[fastpat]

Originally posted by john_cramer
Legion, I am breaking my self-imposed ban on OT contributions by offering you this, but in my opinion, the liberterian approach to drug legalization would only work if two critical social changes were effected. These are:

* Elimination of ALL social safety nets for risk-preferred behavior. If you want to take legal amphetamines, OK, but don't go checking into the county hospital when you OD or the public psychiatric ward when you come down with adrenaline psychosis after a long addiction; and

While I'm a firm believer in personally funded, and insured, risk taking; you presuppose that prohibition is working, at least partially, when it's easily demonstrable that it's not only not working, it's enabling far more drug consumption that would otherwise take place.

* Absolute liability for Torts committed while under the influence. Smoke a doobie and experience time distortion and run a red light and T-bone the plaintiff? Defendant works the rest of his life to replace plaintiff's lost income.

That's already the case. I'd remove criminal penalties, that simply provides additional power to the state, and eliminates the defendant's reimbursement to the plaintiff via his earnings.

What do you think the likelihood of either of those changes occurring is? The trouble is that the modern welfare state cannot accept the idea that society should not pick up the tab for the risk preferred behavior of a small percentage of participants. There is no question that the individual is the least-cost risk avoider, but the transactions costs of ensuring individual compliance are higher. Given a choice between policing individual behavior to avoid a loss and just cleaning up the mess when a loss occurs, which do you think carries less social cost?

Sadly I think we are headed in the other direction, in which the implied consent doctrine coupled with increasing levels of socialism will be used to restrict, not expand, the scope of individual liberty, not by force, but by contract. If we move to socialized medicine how long will CMS permit the continued practice of tobacco use since it's picking up the tab?

There is no evidence that drug legalization would increase the numbers of drug users; the basis for current drug prohibition is the huge industry involved in it's enforcement at everyone's expense.