Wrote this back when I was a lowkey statist, just starting to wake up. :)
Marijuana.
There are many controversial beliefs about it, but whether you think it is right or wrong, moral or immoral, safe or dangerous, I think we should all agree that someones choice to get high shouldn't result in their freedom being stripped and their life ruined.
Conservatives are against it's legalization, but why? If you think about it, conservatives want welfare to be short term, and a lot of restrictions on it, because they don't want people living off the system.
They don't like their tax money going to people that don't need it, which is completely understandable. So, why are they happy to spend $40,000 every year imprisoning someone, just for getting high? Does that not seem like a waste of money?
Smoking weed is a victimless crime, and it isn't worth ruining someone's life over.
Along with many other things, actually.
All drugs, and prostitution, for example. If they are simply victimless crimes, They shouldn't really be crimes at all. Making these things illegal isn't going to make them go away, it may, at most, make them harder to acquire. But it will just ruin the lives of those involved with them, and not solve any problems.
Other countries have decriminalized drugs, and treated them as a problem and addiction rather than a crime. This had many good results and helped many people get their lives together rather then sending them to jail and doing the opposite.
So maybe we should be doing the same.