To end crime without victims : the minimalist approach to drug ethics
In this paper in applied ethics, I want to show how the contrast between moral minimalism and maximalism can inform the debate on drug prohibition. Indeed, the principle of moral indifference toward oneself - defended by Ruwen Ogien - implies that we do not condemn the drug user on behalf of paternalism. More broadly, by not recognizing harmless crimes, minimalism puts aside some arguments for prohibition. That’s why the interest of the minimalist approach in drug ethics is less to decide puzzling cases, than to rule out some bad reasons and other maximalist and confused intuitions.