Sunday, August 14, 2005

Is the lonely libertarian wrong too? (More about the Drug War)

Interesting post from the Jawa Report: Why Everybody Is Wrong About the Drug War. I wonder if I'm included with that "everybody."

This post sort of stumbles around the most important issue, and that's the distinction between law and morality. That may sound like a somewhat shocking statement to make, but keep in mind- All law should be moral, but all morals need not be law.

The lonely libertarian is often asked the question of why drugs should be legalized. The problem is, it's the wrong question. It puts the onus on those of us demanding change to provide excess reasons why current laws should be changed, while keeping drug prohibitionists from having to answer the question, "Why should we criminalize drugs in the first place?" And that's always the sort of question we should be asking in a free society to begin with. We should be asking why government should restrict us before we ask why government shouldn't restrict us.

The lonely libertarian's persexperiencesences with the morality of drug use are a perfect example of why not to criminalize in the first place. I've waffled, flipped back and forth over the morality of using the drugs we consider to be "harder." Positions of morality relating to personal choices can change, and often do change over the course of people's lifetimes, but the law has to remain consistent.

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