Analysis Of Character And Ecstasy: Against The Legalization Of Drugs

Utilitarianism is the moral theory that says we should do what creates the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of individuals. Philosopher John Stuart Mill described the Principle of Utility as follows: “actions are right in proportion as they tend to maximize happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure” (p. 144).
Utilitarian analysis shows that prohibition of hard drugs maximizes happiness or “utility”. In the article “Character and Ecstasy: Against the Legalization of Drugs”, political scientist James Q. Wilson explains why we are better off overall when hard drugs are prohibited. One reason is that legalizing hard drugs would probably

Simple economics suggests that people are more likely to buy something that is widely available at low prices than something that is expensive and hard to find. Wilson wrote: “I suppose that we should expect no increase in Porsche sales if we cut the price by 95 percent, no increase in whiskey sales if we cut the price by a comparable amount—because young people only want fast cars and strong liquor when they are forbidden” (p. 152). Another reason we are better off when hard drugs are prohibited is that treatment of addicts works better when it is mandatory and making treatment mandatory is harder when drug use is not a crime (p. 159). Similarly, education is more effective when hard drugs are illegal, because we are not confusing young people by telling them not to do what is perfectly legal (p. 159). Finally, Wilson argues we are better off with prohibition of hard drugs than without it because prohibition protects human decency. While using alcohol alters one’s behavior, using hard drugs such as cocaine “alters one’s soul” (p.