On Friday, I debated cannabis legalization at AmericaFest 2025, the annual convention for Turning Point USA, the group led by Charlie Kirk until his assassination in September. Here’s my opening argument:
My opponent this afternoon is Katherine Mangu-Ward, the editor-in-chief of Reason magazine and a staunch libertarian. Katherine’s pinned post on X calls for the legalization of heroin, so at least she’s being consistent.
I am also consistent. I believe in the liberal and libertarian efforts to destigmatize, normalize, legalize, and even promote the use ofdrug abuse“It has been a catastrophe for the United States.
We are a global outlier in this area. We have reaped nothing but pain for a generation of ideologically driven decisions to make drugs more accessible to both youth and adults.
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By “drugs of abuse” I mean drugs that produce a subjective high that makes people want to keep taking them and use more over time. The precise biochemical mechanism and whether the high is stimulating, narcotic or intoxicating matters less than the fact of the temporary pleasure. Of course, these medicines also include cannabis. Yes, alcohol is a drug too. That includes medically prescribed medications, from Oxycontin to Adderall to Valium.
Cannabis Culture store in Manhattan, NY, October 21, 2022. (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Unfortunately, President Trump’s Thursday decision “Relocating” cannabis and making it more accessible will only worsen this self-imposed crisis and lead to more drug-induced misery and deaths.
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Let’s be clear about cannabis. Cannabis – especially today’s cannabis, which contains very high levels of THC, the chemical that intoxicates users – is very much a drug of abuse.
When tested in tightly controlled studies – and they have been tested time and time again – cannabis and THC have shown virtually no medical benefits. But they have many side effects for both the brain and body.
Normalizing drug use normalizes drug use. By pretending that drugs are medicine, it normalizes even faster.
Cannabis can cause psychotic episodes where users lose touch with reality and become paranoid because friends or family members want to hurt them. It can sometimes cause these users to become violent in response. It can cause episodes of prolonged vomiting, sending users to the emergency room. It is associated with traffic accidents and deaths. It dramatically increases the risk of heart attacks in users. And yes, it is a gateway drug.
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In short, cannabis is probably at least as dangerous as alcohol. It is less obviously physically harmful because despite its cardiovascular risks, it does not cause an immediate overdose. But it is more psychiatrically damaging.
Now we come to the simple, easy libertarian argument: but alcohol is legal! Cannabis should also be legal. In fact, all drugs should be legal – and again, I appreciate the fact that Katherine was honest enough to say that out loud.
My medicine, my body, my choice.
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Sounds good. Except that drug use inevitably brings consequences, both for yourself and for other people, that cannot be foreseen. Drugs follow their own logic.
Some drugs – especially opioids – often kill their users through overdoses. Many drugs cause users to behave antisocially: becoming violent or simply no longer caring about the possible consequences of their actions. And that goes for all drugs addictive potential.
The libertarian solution to this problem is to ignore it and say that users are responsible for their own behavior. If they become addicted, that’s too bad for them.
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This theory sounds nice. But it ignores reality.
The children and families of users and addicts inevitably bear the brunt of their antisocial behavior, and the rest of us cannot ignore its public harm. Even if it doesn’t lead to full-blown addiction, drug use that is more than just episodic almost inevitably worsens the problems its users have tried to solve. It is the most selfish act. It separates users from the lives of those around them – and from their own lives.
Two studies show that stronger strains of marijuana increase rates of paranoia, especially among users who use cannabis for pain and stress relief. (iStock)
A religious person might call that behavior immoral. But you don’t have to be religious to recognize that there are what economists call externalities. The user feels the subjective pleasure, while everyone else faces the possible consequences.
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As a society, we seem to have become desensitized to the potentially horrific consequences of drug use.
We shouldn’t be. We shouldn’t be.
We – as individuals and as a nation – must do everything possible to remind people of them. We must discourage it at every opportunity. That means stigmatizing drug abuse, not legitimizing it, and failing to build industries that profit from heavy use and addiction.
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It means the price is going up – in dollars and potential legal consequences – from drug use to discourage people who haven’t, instead of making drugs cheap, openly advertised and easily accessible.
It means understanding that every drug is a gateway drug, not only biochemically but also socially. Normalizing drug use normalizes drug use. By pretending that drugs are medicine, it normalizes even faster.
Legalization is a red herring. Alcohol is legal, but we arresting people for drinking alcohol all the time – for underage use, for public intoxication or drunkenness, for drunk driving. We will also continue to arrest people for cannabis use, even when the drug is fully legalized at the state and federal level.
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But whatever the legal status of cannabis, we’re not going to jail every – or even many – cannabis users. We don’t do that now, and we didn’t do that a generation ago.
The question is whether we want to encourage the use of cannabis, of Adderall, of alcohol, of OxyContin, of fentanyl, of cocaine, of all legal and illegal drugs. Legalizing cannabis is another step towards destruction.
I hope we don’t accept it.
Editor’s note: This column first appeared on Author’s Substack, “Unreported truths.”
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