Cato on Date Rape Drugs

In the past, the Ed Crane led Cato Institute has sneered at some of Ron Paul's strict constitutional views. But a Cato handbook that includes a suggested reading list prepared by Ed Crane and David Boaz, makes clear that when it comes to  "date rape drugs", Cato takes the hardcore constitutional view that date rape drugs should not be regulated at the federal level:

 Sadly, congressional Republicans have adopted too much of that promiscuity. The speaker and the Senate majority leader led their colleagues late last year in hailing Congress’s passage of funding for 100,000 teachers for local school districts. Despite their rhetorical devotion to the Tenth Amendment, Republicans have federalized everything from marriage law to building Boys and Girls Clubs to penalties for church burning and distribution of ‘‘date rape drugs.’’

Of course, in thinking how,say, Mr. Libertarian, Murray Rothbard, might have viewed this particular perspective, he would certainly agree that just because they shouldn't be regulated at the federal level doesn't mean you should go out and use the damn things. And certainly slipping a date rape drug into a drink is a horrendous violation of basic libertarian principles.