On K2 and the War on Drugs

Yesterday, Mike Jabary store in Allen, TX was shut down for a code violation. It seems his restaurant has generated too much revenue from tobacco-related products in relation to  food, but that is not real reason.

The store, Jabary Mediterranean, was selling K2, a legal product (for now) that when smoked produces a high similar to marijuana. The city council of Allen is moving to pass an outright ban on the product and my opponent, Senator Shapiro, would like to do the same for the entire state of Texas. No doubt some legislator in Washington will attempt to get K2 put on the list of controlled substances.

It will all be done for the sake of the children.

While I am sure that the politicians have the best of intentions, they once again, ignore the fact that war on drugs has been and will continue to be a abject failure. An estimated $40 billion is spend at the federal and state level alone on drug enforcement. This does not include the cost to incarcerate the roughly 25 percent of the prison population who are convicted of these victimless crimes.

I am not in favor drug use, I have never smoked marijuana or used any other illegal drug. I also believe that we each own our own bodies and should be able to ingest any substance we want, so long as we do not harm others. I also think the it is immoral for government to spend untold billions of dollars fighting a “war” on drugs that cannot be won.