Legalizing Illegal Drugs Will Worsen Social Ills

Joe Bell

A recent discussion, and subsequent review of some literature, regarding the legalization of drugs reminded me how the subject can make otherwise solid thinkers turn into intellectual oatmeal. There are physicians who lobby for legalizing dangerous substances and former police officers who believe that at least marijuana should be legalized.

A 2001 column in support of marijuana legalization written by former Los Angeles Police Officer David Klinger appears on the Cato Institute web site. Klinger said by the time he left the LAPD he “came to believe that marijuana – a drug I had never seen anyone overdose on or influenced anyone to do anything more violent than attack a bag of potato chips – should be legalized.”

He concluded, “In a free society negative consequences befall people who use their freedom to do foolish things. Victimless self-destructive behavior is its own punishment, not the business of the legal system.”

This is a frightening notion. The creation of such a world would condemn mankind to a brutish existence where people would be free to abuse themselves under the masquerade that they’re not hurting anyone else. The reality is people live in a society, not in isolation. Consequently, the suggestion that drug abuse only damages the abuser is the result of cloudy thinking. The impact of drug abuse extends beyond those who use the substances. Spouses, children, parents, neighbors and employers all are likely to carry the weight of another’s drug problem just as the ravages of alcohol abuse are not limited to the one who drinks. The idea that in a free society individuals should be permitted to do whatever pleases them, as long as no one else gets hurt, rings hollow. Freedom must go hand in hand with responsibility or else freedom mutates into chaos. The purpose of freedom is to encourage individuals to establish a livable society based upon worthwhile principles, self-discipline and honorable values, not to allow people to thoughtlessly satisfy whatever craving obsesses them at any given moment.

In City Journal, Spring 1997, Theodore Dalrymple wrote, “No culture that makes publicly sanctioned self-indulgence its highest good can long survive: a radical egotism is bound to ensue, in which any limitations upon personal behavior are experienced as infringements of basic rights. Distinctions between the important and the trivial, between the freedom to criticize received ideas and the freedom to take LSD, are precisely the standards that keep societies from barbarism.”

To suggest that the legalization, or decriminalization, of certain drugs would strengthen freedom is indefensible given the reality that substance abuse damages a wide range of individuals beyond the user.

Some argue that alcohol contributes to a variety of tragedies yet it remains legal and regulated. We are told that treating marijuana, and perhaps other drugs, differently is unfair. This is also a phony argument and the data relating to alcohol gives weight to the line of reasoning that the legalization of other mind-altering substances would only add to social troubles. Mothers Against Drunk Driving report that in 2005 there were 17,525 alcohol related traffic deaths in the United States. Alcohol impairs a person’s physical reaction time and coordination, both of which are required to safely control an automobile. Marijuana also affects a person’s coordination and concentration. It would be irresponsible to legalize marijuana and add to the problems already presented by alcohol. A 2004 report, “Epidemiology of Alcohol and Other Drug Use Among Motor Vehicle Crash Victims Admitted to a Trauma Center” reported that 19 percent of crash victims under the age of 18 at the trauma unit tested positive for marijuana. Among the affiliates of the report were the University of Maryland Medical Center and the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, in Baltimore.

The Centers for Disease Control reported in December 2006, “The percentage of drug-positive drivers typically is lower than the percentage of alcohol-positive drivers in U.S. studies of motor vehicle crashes… Marijuana has been the most common drug found in such studies of fatally injured drivers in North America…”

Common sense, and the lessons of history, warn us that should marijuana become legal its use will rise and it will become a more prevalent highway problem, perhaps equal to alcohol.

The Department of Justice reminds us that in 1975, Alaska’s Supreme Court ruled that an adult could possess marijuana for personal home consumption. DoJ said, “The court’s ruling became a green light for marijuana use. A 1988 University of Alaska survey showed that the state’s teenagers used marijuana at more than twice the national average for their age group. The report also showed a frequency of marijuana use that suggested it wasn’t experimental, but a well incorporated practice for teens.”

Recognizing bad news when they saw it, in 1990, Alaskan residents voted to recriminalize possession of marijuana.

Adding to the evidence that drug abuse is not a “personal” affair that does not thrust its negative consequences upon others, DoJ pointed out that Switzerland experimented with what became known as Needle Park. Needle Park, which was opened in 1986, was a place where “addicts could come to openly purchase drugs and inject heroin without police intervention or control. The rapid decline in the neighborhood surrounding Needle Park, with increased crime and violence, led authorities to finally close Needle Park in 1992.”

A 1994 report by Christian Huber, “Needle Park: What Can We Learn From the Zurich Experience?” concluded, “Police statistics and several studies suggest that tolerating an open air drug scene can have unforeseen and unfortunate consequences. Low drug prices, lack of law enforcement and lack of social control seem to attract drug users towards the open drug scene and the increase in problems appears to have been more rapid than the increase in the population of addicts.”

Alcohol and tobacco have brought enough health problems and tragedy into American homes and communities. The evidence is clear – legalizing, or decriminalizing, marijuana and other drugs will only add to the nation’s ills.

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Joseph Bell has hosted a radio talk show and is a former editorial writer/columnist for several Connecticut newspapers. A former liberal Democrat, Bell has not been on the conservative side of the aisle for very long. He voted for Clinton/Gore in 1992. Abandoning the convictions that he had held and defended through adolescence and into adulthood was not easy. Sincere soul-searching and a commitment to distinguish fact from fiction compelled him to accept that liberal ideology was bankrupt.

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