I'm not sure that signals a move to the left. It may signal nothing more than to end the stupidity of the WAR ON DRUGS as presently constituted.
I'm not going to fry my brain smoking weed. But I am also not going to support spending an inordinate amount of law enforcement time and dollars on a problem which, by most reliable measures, has less of an negative impact on society than DUI. The libtards can own the political blowback as soon as they start regulating and taxing it.
-—I’m not sure that signals a move to the left. It may signal nothing more than to end the stupidity of the WAR ON DRUGS as presently constituted.——
Right. The article presumes that public opinion movement on two issues where even libertarians might agree doesn’t constitute moving “Left”.
“Live and Let Live” Libertarianism isn’t “Left”. Especially when you see how into authoritarianism and violent thought control the current Left is.
Antifa alone is enough to make moderates recoil and say
“Hey, wait a minute...”
The problem with legalization is that many who are not inclined to be lawbreakers will now toke themselves into befuddled unemployability, and we'll end up paying as much or more supporting them as we would have for enforcement.
If only life were that simple. Seattle is Ground Zero for lefty pathologies such as drug use and homelessness and the resulting crime. This a result of decriminalization of drug use, homelessness and smaller crimes.
Locally many have concluded that homelessness, drugs and crime are linked and feed each other.
Local estimates say that two-thirds of local PD time is related to these three issues. So there's already a substantial cost in PD time, not to mention medical care.
Then at some point someone will have to be paid to water these house plants and change their diapers.
So I'm not sure how you're going to get to where you say you want to go.