Response to Texas Politics blog...

In response to my classmates’ blog, Mike makes a semi-valid argument regarding the legalization of drugs. In his post the “upside sides” of legalization would include a greater tax revenue and essentially removing the power the drug cartels have over this nation. I have to play a little devil’s advocate here however. The liberal side of me says “this is absolutely the way to go”. Legalizing drugs puts an end to the violence and the money spent to try and “secure our borders”. And Mike is right it the end of prohibition helped a great deal during the great depression and our lovely sin tax makes sure that smokers keep our public schools funded. That said the mom side of me has to sit and really think this through. Would I be OK when my son or daughter turned the legal age to purchase these legal drugs and decided that since heroin is legal they should give it a try? I can’t even fathom them smoking a cigarette because I understand the addictive nature of the nicotine drug. But, to know that something as horrific as heroin and cocaine could be accessible and legal for anyone over the age of 21 to try I don’t know. The youth of this country already trails so far behind the rest of the world academically do we really want to give them the opportunity to have something as debilitating as a drug addiction hold them back even further. Maybe Mike was just thinking of the drug addicts and junkies that roam around now and how they could be purposeful in providing for tax revenue. But, unfortunately once that gate is opened it now allows for a whole other group of people to walk through and perhaps engage in something they would otherwise have stayed away from because it was illegal.