Issue 398 Government should not help addicts August 11, 2014

I am going to sound harsh, and very callus here.  In truth I am only saying this because this is how libertarians in general believe about people who are addicted to drugs.  We should not have government spend a single penny to help these individuals.  Allow me to explain.

Reasoning:  Libertarians believe in personal responsibility.  As such, we believe in legalized drugs.  How do these two thing go together you ask?  Simple, if you take an illegal drug that is harmful and get sick from it then it is your responsibility for making yourself healthy again.  Basically, you break yourself, then you got to fix yourself.  

Splitting hairs:  While we believe in personal responsibility, we also believe in being charitable.  As such, if any help was to come from anyone, it will be 100% voluntary out of the goodness of their own hearts.  So there will be no government aid of government footing the bill for your health care if you get sick because of an illegal substance.  Sure a church or other charity can, but government no.  Reason being is that government uses force, and forcing you to give up tax dollars to pay for someone’s mess is just plain wrong.  In addition, if you are on an illegal substance, then the government should deny you any health, and welfare benefits.  So no unemployment, no Medicaid, not a thing until you test clean.  It is not the government’s job to pay for your food and shelter if you waste your actual income on trash.

Conclusion:  Benjamin Franklin once said "we must make them uncomfortable in their own shoes" (I paraphrased here).  He was referring to welfare and charity as a whole.  This concept was so that the kindness of strangers was not to be taken advantage of (and also why many of the founders argued for any aid from government being at the local level exclusively).  We are now at a time where people will take advantage of government for free stuff and thus we must pull back from our over generosity.  Florida has taken the first step with their welfare system and we need it copied and expanded.  Libertarians are done paying for people's bad habits.  You put yourself into the health situation, now embrace the consequences.  Sorry, but it is your responsibility, if you get any help it will be out of the kindness of others hearts, not out of the hands of a massive government who knows not generosity but human greed and manipulation.