tatement: “[Drug abuse] is a product of the Great Deceiver” (qtd. in Szasz 32). Yet why is this level of moral repudiation not directed at legal drugs, such as alcohol or tobacco (or, for that matter, caffeine)? Furthermore, why are some drugs legal while others are not? This brings us to a fundamental question when dealing with drug laws: what are drugs? The most common definition is “any substance other than food which by its chemical nature affects the structure or function of the living organism” (Husak 20). This includes everything from cough syrup to crack. Others use the more precise term “psychoactive drugs,” which is defined as “any substance that alters consciousness or affects mood” (Hoough 155). This more narrow definition includes prescription medication such as Prozac as well as alcohol, caffeine, morphine, cocaine, and any other number of mood- or consciousness-altering substances. Still, many equate the word “drugs” with “illegal drugs” (Husak 21). Perhaps the most famous example of this is Nancy Reagan’s battle cry, “Just Say No to Drugs.” Clearly, she meant only illegal drugs—few would construe the motto to mean that one should “just say no” to caffeine or aspirin! Interestingly, however, the slogan is used to cover alcohol and tobacco, which remain legal. If one should “just say no” to these drugs, why are they legal? What is it, then, about alcohol and tobacco that makes them legal? Or, conversely, what is it about marijuana or heroin or LSD that makes them illegal? A number of prohibitionists have tried to distinguish alcohol in particular from illicit drugs: Morton Kondracke begins by contending that “drugs have been the rage in America only since about 1962” (284). This statement is false on its face; it has been shown that, in proportion to the population, na...
