We have all kinds of people talking about the legalization of marijuana. They don’t mean it. They mean the regulation of marijuana. The government control of marijuana.
Marijuana won’t really be legal until it is as legal as tomatoes or cabbages. Unlimited grow your own!
See Eric’s post for what real legalization means.
Comments
11 responses to “Legalization?”
Actually tomatoes and cabbages are regulated too and for good reason. Producers are responsible for selling safe products. The idea that we can do away with all regulations and go back to the days of the early industrial revolution are simplistic and untenable.
And I need a regulator for produce I grow for myself and give away?
“I planted too much pot this year – would you like a couple of pounds?”
Thanks!
Yes Simon! You must be regulated, lest you reduce us to barbarism!
Al,
I’m doing my best.
Good man.
I agree with Pamela. Everything is regulated to some extent. As to home-grown – there was that woman arrested for growing vegetables in her flower bed.
It’s a question of how much regulation. (OTOH if seems to me that nearly every regulation sounded like a good idea at first and metastasized to insane levels of bureaucratic overreach, like the FDA raiding vitamin stores) Regulations and enforcement should be limited, simple and understandable.
How do you feel about unregulated antibiotics? Given that indiscriminate use will lead to antibiotic-resistant diseases.
I’ll be happy when marijuana competes with alcohol on an economic and legal basis.
OTOH if seems to me that nearly every regulation sounded like a good idea at first and metastasized to insane levels of bureaucratic overreach, like the FDA raiding vitamin stores
That is the natural order of things. That is why I’m against Government regulation. If the demand for regulation is great the market will self regulate.
UL.
I’m very familiar with UL. Back in the good old days when I was an anarcho-capatalist I used to argue that point. Now that I’m a minarchist I point out that UL is virtually unique in history. Would you trust self-regulation among used car dealers?
I’m aware of Hayek and emergent order or whatever he called it. It counts for a lot, but not everything.
And, what about those antibiotics? officially regulated or not?
Yes. I would trust self regulation among used car dealers if the incentives were right.
What would be the right incentives? The dealers can sue UCARL (Used CAR Laboratories) for improper decisions.
The buyers can sue UCARL (Used CAR Laboratories) for improper decisions.
UCARL provides a warranty of some sort – they have skin in the game.
Same thing for drugs. The FDA used to rule only on safety. Now it rules on efficacy. A much harder standard to prove. And why the cost of introducing a drug has gone up by a factor of 100X.
Penicillin would likely kill me. It is still legal. I would not change that.
About all I would do for drugs is to get Drs. to report on outcomes for the 1st year. Or two years. And make the reports public.
I’ll note that you still need a government with all the trimmings to provide the courts in which to sue the perp, and enforce the decision. And there are large swaths of the corporate landscape who I wouldn’t trust to self regulate under any circumstances. “you say the transmission fell out on the road on the way home? Naaah, nothing wrong here, mate”
The real problem with indiscriminate use of antibiotics is resistant organisms. That’ll kill us. It’s already happening. Imagine how much worse it could get.