It is vital to understand that a consensual crime refers to a public-order offense, which involves more than one participant. In a consensual crime, the participants give their consent and show willingness to participate in the activity that is illegal. Therefore, the consensual crime laws are legislations related to the issues of public-order offenses, which involve a lot of people (Koppelman, 2002). There are people who support the criminalization of the consensual crime laws on the basis that the unlawful activities breach the cultural norms of communities. However, consensual laws have also come under sharp opposition by those who always feel they are counter-productive. The criminalization of the abuse of drugs is an example of a consensual crime law, which has both supporters and opponents.
The first supporting argument for the criminalization of drug abuse is that the laws are quite effective in minimizing this vice within the society. Proponents of drug use criminalization laws argue that such policies and regulations usually help in suppressing the illicit drug use. They argue that without the drug criminalization laws, the use of licit drugs would have been quite high in the whole world. The illicit drug laws help deter people from using drugs. There are people who just do not use the illicit drugs because they are illegal and criminalized under the law. The second argument for the illicit criminalization laws is that their use harms the health of users and pushes the cost of health care in the country very high.
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On the other hand, the first argument given against the illicit drug laws is that they are ineffective in deterring people from engaging in the use of substances. Economists have argued that the criminalization of illicit drugs has made the industry quite abnormally profitable for the drug business lords, dealers and smugglers (Ten, 2008). The illicit drugs business becomes attractive to many when the criminalization laws are made more stringent and tough. Additionally, the second argument against the criminalization of the illicit drugs is that it contravenes the private person’s right to choose his or her lifestyle and do things that make him or her enjoy life.
References
Koppelman, A. (2002). The Right to Privacy. University of Chicago Legal Forum , 105.
Ten, C. L. (2008). Mill's On Liberty: A Critical Guide . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
