Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by adrusi 3752 days ago
Well public intoxication is illegal, and the legalization of the possession of drugs wouldn't change that. I'm firmly in the drug-use-is-a-human-right camp, but I don't think that you have a right to use drugs in public. I think it's OK to be under the influence in public as long as your intoxication is subtle enough to be unnoticeable to a casual passerby, but I would oppose getting rid of public intoxication laws.

You have a right to drug use in private or where everyone present consents to your using drugs, like in group psychedelic rituals.

2 comments

Oh yeah, I meant legal rights. I don't disagree with you about the human right necessarily, I just haven't thought about it enough.

What I mean is, if you think about extreme situations, drug use will stop people from being able to provide you with legal rights. But forget about drug use, if everybody quit their job - which is totally legal - you wouldn't have any legal rights either.

And outside of the realm of people doing paid work, a child has the legal right to be raised by a non-abusive parent or guardian. If the parent is fucked up all the time, legally and at home, that child is having its rights infringed upon. Whether the government intervenes is another question.

Seems like a weird arbitrary rule. Why isn't public intoxication considered free speech or something. I don't know how public intoxication laws can be justified.