Deck 28: Just Say No for Now: The Ethics of Illegal Drug Use

Question 1

Mathieu Doucet's essay presents a unique kind of argument. He says that illegal drug use is wrong because it is illegal, not the other way around. Do you think that this is true of any other kind of behavior? If so, explain why. If not, explain why the case of drug prohibition is unique.

Answer 1

-Examine whether there are other cases where some activity's immorality is grounded in its legality.
-Include a thesis that's focused and appropriate given the assignment.
-Clearly and succinctly state the main argument for the thesis.
-Correctly identify and defend the argument's controversial premises using sound reasoning, well-chosen examples, insightful analogies, etc.

Question 2

If using illegal drugs is wrong in part because it is an exercise of unjust privilege, would it be okay if you are impoverished? What if you are African-American? Which parts of Mathieu Doucet's argument, if any, would make illegal drug use wrong in these situations?

Answer 2

-Examine the way in which Doucet's argument applies, or fails to apply, to contexts where the illegal drug user does not have unfair privilege.
-Include a thesis that's focused and appropriate given the assignment.
-Clearly and succinctly state the main argument for the thesis.
-Correctly identify and defend the argument's controversial premises using sound reasoning, well-chosen examples, insightful analogies, etc.

Question 3

In your essay, defend one objection against Mathieu Doucet's essay. What's the best way of pushing back against his argument? You might think that legalizing drugs would be very harmful, or that using illegal drugs is permissible, or that what makes using illegal drugs is unrelated to harm or privilege. Be sure to defend your claim.

Answer 3

-Offer a defense of either drug prohibition or illegal drug use that makes a serious attempt to respond to Doucet's concerns about it.
-Accurately summarize, and then apply, Doucet's ideas to the defense just offered. Specifically, the essay should discuss why Doucet thinks that drug use is immoral when drug use is illegal.

Question 4

According to Doucet, what gives us a strong moral reason not to use recreational drugs while they are illegal?

A) Illegal drug use helps to prop up an unjust system of government that users have strong reasons to undermine
B) Engaging in illegal albeit morally permissible practices offers a bad example for children and future generations
C) Drug prohibition contributes to the conditions that make the purchase and use of recreational drugs unethical
D) We all have strong moral reasons not to break the law in the way that illegal drug use breaks the law
E) The medical, interpersonal, and personal costs of drug use are so high that we should avoid doing drugs

Question 5

Why are existing drug laws unjust, on Doucet's account?

A) Governments are hypocritical for banning them
B) Drug laws generate considerable harms
C) Using drugs is morally laudable
D) Drug laws are outdated and out of touch
E) Drugs aren't harmful to users' health

Question 6

Doucet affirms that we can ask whether the purchase and consumption of illegal drugs is unethical, like we can ask whether it is ethical to ________:

A) Purchase any other consumer product
B) Engage in any kind of risky behavior
C) Exercise any type of moral right
D) Pursue one's autonomous choices
E) Take any kind of medicine that has side effects

Question 7

Which of the following is NOT an outcome of drug prohibition that Doucet discusses?

A) Drug trade workers are open to serious exploitation
B) Drug laws are enforced in an unjust way
C) Drug laws play a role in perpetuating systematic racism in America
D) Prohibition incentivizes adolescents to engage in rebellious behavior
E) Prohibition creates an illegal black market

Question 8

Doucet compares buying drugs to which of the following activities?

A) Demanding that one's moral rights be respected
B) Going skydiving or doing other risky activities
C) Taking potentially harmful medicine
D) Torturing animals on factory farms
E) Buying clothes from dangerous sweatshops

Question 9

Who is responsible in an important sense for the harms that result from the drug trade?

A) Religious leaders who advocated for their implementation
B) The jury members who convict drug users
C) The PACs that lobby congress to keep them in effect
D) Only drug users
E) All of the citizens of states that prohibit drugs

Question 10

The freedom to use illegal drugs without significant fear of criminal sanction is one expression of ________:

A) Prejudice-fueled racism
B) White middle-class privilege
C) The "ignorance is bliss" mentality
D) Legal exemptionism
E) Successful law enforcement evasion

Question 11

Doucet argues that while drug laws continue to exist, they are deserving of our moral respect.

Question 12

Which of the following is NOT true of the way that drug laws' enforcement affects society, according to Doucet?

A) A drug charge has the potential to be much more costly for a low-income American
B) An African-American who is arrested for drug use can easily be made homeless
C) African-Americans are more than four times as likely as white Americans to be arrested for drugs
D) White, middle-class, university-educated North Americans can typically purchase and consume drugs knowing that they are unlikely to be caught
E) White Americans are pitted against people of color in an unjust, jury of one's peers criminal justice system

Question 13

Doucet argues that drug users are partly responsible for the violent and exploitative conditions in which many drugs are produced and distributed.