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'Degrading' activities are only degrading to those who think of those activities as 'degrading'. Prostitution, to someone who doesn't regard their body, sex and love in quite a particular but commonly held manner, is not degrading.
With regard to substances that WILL kill you.
ALL substances, no matter how seemingly benign, WILL kill you in sufficient quantity. Many more somewhat toxic substances are dramatically MORE LIKELY to kill you if they are completely unregulated, controlled and dosed.
Crime/irresponsible behaviour is an issue of orientation of society, quality of education and relative inequalities.
The Swiss pretty much all have assault rifles... they're more interested in Nutella and Banking (grrr). They also just voted for a free-heroin for addicts program, iirc, after a dramatically successful harm-reduction trial.
The Dutch shmoke lotsh of weedsh. They're about to close 8 prisons after their prison population declined from 14,500 or so to about 12,000.
These two societies, overall, have a practical and grey rather than hysterical/moralising and Black&White tone to their outlook and politics. They're a lot more equal, peaceful, free (as in able to take up opportunities, express themselves, etc) and content with themselves than the Anglo-Saxon model societies... which have the highest prison populations, the most restrictive laws and, yeah, you get the picture.
You can't legislate morality and responsibilty into a population, you can only educate and condition it. Looking at repercussions and irresponsibility, etc without addressing the real, societal causes of of those undesirable effects is comparable to only treating the fever and pain of a person with a gaping, putrid wound.
My 0.02c.
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"I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place." - Winston Churchill, 1937 --{ORLY?}--
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