*****************
Letter to Lamar Alexander by the Drug War Philospher at AbolishTheDEA.com
Letter to Lamar Alexander
written upon the acquittal of Donald Trump
by Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher
February 5, 2020
find it horrifying that we have a president who can get away with treason, selling us out to the Soviets and openly calling for dirt on his opponents. Maybe the country NEEDS to be ripped apart if half of it believes that we should live in a dictatorship under an insane and evil demagogue, who has never met a dictator that he didn't like. If that's true, then I want to live in the other half of the country, that still believes in democratic institutions.
How dare America carry on its wretched Drug War, imprisoning an election-swaying million minorities a year for mere possession of substances that are our right under NATURAL LAW -- and yet the president gets to COMMIT CRIMES BRAZENLY ON NATIONAL TELEVISION CALLING FOR SOVIET AND UKRAINE INVESTIGATION OF HIS RIVALS?????
The Justice Department has lost all credibility and now can only do its job by brute force.
For shame!
What are Republicans going to do when this new IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY is occupied by a DEMOCRAT?
Editor's note, November 16, 2021: While Brian calms down a skosh, let me apologize on his behalf for the fact that this rant of his (as justified as it may be) has nothing whatsoever to do with Lamar Alexander, who it will be remembered was the Secretary of Education under one of the Drug Warrior Bushes. I think there's been some mix-up here, perhaps due to the overwriting of a file or two.
Brian: Thanks, Editor. My bad. There has indeed been some mix-up.
Editor: So what was the deal about Lamar Alexander?
Brian: Well, about a year ago, this Lamar chap started beefing about the fact that states were changing drug law policy when he thought it should be decided by the national government in conjunction with scientists. Am I like, "Lamar, baby, you had no right to outlaw plant medicine in the first place, homie! Second, you know as well as I do that plant medicine is only criminal these days because of the interests of racists, Big Pharma, intolerant Christians, and the Corrections industry -- whose interests are all championed by the wealthiest 3% who control the Senate via bribery (see "Billionaire Democracy" by George R. Tyler). Under such a corrupt system, it makes perfect sense for Americans to change the system from the ground up when it comes to so-called drug policy, especially since you politicians feel the need to bow and scrape before the evil DEA, which has knowingly lied for half a decade now about godsend plant medicine -- and which poisoned American pot smokers with paraquat in the 1980s, a weed killer that causes Parkinson's disease.
There you go, Ed, baby. That paragraph contains both the warp and weft of the factual yarn that I'm spinning -- the original of which, as you rightly suppose, was probably overwritten due to some boneheaded error on the part of some lowly clerk or other, who shall be sacked quite momently, I assure you, with malice-a-freakin' forethought, even. (I'll be like: YOU are zee veekest link!) No, seriously, Eddy: How do you like that Lamar person? Typical politician -- wants to tell me what plant medicine I can use. He's the kind of politician who would have been cheering the DEA on as they stormed onto the once-"hallowed" ground of Monticello in 1987 and confiscated Thomas Jefferson's poppy plants -- a coup against the whole concept of natural law upon which this nation was built.
Editor: Thanks, Brian, that was a delightful one and a half paragraphs. It did my heart good just to read them!
Brian: Aw, shucks!
Editor: Plus, it doesn't hurt that you're right as rain.
Brian: I think somebody should force Lamar to undergo a drug test -- 'cause I'm sure he's "used" alcohol in the last month or two. God help me, if we find so much as a trace of liquor in his blood, we're going to confiscate his house and remove him from the workforce! There's a Drug War for you, Lamar: one that isn't targeted against minorities either!
Editor: Okay, Brian, easy, boy! Easy!
People
about whom and to whom I've written over the years...
Alexander, Lamar
Letter to Lamar Alexander
Barrett, Frederick S.
The common sense way to get off of antidepressants
Why the Drug War is Worse than you can Imagine
Benaroch MD, Roy
Open Letter to Roy Benaroch MD
Bloom, Josh
Science is not free in the age of the drug war
Buchanan, Julian
Finally, a drug war opponent who checks all my boxes
Chalmers, David
David Chalmers and the Drug War
Chelmow MD, David
How the US Preventive Services Task Force Drums Up Business for Big Pharma
Chomsky, Noam
Chomsky is Right
Chomsky's Revenge
Noam Chomsky on Drugs
Cline, Ben
Open Letter to Congressman Ben Cline, asking him to abolish the criminal DEA
Close, Glenn
Glenn Close but no cigar
De Quincey, Thomas
The Therapeutic Value of Anticipation
Dick, Philip K.
Drug Laws as the Punishment of 'Pre-Crime'
Doblin, Rick
Constructive criticism of the MAPS strategy for re-legalizing MDMA
Is Rick Doblin Running with the Devil?
Why Rick Doblin is Ghosting Me
Ellsberg, Daniel
Drug Warriors Fiddle while Rome Gets Nuked
Floyd, George
The Racist Drug War killed George Floyd
Fort, Charles
The Book of the Damned
Fox, James Alan
The Invisible Mass Shootings
Friedman, Milton
How Milton Friedman Completely Misunderstood the War on Drugs
Fukuyama, Francis
Open Letter to Francis Fukuyama
Gibb, Andy
How The Drug War Killed Andy Gibb
Gimbel, Steven
Heroin versus Alcohol
Glaser, Gabrielle
Open Letter to Gabrielle Glaser
Glieberman, Owen
Open Letter to Variety Critic Owen Glieberman
Glover, Troy
Open letter to Professor Troy Glover at Waterloo University
Goswami, Amit
Alternative Medicine as a Drug War Creation
Gottlieb, Anthony
Open Letter to Anthony Gottlieb
Grandmaster Flash, musician
Grandmaster Flash: Drug War Collaborator
Griffiths, Roland
Depressed? Here's why you can't get the medicines that you need
Open Letter to Rick Doblin and Roland Griffiths
Gupta, Sujata
The Mother of all Western Biases
Hammersley, Richard
Open Letter to Richard Hammersley
Handwerk, Brian
How National Geographic slanders the Inca people and their use of coca
Harris, Kamala
Why I Support Kamala Harris
Harrison, Francis Burton
Screw You, Francis Burton Harrison
Hart, Carl
Open Letter to Dr. Carl L. Hart
What Carl Hart Missed
Harvey, Dennis
How Variety and its film critics support drug war fascism
Heidegger, Martin
Heidegger on Drugs
Hogshire, Jim
I've got a bone to pick with Jim Hogshire
Opium for the Masses by Jim Hogshire
What Jim Hogshire Got Wrong about Drugs
Hurley, Vincent
Open Letter to Vincent Hurley, Lecturer
Hutton, Ronald
Drug Dealers as Modern Witches
James, William
How the Drug War is Threatening Intellectual Freedom in England
Keep Laughing Gas Legal
The Criminalization of Nitrous Oxide is No Laughing Matter
William James rolls over in his grave as England bans Laughing Gas
Jefferson, Thomas
A Misguided Tour of Monticello
How the Jefferson Foundation Betrayed Thomas Jefferson
How the Monticello Foundation betrayed Jefferson's Legacy in 1987
Jefferson
The Dark Side of the Monticello Foundation
Jenkins, Philip
'Synthetic Panics' by Philip Jenkins
Jenkins DA, Brooke
Prohibitionists Never Learn
Kant, Immanuel
How the Drug War limits our understanding of Immanuel Kant
How the Drug War Outlaws Criticism of Immanuel Kant
Kastrup, Bernardo
How Bernardo Kastrup reckons without the drug war
Kenny, Gino
The Right to LIVE FULLY is more important than the Right to DIE
Kirsch, Irving
Brahms is NOT the best antidepressant
Klang, Jessica
All these Sons
Kotek, Tina
Regulate and Educate
Koterski, Jospeh
America's Blind Spot
Kurtz, Matthew M.
How Scientific American reckons without the drug war
Langlitz, Nicolas
Why the FDA is not qualified to judge psychoactive medicine
Lee, Spike
Spike Lee is Bamboozled by the Drug War
Leshner, Alan I.
How the Drug War Screws the Depressed
Lewis, Edward
Psilocybin Mushrooms by Edward Lewis
Ling, Lisa
Open Letter to Lisa Ling
Locke, John
John Locke on Drugs
Maples-Keller, Jessica
Hello? MDMA works, already!
Margaritoff , Marco
In Defense of Opium
Margaritoff, Margo
Open Letter to Margo Margaritoff
Marinacci, Mike
Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches: LSD, Cannabis, and Spiritual Sacraments in Underground America
Martinez, Liz
Replacing antidepressants with entheogens
Mate, Gabor
In the Realm of Hungry Drug Warriors
Open Letter to Addiction Specialist Gabor Mate
Sherlock Holmes versus Gabor Maté
McAllister, Sean
How to Unite Drug War Opponents of all Ethnicities
Mithoefer, MD, Michael
MDMA for Psychotherapy
Mohler, George
Predictive Policing in the Age of the Drug War
Morgan, Cory
Canadian Drug Warrior, I said Get Away
Naz, Arab
The Menace of the Drug War
Newcombe, Russell
Intoxiphobia
Nietzsche, Friedrich
Nietzsche and the Drug War
Nixon, Richard
Why Hollywood Owes Richard Nixon an Oscar
Noakes, Jesse
Americans have the right to pursue happiness but not to attain it
Nobis, Nathan
Top 10 Problems with the Drug War
Nutt, David
Majoring in Drug War Philosophy
O'Leary, Diane
Open Letter to Diane O'Leary
Obama, Barack
What Obama got wrong about drugs
Offenhartz, Jake
Libertarians as Closet Christian Scientists
Pearson, Snoop
Snoop Pearson's muddle-headed take on drugs
Perry, Matthew
Drug War Murderers
Matthew Perry and the Drug War Ghouls
Pinchbeck, Daniel
Review of When Plants Dream
Polk, Thad
How Addiction Scientists Reckon without the Drug War
Pollan, Michael
Michael Pollan on Drugs
My Conversation with Michael Pollan
The Michael Pollan Fallacy
Rado, Vincent
Open Letter to Vincent Rado
Reuter , Peter
The problem with Modern Drug Reform Efforts
Rovelli, Carlo
Why Science is the Handmaiden of the Drug War
Rudgeley, Richard
Richard Rudgley condemns 'drugs' with faint praise
Sabet, Kevin
Why Kevin Sabet's approach to drugs is racist, anti-scientific and counterproductive
Sanders, Laura
Science News Continues to Ignore the Drug War
Schopenhauer, Arthur
What if Arthur Schopenhauer Had Used DMT?
Schultes, Richard Evans
The Drug War Imperialism of Richard Evans Schultes
Segall PhD, Matthew D.
Why Philosophers Need to Stop Dogmatically Ignoring Drugs
Sewell, Kenneth
Open letter to Kenneth Sewell
Shapiro, Arthur
Illusions with Professor Arthur Shapiro
Smith, Wolfgang
Open letter to Wolfgang Smith
Unscientific American
Smyth, Bobby
Teenagers and Cannabis
Sotillos, Samuel Bendeck
In Defense of Religious Drug Use
Stea, Jonathan
The Pseudoscience of Mental Health Treatment
Strassman, Rick
Five problems with The Psychedelic Handbook by Rick Strassman
What Rick Strassman Got Wrong
Szasz, Thomas
In Praise of Thomas Szasz
Tulfo, Ramon T.
Why the Drug War is far worse than a failure
Urquhart, Steven
No drugs are bad in and of themselves
Vance, Laurence
In Response to Laurence Vance
Walker, Lynn
Ignorance is the enemy, not Fentanyl
Walsh, Bryan
The Drug War and Armageddon
The End Times by Bryan Walsh
Warner, Mark
Another Cry in the Wilderness
Weil, Andrew
What Andrew Weil Got Wrong
Whitehead, Alfred North
Whitehead and Psychedelics
Willyard, Cassandra
Science News magazine continues to pretend that there is no war on drugs
Winehouse, Amy
How the Drug War Killed Amy Winehouse
Wininger, Charley
Getting off antidepressants in the age of the drug war
Wuthnow, Robert
Clodhoppers on Drugs
Zelfand, Erica
Open Letter to Erica Zelfand
Zinn, Howard
Even Howard Zinn Reckons without the Drug War
Zuboff, Shoshana
Tune In, Turn On, Opt Out
More Essays Here
Some Tweets against the hateful war on drugs
Both physical and psychological addiction can be successfully fought when we relegalize the pharmacopoeia and start to fight drugs with drugs. But prohibitionists do not want to end addiction, they want to scare us with it.
Why does no one talk about empathogens for preventing atrocities? Because they'd rather hate drugs than use them for the benefit of humanity. They don't want to solve problems, they prefer hatred.
Folks who believe in the drug war should consider that it is a multi-billion-dollar campaign to enforce the attitude of the Pizarro's of the world when it comes to non-western medicines. It is the apotheosis of the colonialism that most people claim to hate.
The UN of today is in an odd position regarding drugs: they want to praise indigenous societies while yet outlawing the drugs that helped create them.
The most addictive drugs have a bunch of great uses, like treating pain and inspiring great literature. Prohibition causes addiction by making their use as problematic as possible and denying knowledge and choices. It's always wrong to blame drugs.
The Drug War is a religion. The "addict" is a sinner who has to come home to the true faith of Christian Science. In reality, neither physical nor psychological addiction need be a problem if all drugs were legal and we used them creatively to counter problematic use.
Drug warriors do not seem to see any irony in the fact that their outlawing of opium eventually resulted in an "opioid crisis." The message is clear: people want transcendence. If we don't let them find it safely, they will find it dangerously.
Prohibition is wrong root and branch. It seeks to justify the colonial disdain for indigenous healing practices through fearmongering.
Drug testing labs should give high marks for those who manage to use drugs responsibly, notwithstanding the efforts of law enforcement to ruin their lives. The lab guy would be like: "Wow, you are using opium wisely, my friend! Congratulations! Your boss is lucky to have you!"
"Drugs" is imperialist terminology. In the smug self-righteousness of those who use it, I hear Columbus's disdain for the shroom use of the Taino people and the Spanish disdain for the coca use of the Peruvian Indians.
More Tweets
Buy the Drug War Comic Book by the Drug War Philosopher Brian Quass, featuring 150 hilarious op-ed pics about America's disgraceful war on Americans
You have been reading an article entitled, Letter to Lamar Alexander: written upon the acquittal of Donald Trump, published on February 5, 2020 on AbolishTheDEA.com. For more information about America's disgraceful drug war, which is anti-patient, anti-minority, anti-scientific, anti-mother nature, imperialistic, the establishment of the Christian Science religion, a violation of the natural law upon which America was founded, and a childish and counterproductive way of looking at the world, one which causes all of the problems that it purports to solve, and then some, visit the drug war philosopher, at abolishTheDEA.com. (philosopher's bio; go to top of this page)