James Randi, the magician and pseudoscience debunker, advocated legalizing recreational drugs and allowing natural selection to weed out those who misuse the drugs.[1] Smart man. Dumb idea.
Life expectancy among Americans has recently undergone the longest sustained drop since World War I as a direct result of drug-related overdoses and drug-related suicides.[2] Drug overdoses kill 130 Americans per day, more than vehicle crashes or homicides.[3] Nearly three out of four homeless teenagers are drug abusers.[4] Addicts need compassionate science-based treatment. They don’t need imprisonment, social abandonment, or, as Randi would have allowed, easier access to their poison.[5]+
Advocates of legalizing recreational drugs assert that drug use is a matter of individual choice. This betrays a miscomprehension of the psychology of choice in relation to drug addiction. The “freedom” to ingest or inject addictive substances is comparable to the freedom to sell oneself into slavery. Deregulating access to drugs is as irresponsible as deregulating access to military-grade weapons (which Americans also do). Indeed, the number of Americans killed by drug overdoses during a single year is more than thirteen times the deaths incurred during the entire Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined.[6]+
Drug promoters discount the harm drug abuse inflicts on children and other parties. Earlier we discussed research by psychotherapist Carolyn Holderread Heggen showing that drug abuse is the number one predictor of sexual assault on children. Marc Mauer of The Sentencing Project says that three out of four inmates in American prisons have a history of drug abuse. A study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse highlights drug abuse as a key factor in 85 percent of incarcerations and nearly 80 percent of violent crimes.[7] About 40 percent of murderers used alcohol before or during their crimes.[8]
Prison reformers complain that our prison population tracks poverty and race, but the two factors it most closely tracks are—by a wide margin—gender and drug abuse. Any policy that increases the availability of dangerous recreational drugs is unconscionable.
Facebook is littered with selfie images of people who portray drinking, smoking, and drug abuse as cool. Christopher Hitchens prided himself on his bohemian and hedonistic lifestyle, which, by his own admission, contributed to his developing esophageal cancer: “I have been taunting the Reaper into taking a free scythe in my direction.”[9] Troubled souls are drawn to dysfunctional heroes such as Hunter S. Thompson and Ernest Hemingway, notorious drug-abusers who blew out their brains. Charles Bukowski avowed, “It’s nice to die from alcoholism. It’s very glorious.”[10]
Glorious? No, it’s tragic. Several of my close relatives and friends have died as a direct consequence of their drug and alcohol abuse. These were precious people. There is not one goddamn thing glorious about drug and alcohol abuse.
If you are not moved by compassion for the abusers or their direct victims, then consider the economic and social impacts. Drug abuse in the US has been estimated to cost $3.73 trillion annually.[11] That dwarfs the total annual payouts ($799 billion) for Social Security retirement benefits.[12] Moreover, drug abuse contributes to the spread of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, and mental health issues, not only draining the economy, but also sapping the vitality of countless patients.[13] Alcohol prohibition in the 1920s, though misguided and blamed (inordinately) for organized crime, sharply reduced overall consumption and alcohol-related health and social ills.[14]
Let’s not forget alcohol-caused accidents, the range of birth defects called fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, and the potential for heart failure caused by alcohol abuse. The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies alcohol as a Group 1 carcinogen. Cocaine use during pregnancy results in children with permanently lowered IQ.[15]+ Marijuana use is linked to heart disease, intestinal and lung problems, and lowered IQs, and its use during pregnancy causes low birthweights.[16] Drug-afflicted babies suffer from tremors, seizures, vomiting, sweating, respiratory problems, and constant crying.[17] The number of babies afflicted by drug abuse has more than quadrupled during recent years.[18] Drug abuse is also a major or primary risk factor in gun violence, depression, incarceration and, as mentioned, child sexual abuse.
Atheists have been and continue to be among the staunches advocates for reform movements. We should not neglect our social responsibilities when it comes to the topic of drug abuse.
[1] Greg, “James Randi: Let Survival of the Fittest ‘Act Itself Out’ on Those with Low IQ and ‘Mental Aberrations’ ” Daily Grail, February 14, 2013, https://www.dailygrail.com/Skepticism/2013/2/James-Randi-Let-Survival-the-Fittest-Act-Itself-Out-Those-Low-IQ-and-Mental-Aberra.
[2] Meilan Solly, “U.S. Life Expectancy Drops for Third Year in a Row, Reflecting Rising Drug Overdoses, Suicides,” Smithsonian, December 3, 2018, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/us-life-expectancy-drops-third-year-row-reflecting-rising-drug-overdose-suicide-rates-180970942/.
[3] “Provisional Overdose Death Counts,” National Vital Statistics System, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/drug-overdose-data.htm.
[4] Krystina Murray, “Homelessness and Addiction,” Addiction Center, December 5, 2019, https://www.addictioncenter.com/addiction/homelessness/.
[5] Randi’s proposal played into the hands of racists. The Frenchman Georges Vacher de Lapouge (1854–1936) advocated providing intoxicants to races he deemed inferior in the hope that they might kill off one another. Malcolm X accused “white devils” of pumping drugs into black ghettos with genocidal intent. Randi implied that people of low IQ would be eliminated, which, aside from being cruel, falsely implied that it is primarily low IQ people who abuse drugs or become the victims of drug abusers.
[6] Nearly 92,000 people died in 2020 from drug overdoses alone. The number of US soldiers killed in the Iraq War (2003–2011) was 4,576, and the number killed in the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) was 2,432, for a total of 7,008. “Drug Overdose Death Rates,”February 9, 2023, https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates.
[7] “Report Finds Most U.S. Inmates Suffer from Substance Abuse or Addiction,” The Nation’s Health, April 2010, Internet Archive, https://web.archive.org/web/20180312023410/https://thenationshealth.aphapublications.org/content/40/3/E11.
[8] Carol Galbicsek, “Alcohol-Related Crimes,” Alcohol Rehab Guide, July 24, 2019, https://www.alcoholrehabguide.org/alcohol/crimes/.
[9] Christopher Hitchens, Mortality (New York: Twelve Books, 2012), 5.
[10] Lee Wanner, “Charles Bukowski on Dying and How to Write,” August 12, 2014, YouTube video, 4:38, https://youtu.be/MTPxWkBgW6U.
[11] “Economic cost of substance abuse disorder in the United States, 2019,” Recovery Centers of America, accessed April 2023, https://recoverycentersofamerica.com/resource/economic-cost-of-substance-abuse-disorder-in-united-states-2019/
[12] Sean Williams, “A Complete Breakdown of How Social Security Spends Its Money,” The Motley Fool, https://www.fool.com/retirement/2018/09/05/a-complete-breakdown-of-how-social-security-spends.aspx.
[13] Buddy T, “How Drug Use Affects Our Society,” Verywell Mind, October 10, 2019, updated September 15, 2020, Internet Archive, https://web.archive.org/web/20210510160139/https:/www.verywellmind.com/what-are-the-costs-of-drug-abuse-to-society-63037.
[14] Jack Blocker Jr., “Did Prohibition Really Work? Alcohol Prohibition as a Public Health Innovation,” American Journal of Public Health 96, no. 2 (2006): 233–43, doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2005.065409.
[15] As a monkey rises nearer the top of its social hierarchy, its brain becomes more sensitive to dopamine, the so-called pleasure hormone, and hence the monkey is less attracted to cocaine, which hijacks the brain’s dopamine system. William Von Hippel, The Social Leap (New York: HarperCollins, 2018), 234.
See also:
Stephanie Pappas, “Cocaine Eats Up Brain Twice as Fast as Normal Aging,” Live Science, April 24, 2012, https://www.livescience.com/19867-cocaine-ages-brain-shrink.html.
[16] Lawson Health Research Institute, “Early Marijuana Use Associated with Abnormal Brain Function, Lower IQ,” ScienceDaily, October 5, 2016, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161005160733.htm.
Krista Conger, “Marijuana Linked to Heart Disease; Supplement May Mitigate Risk, Study Reports,” Stanford Medicine News Center, April 29, 2022. https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2022/04/marijuana-heart-disease.html.
Southwest Vermont Health Care, https://svhealthcare.org/%20Wellness-Connection/marijuana-related-stomach-disorder-on-the-rise (site no longer live).
“Lung Health,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, October 19, 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/marijuana/health-effects/lung-health.html.
[17] “Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome,” Stanford Children’s Health, https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=neonatal-abstinence-syndrome-90-P02387.
[18] “Dramatic Increases in Maternal Opioid Use and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome,” National Institute on Drug Abuse, January 22, 2019, https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/infographics/dramatic-increases-in-maternal-opioid-use-neonatal-abstinence-syndrome.