Reply to Do we want further lagalization of marijuana in DC?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I laff at all the pearl clutchers here whining and crying about cannabis decriminalization in DC. Not only will MJ never be again criminalized but they're going to set up retail markets next year in the city! It's going to be easier than ever to purchase high quality cannabis in the District if you're 21+ and it's going to be amazing.

Nobody said you had to like it, you just have to deal with it.[/quote]

Yes. And we are going to have to deal with it. There will be a social cost in terms of people affected by long term marijuana abuse and greater access to marijuana and decriminalizing the drug. Take a trip to Los Angeles or pretty much anywhere in California. Or Denver. Notice the hordes of stoned unemployed homeless people and camps everywhere. Then add the increasing numbers of older people self-medicating their neurosis with marijuana but making it worse. And the large number of youths whose brains will be irreparably damaged by early intensive pot usage. Look forward to that in your future. It's already starting to happen. And you will pay the price for it one way or another.

But middle class people who want to enjoy their pot on weekends don't care about other people. Their own pleasure is more important than other people's, or greater society's, well-being. But that's typical of the inherent selfishness of the liberal American middle classes. [/quote]

I guess some people want to live in a Nanny state and others don’t.[/quote]

There is an inherent contradiction between individual liberalism and social well-being. There can be clashes. Drugs are one of those areas and there is never an easy solution. Humanity does seem to have a proclivity towards addiction and vices. I suppose the question is how do we best manage it as a society without intruding too much on individual decisions while not letting those individual decisions become a burden on greater society. I respect your desire to do drugs as long as it doesn't affect me, but we are seeing large scale, even epidemic drug abuse that is bringing a social cost of its own and and while marijuana, as drugs go, is a lesser evil, it is still part of the bundle.

Drugs are not a social good, but drugs do seem to be unavoidable. I believe in the concept of moderation as the best reasonable and pragmatic approach but I do wonder if we are swinging from one extreme of drug regulations to the other extreme rather than seeking a balanced middle ground. [/quote]

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