Thank you, Charlie Sheen, for providing us with a supremely germane example of how hopelessly-flawed modern drug prohibition policies are.

You see, through some of my various adventures, I have met a number of individuals who are not unfamiliar with some of the less frequently practiced ways in which one might enjoy his or herself. Some of these people have chosen to exalt Sheen as their champion. And, as a free-minded libertarian, I was initially inclined to sympathize with that sentiment. To the extent that I went ahead and liked the following facebook status:

Charlie Sheen says he won’t give up his wild life… great man.

But then I thought about it for a second.

Hasn’t Sheen engaged in some manner of physical brutality against his fellow human beings?

According to Wikipedia, he certainly has. Wrapped up in a whole bunch of speculative conjecture on the extent of Sheen’s more questionable and violent conduct, we see that he straight up plead guilty to misdemeanor assault.

That’s not cool.

Rather than quietly unlike the aforementioned status, I set about composing a comment that would qualify my affinity for Sheen’s hubris. The initial attempt went something like:

But I can’t condone his violence against women.

But then I thought about that for a second.

Was it really a sufficient sanction against such conduct?

Notwithstanding my predilection for employing litotes as a means of sounding even-handed when I am anything but, I rolled out a fortified statement devoid of ambiguity that read thusly:

Although I unequivocally condemn his violence against women.

That’s right, Charlie. You can start crying now, you remorseless bastard.

And policymakers, this is where you can start paying attention. Did you happen to notice how I differentiated between condemning something and not condoning it? Doing one of those things, it turns out, is not tantamount to doing the other. It’s completely possible to reserve condemnation of an act without implicitly condoning it.

Even though I’m not entirely sure exactly what bagging seven-gram rocks entails, I’m pretty sure it’s nobody’s business but the bagger’s. It’s not an activity we need to condemn or condone.

Unlike domestic violence, which we are shamefully all too happy to acquit.