I used to be pro-legalization, but lately I've drifted away from that. I don't see any particular reason it should be legalized. It is brought up how tobacco is legalized; but is that really an argument in favor of weed legalization, or is that an argument against tobacco legalization? If tobacco was brand new, would we be voting to legalize it in 2021?
some reasons:
1) you wont have to threaten people to pay for your law
2) or the 10s of millions of people who use weed with imprisonment
3) bystanders victimized by your mistakes deserve better, tell them why they dont
4) illegal weed funds criminal gangs, look at what illegal weed here did to Mexico
5) crime increases as everyone involved has no legal recourse over disputes
6) so more law enforcement and a BLM movement complaining about the police
7) explain why its your business without using guilt by association
8) marijuana has medicinal properties, alcohol is poison - the hypocrisy is obvious
9) the war on weed is unconstitutional, Congress cant punish you for a plant
10) racists ban weed and target people of color, where art thou BLM?
Biden voters bite their tongues
got more... what are your most compelling reasons?
Consent of the governed is a moral principle underlying a just government, but what does it mean? I think it generally means I need moral authority first before I can consent. For example, if I dont want neighbors can I tell politicians to kill them? How can I consent to actions I cant pursue myself? I dont have the moral authority to decide what you choose to ingest and I cant imagine our constitutional system of limited government gave such a dictatorial power to Congress. It didn't...
The history of how weed became illegal is a decades long song and dance routine to side step the Constitution. They couldn't just ban it because hemp grew in many states and they hadn't fully corrupted the interstate commerce clause yet, so they hit hemp production with a hefty tax. Ofc all those people farming hemp didn't know all that talk about them Mexicans and their devil weed meant a prohibitive tax on them, silly Americans.
WWII put a temporary halt to the war on weed since hemp was a vital resource to the war effort and I think 1-2 decades after the war the tax was ruled unconstitutional, not so much based on the tax but the fact the government wasn't even selling tax stamps to hemp producers wanting to pay the tax.
The courts very early on decided Congress couldn't use a legitimate power (eg taxation) to create other powers not allowed, like the power to deter hemp production with prohibitive taxes. In other words, Congress cant use taxation to ban intrastate hemp production. Taxes are for raising revenue, not micromanaging personal behavior.
