Drug Prohibition and the End of Human Rights

Abstract

‘Addiction to narcotic drugs constitutes a serious evil for the individual and […] social and economic danger to mankind […] to prevent and combat this evil, [the parties agree upon […] coordinated and universal action.’ (The United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961, Preamble.) International law is posited as marking the transfer from the religious to the secular. This professed disenchantment of law is troubled by the explicit reference to ‘evil’ within the international laws prohibiting drugs. To explore what is meant by ‘evil’ for secular international law, I will revisit the theological tradition of accounting for the evidential problem of evil within God’s omnipotence. These theoretical claims cast new light upon the above reference to ‘evil.’ In this paper, I argue that the reference to ‘evil’ in the international legal treaty prohibiting drugs betrays ‘a theodicy of modernity.’