I get that human traffickers should be put to death. Once cops are only enforcing valid law, and not acting as enforcers of mafia government, then cop killers too.
Drug dealing is trickier: why hang someone for selling relatively safe MDMA or ketamine when dangerous alcohol is legal and celebrated? What about the perverse incentive to push Big Pharma to addict people instead? Do individuals have rights to own any molecule and put it in their body, however unwise?
My sense is that it takes a cultural revolution to deal with the demand side, a bit like how drunk driving became socially unacceptable.
Anyone giving drugs to children needs to face a nasty penalty. No argument.
Drugs are a tough case as they are an exercise in liberty (albeit as possible misadventure) as well as a reduction in liberty (addiction, delinquency, violence). They are not one homogenous category, either. Psychedelics and crack are practically unrelated beyond both being psychoactive.
Excellent points, Martin. We have a lot to figure out as we continue to evolve. And discussions like this will abound. My gut reaction to Trump suggesting the death penalty for drug dealers was NO. But, quite frankly, I don't know where my own conditioning comes in on that one. Raised in a culture of drug use and all that was by design. Alcohol is state sanctioned use and abuse. A lot to figure out.....
