I, like most millennials, am a huge podcast listener. Political podcasts, religious podcasts, comedy podcasts, and of course Joe Rogan. Throughout all my podcast listening I come across many interesting topics but none more perplexing to me than the legalization of drugs. This topic of course has deep financial and moral roots, which makes it perfect
for C3.
On one hand you have people like Joe Rogan, who thinks we should legalize all drugs, not just marijuana and mild psychedelics, but hard-core drugs like cocaine, heroin, and Meth. The reasoning behind this thought is that we would take money away from nefarious cartels and be able to reap the profits, and put it towards schools, rehab centers, feeding the poor, and all
that good stuff. People who advocate for this solution to the drug problem often say they would not do the hardcore drugs themselves, and they do not think others should do them either. But they point to the longevity of the problem and the virtue of freedom as justification for their position.
Then you have the other side of the debate that says we should outlaw all drugs and inflict
harsh penalties on those that break the law.
It will probably not Suprise my readers that I prefer a third more nuanced approach. But first, let's be clear on a few things. I believe the Catholic church is correct in saying that it is a sin to purposely lose your God given reasoning ability for pleasure. Meaning getting high or drunk for fun is immoral behavior. However, drinking
a glass or two of wine, enjoying a beer at a game, or even smoking a moderate and non-mind-altering amount of some substance to calm your nerves is probably morally licit. I do of course believe that drinking or smoking should not be abused and if you constantly need these things to unwind or calm down, then you probably need to make lifestyle changes. Alcohol and weed are just band aids, and not very good ones, they are not solutions. I personally do not smoke and rarely ever drink, but those
are just personal choices not rules to live by.
Also, if you are prescribed a substance by your doctor for a true medical purpose than that is between you, God and your physician. As a society we absolutely over prescribe drugs, but of course some drugs are prescribed appropriately.
I take issue with the Joe Rogan position because a good end (reaping profits from drug sales for schools and rehab centers) does not justify the means (selling and taxing the sale of hard-core drugs). I also, take issue with outlawing all substances from recreational use, because we must be prudent, and we are still suffering from the jump start we gave organized crime during the prohibition era.
Instead, we ought to commit ourselves to educating the public on the affects each of these drugs have, developing non-biased/non-lobbyist influenced organizations on determining which drugs can be safe to use recreationally, and allocate a lot more resources towards fighting the cartels. Think of all the money we spend fighting forever wars that the majority of the Us population want no part of. Take just a fraction of that money
and those resources and put it towards stopping drug cartels.
Putting it bluntly, stopping the drug problem will take research, development, resources, lots of hard work, and of course prayer. All major issues need these things if a solution is to be reached. Blanket policies of make everything illegal or make everything legal will never work. We will just end up ruining more
lives quicker or feeding the cartels...but I repeat myself.
Human trafficking is the fastest growing black market trade that will soon surpass even the drug trade. Would our solution to human trafficking be just make it legal and tax it? this is why true freedom is not doing whatever you want, true freedom is the freedom to choose the good.
