Sorry this took so long, but I just got out of the hospital and am slowly catching up on the email.
Dennis wrote:
> Just a little more devil's advocacy ...
>
> If Mary Juanna were legalized, we would easily be justified in doubling the
> estimated number
> of deaths due to DUI's. With alcohol causing such high rates of death and
> dismemberment on
> our highways now, would we really want to stoke the fires of additional
> death and destruction
> sure to become commonplace???
Your argument makes the assumption that legalization would result in approximate doubling of the number of marijuana users. This is unlikely at best. History has shown that the legality or lack thereof of any given substance has not resulted in any dramatic shifts in the usage patterns. For example, alcohol use did not skyrocket when prohibition was repealed, nor did drug use plunge when it was made illegal.
Second, thus far it has been generally found that the best solution to things like DUI is education, not legislation. The "designate a driver" campaign has had more impact on people's perception of DUI than any legislation I can recall. Surely you would not advocate a return to alcohol prohibition as a solution for alcohol related DUI? Then why advocate prohibition as a solution to drug related DUI?
Also, your argument makes the assumption that alcohol and marijuana have approximately the same effect on people's coordination, motor skills, etc. This is not borne out by any reputable research, nor by the experiences of thousands of marijuana users. For example, alcohol tends to diminish one's perception of vehicle speed, while marijuana tends to enhance it. Thus, alcohol consumption tends to make one drive faster than one should, while marijuana consumption tends to make one drive slower than one should. Now granted, this could cause adverse affects as well, but the likelihood of severe traffic accidents at low speed diminishes considerably.
In a nutshell, any freedom lover should always assume the least restrictive method possible for the solution of social ills. Making DUI illegal (as it already is) is a far less restrictive solution than making an elective human behavior illegal on the assumption that DUI might result. It is roughly the equivalent of banning gun ownership to prevent the possibility of crime. It's an ineffective and over the top non-solution to a real problem. MTC, YMMV.
-- L8R.
Dave
Personal:
Email: wizard@van-kopp.com
Web site: http://www.van-kopp.com
Business:
Email: Dave@spol.com
Web Site: http://www.spol.com
PGP fingerprint = A8 75 C1 C0 78 67 B3 E9 F7 14 02 49 70 1E C4 2F
Public key available at http://www.van-kopp.com/elecpriv.html#pgpkey
or http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/~bal/pks-toplev.html
--
"Once the principle is admitted that it is the duty of government to protect the
individual against his own foolishness, no serious objections can be advanced
against further encroachments."
-- Ludwig von Mises