
Young people were not dying in the streets when opiates were legal in the United States. It took drug laws to accomplish that. By outlawing opium and refusing to teach safe use, the Drug Warrior has subjected users to contaminated product of uncertain dosage, thereby causing thousands of unnecessary overdoses.
Currently, I myself am chemically dependent on a Big Pharma drug for depression, that I have to take every day of my life. There is no rational reason why I should not be able to smoke opium daily instead. It is only drug-war fearmongering that has demonized that choice -- for obvious racist, economic and political reasons.
You have been lied to your entire life about opium. In fact, the Drug War has done its best to excise the very word "opium" from the English vocabulary. That's why the Thomas Jefferson Foundation refuses to talk about the 1987 raid on Monticello in which Reagan's DEA confiscated Thomas Jefferson's poppy plants in violation of everything he stood for, politically speaking. It's just plain impolite to bring up that subject these days.
It's hard to learn the truth about opium because the few books on the subject demonize it rather than discuss it dispassionately. Take the book by John Halpern: "Opium: How an ancient flower shaped and poisoned our world." It's a typical Drug Warrior title. A flower did not poison our world, John: our world was poisoned by bad laws: laws that were inspired first and foremost by racism, followed closely by commercial interests, politics, misinformation and lies.
To learn something approaching to "
the truth about Opium," read the book of that name by William Brereton, written to defend the time-honored panacea from the uninformed and libelous attacks of Christian missionaries.
'Synthetic Panics' by Philip JenkinsBlaming Drugs for Nazi GermanyBrahms is NOT the best antidepressantClodhoppers on DrugsDisease Mongering in the age of the Drug WarEven Howard Zinn Reckons without the Drug WarFive problems with The Psychedelic Handbook by Rick StrassmanIn the Realm of Hungry Drug WarriorsIntoxiphobiaMichael Pollan on DrugsNoam Chomsky on DrugsOpen Letter to Francis FukuyamaOpium for the Masses by Jim HogshirePsilocybin Mushrooms by Edward LewisPsychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches: LSD, Cannabis, and Spiritual Sacraments in Underground AmericaReview of When Plants DreamRichard Rudgley condemns 'drugs' with faint praiseThe Drug War Imperialism of Richard Evans SchultesThe End Times by Bryan WalshWhat Andrew Weil Got WrongWhat Carl Hart MissedWhat Rick Strassman Got WrongWhiteoutWhy Drug Warriors are NazisIn Defense of OpiumMedications for so-called 'opioid-use disorder' are legionOpen Letter to Margo MargaritoffOpium for the Masses by Jim HogshireRe-Legalize Opium NowSmart Uses for Opium and CocaThe Drug War Cure for CovidThe Drug-Hating Bias of Modern ScienceThe Kangaroo Courts of Modern ScienceThe REAL Lesson of the Opium WarsThe Truth About Opium by William H. BreretonWhy doctors should prescribe opium for depression