David Sirota on the Drug War
"This Is the Truth on Drugs ... Any Questions?" -- Finally, after America has frittered away billions of taxpayer dollars arming Latin American death squads and incarcerating more of its own citizens on nonviolent drug charges than any other industrialized nation, the government is starting to re-evaluate federal narcotics policy.

Patrick: Sirota claims the power of Mexican drug cartels is built mainly on the high demand for marijuana in the U.S. If so, he says, then legalizing pot (and taxing it and controlling the sale of it like we do alcohol) would undercut their power. I don't smoke pot or view it as psychologically harmless. However, I do think this article makes a respectable argument for legalizing it.

Before we do, we'd want to examine whether the positive effects (such as undercutting the Mexican drug lords, etc.) would outweigh the possible negative social and health consequences... but, if you start down that road, maybe you should be prepared to argue for banning booze. Along the way, ask yourself whether government ought to be in the business of protecting adults against their own poor choices.

As it stands now, if we want to keep our kids and grandkids away from pot, convincing arguments and our own example are going to work better than relying on the laws against it. The latter don't seem to be working too well.