Click Here For Affirmations

In Brief: Affirmations (washingtonpost.com): "Sullum knows that the whole notion of responsible drug use is a heresy of the first magnitude in the climate of contemporary drug policy debate, and so takes care not to downpedal the genuine hazards of chronic or addictive drug use. But he also points out the riot of double standards that attend our society's far more indulgent view of legalized substances, from alcohol to antidepressants: 'If an unhappy person takes heroin, he is omitting a crime,' Sullum writes. 'If he takes Prozac, he is treating his depression.' Sullum grants that prohibitionists could still mount a case against decriminalizing drug use, but he maintains that they must alter their arguments to reflect the key point that drug users are themselves the 'silent majority' in the controversy. 'Honest supporters of the drug laws have to acknowledge that the case for prohibition rests on a morally questionable premise: that it's acceptable to punish one group of people for the sins of another -- in this case, that the majority of drug users, who do not harm others, or even themselves, should suffer because of a minority's failure to exercise self-control.' Regardless of whether you accept Sullum's conclusions, that call for honesty is by itself a welcome departure from the choreographed outrage of the War on Drugs. "