Issue 290 Legal Drug March 12, 2014

I believe that drugs should be legal. The reasons why are however numerous and have been discussed before. As such, I would like to discuss the "how to" legalize drugs in a responsible way.

Unregulated: I'm being a little misleading here. Drugs will still be regulated by institutions like the Food and Drug administration to insure that they are non-poisonous. A key piece of knowledge about the currently illegal drugs in America is that they are not illegal cause they can kill you, but because they are addictive. As such, libertarians like myself see an age restriction as being applicable to help resolve the situation of minors getting their hands on these substances. Basically each State in the United States would set the age limit based on what they feel is an acceptable age to purchase these drugs. Typically the age will be 18.

Reasoning: With respect to regulating the drugs themselves, it is fairly easy to create a toxic substance if someone does not know what they are doing. As such, FDA certifications that ingredients and the process to make the drug will need to be put in place.

As to the age limit, it has been shown that age restrictions on the purchase of certain products do more to reduce their abuse by minors (those below the age of 18) than by out right prohibitions. The reason is because unlike drugs sold on the street, minors will need to go buy it from a licensed seller. Sellers have more to loose than some drug dealer so they will enforce the restrictions more actively.

Personal use laws: Regulations also allow for limits on how much can be purchased. So the amount of use per a specified period of time can be limited. Thus, less chance of overdose. Also, for States that do not want certain drugs legalized completely, a specified amount of drugs can be allowed per person for their own use. These can be prescription items, or even still sold illegally, but only the drug dealers are arrested and not the users in a police encounter.

Conclusion: These are two small ways that legalization helps. It insures a safer product that can be controlled, limits the amount that people can purchase at a given time and even restricts the age to an appropriate level so that only consenting adults may use it. Legalization is key in these areas to protect drug abuse victims. There are more solutions to that however, and I will discuss those tomorrow.