just when you thought it was safe to go back into the insane asylum...
by Brian Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher
July 11, 2023
Letter sent to: Michael Gordon Voss, publisher of Science News
I am a 64-year-old chronic depressive whose uncle's brain was scrambled by ECT.
As such, I am horrified by the fact that Science News is championing invasive electrical therapy for the depressed while simultaneously ignoring the fact that we have outlawed hundreds of godsends that could treat depression without such risks.
Merely chewing the coca leaf daily could fend off the majority of depression in America, as the long-lived Inca could have told us. Laughing gas has obvious uses, though reductionist scientists refuse to see them. MDMA 1 and its hundreds of cousins have the power to elate and inspire without addicting. Even addictive drugs can be used non-addictively to cheer and inspire, though modern Drug War ideology insists otherwise.
Yet Science News continues to publish articles like this that imply that the drugs that we have outlawed do not even exist! This is Christian Science, not science, and it lets the Drug War off the hook for the way it is clearly censoring science -- and causing scientists and authors (like Laura Sanders) to self-censor their work.
The Drug War DOES exist. Prohibition DOES exist. And it is having a profound effect on what Science News will even report or consider.
SN should begin adding a disclaimer to all articles on topics like depression, stating that many options for treatment have been ignored in conformance with Drug War prejudices. Until that happens, your articles on subjects like depression belong in a magazine about Christian Science, not science.
Euthanasia and Shock Therapy in the age of the Drug War
It is bizarre that we should have "the right to die" in a world that outlaws drugs. That means, in effect, that we have a right to die, but we do not have the right to use drugs that might make us want to live. Bad policy is indicated by absurd outcomes, and this is but one of many absurd outcomes that the policy of prohibition foists upon the world -- and yet which remain unaccountably invisible to almost everyone, including almost all proponents of the aforesaid euthanasia.
It's already risky to engage in free and honest speech about drugs online: Colorado politicians tried to make it absolutely illegal in February 2024. The DRUG WAR IS ALL ABOUT DESTROYING DEMOCRACY THRU IGNORANT AND INTOLERANT FEARMONGERING.
Getting off some drugs could actually be fun and instructive, by using a variety of other drugs to keep one's mind off the withdrawal process. But America believes that getting off a drug should be a big moral battle.
The best harm reduction strategy would be to re-legalize opium and cocaine. We would thereby end depression in America and free Americans from their abject reliance on the healthcare industry.
Drug prohibition began as a racist attempt to prevent so-called "miscegenation." The racist's fear was not that a white woman would use opium or marijuana or cocaine, but that she might actually fall in love with a Chinese, Hispanic or Black person respectively.
Drug use is judged by different standards than any other risky activity in the western world. One death can lead to outrage, even though that death might be statistically insignificant.
Here is a sample drug-use report from the book "Pihkal":
"More than tranquil, I was completely at peace, in a beautiful, benign, and placid place."
Prohibition is a crime against humanity for withholding such drug experiences from the depressed (and from everybody else).
It's amazing. Drug law is outlawing science -- and yet so few complain. Drug law tells us what mushrooms we can collect, for God's sake. Is that not straight-up insane? Or are Americans so used to being treated as children that they accept this corrupt status quo?
I agree that Big Pharma drugs have wrought disaster when used in psychotherapy -- but it is common sense that non-Big Pharma drugs that elate could be used to prevent suicide and obviate the need for ECT.
Magazines like Psychology Today continue to publish feel-good articles about depression which completely ignore the fact that we have outlawed all drugs that could end depression in a heartbeat.
Drug War propaganda is all about convincing us that we will never be able to use drugs wisely. But the drug warriors are not taking any chances: they're doing all they can to make that a self-fulfilling prophecy.
It's already risky to engage in free and honest speech about drugs online: Colorado politicians tried to make it absolutely illegal in February 2024. The DRUG WAR IS ALL ABOUT DESTROYING DEMOCRACY THRU IGNORANT AND INTOLERANT FEARMONGERING.
