An issue that has been on my mind for the past few weeks is that of government control. I would not consider myself anti-government, extremist, or even radically political; however, something about the federal government investing millions, if not billions of dollars into regulating aspects of our lives that they should have no say in makes me really uncomfortable.
Recently I have seen a number of documentaries that have really sparked my discomfort with government control. Issues such as illegal steroid use, marijuana use, and even seat belt regulations have struck a chord with me. My point is not that steroids are the way to enhance your strength, going throughout your day spaced out is ok, and even seat belts do not save lives. My point is that these are all issues of personal choice that do not directly put society around us in danger. For instance, I watched a documentary called "Bigger, Faster, Stronger: the story of America" and the basis of this documentary was where is all the research and evidence that anabolic steroids actually do what the media and 'social fear' tells us it does? After months of research, interviews, and experimenting the host discovered that long-term studies have never been done on anabolic steroids, no such official documentation exists to support things such as cancer, insanity, and heart disease. So the question is are they illegal because of fact or because of fear, hype, myth, etc? I say all this to say that the Congress spent more days in session and more money investigating steroids in major league baseball than they did deciding whether or not we should go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan in the early 2000's. Whether or not studies come to show the harm anabolic steroids does to one's body, my question is should the government be allowed to tell you what to do with your own body when it affects only yourself?
Another topic that interests me is that amount of money spent on marijuana use in the United States. Personally I am not a smoker, it's never done much for me, but where is the facts and research of the harm it does to users? Cigarette studies could probably fill the University library with facts of what cigarettes do to our bodies and the bodies of others, yet I have never been convinced of specific facts to the long term harm of marijuana to the user and those around them and look which of the two products are illegal. I believe this is just another example of the government controlling that which they fear. A documentary I watched called "Drug Wars" gave the statistic that in Amsterdam, an area known for its lax marijuana regulation, drug use beyond marijuana such as cocaine, heroin, etc. is almost 65% less than that of other first world countries such as the U.S. and Britain. So why does our government spend billions of dollars to imprison marijuana related offenders, track marijuana trade, and other anti-marijuana related activities?
Lastly, I know this is an extremely controversial point, but the whole seat belt thing kinda makes me uncomfortable. There is no doubt that seat belts save lives and we all 'should' wear them, but still isn't wearing a seat belt a choice we should make as a free thinking individual and not out of fear of our government? I realize all three of my issues are extremely debatable and I encourage feedback. I'm just trying to relate the question and concepts that have been going through my head the past few week. Perhaps we should all take a deeper look into what the law says we cannot do and the basis for that law; I bet in many cases we would all be shocked to see the lack of basis for many laws.

Jeff C.