Originally Posted by
Korittke
My psychic powers tell me that instead of answering the question, it will be dodged.
I have now seen this go on for some time and I have to say that I agree with Universal Mind.
Whether or not one's state of mind is altered has no ultimate relevance, unless you want to take from people the liberty to specifically determine what they think their state of mind should be.
The basic premise is that there are two categories of accidents: those that happen while sober and those that happen while intoxicated. The latter notably being different in that a sense of responsibility can be absent due to intoxication and direct impairment of judgment. Thus resulting in a loss of control. However, this is no valid argument... why? Because you presume that the absence of responsibility can not in it self be part of a larger responsibility. Specifically the ability to determine very directly when and under which circumstances to take which drug in which quantity with which precautions taken, exactly because drugs are ingestible pieces of matter, directly under one's control, and are therefore part of general responsibility. And this is the mistake you keep making.
The loss of control has already been explained by the golf analogy. Once you do something, there is a series of events that follow as a result, yet they are not in the range of your control and therefore you are not responsible. If you chose to let this series of events begin by willfully impairing your judgment, then you shall do so. However,
(a) on drugs, your sense of control is not as diminished or dangerous, as has been alleged
(b) you can still be held accountable for stupid things.
It's basically like saying that someone who attempts to drive after one hour of sleep acts irresponsible. Very true. Yet, this does not make it reasonable to ban sleeping less than 1 hour, does it? It only makes it reasonable to ban driving while unable to do so skillfully, but this law already exists, in particular even addressing the issue of intoxication. There's no need to ban all the actions that could lead to this happening. That's why alcohol is legal and drunk driving is not.
End of argument.