legalizing activities such as recreational drug use that do not affect anyone other than the person who chooses to engage in the activity. In the sense that one's actions and choices always affect one's family and loved ones, the decision to take drugs impacts on their lives, but that is outside the realm of government legislation. The decision to smoke cigarettes or to skydive can also be said to affect the lives of one's loved ones, yet neither is prohibited by legislation.

Recently, both individual states and the federal government have enacted laws intended to severely limit the rights of tobacco smoking in public areas, in rightful recognition of the distinction between choices to engage in certain behaviors privately and the rights of others not to be subjected to dangers or inconvenience posed by such choices. This is the essential issue that distinguishes justifiable and unjustifiable government paternalism.

Drunk driving...
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