
Argentina's Supreme Court President Ricardo Lorenzetti said private behavior is legal, "as long as it doesn't constitute clear danger". Which is what everyone who refers to the "prohibition" of marijuana has been getting at for decades. We all, as humans first, but also as citizens of our individual countries, have the right to whatever choices we want so long as they do not directly harm others.
In trying to protect people from their own acts, governments are attempting to dictate to them what their values should be. Argentine Justice Lorenzetti also stated, "The state cannot establish morality". Lorenzetti is an honest and bold exception to the modern lineage of weak willed and politically leashed judges in courts all over the world including (maybe especially) in America.

That's not how it's supposed to work. The law is in place to protect our right to choose whatever each individual decides is correct, no matter the morality, godliness, or any other standard of ethical values. We are supposed to be free to act and speak as we wish, as long as we don't harm others. A person sitting in his house smoking weed is literally, in any realistic interpretation of the act, hurting anyone.
This move by the Argentine Supreme Court and the one by Mexican President Felipe de Jesus Calderon have given me hope in humanity (as dire as that sounds). The reason is, I have begun to see the fight for marijuana legalization as another situation in which people are fighting to keep government in check so that they can stay free. I hope America can shed it's ignorant puritanism, and learn to value human choice as human life because they are equally important.
No comments:
Post a Comment