United Liberty

Over at Michelle Malkin’s group blog Hot Air an informal poll was taken of readers, asking their views on whether or not the federal government should legalize marijuana. The results were a little surprising to me. 48% said yes, 13% said yes but that states should ban or put limits of their own on the drug and 39% said no. While a substantial amount opposed legalization, altogether 61% said they support reform of some kind.

This is really very interesting. While William F. Buckley and Milton Friedman both called for marijuana legalization, both of them were more into the political realist camp that supports whatever works. Today’s conservatives tend to be much more morally driven, with their own brand of utopia. Moralists are opposed to marijuana legalization because its a characteristic of a bad lifestyle and could potentially be a “gateway drug” (mostly because of its current criminal associations more than the drug’s characteristics itself), not because the policy of prohibition actually works, which any rational person can tell is not the case.