A guy I know was just telling me today, that he knew he had to quit drinking when he realized that he was drinking every other day, and wearing hand-cuffs all the other days. Of course in his case, he wasn't being arrested merely for possessing or using his particular drug. I'm just saying that "state-sponsored violence" can sometimes have those wonderful and inspirational effects.
FTR, I'm OK with legalizing pot.
Let's get on the stuff we all agree with:
1. Both libertarians and conservatives, to the best of my knowledge, agree that the state is an violent actor. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. THe use of violence is often justified - to kill terrorists, imprison thieves and robbers, and (in the mind of everybody but anarchists) to collect the taxes necessary to support these activities. Again, this is not a criticism of the state per se, but a description of its nature.
2. To paraphrase the great Chris Rock, a law basically is society stating "I wouldn't do that s&^% if I were you." So in our scenario, marijuana prohibition is inherently society deciding to wave a police baton at the individual and threatening to thwack him one if he smokes/inhales. Should this individual then proceed to act against our instruction, is the person getting thwacked a consequence of his own action, or a consequence of our decision to make a threat and follow through?
Even granting - which I do not yet do, but I imagine some individuals might - that smoking weed under the current laws is stupid, this does not yet justify, morally, these acts.
