Grow Your Own

« Dissent Of The Day | Main | "The Intolerable Smugness Of Bill Moyers" »

24 Feb 2009 09:55 am

Mark Kleiman proposes:

I’m not a big fan of legalization on the alcohol model; a legal pot industry, like the legal booze and gambling industries, would depend for the bulk of its sales on excessive use, which would provide a strong incentive for the marketing effort to aim at creating and maintaining addiction...So I continue to favor a “grow your own” policy, under which it would be legal to grow, possess, and use cannabis and to give it away, but illegal to sell it. Of course there would be sales, and law enforcement agencies would properly mostly ignore those sales. But there wouldn’t be billboards.

I love this idea - because it is rooted in individual freedom, private property and the obvious point that making a plant you can grow in your garden illegal is a monstrosity. Maybe now is the time to end the Prohibition. But don't be stupid. The government will still throw you in jail for a buzz less harmful than a beer.

Permalink :: Trackback (0) :: Sphere It! ::