[MrLeRoy]

It's obvious alot more people use alcohol responsibly than Heroin and Crack.

So how do you determine the cutoff point at which substance X's ratio of irresponsible use to all use makes it properly bannable? And where is the ethical justification for drawing such a line at all---who has the authority to protect adults from their own bad choices?

are some restrictions worth it when talking about the lives of teen-agers and children?

Providing drugs to minors should be illegal. But as I have shown, it is illegitimate to ban things for adults because they're dangerous for children: alcohol, kitchen knives, etc. are all dangerous for children.

who defines ethical authority?

Natural law. As a reasoning free-willed being, an adult human is capable of formulating and pursuing his own ends, so nobody else has the right to dictate his ends to him.

[Rocksalt]

Last post did not seem to post correctly,although it did preview OK.???


"So how do you determine the cutoff point at which substance X's ratio of irresponsible use to all use makes it properly bannable? And where is the ethical justification for drawing such a line at all---who has the authority to protect adults from their own bad choices?"

Good question.I would say the cutoff point could possibly be determined by the weight of the particular substance's lethal dose.Any thing that can cause death at under a certain level,such as one gram,would be cutoff.My ethics would steer me towards preventing harms.I have no authority,but I do have a desire to use common sense and reasonable prudence around deadly poisons.

"Providing drugs to minors should be illegal"

As I said before,a life sentence for providing them to minors under say 16 would be an excellent provision to include with any possible drug legalization plan.There must be deterrents.


"Natural law".Once again,who defines this?

"As a reasoning free-willed being, an adult human is capable of formulating and pursuing his own ends, so nobody else has the right to dictate his ends to him."

Only problem with this is many adults do not reason well.Their reasoning processes end up leading them to infringe upon the rights of others.I can't get behind legalizing narcotics.Cannibus is one thing,as is it relatively safe.It's obvious that many millions of people use it quite safely.Narcotics do not have that same track record though.