Open Letter to Congressman Ben Cline, asking him to abolish the criminal DEA
by Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher
July 2, 2020
Please tell the DEA to stop criminalizing research into godsend medicines. My mother has symptoms of dementia, and so many psychoactive plants show great promise in treating and even reversing it. Yet the CRIMINAL DEA criminalizes research on almost all such psychoactive substances. This is the same agency that poisoned Americans in the 1980s with Paraquat sprayed on marijuana. Paraquat has since been shown to cause Parkinson's Disease. So the DEA not only lies about substances that could possibly cure Alzheimer's disease, but they purposefully poison their own people (Americans) with CHEMICAL WEAPONS. ABOLISH the hateful DEA -- the anti-minority DEA -- the anti-nature DEA -- the anti-RESEARCH DEA -- and let my mother have peace in her final years. AND PUT FORMER DEA CHIEF JOHN C LAWN ON TRIAL for crimes against humanity1 for using chemical weapons against his own people.
May 9, 2022 The DEA has been lying about plant medicine in its so-called "scheduling" system since its creation in 1973, and yet to my knowledge, Brian is the only one who has ever called for the DEA to be criminally charged for this deceit -- the only one -- and yet it is a deceit which has caused endless anguish to billions around the world. American soldiers have had to go without a godsend treatment for PTSD for almost 40 years now after the DEA went against the advice of its own counsel to criminalize MDMA 2 in 1985. This deceit has also condemned Brian himself to a lifetime dependency on Big Pharma 34 meds. The fact that only one American, Brian, has ever asked for this crime to be punished demonstrates how bamboozled Americans have become about the politically created boogieman called "drugs," and it's no surprise -- given that we are all indoctrinated from childhood (in special classes organized by the teddy bear-toting local police force) to fear and loathe naturally occurring psychoactive substances, rather than to learn everything we can about them. Merely to start learning about prohibited substances is heresy these days because we're asked to hate substances that have been politically labeled as "drugs," not to understand them.
Politicians created the whole category of "drugs" insomuch as that term means "substances which are to be hated, feared and criminalized rather than studied and understood." In doing so, politicians created the drug problem. By constantly screaming "DRUGS!" they sent the following message to kids: "Hey, kids! Whatever you do, don't use these particular substances that we are screaming bloody hell about!" Well, of course, the rebellious kids pricked up their ears: "What? There are cool substances out there that our parents don't want us to use. Where can I find some of THOSE!?"
Then the politicians point to this obsession with drugs that they themselves have created and say, "See, we need a Drug War!" And don't hold your breath waiting to hear about responsible use of hated substances, like the fact that HG Wells and Jules Verne used coca wine when writing their famous stories, or that Marcus Aurelius and Benjamin Franklin enjoyed opium 5 , etc. The drug-war narrative is all about typically clueless white kids misusing the substances about which the Drug War enforces ignorance by law, literally censoring scientists from learning about the godsend medicines of which pharmacologically clueless politicians disapprove.
While the Drug Warrior "protects" white American kids with lies and half-truths about "drugs," they travel overseas to fight the drug cartels that America has created out of whole cloth with its unconstitutional war on godsend plant medicine.
They think that if they can save one Caucasian child from drug abuse, then the Drug War will be worth it, failing to realize that their Drug War is responsible for thousands of inner-city deaths every year in America due to gun violence 6 -- the violence that naturally follows prohibition. Over 800 blacks were killed this way in 2021 in Chicago alone and yet the Drug Warrior prides themselves for scaring white kids away from making a bad decision -- which is the only kind of decision that they can make about drugs in a Drug War society in which we prioritize fear over facts and incarceration 7 over education.
Many of my essays are about and/or directed to specific individuals, some well-known, others not so well known, and some flat-out nobodies like myself. Here is a growing list of names of people with links to my essays that in some way concern them.
Classic prohibitionist gaslighting, telling me that "drugs" is a neutral term. What planet are they living on?
If I want to use the kind of drugs that have inspired entire religions, fight depression, or follow up on the research of William James into altered states, I should not have to live in fear of the DEA crashing down my door and shouting: "GO! GO! GO!"
We should hold the DEA criminally responsible for withholding spirit-lifting drugs from the depressed. Responsible for what, you ask? For suicides and lobotomies, for starters.
The media called out Trump for fearmongering about immigrants, but the media engages in fearmongering when it comes to drugs. The latest TV plot line: "white teenage girl forced to use fentanyl!" America loves to feel morally superior about "drugs."
Almost all addiction services assume that the goal should be to get off all drugs. That is not science, it is Christian Science.
We know that anticipation and mental focus and relaxation have positive benefits -- but if these traits ae facilitated by "drugs," then we pretend that these same benefits somehow are no longer "real." This is a metaphysical bias, not a logical deduction.
Here are some political terms that are extremely problematic in the age of the drug war:
"clean," "junk," "dope," "recreational"... and most of all the word "drugs" itself, which is as biased and loaded as the word "scab."
Drugs that sharpen the mind should be thoroughly investigated for their potential to help dementia victims. Instead, we prefer to demonize these drugs as useless. That's anti-scientific and anti-patient.
Uruguay wants to re-legalize psilocybin mushrooms -- but only for use in a psychiatrist's office. So let me get this straight: psychiatrists are the new privileged shaman? It's a mushroom, for God's sake. Just re-legalize the damn thing and stop treating us like children.
If anyone manages to die during an ayahuasca ceremony, it is considered a knockdown argument against "drugs." If anyone dies during a hunting club get-together, it is considered the victim's own damn fault. The Drug War is the triumph of hypocritical idiocy.
Classic prohibitionist gaslighting, telling me that "drugs" is a neutral term. What planet are they living on?