Eliezer vs crack

From: Anton Sherwood (dasher@netcom.com)
Date: Thu Sep 18 1997 - 18:57:09 MDT


Eliezer writes
: I've been convinced that drugs are evil. ... if I go after drugs
: it will be with bioengineered viruses, not guns and policemen and
: warrantless searches.

So ... your holy plague wipes out the coca plant; beneficial uses of
coca cease (are coca extracts still used in medicine, or are Novocaine
and Procaine wholly synthetic?); and some genius on the Dark Side of
the bio-Force cooks up a new drug, which might be less benign than
crack but that doesn't matter; what counts is that it is not vulnerable
to your anti-coca. Now what?

Have you any comment on the idea that crack is a product of prohibition?
Smugglers want a high potency/volume ratio; also, if users have limited
opportunities to get their hit (unlike drinkers who can buy their drug
anywhere and openly extend their intake over a whole evening) they want
that rare hit to be stronger than beer.

: Nor would I ever attempt to stop (via force), say, David
: Pearce from taking drugs - his ethical system says it's okay,
: and I respect that. But it has to stop. Have you ever read
: O'Rourke's description of a crack neighborhood? It reads like a
: description of Hell.

Ever heard of Demon Rum?

What's the difference between David Pearce (who?) and a ghetto user?

(a bunch of irrelevant metaphors snipped)

Anton Sherwood *\\* +1 415 267 0685 *\\* DASher@netcom.com



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