moral lessons from the war on drugs

There is right and wrong. At least I still like to think there is.

Drug laws contaminate our sense of right and wrong.

Think about it. The big divide in criminal law is the distinction between malum in se, and malum prohibitum.

Prohibitory substance laws treat malum prohibitum crime more seriously than many malum in se crimes. You can't do that and pretend that traditional notions of right and wrong won't be affected.

When my father was a kid, heroin and cocaine were available over the counter without prescription. They were no more immoral to buy than sudafed was until recently. Yet because of nearly a century of imprisoning people, SWAT team raids, a relentless stream of propaganda and ever more draconian laws, the possession of such drugs is now regarded by many as malum in se.

There has been an attempt to accomplish the same moral shift with guns.

You'd almost think there was no such thing as malum in se, and that right and wrong were relative concepts. If you did, you'd be a moral relativist.

But if right and wrong are being made relative by the laws, then who are the moral relativists?

posted by Eric on 12.06.10 at 12:04 AM





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Comments

Sir,

With little exaggeration, it is ALL government actions that contaminate our sense of right and wrong. Malum in se figures very little into the crime to be defined....

anon   ·  December 6, 2010 12:39 AM

And now there are armies of Enforcers instead of Peace Keepers.

M. Simon   ·  December 6, 2010 07:21 AM

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