Liberty

Liberty and Tyranny

The Ideal of Liberty is "the right to do whatever you please in private, so long as it places no one at involuntary risk." There is nothing about the definition of liberty which restricts it to things which are risk-free to the actor, if such things exist. Even non-activity has its risks, since the sedentary life is associated with heart disease. Nor is there anything about liberty which restricts it to those things approved by the majority. The Bill of Rights begins with "Congress shall make no laws which...(violate basic liberties)." Jefferson knew full well that a democratic majority can be just as tyrannical and narrow-minded and mean-spirited as any military dictator.

The War-On-Drugs is tyranny, as was Prohibition. The Puritans are willing to persecute people, seize their property, leave them rotting in jails---all because of a difference in taste in recreational drugs.

The Puritans may be afraid that legalization would result in chaos---streetwalkers on every corner and crack dealers in every schoolyard. To prevent this, I invoke a second ideal, the Law of Censorship, which says that every community should have the right to determine its own composition and to set standards for what is done in public, within that community. This rule is compatible with the ideals of liberty and free speech, which all refer to private behavior.

Putting things in the "private only" category diminishes and inhibits use, for it could not be advertised, sold in stores, used at work or in the streets. This is why repeal of the blue laws need not result in public chaos. We can outlaw street-walkers and public dope transactions and we can put, in the "private-only" category, all concentrated and manufactured forms of the mind-altering drugs, including some which are now legal, without violating the ideal of liberty.

Proponents of the War-On-Drugs say there is a difference between tobacco and marijuana. A hilarious propaganda film ("Reefer Madness") put out by the government in the 1930s claimed that smoking marijuana inevitably led to addiction to worse drugs, such as heroin. And that is still the argument put forth by the Puritans. However, there is no scientific basis for this claim. Every recreational drug and every type of activity has risks, and the type and degree of risk vary from one activity to another. Voluntary risk is protected by the ideal of liberty, at least up to a point. I shall illustrate this with a few examples.

We permit people to climb 8000 meter mountains, like Everest, even though fully one-third die as a result of this strange hobby. The glaciers around Everest are graveyards, containing hundreds of bodies. We permit people to build backyard pools even though hundreds of toddlers drown in them every year. We permit water sports, rock climbing, sky diving, skate-boarding, bicycle-riding, motorcycle-riding, and flying private airplanes, all because the risk is voluntary. However, what if everybody who tried to climb Everest died in the attempt? At some point, wouldn't we have to say, this is not a normal recreational activity, even if we do permit risky activities in the name of liberty. After all, part of the idea of "risk" is that not all die. If all die, then it is suicide, a kind of perverse self-destructive behavior which would not be allowed for long. An analogy may be made to the worst of the drugs, those which are invariably addictive, and invariably fatal if the addiction is not stopped. I would put injectable heroin and smokable crack in this category. The ideal of liberty allows personal risk, but not necessarily suicidal and self-destructive behavior. I suggest putting heroin and crack under the supervision of physicians. In other words, they might prescribe a measured dose to addicts to forestall withdrawal symptoms. But it would not be one of allowable drugs, even in the "brown paper" category.

The boundary of all liberties, including religious freedom, freedom of the press, personal liberty, and free speech, is placing others at involuntary risk. Some say that drugs, gambling and prostitution do have involuntary victims, because legalization increases public health problems, such as addiction.

Public Health

It is possible to do something about the public health problems associated with drug use. Communities with long exposure to a particular drug have developed customs which protect them from addiction and disease. Pre-Columbian Native Americans did not have lung cancer or emphysema, because they didn't smoke all day or every day. Smoking was part of a social ritual, when entertaining visitors, or conducting pow-wows. Italian peasants don't become alcoholics because they use wine as a food. It is only consumed at meals, with grandma and the children present (who get watered wine). It is shameful to become inebriated at the family table. Distilled spirits are avoided. Andean peasants don't have a cocaine addiction, because they chew the raw coca leaves, with lime, and they do so to give them strength and endurance in the rarefied atmosphere of the Andes. Turkish peasants don't have heroin addictions because they use the raw opium gum only to treat toothache and other pain.

There is more we can do, making creative use of the Law of Censorship. Suppose we have something called an "Herb Shop" as the only public shop, other than bars or restaurants, for organic substances which are called "drugs." An Herb Shop sells only the natural organic substance, or the substance modified by the original farmer through natural processes, such as sun drying or fermentation. The substances sold in an Herb Shop include tobacco leaves (but not Camels), the unfortified beer and wine of local farmer vintners or brewers (but not Jack Daniels), marijuana leaves (but not hashish), opium gum (but not heroin), magic mushrooms (but not LSD), coffee, tea, betel nuts, aromatic bouquets and fresh leaves and spices from around the world. The derived and fortified products could not be sold in stores. They could not be advertised. LSD, Jack Daniels, Camels or cocaine could only be obtained from private dealers.

Nancy Reagan - Tyrant