The Inmates are Running the Asylum

Did you ever get the feeling that very little that happens makes any sense? It seems to me that our legislators, both state and federal, are living in some Bizarro world, where logic does not exist. Let us look at one small area of legislation, the drug war.

Tobacco, an addictive drug, kills about 400,000 people per year in the United States. It is freely available to anyone over the age of 18.

Alcohol, an addictive drug, kills about 115,000 people per year from its direct effects on health. It probably kills another 25,000 via traffic accidents to which it contributes (not all of these dead people drank alcohol, of course). It is available freely to anyone over the age of 21.

Aspirin is not addictive but kills about 2,000 people per year. It is available freely to everyone regardless of age. You can send your elementary school age child to buy it for you.

Marijuana kills exactly ZERO people per year and has maintained that record through all of human recorded history. There simply is no known lethal dose of Marijuana. It has several proven medical uses. Nevertheless, it is not legally available to anyone, of any age, for any purpose and is the cause of 700,000 arrests per year.

Can anyone explain to me the logic of this situation?

The possibilities that I see are:

1. Our legislators are, for the most part, insane.
2. Our legislators are in thrall to the alcohol industry. They fear that if Marijuana were legal, most users, being rational, would switch from alcohol (mostly beer) to Marijuana because it was safer from a health standpoint. You can get your gentle buzz without risking your liver and pancreas.

Maybe it is time to get some sane people into office; people who honor your personal right to run your own life without a nanny state making bad decisions for you. Maybe it is time to vote for Libertarians. The current two party duopoly is what gets us these insane legislative situations.