A Moral Defense of Recreational Drug Use [recurso electrónico

A Moral Defense of Recreational Drug Use, Rob Lovering Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com -licensed to npg -PalgraveConnect -2015-10-19x Foreword and acknowledgments All this to say, though the question "Is closing one's eyes while driving a car morally wrong?" is rather straightforward, its answer is not.And so it is with the question of this book-"Is recreational drug use morally wrong?"-or so I shall argue. As with the previously mentioned question, one might be tempted to provide a simple "yes" or "no" answer to this question, but such would be a mistake. Whether it is morally wrong to use drugs recreationally depends on a wide variety of factors, I submit, including why one does so, for how long one does so, how experienced a recreational drug user one is when one does so, around whom one does so (nobody else or somebody else), in what environment one does so (nothing of value is in proximity or something of value is in proximity), which drugs one uses recreationally, and more. Indeed, those are just some of the harm-based factors, and whether it is morally wrong to use drugs recreationally is a function of non-harm-based factors as well.I note this similarity between these two questions in order to provide you, the reader, with a glimpse of the complexity of the issue at hand. "Why does American law allow the recreational use of some drugs, such as alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine, but not others, such as marijuana, cocaine, and heroin? The answer lies not simply in the harm the use of these drugs might cause, but in the perceived morality - or lack thereof - of their recreational use. Despite strong rhetoric from moral critics of recreational drug use, however, it is surprisingly difficult to discern the reasons they have for deeming the recreational use of (some) drugs morally wrong. In this book, Rob Lovering lays out and dissects various arguments for the immorality of using marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and other drugs recreationally. He contends that, by and large, these arguments do not succeed. Lovering's book represents one of the first works to systematically present, analyze, and critique arguments for the moral wrongness of recreational drug use. Given this, as well as the popularity of the morality-based defense of the United States' drug laws, this book is an important and timely contribution to the debate on the recreational use of drugs." -- Publisher's description Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Table of Contents 8 Foreword and Acknowledgments 10 1 Introduction 12 2 Harm-Based Arguments: Self-Regarding 44 3 Harm-Based Arguments: Other-Regarding 77 4 Non-Harm-Based Arguments: Part 1 103 5 Non-Harm-Based Arguments: Part 2 137 6 Religious Arguments 159 Afterword 173 Notes 179 Bibliography 212 Index 222 Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction....Pages 1-32 Harm-Based Arguments....Pages 33-65 Harm-Based Arguments....Pages 67-92 Non-Harm-Based Arguments....Pages 93-126 Non-Harm-Based Arguments....Pages 127-148 Religious Arguments....Pages 149-162 Afterword....Pages 163-168 Back Matter....Pages 169-218 Introduction -- Harm-based Arguments: Self-regarding -- Harm-based Arguments: Other-regarding -- Non-harm-based Arguments: Part 1 -- Non-harm-based Arguments: Part 2 -- Religious Arguments. Rob Lovering. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Is recreational drug use morally wrong? In this book, I examine four types of argument for the view that it is – religious, nonreligious, harm-based, and non-harm-based – and contend that, by and large, they do not succeed.