Your Opinion: Another example of nanny government

Dear Editor:

The Narcotics Control Act being considered by the Legislature is another make work, nanny state, government scheme to create a bureaucracy that will forever suck dollars from the pockets of taxpayers. There may be prescription drug abuse and the act may be well intentioned but people need to be free to make lifestyle choices. They also need to be held accountable for those choices when the choices are bad ones. We don't need more taxpayer-funded nanny state government making choices for us.

I have never used illegal drugs but I certainly did over use alcohol when I was young. I believe that drugs should be legalized and taxed heavily, similar to alcohol and tobacco products. (I would wholeheartedly support the death penalty for anyone convicted of selling/furnishing drugs to minors.)

The taxes should be high enough to pay for drug education, drug rehab centers and health care costs associated with drug abuse. The RAND Corporation estimated that $100 billion of illegal drugs were sold in the U.S. in 2010. Taxes on tobacco ($30 billion federal and state) and alcohol ($10 billion?) should also be used to fully fund rehab centers and health care costs for abusers of those products. (We only spend $60 billion providing hospital and medical care for our veterans.) Also, by ending the failed "War on Drugs," police would not have to waste time dealing with drug offenses. Prison crowding would no longer be an issue if drug use were not a crime. Forty-six percent of inmates in federal prison are there because of drug offenses. It costs over $2.5 billion per year to keep them in prison.

Americans deserve to be free to make choices on how they want to live their lives, right up to the point where that freedom infringes on the freedom of someone else. They also must be held accountable/responsible for their actions. Enough with ever-increasing levels of nanny state government.