Rob's Blog

David Carr comments on a story in the Independent about a proposed scheme to give children drugs to prevent them from becoming drug addicts when they grow up. Ian Gibson, head of the Commons Science and Technology Committee, can’t see any problem with that. “There is no reason to think this would not be a starter or beneficial,” he says. The National Treatment Agancy agree, saying they welcome any new ways of treating addiction.

Any new ways at all.

This is what socialism is all about. People are not responsible and have to be saved from themselves by a benevolent state. If this was a product that parents could choose to buy for their children it would be scary enough. Taking away personal choice for future generations by making value judgements for them about the alleged evils of drug taking is not very far removed from making the same value judgements about the evils of sex and inflicting them upon daughters without their permission. Even if drugs were indisputably evil the freedom to choose not to take them should not be taken away any more than any other personal freedom.

But this is not just about parents making choices for their children, it’s about the state making choices for its subjects. It is ministers that are considering this vaccination scheme. Which means that ultimately they would want it to be compulsory, and once that kind of social control becomes accepted… Well — that’s a slippery slope I do not want to be forced down.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 26th, 2004 at 9:15 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.