Less rosy thoughts on legalization

The current conventional wisdom is the best way to handle drugs and other vices is legalization. And when I talk to the typical John Oliver watching type of person, I’m dismissed as a fuddy-duddy when I suggest that reality might be more complex.

For instance:

• How is Portuguese drug decriminalization going?
• What Happened When Oregon Decriminalized Hard Drugs

If anything, this should give anyone who’s not an expert some pause before holding a definite opinion — and not just about this topic, I think one of the big problems in politics now is people holding hard positions about things they know nothing about.

I appreciate that decentralized politics allows for experimentation, but I’m also thinking that legalization and toleration are hardly the unqualified successes they were hyped up to be.

I’ve talked to more and more people lately who have struggled to stop smoking weed because it was having a strong and negative impact on their lives, despite constantly being touted as harmless. And it will be interesting to see where the ubiquity of incredibly potent weed takes us in a generation or two.

There’s got to be something between the old “War on Drugs” and anarchy.