Pubdate: Tue, 14 Jan 2014
Source: Saratogian, The (NY)
Copyright: The Saratogian 2014
Contact:  http://www.saratogian.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2100
Author: Jonah Goldberg
Note: Jonah Goldberg is editor at large of National Review online and 
a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

STATES' RIGHTS GOING TO POT?

On Jan. 1, the Centennial State (it hasn't yet changed its nickname 
to "The Rocky Mountain High State") became the first place in the 
country to legalize marijuana sales for recreational purposes.

And Brandon Harris is stoked.

The 24-year-old Harris drove 20 hours from Cincinnati, along with a 
smoking buddy, to be the first Ohioans to buy legal pot in Colorado.

"It's such a big day in history," Harris, told the Washington Times. 
"The fact that we don't have to be criminals and can just smoke, and 
not be looked down on, or have to mess with the local police."

Well, he's mostly right. Americans are still free - for now, at least 
- - to look down on people for whatever reason we want. Simply because 
an activity is legal doesn't mean I am barred from judging you 
negatively for engaging in it.

But that's OK with me. As non-judgmentalism becomes part of the 
secular catechism, people lose sight of the fact that the freedom to 
do what you want must include the freedom to form your own opinions 
about how other people use their freedom.

Which brings us back to Mr. Harris. He and his pal were so jazzed by 
the ability to buy pot legally, they decided to remain in Colorado permanently.

"We're staying," he told the Denver Post. "We're going to become residents."

Now, if I were an employer interviewing young Mr. Harris, I might ask 
him, "What brought you to Colorado?" If he answered, "The legal 
weed," it'd be a pretty major strike against him. Personally, I think 
letting dope become so important that you're willing to uproot your 
whole life just so you can have it legally all the time doesn't speak 
well of you.

But that's me. Others feel differently. And, if I'm going to be 
honest, I can't swear that if Washington, D.C., banned alcohol or 
caffeine, I wouldn't pull a Harris and ditch the District.

This is the way it's supposed to work. People who want to live one 
way vote with their feet and move to places where they can live the 
way they want to live. It's way too soon to know if Colorado's 
collective experiment will prove to be a mistake. It's also too soon 
to know if some Colorado residents will move to states where weed is 
illegal as a result. But it's an experiment worth conducting.

Pot legalization advocates are fond of casting themselves as the 
avant-garde of a new libertarian revolution sweeping the nation. I 
generally hope they're right. But I also hope we don't lose sight of 
the collective right of states and other legally recognized 
communities and institutions to have the freedom to organize their 
lives the way they want.

I love America's love of individual liberty. But no good thing comes 
without a downside. Particularly since the "rights explosion" of the 
1960s and 1970s, public-policy debates are too often framed as the 
individual versus the government. Presented with that choice, 
Americans are going to err on the side of individual rights. And 
that's usually a good thing. The problem is that the rights of a 
community - a town, a county, a state, a religious organization, etc. 
- - are left out of that formulation. And they matter.

Man is a social animal and wants to live in a community. Hippies want 
raw milk, evangelicals want codes of decency, Amish want to reject 
modern technology, the Sisters of the Poor don't want to pay for 
birth control under Obamacare. What's wrong with that? My objection 
to both the progressive vision of one-size-fits-all government and 
some extreme notions of individual liberty is that they both lack the 
imaginative sympathy required to let groups of people organize their 
lives in the ways that will let the majority live the way they want to live.

Why not let a thousand flowers bloom? If Colorado wants to legalize 
weed, fine. If Alabama doesn't, that's fine too. Alabamians who 
disagree can fight it out democratically, or they can follow Harris' 
lead and move.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom