Morality of Drug Controls (From Dealing With Drugs Consequences of Government Control, P 327-351, 1987, Robert Hamowy, ed. - See NCJ-106217)

• NCJ Number: 106221
• Author(s): T Szasz
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 15 pages
• Sale Source: D C Heath and Co
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

It is argued that America's 'war on drugs' represents a new variation in humanity's age old passion to purge itself of its impurities by staging vast dramas of scapegoating.

Abstract

Man's defiance of societal conventions is now enacted through ceremonies of drug use, and the collective celebration of the legitimacy and power of authority is enacted through counterceremonies of drug controls. Contrary to the prevailing antidrug use propaganda, drug abuse is not a national disaster from which society must be protected by state intervention. If drug abusers are victims, they are active victims with a choice about their own behaviors. Finally, many so-called dangerous drugs are no more dangerous than many legal drugs such as tobacco and alcohol. It is argued that just as there are rights to freedom of the press and of speech, there should be a right to self-medication. To deny the validity of such notions as temptation and self-control is to end up denying the reality of personal freedom and responsibility as well.