President Obama made a limited move to ease restrictions on medicinal marijuana. Not surprisingly, he was widely praised by liberals, and condemned by conservatives.

But regardless of what conventional wisdom says, full legalization of all drugs for adults is the only ethical solution to this social problem.

Moral principle is often cited by politicians in favor of drug prohibition. In the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primaries, Senator John Edwards conceded that he himself had smoked pot in his college years.

However, he cited “setting a good example for our nation’s children,” as the reason he opposed marijuana use and, in turn, legalization of the drug.

But the relevant moral question is not whether it is ethical to get high on weed, heroin or any other drug, but whether it is ethical to aggress against nonviolent people in order to crack down on dangerous substances.

To legalize an activity is not to condone it but merely to prohibit the use of force to stop it.

When lawmakers ban a substance, it gives their agents the power to use violence. In the case of nonviolent drug use, this coercion is the initiative of the police.

If an individual would rightly be condemned as a kidnapper for grabbing a neighbor he sees using narcotics, shackling him and throwing him in his basement, why should the state and its uniformed agent be held to a different moral standard?

To jail a man for years is to deprive him of an immense amount of his liberty. Such a serious, violent act, if not justified as proportional restitution against an objective aggressor, is criminal on the part of public officials themselves.

Even if one dismisses the moral argument against legalization as too abstract, there are also practical consequences of drug criminalization.

Perhaps most famous was Nobel Laureate economist Milton Friedman’s analysis of the effects of the drug war.

When the availability of drugs is reduced, their prices dramatically increase. This creates a powerful incentive for people to go into the business of drug dealing that wouldn’t exist if such substances subject to free market forces.

In determining a national policy for drug abuse, individuals ought to fearlessly apply the ethics of private society and the common sense of economics to politicians.

By doing so, they will determine that legalization of all drugs is the only viable option.