Can Prohibitionists Admire Steve Jobs?

Quoting the New York Times obituary of Steve Jobs, Glenn Greenwald notes that the Apple impresario "told a reporter that taking LSD was one of the two or three most important things he had done in his life." In fact, "he said there were things about him that people who had not tried psychedelics—even people who knew him well, including his wife—could never understand." Greenwald suggests that "it's rather difficult to reconcile America's adoration for Steve Jobs with its ongoing obsession with prosecuting and imprisoning millions of citizens (mostly poor and minorities) for doing what Jobs, Obama, George W. Bush, Michael Phelps and millions of others have done."

I don't know about that: You can admire Steve Jobs yet think he was mistaken about LSD's positive impact, just as you might admire John Travolta's skills as an actor or Mitt Romney's skills as a venture capitalist without buying into Scientology or Mormonism. It is even possible to accept that LSD gave us the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad but nevertheless believe the damage caused by widespread availability of the drug would outweigh the benefits of such innovations. But Greenwald is right that Jobs' experience vividly illustrates how people can be highly successful not only in spite of but partly because of their illegal drug use. More generally, the life-enhancing potential of drugs—including the sheer fun of using them as well as the possibility of world-changing inspiration—must be considered in any honest cost-benefit analysis of prohibition.

Maia Szalavitz has more on Jobs and LSD at Time. Coed Magazine's list of "20 Most Notable LSD Users of All Time" includes Jobs but leaves out Nobel-winning chemist Kary Mullis and Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill Wilson.