I just knew I’d hit a nerve with that “If only drugs were legal” line. A great many readers write along these lines:

By your logic we need to go back to alcohol prohibition. See fetal alcohol syndrome. Alcohol kills/harms many more babies every year than coke. Terrible parents are terrible parents whether or not they use drugs – how did you go from that anecdote to taking a swipe at drug legalization? Legalization makes a lot more sense than spending billions and billions and putting huge numbers of non-violent citizens in jail in a failed “war on drugs”?

Me: I have zero desire to launch another Corner-exhausting debate on drug legalization. I will note — since many readers still seem unaware — that I am in the minority here at NR and the magazine has officially favored an end to the drug war for a very long time. For the record, it’s my view that drug legalization (note: I’m for the gradual decriminalization of pot) will create more, not fewer, moms like the one discussed below. It’s also my view that the constant leap to “What about alcohol!?” is not as boffo an argument as many readers believe it to be. Saying alcohol is really bad for people and ruins lives has obvious validity, but it doesn’t advance the ball very far down the field by saying that therefore other substances that ruin lives should be made legal too. I think there are very strong arguments for drug legalization. The argument that we should be consistent and ban alcohol too is not one of them in my book.