Choice #3 Drugs

Just came across this article in Time Magazine.  As well as annoying me for it's unbalanced view on whether marijuana is good or bad for you, it annoyed me because Dr Sanjay Gupta seems to think that because a substance is "bad for you" that peoples choice should be taken away from them.

If I decide to use a substance that is bad for me and doesn't really affect anybody but myself then that is MY business NOT the governments. 

Red meat is bad for you, along with alcohol, tobacco, sugar, cream cakes and MSG, but all these things are also made by choice and  legal. Why should drugs of any sort be any different?

There are plenty of things which are dangerous and effect other peoples lives without any choice in the matter. I don't have any choice whether I breathe in car exhaust fumes or have to live in a world we bomb the planet with depleted uranium and build nuclear plants.

Keeping drugs illegal benefits criminals, makes quality hard to control and takes away freedom of choice.  Legalize them all!

(Of course, if you are a Freeman-on-the-Land, then statutes don't apply and you are free to use and/or abuse any substance you wish, but this type of attitude still stinks!)

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1552034,00.html

edit - Terence McKenna quote sums it up nicely

If the words 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' don't include the right to experiment with your own consciousness, then the Declaration of Independence isn't worth the hemp it was written on. -Terence McKenna