful, and they have very negative consequences. Saying "yes" to the question is on-air suicide, as it makes you look like a junkie who just wants a legal way to get his fix. The drug war has done an outstanding job in programming the American subconscious with the concept that drugs are evil, and that anyone who supports them shares in their devilry.

But those elements don't change the fact that the answer to legal everything should always be "yes," if you know what concepts America was founded on.

Cocaine, Meth, Heroin, etc are all extremely harmful. This is common knowledge. Legalizing them would not cause a mass exodus from our places of employment so Joe Sixpack can drop a couple of hundred on starting a new smack habit. Most people have no interest in trying these drugs, and that's probably for the best. But, there are still those that use, and that's an issue we should deal with in a medical context, not a criminal one.

There was a court ruling a long time ago, where a supreme court justice ruled we cannot lock people up for being addicted. But we can lock people up for participating in their addiction, rather using the means to slake that need. This principle is tantamount to saying we won't jail a human for a fever, but depending on the bacteria causing that fever, you may be subject to imprisonment.

But, I digress. This post is about Marijuana. So far, this administration has seemed pretty pot-friendly, despite the open laughing rebukes at town hall conferences. Obama has said that they won't go after medical marijuana dispensaries, thus allowing states to enact medical marijuana measures without fear of retaliation, which has allowed public opinion on supporting this age-old tenet of classical liberalism to proliferate.

Indeed, this November shall be very, very interesting.