Review
For Vance, the fundamental issue in drug regulation is individual rights. He does not at all deny that these drugs can cause great harm; but the issue of regulation is not to be settled by balancing the benefits and harms of open access to drugs against the benefits and harms of their regulation or prohibition. Vance, it is apparent, has launched a remarkable war of his own, conducted with superb generalship, against the drug war; and one of the arguments in his campaign strikes me as an especially effective one. The harms of tobacco and alcohol vastly exceed the ill effects of dangerous drugs, yet there is no call to ban them. Prohibition is recognized by nearly everyone as a failure, not to be repeated. If this is so, how can one justify banning less dangerous substances? Vance writes from a viewpoint that will surprise many readers. He himself does not condone the use of dangerous drugs. To the contrary, he is a Christian and a Bible scholar of considerable note and he regards their use as sinful. 'As an adherent to the ethical principles of the New Testament, I regard drug abuse to be a vice, a sin, and an evil that Christians should avoid even as they avoid supporting the government's war on drugs' (p. 79). If Vance takes this view of drug use, why is he so adamant that people have the right to consume these drugs? His answer will be of interest to all students of moral theology. He holds that Christians can with perfect consistency uphold the distinction between vices and crimes, with only the latter an appropriate area for forcible suppression. Vance's admirable remarks on this topic will I suspect be of great interest even to those who do not share his faith.
The War on Drugs Is a War on Freedom is an outstanding contribution to the contemporary battle for liberty. It has the potential to do great good, and Vance deserves high praise for his magnificent work. --The Mises Review, David Gordon
To many newcomers to libertarian ideas especially Christians it is not always perfectly clear why libertarians oppose the War on Drugs so strenuously. Some Christians even think that the only reason libertarians oppose government prohibition is so that they can get high legally. Nothing could be further from the truth. Simply put, we despise government prohibition because it is a power no government should have. Moreover, the War on Drugs is an incredible example of precisely how a government usurps liberty, destroys lives, and consolidates power unto itself. This short book by Dr. Laurence Vance, writer at LCC, LewRockwell.com, Mises.org, and the Future of Freedom Foundation, explains in great detail why everyone should oppose the War on Drugs.... Now more than ever we Christians ought to expose the War on Drugs for what it is: a War on Freedom. Laurence Vance concisely brings you a wealth of information to educate you on the issues, and I highly recommend this book to any believer anywhere. --LibertarianChristians.com, Norman Horn
Vance notes correctly that the U.S. Constitution does not grant the federal government the authority to regulate the growing, selling, or ingesting of any material, drugs or not. The federal war on drugs is therefore unconstitutional, and should be ended immediately. He also notes that the Constitution does in theory give the states the power to regulate drugs, so states could, in effect, enact their own drug wars and be within constitutional boundaries. Vance, however, advocates total drug freedom as far as government intervention is concerned. He rightly mentions that employers, associations, clubs, and any other private entity have the authority to set their own rules in regard to drug use. For instance, an employer could have a zero-tolerance policy for alcohol, tobacco, and drugs and be fully constitutional because they are dictating conduct on their private property. Vance also accurately illustrates the inconsistency of punishing as a crime something that is a vice. In other words, an action that may harm the individual committing it (drug use) is made illegal and punished in the same manner as an action that harms another individual or individuals. After all, crimes such as murder, rape, physical abuse, assault, theft, fraud, etc. harm other people. Drug use, along with drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, an unhealthy diet, bungee jumping, skydiving, etc., can only harm the individual himself and are therefore, except for drug use, not crimes. Of course, individuals can commit crimes under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but in such cases they should be held accountable for the crimes they did commit. Most importantly, Vance's book forces the reader to think critically about the issue of the federal government s war on drugs. --From the Foreword by Jacob G. Hornberger
The most memorable new book that I couldn't put down this past year is a short paperback by Laurence Vance, a brilliant writer and college professor, called The War on Drugs is a War on Freedom. I am in the business of defending personal liberty, and hence I read freedom-defending works almost every day. Laurence Vance has written one of the most compelling arguments for personal bodily autonomy I have read in many years. This is not a book that preaches the joys of personal drug use. Rather, it calculates the cost of the drug war in lives, resources, and constitutional freedoms. It demonstrates how every person in America has lost freedom as we march toward a police state, triggered by a nanny-state mentality in Congress and statehouses, a Victorian blindness in the White House, and a supine judicial response to the government's misguided zeal. It damns the feds and the police for their ineffective defense of the Constitution, and it is the most effective indictment of the unintended consequences of the government's war on drugs, and one of the most articulate defenses of personal freedom, to come along in a generation. It will warm every libertarian's heart, and maybe wake up some politicians in Washington and in some state capitals. It should be given to every public office holder and cop in America. --Judge Andrew Napolitano, Reason.com, 2012: The Year in Books
About the Author
Laurence M. Vance is an author, a publisher, a lecturer, a freelance writer, the editor of the Classic Reprints series, and the director of the Francis Wayland Institute. He holds degrees in history, theology, accounting, and economics. The author of twenty books, he has contributed over 450 articles and book reviews to both secular and religious periodicals. Vance's writings have appeared in a diverse group of publications including the Ancient Baptist Journal, Bible Editions & Versions, Campaign for Liberty, LewRockwell.com, the Independent Review, the Free Market, Liberty, Chronicles, the Journal of Libertarian Studies, the Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society, the Review of Biblical Literature, Freedom Daily, and the New American. His writing interests include economics, taxation, politics, government spending and corruption, theology, English Bible history, Greek grammar, and the folly of war. He is a regular columnist and blogger for LewRockwell.com, and writes a weekly column for the Future of Freedom Foundation. Vance is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Grace Evangelical Society, and the International Society of Bible Collectors, and is a policy advisor of the Future of Freedom Foundation and an adjunct scholar of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.
