I wouldn’t say that. However, I also wouldn’t say that the War on Drugs is the same as Prohibition. I do not have any opinions on these matters that I view as worth stating at this time.
I would say that the War on Some Drugs is sufficiently like Prohibition to make this not an instance of the WAitW. It’s still a fairly weak argument, since it’s lacking in details, but I don’t think it’s trying to sneak in any connotations, and I think basically all of the problems with Prohibition are also problems with the War on Some Drugs.
Prohibition was unpopular with a large portion of the population. It caused a lowered respect for the law in general, because so many people casually broke the law in response. It funded organized violent crime. It invaded personal liberty in order to prevent something that only caused harm as a contributing element, not direct harm. It didn’t work.
Prohibition was a war on a different subset of drugs. It had a constitutional amendment that made it unquestionably legal for the federal government to be doing. It had few medical implications. There was not an obvious historical argument that it would fail catastrophically when it was implemented.
In other words, I think one could reasonably come to different conclusions on the two cases based on cost/benefit analyses, but I think it’s reasonable to call them two instances of the same thing. I also think it’s reasonable to say that most of the reasons Prohibition was bad also apply to the War on Some Drugs.
As an example of the fallacy, I think it’s less than ideal.
There seems to be a significant difference between “prohibition” and “war on drugs” to me, that may justify it being WAitW : prohibition is attacking a behavior that most people actually do. Nearly everyone drinks alcohol, at least on special occasions. While drugs (even the “softer” of the prohibited one, cannabis) are only used by a small fraction (in the USA, where it’s pretty high, according to Wikipedia, it’s 13% who used cannabis at least once in 2009). I’m not in favor of “war on drugs” (in my opinion, it has a lot of negative consequences and doesn’t work well at all at reducing drug usage), but there is a significant difference between forbidding something “everyone” does and something 10% of the population does, and “prohibition” does bring in the “forbidding something everyone does” connotation.
I would find it more accurate to call the ban on filesharing “prohibition” than to call war on drugs “prohibition” (but both are a form of WAitW).
Tried, I would say it depends of the age group. But “tried once in your life” is not the most important for prohibition issues, it’s people using it regularly the real issue.
So, do it regularly (at least once a year) ? It’s hard to find stats on filesharing usage, but the data I remember is about 1⁄3 of people with internet access using p2p, which is about 2⁄3 of the population, so 2⁄9 = 22%, nearly twice the 13% who used cannabis “once per year”. Cannabis is not the only durg, but p2p isn’t the only form of filesharing, so it more or less compensates.
Is that your real question? It feels like you’re objecting to something else or asking an entirely different question, like, say, “Does filesharing really deserve the ‘prohibition’ connotations more than drugs?”.
Prohibition was unpopular with a large portion of the population. It caused a lowered respect for the law in general, because so many people casually broke the law in response. It funded organized violent crime. It invaded personal liberty in order to prevent something that only caused harm as a contributing element, not direct harm. It didn’t work.
Also applies to the present-day prohibition of marijuana (provided you’re more liberal with the usage of the words large and many). And what do you mean by “direct harm”? Pretty sure that, from a physiological point of view alone, alcohol is more harmful than marijuana (at least in large doses).
How would you say the War on Some Drugs is different than Prohibition?
I wouldn’t say that. However, I also wouldn’t say that the War on Drugs is the same as Prohibition. I do not have any opinions on these matters that I view as worth stating at this time.
I would say that the War on Some Drugs is sufficiently like Prohibition to make this not an instance of the WAitW. It’s still a fairly weak argument, since it’s lacking in details, but I don’t think it’s trying to sneak in any connotations, and I think basically all of the problems with Prohibition are also problems with the War on Some Drugs.
Prohibition was unpopular with a large portion of the population. It caused a lowered respect for the law in general, because so many people casually broke the law in response. It funded organized violent crime. It invaded personal liberty in order to prevent something that only caused harm as a contributing element, not direct harm. It didn’t work.
Prohibition was a war on a different subset of drugs. It had a constitutional amendment that made it unquestionably legal for the federal government to be doing. It had few medical implications. There was not an obvious historical argument that it would fail catastrophically when it was implemented.
In other words, I think one could reasonably come to different conclusions on the two cases based on cost/benefit analyses, but I think it’s reasonable to call them two instances of the same thing. I also think it’s reasonable to say that most of the reasons Prohibition was bad also apply to the War on Some Drugs.
As an example of the fallacy, I think it’s less than ideal.
There seems to be a significant difference between “prohibition” and “war on drugs” to me, that may justify it being WAitW : prohibition is attacking a behavior that most people actually do. Nearly everyone drinks alcohol, at least on special occasions. While drugs (even the “softer” of the prohibited one, cannabis) are only used by a small fraction (in the USA, where it’s pretty high, according to Wikipedia, it’s 13% who used cannabis at least once in 2009). I’m not in favor of “war on drugs” (in my opinion, it has a lot of negative consequences and doesn’t work well at all at reducing drug usage), but there is a significant difference between forbidding something “everyone” does and something 10% of the population does, and “prohibition” does bring in the “forbidding something everyone does” connotation.
I would find it more accurate to call the ban on filesharing “prohibition” than to call war on drugs “prohibition” (but both are a form of WAitW).
You think that more people have tried filesharing than drugs?
Tried, I would say it depends of the age group. But “tried once in your life” is not the most important for prohibition issues, it’s people using it regularly the real issue.
So, do it regularly (at least once a year) ? It’s hard to find stats on filesharing usage, but the data I remember is about 1⁄3 of people with internet access using p2p, which is about 2⁄3 of the population, so 2⁄9 = 22%, nearly twice the 13% who used cannabis “once per year”. Cannabis is not the only durg, but p2p isn’t the only form of filesharing, so it more or less compensates.
Is that your real question? It feels like you’re objecting to something else or asking an entirely different question, like, say, “Does filesharing really deserve the ‘prohibition’ connotations more than drugs?”.
That’s my real question. I’m not really objecting to anything, I just found the implied estimate surprising.
Thanks for clarifying.
Also applies to the present-day prohibition of marijuana (provided you’re more liberal with the usage of the words large and many). And what do you mean by “direct harm”? Pretty sure that, from a physiological point of view alone, alcohol is more harmful than marijuana (at least in large doses).