Conservative Politician Pitches His Agrument For Legalizing Marijuana
A Republican from Colorado used a newspaper op-ed page to make the argument for legalizing marijuana in his state. Former GOP congressman and 2010 Constitution Party gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo firmly believes that pot should no longer be illegal. The conservative politician used his alcoholic father and the Volstead Act, better known as Prohibition to illustrate his point.
In a lengthy letter to the Colorado Springs Gazette the former Colorado congressman notes he fought for the elimination of ineffective and wasteful government programs during his career in public office. He adamantly believes that no program has ever failed in such a unique manner as the prohibition of marijuana use, according to excerpts republished by The Blaze.
As Tom Tancredo so aptly noted, tens of billions of dollars are wasted each year to try to prevent consenting adults from using a natural substance that is considered by many, to be far less harmful to the body than alcohol. Cancer and glaucoma patients, along with a host of other folks who suffer from various forms of chronic pain, deserve the right to opt for an organic pain reliever. Ironically, some prescriptions drugs contain synthetic forms of cannabis, twisting a natural substance into a lab-generated one, just to stay within the bounds of the law.
Tancredo had this to say about why marijuana should be legalized:
“Marijana is still widely available in our society. We are not preventing its use; we are merely ensuring that all of the profits from the sale of marijuana (outside the medical marijuana system) flow to the criminal underground. In addition to the economic and public safety arguments for ending marijuana prohibition, I also support Amendment 64 for a much broader, philosophical reason. Marijuana is perhaps the oldest and most persistent nanny state law we have in the US. We simply cannot afford a government that tries to save people from themselves. It is not the role of the government to try to correct bad behavior as long as those behaviors are not directly causing physical harm to others.”
Regulated growing and sale of marijuana would create jobs in struggling rural areas and generate tax revenue. No longer would law enforcement officials be forced to hunt down weed dealers when they could be using their skills for far more important matters. Pot dealers would cease to exist when there was no longer a need for their shady and high-priced services.
The former Colorado congressman is not a marijuana user and does not intend on becoming one. Tancredo, like many of us who either Libertarians or subscribe to a personal responsibility mindset, feels that consenting adults should be allowed to make their own lifestyle decisions. Tom Tancredo may superficially fit the old white guy stereotype often associated with the Republican Party, but he is among a growing number of Americans that are staunchly fiscally conservative yet socially moderate to liberal. We want a small government that does not waste our hard-earned money and are unconcerned about what consenting adults do as long as they are not negatively impacting anyone else.
America would be a profoundly better and less expensive country to run if we all heeded the wisdom of one of our Founding Fathers far more closely; “If it does not break my leg or pick my pocket, what business is it of mine?” – Thomas Jefferson.
