Illegal drugs and violence.
The White House is renewing its campaign to educate the public about the links between illegal drugs and violence, including terrorism. (*) (†) Good. It’s about time. We on the Left should be fully supportive of this. The use of addictive drugs detracts from one’s capacity to exercise the individual liberties that we promote. The use of mind-altering drugs is also harmful to the autonomy enjoyed by the individual, because by occluding one’s ability to perceive and discern reality, one’s ability to consider and act as a free agent is debilitated. The drug trade is indeed violent, and should be targeted more fiercely by law enforcement. Thanks to recent investigations, we know that some terrorist groups receive money from drug traffickers. To really address the problems of drugs and terrorism, we need to stop denying the links between them.