"The psychic effect of cocainum muriaticum in doses of 0.05-0.10 grams consists in a general raising of the spirits and constant euphoria, which differs in no way from the normal euphoria of healthy human beings.... One feels an increase in self-control, and feels revitalised and better able to work...."
When we judge (or rather demonize) drugs in this way, we are judging far more than drugs. If we say, for instance, that cocaine should be illegal, we are tacitly also pronouncing on the importance of having a focused and cheerful mindset, on the propriety of living life like Sherlock Holmes or Robin Williams. We are saying, in effect, that such ways of "being in the world" are not as important as 100% safety. We are saying, to be specific, that solving my depression is not as important as 100% safety for all parties who are even remotely concerned. This is easy for scientists and moralists to say, because they have no skin in this game. They are like a landlubber calling for the outlawing of boat racing. They therefore feel free to run roughshod over the rights to godsend healthcare for the depressed. Unfortunately, I seem to be the only depressed person in the world who recognizes this fact, however, this failure on the part of the mainstream to honor me as a stakeholder in the drug legislation game. Otherwise, every self-help group for the depressed would be demanding the end of this drug prohibition which refuses to consider the depressed as stakeholders in our government's drug-related policy decisions. And yet almost all such groups have been bamboozled into viewing drugs as a problem, not as an answer. "The White Man goes into his church house and talks about Jesus, but the Indian goes into his tipi and talks to Jesus."
We might paraphrase Parker's observation as follows:"The westerner goes into their local library and reads self-help books about feeling great; the free individual uses the world's many godsend medicines to actually feel great."
"My impression has been that the use of cocaine over a long time can bring about lasting improvement..." --Sigmund Freud, On Cocaine, 1884
"The White Man goes into his church house and talks about Jesus, but the Indian goes into his tipi and talks to Jesus." 8
"The White Man goes to an expensive psychoanalyst to find out WHY he feels lousy -- the Native American uses Mother Nature's medicines so that he no longer feels lousy."
Unfortunately, the American chemist seems to have considered the testimony of such users as merely one input in determining what drugs might help the depressed. He felt that any true antidepressant had to be a one-size-fits-all pill that will affect different people in more or less identical ways. This approach was certainly in Shulgin's financial interests given his work for pharmaceutical companies. However, had Shulgin risen above his own self-interest, he would have seen that the testimony of the drug users is EVERYTHING. We need to trust them to tell us what works for THEM -- and in which particular circumstances it works. In other words, we have to embrace all the unique variables of drug use that the Drug Warrior completely ignores! Only in this way can we find out what works for whom and under which circumstances. Freud had the right idea: He noticed that cocaine use actually ended depression in his patients. Unfortunately, he was ambitious and was more interested in making a name for himself than in pushing back against the statistically challenged fear mongering of prohibitionists.
"My impression has been that the use of cocaine over a long time can bring about lasting improvement..." --Sigmund Freud, On Cocaine
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?
Prohibitionists have blood on their hands. People do not naturally die in the tens of thousands from opioid use, notwithstanding the lies of 19th-century missionaries in China. It takes bad drug policy to accomplish that.
If our loved ones should experience severe depression and visit an emergency room for treatment, they will be started on a regime of dependence-causing Big Pharma drugs. They will not be given any drugs that elate and inspire.
I wonder if Nixon knew what a favor he was doing medical capitalism when he outlawed psychedelics. Those drugs can actually cure things, and there's no money in that.
Science knows nothing of the human spirit and of the hopes and dreams of humankind. Science cannot tell us whether a given drug risk is worthwhile given the human need for creativity and passion in their life. Science has no expertise in making such philosophical judgements.
In "The Book of the Damned," Charles Fort writes about the data that science has damned, by which he means "excluded." The fact that drugs can inspire and elate is one such fact, although when Fort wrote his anti-materialist broadside, drug prohibition was in its infancy.
Anytime you hear that a psychoactive drug has not been proven to be effective, it's a lie. People can make such claims only by dogmatically ignoring all the glaringly obvious signs of efficacy.
Mariani Wine is the real McCoy, with Bolivian coca leaves (tho' not with cocaine, as Wikipedia says). I'll be writing more about my experience with it soon. I was impressed. It's the same drink "on which" HG Wells and Jules Verne wrote their stories.
The DEA is gaslighting Americans, telling them that drugs with obvious benefits have no benefits whatsoever. Scientists collude in this lie thanks to their adherence to the emotion-scorning principles of behaviorism.
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.