From: [a--yb--c] at [athena.mit.edu] (Andrew E Bloch)
Newsgroups: alt.hemp,alt.drugs
Subject: Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do
Date: 18 Oct 1993 07:53:57 GMT

There's a recently published book, entitled _Ain't Nobody's Business
If You Do_, by Peter McWilliams, that might be of interest to alt.hemp
and alt.drugs readers.  (The introduction to the book was published in
a recent Playboy, I think the August or September issue.)  The book
includes 800 pages of arguments for the legalization of all
"consensual crimes."  A consensual crime is defined as "any activity
-- currently illegal -- that does not physically harm the person or
property of another."  A large portion of the book discusses drugs.
Here are some brief excerpts that relate to recent posts:

  Here are some obvious examples [of how laws against drug use makes it
  far more dangerous than it needs to be]:

    The purity, dosage, and even type of drug are completely unregulated. 
    The governement reports that the purity of heroin sold ranges from
    32% to 90%....

    Low-grade marijuana is sometimes laced with the drug PCP to make the
    pot seem to be a higher grade....

    When dosages are unknown, it is difficult for the user to moderate
    consumption.  If marijuana were legal, for example, the THC (the
    psychoactive element in marijuana) level could be printed on each
    package.  People could then intelligently moderate their usage.  As it
    is, one joint could have twenty more times THC than another, and the
    user -- short of trial and error -- has no way of knowing....
             (pg 214)

In other words, using heroin, cocaine, etc., may be dangerous.  So
would taking aspirin if it was illegal.  Would heroin, cocaine and
other "hard" drugs be as dangerous if they were legalized?

For those of you that argue for the legalization of marijuana, but
not all drugs, (and all consensual crimes) McWilliams writes:

    That's how we all are, I think, about the consensual crimes.  Even
  if we explore one and decide, "There's no reason why this should be
  illegal," we fail to apply that reasoning to all the other consensual
  crimes.  Somehow the one we explored, enjoyed, and either incorporated
  into our lives or moved on from is the exception, and all the other
  rules are just and honorable.  It's not so.  The emperor wears no
  clothes.  (pg. 514)

The book covers gambling, prostitution, pornography, adultery,
homosexuality, and so on, as well as drugs.  If you really only care
about making your drug of choice legal, this book is not for you.  But
if you realize that the best way to fight for your freedom is to fight
for the freedom of all, then you should read this book.

(Although I do admit that the best way to fight for the legalization
of consensual crimes may be one at a time.)

Andrew Bloch
[a--yb--c] at [mit.edu]