What does left mean these days? And what, for that matter, about right? Increasingly the divide that really matters is between the liberal and the authoritarian. When it comes to drugs, for instance, Melanie Phillips is an authoritarian. Well-intentioned, I’m sure, but an authoritarian nonetheless. This means that, whether she or the other Drug Warriors like it or not, they have more in common with drug-producers than consumers. Indeed, the Drug Warriors might be said, objectively speaking, to be furthering producer interests at the expense of the consumer.
This might help explain why marijuana producers in California are appalled that the state might, by referendum, legalise pot this year. Theyre right to be: if entry barriers are lowered it stands to reason that established producers will lose out and that their healthy profits may fall even though they’ll no longer have to write off a proportion of their crop that’s lost to raids, blundering, robbery or whatever.
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