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Do you support parens patriae?

All vice crimes should be legal. Prohibition has been a proven failure. Legalizing drugs, prostitution, and gambling would save billions on enforcement and reap huge tax income. Furthermore, it would allow for regulation of these existing industries making them safer for everyone involved.

Parents have may have loftier ambitions for their children than any of those industries. Let them teach their kids to avoid them, the same way they might teach their kids not to smoke. Is a “High Driver,” somehow worse than a drunken one?

Why should the government be legislating morality when it’s a parent’s job?

Update:

Yes, I whole heatedly believe in the government's ability to collect sales tax - nothing would be reported on a tax return. Also, it would cease to be illegal so, no one would be engaging in illegal activity. This is more related to parenting than most questions in the parenting section and probably the most original in a while.

Agreed, the act of driving high should be illegal. However, getting high shouldn’t be anymore illegal than getting drunk.

Update 2:

Desmeran, do you deny the existence of the alcohol industry? Once upon a dark time in history, alcohol was illegal. Now it’s a booming, tax generating, business. It didn't happen overnight but it *absolutely* happened. Moonshine and/or bootleggers still exist but, they are nearly as prevalent as they were. The violence associated with alcohol is also a thing of the past.

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    generally speaking i don't think they should legislate morality but i do think they should regulate safety, particularly for the age group that is not old enough to be responsible for keeping themselves safe.

    the entire discussion of legalization of drugs and so on is a long one for something other than the parenting section. i agree it would save a lot on enforcement. i disagree that it would reap huge tax income (do you really think that people who are engaging in illegal activities now would turn around and start reporting them on their tax returns if they became legal tomorrow??). and some of them are more safety-related than others. that high or drunken driver, for example, is not a question of morality, but of public safety, which is a totally reasonable subject for legislation.

    *well, typically income to, say, the drug dealer would be reportable as income tax. if you're only talking sales tax, i still don't see how it is you think that the back-alley drug deals that are happening today will suddenly be replaced by reputable merchants dutifully adding in sales tax to the cost and turning that over to the government. the illegal street-corner dealer not charging sales tax could sell more cheaply than someone adding it in, so there would still be a market for the former.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Parens patriae may also be applied to juveniles. Look up the history.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Jimmy James' album is skipping.

  • Bubbie
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago

    Please re- read the definition!

    Not the correct category, it means State law and the ability for the State to protect minors.

    Your connection is misplaced.

  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    Stop asking this! FFS

  • 5 years ago

    B

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