The federal government should not regulate any recreational drugs and leave those laws up to states, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said Wednesday.
The libertarian lawmaker claimed the War on Drugs does more harm than good, and called the onetime prohibition of alcohol in the U.S. an “absurdity.”
“It would be a state issue on how to deal with it,” Paul said this morning during an appearance on CNN. “When I talk about changing the law, I want to go back to a constitutional approach to a problem like this, and that is through the states.”
“Prohibition of alcohol was the biggest absurdity — social absurdity and it created a lot of problems,” Paul explained,” Paul explained. “We’ve created most of the problems for ourselves and these drug wars are a consequence of our policy.”
Paul isn’t the only lawmaker to advocate openly supporting drug legalization. Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) said her home state should explore a pilot program of legalized marijuana.