Alaska "Repeals and Replaces" Pot Laws

In case anyone mistook yesterday's rebellion against Barack Obama for a real detour from the road of improper government, the state of Alaska provides us with a counter-example. In the words of an NPR headline, voters there gave massive government intrusion into their lives a big "thumbs-up" by passing a minimum wage hike and legalizing marijuana -- if by "legalizing", you mean something like "making the government into the gang in charge of the marijuana turf":

"Now that the campaign is over, it's time to establish a robust regulatory system that sets an example for other states," [Taylor] Bickford [spokesman for the pro-legalization Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in Alaska] said in a prepared statement. "A regulated marijuana market will generate millions of dollars in tax revenue and create good jobs for Alaskans. Law enforcement will be able to spend their time addressing serious crimes instead of enforcing failed marijuana prohibition laws."

Regulate marijuana like alcohol, eh? Americans clearly have lots to re-learn if that's what freedom looks like to them.

Regarding Bickford's intoning that, "[I]t's time to establish a robust regulatory system that sets an example for other states." The only example this is going to set is a negative one: Alaska should have simply repealed (or, perhaps sunsetted) its ban on marijuana, rather than replacing one bad law with another.

This principle applies to more issues than this one, and on matters much more consequential than the narrow issue of whether people are truly free to obtain or use marijuana. Mitch McConnell, are you listening?

-- CAV