presented in the convenient form of a presidential news conference
by Brian Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher
July 15, 2024
I'll just make a brief statement and then I'll take questions. As some of you might know, I flew out to Oregon last week to receive psilocybin treatments with the help of Sammy Kahuk at the Psilocybin Center in Salem. The good news is, the medicine worked great for me for the first two days. The bad news is, I ran into limitations in my psychedelic experience thanks to the fact that I am taking two Big Pharma drugs. Fortunately, however, I also discovered benefits to psilocybin use that were noticeable even after I had left the center. That is, I left the Psilocybin Center feeling far more interested in the world around me than I have in years. And this, remember, in spite of the muted nature of my experience thanks to my daily use of Big Pharma meds. So I'm psyched now about using such meds to get off of my current Big Pharma 12 drugs, after which, by the way, I look forward to trying ayahuasca, as sort of a gift to myself for persevering.
Hey! Mr. President. Are you thinking of moving to Oregon?
Yes, it is a distinct possibility.
How distinct?
Let's just say I'm already looking for plane tickets for August of this year.
To Salem?
To Salem.
And leave your house on the hill with a great view of the resort valley and lake?
Well, I've always felt that attitude is what matters. I'd rather truly appreciate a humble life in Oregon than be unable to appreciate a fancy life in Virginia.
And let me get this straight: you'd never submit to a drug test, right?
Never. Unless, of course, the drug test was fair and they gave you high points for using substances like coca and opium 3 wisely. If things were done by rights, I should get excellent marks for all my drug use! I've always insisted that I only use drugs that help me live life honorably while yet thinking as creatively as possible all the time and silencing those deadly inner voices within what keep you from living large in front of la gente, dost thou dig? I'm not like those (if you'll forgive me) rich yuppies what goes to San Jose del Pacifico to have a once-in-a-lifetime experiencing mushrooms. I want to leverage the power of psilocybin to the max in my life so that I can enjoy life as much as possible and learn from it, till death do I do part, which, come on folks, I'm 65 now: it's not like I'm going to live to 100. But if I do, I want the door to the goodie basket to be open 24-7 when it comes to my mental life, and that's, of course, a freedom that Drug Warriors will never recognize -- and my upcoming move to Oregon is to move to that spot in the country where the citizenry is (as like as not) to appreciate my views on these topics, namely the evil of the Drug War and the wonder of psilocybin.
And what about MDMA 4 ? Didn't Sammy told you that it will be available for use in Oregon within a couple of years?
I fancy he rather did at that. It's this progressive mindset that makes me want to move to Oregon, especially in this age wherein everything seems to be political. But don't get me wrong: the idea that Mother Nature should be free is not some progressive fanaticism, it is the way that people have always lived until the intolerant show up and try to determine how much you're allowed to think and feel in life.
Rick Strassman isn't sure that DMT should be legal. Really?! Does he not realize how dangerous it is to chemically extract DMT from plants? In the name of safety, prohibitionists have encouraged dangerous ignorance and turned local police into busybody Nazis.
Until prohibition ends, rehab is all about enforcing a Christian Science attitude toward psychoactive medicines (with the occasional hypocritical exception of Big Pharma meds).
If there is an epidemic of "self-harm," prohibitionists never think of outlawing razor blades. They ask: "Why the self-harm?" But if there is an epidemic of drug use which they CLAIM is self-harm, they never ask "Why the self-harm?" They say: "Let's prohibit and punish!"
Scientists are not the experts on psychoactive medicines. The experts are painters and artists and spiritualists -- and anyone else who simply wants to be all they can be in life. Scientists understand nothing of such goals and aspirations.
The "scheduling" system is completely anti-scientific and anti-patient. It tells us we can make a one-size-fits-all decision about psychoactive substances without regard for dosage, context of use, reason for use, etc. That's superstitious tyranny.
Almost all talk about the supposed intractability of things like addiction are exercises in make-believe. The pundits pretend that godsend medicines do not exist, thus normalizing prohibition by implying that it does not limit progress. It's a tacit form of collaboration.
Prohibitionists have the same M O they've had for the last 100+ years: blame drugs for everything. Being a drug warrior is never having the decency to say you're sorry -- not to Mexicans, not to inner-city crime victims, not to patients who go without adequate pain relief...
There's more than set and setting: there's fundamental beliefs about the meaning of life and about why mother nature herself is full of psychoactive substances. Tribal peoples associate some drugs with actual sentient entities -- that is far beyond "set and setting."
The FDA is not qualified to tell us whether holistic medicines work. They hold such drugs to materialist standards and that's pharmacological colonialism.
Materialists are always trying to outdo each other in describing the insignificance of humankind. Crick at least said we were "a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules." Musk downsizes us further to one single microbe. He wins!
Rick Strassman isn't sure that DMT should be legal. Really?! Does he not realize how dangerous it is to chemically extract DMT from plants? In the name of safety, prohibitionists have encouraged dangerous ignorance and turned local police into busybody Nazis.
