OTHER OPINION: AMERICA'S FREEDOM COMES WITH NO GUARANTEES

By Greg Sagan

Opinion

Well, darn us all to heck, these pesky "rights" and "liberties" sure do
complicate public policy, don't they? Just last Thursday, you know, right
on our Opinion page, this newspaper published one of those intellectually
leaky and rather bigoted pieces justifying this country's insane policy on
illegal drugs.

The justifications it contained were so weak, so ineptly crafted, that I
suspect this paper is damning the drug war with faint praise.

But in case they really meant it, here goes.

The basic thrust of this piece is that drug legalization carries with it
the potential for creating problems which extend beyond the individual and
his own domicile.

We can't permit drugs to be legalized because people might abuse them,
children might suffer "tragic consequences," and the idea of personal
responsibility would be weakened.

Yes, people abuse drugs. People abuse all kinds of drugs. I can take a dose
of prescription codeine with a glass of quite legal scotch and guess what?
I've just abused drugs.

I can smoke a legal cigarette in my legal car while legally driving, have a
hot ember fall in my lap and drive through a schoolyard full of children as
I try to extinguish the fire in my crotch. I suppose I would then be guilty
of abusing tobacco.

But these scenarios miss the point. The question before us is this: If some
in our society abuse a freedom, should we deny that freedom to everyone?

Before we answer this question, we had really better take a hard look at
how many freedoms can be abused outside the home and to the detriment of
our children.

"Oftentimes the side effects of drug use affect more than just the user."

Well, heck, oftentimes the side effects of firearms, free speech, reading
newspapers and eating candy affect more than just the user, too.

And some of these side effects are horrifying.

Are they all slotted for inclusion in the growing list of prohibitions with
which we are willing to go to war in order to deny ourselves?

If so, at what point will we finally admit that this country is no longer
"free?"

We Americans seem to have lost a few important pieces of philosophy along
our path of development. One is a belief in freedom; another is an
understanding of what freedom is for. Our belief in freedom has been eroded
to the point that we can now say quite accurately that, in America, we are
free as long as we don't act like it.

We can strike this ridiculous pose because anything we do can be harmful to
someone, and the only way to prevent such harm is to prevent ourselves from
exercising the freedom we maintain we have.

But we have forgotten that freedom serves a legitimate purpose in society.
Being free to do what we want, especially when it comes to what we eat,
drink and smoke, makes us self-governing.

What limits I learn to apply to myself are limits the state does not have
to hire police to enforce with me. The limits I place on myself, which I
subsequently violate, create a burden I must carry by myself. I can't blame
anyone else for my condition and maintain my self-esteem.

I'm a strong believer in Alcoholics Anonymous as an effective counter to
alcoholism, a legal condition that renders a far greater harm than pot, but
I don't believe AA is any better than prison when the state forces us into
its sessions under threat of legal action. It then becomes just one more
coerced behavior that disperses the smoke and ignores the fire.

The combination of both political and economic freedom as America's
philosophical underpinning was an inspiration, a profound acceptance of the
limitations in humans.

By allowing us to think, say, eat, drink and smoke what we want, we created
markets. By leaving us free to satisfy the appetites of others, we could
accumulate wealth.

Along the way people do get harmed, but we'd better give up on the idea
that we can make it through life without being harmed or that harm can be
averted if we make our government intrusive enough. Feeling pain is
essential to staying alive.

Some may wonder how I can be so rabidly opposed to clergy who sexually
abuse children and so rabidly in favor of ending our current approach to
drug abuse.

To me, it's simple.

Sexual abuse of a child is something to which the child cannot give
informed consent. But drug abuse, food abuse, verbal abuse and self-abuse
are all things that an individual can consent to.

What makes drug abuse so tragic is that it's also illegal, and one
consequence of doing drugs in this country is that whatever damage we do
thereby is multiplied by the state, not diminished.

To deny ourselves any freedom using justifications like the possibility of
damage to others gives everyone in our society the ability to strike at
their neighbors with the flail of the law just by asserting we have been
harmed.

But we really must accept that we never can be both free and safe.

Greg Sagan can be contacted in care of the Amarillo Globe-News, P.O. Box
2091, Amarillo TX 79166. His column appears Tuesdays.