How the Drug War Outlaws Criticism of Immanuel Kant

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How the Drug War Outlaws Criticism of Immanuel Kant

an open letter to Professor Daniel A. Bonevac of the University of Pittsburgh

by Brian Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher

March 13, 2024

Good evening, Professor Bonevac.

I am a 65-year-old philosopher in Basye, Virginia, writing to thank you for your fascinating discussion of Immanuel Kant ¹ 's Critique of Pure Reason ² on the YouTube video posted in 2017 ³.

I would like to suggest an idea that you may never have heard before, namely that there is another potential source of knowledge of which Kant seems to have been unaware, and that is the knowledge (both metaphysical and practical) that all tribal societies have claimed to receive via the use of those psychoactive substances which in the west we denigrate as "drugs"⁴. It will be argued that these states are "hallucinations," but this is surely just a Christian Science prejudice, for the filter theory of perception espoused by William James ⁵ and Aldous Huxley ⁶ suggests that the world that we see "on" psychoactive substances is but another aspect of that "real world out there" (the raw and "unprocessed" world of the physicist) which to Whitehead is but an inchoate world of atomic potential ⁷.

I would argue, in fact, that a full understanding of Kant (and his potential limitations as an "intoxiphobic westerner ⁸") cannot be undertaken without a thorough discussion of the philosophy of drug-induced states. As just one example, I took part in a "spirit walk" using peyote in Arizona in 2019, during which I saw (with eyes closed) a neon-green slide show of Mesoamerican imagery. The mere fact that the consumption of a cactus should bring about such culturally specific visions (when consumed in tribal territory, no less) should be fodder for endless philosophical discussions about metaphysics and the possibility (contra Kant) of gaining knowledge about the noumenal world. The goal of the vision, after all, appeared to be to teach me something, and indeed such plant substances are generally referred to as "teachers" by tribal healers ⁹. At least in the tribes' minds, these drugs are definitely providing knowledge, albeit a kind of knowledge for which Kant does not seem to have made any allowance in his Critique of Pure Reason.

Unfortunately, the modern trend in academia is to "reckon without the Drug War ¹⁰" and so to ignore the philosophical hints that such experiences seem to me to supply in such abundance, starting with the idea that there may be a third type of knowledge beyond both sensibility and understanding, knowledge that we acquire by obtaining surreptitious glimpses through the temporarily opened "doors of perception"¹¹. As radical as this idea may sound, it really is just a restatement of what William James himself said about altered states over a hundred years ago in "The Varieties of Religious Experience":

"No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded"¹².

I would argue then that the Drug War and prohibition are limiting our knowledge of Kant. And it is getting worse. The FDA is now seeking to regulate James's pet substance, nitrous oxide ¹³, like any other drug and thus to place it too off limits to scientific (and philosophic) investigation. It is as if the government were thereby stacking the decks in favor of Kant by making it illegal to undertake experiments that might challenge his views about how we can know things as human beings.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

Author's Follow-up: October 27, 2024

picture of clock metaphorically suggesting a follow-up

I know, I'm as startled as you are that the Herr Professor did not quite see his way clear to respond. If you live in his vicinity, do me a favor and make sure he's okay! This is just not like him, right?

Immanuel Kant

Open Letters

Notes:

1: What drug use could tell us about the rationalist triumphalism of Immanuel Kant DWP (up)
2: The Critique of Pure Reason Kant, Immanuel, Project Gutenberg, 1781 (up)
3: Kant's Transcendental Idealism Bonevac, Daniel, 2021 (up)
4: Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers Schultes, Richard, 1979 (up)
5: The Varieties of Religious Experience James, William, Goodreads, New York, 1902 (up)
6: “The Doors of Perception.” n.d. Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3188964-the-doors-of-perception. (up)
7: The Concept of Nature Whitehead, Alfred North (up)
8: Intoxiphobia DWP (up)
9: Plant Teachers (up)
10: How Scientific American reckons without the drug war DWP (up)
11: “The Doors of Perception.” n.d. Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3188964-the-doors-of-perception. (up)
12: The Varieties of Religious Experience James, William, Goodreads, New York, 1902 (up)
13: The Criminalization of Nitrous Oxide is No Laughing Matter DWP (up)

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Ten Tweets

against the hateful war on US

In "Four Good Days" the pompous white-coated doctor ignores the entire formulary of mother nature and instead throws the young heroin user on a cot for 3 days of cold turkey and a shot of Naltrexone: price tag $3,000.

I don't have a problem with CBD. But I find that many people like it for the wrong reasons: they assume there is something slightly "dirty" about getting high and that all "cures" should be effected via direct materialist causes, not holistically a la time-honored tribal use.

Racist drug warriors make cities dangerous with drug prohibition -- then they use that danger as an excuse to send in the National Guard.

Question: Why do doctors judge cocaine by its worst possible use? Answer: Follow the money.

I've found that no one thinks I "have standing" when I comment about drugs. I'm just a guy who's been turned into a patient for life thanks to drug prohibition. People think that the real experts are the doctors and scientists who profit from the status quo.

Countless millions suffer needlessly in silence because of America's fearmongering about drugs.

Scientists are so used to ignoring "drugs" that they don't even realize they're doing it. Yet almost all books about consciousness and depression (etc.) are nonsense these days because they ignore what drugs could tell us about those topics.

If opium and cocaine were re-legalized, hospital buildings would no longer be the secular cathedrals of our time. Some of that wealth would actually go to healthy people.

Imagine the Vedic people shortly after they have discovered soma. Everyone's ecstatic -- except for one oddball. "I'm not sure about these experiences," says he. "I think we need to start dissecting the brains of our departed adherents to see what's REALLY going on in there."

Most people think that drugs like cocaine, MDMA, LSD and amphetamines can only be used recreationally. WRONG ! This represents a very naive understanding of human psychology. We deny common sense in order to cater to the drug war orthodoxy that "drugs have no benefits."

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