The legislation of morality- where do we go from here?

Friday 19/07/2013 14:20 GMT - Legislating morals.......this has been a debate  which has raged on for time immemorial - sometimes resulting in genuine progress but often regressing into the realm of the unjust, unfair and unequal treatment of people for the wrong reasons. Indeed democracy itself, as a system of government, has been fundamentally shaken on a number of occasions - especially where small and often not fully aware majorities have forced their standards on large minorities within a society. Some would argue that it is not actually possible to legislate morals and that crucial to any truly fair system of running civil society is a combination of understanding, open-mindedness, and a willingness to live and let live - the principle caveat underlying the functionality of this concept being that no person has the right to invade another person's personal space or to deprive others in any way of what are almost universally accepted human rights. In principle, this would appear to be a sensible approach for people who must share everyday life on a planet of over 7 billion persons from many different races, cultures, religions and belief systems.....but drawing the lines - as we sometimes must (with greater specificity) is not always easy - TAKE FOR EXAMPLE THE DECADES LONG DISCUSSION ON THE LEGALISATION OF MARIJUANA - HOW IS THIS WORSE, MANY ARGUE THAN THE LEGALISATION OF ALCOHOL - SHOULD IT NOT BE A MATTER FOR THE INDIVIDUAL TO DECIDE (AGAIN CONDITIONAL ON ANY SUCH DECISION NOT HAVING A NEGATIVE IMPACT ON THE LIFE OF ANY ONE ELSE)? BUT THE ARGUMENTS AND DISCUSSION POINTS HERE ARE WIDE AND VARIED - PLEASE SHARE WITH US SOME OF YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE QUESTION...: