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A Moral Defense of Recreational Drug UseHarm-Based Arguments

A Moral Defense of Recreational Drug Use: Harm-Based Arguments [Having covered a number of self-regarding harm-based arguments against recreational drug use, let us now turn our attention to other-regarding harm-based arguments against recreational drug use. But before doing so, it would be prudent to state at the outset that many instances of recreational drug use probably do not involve wrongfully harming others. As MacCoun and Reuter write, “[N]ot every incident of drug use harms others; in fact, the vast majority do not. Indeed, though this is difficult to quantify with existing data, it is likely that many if not most drug users never do wrongful harm to others as a result of their using careers— bearing in mind that the majority of these careers are limited in duration and intensity.”1 Accordingly, even if each of the following other-regarding harm-based arguments is sound, this will not entail that all instances of recreational drug use involve harm to others, much less that all instances of recreational drug use are morally impermissible.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A Moral Defense of Recreational Drug UseHarm-Based Arguments

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Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan US
Copyright
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc. 2015
ISBN
978-1-349-55249-8
Pages
67 –92
DOI
10.1057/9781137528681_3
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[Having covered a number of self-regarding harm-based arguments against recreational drug use, let us now turn our attention to other-regarding harm-based arguments against recreational drug use. But before doing so, it would be prudent to state at the outset that many instances of recreational drug use probably do not involve wrongfully harming others. As MacCoun and Reuter write, “[N]ot every incident of drug use harms others; in fact, the vast majority do not. Indeed, though this is difficult to quantify with existing data, it is likely that many if not most drug users never do wrongful harm to others as a result of their using careers— bearing in mind that the majority of these careers are limited in duration and intensity.”1 Accordingly, even if each of the following other-regarding harm-based arguments is sound, this will not entail that all instances of recreational drug use involve harm to others, much less that all instances of recreational drug use are morally impermissible.]

Published: Nov 30, 2015

Keywords: Moral Theory; Illegal Drug; Recreational Drug; Civil Disobedience; Legalism Argument

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