HARMING ONESELF

It is incredible that someone as articulate and seemingly intelligent as
Janet Baxter (Letters, Aug. 11) can equate giving clean needles to addicts
with giving weapons to murderers. She ignores the obvious and crucial
difference between the two: The murderer uses his weapon to harm others,
while the addict uses a needle to harm only himself.

The Declaration of Independence states that the sole legitimate purpose of
government is to secure our rights. John Stuart Mill elaborated on this
libertarian philosophy when he wrote, "The only purpose for which power can
rightfully be exercised over any member of a civilized community, against
his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or
moral, is not sufficient warrant."

The "War on Drugs," like liquor prohibition before it, is nothing but the
coercion of others "for their own good." Yet to this end, the government
spends billions, spies on citizens, seizes assets on mere suspicion, jails
hundreds of thousands, even kills innocent people.

I expect our descendants will look back in disbelief at our generation's
sacrifice of money and effort, lives and liberties, all for the goal of
preventing some people from ingesting, injecting or inhaling substances
that other people think they shouldn't.

Thomas Gillooly

Forest Hills