ONE PILL MAKES GOVERNMENT SMALL

By virtue of being a court reporter, Tracy Aaron-Hunt says she sees the
effects of drug laws in the courts every day (Letters, April 20). Were
the state not controlling the substances people freely choose to put in
their bodies, Tracy would never see these persecuted individuals. The
mischief done by bad ideologies surely is much more pernicious - both
for the individual and for the whole society - than that done by
narcotics. If one abolishes man's freedom to determine his own
consumption, one takes all freedoms away. The naive advocates of
government interference with consumption of drugs unwittingly support
the cause of censorship, inquisition, religious intolerance, and the
persecution of dissenters - thus Ludwig von Mises in Human Action.

Chris Buors, via e-mail