Maybe we shouldn't have laws.
That is one twisted interpretation of what I said. We should and we do have laws that protect rights and regulate all sorts of economic and social affairs. Those laws do dictate to a considerable extent what can or can't people do so obviously we do give up a part of our inherent liberty for these laws. But we do so in exchange for some other greater utility, like the utility of safety, economic security and social satisfaction. In short we're free by nature and the partial loss of liberty we experience by adhering and abiding by laws and regulations grants us some great enough utility to justify the compromise. However, when laws stop generating enough utility to justify the act of giving up parts of people's liberty for them they automatically lose their legitimacy and necessity and are ought to be revoked. In the case at hand and in the general case of coercing people into following a belief or adhering to a doctrine or abstain from an action, specially when any of those notions concerns no one but the individual himself, it is the inevitable that laws which enforce any instance of such "violations" of liberty will cease to generate any substantial utility to justify them and they're ought to be done with. It is true that at some point they were of benefit to society or that society was under the impression that they are of benefit to it and that's constitutes a large part of why they came into existence in the first place. But they eventually become obsolete and have to be replaced by some other laws. As far as marijuana laws are concerned, public opinion in many countries around the world has become intense enough to no longer justify the prohibition of weed. I say this and I'm not fond of the act of smoking weed or abusing any substance whatsoever.
You are so full of it. Where is this "truly progressive" society that you speak of? Would be part of it? So people cannot be unhappy in this "truly progressive" society? So in this "truly progressive" society people wouldn't find any utility on drinking wine?
This "truly progressive" society is, at least ideally speaking, is the destination of history and the goal of humanity. It is a concept that is inherently impossible to realize, but its the moving force of society towards a state of continuous advancement. Given the current level of scientific and technological advancements, I cannot think of a better and more fitting time for working towards such a society. Granted humanity may never get there and society and human affairs will always be plagued by certain flaws which will continue to be the source of human suffering, but it all remains relative.
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