Youthful Experimentation
5 January 2008
Editor, The Wall Street Journal
200 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10281
To the Editor:
Laurie Williamson rightly notes that a political candidate's juvenile use of illegal drugs is irrelevant (Letters, January 5). But the reason isn't so much that the use occurred long ago as it is that such activity simply isn't as awful as these same "mature" candidates - almost all of whom want to continue the "war on drugs" - now proclaim it to be.
Suppose that Bill Clinton or Barack Obama confessed to juvenile "experimentation" with rape or check forgery. Would we dismiss this behavior as mere youthful indiscretion? Of course not. The fact that most people wisely overlook drug use in ways that they would never overlook rape, forgery, and other crimes that victimize innocent persons suggests that it is a cruel mistake to threaten drug users today with imprisonment.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Editor, The Wall Street Journal
200 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10281
To the Editor:
Laurie Williamson rightly notes that a political candidate's juvenile use of illegal drugs is irrelevant (Letters, January 5). But the reason isn't so much that the use occurred long ago as it is that such activity simply isn't as awful as these same "mature" candidates - almost all of whom want to continue the "war on drugs" - now proclaim it to be.
Suppose that Bill Clinton or Barack Obama confessed to juvenile "experimentation" with rape or check forgery. Would we dismiss this behavior as mere youthful indiscretion? Of course not. The fact that most people wisely overlook drug use in ways that they would never overlook rape, forgery, and other crimes that victimize innocent persons suggests that it is a cruel mistake to threaten drug users today with imprisonment.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Tuesday June 3, 2008 at 10:10am