An Argument For The Legalization Of Drugs, Based On John Stuart Mills Revised Harm Principle

An Argument for the Legalization of Drugs, Based on John Stuart Mills' "Revised

Harm Principle"


     The question of whether or not to legalize certain drugs has been

debated for decades.  Although opponents have thus far been successful in

preventing this, there are nonetheless a substantial number of people who

believe that legalization should be given a chance.  Their arguments range from

the seeming  ineffectiveness of current drug laws to the simple premise that the

government has no right to prohibit its citizens from using drugs  if they

choose to do so.  This essay will address the issue from the standpoint of John

Stuart Mills' "Revised Harm Principle˛," which asserts that people should be

free to do what they want unless they threaten the vital interests (i.e.,

security or autonomy) of others.

     Using Mills' principle as a litmus test for this issue leads one to come

down on the side of legalization.  Since Mills is concerned not with individual

rights, but with the consequences of one's actions on other people, the question

becomes:  Is drug use an action that, although performed by an individual,

threatens the vital interests of others?  Using the example of a casual,

responsible drug user who is a contributing (or non-detracting) member of

society, it is clear that more harm is done to others if the user must resort to

illegal methods to obtain his drugs.  The very act of buying drugs is

intrinsically illegal and carries the threat of establishing a criminal record

for the buyer.  This can have a devastating effect on his family, his lifestyle,

and his career.  The effects on society as a whole include more crowded jail

cells (prompting politicians to demand more jails be built), higher taxes to

support these jails, and the loss, or at least diminution, of a productive

citizen.  In order to buy drugs illegally, the user may be forced to expose

himself to the fringes of the criminal world--something he would never do under

any other circumstances.  If drugs were legalized, the criminal stigma would be

removed from their purchase, possession, and use.  The government would collect

taxes on drug sales and, conversely, would not be spending millions of dollars

to stem the flow of illegal drugs.  This increase in tax dollars could be put to

use in drug education and treatment programs for those individuals who are

unable to moderate their intake and subsequently become addicts.  Then the

government would be intervening with its citizens' lives in a benevolent manner

(and only when asked) rather than in a forceful, punitive way.

     Many opponents to legalization point out that drug use leads to spousal

and child abuse, random criminal acts precipitated by the effects of drugs on a

user's inhibitions, and crimes committed to support drug habits.  This argument

is fundamentally defective because it addresses the abuse of drugs, which is not

the issue here.  When an individual's use of drugs leads him to harm others, it

becomes a behavioral problem.  That is, the issue is no longer drugs, but the

behavior of the individual.  If that behavior breaks a law, the individual

should be punished for that specific conduct--not fo
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