MARIJUANA USE SHOULD BE LEGALIZED

I am a conservative Republican, but I would like to make the case for
legalization of marijuana - the conservative argument.

The so-called war on drugs has spawned police actions that threaten
everyone's Fourth Amendment rights. These tactics are more suitable
to a Soviet or Nazi regime than our freedom-loving society. For this
reason, conservatives from Milton Friedman to William F. Buckley, and
even George P. Schulz, advocate the legalization of drugs like
marijuana.

Is it even in the state's interest to prevent a person from taking
action that he believes is both relatively harmless and potentially
helpful? The truly conservative stance is to allow people the freedom
to make up their minds based on their own private experience with the
drug.

I do not believe the state has an interest in prohibiting marijuana,
but for the sake of argument let's suppose there is one. Leaving
aside disagreements on the merits or harm of smoking pot, how should
the state deal with people who, based on our rational apprehension of
the relative safety of the drug, choose to violate the law by smoking
marijuana? How harshly should the state punish offenders whose
offense harms no one else?

Is it appropriate to punish the pot smoker with prison, which is
itself more harmful than pot smoking by itself? Is that not akin to
saying, "Your windshield has a crack in it, so I'm going to smash it
with a sledgehammer." By so doing, the state takes a small, private,
nearly harmless act and punishes it with a potentially life
threatening act - incarceration in prisons where assault and rape are
commonplace.

As any consumer of marijuana will attest, the effects of this drug
are far from evil. As is often suggested, however, the way we
currently punish pot smokers is evil.

Robert White
DANBURY