# 2

Why the emphasis on the word adult and let's discuss the legal concepts of licit vs illicit.

Most of the 50 state's legislatures establish the age of majority as that point in time when a child becomes an adult.  In the previous post, I researched the law for the state in which the 18 year-old lad overdosed and died after consuming the licit substance, caffeine.  The lad was an adult and he made a choice which proved fatal.

There are a raft of reasons explaining why state legislatures establish that point in time when a child becomes an adult.  In the Civil Law, the age determination may govern when an individual can lawfully enter into a contract.  In the Criminal Law, the adult distinction marks a departure from the Juvenile Courts which , in many states, saw their primary duty as attending to the needs of the Juvenile offender.  Rehabilitation and correction were the objectives and, generally, no lasting or public record is created.  The child is given a second chance and starts fresh as an adult.  Additionally, despite findings in brain development intervals, society extends privileges to adults but it also imposes duties and expectations; one being that adults inform themselves of the Criminal and Traffic Laws.

Into this simple binary arrangement of Juvenile/Adult, the Criminal Law also reserves a category for the NGI defense (not Guilty by Reason of Insanity) and there is long case history regarding this defense, which includes terms like irresistible impulse, spur of the moment, etc.

Why are these three categories important for this discussion?

Every police officer, Detective, lawyer, Judge, Medical Examiner and Court Clerk is guided by the category when paperwork is filed.  Criminal charges depend upon the court in which the case will be heard; this is determined by the suspect's age or alleged mental status.  In some inter-family cases where all parties are adults, the case is still heard in Family or Juvenile and Domestic Relations Courts.

Yes, there are parents who believe that their adult children are still children, however, Criminal Courts and Society - as expressed by its legislature - do not agree.  By deeming persons as adults and placing an expectation that they must inform themselves of the Criminal Laws in their states, society removes any plea of ignorance of the law.  It is this pivotal lynchpin of our society which holds adults responsible for the decisions and choices they make; a child can say that they did not know better.

SOCIETY HOLDS ADULTS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DECISIONS THEY MAKE AND THEY MAY RECEIVE PUNISHMENT AND REHABILITATION WHEN THEIR DECISIONS BREAK THE LAW. 

CHOICES ADULTS MAKE REGARDING LETHAL SUBSTANCES ARE LESS FORGIVING AND MAY PROVE FATAL.

The Eighteenth Amendment (Amendment XVIII) of the United States Constitution effectively established the prohibition of alcoholic beverages in the United States by declaring the production, transport, and sale of alcohol (though not the consumption or private possession) illegal. The separate Volstead Act set down methods for enforcing the Eighteenth Amendment, and defined which "intoxicating liquors" were prohibited, and which were excluded from prohibition (e.g., for medical and religious purposes). The Amendment was the first to set a time delay before it would take effect following ratification, and the first to set a time limit for its ratification by the states. Its ratification was certified on January 16, 1919, with the amendment taking effect on January 16, 1920.

For the following 13 years Prohibition was officially in effect, though the ability to enforce it was limited by the Volstead Act and by corrupt and complacent politicians who overlooked illicit manufacturing and smuggling.^[1] The amendment was repealed in 1933 by ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, the only instance in United States history that a constitutional amendment was repealed in its entirety.

In US society, substances are generally restricted or prohibited by legislatures because they are either bad, in-and-of-themselves (mala in se) or they are deemed bad-because-society-says-so (mala in prohibita).  The above example of US Society finding ethyl alcohol mala in prohibita lasted for thirteen years.  Then, society said that the same substance could be returned for consumption.  So alcohol was once illicit, yet today it is licit.  All the while, ethyl alcohol is recognized as a known lethal substance, a Central Nervous Center Depressant (CND), and always quite capable of escorting an abuser down a slope which makes stops along the way of euphoria, inebriation, intoxication, sleep, coma and delivery to death's doorstep.  The substance has not changed in its pharmacological effect, rather, society has changed the way in which it categorizes the substance.

Ethyl Alcohol is toxic and lethal and it has an LD50 (Lethal Dosage in which 50% of a tested population will expire) yet society classifies it as licit.

Caffeine is a toxic poison and it has an LD50, yet society classifies it as licit.

Nicotine is a toxic poison and it has an LD50, yet society classifies it as licit.

Nitrous oxide, in the form of whipping cream canisters, can be fatal if its inhalation excludes Oxygen, yet society classifies it as licit.

On the other hand;

Marijuana and Hash Hish, according to the literature and Journal Of Forensic Sciences, have no known LD50 and present no known deaths resulting from toxicity related to their usage, yet society has deemed them illicit.

LSD (lysergic-acid-diethylamine), according to the literature and Journal of Forensic Sciences, has no known deaths relating from toxicity related to its usage, yet society has deemed LSD illicit*.

So exactly what is the big deal regarding licit vs illicit?

The answer is CREDIBILITY as presented by the adult messenger.  Imagine being a 16 year old in a rural community in the Shenandoah Valley who is enrolled in the D.A.R.E. program at High School.  The State Trooper and teacher explain how marijuana and LSD are illegal and they report that the substances can permanently alter brain and other body activities.  The student asks, "Can either substance kill me?"  The teacher responds, "In the 1960s, persons high on an LSD trip were known to jump off high buildings, believing they could fly, and persons on marijuana have been involved in fatal car accidents."  Over the course of the weekend, the same student may observe the State Trooper or teacher using the three toxic and potentially fatal substances of alcohol, caffeine and nicotine.

In the mind of a student in High School/Middle School, the persons they are to look-up-to tell them not to use non-fatal substances while they openly consume potentially fatal, yet licit, substances themselves. 

* Death Certificates related to persons who expire after jumping off high elevations list the cause as Blunt Force Trauma and do not attribute the cause of death to a substance; similarly, when an addicted substance abuser commits suicide with a firearm, the Cause is listed as Gunshot and it is not attributed to the abused substance.

Proverbs 20:7  The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him.

Next:  Exactly what happens when someone self-administers a mind altering substance?  and Why does anyone want to alter their mind?