I think that decriminalizing drugs would be good public policy. Just as prohibition produced the mafia and kept it rich, the criminalization of drugs has produced the drug cartels with all their wealth and violence.
I do not favor lifting the ban on advertising for tobacco or lifting the ban on use in public settings where non-smokers must breathe in the air. I would support a ban on advertising recreational drugs or using them in inappropriate settings where that use might interfere with the rights of non-users.
I was at a local park today and while there picked up some trash and tossed it in a trash bin along the trial. As I was doing my tiny bit of civic service, I was struck by how much of the refuse there was from smokers. There were cigarette butts and filters, packs, even empty cartons discarded in this place set aside to enjoy nature’s beauty.
I am basically libertarian and prefer to let individual people decide for themselves what they wish to do with and to their own bodies. But their right to swing their fist stops at my nose. Why should I have to live in a smoker’s ashtray and empty if for them because they are too lazy or inconsiderate to do it themselves?
The same goes for heroin. If somebody wants to shoot up and puke their guts out, fine. Just don’t do it on the trail all the rest of us want to enjoy for a beautiful walk on a bright summer day.