"Its not a war on drugs, its a war on personal freedom. Keep that in mind at all times" --Bill Hicks.
This rings true and from John S Mill,
The only part of the conduct of anyone, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.
Why are we generally so willing to support the massive suppression of individual rights in favour of undefined and unsupported claims of benefit to society? Why do we so readily accept the disproportion between the cost to the individual and the benefit to society?
How can it possibly be justified that we incarcerate someone for ingesting, injecting or inhaling a substance? Any substance. How narrow is this concept of freedom?
In my opinion, freedom is lost to fear. There is a strong herd sense of fear and it is easily flamed. We shouldn’t be so afraid of our own nature.
Prohibition is almost never the appropriate solution. Land mines and cluster bombs among the obvious exceptions. Information and education are the answer. Let people do as they will. Hold them accountable for their behaviour but let them do it. The prohibition of drugs has caused far more harm than it has prevented. The vast majority of the violence associated with illegal drug use is caused by prohibition. 30,000 dead in Mexico.
I am not suggesting that drugs are not dangerous but that is not the point. The point is that free citizens should be free and we have a great deal more to fear from the contraction of freedom than we do from it’s expansion. All drug use by legal adults should be decriminalized today. The world would be a better place.
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