After Szasz

Homepage of the Drug War Philosopher, Brian Quass

After Szasz

How mainstream drug attitudes have become worse than ever in the 21st century

by Brian Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher

March 15, 2026

The depressing thing about reading Thomas Szasz ¹ today is that it makes me think as follows: If such an intelligent man can so clearly present the facts of the case and not succeed in changing mainstream minds, what chance do I have as a relative dimwit, a thoroughly "unconnected" dimwit at that? For I am sorry to say that the situation since Szasz's time has gotten worse when it comes to America's drug attitudes, not better. This is obvious given the bizarre reaction of pundits of all stripes to the case of Claire Brosseau, the depressed Canadian who is fighting for her right to assisted suicide.² Had Szasz been around today, he would surely be pointing out the fact that Claire's morbid activism must be seen in light of drug prohibition, which outlaws all the drugs that could cheer Claire up in a trice! The state first outlaws Claire's right to heal, and now Claire demands that the same state help her to die BECAUSE of the depression that the state thus brought about! Claire should be fighting to end drug prohibition which outlaws her right to heal, not arguing for a new recherché right to have the state help her to die!

New York Times healthcare reporter Stephanie Nolen reported on Claire's situation in late 2025 in an article in which drug prohibition was never mentioned, not once, neither by Claire nor by her two psychiatrists nor by Nolen herself. ³ And the story gets weirder. Surely, I thought, at least the Cato Institute would see the role of drug prohibition here in sending Claire to the gallows. But when I wrote to Jeffery Singer ⁴ ⁵ on this score, he referred me to his statements on the matter in which he never once mentioned drug prohibition, although he did call for Claire's right to obtain healthcare from non-state sources. It seems that even Singer believes that Claire's case is all about assisted suicide and that drug prohibition is somehow a separate and unrelated topic. Consider what these people are saying by ignoring the potential benefits of drugs in Claire's case: they are saying that death itself is better than drug use! Let's say that again: they are saying that death itself is better than drug use!

This is what happens when the media censors all positive drug use from the public record.

Nolen seems to know nothing about drug benefits, many of which, however, are common sense as in the case of laughing gas. Instead she assures us that Claire has tried "drugs" and that they failed -- as if "drugs" was an objective category rather than a catchall phrase for the endless list of competitors to alcohol of which racist politicians disapprove. It is simply not possible that "drugs" could fail for Claire, although any particular drug could fail. It will be difficult to find the right drug given our draconic drug laws, but drugs could never fail Claire in a free market. If we consider the healing value of anticipation, there is great obvious power in drugs like opium, laughing gas, phenethylamines and cocaine to cheer the depressed up, and without addicting her, although, the precise drugs to use for that purpose will obviously vary from person to person.

This is all common sense stuff. But some drug or drugs will work, if we value Claire's life and let her find them, preferably with the help of a pharmacologically savvy empath ⁶ ⁷ After all, the bogus category of "drugs" includes the kinds of substances that have inspired entire religions and philosophies, as Soma inspired the Vedic religion ⁸ and laughing gas inspired the philosophy of William James ⁹ ¹⁰. The phenethylamines synthesized by Alexander Shulgin even gave users what they described as a glimpse of heaven itself.¹¹ One merely displays their ignorance of pharmacology and ethnobotany and drug history in general when they dismiss the power of drugs in less than a full sentence, as does Nolen in her politically correct treatment of the Brosseau case.

It might be said that we cannot blame Nolen for ignoring drug prohibition if none of the principals in the case ever mention it themselves, and yet this connection is so obvious to me that I am astounded that a health reporter would NOT mention it, if only to draw these people out and have them confront the 6,000-pound gorilla in the room. Claire is asking for nothing less than death itself, so surely the fact that drug prohibition drastically limits her ability to cheer herself up should be considered as HUGELY relevant to her story. And yet, as I have shown repeatedly, Americans -- even Libertarians -- seem to observe the following rules of politeness in public discourse: never admit that there are positive uses for drugs, and never admit that there are negative outcomes to prohibition.

This is why anti-violence groups for inner cities never blame drug prohibition for the presence of guns in the first place.¹² They have a prior commitment to the drug-hating ideology of the War on Drugs, and so even ending inner-city violence comes in second place to that objective. The problem, of course, is that if we never acknowledge the problem, we will never end it.

Some might say that the book by Carl Hart shows that American attitudes are changing about drugs.¹³ Hart published the tellingly titled "Drug Use for Grown-Ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear" in 2020.¹⁴ We do, of course, owe Hart a debt of gratitude for speaking common sense from the user's point of view. Unfortunately, Hart opens his book by insisting that the drugs that he uses are for recreational use only and that all of our real concerns about our psychological health should be treated by a doctor. (Hart apparently wanted to reassure Big Pharma that he was not trying to lay his hands on their golden goose: namely, the dependent patient.) Can Hart really believe that, though, that drugs that have inspired entire religions cannot be used to cheer one up, for instance? And who are these doctors that Hart wants me to visit? These are the doctors who "saved me" from time-honored substances like opium and laughing gas and phenethylamines by shunting me off onto a Big Pharma med that is far harder to kick than heroin ¹⁵! They have thereby turned me into a patient for life, a ward of the healthcare state, and an eternal child. And yet Hart tells me that drugs that can give me glimpses of heaven somehow should not be used to cheer myself up?!

He would not say that if he were a 67-year-old who had to see a doctor less than half his age every three months of his life for permission to buy another refill of an under-performing, expensive and highly dependence-causing "med." The big mistake of my life was to ever go to doctors in the first place in my teens -- but then what could I do? I was depressed, and drug prohibition had given psychiatry a monopoly on prescribing mind and mood medicine. This is why I envy those who have the guts and the wisdom to use outlawed drugs wisely despite drug prohibition and I wish them Godspeed in avoiding the Christian Science Police, who are determined to punish them as severely as humanly possible -- with the same fervor as protestants once punished Catholics in the 16th century, inventing ever-new ways to make their lives a hell.¹⁶ For them, drug use must always end in tragedy -- and their job is to turn that "idée fixe" of theirs into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Author's Follow-up:

April 13, 2026

picture of clock metaphorically suggesting a follow-up

Thomas Szasz

Quotes from Thomas Szasz

Key Takeaways:

The depressed Claire Brosseau wants the state to kill her, the same state that denies her the use of medicines that could make her wish to live.
The media censors all positive uses of drugs, but then most content producers do that for them anyway.
The category 'drugs' includes the kinds of substances whose use has inspired entire religions.
Americans outlawed all drugs except for the dependence-causing 'meds' of Big Pharma, thereby turning the depressed into wards of the healthcare state.

Notes for essay entitled After Szasz: How mainstream drug attitudes have become worse than ever in the 21st century:

1: “The Thomas S. Szasz Cybercenter for Liberty and Responsibility.” 2025. Szasz.com. 2025. https://www.szasz.com/. (up)
2: No one would need assisted suicide if we ended drug prohibition: what Claire Brosseau's case tells us about the warped mindset of the west when it comes to drugs DWP (up)
3: Nolen, Stephanie, and Chloë Ellingson. 2025. “Claire Brosseau Wants to Die. Will Canada Let Her?” The New York Times, December 29, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/29/health/assisted-death-mental-illness-canada.html. (up)
4: https://www.cato.org/people/jeffrey-singer. 2025. “Your Body, Your Health Care.” Cato Institute. April 8, 2025. https://www.cato.org/books/body-health-care. (up)
5: Your Body, Your Health Care: a philosophical review of the new book by Jeffrey A. Singer DWP (up)
6: pharmacologically-savvy empath: this is an empathic individual with an ethnobotanical knowledge of safe and beneficial drug use worldwide, someone who recognizes psychological common sense and can advise on protocols that meet user needs while avoiding unwanted dependency. (up)
7: Replacing Psychiatry with Pharmacologically Savvy Shamanism DWP (up)
8: “Soma: The Nectar of the Gods.” n.d. History of Ayurveda. https://www.historyofayurveda.org/library/soma. (up)
9: Forbes Magazine's Laughable Article about Nitrous Oxide DWP (up)
10: A Philosophical Review of "The Varieties of Religious Experience"-- How William James failed to connect the dots DWP (up)
11: Shulgin, Alexander T, and Ann Shulgin. 2019. Pihkal : A Chemical Love Story. Berkeley, Ca: Transform Press. (up)
12: Heather Ann Thompson. 2014. The Atlantic. The Atlantic. October 30, 2014. https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/10/inner-city-violence-in-the-age-of-mass-incarceration/382154/. (up)
13: What Carl Hart Missed DWP (up)
14: Drug Use for Grownups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear Hart, Carl (up)
15: Heroin versus Antidepressants DWP (up)
16: Gunning for Marijuana Users DWP (up)

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Ten Tweets

against the hateful war on US

71% of the depressed have relapses after getting off their meds. Doctors blame this on depression, but increasing evidence suggests that these people are having withdrawal problems.

The Drug War is the ultimate example of strategic fearmongering by self-interested politicians.

In the board game "Sky Team," you collect "coffees" to improve your flying skills. Funny how the use of any other brain-focusing "drug" in real life is considered to be an obvious sign of impairment.

America legalizes alcohol and then outlaws all the drugs that could help prevent and cure alcoholism.

The American Philosophy Association should make itself useful and release a statement saying that the drug war is based on fallacious reasoning, namely, the idea that substances can be bad in themselves, without regard for why, when, where and/or how they are used.

Freud thought cocaine was a great antidepressant. His contemporaries demonized the drug by focusing only on the rare misusers. That's like judging alcohol by focusing on alcoholics.

Big Pharma drugs have wrought disaster when used in psychotherapy, but it does not follow that the depressed should become Christian Scientists. The use of outlawed drugs can obviate the need for shock therapy.

The Cabinet of Caligari ('62) ends with a shameless display of psychiatric triumphalism. Happy shock therapy patients waltz freely about a mansion in which the "sick" protagonist has just been "cured" by tranquilizers and psychoanalysis. Did Robert Bloch believe his own script?

Malcolm X sensed an important truth about drugs: the fact that it was always a self-interested category error for Americans to place medical doctors in charge of mind and mood medicine.

Someday the world will realize that Freud's real achievement was his discovery of the depression-busting power of cocaine.

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(up)

After Szasz

How mainstream drug attitudes have become worse than ever in the 21st century

Author's Follow-up:

April 13, 2026

Thomas Szasz

Key Takeaways:

Ten Tweets

against the hateful war on US

Break the ice with a sledgehammer: place this book on your coffee table.

Diary of a Drug Fiend