Which one should be legal?

[nightdrot]

That's an interesting formulation. The questioner thinks "there should be more freedom," and then said freedom should be "regulated." Which to regulate means that it is not freedom. It is a bit of a conundrum.

As the 18th century British statesman and political philosopher Edmund Burke put it, "The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do as they please. We ought see what it will please them to do before we risk congratulations." The expansion of freedom for freedom's sake then being problematic - and why the questioner wants to regulate freedom.

At the most fundamental level, we shape our laws and our laws shape us. A society that shrugs in indifference when human sexuality becomes a mere commodity to be bought and sold like any other is apt to treat human beings themselves as mere commodities. Bad things being apt to follow.

Ditto the legalization of drugs. There being nothing quite so amusing as the recent changes in Oregon law that decriminalized almost all drugs, but where for environmental reasons straws are outlawed. This, no doubt, presenting some problems for the dedicated cocaine user.

Such confused laws reflect a profound moral confusion that the law then reinforces. It also begging the question of where such freedom should be stopped.

If it is the presumption of the culture that the human body is a mere commodity, then what is the basis for telling the shopkeeper who wants to keep his lunch counters racially segregated - Jim Crow style - that he may not do so. On what consistent basis is the freedom of the shopkeeper, a mere commodity, obliged to treat another mere commodity as something worthy of moral respect and equality?

Round and round the moral vertigo goes and where it stops is something called decadence. It then attempting to hide from itself by taxing what it permits. This under the presumption that the costs can be calculated and the collateral damage of freedom unrestrained can be recouped.

Thus, in a society where the cocaine user gets high, drives and kills a child, the parents of said child may console themselves with the thought that at least the cocaine that killed their child was tax and society's costs were recovered. The odds being that it will be cold comfort - as the society yawns and says, "Oh well, the price of freedom unrestrained by other considerations is bound to include higher taxes and a body count."

There is a pitiless abstractness and disrespect for life inherent in the question. A society that makes the maximization of freedom its' touchstone is apt to see not very much freedom. Legalize prostitution, is human trafficking and child prostitution not apt to follow? Legalize drugs and will it be a safe - for that matter a comfortable - experience to walk the streets - or will the drugs be paid for through taxes, thereby limiting the financial freedom of some to feed the habits of others?

To quote Burke again, "Government is not made in virtue of natural rights, which may and do exist in total independence of it; and exist in much greater clearness, and in a much greater degree of abstract perfection: but their abstract perfection is their practical defect. By having a right to every thing they want every thing." It then follows that, "As to the right of men to act anywhere according to their pleasure, without any moral tie, no such right exists. Men are never in a state of total independence of each other. It is not the condition of our nature: nor is it conceivable how any man can pursue a considerable course of action without its having some effect upon others; or, of course, without producing some degree of responsibility for his conduct."

This then being, at root, the fundamental problem with the premise of the question. Where freedom is absolute, there will be the least of real freedom.

[Jjpayne]

I'm honestly not sure... All have their draw backs... I think they need to be talked about in terms of detail rather than just be simply made legal. There should be carefully thought out terms for each, like drug tests for weed while driving

[Anonymous]

all legal, but it would be hell to have unregulated any of those!

[JackSmy]

Well, If the ones wanting to disband, and "Defund" the police have their way, I guess it is best to make just about anything legal, and tax it!!
Maybe rape, and robbery should be legal, and the ones robbing, pay tax on what they steal! The ones raping, maybe should pay a "Usery" tax, maybe?
TOTAL BULLSHIT, really, but how far are the RADICAL LEFTIST IDIOTS going to take it!!
Yeah, let's just get rid of cops, to stop Police abuse!!
Just like cutting off your head will CURE your headache!!

[joeldalton]

There’s no compelling reason for public sex. Drugs should be legal. While I agree that prostitution should be legal, it correlates to a rise in human trafficking. So, there’s some concern other than blanket legalization.

[Agape93]

Chose. D