“‘It’s a free country.’ That’s a popular saying — and true in many ways. But for a free country, America does ban a lot of things that are perfectly peaceful and consensual. Why is that? Here are some things you can’t do in most states of the union: rent your body to someone for sex, sell your kidney, take recreational drugs. The list goes on. … The prohibitionists say their rules are necessary for either the public’s or a particular individual’s own good. I’m skeptical. … Government force has nasty unintended consequences. I would think that our experience with alcohol prohibition would have taught America a lesson. Nearly everyone agrees it was a disaster. It didn’t stop people from drinking, but it created new and vicious strains of organized crime. Drug prohibition does that now.” (03/03/10)