Narcotica
My blog entry below brought criticism upon me from certain quarters. I announced that I smoke marijuana without offering any kind of justification, just throwing it out into the pot (so to speak). Well, within the cultural norms I am most familiar with it almost goes without saying that dagga smoking is wholly acceptable, and its illegality is an anachronism only relevant because of the difficulties involved in obtaining the stuff. I actually resent the idea that I should justify myself every time I mention it. Drawing upon an overused analogy: imagine having to justify not being an alcoholic every time one referred to a nice wine or cocktail.
Coincidentally one of my favourite bloggers, Tim Bray, just posted a thoughtful entry about drugs in Vancouver. Whilst his piece has a wider scope than marijuana issues, along the way he throws out a pleasantly succinct and matter-of-fact pro-legalisation stance:
As for cannabis, just give up. It's just not that damaging (particularly with the modern varieties that reduce the quantity of highly-carcinogenic smoke to nearly nothing), and the notion of a "gateway drug" is just silly, and it's allowing a lot of very evil people to get very rich.Legalize it, regulate it, collect the tax dollars, and free up the cops to go after the real problem drugs.
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