Liberal Values Defending Liberty and Enlightened Thought

Derek Thompson compares the laws on tobacco to those on marijuana. He uses Barack Obama as an example of someone trying to stop using tobacco:

Altria and other tobacco companies, Saletan said, are increasingly feeling the heat to make alternative tobacco products — like tablets and snus — contain fewer carcinogens in reaction to public opinion on the issue of tabacco safety.

But at the same time, the government would be insane to outlaw cigarettes. People will just find other places to buy them. Obama, as Saletan rightly notes, has had every reason to quit smoking — for his wife, his kids, the Fox News cameras — and he’s still struggling. What happens when you outlaw a product with that kind of demand that cannot be met by the legal market? It goes underground.

Which brings us to drugs. The government’s effort to manage tobacco rather than make it illegal is exactly what belongs in the debate over pot and other illegal substances that could, at the very least, provide significant boons to medical pharmacology. The FDA has rejected the possibility of making cigarettes illegal by saying the underground product would be “even more dangerous than those currently marketed.” So when you make popular products illegal, it has the potential to make those products more dangerous. Gee, ya think?