Legality of drugs and other substances

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Benjamin Davies’s avatar

All drugs should be legal because people have a right to do what they want, as long as it isn’t violating the rights of others.

Criticized1*
Dirk Meulenbelt’s avatar

Violating the rights of other people depends on whatever their rights are. If we replace it with "desires", or use a libertarian way of saying "aggress on", then it's really just up to the people. I'd rather not live around drug users (depending on the drug), even if none of them physically assault me. I.e. "violation" is subjective, and ultimately decided by the polity that creates the laws.

Criticism of #4058
Dirk Meulenbelt’s avatar

Communities could exclude drug users.

Criticism of #4336Criticized1*
Dirk Meulenbelt’s avatar

In today's society they only have this ability to a limited degree, and would still have to deal with the drug users in public.

Criticism of #4337
Dennis Hackethal’s avatar

This is a fair point. I’ve seen videos out of Portland, OR, where most (all?) drugs have effectively been legalized, and public parks are an absolute shit show now.

Opponents of legalization like to point to this footage as evidence that legalizing drugs doesn’t work. But I think it just goes to show that if we’re going to legalize drugs, we also need to abolish public property. (We should do that regardless.)

Regulation begets more regulation. Once you have public property, you need to pass laws about what you will and won’t have on said public property. Conversely, just removing those laws without also abolishing public property causes trouble.

No half measures.

Dennis Hackethal’s avatar

To this end, @davies may be able to revive #4058 by editing it to call for the abolition of public property, too.