There are a number of things some people do to themselves and to consenting adults, that other people find absolutely disgusting. Smoking, chewing, dressing like the opposite sex, getting drunk, burning flags, getting high, terminating pregnancies, getting stoned, drooling over centerfolds, eating live cockles, eating dog, having affairs, buying sex: some people do it, other people would rather die first. We could call those habits vices. (Mind you, I am talking about things people do to themselves, or with grownups. Disgusting things people do to others, or with children, are crimes.)

Disgust is an unpleasurable sensation, and some people will want to remove the cause of it.

That can happen in a number of ways. Some will say that, free country or not, some things are just plain wrong, and they will point to an authority who says so, in some book that they themselves hold true.

Others will take a defensive approach, and will point out that nothing that anyone does in a society is an isolated incident, without consequences for the rest of us. So, they're just looking out for their own best interest, and sorry pal, that means that you can't practice your vice anymore.

And then there are people who see victims in the practitioners of vices. These people don't really want to do these disgusting things, they'll say, something makes them do it. We need to help them stop, because they can't do it.

Who is a socially responsible person, and who is a moralistic busybody? I am not going to make that call now. What I can say is that some strategies to stop disgusting habits work better than others.

Simply declaring something illegal will not do the trick. That does not diminish the demand for the goods or services involved, and it substitutes legal suppliers with ones that do not abide by a law. That means that the disgusting habit will still be practiced, but now without government quality control.

We in this country should know that from experience, because at one time we did a daring and radical social experiment called the Prohibition: we made marketing of alcohol illegal. That did not stop many people from wanting a drink. It did create organized crime. There is an out of print book called "Theft of the Nation" (by D.R. Cressey, I think), the result of years of government investigation. In it, it is documented how the mafia was a piece of Sicilian folklore until the Prohibition provided the economies of scale that made it a big business. And what Prohibition did for the mafia, heroin has done for the Chinese tongs, and cocaine has done for the Colombians: it has made them rich and powerful.

Simply declaring something legal is not going to do the trick, either. We could say: liberty is the freedom to do anything you want, anything which does not limit another person's liberty. It's a free country. You can indulge in any vice you want, until it kills you for all we care; and if you don't want to do it, nobody will force you. But that would not satisfy the disgusted part of the population.

This country also has seen a successful (although unplanned) strategy that has remarkably limited the use of one certain drug, and much more effectively than heavily enforced prohibition has done for cocaine and heroin.

Tobacco has never been prohibited. It's distribution has been heavily supervised. Its consumption has been taxed to the limit, that is, to the point where it is felt financially, but not so far that the demand for cheap tobacco invites illegal distribution. Distributors have been prohibited from using the mass media to convince people of the merit of their product. And individuals have been stimulated to personally convince potential users that tobacco hurts, and actual users that life without tobacco is possible.

The combination of public policy and personal interaction will not totally eradicate tobacco use, and it will not eradicate any disgusting habit.

Eradication is not a real option in living systems. Control is.

--Anne Zeilstra