COLUMN: Stop the insanity of pot laws

COLUMN: Stop the insanity of pot laws

By Jim Maas • February 24, 2009

For the Wausau Daily Herald

Michael Phelps, Olympic champion and super athlete, smoked marijuana! Shock and awe! Kathleen Parker's Feb. 5 column in the Wausau Daily Herald nailed it: "Phelps embodies insanity of drug laws."

The response to Phelps' "crime" shows how some people have been twisted by a generation of government propaganda. No one seems to question how it is that marijuana became illegal, or stays illegal, while much more dangerous drugs are legal, licensed, and sold openly. How dangerous?

Examine the estimated annual deaths caused by the following drugs:

Tobacco: 390,000

Alcohol: 150,000

Prescription drugs: 106,000

Heroin: 400

Cocaine: 200

Marijuana: 0

Despite the tyrannical methods the government uses to control people's recreational choices, drug use continues unabated. Why do politicians fight so hard to continue this insane war on drugs? Could it be because the war allows them to continually expand their power over our property, bank accounts and private lives?

What about Michael Phelps, one of America's best athletes? Kellogg's will foolishly dump him from its cereal boxes. (Boycott Kellogg's.) USA Swimming has banned him from the Grand Prix event next month. We'll see how they do without their best swimmer.

Swimming isn't the only sport to discriminate against pot users. I don't get it. I thought pot-heads were supposedly listless, unmotivated losers, not accomplished athletes. Marijuana hasn't been described as a performance-enhancing drug. Why do sports officials feel the need to participate in the mindless government zero-tolerance prohibition program?

Come to think of it, sports isn't the only area where we know of responsible and productive consumers of marijuana. Scientists, including Richard Feynman, Stephen Jay Gould, Margaret Mead, and Carl Sagan indulged. Billionaire executives like Sir Richard Branson and Bill Gates, and musical and literary geniuses, including Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and William Butler Yeats, got high. So have many elected officials, notably including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Bloomberg, Newt Gingrich, Al Gore, Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Barack Obama.

Michael Phelps made a mistake. Instead of apologizing for being outed, he should have said something like, "I'm sorry -- that you feel the need to publicly flog me for something that is none of your bleeping business. I work extremely hard 10 months a year and have represented my sport and our country with distinction. If I want to relax during a brief down time using a natural herbal substance that is much less damaging to my body than alcohol or tobacco, I will. Spare me the lecture."

If we own our bodies, adults should be able to ingest whatever suits them without judgment by the busybodies of this world.

The platform of the Libertarian Party of Wisconsin includes a plank on victimless crime:

"Because only actions that infringe on the rights of others can properly be termed 'crimes,' we favor the repeal of federal, state, and local laws restricting our fundamental freedom to govern our own lives.

"In particular, we advocate:

"The repeal of laws restricting the production, sale, possession, or use of prohibited drugs and medicines."

In Wisconsin, let's end the madness. End criminal penalties for victimless crimes, starting with medical marijuana use. Michigan, home of Kellogg's, has already done so.

Jim Maas of Rothschild is chairman of the Libertarian Party of Wisconsin.

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