OFF: smoking etc.

[Dave Berry]

At 16:06 21/02/00 , Ted Jackson jr. wrote:
>On 21 Feb 00, at 16:24, M Holmes wrote:
>> Nick English writes:
>> > As the father of a 4-year-old, I generally tend to look at things
>> > from the perspective of what I want my son getting involved with and
>> > what I don't. In that sense, tobacco, alcohol and the "illegals" are
>> > all taboo.

I draw the line at addictive and dangerous drugs.  It's one thing for a teenager to experiment with hash, which is easy to give up if you change your mind.  It's quite a diffferent matter if the drug is nicotine or heroin.  I don't want people getting my son hooked (whether the pushers are legal or not).

Alcohol is both addictive and dangerous, of course.  But it's relatively easy to avoid addiction, and the actual act of drinking is safe, unlike smoking or injection.

>> Indeed, and the Prohibitionists often tell us that their excesses are
>> excused by the need to Prooootect the Chilruuun, missing the point
>> that in Prohibition these substances are functionally uncontrolled and
>> their distribution handed to criminals rather than controlled and
>> their distribution handled by retailers who have a profitable licence
>> to lose if they sell to children.

If there's a market in selling to children, then criminals will do it whether the drug is prohibited to adults or not.  Or so it seems to me.

>Absolutely, goddamned right!  It's always the parents who expect the
>government to help them raise their kids.  If parents are providing
>such a sterling example, then, theoretically, the children will be
>repulsed by the very mention of the word 'drugs' or alcohol etc.

I'm often surprised at how little american-style libertarians know about children.  Did you learn everything you know from your parents?  Or did you possibly absorb influences from other sources too?

>We cannot have a perfect society.  Certain people will want the
>freedom to make their own choices,

such as, of course, not wanting to breathe other people's smoke, or wanting their children to grow up safe without having to police their actions 24 hours a day.

Dave.
Dave Berry,  www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~daveb