what the world needs now...

....is to quit insisting on legislating drug use. This is such an inane subject that the fact that we are even talking about it is embarrassing. Laws against drug use are really laws designed to label certain states of mind as off limits. This immediately assumes that people aren't responsible enough to control the things that they put in their bodies. Much less take responsibility for their own states of mind or the altering of such. All this recent talk of marijuana legalization is why I am thinking about such matters. It seems that there are two different kinds of people who are against the legalization of pot. 1) Those who believe the completely unfounded myths that pot is a gateway drug, is addictive, kills brain cells, blah blah blah. And 2) Because it has been stigmatized by the legal system as something that you can get into trouble for for possessing or smoking. Both, in my book, hopelessly bogus. And both of these prevailing attitudes seem to stem from some passive acceptance of someone else's self-proclaimed authority to tell us how we can feel and what we are allowed to experience. This is the crime. Especially in regards to a drug (pot) that has absolutely no track record of causing even one tenth of the suffering that, say, alcohol does. It doesn't inspire violence (quite the opposite). It doesn't impair judgement (depth perception, yes...). It doesn't contribute to car accidents. You can't blackout on it. It doesn't falsely inflate the ego. It doesn't cause hospital emergency rooms to overflow with people who have hurt themselves or others because of things that they've done while under the influence of it. And it doesn't cause you to sleep with people that you never would if you weren't high. So what is the big deal? Why is it acceptable to go to a bar and get shit-faced, get into a fight, then pick up the only person drunker than you, take them home and sleep with them, and forget that you did it the next morning? But it is not acceptable to sit around your house and smoke a joint and watch some anime?

I refuse to not address this topic. Pot smokers come out of the closet and speak up! Stop hiding it from your family and friends! At the next family gathering, when your relatives are having a cold one, light up a joint. Some change has to happen by exposure. Let's move past this pussyfooting and all grow up. Let's assume that everyone is mature enough to ingest whatever substances with responsibility instead of assuming the opposite. If people are treated as if they are responsible, they are far more likely to be. And, if it turns out that some cannot do it responsibly, they can either seek help, figure it out for themselves, or perish. I mean, that's what happens anyway, whether drug cartels are involved or not. We can't make their choices for them by making them illegal. We have to stop conducting our society as if it's designed for the most dull-witted and irresponsible among us. It slows things down.

Now, I'm not saying that if you don't do drugs you are dull-witted. I'm saying that if you are trying to tell other people that they can't do drugs you are dull-witted. And I think that drug use and drug abuse get lumped into the same category way too much. I never hear of anyone doing an intervention with someone who they think drinks too much coffee or smokes too many cigarettes, both which are mind-altering substances.

And with many people, it's not that pot is mind-altering that is the problem. It's that it's illegal. Since when do other people know what's best for us? Do we let them choose our clothes or what music we listen to or what books we read or what color we paint our walls? So why would we give them the authority to tell us what we can put into our bodies? Our bodies. If there is anything that no single piece of legislation should ever touch, it's what we do with our own bodies and minds. Otherwise, we are not free.

So spine up and stand up for your right to alter your mind! Stand up for your pot-smoking friends (or strangers, for that matter) if you don't do it yourself! To live in a society where you can legally buy a shotgun, but not a joint, is a little unnerving.

And I know that the category of drugs includes crack, meth and heroin. I'm for legalizing them also. People would just huff paint thinner if they didn't have crack. Are we going to make paint thinner illegal? All those laws do is fill up prisons with non-violent offenders, get people killed, and fatten the pockets of drug lords. That's it. If people can get to a point where they sell their body to get more drugs, I'm thinking a little jail time isn't going to make them think twice. The people who choose to do crack, meth and heroin when it is illegal will be the same people who would choose to do it if it were legal.

So, enough already. Legalize drugs. Tax them. Get on with it.