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 1 2 , 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 3 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!
The drug war normalizes the disdainful and self-righteous attitude that Columbus and Pizarro had about drug use in the New World.
In "The Book of the Damned," Charles Fort shows how science damns (i.e. excludes) facts that it cannot assimilate into a system of knowledge. Fort could never have guessed, however, how thoroughly science would eventually "damn" all positive facts about "drugs."
John Halpern wrote a book about opium, subtitled "the ancient flower that poisoned our world." What nonsense! Bad laws and ignorance poison our world, NOT FLOWERS!
The fact that some drugs can be addictive is no reason to outlaw drugs. It is a reason to teach safe use and to publicize all the ways that smart people have found to avoid unwanted pharmacological dependency -- and a reason to use drugs to fight drugs.
New article in Scientific American: "New hope for pain relief," that ignores the fact that we have outlawed the time-honored panacea. Scientists want a drug that won't run the risk of inspiring us.
The UK just legalized assisted dying. This means that you can use drugs to kill a person, but you still can't use drugs to make that person want to live.
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!"
The WHO says that depression will be the number-one cause of disability by 2030. What they don't say is that this is only because drug prohibition has outlawed all obvious treatments for depression.
The Drug War is the ultimate example of strategic fearmongering by self-interested politicians.
Today's Washington Post reports that "opioid pills shipped" DROPPED 45% between 2011 and 2019..... while fatal overdoses ROSE TO RECORD LEVELS! Prohibition is PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE.
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