Psychedelic Drug Use Should Not Be Legalized

Although it upsets my libertarian-minded friends, I oppose the legalization of recreational drugs, including psychedelic drugs like ketamine and psilocybin. Removing all controls over addictive and potentially harmful substances will make society worse, not better. And although I'm sympathetic to the view that the individual has the right (and responsibility) to make his own decision about what he puts in his body, without paternalistic government interference, I also know that when large numbers of individuals make bad decisions, over and over, the cost of those decisions is born by others—by society at large. To be libertarian when it comes to rights but socialist when it comes to responsibilities is a recipe for failure, one that US government continues to embrace without learning its lesson. California appears to be making yet another bad decision as it seeks to legalize government-sponsored psychedelic drug use.