smoking a joint
All five ACT MPs voted in favour of the bill which would have made a provision in the Misuse of Drugs Act for seriously sick people to use marijuana for pain relief. Obviously the bill's intention was to get a foot in the door for the ultimate decriminalisation of marijuana use and sale, however it was introduced under the banner of improving health-care in New Zealand. This is a standard method of bringing about social change, as can be illustrated with the passing of Sue Bradford's Anti-Smacking Law. It was passed under the guise of lowering child-abuse, however its passing is merely one step in the agenda to make children autonomous from their parents: wards of the state.
"We would be sending a signal that it's okay," said National MP Jonathan Coleman who is also a doctor. This is a commonly held postion however it doesn't make sense. There are plenty of things that are not ok, and yet we do not legislate against them. By simply decriminalising weed, the government would be admitting that something was illegal that should not have been. Rather than positively making the drug legal, they are instead passively decriminalising it: making no ruling either for or against it.
Why should weed be illegal? "Because it's bad for society" comes the standard reply. Apply this principle consistently across all facets of society, and you have a totalitarian state where even an individual's thoughts which are deemed to negatively affect society are legislated against. There are so many things that are bad for society. Letting young children watch too much low-quality television will wreck their minds, however there is no legislation against this. Why not? Quite simply because it is a matter of what is often called "common sense". Legislating against the excessive watching of low-quality television by young children is not the correct way to address the problem. Likewise, legislating against the use of marajuana is not the correct way to address the problem of the abuse of this drug.
Coming soon at StarStuddedSuperStep.com: An exclusive interview with a marijuana user. If you have a question you would like me to ask, please leave it as a comment.
Question for marijuana user and yourself.
ReplyDelete"Haven't you got anything better to do?"
serious questions Simeon...
ReplyDeleteTo make marijuana legal would give the defenders of its legality a foot in to make other more dangerous drugs legal.
ReplyDeleteEven though that's true, I don't think it's a good reason for keeping it illegal. Don't you think the purpose of marijuana should be taken into account? It's main purpose is not medicinal.
I don't care about what they say is 'good for society' - that's pretty subjective, especially if it's the government saying it! What you would have to decide is, whether drugs of any form should be legal.
Would you say that drugs that produce violent tendencies should be legal, while drugs that only give you a high should be illegal?
Here we are Andy.
ReplyDelete"When smoking marijuana does it mean that you are incapable of doing other things, and if so do you smoke it to pass time?"
Hows that sound mate?
Totally agree Lyd, If you make Marijuana legal then you ultimately mean that their is now a market which the government can regulate and tax.
The Criminals who make the drugs are criminals. They want to break the law. They will move onto something harder in order to make money as there will no longer be big money in the marijuana market.
I actually think if you were to follow libertarian thinking, the government is best not to legalise Marijuana. If they did they would then be interfering in the market that is already there. They would most probably heavily tax the market and put huge regulation on the market.
A libertarian such as Andy to be consistent should therefore argue that it should still be illegal to produce/smoke/sell marijuana but that there should be no penalty or the cops should turn a blind eye to it. This would mean there would be no legal market and the government would not be interfering in it.
Good question Simeon, will go with that.
ReplyDeleteYou raise a number of points which I'll respond to now.
Do all criminals necessarily want to break the law? Or is it more that the things they want to do are illegal. The market for drugs is consumer driven, so it doesn't necessarily follow that decriminalising weed will necessitate criminals selling a harder drug.
Libertarian thinking would say: decriminalise weed and tax it at a low, fair rate.
Libertarians don't want laws which are intended to be ignored - far from it: we want just laws which are strictly obeyed by all.
What do you reckon.
The things they want to do are illegal, so they willingly break the law.
ReplyDeleteYou know all about supply and demand. Make weed legal and supply will increase pushing the price down. The government won't like that so they will heavily tax it.
Just remember that the government is very rarely made up of pure libertarians. Therefore libertarian thinking would not be followed out once the drug is made legal.
So whatever the intention of the libertarians in the first place, there wishes will not be followed out with a low fair tax rate.
Therefore it is better for libertarians to seek lower penalties for weed making/selling/consuming as the market will then not be disturbed and the government can keep its noses out.
(You know that I am only proposing an argument which I disagree with!)