I know most Libertarians believe is decriminalizing most or all recreational drugs. I'm not sure I agree. Marajuana, however, while not being a very healthy habit, is relatively harmless to society. I've NEVER heard of anyone ever dying from an overdose of pot. Nor have I EVER heard of someone committing a violent crime driven by their "addiction" to weed. The biggest negative I see is that it has a strong tendency to turn people into couch potatoes, hehe.
In my opinion, it is any given person's right to be a couch potato if they want to be.
So, here's my plan. I would decriminalize marajuana with the following stipulations:
1) Minors are not allowed to purchase or use it, unless under the supervision of their parent or legal guardian.
Its not the government's job to watch people's kids and to enforce these kinds of rules. The parents are responsible to do this.
2) Driving under the influence of marjuana should be illegal. This would require an on-the-spot test, like "breathalizers" for alcohol, that can accurate prove active intoxication. While marajuana does not cause loss of muscle control like alcohol, it does slow response times, and impair judgement. While it does not cause people to swerve all over the road, it can cause people to do dumb things like waiting at an intersection for a stop sign to turn green.
I take a position like that of speed limits, stop signs, and traffic lights. Feel free to ignore the signs, lights, and to drive while intoxicated. If you cause an accident due to your recklessness, then you ought to be punished. There are a lot of people who drive while intoxicated and never have a problem, because they can handle it. I've never gotten into an accident because I was speeding. If and when I do get into an accident, I have insurance to pay for damages to one's automobile. If I hurt them, I have insurance for that. If I was speeding, the officer can cite me for it then, but if I am a responsible speeder who never causes trouble, why punish me? I like to go fast and I know my limits.
3) Employers retain the right to require a "clean" work force. For jobs where mind-power and sound judgement is required, it's not unreasonable for employers to expect their employees to be performing at their best. For example, I'd rather not fly on an airline who hires stoners to be pilots.
A private business should have the right to hire and fire people at will. It is, after all, a private business. They should have the right to pay whatever they wish. Offer whatever benefits (or lackthereof) that they wish. If workers won't accept those conditions and the company suffers a shortage of employees, then the market will take care of that company. Now, of course, we do need an OSHA. The government's primary responsibility is to protect citizens from enemies, both foreign and domestic, and from fraud. If a company is creating a dangerous environment that people will be hurt or killed in, then they ought to be severely punished for it. Workers ought to have the right to expect a safe work environment, within reason.
4) Lastly, and MOST importantly -- no one can get one thin dime from the government without a drug test. No unemployment, no workman's comp, no disability (unless marajuana is prescribed by their physician) -- NADA. Why? Again, because the greatest societal negative of dope smoking is it's tendency to make people LAZY.
Unemployment is paid by the worker during periods of employment. The worker receives unemployment benefits based on what they've already paid into the system. In my opinon, the worker ought to be entitled to these benefits regardless of the results of any substance testing. It is
their money, not the government's. Of course, I would scrap the unemployment insurance system.
Workman's compensation and disability are also other plans that workers pay for, usually in partnership with the company that they work for. If the company pays into the plan, they ought to have the right to require a clean drug test, but it ought to be left up to workers to save for rainy days.
What do you all think?
I think that you need to ponder a little more about this. What people do with their lives is their own business, as long as it does not have a direct affect on my business. Live and let live.
A lot of people, even many libertarians, are reluctant to legalize drugs. A lot of this stems from fear of what will happen in the aftermath of legalization. What is the worst that
could happen? Are we going to have gang wars over drugs? Innocent people caught in the mix? Are we going to have drug fiends littering the streets? Are we going to see our kids using drugs at increasing rates? All of this is going on now, despite the government wasting billions of dollars a year in the so-called "drug war". Short of efforts to change people's minds and to pursuade kids not to use drugs, nothing the government has done has ever worked.
