Doesn a community or society have a responsibility or right to sanction, control, or even attempt to eliminate self-destructive behaviors?
It does, to some extent. But education and treatment are better tools for this purpose than are interdiction and incarceration. Tobacco and alcohol addiction are extremely self-destructive behaviors. We have proven, during the social experiment of Prohibition, that the “hard-liner” approach did not work with alcohol. It is reasonable to assume that it would not work with tobacco. And we see that it is not working with other mood-altering substances. As we continue to point out, the model of alcohol regulation works fairly well, if not perfectly. We regulate alcohol, and tax it modestly. Alcohol is perhaps our most dangerous recreational drug, yet our system strikes a balance between harm reduction, controlled distribution, and respect for the rights of adults to make recreational choices according to their own preference.
