The War On The Wrong Sort of People Using Drugs

Sullivan passes along this quote regarding marijuana legalization:

We Americans love to think idealistically about the virtues of expanding freedom, but we are poor at thinking about what happens to people who can’t handle freedom. Every parent understands that older kids can be afforded a degree of freedom that younger kids cannot, and that younger kids need a firm, “No, you can’t do that, because I said so.” Frum’s point is that while we ought to reduce the criminal penalties for marijuana possession and use, decriminalization goes too far because of the added burden it would place people who are most vulnerable to the deleterious aspects of the drug. He has a good point, and not just about drug laws

.

No, he doesn’t have a good point, about anything. Because when you’re talking about the war on drugs, “people who are most vulnerable to the deleterious aspects of the drug” is code for poor people. He’s calling for a continuation of our current situation in which penalties for the wrong sorts of people caught with some weed tend to be much stiffer.

The “everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others” schtick is getting old.

Advertisement