Using cocaine is not immoral. Making deals for mind altering substances is not immoral. The difference between immoral and illegal is very very important. It is, fundamentally, a large part of the reason that bitcoin is such a great invention.
I always thought breaking the law was immoral by definition. I can think of situations where using cocaine is immoral, certainly selling harmful substances is immoral.
Sure, breaking the old Jim Crow laws was illegal, not immoral. But we're talking harmful drugs here.
kjj, Steve doesn't need people being exasperated. He just needs some explanation...
Steve, Consider the possibility that "breaking the law [is] immoral by definition" is similar to the feeling of stupidity that a (very intelligent) child gets when those taking care of him constantly tell him he's stupid. It's a lie that becomes true because we aren't psychologically advanced enough yet to resist the "availability heuristic". You can google that.
Jim Crow laws are an excellent example. Laws against marijuana are also excellent examples. Cocaine is dangerous - but it's a little less dangerous than sky diving, as far as I know. If you feel obligated to do something about whatever dangerous behaviors others choose to undertake, then by all means, do so, but please don't vilify others for leaving them alone or otherwise respecting their decisions to behave dangerously. Danger is fun! Caveat! It's also dangerous. But that doesn't make it immoral. It
does make it illegal, at least when there is a nanny state involved (as there usually is).
If challenging that idea ("breaking the law [is] immoral by definition") interests you, visit voluntaryist.com or (if you want resources that are out of my control - I'm the webmaster for voluntaryist.com), just google
immoral illegal different.
And I just read your post about the mentality - you're absolutely right, and that is a big problem. Once people see that illegal is often NOT immoral, they kind of lose their conscience until they "eat of the tree of knowledge" (which means to re-grow their own conscience). That is the result of having a nanny state. As Nietzsche says, religion (statism is also a religion) tends to replace the
self (that's you - your own conscience) with a Godhead (or a legal system). It's our job to undo that damage.