Comments Elsewhere

Robert:

I generally agree that drug use ought not be illegal.

But since it is, then the justice system needs to treat it like other things that are crimes.

Why?

There is no virtue in rigorously enforcing laws admittedly unreasonable or unjust. Hypocrisy may be a vice, but that doesn’t mean that consistency in evil is a virtue. It is merely relentlessness.

Robert:

Locking them up for the individual petty or not-so-petty crimes they commit to support their habit isn’t really practical; those crimes are the symptom, not the problem.

Drugs don’t rob people. Robbers rob people.

If the existing laws against robbery are not strong enough to stop the robbers, then the thing to do is try to strengthen the laws against robbery, not to enforce a blanket prohibition against any use of addictive drugs. Some drug addicts steal to support their habit, and others don’t; if someone isn’t stealing to support her habit then the government has absolutely no business restraining and imprisoning her for the unrelated crimes committed by other drug users. That’s nothing more than collective punishment being inflicted on peaceful people who have done nothing to deserve it.

Dr. O’Skonsky:

You can’t force anyone to change, but while confined a person gets time to reevaluate their direction in life and remember just what their aspirations were before they got addicted.

It is not appropriate to imprison people as a means of career counseling. Those addicts who see that they have a problem have every right to seek treatment for themselves, and I hope it does them a lot of good. But if they are not interested in seeking help right now, the government has no legitimate right to force them participate in it against their will, or to lock them in a cage in order to try to reform their souls.