Rep Ron Paul (AP photo/Mark Wilson/NBC News) and
Rep Barney Frank (AP Photo).
Barney Frank and Ron Paul Team
Up to Decriminalize Marijuana
(Headline from Inside Politics Daily, July 15, 2009).
While Inside Politics incorrectly identified the bill as
H.R. 5843 (introduced last year, died in committee) the
reintroduced legislation is actually H.R. 2943, The
Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act
of 2009, sponsored by Mass Democrat Barney Frank
and Texas Republican and former Libertarian Party
presidential candidate Ron Paul. These two guys
seem to know the difference between legalizing and
decriminalizing. One perhaps more than the other.
So they actually went and did it.
Oakland Pot dispensaries and the people they serve begged their betters, the bureaucrats, to tax them.
Pot club proprietors who openly sell legalized medical marijuana in California proposed Measure F which would raise the business tax rate for pot clubs from $1.20 per one thousand dollars in gross sales to the rate of $18 per thousand.
It passed by 80% of the vote.
Now they can join the millions of other politically neutered and spayed categories of humans in the once free land of America.
As Oakland's KPIX-TV Channel 5 explained it, the pot club people proposed the tax hike against themselves "as a way to further legitimize their establishments."
But taxing pot doesn't legitimize pot; it just legitimizes government.
Yes, bribing the statists with a tax so you can puff without prosecution is better than puffing and going to prison.
But you're still giving in to The Man.
You, after all, own your own body. Not the state. You have the right to smoke anything you want, anywhere, any time, for any reason.
But that right will never be respected if you never demand it.
Libertarians who fight for marijuana rights should never compromise on rights. They should never meekly beg to be legalized and taxed and regulated. They should never give in to the state. It's the state, after all, who's in the wrong, so make the state give in to you.
That means demanding your rights as free and sovereign individuals, long and loud and persistently. And when the state finally comes around, offering to compromise its position by legalizing and taxing and regulating medical marijuana, take it.
But never take it as an end, only as a step. Then keep demanding your freedom, long and loud and persistently.
And when the state comes back again and offers to lower the punishment for possession of small amounts of pot for personal use to the level of a misdemeanor, take it.
But never take it as an end, only as a step. Then keep demanding your freedom, long and loud and persistently.
And when the state comes around again and offers to instruct its narc force that pot possession must henceforth receive the lowest enforcement priority, take it.
But never take it as an end, only as a step. Then keep demanding your freedom, long and loud and persistently.
Of course you may never get all that you want. Or anything that you want.
But you'll never get to date the pretty girl if you're afraid to ask her out. And you'll never get the dreamy dude if you're too shy to ask him to dance.
You may still never get what you ask for, but not asking at all virtually guarantees that you'll never get it.
Always remember, in issues between peaceful people and the coercive state, it's the state that's always wrong. So always make the state know it, make the state come to you, and accept their compromises as nothing more than a step toward the next step toward freedom.
In the end, smoking pot isn't about pot, just as owning guns isn't about guns or online gambling isn't about gambling or choosing your own medical care isn't about medicine.
It's always about freedom.
A libertarian who compromises on freedom, who asks to be legalized and taxed and regulated, has about as much credibility as a meat-eating vegetarian or a gun-wielding pacifist or a mink-wearing PETA member.
Legalization legitimizes the state; decriminalization legitimizes freedom.
Let others beg the state to legalize what is already rightfully theirs. Libertarians need to understand the difference and lead the charge.
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Comments
Indeed. I always tell the MPP and NORML crowd when they ask for my support for medical marijuana or a marijuana tax as a step towards freedom that their whole philosophy is wrong. That until I hear them advocating for the legalization of methamphetamine don't bother me you pussies:
attorneyforfreedom.com/legalize_meth.nxg
We should not put ourselves in a position where we go begging politicians for a sliver of our freedom back. But rather letting them know we will spare their lives if they do not attempt to tread on our liberty. The gang with a flag needs to understand the same price they threaten us with noncompliance. Just my opinion. "But we are not about violence!" I hear the high pitched objecting squeal. Ten continue to take the 4AM kick down of your door. The drive by shootings. The bankrupting destitution of the courts. The sheer terror of the state. And the servitude of the masses to the gang with a flag. Because mobsters know no limits unless they are shown.
"Legalization legitimizes the state; decriminalization legitimizes freedom."
How do you define "decriminalization?" Several states have decriminalized marijuana. Usually what that means is to make it such that it is no longer a criminal offense, but a civil infraction of some sort instead. In some states like California, they are said to have decriminalized marijuana, and while those caught with it face no jail time and just get a ticket and have to pay something like a $100 fine, it is still crime and they'll still end up with a misdemeanor conviction. If the police can take your pot and fine you, I don't see how decriminalization legitimizes freedom more than outright legalization, even if it is to be taxed and regulated similar to alcohol.
Marijuana is never going to be legalized without regulations or taxes. That just won't happen. Governemnt and the people would never go for that. It will probably be subject to even more regulation and more taxes than alcohol. Such is life.
"Indeed. I always tell the MPP and NORML crowd when they ask for my support for medical marijuana or a marijuana tax as a step towards freedom that their whole philosophy is wrong. That until I hear them advocating for the legalization of methamphetamine don't bother me you pussies"
Why would the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws or the Marijuana Policy Project advocate for the legalization of meth? These organizations were set up to change the marijuana laws, not meth laws. Few of their current supporters would back them if they pushed to legalize meth. They'd have far less support because only a tiny fraction of our population thinks it would be a good idea to legalize meth. Almost half of American voters are for legalizing marijuana now, and support for that is growing.
If you want to legalize meth, cocaine, heroin, whatever, go start advocacy groups for those drugs. Just don't expect a lot of support from the public.
In a nearby town in N.C., pot, while illegal to sell and possess, IS taxed - dealers must get a sticker to affix to their product. So when they're busted, if their pot has no sticker, they're brought up on tax evasion, too.
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