[natedogg]

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Your examples are awful. Rape is not victimless. Recreational drug use is.


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Having seen two friends' lives consumed and ultimately ended by heroin, and their families' lives destroyed in the process, this is the most clueless, ignorant statement I've read on this board to date.

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This asinine argument is unfortunately used all too often when the issue of drug prohibition is discussed.

You're simply redefining what "victimless" means. The way you're using it means "other people are unhappy that you do it." That may be true but they are not victims the way a murder or rape victim is a victim.

If you want to include a defintion of "non-victimless" crime that includes self-destructive or family-destructive behaviour that makes your family unhappy, you'll need to criminalize a lot more than just drug use.

Or are you actually advocating that we go back to Prohibition, because after all, there are plenty of people whose lives are "consumed and ultimately ended by alcohol and their families' lives destroyed in the process".

Replace alcohol with any kind of self-destructive behaviour. Everquest addictions (see eqdailygrind.blogspot.com for a fascinating read), gambling, poker, overeating, smoking, compulsive shopping, working long hours, mountain climbing obsessions, adultery, you name it.

Rape and other vicious crimes are direct acts of violence perpetrated against another person. Drug use is a personal choice, albeit at time foolish and self-destructive one but it is by definition victimless.

natedogg