Modern Prohibition and Individual Liberty
If you can drink a beer, why can’t I toke on the bong? If you can sip scotch, why can’t I snort coke? Sound familiar? This simple, easy-to-understand conversation has occurred a million times since the 1960s, and it strikes at the heart of the issue of personal freedom which used to be a hallmark of American democracy and history. As the debate has been engaged on whether to repeal Modern Prohibition or at least change some of it, the liberty issue has been all but forgotten, as the prohibition crowd has raised a blizzard of other questions. How unfortunate. And what can one do to move public policy?
Self-proclaimed conservatives scream the loudest about liberty being an American value they cherish, EXCEPT when it comes to drug prohibition. Or should I say that is what conservatives say in public? As Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) is reported to have said earlier in 2009, ‘if Congress could take a secret vote, federal marijuana prohibition would end.’ Without getting into the conspiracy theories of why card-carrying conservatives support the nanny-state liberal policy of drug prohibition, the fact is they do. Just because a conservative supports a policy does not mean their support is derived from their principles. No more so than with drug prohibition.
Harold
