Framing and the Drug War

Randy Balko does an excellent job properly reframing the (always loaded) "Would you legalize meth?" question, writing:   

While talking about drug prohibition and the rash of meth stories, a reporter yesterday asked me if I would “even legalize meth.”    

I think that’s a poor way of framing the question. It would be like asking an opponent of alcohol prohibition in, say, 1927 a question like, “would you even legalize bathtub gin, which is dangerously potent, and sometimes lethal?”    

It’s not a fair question. Were it not for the Drug War, we wouldn’t have meth. Were it not for Prohibition, we’d never have had people drinking wood alcohol or bathtub gin. Both were created by prohibition. Both would soon go away if we adopted more sensible policies.

(Via Positive Liberty)