In the current debate over drug policy, there are many terms for people who don't think
recreational or unauthorized
medicinal drug use should be severely punished. "
Liberalization" generally refers to a policy of reducing penalties and overlooking minor drug use, without indicating any social
sanction and without permitting large-scale sale or manufacture. "
Decriminalization" is similar. "
Legalization" refers to permitting the sale, regulated or unregulated, of currently
illicit drugs.
"Relegalization" breaks
out of the box, in a way. It points out that we wouldn't be legalizaing something fundamentally illegal, but ceasing to deny the people a right which they had until governments took it away. It is easy to forget, sometimes, that governments are given permission by the people to regulate their behavior in specific ways, in exchange for their useful services. They are not
inherent parts of life and they are not there to
give us
rights or
permit us to do anything. These ideas, expressed explicitly in the American
Bill of Rights,
tenth amendment, are brought to mind when we state that we favor
relegalization, that we're not asking the government to
permit us to smoke
marijuana, but telling it to stop
forbidding us to do so.