How the Drug War Banned my Religion
by Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher
May 4, 2021
Not only is the Drug War the establishment of a religion (namely, that of Christian Science), but it bars me from practicing my own religion, for my religion holds that the mind can gain metaphysical insight through the use of psychoactive plant medicines and that it is my responsibility as a human being to pursue that insight. Why? Because I believe with Plato that the unexamined life is not worth living. The Drug War, however, prevents me from living this examined life by denying me access to precisely those plant medicines that I hold to be sacred and inspiring in this regard, plant medicines that have inspired entire religions in the past and been the source of metaphysical inspiration for such western icons as Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and Plutarch.
The Drug War is therefore intolerable to those who believe in freedom of religion 1, not to mention the Natural Law upon which America was founded. For if anything is truly a natural law as defined by Jefferson and Locke it is an individual's right to access the plant medicines that grow at their very feet.
Notes:
1: Freedom of Religion and the War on Drugs DWP (up)
Ten Tweets
against the hateful war on US
The drug war bans human progress by deciding that hundreds of drugs are trash without even trying to find positive uses for them. Yet scientists continue to research and write as if prohibition does not exist, that's how cowed they are by drug laws.
It's already risky to engage in free and honest speech about drugs online: Colorado politicians tried to make it absolutely illegal in February 2024. The DRUG WAR IS ALL ABOUT DESTROYING DEMOCRACY THRU IGNORANT AND INTOLERANT FEARMONGERING.
I can't believe people. Somebody's telling me that "drugs" is not used problematically. It is CONSTANTLY used with a sneer in the voice when politicians want to diss somebody, as in, "Oh, they're in favor of DRUGS!!!" It's a political term as used today!
The Hindu religion was created thanks to the use of a drug that inspired and elated. It is therefore a crime against religious liberty to outlaw substances that inspire and elate.
The drug war is a whole wrong way of looking at the world. It tells us that substances can be judged "up" or "down," which is anti-scientific and blinds us to endless beneficial uses.
America never ended prohibition. It just redirected prohibition from alcohol to all of alcohol's competitors.
Even if the FDA approved MDMA today, it would only be available for folks specifically pronounced to have PTSD by materialist doctors, as if all other emotional issues are different problems and have to be studied separately. That's just ideological foot-dragging.
Rick Strassman reportedly stopped his DMT trials because some folks had bad experiences at high doses. That is like giving up on aspirin because high doses of NSAIDs can kill.
Racist drug warriors make cities dangerous with drug prohibition -- then they use that danger as an excuse to send in the National Guard.
Drug prohibition has resulted in hundreds of thousands of completely unnecessary deaths thanks to totally preventable drug overdoses!
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Copyright 2025, Brian Ballard Quass
Contact: quass@quass.com
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