(This is a guest post from Dr. Michael Keane, a friend and fellow Libertarian)
In light of the Ben Cousins documentary, there needs to be some clarification about what actions and behaviours people are and are not responsible for when taking drugs.
As opposed to the many highly functional business executives, doctors, lawyers, trades people, artists, police officers, service employees, farmers, small business owners etc who use these drugs, most of the harm that befell Ben was due to behaviour for which he should be held responsible for.
In fact the vast majority of users of these drugs do not act as recklessly as Ben. In this context, readers might appreciate clarification about the extent to which behaviours can be explained on a “disease” versus that of culpable lack of responsibility.
A number of quotes from Ben demonstrate that his actions were not due to a “disease.” They were essentially due to dysfunctional behaviour due to decisions he made.
Ultimately, people do have the option of whether to take drugs or not. Yes, some people are pre-disposed to have strong urges to take drugs. Some people experience intense feelings of internal turmoil for which drugs give temporary relief. We should be very sympathetic to their plight and offer help. However, if drug use is hurting their lives, they have a responsibility to get help; not selfishly continue what they are doing and then blame it on “my drug disease”.
This is similar to the scandal whereby people are let off violent crime because they have a “drug problem.”
From a pharmacological, ethical, moral and philosophical perspective, taking these drugs is no different to drinking alcohol.
In this context we should not punish people who use drugs but are otherwise good citizens. We should however punish people who commit crime whether they take drugs or not. Criminal activity is not part of a “disease”; that’s a cop out.
About Dr Michael Keane
Dr Michael Keane is a consultant anaesthetist and bioethicist. He is also a National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC) funded researcher into illicit drugs.
He holds the following positions:
Lecturer in public health at Monash University
Researcher at Swinburne University’s Brain Sciences Institute
Researcher at the University of Adelaide
