That is to say, the latest craze going the rounds is to provide safe injection sites for drug users and even more recently, to provide vending machines to dispense...free drug paraphernalia.
This is in addition to supplying addicts with Free Methadone which costs our taxpayers close to $200 Million Dollars per year.
Nothing though for drug treatment. (Talk about coming at a social problem from the wrong end).
I say this since, as a Libertarian, I defend the individual's right to do what he/she wants when it comes to their own person as long as their actions do not hurt others including unborn babies. So, if an individual wants to take drugs,... that is their decision, but don't expect society to either assist them in their activity or pay for their habit.
The same with Tobacco, if you insist on smoking - go to it, even though I personally would not smoke and even though the evils of smoking have been well and truly documented.
Free Will includes the right to do what others perceive to be not in your best interest.
For example, the other day a friend of mine put forward the old adage that smokers should be denied government funded health care because they have compromised their own health through their reckless behaviour.
There are lots of reasons available to refute this suggestion many of which I have set-out in earlier Blogs, so I will simply focus on the main one...if you value freedom, as I do, you do not want Big Government or any Government for that matter telling you or me what you or I can do / not do with respect to our own personal welfare.
That kind of paternalism is only appropriate in the rearing of young children by their parents.
More recently, the glare of Government is coming to rest on the issue of Obesity. Again I say, if someone wants to eat themselves into poor health ...that is their business. The Government has no place in their mouths or in their stomachs.
And dear Readers, this intrusive role began in the 1970s with the mandatory requirement to wear seatbelts. Governments got away with it then and have ever since looked for new ways to meddle and interfere with one's own personal rights.
And of course realize, Governments usually have good reasons to support any of their proferred restrictions - certainly seatbelt use does save lives, and restrictions on what one can / cannot eat will have positive health effects... But again it comes at the expense of an individual's Personal Free-Will.
And it is an expense I personally am not prepared to pay.
Its a slippery slope ...seat belts today, smoking tomorrow, what you can/cannot eat the next day, helmets.... and one day no doubt we'll all be required to try to get around in a plastic bubble.
Once a right is lost...it is lost forever.
So is there a Role for Government in all of this?
Of course... and it is an important one. In fact, it is two-fold:
First - Education.
Government to me has a responsibility to its citizens to identify the pros and cons of various activities. For instance, they have certainly done a magnificent job in explaining the dangers attached to smoking. Smokers can no longer say that they were not pre-warned when they succumb to lung cancer. Same with druggies, they too know the harmful effects of taking street drugs.
For those who heed the warnings..good for them. For those who don't ... they are adults and are entitled to do what they wish... again as long as it does not injure others.
Second - Treatment
Governments' other important role is to provide timely and effective treatment when it comes to activities that addict - most notably street drug use. If after advertising the ill-effects of drug use an individual still succumbs to its usage, Governments need to have in place treatment centres to help those who try to shake their addictions. But it needs to be treatment ... and not enabling.
These two important roles, in turn, will help empower Society to raise the overall health and welfare of its members.
It will also leave intact the individual's right of free will.
As I see it...
'K.D. Galagher'
