I would be all for making sports gambling legal and unrestrained if society wasn't expected to pick up the mess if something goes wrong. The same argument with drug legalization: if we are morally on the hook for millions of dollars in rehab costs, then no, you shouldn't be allowed to do hard drugs. Alcohol and tobacco use are similar vices where I'm not ok with unrestrained access if society is expected to provide the resources to pick up pieces of bad results. Freedom with responsibility for your own actions is fine, freedom without responsibility is not ok, it simply isn't a feasible option.
I fail to see though how we can do this correctly either way though.
Option 1: full ban on alcohol and hard drugs because we have safety nets in place - basically similar to hard drugs today, but the bans are impossible to enforce and society is still constantly getting f*ked (take a walk anywhere in SF).
Option 2: libertarian style, no bans on any vice but personal responsibility is in full force, no bailouts for those who get in trouble. Problem is the addicts will still make a huge mess of things for the rest of us and they won’t clean up those “messes” themselves so we either put up with massive crime and addicts everywhere… or grudgingly pay for them anyway.
I’m not saying any of this to rebut and say you’re wrong, rather, I agree with you that those would be the ideal combos but I don’t know how we could make them a reality.
But then we are just stuck between option 1 and 2 as we are right now. My point is option 3: libertarian no-ban but full social safety net is the opposite of ideal, while options 1 and 2 are ideal but not achievable.
So here we are with some rules and some safety net, because its the only workable option?
