Good morning. We’re covering America’s embrace of individual freedom — plus the looming government shutdown, bird flu and decoration maximalism.
Legal viceMarijuana and sports gambling tell a story about American politics. Twenty years ago, both were largely illegal. Now, most people can partake in them legally. Americans have embraced social libertarianism — the view that emphasizes individual freedom — in the last two decades. The Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage. States relaxed laws for carrying a concealed gun, approved more exemptions for vaccine mandates, reduced penalties for nonviolent crimes and legalized psychedelics. Some places stopped enforcing laws against sex work and homeless encampments. (The shift isn’t uniform. Some states, for example, restricted abortion.) What happened next? The story is mixed. Libertarianism gives people the freedom to make their own choices, which works well when the choices produce few or no meaningful harms (like a gay couple’s decision to marry). But libertarianism also lets people make harmful choices that ripple across society. An addiction to drugs or gambling can hurt families, the economy and the health care system. Today’s newsletter will use the examples of marijuana and sports betting to examine what has gone wrong. Real downsidesSupporters of legalization often frame it as a win-win. People were gambling and smoking pot anyway, the argument goes. Legalization merely takes these activities out of the shadows, stopping harmful, unnecessary arrests for victimless crimes. Governments can tax businesses that profit from them and regulate behaviors to prevent abuses. But the win-win argument ignores an important reality: Legalization of a behavior often makes it, and its harms, more common. Some of the frictions that once made these activities a hassle are now gone. Before, most people had to find informal, typically illegal channels to gamble in their state, something not everyone could do. Otherwise, they needed someone they knew — a friend, a co-worker, a family member — to bet against. Now people can gamble on an app without knowing anyone on the other side of a bet. Similarly, in the past, marijuana users needed a dealer. Now they just need Yelp. Some dispensaries even deliver. As more people have bet on sports, their savings have declined and the risk of bankruptcy has risen, studies have found. The most financially constrained households appear to suffer the most. Meanwhile, athletes like the N.B.A. player Jontay Porter have been caught in gambling scandals, hurting the integrity of their sports. Marijuana legalization has caused an increase in reported health problems. More people say that they’ve become addicted. Some have reported psychosis and a condition known as cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, which can cause debilitating nausea and vomiting. These problems are exacerbated by the marketplace. The companies that sell sports gambling and marijuana products do not make much money from responsible users. They make the bulk of their profits from people who consume their products much more frequently, including addicts. So the companies target their biggest customers. Weed companies created high-potency products that appeal mostly to heavy users. The sports gambling industry made it easy to place many large bets on apps, with few limits. As more people partake more frequently, more problems arise.
Finding solutionsLawmakers don’t need to return to prohibition to address these problems. The previous approach had real costs: People were denied activities they enjoyed and, in many cases, could do responsibly. If they gambled or bought marijuana anyway, they had to rely on illegal, potentially dangerous sources. There were big racial disparities in enforcement of the laws, particularly for marijuana. Criminal records made it harder for people to find jobs or housing. A middle ground is legalization with more regulation. The government could raise taxes to deter excessive use, as it does with alcohol and cigarettes. Or officials could enact monthly limits on betting or on marijuana purchases. (Uruguay has such a limit on weed.) Why hasn’t that kind of regulation happened? The marijuana and sports gambling industries play expanding roles in their local and state economies. Higher taxes and stricter regulations would hurt them, so they lobby against tougher laws. It’s similar to the behavior of the alcohol industry, which has for years successfully lobbied lawmakers to keep alcohol taxes low and regulation light even as deaths have increased. In legalization campaigns, supporters often say that the country should “regulate marijuana like alcohol.” That slogan has proved prophetic, for better and worse.
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