Re:Portugal decriminalized drugs a decade ago – what have we...
by ChuckMcM on Monday March 23, 2015 @06:15PM
(#9253666)
"Whether or not someone living addicted to drugs is existing in a state of moral decline is a personal judgement call and it's no business of the state's .."
And that is the fulcrum on which the debate balances. People who believe it is the state's job to "take care of its people" will criminalize drugs, alchohol, and homelessness, applying the power of the state to "fix" those things. For people who believe the state's responsibility ends where the actions of its citizens doesn't infringe the rights/health/safety of others, will legalize drug use, assisted suicide, unlimited "camping", and liquor stores.
Once you get into that argument, one will say a drug addict doesn't "choose" to be addicted, they are just sick. And if they were sick with Cholera would you object to us arresting people who dumped raw sewage into the street? Why object to us arresting people who prey upon these sick people?
The challenge is of course that there isn't a truly "good" solution yet. Once we can "cure" addiction do we then spin off recreational drug use?
And that is the fulcrum on which the debate balances. People who believe it is the state's job to "take care of its people" will criminalize drugs, alchohol, and homelessness, applying the power of the state to "fix" those things. For people who believe the state's responsibility ends where the actions of its citizens doesn't infringe the rights/health/safety of others, will legalize drug use, assisted suicide, unlimited "camping", and liquor stores.
Once you get into that argument, one will say a drug addict doesn't "choose" to be addicted, they are just sick. And if they were sick with Cholera would you object to us arresting people who dumped raw sewage into the street? Why object to us arresting people who prey upon these sick people?
The challenge is of course that there isn't a truly "good" solution yet. Once we can "cure" addiction do we then spin off recreational drug use?