One of the after effects of frequenting libertarian websites is that it gets you thinking about their policies and views and eventually their arguments begin to subconsciously sink in. I've been mulling over the whole drug legalization issue for awhile now, ever since there was a lively discussion on the topic at Left2Right in the comments on this post.
As the notion of drug legalization has fermented in my brain, the central question mutated into the following:
What gives the federal government the right to decide what I put in my body?
I can't seem to find a good answer. At first I thought to myself: "Well, taking mind-altering drugs can endanger other people; imagine your kids' bus driver hopped up on pot or crystal or cocaine..." Except then I realized that the crime there can be addressed directly via legislation exactly like we've done for drunk driving. It isn't necessary to outlaw alcohol to legislate against the abuse of alcohol that endangers others.
This was brought home to me especially poignantly by the illegalization of ephedrine -- an herb that I've frequently used as a body building aid in the past and which has been scientifically proven to be safe -- here, the feds butted into my personal life and dictated what I could (or rather, could not) put in my body. How dare they? Where in the constitution did we give congress the right to control the most basic element of our lives; our alimentation?
More to come.
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1 comment:
Exactly the conclusion I have come to in my own thinking.
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