laws are there so we can ascribe punishment for negative societal behavior, that most often has a victim. it’s for justice.
not talking arbitrary, administrative/regulatory crap. but the concept of law for justice fromothers that are harmed by another’s actions. negligent or deliberate.
and for any, many laws have a deterrent effect. if murder was just a $50 fine offense, how many more people would murder others?
I have no problem in laws that would hold accountable those victimized by people who are under the influence of anything.
If you hurt someone else, sober or high, you should be held accountable. That is responsibility for one’s actions, and that is something I believe in strongly.
However, I can tell you from experience that there is no punishment that a society can meter out that eclipses or exceeds in anyway the suffering an addict already endures at their own hand.
It is a hollow, empty pointless existence to know that every day you cannot proceed with anything at all, not even food or water or even air, until you get your fix. Then you have a few hours to proceed with the rest of life until you need your fix again...
That is when you know that you have truly enslaved yourself, locked yourself in a prison cell and wrapped yourself head to toe in heavy chains, and you cannot move at all, but all the while you have the key to walk out, you simply do not have the strngth or will to use it.
That is Hell on earth.
Truancy laws, for example?