Many of today’s hottest political topics are simply different versions of the same question. Who is in charge of your body? The seemingly unrelated issues of euthanasia, seatbelts, motorcycle helmets, forced vaccinations, experimental prescription drug use, unapproved medical procedures, and prostitution are all the exact same questions too. They all ought to be resolved the same way. Civilized people recognize the rights of competent adults to control their own bodies. In short, you own you.
Free competent adults not only recognize their absolute right to control their own bodies but also proudly assert their absolute right to control their own peacefully acquired property, money and time. Either we seek to be free or we are content to be partial slaves. I realize freedom can be scary for some people, but we need to evolve to something more than symbolically singing songs about freedom. Let’s advocate peacefully, but aggressively, for freedom in all of its expressions!
To be fair, I’m not saying the hard-earned progress achieved in the medical marijuana area has been a waste of time. Indeed, there is no doubt the use of marijuana has helped many ill and suffering people. Encouragingly, at the time I’m writing this article, we now have twenty-eight states with medical marijuana programs. More states will surely follow soon. Additionally, we now have eight states that have moved towards legalized marijuana for recreational uses. The trend, even worldwide, is clearly moving towards a rejection of the utterly failed and totally idiotic drug war policies.
I concede arguments for the medicinal uses of marijuana have opened doors for the argument to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes as well. Many people, including myself, have advanced valid and persuasive economic related arguments involving the real, substantial and almost immediate benefits of ending the drug war generally. There are always different and effective avenues of attack to combat all forms of tyranny. Unfortunately, it seems no argument is as prevalent and currently fashionable as the issue of whether marijuana is harmful.
We have a spectacular opportunity right now to shift the discussion surrounding marijuana from the argument that marijuana is not unhealthy to the much more important argument that marijuana should be legal because competent adults own themselves and therefore control their own bodies.
There are many valid arguments to justify legalizing marijuana or even ending the drug war. However, the argument that free people own themselves is not only the best argument for legalization of marijuana, it is the only argument needed to cure our current ills and get us to the free society that all humans deserve. Let’s start aggressively advancing the argument that we own ourselves!
