When you look at the rainbow of sins that governments tax, you would have to place marijuana in a pretty unique place. Think of the vast array of ills government live off of and their alternatives: Gas taxes: are you not going to drive a car or heat your home? Or if there was an alternative, could you use it. Governments control it all. Don't want to pay taxes? Tough luck. Gambling: Nothing beats a government run casino and lottery. Try setting up your own lottery and tell me how it goes. But first, look up Ponzi Scheme...it's in the criminal code. [continues 715 words]
The war on drugs is a complete failure because it's based on false premises. A drug-free society is almost certainly not possible or even desirable. This leads to such incredible spectacles as Bill "Two Pack a Day" Bennett as drug Czar. (Enforcing ideological purity is easier if you're not too sensitive to hypocrisy.) Corporate America spends $70,000 for each positive drug test. Since only about 1 in 20 drug users actually have a problem likely to affect their job performance, it's costing $1,400,000 to identify each problem drug user. Of course, they're easy to spot without the test. They're the ones screwing up on the job. [continues 574 words]
