I kind of agree. But Troy and Zane fail to understand that the opioid crisis is just one of many inevitable results of substance prohibition itself. And since legalizing opioids is such a big ask already, they might as well go for the brass ring and pursue the legalization 1 of all naturally occurring substances, including opium itself.
My views on this topic are perhaps made somewhat clearer in the following comment I posted beneath the article above cited, though my comment was really in response to another comment by a certain Dr. Michael Atkins, who IMHO betrayed his allegiance -- consciously or otherwise -- to a variety of Drug Warrior lies.
Does Michael not realize that no one in their right mind would use a super-addictive opioid if all psychoactive plant substances (like opium , pot and mushrooms) were legal -- like they have been thru 99.9% of recorded history, until America, the one nation founded on Natural Law, decided for racist reasons to start outlawing plants in 1914? It is the outlawing of all natural mood-affecting psychoactive substances that has incentivized bad guys to profit by selling highly addictive synthesized drugs. The result, Michael? We have an all-out war in Mexico, prisons full of minorities, a self-proclaimed "Drug War Hitler" in the Philippines, and movies 23 in which Americans are encouraged to cheer on DEA agents who are gleefully violating the US Constitution -- a document which they obviously hold in disdain. Besides, doctors have no leg to stand on in denouncing addiction, since they tell addicted psychiatric patients like myself to "keep taking our meds." After 40 years of addiction to doctors' brain-numbing drugs, however (oh, pardon me, their "meds"), I am as depressed as ever and longing to be able to use opium weekly instead (to better enjoy a concert, a la De Quincey). If I'm going to be addicted for life, I would prefer a substance that can assist my creativity and insight. Besides, opium is NOT addictive if used properly, whereas Big Pharma 45 antidepressants 6 are addictive BY DESIGN. They're meant to be taken every day of one's life! Marco Polo enjoyed opium 7 . As did Benjamin Franklin and Marcus Aurelius. If someone they knew had died of an overdose, they would have blamed a lack of education, both about substances and about life in general, rather than superstitiously blaming the death on an inanimate substance called a "drug."
Brits have a right to die, but they do not have the right to use drugs that might make them want to live. Bad policy is indicated by absurd outcomes, and this is but one of the many absurd outcomes that the policy of prohibition foists upon the world.
If the depressed patient laughs, that means nothing. Materialists have to see results under a microscopic or they will never sign off on a therapy.
The DEA outlawed MDMA in 1985, thereby depriving soldiers of a godsend treatment for PTSD. Apparently, the DEA staff slept well at night in the early 2000s as American soldiers were having their lives destroyed by IEDs.
Our tolerance for freedom wanes in proportion as we consider "drugs" to be demonic. This is the dark side behind the new ostensibly comic genre about Cocaine Bears and such. It shows that Americans are superstitious about drugs in a way that Neanderthals would have understood.
Why does no one talk about empathogens for preventing atrocities? Because they'd rather hate drugs than use them for the benefit of humanity. They don't want to solve problems, they prefer hatred.
Judging from research articles, they do not even teach the many obvious benefits of drugs in med school.
It's because of such reductive pseudoscience that America will allow us to shock the brains of the depressed but won't allow us to let them use the plant medicines that grow at their feet.
If we can go overseas to burn poppy plants, then Islamic countries should be free to come to the United States to burn our grape vines.
A pharmacologically savvy drug dealer would have no problem getting someone off one drug because they would use the common sense practice of fighting drugs with drugs. But materialist doctors would rather that the patient suffer than to use such psychologically obvious methods.
The International Observer says the "core issues" causing Mexican drug violence are: "corruption, inequality, and the demand for narcotics in the U.S." Wrong, wrong, wrong. The core issue is DRUG PROHIBITION.
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