Sensible, but is it moral? Popular, but is it just?

As those who have studied level 4 will be aware, there are strong practical grounds, especially but not limited to economic reasons, for legalising drugs. Hartmann, for example, argues for legalisation based on primarily economic reasons, which are found to also turn out to be best for societies and individuals (2007, p. 227).

In her short paragraph, Hartmann ignores the moral issues in making drugs illegal, but these are a thicket. Most obviously, can it even be morally just for a state to make laws against the use of drugs? If so, on what sort of moral theory can that be right? What could justify such laws?

But on the other hand, if, as many argue, the law itself if grievously unjust in making making drugs illegal, why is it unjust?

What do you think?

• Are Thailand's (or your country's) current drug laws just or unjust? Why?
• What makes them morally right or wrong?
• What are the moral limits on what laws a government may pass?
• Are there any moral limits on what a government can do to its citizens?
  Why? What are such limitations based on?
• Was Thaksin right in declaring his repeated "war on drugs"? It was certainly a popular war. Oddly, even some of his enemies seem to have approved of the anti-drug policies.
• Is the US government right to criminalise marijuana growing, sale and use in the state of California, where it is that state's most valuable cash crop, contributing enormously to the economy? (Hartmann, 2007, p.227; Levitt & Dubner, 2009, p.66)
• And how about the question of prostitution? I don't mean do you like it or not, or would you want your brother to enter that industry or not. I mean, are laws allowing or disallowing prostitution just or unjust? Why? What makes them just or unjust?
• And I'm sure you can think of numerous other common examples where state law conflicts with what appears to be the purely personal decisions of very large numbers of citizens. And now that I come to think of it, does it, should it, matter how large the numbers are?

You might like to quickly jot down your response to the issues I've raised here in preparation for our next class reading.

__________

References

Hartmann, L. (2007). Quest 2 Reading and Writing (2nd. ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Levitt, S. & Dubner, S. (2009). Superfreakonomics. New York: William Morrow.