Five Ways that the drug war causes the problems that it claims to solve
by Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher
July 20, 2020
The Drug War creates an enormous interest in "drugs" (aka Mother Nature's psychoactive plant medicines) by constantly harping on them as the root of all evil, in a way that no other society has ever done since the beginning of time.
The Drug War creates drug cartels in the same way that liquor prohibition created the mob.
The Drug War outlaws thousands of godsend psychoactive plant medicines that are far less addictive than Big Pharma meds, while incentivizing unscrupulous black marketeers to sell the most addictive synthetic substances possible.
The Drug War creates violence: including the Mexican Drug War that killed 85 Mexican civilians per day in 2018.
The Drug War guarantees impurity of drug supplies, and not just because unscrupulous dealers "cut" their product with toxic substances either: the DEA itself deliberately poisoned marijuana crops in the 1980s by spraying them with paraquat, a weed killer that has since been shown to cause Parkinson's Disease.
Conclusion: "drugs" are the modern boogeyman and scapegoat: it is what we talk about when we want to demonize bad behavior without having to discuss the social problems that created it, such as lack of education, not simply about drugs but about common sense and personal responsibility. It is also what we talk about when we want to remove a population from the voting rolls by tossing them in jail and removing their voting rights. The Drug War is thus simply a political ploy which helps the hypocritical beer-swilling Drug Warrior steal elections in order to keep the mendacious and anti-scientific Drug War mentality in full force. Why? In order to benefit the special interests who profit from it: including Big Pharma 12 , the American Psychiatric Association, Big Liquor, Law Enforcement, and the Corrections Industry.
Author's Follow-up: October 14, 2022
And these five points only scratch the surface. The Drug War's ideology of substance demonization has forced children in hospice to experience unnecessary pain because some hospitals refuse to administer morphine 3 , for the unscientific reason that they think the drug is evil in and of itself. Yes, the Drug Warrior would rather have children suffer than to re-legalize plant medicine. And then there are the depressed who have to undergo shock therapy because we have outlawed all the godsend medicines that might have helped them. In fact, the truth is exactly opposite from the lies of the Partnership for a Drug Free America 4. It is the Drug War that literally fries brains thanks to the ECT that it makes necessary by outlawing medical godsends. The Drug Warrior would rather have school shootings and nuclear war 567 than to legalize godsend medicine. MDMA 8 could turn the world peaceful, but the Drug Warrior does not want peace. Ecstasy brought peace and love to the multi-ethnic dance floor in 1990s Britain, but Drug Warriors cracked down on the safe drug "E," all because of a handful of deaths which were caused by the Drug Warriors refusal to develop safe use guidelines. The result? The dance floor devolved into liquor-fueled violence and rave safety had to be enforced by special forces troops!
Using the billions now spent on caging users, we could end the whole phenomena of both physical and psychological addiction by using "drugs to fight drugs." But drug warriors do not want to end addiction, they want to keep using it as an excuse to ban drugs.
The drug war is a way for conservatives to keep America's eyes OFF the prize. The right-wing motto is, "Billions for law enforcement, but not one cent for social programs."
If drug war logic made sense, we would outlaw endless things in addition to drugs. Because the drug war says that it's all worth it if we can save just one life -- which is generally the life of a white suburban young person, btw.
Americans love to hate heroin. But there is no rational reason why folks should not use heroin daily in a world in which we consider it their medical duty to use antidepressants daily.
The Drug War is the most important evil to protest, precisely because almost everybody is afraid to do so. That's a clear sign that it is a cancer on the body politic.
There are no merely recreational drugs. All drugs that elate have obvious potential uses for the depressed.
We have to deny the FDA the right to judge psychoactive medicines in the first place. Their materialist outlook obliges them to ignore all obvious benefits. When they nix drugs like MDMA, they nix compassion and love.
America won't be grown up until we start blaming drug misuse on people and/or policies rather than on drugs.
If NIDA covered all drugs (not just politically ostracized drugs), they'd produce articles like this: "Aspirin continues to kill hundreds." "Penicillin misuse approaching crisis levels." "More bad news about Tylenol and liver damage." "Study revives cancer fears from caffeine."
Someone should stand outside Jefferson's estate and hand out leaflets describing the DEA's 1987 raid on Monticello to confiscate poppy plants. That raid was against everything Jefferson stood for. The TJ Foundation DISHONORED JEFFERSON and their visitors should know that!
And these five points only scratch the surface. The Drug War's ideology of substance demonization has forced children in hospice to experience unnecessary pain because some hospitals refuse to administer morphine 3 , for the unscientific reason that they think the drug is evil in and of itself. Yes, the Drug Warrior would rather have children suffer than to re-legalize plant medicine. And then there are the depressed who have to undergo shock therapy because we have outlawed all the godsend medicines that might have helped them. In fact, the truth is exactly opposite from the lies of the Partnership for a Drug Free America 4. It is the Drug War that literally fries brains thanks to the ECT that it makes necessary by outlawing medical godsends. The Drug Warrior would rather have school shootings and nuclear war 5 6 7 than to legalize godsend medicine. MDMA 8 could turn the world peaceful, but the Drug Warrior does not want peace. Ecstasy brought peace and love to the multi-ethnic dance floor in 1990s Britain, but Drug Warriors cracked down on the safe drug "E," all because of a handful of deaths which were caused by the Drug Warriors refusal to develop safe use guidelines. The result? The dance floor devolved into liquor-fueled violence and rave safety had to be enforced by special forces troops!
(up)