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Is it perhaps that they are seemingly easier to regulate than other potentially self-destructive activities?

Destroy yourself all you want buddy.

Et tu, Aggie? We've had civil exchanges in the past; don't start taking debate lessons from Dane and Fred25 now.

I simply wanted to get your opinion on why certain drugs should be prohibited as a result of causing irresponsibility and potential harm to others, while other substances (such as alcohol — a hoary example, I know, but still apt because of the undisputable harm it causes) and behaviors that have the same potential results remain perfectly legal and even acceptable. The question is raised in good faith; respond as you choose.

Destroy yourself all you want buddy. My concern is when you snort your coke and put OTHERS at risk. Hard drugs take away your ability to act responsibly, to reason, and to be able to choose to stop using the substance. You have no right to do this on public property, nor your own, because there is no way to fence in the possible effects and inevitable effects. 154 posted on 12/13/01 10:37 AM Pacific by Texaggie79

Alcohol contributes to more violent crimes than any other single factor because the impaired judgment of perpetrator, the victim, or both, due to drinking. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, alcohol is the key factor in many violent crimes:

up to 68 percent of manslaughters
62 percent of assaults
54 percent of murders/attempted murders
48 percent of robberies
44 percent of burglaries.
42.2 percent of rapes
64 percent of all reported child abuse and neglect cases

Alcohol is far and away the most socially devastating drug, and always has been.

Yet Biblical Law admits no State Authority for the prohibition of intoxicants... neither the "hard drugs" used by a vanishingly small proportion of the population, nor the vastly-more-harmful "murder drug" known as "alcohol".

Biblical Law does, however, specify the Death Penalty for all crimes against Person listed above, and anywhere from double- to quadruple-restitution (to be accomplished by forced labor if necessary) for all Property Crimes specified above.

Rather than attempting to devise a patchwork Prohibition of our own imagining -- "leaning upon our own understanding" rather than trusting the Law of God -- we ought to reform our laws to be consistent with Biblical Principle (including a robust application of Capital Punishment for all crimes of malicious violence).

Biblical Law provides no authority whatsoever for any State Prohibition of Intoxicants (if it did, the only logical approach would be to outlaw the most deadly drug - alcohol - first and foremost). Rather, Biblical Law treats the citizen as being 100% responsible for his own actions at all times -- intoxication is no excuse.

Destroy yourself all you want buddy. My concern is when you snort your coke and put OTHERS at risk. Hard drugs take away your ability to act responsibly, to reason, and to be able to choose to stop using the substance. You have no right to do this on public property, nor your own, because there is no way to fence in the possible effects and inevitable effects.

This is true of tobacco for most regular users, true of alcohol for some users, but true of marijuana for only the tiniest fraction of users since it's less addictive than caffeine.