Legalize Drugs?

When Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that he was considering legalization of marijuana, I thought: “here we go again.” For the last two decades, I have always included a chapter on drugs in any book I wrote that dealt with ethics. Within those chapters I included a short section on why drugs should not be legalized.

There was a strong push for drug legalization in the 1980s and 1990s. But there were also good reasons to reject these ideas, and few legislatures seriously considered legalizing drugs. Some decriminalized marijuana and a few made provisions for medical marijuana. The statement by the governor of California probably guarantees that drug legalization will once again be a live issue for some time.

Drug legalization and taxation won’t solve all of California’s budget woes, but the potential income would be significant. It could add more than a billion dollars to the state budget. But there would certainly be social costs.

We know this is the case just by looking at what happened in states that decriminalized marijuana. Arrests for driving under the influence of drugs exploded, drug-related accidents increased, and welfare costs went up.

When drugs like marijuana are legalized, drug usage increases. Obviously, some people are going to use drugs whether they are legal or illegal. Keeping drugs illegal persuades law-abiding citizens to live their lives without drugs. Legalization removes the incentive to stay away from drugs.

What will happen to our young people? William Bennett served in both the Reagan and Bush administration. He said: “I didn’t have to become drug czar to be opposed to legalized marijuana. As Secretary of Education I realized that, given the state of American education, the last thing we needed was a policy that made widely available a substance that impairs memory, concentration, and attention span. Why in God’s name foster the use of a drug that makes you stupid?”

Why indeed. Legalizing any drug is bad social policy and bad government policy. I’m Kerby Anderson, and that’s my point of view.