A major effect of coercive drug laws in mixed-economy societies is to drive drug addiction underground. As has been seen previously, that underground environment generates exceptionally strong economic pressures to increase the number of addicts (pp. 5.4:75-6). Furthermore, users marginalized by such laws are understandably reluctant to seek professional assistance in overcoming their habits, fearing the legal retribution they may suffer if those habits become known. Without such assistance, of course, recovery is unlikely. In a free society, on the other hand, we might expect a less punitive atmosphere, more conducive both to the immediate treatment of addicts and to medical and psychological research into new approaches to eradicating such addiction.

A free society would not only facilitate the treatment of drug addiction, but would also eliminate the cultural conditions that drive so many individuals to substance abuse in mixed-economy systems. As should be evident by this point, the moral values and psychological conditions implicit in a statist society, founded on subjectivist and altruistic premises, are antithetical to those of a free society, based on reason and objective self-interest. The contrast between the values associated with statism (including mixed-economy systems like the current United States) and those associated with freedom are summarized in the table on the next page, which draws upon ideas developed throughout this course.