Drug addiction and treatment.

Now I have to admit, I'm out at the unfashionable end of the arguments over drugs and booze. I take the historically impeccable but now thought rather odd, classically liberal, line that what a consenting adult wishes to ingest is the personal and private business of that consenting adult.

However, I'm sometimes then accused of being uncaring about those who are, say, desirous of drug treatment or alcohol rehab. How could I condemn those who are addicted, who want and need treatment to become not addicted, for they are not in fact consenting adults and are in the grips of a serious disease.

My answer here is that of course I'm not against drug rehab or addiction treatment. Indeed, I'm all in favour of it. I'd love to see an extension of the help that is given in fact (and click though any of those links if you want more information on what is available). It's just that many people who do drugs and drink booze don't need or want such treatment. My ambition is that drugs, as with booze, become legal and are then taxed to pay for the treatments that that smaller number who desire them.

It's a bit more complex than "drugs are bad, M'Kay?" but then so is the real world a bit more complex than that.