Comments on: Bill Maher Says Legalize Marijuana 'For the Economy' http://blog.locustfork.net/2008/11/bill-maher-says-legalize-marijuana-for-the-economy/ A Wide Open Weblog for Big News, the Big Picture Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:37:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Glynn Wilson http://blog.locustfork.net/2008/11/bill-maher-says-legalize-marijuana-for-the-economy/comment-page-1/#comment-2111 Glynn Wilson Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:16:40 +0000 http://blog.locustfork.net/?p=2231#comment-2111 It's one of two major policies that need to be changed ASAP that would go along way toward reversing the Bush deficit. The other is immediately lifting the trade embargo on Cuba. It’s one of two major policies that need to be changed ASAP that would go along way toward reversing the Bush deficit.

The other is immediately lifting the trade embargo on Cuba.

]]> By: Yana Davis http://blog.locustfork.net/2008/11/bill-maher-says-legalize-marijuana-for-the-economy/comment-page-1/#comment-2110 Yana Davis Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:52:59 +0000 http://blog.locustfork.net/?p=2231#comment-2110 Maher presents the "John Dewey" rationale for legalizing marijuana, i.e., it's the practical thing to do. Another rationale, favored by libertarians, is that government has no business telling adults what they can or cannot put in their own bodies. The "War on Drugs," begun in earnest under Nixon and still raging, creates crime by making a wide range of drugs illegal, thus opening up a lucrative business to organized crime. The practical effects of Drug Prohibition have been, over the last four decades, hundreds of times more destructive than Alcohol Prohibition in the 1920s and 1930s. Billions and billions of tax dollars spend. Thousands of innocent lives lost. Hundreds of thugs made into multi-millionaires. The real solution we should be looking for is de-criminalization coupled with a program to help those addicted to substances such as cocaine, heroin and meth, recognizing that drug addiction is a medical problem. Restructuring our laws to reflect that, taking the profit out of drugs for criminals, will have instant, positive economic effects, not to mention being compassionate and humanitarian, which our current drug law regime is anything but. Maher is right, but he did not go far enough in my opinion. Maher presents the “John Dewey” rationale for legalizing marijuana, i.e., it’s the practical thing to do. Another rationale, favored by libertarians, is that government has no business telling adults what they can or cannot put in their own bodies.

The “War on Drugs,” begun in earnest under Nixon and still raging, creates crime by making a wide range of drugs illegal, thus opening up a lucrative business to organized crime. The practical effects of Drug Prohibition have been, over the last four decades, hundreds of times more destructive than Alcohol Prohibition in the 1920s and 1930s. Billions and billions of tax dollars spend. Thousands of innocent lives lost. Hundreds of thugs made into multi-millionaires.

The real solution we should be looking for is de-criminalization coupled with a program to help those addicted to substances such as cocaine, heroin and meth, recognizing that drug addiction is a medical problem. Restructuring our laws to reflect that, taking the profit out of drugs for criminals, will have instant, positive economic effects, not to mention being compassionate and humanitarian, which our current drug law regime is anything but.

Maher is right, but he did not go far enough in my opinion.

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