"...they are aspiring entrepreneurs who want worldly success—along with legal pot." ~ Shikha Dalmia
Legal pot isn't what authentic libertarians want. Legal pot expands the size and scope of government, without doubt, an anti-libertarian result.
Libertarians seek fewer laws thus to live by liberty, also said in freedom, or that realm where politicians are content to leave alone anyone.
Legalization requires law. Law imposes duty and right. There can be no right without duty, no duty without right. There can be no law without matching duty and right.
Legalization adds law. Legalization doesn't subtract law.
Pushing for legalization pushes against libertarianism. No one can claim to be libertarian and also advocate for more law. Doing so would be the same as claiming to be on a diet and then doubling one's caloric intake.
Removing the law from the books is the libertarian act. Substituting one law for another is mere tweaking control and leaves power in place.
Take driving and flying. Once there were no laws with respect to driving or flying. Americans were at liberty to drive or fly. Americans had no duty not to drive or fly without license and politicians lacked any right to prosecute through their agency, anyone driving or flying. And then politicians legalized driving and flying.
Legalization isn't decriminalization. Only when laws that impose criminal liability thus giving right of prosecution to the agency of legislators get repealed, do previously deemed criminalized acts become decriminalized.
In 2012, voters in Colorado and Washington passed ballot initiatives legalizing marijuana for adults 21 and older under state law in their respective states. Long ago, Congress decreed that marijuana is a dangerous drug and that the illegal distribution and sale of marijuana is a serious crime.
What happens when someone in Colorado grows seven plants and gets caught by Colorado authorities? What happens when someone gets caught with one dram or even one grain over one ounce if the authorities so desire to measure? What happens if someone trades pot for a power drill and later someone reports this trade to the authorities? What happens when someone grows more than he can smoke over time and he accumulates more than eight ounces and the authorities catch him?
It is illegal to possess more than one ounce of marijuana for recreational use. It is illegal to grow or cultivate seven or more marijuana plants. It is illegal to give away marijuana to other adults aged 21 and over without trading pot for cash or bank credits.
The Colorado legislators decreed that possessing more than eight ounces is a Class 5 felony. Those convicted face between one to three years in prison and fines between $1,000 and $100,000.
If anyone is caught using marijuana in public or having it out in the open, that one can be sentenced to an additional 15 days in jail. If this is their second offense or more, that one could face double the maximum sentence.
As well, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, pot remains a Schedule I controlled substance. Those who use, grow or sell marijuana remain at risk for prosecution. There is no defense against marijuana charges in federal court.
The 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution repealed the 18th Amendment, which had criminalized the production and sale of beverage alcohol. Until 2013, the residents of Alabama and Mississippi were prohibited from home-brewing beer. Those living in those states had to suffer 80 years of brilliant legalization.
If only we get the laws right this time... — well that is the mantra of every progressive liberal in the history of progressivism and liberalism in the age of scientism.Libertarianism means living by few laws, hence having few duties to few corresponding rights. Libertarians advocate liberty, not legalization. Libertarians advocate freedom not rules-adherence to officialdom.
Those who advocate for more law are not libertarians. They might be indoctrinated into the false belief they are, but they're not. Every "legalize it" advocate is a liberal progressive and not a libertarian.
That is the problem with the culties at Reason.com. These culties are Rockefeller Republicans / (Bill) Clinton New Democrats.
Owing to the pernicious effects of hyper indoctrination, the culties at Reason.com have been trained to believe, wrongly, of course, that anyone can become "freer". Anyone is either free or not free. There isn't such thing as degrees of freedom, statistics and mechanics notwithstanding.
Freedom is the virtual realm where no laws exist in the presence of government. Freedom is what speakers of Old French into English called liberty. Where there is law, there isn't freedom. Where there is law, there is duty and right, capacity, authority and power.
Words are the means to meaning. Words label concepts. Concepts are invariant. The culties at Reason.com might not like these concepts freedom and liberty but never are their misuses of words going to erase those concepts from reality.
Giving anyone permission, license and the like fails to make anyone free. Such instruments give those who grant such control. No one can be free while also being under control.
Nothing shall change as long as many let themselves become indoctrinated to false doctrine as the pseudo-libertarians have at Reason.com. No one shall get free adding new laws.
REASONOIDS OF REASON.COM, AMERICA'S CRYPTO-REPUBLICANS
Corporation t-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday. Now let's get our tans standing in the English rain.
Gab It
