So what? Drug use is about psychology, not physics.
by Brian Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher
March 17, 2024
"Drug Warriors rail against drugs as if they were one specific thing. They may as well rail against penicillin because cyanide can kill." -The Drug War Philosopher
Every now and then I run across a frustratingly wrongheaded reply to one of my tweets, but one which sounds just plausible enough that I feel the instant need to rebut it lest its sophistry bamboozle others. Today's offending Tweet is the following by one Samuel W.:
Anything pleasurable you do in withdrawal, kratom, fast food, video games, drugs, slows your brains adaptation to the new baseline. Withdrawal is excruciatingly painful. But what goes up, must come down. Can come down slow, or fast, but the pleasure-pain balance is always equal.
How does Samuel know this, exactly? Does he live on some island where he is able to investigate all types of potential drug therapies freely, without government interference? I fear not. For Samuel subsumes thousands of psychoactive godsends under the pejorative and dismissive label of "drugs," which is, of course, a political term meaning "psychoactive substances for which there is no legitimate use anytime, anywhere, ever"1. For him, the use of "drugs" - which is really a catchall term for thousands of potential godsends, some of which have inspired entire religions - is just another frivolous pleasure, on a par with playing video games and eating a Big Mac. In short, he still seems to hold the drug-hating viewpoint that he was force-fed in grade school by such fearmongering political organizations as DARE and the Partnership for a Drug Free America2, the organization responsible for the most mendacious public service advertisement in human history, which convinced generations of Americans that drugs that focus and expand the brain are actually responsible for "frying" it instead. (I'm assuming here that Samuel is an American; he certainly sounds like one to me based on the scientific materialism
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.
To oppose the Drug War philosophically, one has to highlight its connections to both materialism and the psychiatric pill mill. And that's a problem, because almost everyone is either a Drug Warrior or a materialist these days and has a vested interest in the continuation of the psychiatric pill mill.
Well, today's Oregon vote scuttles any ideas I might have entertained about retiring in Oregon.
"My faith votes and strives to outlaw religions that use substances of which politicians disapprove."
This hysterical reaction to rare negative events actually creates more rare negative events. This is why the DEA publicizes "drug problems," because by making them well known, they make the problems more prevalent and can thereby justify their huge budget.
Scientists cannot tell us if psychoactive drugs are worth the risk any more than they can tell us if free climbing is worth the risk, or horseback riding or target practice or parkour.
The problem for alcoholics is that alcohol decreases rationality in proportion as it provides the desired self-transcendence. Outlawed drugs can provide self-transcendence with INCREASED rationality and be far more likely to keep the problem drinker off booze than abstinence.
We don't need people to get "clean." We need people to start living a fulfilling life. The two things are different.
Immanuel Kant wrote that scientists are scornful about metaphysics yet they rely on it themselves without realizing it. This is a case in point, for the idea that euphoria and visions are unhelpful in life is a metaphysical viewpoint, not a scientific one.
Until prohibition ends, rehab is all about enforcing a Christian Science attitude toward psychoactive medicines (with the occasional hypocritical exception of Big Pharma meds).
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.