Pubdate: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 Source: Halifax Herald (CN NS) Copyright: 2002 The Halifax Herald Limited Contact: http://www.herald.ns.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/180 Author: Chris Buors 'VICES NOT CRIMES' Dear Editor: Someone ought to inform letter writer M.E. Jollimore (Sept. 12) that Canada has a legal system. If we had a justice system, there would be no laws to control our drugs. Michael Patriquen and all drug dealers are political criminals. "Vices are not crimes," wrote American jurist Lysander Spooner in his classic 1875 essay. "Crime implies harm to another person or their property. Vices are harms we do to ourselves. In vice, the very essence of crime . . . is wanting." Are the drug laws moral? Well, let's put them to the four cardinal virtues test of St. Thomas Aquinas. Prudence, temperance, justice and fortitude are those virtues and drug prohibition fails on every count. Thomas Jefferson left mankind the key natural rights principle, that laws aren't legitimate just because a government says they are. Nor are laws legitimate because they are the result of a democratic process. At various times, it has been legal for governments to steal property, to suppress free speech, to censor newspapers and to murder people. The worst tyrants could usually point to some legal basis for their actions. To be legitimate, laws must conform to moral principles. They must support each individual's equal right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Chris Buors, Winnipeg, Man. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager