Legalizing Cocaine

Apparently there are still some people who advocate the legalization of “recreational” drugs as a solution to drug-related crime. They are concerned only with the side effects and are oblivious to the problems of a drugged society.

To them, drugs, of themselves, pose no hazard. If drugs were legal and therefore abundant and cheap, they argue, conscientious and knowledgeable adults would use them only “recreationally,” and the smugglers, dealers and pushers would become respectable importers, merchants and salesmen; society could “take its laws out of their living rooms and off their bodies” and the government could collect billions in taxes, which it could put to better use than pursuing honest citizens engaged in legitimately supplying a demand.

They further “reason” that if alcoholic beverages are legal, in the name of “freedom,” so should other drugs.

Well, everybody knows that alcohol is a drug. A drug that can and does kill. It can kill not only the alcoholics themselves, but also cause alcoholics to kill. Yet most alcoholics aggressively claim that they are only “social drinkers.”

Even if it were only for lost productivity, lost jobs, lost respect, and lost relationships, alcoholism would still be a very serious social problem. Yet it seems almost impossible to eliminate it (even in socialist countries, where its “prohibition” could simply be decreed). Now enter the legalization of drugs that pose far more serious problems.

In the United States particularly, where failed “permissive” educational systems and peer-only education have produced a generation of ignoramuses for whom instant gratification, however dubious, takes aggressive precedence over even the basic rights of others, how could moderate use be expected as the rule rather than the exception? How could the country cope with both monsters, alcohol and drugs, feeding on the minds of its people and draining its economy?

Alcohol, though bad enough already because of its effect on weak minds, can actually be recreational. Many drinkers enjoy the act, the drinking itself, the taste--as one can sybaritically enjoy a prime rib or a good cup of coffee--without intending nor expecting any further “benefit” or sensation, and without necessarily deranging the mind. But the only objective pursued in the use of drugs is exactly that: deranging the mind, “getting high.” So what is “moderate use”?

It should not be too difficult for clear-minded persons to envision an already alcoholic society in which “getting high” became cheap, legal and “in.” And where would the clear-minded and altruistic geniuses be found then to realize the horror of it and devise a successful “prohibition”?

The solution does NOT lie in satisfying the demand by facilitating the supply. That is totally stupid--or criminal. It’s like playing Russian roulette with a fully loaded gun to eliminate the suspense. The solution is to eliminate the demand, which is something that can be done.

HORACIO HANSON

Torrance