LSD Legalization

Thanks for accepting, BoT ! I'm going to use this round to present my constructive case; it's going to be kept rather brief, since I don't like pre-empting arguments. When discussing matters of legality, we generally start out with the assumption that everything is permissible, and then go on to come up with reasons to prohibit certain activities. I propose that's the same mindset we should have with regards to LSD -- the fact that LSD is illegal in the status quo is irrelevant. If we're examining the issue from a tabula rasa perspective, we are led to ask the question -- why shouldn't LSD be legal? My opponent will be the one answering that question for us in next round, but for now, let's consider the two general categories which his arguments are probably going to fall into: == Harm to the Self == I argue that this shouldn't be considered a legitimate reason for illegality at all. Imagine what the consequences would be if the government were obligated to protect citizens from the negative effects of purely self-regarding acts. They would have to legally intervene in *any* activity which tends to harm the self, including -- eating junk food, sleeping late, slacking off in school, biking without a helmet, throwing rocks at a wasp's nest, drinking alcohol, and having unprotected sex. All of these often produce negative consequences in the long-run, yet literally everyone engages in at least one of them. But why? It's because they value the positive short-term benefits over whatever negative long-term risks there may be, and there really isn't any objective basis for saying they're wrong in doing so -- after all, the perception of said consequences varies from person to person, and thus it is an inherently subjective matter. So not only is it pragmatically impossible for the government to criminalize anything which causes harm to the self, but it is also just plainly irrational because it involves imposing value-judgments upon people as if they are objective, despite their being blatantly subjective. Besides that, literally any reasonable moral framework grants people with a basic sense of personal autonomy -- a right to do whatever one wishes with one's own body. This is true even under utilitarianism (which my opponent is probably gonna use). Its originator, John Stuart Mill, articulated a rule known as the Harm Principle, wherein the government should avoid intervening in purely self-regarding acts because it maximizes utility to grant people full personal liberty. It is fairly obvious why this is true: a regime under which healthy diets and bedtimes are being legally enforced is practically totalitarian. Thus, even if LSD usage does generally cause harm to the self, it should still be legal to use it. Let people decide for themselves whether they value the experience of being "high" over potentially deleterious effects. == Harm to Others == Under the Harm Principle, the government is only justified in criminalizing acts which cause harm to other people. However, literally everything has the *potential* to cause harm to others. For example, driving motor vehicles results in massive harm to others (via car accidents) millions of times per year. But of course, it would be absurd to make driving completely illegal simply for that reason. Therefore, actions have to be *inherently* harmful in order to qualify under the standard of the Harm Principle. For example, murder and rape are illegal because they inflict suffering regardless of context. This is quite clearly not the case with the usage of LSD -- it is nothing more than ingesting a pill which produces the psychedelic experience of being "high". Nothing about that is inherently harmful to other people; it only becomes harmful if done within an unusual context (e,g, if an armed sociopath does it in a public place). Therefore, LSD usage should be treated the same way as driving -- keep it legal, along with regulations to minimize the occurrence of "unusual contexts." - In conclusion, there is no reason for LSD to be illegal. The resolution is affirmed.