The Drug War and Other Victim-less Crimes

 

For the purpose   of clarity and the importance of the issues of drug use and so-called victimless crimes of prostitution pornography, etc., I am addressing them in their own separate paragraph. Non-medical drug use, prostitution, and pornography are evils. They create great harm to those that use them. We need safe and effective programs both private and government in nature to deal with them. OK, let’s stop right there for a moment and make sure that we understand what this blog post is not. It is not a plea for the legalization of drugs. Decriminalization and legalization are two different concepts. In order to conduct an intelligent conversation about legalization, which this is not, and decriminalization, which it is, we must first have a basic understanding of the nature of addiction. I recommend a TED talk https://youtu.be/PY9DcIMGxMs by Johann Hari before you read further.    Then we’ll be ready to consider how the actions that we take must be both commensurate with the harm to individuals and society and effective by not creating additional problems that are often more harmful than the initial problem itself. If, by criminalizing drug use, we create the profit margin that enables drug cartels and secret combinations of drug dealers who prey upon others to introduce them to the drugs and bring about their addiction for the purpose of destroying their self-control and creating a permanent user class of dependency to whom they can sell, often for decades, then we are unwittingly perpetuating the problem. The cartels, dealers and inner-city turf battles are responsible for many thousands of deaths which over the years become millions of lives lost for a profit that exists because of the black market that prohibitions create. But this tragedy is dwarfed by the harm to society, including families, due to the incarceration of millions of individuals found guilty of drug offenses. Our prisons are full and the title of felon follows the inmates throughout their lives in a manner that prevents, or makes it exceedingly difficult, to reform. The expense to the government in the form of taxes required to interdict the flow of drugs, arrest and prosecute the offenders, and incarcerate them, thus often depriving them of their future value to society is enormous. And to rub salt in the wound it turns out to be spectacularly unsuccessful. The use of drugs has increased, not decreased over time. The number of overdose deaths continues to increase and the illegal flow of drugs continues unabated. The government response is to double down on ineffective programs. Solutions to this and other programs will be the subject of future blog posts. But suffice it to say that decriminalization coupled with treatment programs are far more effective and less harmful to society as a whole. I encourage all to learn of the results of Portugal’s experience with the decriminalization of drugs and their treatment program which has resulted in the lowest overdose death rate in the western world. If Satan has a role in the drug war, it is to inspire man to react in a way that exacerbates the situation and creates greater harm to individuals and society. We could not make the adversary happier than what we are doing now. It is a great unrecognized moral disaster.

Prostitution and pornography are also evil destroyers. How we deal with them should be paramount and easily confirmed within the guiding principles of freedom from coercion and harm. First and foremost we should remember the words, “Physician do no harm.”. If we are to treat a societal or moral disorder, and prostitution and pornography certainly fit that description, then we should not create more harm than we repair. The conundrum presented here involves our understanding of the problem and our response to it. It is a logical fallacy to believe that decriminalizing this behavior somehow approves of it. Nothing could be further from the truth. God does not approve of sin but he does not physically prevent it either. There are results that happen when we sin. And those responses are the punishment. Shouldn’t our response be to help change the offending behaviors? Are we not usurping God’s domain by devising our own punishment beyond that which is necessary to correct and prevent the damage to society and others? Crimes to life and property demand repayment and procedures to ensure that they are not repeated. But when the victim of the crime is one’s own self who are we repaying or protecting with punishments that go beyond the those requirements? In the issue of drug use we may wish to punish the maker or the seller because they have caused harm to another. But if the user has been treated successfully whom will he harm? The same applies to prostitution, the criminalization of which creates the pimp who harms the woman more than the act of prostitution itself does. So the question becomes how do we punish the harm while serving the victim. Who is the victim? Who should we protect and serve? And who creates the harm? And who should we punish if we are to be true libertarians who advocate for the protection from harm to life and property?

That’s why the gospel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and libertarianism are so compatible.