As a libertarian, I have always been in favor of choice when it comes to taking drugs. But when pressed, I still had difficulty when asked about hard drugs like heroin.

The typical response from family members and friends was:

“You mean you want heroin available just like alcohol or marijuana? Are you crazy? A highly addictive drug like that? You want your children to be able to buy heroin at the local drug store?”

I never felt that I had a good answer to this issue until I read a book called Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari.

Of course, I still believe that an individual should be able to put anything that they want into their body – no matter how damaging it might be. But the argument in favor or legalizing heroin discussed in Hari’s book has nothing to do with this.