To the Editor:
Bravo to Mac Olsen on his support for prohibition of the Demon Weed!
Next stop, the Demon Rum! Granted, alcohol prohibition shifted booze consumption into dangerous black market products of unpredictable purity and stronger potency {moonshine, anyone?}, spawned and enriched criminal gangs, and fanned flames of violent conflict between the public and police… but this time around has been different, right?
All kidding aside, Mac’s column leads me to seriously question his “conservative” credentials… After all, what could be more lefty and progressive than pushing a massively expensive government program called the “war on drugs.” to trample property rights and coercively thwart the voluntary actions of individuals, with the lofty aim of protecting people from themselves? Is there no skepticism of centralized power and grandiose social schemes left in the conservative movement? What of the value of individual responsibility, the sanctity of private property, and minding our own business about the private affairs of our neighbours?
Mac’s likely response: “But it’s for the children!!” What, then, of the parental responsibility to raise children mature and sensible enough to live in a world of, by, and for free adults, and not some suffocating nanny state?
It’s a sad truth that most present day “conservatives” are mere imitations of the progressive pushers of early 20th century alcohol prohibition; ignorant of their philosophical and traditionalist roots, they cling to their own government projects, and imagine themselves an effective opposition to the socialist left.
Much like Mr. Olsen’s darkly hinted-at evidence of marijuana’s health risks, no proof of its safety will appear here today.
It’s irrelevant whether it’s harmful … so is alcohol! Tobacco! What matters is that prohibition always backfires, and that throwing someone into a cage at gun point, for putting a substance into their own body, is an act of violent aggression.
While I empathize with a desire to cage lefty Trudeau supporters {I’m only half kidding, folks}, in the end I don’t care whether men with uniforms and badges do it, or if Mac himself gets his hands dirty; if you initiate the use of force against someone, you are acting outside of any rational moral law, and deserve no less than any common thief or assailant can expect.
Jeff Hastie,
Smith, Alberta