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Politics : Canadian Political Free-for-All -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SofaSpud who wrote (2645)	5/20/2003 12:49:04 PM
From: Gulo	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 37260

When you see family members whose life has been destroyed by drugs, or the grief of their loved ones, it is hard to say they have a right to do it. Every person (libertarian or not) has limits to the "rights" they want others to enjoy. Usually, they want others to have the rights they themselves want, but don't care if other rights are taken away. If you don't smoke pot but you are disturbed by the damage it does, you might not care to allow others to have the right to smoke it. Unfortunately, it is easy to allow emotions overrule reason in such cases. The fundamental principle of the golden rule should apply here, but it should be interpreted in its broadest terms. The fact is that we all want the freedom to do what we want without unreasonable interference. It is unreasonable to outlaw a person from smoking pot because they are not necessarily compromising their responsibilities to others. It is reasonable to legislate that a person be prevented from smoking pot while driving on public roads or while acting as the sole guardian of their children. Any society is a compromise between individual rights and responsibilities to others. An individual's right can be infringed if it interferes with the individual's responsibility to other individuals. This does not mean the greater good outweighs individual rights, but only that an individual's responsibilities must be balanced with his/her rights. Theoretical arguments aside, there are practical limits to structuring laws to prevent the justifiably illegal activities and allow the maximum freedom. When there is doubt, I would rather give people enough rope to hang themselves rather than take the responsibility on myself. -g