Republicans holding us hostage yet again.

[richardhutnik]

the2real4mafol said:

richardhutnik said:

the2real4mafol said:

dudeitsminion said:
Not a heavy smoker anymore, but legalize marijuana and see lots of profit from taxes.

If US government wants to cut spending, this is the start i think. Not only would tax revenue be collected from marijuana but you would save money in police and prison costs too, as the number of prisoners falls dramatically. Around 750000 prisoners would be freed if it was legalised, a huge reduction in prison population. That's bound to save some money US government don't have

An argument floated on the political forum here, and also by various folks on the conservative side is, if you legalize drugs, you have to get rid of the welfare system.  There has to be very harsh negative consequences, or if you offer welfare, you end up not deterring people from actually doing drugs.  Legalize drugs, and let word that drugs killed people get out, so that people get too scared to do it, and the market would work.  Well, that is along the lines of reasoning.  

Ain't that the same for all conservatives? just to scare people into doing what they want?

My only problem which i just released, is if pot was legalised how would all these prisoners find a livelihood, there are few jobs and adding so many more people to it, would be a huge problem.

But i'm not sure what Holland did, but it's not popular at all to smoke pot there. It's mostly foreigners who smoke it there. They actively sell the stuff in shops as well, although it's much more expensive than tabacco. 

Well the conservative argument, as opposed to the libertarian one, is that society can't afford to grant people freedom, if they are going to act irresponsibily, so you need to keep stuff outlawed that will put a really bad burden on society.  The libertarian argument is actually to grant maximum freedom, and contain the consequences to individuals only, if possible.  In cases where groups of people get affected by others, in ways that is hard to trace to an individual specifically, that is just the price of freedom.  In all cases, markets manage to sort things out anywhere.  All you need is a proper price mechanism to account for these.  Oh, there is also the use of courts to sue individuals, which is a Libertarian solution for polution.  If a person feels that their rights to good air are infringed upon, they have a right to sue a factory poluting and win a settlement against them.