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Yes. That requires another specific decision to commit a crime. Respiratory viral infection requires no additional decision on part of the viral vector. I agre
by daveguy 5y ago
Yes. That requires another specific decision to commit a crime. Respiratory viral infection requires no additional decision on part of the viral vector.
I agree there shouldn't be a blanket decriminalization of drug use because it does alter judgement/motivation and make a theft or even violent crime more likely.
- rsj_hn 5y agoBut the harm or benefit of a policy is not measured by how many specific decisions are performed, but rather by the overall effect of the policy on the community, no? So let's just talk about that rather than counting steps between A and B.
- daveguy 5y agoThe overall harm or benefit to the community is certainly related to how many and likely those bad decisions are that result in a specific harm/benefit.
- rsj_hn 5y agoIf true, then you should be able to make that case directly, no?
- chucksta 5y agoSomething like this? https://www.vox.com/2014/5/19/5727712/drug-alcohol-deaths https://www.vox.com/2014/5/19/5727712/drug-alcohol-deaths
- daveguy 5y agoWell yeah. I'm all for locking up drunk drivers, offering rehab and then permanently revoking their drivers licenses if they do it again. That goes to the second decision to adversely affect others.
- howlin 5y agoDrugs destroy your ability to make good decisions. They are essentially hot wiring the brain's reward circuits which directly feed back into the brain's decision making processes. Most obviously, it's almost never the case that addicts consciously choose to become addicted.
- jkhdigital 5y agoDoes anyone 100% consciously choose anything? If you make a decision after drinking a strong cup of coffee, how much of that decision came from the caffeine, and how much came from your “consciousness”? I’m not necessarily disagreeing with you—addiction is a disease of forces and circumstances, for sure—but the level of “free will” present in any choice (or sequence of choices) is a certainly not amenable to a binary classification.
- howlin 5y agoYes, the degree "free will"/willpower factors into a decision is much more of a spectrum than a binary. I'm just pointing out that drug addiction shifts your decisions away from the free will end of the spectrum.
- LocalH 5y ago"Drug addiction" is not a singular problem with a singular solution. Every drug has unique effects, even between different people (two people take the same drug and don't have the same result). It does not serve public health to shoehorn everything into a square hole.
- s5300 5y agoPretty sure that Erdos said that Dexedrine/variants of amphetamine made him want to do math. Is wanting to do math a not good decision? Potentially, I guess.
- rsj_hn 5y agoIf you are Erdos, it is a good decision.