Placebic Public Policy: The Ineffectiveness of “Feel Good” Legislation

As a society, we have a tendency to try to collectively make ourselves feel better about subjects that make us uncomfortable. Unfortunately, while legislation may make us feel better collectively, it also can be ineffective, or even detrimental.

When tragedy strikes, whether on a national level or a personal one, we feel we must take action to prevent such tragedy in the future. The most recent example of this is our response to mass killings involving guns in Aurora, Colorado, and Newtown, Connecticut. But there is another set of public policies that are based on tragedy on a smaller scale, the tragedy of drug addiction. Anyone who has seen a friend or relative slip into addiction can understand that there is a need to address the drug issue and “fix” the problem of addiction, although as we have seen in the last 100 years, drug prohibition is a failed policy, albeit one derived from the best of intentions.