The Legalization of Illicit Drugs - Yes or No (Weekly topic at BoP)

That was the topic of this week today over at the Balance of Power.

NOTE: Today's post was written by GTL, who is filling in for Mark who is on vacation and will be back on the 28th.

For those who are unfamiliar with the BoP; it's a multi-blogger project where a devisive issue is discussed amongst seven different bloggers. The bloggers hail from the left, the right, and libertarian ideologies, and deep respect is ATTEMPTED to be given to opposing points of view. New topics come out every Wednesday, and the discussion continues throughout the week in the comments sections of the posts.

This week's topic at the BoP is "The Legalization of Illicit Drugs - Yes or No". As you can imagine, the opinions were pretty strong; this week, coming from right winger Jay, of Stop The ACLU (this week's host); left-winger, Patricia, of Ancient Eyes for Current Times; myself; and right winger, Zaphriel, of Birth of a NeoCon. There were some strong opinions voiced, as you can imagine; but I must say there are definitely some surprises today. Pay the BoP a visit and weigh in yourself, or you can weigh in by using this comments section, if you'd prefer.

Here's a preview of the opening paragraph of Jay's topic:

Recently at my blog I posted on the subject of drug legalization or decriminalization, of which I received much flak from the normally supporting libertarian readers. They viewed this as an issue of liberty. An argument to have the freedom to do whatever one would want to ones own body, much like the argument the left have for abortion. However, I view drug addiction not as liberty, but as a form of slavery, and cannot see how one could equate the avocation of legal drugs with liberty at all.

And here's a preview of my response to Jay:

Jay, my friend, in my opinion, you deserved the flak from your civil libertarian guests.We spend BILLIONS of dollars chasing after potheads, trying them, and incarcerating them. By FAR the largest percentage of people who are incarcerated for "drug crimes" are there because they were involved with POT, not some other drug that has actually been proven to be dangerous.

Frankly, most people who've read my blog know full-well how I feel about the so-called "war on drugs", which I covered a little more in-depth last month with some actual dollar figures and truths, vs. myths. If you haven't read it yet, it's in my July 28th post entitled: The war on pot: is it worth $4 BILLION-PLUS per year to you? Give it a look.

Now, swing into the BoP to read the rest of mine, and Jay's points of view, as well as the other responses from Zaphriel, and Pat. There ARE some surprises.

Cross-Posted to the Gun-Toting Liberal, and Balance of Power