It's wrong for people to legislate their morality to others, and it's also wrong when adults aren't allowed to make their own decisions about how to live. Nowhere is this more apparent than America's policies on alcohol and marijuana. Don't get me wrong. This column isn't about promoting either of those things -- it's about the importance of preserving individual choice.
Take alcohol and consider how our policies do more harm than good. First of all, where did a drinking age of 21 come from? You can vote for your leaders and die for your country at 18, get married at 16 in most places but not drink until you're 21. Ludicrous.
Obviously, there are problems with people not drinking responsibly. But that has to do with the role alcohol plays in our culture. Although an age limit might treat the symptoms, it doesn't fix the underlying problem, which is what we really should be focusing on.
In Europe, kids start drinking around age 12. But it's not a problem because Europeans teach their kids how to enjoy it responsibly instead of treating alcohol as "forbidden fruit" as Americans do. Here, when kids are lucky enough to get their hands on some beer, they feel the need to binge drink to "be cool" and to "break the law," something teenagers especially are prone to do.
We further exacerbate this problem on college campuses. Think about what happens when you keep college kids, who are going to drink, out of a bar. Underage students are prevented from drinking at a place where there are people trained to watch out for those who have had "too much." Instead, they go to a frat party or somewhere else where binge drinking is not only allowed, it's encouraged!
Then we also hire officers to go patrol bars for underage drinkers instead of putting them out on the street or at DUI checkpoints -- what a misuse of resources. So when politicians rant about how fake ID sales help launder money to terrorists, maybe they should take a look at why kids are getting the IDs in the first place.
And we're just as unrealistic when it comes to pot. Despite the fact that no credible medical study can convincingly prove that marijuana is much more harmful than alcohol, our government's reactionary stance on the little plant's use just doesn't seem to change. Part of the stubbornness comes from the entrenched bureaucratic interests that want to keep fighting the war on marijuana. Stop and think for a moment about how ridiculous that sounds. And part of the problem is some people wrongfully telling others how to live.
Think about what keeping marijuana illegal means in practical terms. Rather than having a revenue-producing and regulated pot industry, we have a situation where gangs, shady dealers and cartels fight over drug turf.
So next time you see a commercial that blames "Johnny" for helping to fund terrorists by "buying pot," ask why Johnny's local politician hasn't tried to legalize pot, eliminating the crime and other negative effects that come with getting it on the street.
