The Medicalization of Life is the natural result of drug prohibition in a scientistic society
by Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher
March 10, 2026
I continue to be the only pundit to draw the obvious connections between drug prohibition and social problems. Most recently I pointed out how assisted suicide for the depressed cannot be discussed meaningfully without discussing the drug prohibition which renders it necessary in the first place (at least in the minds of the depressed)1. We outlaw all the drugs that could cheer a person up, and then we give them the right to kill themselves if they become too depressed. Go figure! But while I wait for any of the pundits in the debate to recognize my existence, I have discovered a new obvious connection between drug prohibition and social problems, to wit: the medicalization of life, first unveiled by mavericks like Ivan Illich2 and Thomas Szasz3, is powered by drug prohibition -- indeed, it could not exist without drug prohibition.
Most people would get on with their lives with the strategic use of godsend medicines and not listen to sermons about brain chemistry and their need to put their life in the hands of doctors. No one would see a reason to become a ward of the healthcare state by swallowing pills that are far harder to kick than heroin 4. Absent drug prohibition, no one would need to turn themselves into a childlike ward of the healthcare state.
Notes:
1: No one would need assisted suicide if we ended drug prohibition: what Claire Brosseau's case tells us about the warped mindset of the west when it comes to drugs DWP (up)
2: “Medical Nemesis : The Expropriation of Health : Illich, Ivan, 1926- : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive.” 2026. Internet Archive. 2026. https://archive.org/details/medicalnemesisex00illirich. (up)
3: “Medicalization of Everyday Life, the – Syracuse University Press.” 2026. Syr.edu. 2026. https://press.syr.edu/supressbooks/953/medicalization-of-everyday-life/. (up)
4: Heroin versus Antidepressants DWP (up)
Ten Tweets
against the hateful war on US
Today's drug laws tell us that we must respect the historical use of sacred medicines, while denying us our personal right to use them unless our ancestors did so. That's a meta-injustice! It negatively affects the way that we are allowed to experience our world!
"The Oprah Winfrey Fallacy": the idea that a statistically insignificant number of cases constitutes a crisis, provided ONLY that the villain of the piece is something that racist politicians have demonized as a "drug."
This hysterical reaction to rare negative events actually creates more rare negative events. This is why the DEA publicizes "drug problems," because by making them well known, they make the problems more prevalent and can thereby justify their huge budget.
The Drug War brought guns to the "hoods," thereby incentivizing violence in the name of enormous profits. Any site featuring victims of gun violence should therefore be rebranded as a site featuring victims of the drug war.
I'm told antidepressant withdrawal is fine because it doesn't cause cravings. Why is it better to feel like hell than to have a craving? In any case, cravings are caused by prohibition. A sane world could also end cravings with the help of other drugs.
They drive to their drug tests in pickup trucks with license plates that read "Don't tread on me." Yeah, right. "Don't tread on me: Just tell me how and how much I'm allowed to think and feel in this life. And please let me know what plants I can access."
I'm interested in CBD myself, because I want to gain benefits at times without experiencing intoxication. So I think it's great. But I like it as part of an overall strategy toward mental health. I do not think of CBD, as some do, as a way to avoid using naughty drugs.
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!"
We should place prohibitionists on trial for destroying inner cities.
The government makes psychoactive drug approval as slow as possible by insisting that drugs be studied in relation to one single board-certified "illness." But the main benefits of such drugs are holistic in nature. Science should butt out if it can't recognize that fact.
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Copyright 2025, Brian Ballard Quass
Contact: quass@quass.com
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