WEBVTT NOTE The Moral Case for Drugs 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.600 Those of you that know me know that I'm a conservative evangelical Christian. 2 00:00:04.600 --> 00:00:10.000 However, that's not the perspective that I'm going to argue my paper today. 3 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:16.520 The title of my paper is not the Christian case for drugs, it's the moral case for drugs. 4 00:00:16.520 --> 00:00:20.560 Now, I've put a radical title on my talk today. 5 00:00:20.560 --> 00:00:26.080 Notice I didn't say the moral case for drug legalization, 6 00:00:26.080 --> 00:00:30.320 or the moral case for drug decriminalization, 7 00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:34.080 or the moral case for drug regulation, 8 00:00:34.080 --> 00:00:37.560 or the moral case for medical marijuana, 9 00:00:37.560 --> 00:00:40.560 or the moral case for relaxing drug laws, 10 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:44.320 or the moral case for ending the drug war. 11 00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:48.760 I've also put a positive title on my talk today. 12 00:00:48.760 --> 00:00:51.680 If I were going to give it a negative title, 13 00:00:51.680 --> 00:01:02.640 I might have said something like the moral case against religious restrictionists, the moral case against pious prohibitionists, 14 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:11.560 the moral case against Christian crusaders, the moral case against fundamentalist fascists, 15 00:01:11.560 --> 00:01:21.400 the moral case against puritanical prudes, the moral case against non-denominational Nazis, 16 00:01:21.400 --> 00:01:29.640 The moral case against Protestant popes, or perhaps the moral case against Baptist bigots, 17 00:01:29.640 --> 00:01:36.160 or the moral case against Evangelical extremists, or the moral case against Bible-believing 18 00:01:36.160 --> 00:01:42.760 busybodies, or even the moral case against meddling moralists. 19 00:01:42.760 --> 00:01:48.300 I want to present the moral case for drugs. 20 00:01:48.300 --> 00:01:52.760 In the fifteen or so years that I've been writing as a conservative Christian libertarian, 21 00:01:52.760 --> 00:01:59.460 and certainly not before that, I had never, until last October for Mises Daily, written 22 00:01:59.460 --> 00:02:03.660 anything exclusively about the subject of drugs. 23 00:02:03.660 --> 00:02:09.060 My hesitation in doing so was not because I only recently came to the conclusion that 24 00:02:09.060 --> 00:02:12.140 the war on drugs was a monstrous evil. 25 00:02:12.140 --> 00:02:17.840 To the contrary, I can remember questioning the whole idea of drug prohibition and victimless 26 00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:30.740 My hesitation in writing anything negative about the subject of drug prohibition is because 27 00:02:30.740 --> 00:02:37.520 of the pathetically predictable negative reaction I knew I would receive outside of libertarian 28 00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:44.560 circles and especially the hysterical reaction I knew I would receive from some of my Christian 29 00:02:44.560 --> 00:02:46.400 brethren. 30 00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:53.080 I can just hear the defenders of drug prohibition now. You are a supporter of drug use. You 31 00:02:53.080 --> 00:03:02.600 are crazy. You are a libertine. You are a liberal. You are a pragmatist. You are a hippie. 32 00:03:02.600 --> 00:03:09.520 And your beard proves it. You are not considering what would happen if drugs were legalized. 33 00:03:09.520 --> 00:03:13.020 You are promoting the breakdown of society. 34 00:03:13.020 --> 00:03:16.640 You are ignorant of the harmful effects of drugs. 35 00:03:16.640 --> 00:03:21.160 You are indifferent to the bad consequences of drug abuse. 36 00:03:21.160 --> 00:03:24.280 You are ignoring the plight of drug addicts. 37 00:03:24.280 --> 00:03:27.900 You are sending the wrong message to young people. 38 00:03:27.900 --> 00:03:31.500 You are denying established cultural norms. 39 00:03:31.500 --> 00:03:35.100 You are against keeping our schools safe. 40 00:03:35.100 --> 00:03:38.040 You are lowering your standards of morality. 41 00:03:38.040 --> 00:03:45.860 You are undermining the family. You are focusing on money instead of morality. You are on drugs 42 00:03:45.860 --> 00:03:54.900 yourself. Now, drug prohibitionists who consider themselves religious would argue likewise 43 00:03:54.900 --> 00:04:03.360 and add, you are an antinomian. You are abdicating situation ethics. You are giving up on family 44 00:04:03.360 --> 00:04:10.200 and Money Values. You are accommodating today's permissive society. You're not taking a stand 45 00:04:10.200 --> 00:04:18.600 against sin. You are advocating sin. You are accepting alternative lifestyles. You are compromising 46 00:04:18.600 --> 00:04:25.920 with the world. You are undermining Christian morality. You are rejecting Judeo-Christian 47 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:33.720 Ethics. Now I've been a pariah for long enough now because of my loathing for 48 00:04:33.720 --> 00:04:40.740 George W. Bush and my contempt for Christian support for his wars, that it 49 00:04:40.740 --> 00:04:45.720 really doesn't matter anymore what I say about drug prohibition or anything else. 50 00:04:45.720 --> 00:04:51.780 I would like to begin by making two statements, two statements that might 51 00:04:51.780 --> 00:04:55.680 not seem radical to anyone attending a conference at the Mises 52 00:04:55.680 --> 00:05:01.400 and the Mises Institute, but two statements that would get me censured or ridiculed in 53 00:05:01.400 --> 00:05:04.920 some political or religious circles. 54 00:05:04.920 --> 00:05:11.040 Statement number one, it is neither the job of government nor the business of any individual 55 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:18.160 to prohibit, regulate, restrict, or otherwise control what a man desires to eat, drink, 56 00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:35.960 2. There is no ethical precept in any religion or moral code that should lead anyone to believe 57 00:05:35.960 --> 00:05:43.000 that it is the job of government or the business of any individual to prohibit, regulate, restrict, 58 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:50.600 or otherwise control what a man desires to eat, drink, smoke, inject, absorb, snort, 59 00:05:50.600 --> 00:05:56.360 sniff, inhale, swallow or otherwise ingest into his body. 60 00:05:56.360 --> 00:06:04.960 Now, in making these statements, I want to make some things clear that I am not saying. 61 00:06:04.960 --> 00:06:10.940 I am not saying that parents have no right to dictate to their children what is and is 62 00:06:10.940 --> 00:06:13.980 is not acceptable when it comes to drug use. 63 00:06:13.980 --> 00:06:16.340 I just believe that father knows best 64 00:06:16.340 --> 00:06:18.740 instead of government knows best. 65 00:06:18.740 --> 00:06:21.620 Right now it is a crime in my state of Florida 66 00:06:21.620 --> 00:06:23.660 for parents to serve a glass, 67 00:06:24.660 --> 00:06:26.780 to serve a beer or a glass of wine 68 00:06:26.780 --> 00:06:30.300 to their children under age 21. 69 00:06:30.300 --> 00:06:32.700 Even if their children are married, 70 00:06:32.700 --> 00:06:36.260 have their own children and serve in the military. 71 00:06:36.260 --> 00:06:38.620 This is absurd and I don't even drink alcohol. 72 00:06:38.620 --> 00:06:50.620 I am not saying that employers have no right to mandate that employees abstain from using a particular drug, all drugs, smoking, having a beard, or wearing a pink shirt. 73 00:06:50.620 --> 00:07:00.620 Since I believe in freedom and property rights, I believe in the freedom of employers and employees to make employment contracts without government interference. 74 00:07:00.620 --> 00:07:06.060 If the owner of a restaurant insists that his waiters wear white tuxedos, they can either 75 00:07:06.060 --> 00:07:10.380 visit the local tuxedo shop or look for work elsewhere. 76 00:07:10.380 --> 00:07:15.620 I am not saying that organizations, whether secular or religious, should not be able to 77 00:07:15.620 --> 00:07:20.540 require that their members abstain from drug use, legal or otherwise. 78 00:07:20.540 --> 00:07:27.420 Some organizations may mandate the total abstinence of their members from alcohol, drugs and tobacco. 79 00:07:27.420 --> 00:07:33.220 Others might prescribe just alcohol, just drugs, or just tobacco. 80 00:07:33.220 --> 00:07:37.580 Still others might merely disdain drunkenness or getting high. 81 00:07:37.580 --> 00:07:43.940 Membership in an organization is voluntary, and one man's paradise is another man's prison. 82 00:07:43.940 --> 00:07:50.460 In a genuinely free society, restaurants, stores, churches, private clubs, and fraternal 83 00:07:50.460 --> 00:08:04.460 would be free to set their own standards and discriminate based on race, gender, sexual orientation, age, political ideology, religious piety, and drug use. 84 00:08:04.460 --> 00:08:10.460 I am not saying that there is nothing harmful that can result from something being eaten, drank, 85 00:08:10.460 --> 00:08:17.460 Smoke injected, absorbed, snorted, sniffed, inhaled, swallowed, or otherwise ingested into one's body. 86 00:08:17.460 --> 00:08:23.460 I am well aware of the fact that people die all the time from drug overdoses. 87 00:08:23.460 --> 00:08:31.460 However, although people also die from drinking too much alcohol and smoking too many cigarettes, 88 00:08:31.460 --> 00:08:38.460 not too many drug prohibitionists ever call for absolute bans on alcohol and tobacco. 89 00:08:38.460 --> 00:08:49.460 I am not saying that anyone should eat, drink, smoke, inject, absorb, snort, sniff, inhale, swallow or otherwise ingest into his body any drug, legal or illegal. 90 00:08:49.460 --> 00:08:54.460 I'm not abdicating that anyone take any drug, legal or otherwise. 91 00:08:54.460 --> 00:09:01.460 The more I read the wonderful health-related articles on lewrockwell.com, the more I'm leery of ingesting any drugs, 92 00:09:01.460 --> 00:09:09.460 and Drugs, including over-the-counter medications and FDA-approved physician-prescribed drugs. 93 00:09:09.460 --> 00:09:18.460 I'm not saying that I think it is acceptable for anyone to take drugs for any reason other than for medicinal or therapeutic purposes. 94 00:09:18.460 --> 00:09:30.460 I consider any other use to be a vice. But as the 19th century political philosopher Lysander Spooner reminded us, vices are not crimes. 95 00:09:30.460 --> 00:09:43.460 I am not saying that I approve of school bus drivers smoking a joint while they drive their buses, or mechanics getting buzzed while they repair your car, or people walking around stoned in public. 96 00:09:43.460 --> 00:09:51.460 Why is it that drug prohibitionists think that all Americans would be on a perpetual high if drugs were legalized? 97 00:09:51.460 --> 00:09:58.460 And why is it that they accuse freedom lovers of desiring or being indifferent to such a society? 98 00:09:58.460 --> 00:10:04.620 I am not saying that individuals and organizations should not be concerned about drug abuse. 99 00:10:04.620 --> 00:10:09.380 Most of the negative externalities that result from people taking drugs are due to the government's 100 00:10:09.380 --> 00:10:11.600 war on drugs. 101 00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:17.180 In the absence of drug prohibition, drug abuse could be handled the same way as alcohol abuse 102 00:10:17.180 --> 00:10:24.580 – by families, friends, churches, rescue missions, alcoholics anonymous type programs, 103 00:10:24.580 --> 00:10:28.180 Physicians, Psychologists and Treatment Centers 104 00:10:28.180 --> 00:10:33.020 All I am saying is that I want the government out of my body. 105 00:10:33.020 --> 00:10:45.780 I want the state out of my home, my car, my job, my boat, my church, my family, my club, my doctor's office, my insurance company, my bedroom and my life. 106 00:10:45.780 --> 00:10:53.260 Now, I also want the government's troops out of every foreign country, but that's another lecture for another day. 107 00:10:53.260 --> 00:10:59.380 All I'm saying is that it should be none of anyone's business, as far as the law is concerned, 108 00:10:59.380 --> 00:11:04.340 if someone wants to get drunk, high or stoned in a hotel bar, at a social event or in his 109 00:11:04.340 --> 00:11:05.700 own home. 110 00:11:05.700 --> 00:11:11.940 All I'm saying is that it is unjust to lock someone up in a cage for smoking a plant. 111 00:11:11.940 --> 00:11:17.180 All I'm saying is that I want the government to take its hands off not only my drugs, but 112 00:11:17.180 --> 00:11:20.500 my bong, my crack pipe and my rolling papers. 113 00:11:20.500 --> 00:11:32.500 Now, I don't own any drug paraphernalia, and would buy neither drugs nor drug paraphernalia, even if they were legal, but just the same. 114 00:11:32.500 --> 00:11:40.500 I want the government to keep its hands off my property, your property, and your property, and your property. 115 00:11:40.500 --> 00:11:46.500 In the end, it all comes down to property and freedom, as I will argue throughout this paper. 116 00:11:46.500 --> 00:12:00.500 Although evangelical fundamentalists, independent and other conservative Christians are some of the first groups that come to mind that zealously back drug prohibition, this is far from a religious issue. 117 00:12:00.500 --> 00:12:09.500 The myriad of drug laws in this country, and around the world for that matter, cannot be laid at the feet of conservative Christians. 118 00:12:09.500 --> 00:12:25.500 Support for drug prohibition can be found across the political and religious spectrum, encompassing liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, atheists and theists, the religious and the irreligious. 119 00:12:25.500 --> 00:12:35.500 I have heard it said by some libertarians that deep down inside of every man there beats the heart of a libertarian. I disagree. 120 00:12:35.500 --> 00:12:50.500 I think rather, and not just on this issue, that there beats the heart of a statist and authoritarian and a busybody who wants to remake society in his own image and compel others to live in ways that he approves of. 121 00:12:50.500 --> 00:13:03.500 There is no shortage of Americans willing to kill for the military, torture for the CIA, wiretap for the FBI, destroy property for the DEA, and grope for the TSA. 122 00:13:03.500 --> 00:13:11.500 I say, speaking as a libertarian believer in moral absolutes in general and the ethical 123 00:13:11.500 --> 00:13:17.980 principles of the New Testament in particular, I reject federal, state and local drug prohibition 124 00:13:17.980 --> 00:13:19.800 of any kind. 125 00:13:19.800 --> 00:13:26.020 I am against drug criminalization, drug regulation, drug restrictions, drug licensing, drug taxing, 126 00:13:26.020 --> 00:13:31.820 drug oversight, drug testing and drugs limited to just medical use. 127 00:13:31.820 --> 00:13:38.260 People in a free society should challenge all laws on drug trafficking, drug manufacturing, 128 00:13:38.260 --> 00:13:40.740 drug sales and drug use. 129 00:13:40.740 --> 00:13:48.120 They should object to the 750,000 arrests of Americans every year for marijuana possession. 130 00:13:48.120 --> 00:13:53.540 They should protest the incarceration of tens of thousands of Americans for drug-related 131 00:13:53.540 --> 00:13:55.100 offenses. 132 00:13:55.100 --> 00:14:02.620 They should contest the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914, the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, 133 00:14:02.620 --> 00:14:09.660 the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, the Chemical Diversion 134 00:14:09.660 --> 00:14:18.660 and Trafficking Act of 1988, the Illicit Drug Antiproliferation Act of 2003, and the Combat 135 00:14:18.660 --> 00:14:23.980 Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005. 136 00:14:23.980 --> 00:14:29.480 Doctors of Liberty should be against the offices of National Drug Czar, the White House Office 137 00:14:29.480 --> 00:14:36.380 of National Drug Control Policy, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Narcotics Rewards 138 00:14:36.380 --> 00:14:43.260 Program, and the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. 139 00:14:43.260 --> 00:14:48.340 All freedom-loving Americans should oppose the DEA and its headquarters in Arlington, 140 00:14:48.340 --> 00:14:56.900 It's 21 domestic field divisions. It's 227 field offices. It's 86 foreign offices in 141 00:14:56.900 --> 00:15:03.900 62 countries. It's Academy at the Quantico Marine Base. It's Administrator. It's Deputy 142 00:15:03.900 --> 00:15:09.340 Administrator. It's Chief of Operations. It's Chief Inspector. It's Chief Financial Officer. 143 00:15:09.340 --> 00:15:17.920 It's Chief Counsel. It's Assistant Administrators. It's 10,000 employees. It's 5,500 agents. 144 00:15:17.920 --> 00:15:23.780 Its foreign deployed advisory and support teams, its mobile enforcement teams, its website, 145 00:15:23.780 --> 00:15:31.620 its $2.5 billion budget, its Get Smart About Drugs resource for parents, and its Office 146 00:15:31.620 --> 00:15:37.940 of Aviation Operations with 106 aircraft and 124 pilots. 147 00:15:37.940 --> 00:15:43.180 I reject the government's war on drugs, just as I reject the government's war on poverty, 148 00:15:43.180 --> 00:15:49.980 War on cancer, war on terrorism, and war on liquids on airline flights. 149 00:15:49.980 --> 00:15:55.820 I say these things as someone who doesn't use illegal drugs, wouldn't use illicit drugs 150 00:15:55.820 --> 00:16:00.980 if they were legalized, and would prefer that no one else use them either. 151 00:16:00.980 --> 00:16:06.820 And to those who say I'm being too extreme, I would remind you that extremism in the defense 152 00:16:06.820 --> 00:16:10.180 of liberty is no vice. 153 00:16:10.180 --> 00:16:14.340 I guess I could just say that I oppose root and branch every facet of the government's 154 00:16:14.340 --> 00:16:20.280 war on drugs. But I want to not only make myself perfectly clear, but also to get you 155 00:16:20.280 --> 00:16:27.340 to realize just how broad in scope is the state's war on personal freedom. I'm choosing 156 00:16:27.340 --> 00:16:34.940 my words carefully and deliberately. Liberty and freedom. Individual liberty and personal 157 00:16:34.940 --> 00:16:40.820 Freedom. These ideals, along with the sanctity of private property, are fundamental in combating 158 00:16:40.820 --> 00:16:46.060 the drug war. This does not mean that there aren't a multitude of other reasons to oppose 159 00:16:46.060 --> 00:16:53.260 drug prohibition laws. I'm going to give you seven of them, and because of the time, 160 00:16:53.260 --> 00:16:58.620 I'm not going to fully develop these, but let me just list them for you. One, the state's 161 00:16:58.620 --> 00:17:04.620 This war on drugs, like its war on poverty and its war on terrorism, is a failure. 162 00:17:04.620 --> 00:17:08.620 Two, drug prohibition is unconstitutional. 163 00:17:08.620 --> 00:17:16.620 Three, it is not the purpose of government to protect people from bad habits, harmful substances and vice. 164 00:17:16.620 --> 00:17:23.620 Four, just like when it comes to central planning, the government has a calculation problem. 165 00:17:23.620 --> 00:17:27.620 Five, there is no government ban on alcohol and tobacco. 166 00:17:27.620 --> 00:17:39.120 Six, vices are not crimes, and seven, it is a grave mistake to look to the state to enforce morality. 167 00:17:39.120 --> 00:17:45.120 So hopefully the paper will be published soon and you can read what I say about each one of those. 168 00:17:45.120 --> 00:17:55.120 Practical and utilitarian arguments against the drug war are important, but not as important as the freedom to use drugs 169 00:17:55.120 --> 00:18:04.440 The moral case for drugs is simply the case for freedom. 170 00:18:04.440 --> 00:18:07.840 Freedom to use one's property as one sees fit. 171 00:18:07.840 --> 00:18:12.700 Freedom to enjoy the fruits of one's labor in whatever way one deems appropriate. 172 00:18:12.700 --> 00:18:16.380 Freedom to use one's body in the manner of one's choosing. 173 00:18:16.380 --> 00:18:19.300 Freedom to follow one's own moral code. 174 00:18:19.300 --> 00:18:22.720 Freedom from being taxed to fund government tyranny. 175 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:28.680 Even from government intrusion into one's personal life and freedom to be left alone. 176 00:18:28.680 --> 00:18:35.400 It is those of us who abdicate the liberty to take drugs and a free market in drugs that 177 00:18:35.400 --> 00:18:38.440 are taking the high moral ground. 178 00:18:38.440 --> 00:18:44.280 How can anyone with any sense of morality support seizing someone's property, destroying 179 00:18:44.280 --> 00:18:51.040 his family and locking him up in a cage to be raped and humiliated for smoking a plant 180 00:18:51.040 --> 00:18:53.840 The Government Doesn't Approve Of 181 00:18:53.840 --> 00:18:58.960 What kind of a moral code contains stipulations like this? 182 00:18:58.960 --> 00:19:06.280 The case for drugs is a moral case because the war on drugs is a war on natural, civil, personal and constitutional rights. 183 00:19:06.280 --> 00:19:08.320 Two wrongs don't make a right. 184 00:19:08.320 --> 00:19:13.640 It is not right to act immoral to prevent someone from doing something immoral. 185 00:19:13.640 --> 00:19:20.760 In presenting the moral case for drugs, I am not distinguishing between legal and illegal drugs, 186 00:19:20.760 --> 00:19:26.440 or between Drugs for Medical Use and Drugs for Recreational Use. Drugs in and of themselves 187 00:19:26.440 --> 00:19:34.120 are not necessarily bad. It depends on how and why they are used. The question is, who 188 00:19:34.120 --> 00:19:40.760 is going to determine those things? Will it be the individual in consultation with his 189 00:19:40.760 --> 00:19:47.560 family, friends, church and physician? Or will it be the state in consultation with 190 00:19:47.560 --> 00:19:56.620 its legislators, regulators, agents and bureaucrats. In a free society, it is the individual. In 191 00:19:56.620 --> 00:20:03.360 an authoritarian society, it is the state. Some libertarians have the idea that absolute 192 00:20:03.360 --> 00:20:11.020 drug legalization is a philosophical concept that is fine to intellectually assent to, 193 00:20:11.020 --> 00:20:17.020 but should never be publicly proclaimed. They consider it an embarrassing, non-essential 194 00:20:17.020 --> 00:20:22.540 issue that is best not mentioned outside of libertarian circles. 195 00:20:22.540 --> 00:20:28.660 In this regard, I like what Mises said, quote, as soon as we surrender the principle that 196 00:20:28.660 --> 00:20:35.160 the state should not interfere in any questions touching on the individual's mode of life, 197 00:20:35.160 --> 00:20:40.820 we end by regulating and restricting the latter down to the smallest details. 198 00:20:40.820 --> 00:20:47.600 I should add, however, that although I am an advocate of a free society in which individuals 199 00:20:47.600 --> 00:20:55.300 have the liberty to choose a particular lifestyle, I am not a cosmopolitan libertarian who champions 200 00:20:55.300 --> 00:21:01.140 a lifestyle choice that considers drug use one of the three pillars of libertarianism, 201 00:21:01.140 --> 00:21:09.100 while at the same time championing non-libertarian issues like privatizing social security, securing 202 00:21:09.100 --> 00:21:20.860 I am not arguing for the benefits of drugs. I am arguing for the benefits of freedom. 203 00:21:20.860 --> 00:21:26.660 Mises again makes a good point. A free man must be able to endure it when his fellow 204 00:21:26.660 --> 00:21:33.700 men act and live otherwise than he considers proper. He must free himself from the habit, 205 00:21:33.700 --> 00:21:39.260 Just as soon as something does not please him, of calling for the police. 206 00:21:39.260 --> 00:21:44.060 I am not optimistic about the drug war ever coming to an end. 207 00:21:44.060 --> 00:21:49.620 I am optimistic, however, about the message of freedom, reaching people who are willing 208 00:21:49.620 --> 00:21:57.060 to receive it, thanks to the efforts of organizations like the Mises Institute.