Indeed, that’s a very general thing to remember. Forbidding something is always a double-sided sword. It’ll make that thing less frequent. But it’ll also made the remaining cases of that thing to be done in much worse conditions. It applies to abortion, prostitution, drugs, …
So we have to make a very careful analysis, when suggesting to ban something, not just if that thing is moral or not, but also if the effects of the ban will be more of “that immoral thing will be done less” or more of “that immoral thing will still be done by in worse conditions”.
That’s the reasoning that makes me favour the legalisation of drugs, and oppose bans on tobacco, while I do consider it is immoral to make widely available something that ends up torturing to death millions of persons, I do realize that a ban will lead to even more trouble (black market, organised crime, traffic, no control over quality, …).
But on some other cases, I estimate the ban to be more efficient than costly, like I’m very glad that guns are forbidden (well, strictly controlled) in France where I live.
I am pretty sure that, in practice, this does not actually apply to drugs. A couple of references indicate that criminalization does not decrease and decriminalization does not increase drug abuse. I don’t have the time/resources/expertise to search through academic articles for explicit numbers, if someone else wanted to give more thorough summaries I would be much obliged.
Indeed, that’s a very general thing to remember. Forbidding something is always a double-sided sword. It’ll make that thing less frequent. But it’ll also made the remaining cases of that thing to be done in much worse conditions. It applies to abortion, prostitution, drugs, …
So we have to make a very careful analysis, when suggesting to ban something, not just if that thing is moral or not, but also if the effects of the ban will be more of “that immoral thing will be done less” or more of “that immoral thing will still be done by in worse conditions”.
That’s the reasoning that makes me favour the legalisation of drugs, and oppose bans on tobacco, while I do consider it is immoral to make widely available something that ends up torturing to death millions of persons, I do realize that a ban will lead to even more trouble (black market, organised crime, traffic, no control over quality, …).
But on some other cases, I estimate the ban to be more efficient than costly, like I’m very glad that guns are forbidden (well, strictly controlled) in France where I live.
I am pretty sure that, in practice, this does not actually apply to drugs. A couple of references indicate that criminalization does not decrease and decriminalization does not increase drug abuse. I don’t have the time/resources/expertise to search through academic articles for explicit numbers, if someone else wanted to give more thorough summaries I would be much obliged.