Pubdate: Thu, 27 Feb 2014
Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock, AR)
Copyright: 2014 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.
Contact: http://www2.arkansasonline.com/contact/voicesform/
Website: http://www2.arkansasonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/25
Note: Accepts letters to the editor from Arkansas residents only
Author: Bill Orton
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v14/n181/a07.html

RIGHTS IN A FREE NATION

It seems the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editorial writers really have 
a bug up their butts about the noble weed. They decry the fact that 
people outside Colorado are freer, too, since free trade and freedom 
of association allows cannabis to be moved and traded. And apparently 
unable to find onerous statistics showing any bad effects whatsoever 
from legalization of the herb, they attempt to trick their readers. 
Their car-fatality stat is a classic in this regard. (Hint: There 
won't be any comparative auto-accident stats for years.)

The worst part of the editorial, in the opinion of this 
liberty-oriented American, is this: The editors appear to outright 
reject individual rights. Rights are, by definition, jurisdictional 
action principles that trump other moral considerations. Yet the 
editors advocate the violation of the rights of adults-for the 
children. That's worth repeating: They apparently want to violate the 
natural or God-given rights of all adults on the flimsy and 
contradictory excuse that it's for the children!

It is, of course, parents' and caregivers' responsibility to protect 
children. They are not entitled to shove the costs of child-rearing 
on others, let alone violate basic human rights to do so.

This I believe: Every person is self-owned. Thus every person should 
have full jurisdiction over his own body and his own mind. This is 
not a proper subject of enforceable law, since such actions do not 
aggress against any person. As a famous hemp grower named Thomas 
Jefferson once wrote, "It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

In a free country, a person can blow what he pleases.

BILL ORTON

Fayetteville
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom