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The Drug War is One Big Branding Operation to Demonize Mind and Mood Medicine

a review of essay number 8 in Hallucinogens: A Reader, edited by Charles Grob

by Brian Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher





June 26, 2025



The following remarks are part of a series of responses to the essays contained in the 2001 book "Hallucinogens: A Reader," edited by Charles Grob1. The comments below are in response to essay number 8: "Using Psychedelics Wisely" by Myron J. Stolaroff


In introducing this essay, Grob tells us that Stolaroff did not believe that hallucinogenic experiences with drugs like LSD and mescaline are for everyone. But the idea that drugs are not for everyone is a highly debatable conclusion, especially if we accept a broad definition of the term "hallucinogenic." The conclusion makes sense at first blush, until one considers the vast array of circumstances and variables that surround drug use -- and the fact that we have never set out to glean all possible benefits from such use. To the contrary, we have resolved a priori to insist that no such benefits exist. In light of this superstitious and anti-scientific backstory, it is premature to claim that drug use of some kind is not for everybody, at least at some times, in some circumstances. How can we "know" such a thing when we dogmatically refuse to study the question with an open mind, when we dogmatically deny in advance that any benefits exist -- and when our otherwise massive arsenal of psychoactive drugs (existing and potential) has been outlawed?

The effects of drugs are so varied and so understudied and so demonized and so dependent on details that I am skeptical of any attempts to make definitive statements about who they may be for and who they may not be for. Most of what we "know" on this topic has been inspired by drug-war propaganda, which has made us fear drugs by playing up our fear for the safety of our kids, kids whom we refuse to educate about the psychoactive nature of the world in which they live. Meanwhile we censor all talk of positive, adult uses for drugs. Benefits for drug use are almost never mentioned in the media, 2 and this censorship is almost never sufficiently recognized by Drug War pundits.

Even are most basic assumptions about drug use are highly debatable. It is piously assumed by most drug pundits that drugs are not for young people -- and yet the use of Ecstasy brought about unprecedented peace, love and understanding on the dance floors of Britain in the 1990s. It is amazing that neither Drug Warriors nor their opponents see any benefit in that drug use! We live on the brink of nuclear annihilation, and yet we have a jaundiced view of the kinds of drugs that could bring the world together. And what about the potential use of empathogens to treat kids who are hotheads and might otherwise shoot up grade schools? Thanks to our brainwashed view of drugs, we would rather have those kids shoot up schools -- and/or commit suicide -- than to "use drugs."

Ralph Metzner, in this "reader" that I am critiquing, sees no benefit in the use of Ecstasy during the rave scene: instead, he sees it as a problem. Apparently, he would have felt much better had the ravers been using hate-facilitating drugs like alcohol. And that is precisely what they were doing after the British MPs cracked down on Ecstasy use in the 1990s in response to the Drug War fearmongering that has so frightened the Ralph Metzners of the world. After the crackdown, the dance floors became so violent that concert organizers had to hire special forces troops to keep the peace. Needless to say, that prohibition-fueled violence was not covered by the media and so not a factor in Metzner's calculus about the propriety of drug use. This is why it cannot be said enough: the Drug War is a branding operation to make us feel a certain way about drugs, not to objectively inform us about them. This is why adult amphetamine users are cast as "meth heads" while kids with ADHD are cast as "good patients" for taking Ritalin. Apparently, mental concentration is good -- but only when the federal government wants you to be able to concentrate.

So you say that drug use is not for young people? I say that I would much prefer that a young person use medicines that elate and inspire rather than to have them commit suicide. And yet the Drug Warrior is so convinced that drug use can only be problematic that we prefer that the severely depressed commit suicide 3 or have brain-damaging shock therapy than to have them use "drugs." This is the result of letting racist politicians control language, turning the once-neutral word drugs into the putdown par excellence. And so the Drug War is one massive media-supported branding operation, designed to make us believe two enormous lies:

1) that there are no upsides to drug use,

and

2) that there are no downsides to drug prohibition.



Notes:

1: Hallucinogens: a reader Grob, M.D., editor, Charles, Penguin Putnam, 2002 (up)
2: How the Media Puts Drugs on Show Trials: an open letter to Bennett Haeberle of NBC 5 Chicago DWP (up)
3: Why Americans Prefer Suicide to Drug Use DWP (up)


Hallucinogens: a Reader, edited by Charles Grob




Essays about the opinions expressed in Hallucinogens by Charles Grob.

  • Cocaine and Ecstasy are not evil
  • Drug Prohibition and the Metaphysical Search for 'Real' Religious Inspiration
  • How Ralph Metzner was bamboozled by the Drug War ideology of substance demonization
  • Sartre and Speed
  • The Drug War is One Big Branding Operation to Demonize Mind and Mood Medicine
  • The metaphysics of drug use and how the drug war outlaws religious liberty
  • The thin line between honesty and fearmongering in the age of the War on Drugs
  • Want to end freedom in America? Just terrify philosophically clueless parents about the boogieman called drugs
  • Why America cracked down on LSD





    • Ten Tweets

    against the hateful war on US




    Healthline posted an article in 2021 about the benefits of getting off of antidepressants. They did not even mention the biggest benefit: NO LONGER BEING AN ETERNAL PATIENT -- no longer being a child in the eyes of an all-knowing healthcare system.

    Malcolm X sensed an important truth about drugs: the fact that it was always a self-interested category error for Americans to place medical doctors in charge of mind and mood medicine.

    One merely has to look at any issue of Psychology Today to see articles in which the author reckons without the Drug War, in which they pretend that banned substances do not exist and so fail to incorporate any topic-related insights that might otherwise come from user reports.

    There are plenty of "prima facie" reasons for believing that we could eliminate most problems with drug and alcohol withdrawal by chemically aided sleep cures combined with using "drugs" to fight "drugs." But drug warriors don't want a fix, they WANT drug use to be a problem.

    All of our problems with opioids and opiates could have been avoided had the busybody Chicken Littles in America left well enough alone and let folks continue to smoke regulated opium peaceably in their own homes.

    The DEA has done everything it can to keep Americans clueless about opium and poppies. The agency is a disgrace to a country that claims to value knowledge and freedom of information.

    The Drug Warriors say: "Don't tread on me! (That said, please continue to tell me what plants I can use, how much pain relief I can get, and whether my religion is true or not.)"

    The drug war is being used as a wrecking ball to destroy democratic freedoms. It has destroyed the 4th amendment and freedom of religion and given the police the right to confiscate the property of peaceful and productive citizens.

    "There has been so much delirious nonsense written about drugs that sane men may well despair of seeing the light." -- Aleister Crowley, from "Essays on Intoxication"

    The best step we could take in harm reduction is re-legalizing everything and starting to teach safe use. Spend the DEA's billions on "go" teams that would descend on locations where drugs are being used stupidly -- not to arrest, but to educate.


    Click here to see All Tweets against the hateful War on Us






    The New York Times is at it again, bashing drugs out of context
    Want to end freedom in America? Just terrify philosophically clueless parents about the boogieman called drugs


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    Copyright 2025, Brian Ballard Quass Contact: quass@quass.com

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