Why Conservatives Should Support Marijuana Legalization

By Richard Cowan

As we used to say, back when we could still go to the movies: This is where I came in. 

In 1972, the first thing I ever wrote for publication was in the late William F. Buckley Jr’s National Review on why Conservatives should support the legalization of marijuana. It caused quite a stir. There it was on the cover: THE TIME HAS COME: ABOLISH THE POT LAWS

(Archive not online)

The New York Times even wrote about it: BUCKLEY SHIFTS MARIJUANA STAND and even Time Magazine wrote about it then and again in 2015: The Conservative Case for Legalizing Marijuana.

And I was down the rabbit hole. So now, 49 years later, when I saw “There’s a Responsible Way to End the Federal Marijuana Ban. The key to any nationwide legalization is to keep the free market out of it” by Ramesh Ponnuru, a senior editor for National Review, I just had to respond with Conservative Intellectual Wants To Keep Marijuana In The Black Market So “Problem Users” Won’t Be Such A Problem.

Even though he led with “The key to any nationwide legalization is to keep the free market out of it”, and that is not something one often sees in either Bloomberg or National Review, he explains that he only wants the government to control retail sales to prevent excessive commercialization that would encourage excessive use. 

Now he has responded in National Review with Marijuana and Black Markets

See full here:

https://www.kabc.com/2021/02/26/why-conservatives-should-support-marijuana-legalization/

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