It's already shaping up as a day of celebration, with parties planned, bars prepping for recession-defying rounds of drinks, and newspapers set to publish cocktail recipes concocted especially for the day. But let's hope it also serves as a day of reflection. We should consider why our forebears rejoiced at the relegalization of a powerful drug long associated with bountiful pleasure and pain, and consider too the lessons for our time.
Say what you want about alcohol and prohibition - i.e., the prohibition of alcohol imposed by the 18th amendment in 1919 and repealed by the 21st amendment in 1933 - , it was at least constitutional. Say what you want about drugs and the War on Drugs, it is not legitimized by the constitution but is government imposing its will on the citizenry.
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