“At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge, ... it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.”
“Are there no prisons?”
“Plenty of prisons...”
“And the Union workhouses.” demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in operation?”
“Both very busy, sir...”
“Those who are badly off must go there.”
“Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.”
“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”
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The problem is not that dopers are not dying fast enough from their stupid choice to poison themselves (and often rob others to fund their self-destructive habit). The problem is thinking that government is the answer to this problem or to any other social problem.
The proper solution is in our churches and our communities. Drugs are a terrible problem, and we need to provide alternatives so that children don’t choose to start down that terrible path, support so those who make that mistake can recover their lives, and enforcement so that those who deal drugs end up behind bars forever. Once a desperate and potentially-violent druggie breaks into my home, I am perfectly willing to shoot him, center-mass, to stop the threat. However, before they break in to homes or rob people on the streets, I would like to see them saved and their lives restored by Christian charitable efforts.
Amen.