4 ms·

Not condoning an execution, but I do find it a lot more idiotic and morally wrong letting 10s of thousands of your citizens die every year from drug overdose.

• smitty1e 5y ago
  The concepts of liberty and security are in tension. One wishes harm on none, but externally forcing preferred choices on people veers authoritarian really, really quickly. Horses led to water can opt to die of dehydration, alas.
  • nec4b 5y ago
    Drugs like heroin take away all your liberty whether you want it or not. Once you become slave of drugs there are no options or preferences only ever increasing desire for more.
    • smitty1e 5y ago
      And yet, that (generally) true statement seems hardly a deterrent to production or use thereof.
      • nec4b 5y ago
        Therefore it is prudent of a society to prevent both: production and use.
        • smitty1e 5y ago
          I don't disagree. What I'd like to see is a more consistent societal rule for deciding where the line on "the public interest" and liberty is drawn.
          • nec4b 5y ago
            I agree.
• Aerroon 5y ago
  Freedom means that you should get to choose. Car accidents kill and injure a lot of people every year. In some demographics (young people) it's actually one of the leading causes of death. Should we ban driving and force people to either walk or use public transport? It'll save a lot of lives from car accidents after all.
  • nec4b 5y ago
    Are you seriously comparing drugs with transport?
    • Aerroon 5y ago
      Why not? The death and injury count for personal vehicles is very high. Why should the regular populace be allowed to operate such death machines?
      • nec4b 5y ago
        I think what confuses you to make such a grotesque analogy between transportation and drugs is a belief that when it comes to drugs, people have the same agency and freedom of choice as they have for other things in life. But they don't. Once you follow that path, coming back is almost impossible. Addiction is very very hard to beat. Even if you somehow manage, it probably never goes away completely. You are not free to choose, drugs shutdown that part of the brain. I find it really immoral that we let vulnerable people have access to drugs like heroin. We are condemning them to suffer immensely.
        • Aerroon 5y ago
          And how easy is it to voluntarily give up using personal vehicles? You decide, against everything on our current society, to give up using cars. Do you think it would be easy? Cars might not be destroying our physical bodies directly, but they are harming nature. I'm not in favor of banning cars. I'm in favor of people having the freedom to choose. I also believe that if drugs weren't so heavily criminalized then people suffering from drug issues could more easily get help. Portugal decriminalized drugs and saw a lot of positive change. But over the last decade they've been putting up more limits again and the situation is deteriorating.