Vice Criminalization.
For your consideration.
I believe it is not true that criminalization of vices limits those vices. Arguments here indicating that such law clearly fails to stop vice, at a great economic cost to society, and for little return- are simply quite true. I believe, for example, that statistics reveal that the end of prohibition brought upon a slow but steady decline in % per capita alcoholism.
This issue involves a far different area of law than those that deal with individual actions that have direct consequences upon others such as theft and murder. As a Libertarian I believe freedom works. One is free to harm oneself if one chooses, and simple common sense dictates that while such behavior may be all too common, it is self-limiting by it's nature; but where it exists it is highly resistant to laws which say "no." You can't legislate morality.
Again, freedom works, even on this issue. We live in Pandora's open box as it is- and we simply can't close through criminalization that which is already open. You already seem to agree that any attempts to totally control vice are necessarily too extreme and untenable. Since acts harmful to oneself are naturally limited by common sense, do we really need vice criminalization? No.
You've said that criminalization is one way to reduce vice. This seems logical- but because Pandora's box is always and irrevocably open- the vices can always be procured just the same- short of the extreme measures we both see as inappropriate. There will always be a significant indulgence in vices- and there is a negative synergy when we couple vice with illegality which must be taken into account.
The demand for vice will always be filled by a means of supply. Criminalization raises the stakes indeed, and while one might simply see logic in the notion that this should lower the supply, it in fact adds a great risk to the supplier which greatly increases the price and profits involved in his venture. The artificially high profit margin is in fact a great stimulus to supply. The incentive to the high school kid to become a pusher is strong where little incentive would otherwise exist. As a result, and since self-destructive behavior is self-limiting, there are many sellers of dope of all kinds who are not themselves users(this, despite current criminal consequences). The incentive to procure drugs for sale and say to acquaintances "try this, you'll like it" are far TOO great. I witnessed this process as a High School student myself. It is surely insidious. The source of supply of say, marijuana, may/will also be selling LSD, cocaine, crack- you name it. The virgin user is pushed to grow up, have fun(drugs as glamour, too), and not be a sissy. Insidious indeed.
Worse still, the seller will have connections to major suppliers who have guns, attitude, will travel, and spread the law of the jungle...i.e. not just an "eye for an eye", but the more extreme "eye for a finger" attitude that teaches quite literally "cross me(tell the truth of my activities) and I'll kill you." This is called wisdom- and it passes down as wisdom- and it's the tip of an iceberg. These are not terribly nice people, in general. The association with artificially created "pushers" brings very immoral notions down through the chain of sellers- and right into our schools where they spread even among kids who never ever yet touched a drug(and may never). Insidious indeed. I may sound a bit rabid here, but in all reality it is happening even in little towns all across the country as I write. Prohibition brought us Al Capone and the rest, who were in it for the money. Drug prohibition brings us inner city drug territories and gangs- making it not wholly safe to go out at night(probably an understatement).
So again, I say freedom does work even on this issue. The true Pandora's box God(perhaps?) gave us is opened much wider by the act of legally prohibiting vices which are personal in nature and not directly harming others. We CANNOT legislate morality(who said that?).
I think it was Libertarian Presidential candidate Harry Browne who said that you don't see drunks hanging out near high schools trying to glamorize and sell Alcohol to kids in order to make money and/or feed their habits. As Harry's said, the war on drugs is insane and needs to end now. If we stop this war we will greatly ease our drug problems AND our crime problems. We can tell our kids that through legalizaton we are taking away the incentive for the drugsters to push drugs in our schools- taking away their profit prospects- cutting the link of association and all the hell that breeds. Then, only those few folks who would be self-destructive users in any event will remain users- there will be no artificial incentive for them(and others!) to encourage people to become users- nor will they need to become muggers to feed their habits. Legalization would bring LESS drug use and crime, I am quite confident.
Sigh.... I hope I wasn't too windy here, I've probably written it better but this is all I have tonight.
Freedom works. We need to apply it to every issue we possibly can in our time.
Dan B |
