ARGUMENTS ABOUT DRUG LEGALIZATION

1. ARGUMENTS FOR THE LEGALISATION OF RECREATIONAL DRUGS (marijuana, esp.)

Liberty and individuality are fundamental political values.

a. Some people enjoy marijuana, etc. (and pleasure is at least one of the goals of life—Charvaka, Kamasutra, John Stuart Mill).
b. There are medical benefits in certain situations.
c. Limiting available choices harms everyone.
d. People are able to use drugs without harming others.

Bumbling: Government interferes wrongly:

a. Each person cares most about his/her good; you have a stronger incentive to protect yourself than anyone else has to protect you.
b. Each person knows most about his/her good; your choices are more likely to lead to happiness than those of anyone else on your behalf.
c. So, interference is generally redundant; people would usually have promoted their own good anyway; consider tobacco use.

d. Treating drug abuse as a medical problem has proven effectiveness.

Costs: Even when it promotes a person's good

Interference is expensive (police, courts, jails; statistics from 1996):

a. police: $10 billion/year in the US locally, $10 billion/year in federal budget (further costs in countries where suppliers try to meet U.S. demand)

b. courts: large case loads, costs, delays

c. prisons: Half the current prison population is there on drug-related offenses. Cost: $10 billion/year, plus millennia of people's lives in the U.S. alone

rates of imprisonment (number of prisoners per 100,000 population)

United States: 546

Georgia 730

Texas 700

California 607

Florida 636

Michigan 550

New York 519

Italy: 89

United Kingdom: 86
France: 84
Germany 80
Holland 51

d. corruption: both in the U.S. and other countries

e. lost tax revenue: at least $10 billion/year in the U.S. (Consider how much drug education this could finance.)

Increased harm from drugs

a. Drugs become more concentrated to make smuggling easier.

b. Illegality causes violence (see below).

c. Illegality encourages profiteers to harm the environment (see the reading from Judge Gray).

Enforcement is unjust

(Burke's "oppression of the minority", Tocqueville's "tyranny of the majority"):

a. Racial discrimination: racial profiling, large numbers of African-Americans in prison or with police records

b. The State (like a private citizen) may stop people to warn them of the danger (Drug education) but not prevent people from realizing desires so long as there is no harm to others.

c. Hypocrisy: We demand peasants in foreign countries to forego planting their cash crops while in California, the richest agricultural state in the US, marijuana is the largest cash crop.

2. ARGUMENTS AGAINST

Possible justifications for paternalistic laws:

Agency, voluntariness (competence): Is the addict really exercising liberty? Analogy to voluntary slavery: "He is not free not to be free." Also, some drugs may be so harmful that use could never be a rational choice.

Ignorance: people are in no position to evaluate the dangers of drugs themselves. Analogy: prescription drugs.

Harm to social cohesion: drug use makes people less likely to interact successfully and productively with others

Insurance against weakness of will: We recognize important temptations and make rules against them, because giving in is against our better judgment (Higher-order desires vs. lower-order desires: I might want to smoke, but also want not to want to smoke. True liberty consists in following my higher-order desires.)

Character formation (Confucius, Hsun Tzu, and Aristotle)

a. Drug use works against the development of good character.
b. Laws are not just for adults; they are also to mold children into virtuous adults. Would you choose to raise your children in a drug-infested neighborhood?

c. (Hsun Tzu) Human nature unsocialized is evil: drug use is a good example of what happens if the State does not mold character.

Tradition

a. There is a long tradition of drug prohibition
b. That tradition is itself the product of reasoned choices; Drug laws express wisdom compiled by many over a long span of time
c. Tradition is the best guide to making choices that conform to our nature
d. We can't predict the effects of legalization; society is too complicated

Increased harm to drug users (particularly with cocaine and heroin), and to others through association with drug-users

a. more drug use (including use by underage youths)
b. more addiction (heroin and cocaine)
c. more drug-related illnesses, overdoses (cocaine and heroin)
d. more premature deaths (cocaine and heroin)
e. less recovery; treatment is effective only when compulsory
f. harm to families of users, friends, employers, co-workers, customers, fetuses of pregnant drug-users
g. drug-caused accidents (people driving stoned), increased violence (cocaine, PCP), increased crime by users
h. social costs: lost productivity, health insurance costs