PEOPLE ARE OBSESSED WITH VICTIMLESS ACTS

I often wonder what goes through the mind of a person when they make the
leap from, "I don't like what that person is doing" to "I demand that the
government outlaw that person's behavior." After I read "Victimless crimes?
Sure" (Aug. 6), I can finally see the process.

First, the author contends that running a stop sign constitutes a victimless
crime in the same way that smoking marijuana does. How so? The person who
chooses to run a stop sign is by definition endangering others who do not
wish to be injured or killed because of another person's actions.
Conversely, people who choose to ingest marijuana, or any other substance,
are engaging in their own pursuit of happiness, and at no time does this
behavior endanger the lives of anyone else.

This framework is known as freedom, and it is implementation is guaranteed
by the Constitution. It says nothing about outlawing a person's behavior
because someone else doesn't like it.

The author then argues that drug use pervades her neighborhood and therefore
she and others are "victims" of those who ingest these substances. A more
sensible examination of the problem would show that most chronic users of
all mood altering substances (including alcohol) have serious emotional,
psychological or economic problems that were in place long before their
addictions. Why go after the symptoms of a disease when the cause has been
ignored? And like alcohol prohibition, criminalizing the right to use or
sell many of these substances only exacerbates social ills and wreaks havoc
in our communities.

If the author truly wants a better neighborhood, she should demand an end to
drug prohibition. This would eliminate the majority of all crime and stop
the practice of incarcerating millions of parents for violating drug
abstinence laws. But then she, and the government, would have to end their
obsession with fundamentally victimless acts (and their desire to put people
in prison because of them) and instead find ways to best to give people
jobs, homes, food and a sense of dignity.

This framework is known as America.

JEFF GOODMAN, Eagan, MN