Feb. 28, 2024, Young Americans for Liberty, a new libertarian student organization on campus, held a drug legalization fair to bring public awareness about perspectives regarding drug legalization. Four students gave out presentations and information throughout the event, including the legalization of marijuana, psychedelics and opioids.
“So our organization is focused on trying to do activism and campaigning for various libertarian issues. So that’s all sorts of things. That’s gun rights, but it’s also things like drug legalization,” The president of Young Americans for Liberty, who goes by JW, said.
Student Mikayla Smith presented a poster on the legalization of marijuana, highlighting its benefits for the economy, society, public health, environment and research.
“More regulations environmental, environmentally friendly, public health benefits, it’s been shown to have therapeutic effects on physical and mental health,” said Smith. “Marijuana also decreases potential use for harmful drugs. That’s not 100%, but states that have legalized cannabis have found a decrease in opioid overdose and deaths.”
Expanding on legalization of drugs, Alex presented research on the potential medical benefits of psychedelic drugs and plants like Psilocybin, Ayahuasca and LSD in treating mental health disorders like depression, opioid addiction and smoking cessation.
“So I also have a study looking at psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms. A doctor treated people who are trying to quit smoking cigarettes. The traditional treatments typically got about a 30% success rate each treatment,” said Alex. “These drugs not only have given us races in ancient societies all over the world, but they were fairly common and accepted in American medicine, right up until 1970 When the Nixon administration declared the war on drugs and shut down all research.”
Cameron who spoke on the negative impacts of the war on drugs said, “They started the war on drugs which a lot of experts like scientific experts, criminal justice experts, human rights experts have said that’s probably been one of the most damaging ecology damaging policies in our history in the United States.”
Cameron presented historical information about the war on drugs and ineffectiveness of addressing drug-related issues. Using examples regarding marginalized communities, he addressed the impact on modern society.
“Again, that’s probably the sort of drug offenses that are a leading cause of arrest in the US and they’re more prevalent along with lower income communities, minority communities,” said Cameron. “One out of five of the nearly 2 million people currently incarcerated in prisons across the United States are for mild drug offenses. So, it really just has lasting effects.”
The last presentation by Brooke Culp, addressed the 81 opioid-related overdoses that occurred in Wyoming in 2022, highlighting the ongoing opioid crisis in the United States. Culp spoke about the importance of naloxone, a medication that can reverse an overdose.
JW said, “We’re here to spread the word out for liberties and rights so that discussions can be started. That’s where things can be changed, and change comes out of a good discussion.”
