Jim Burns — A Libertarian for President

Drug Laws

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." (Amendment 10.) The requirement of the 10th Amendment is that the powers of the federal government must be specifically named in the Constitution. What people should or should not put in their bodies is not named. Therefore, federal laws concerning drug use are not Constitutional. The DEA should be abolished by order of the President, and the effects of such laws should be nullified by anyone with the power to do so (such as Juries).

Since the President has the power of pardon (Article 2, Section 2), the President should pardon all those with federal convictions for drug violations. (As a side note, please remember that when they made alcohol against the federal law, they changed the Constitution -- (Amendment 18) and that was repealed by Amendment 21 -- thank God).

"If you attempt to prevent men from folly, you fill the world with fools." --H.L. Mencken

The war on drugs has caused untold human suffering and has prevented progress. Surely, some will not prosper when they are free to choose unwise behavior, but attempting to take away free choice will increase neither prosperity nor wisdom. Where success is possible so too is the possibility of failure. It is impossible to remove failure from human actions and when they try, the government reduces the possibility of progress and success.

Jim Burns