FROM CRIMINALIZATION TO REHABILITATION: Abandoning “The War on Drugs” THESIS EDIT | Page 16

unattainable utopia. The actual utility of laws in civilized society, in the real world, lies in their
genuine ability to control human behavior in a way that will secure a safe environment
conducive to a living, healthy, and happy society.
Laws aim to either encourage or discourage certain types of conduct. For example, traffic
laws both encourage us to “go” at a green light, and discourage us from going at a red light. It’s
safe to say that traffic laws more-or-less succeed in controlling the behavior of the masses of
people who are trying to get from point A to point B, safely and efficiently. Although there’s
almost always room for improvement, we can see that our traffic laws serve the function that
they have set out to achieve. Their purpose is being fulfilled by people abiding by these laws
every day. In this way, we can consider them to be functional and pragmatic. Not only do these
laws look good on paper, theoretically, but when applied to the real world, they give us the
results that we are seeking; they have a real and positive impact.
In the following pages I will discuss laws criminalizing drug use in reference to the
philosophical works of the following: John Finnis, Lon. L. Fuller, Joel Feinberg, Stephen J
Morse, and the American Law Institute. I will use these works to demonstrate the ways in which
current drug laws have failed, fundamentally from a philosophical perspective.
Just like traffic laws, criminal laws aim to either encourage of discourage behavior,
and, in the words of John Finnis, “the prohibitions of the criminal law have a simple justifying
objective: that certain forms of conduct including certain omissions shall occur less frequently
than they otherwise would.”
Finnis reiterates the purpose, or “goal,” of the criminal law system as, “a certain form or
quality of communal life,” where we aim to achieve greater levels of wellbeing for ourselves,
both as a community and as individuals. As citizens who are influenced and controlled by it, this