If drugs were legalized, how would a libertarian approach handle the social harms caused by drug use?
Question 110 in Faith Seeking Freedom: Updated & Expanded
Libertarians believe in personal responsibility, and personal responsibility is the best remedy for destructive personal vices. Under modern states, policymakers attempt to address social problems relating to addiction in a number of ways that they characterize as “harm reduction.” These programs may include problem-solving courts, needle exchanges, controlled distribution of allegedly safer drugs like methadone, and taxpayer-funded support of drug rehabilitation programming. Libertarians reject the compulsory socialization of the costs of drug abuse.
Instead, many libertarians would argue that being left to face the consequences of poor personal decisions would be a better alternative. Other libertarians favor solutions that appear to be similar to those listed above, but which are paid for through voluntary charity or family funds. Rather than threatening criminal punishment while granting taxpayer-financed welfare benefits, recourse to private charity replaces legal entitlement with voluntary assistance, something that the evidence shows results in stronger community and peer support, lower overall costs, and an element of spiritual growth instead of a purely secular public health approach.
Other symptoms of drug abuse may include homelessness and petty crimes that would cease to be a significant problem under a private property regime as proposed by libertarians. Government managed “public property” often becomes a haven for drug addicts, enabling self-destructive behaviors by providing a location for incorrigible abusers to congregate and live out their addictions. Private property owners can remove such people from their grounds, while governments are often unable or unwilling to dissipate homeless camps that are set up on public property.