there are just substances that, like anything else, can be used and misused
by Brian Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher
February 4, 2020
There is no such thing as 'drugs,' the way that the modern Drug Warrior defines that term. There are simply substances that can be used or misused. To think otherwise is to be superstitious. To think otherwise is to scapegoat substances and thus ignore true social problems that would otherwise cry out for solutions. To think otherwise is to create a make-work program for modern psychiatry, prison guards, sheriffs, the D E A, and Big Pharma .
Yet America is all about keeping Americans and the world from accessing the plants that grow at their very feet under the fiction that politically demonized substances are evil incarnate. This is a power grab that elevates common law over natural law, destroying the human being's right to Mother Nature, which is about as basic a natural right as possible. Not happy thus merely to deprive Americans of godsend medications, Drug War colonialism spreads the war on Mother Nature planet wide, ensuring eternal suffering of the mentally ill and their continued dependency on Big Pharma 12 's addictive meds, all so that imperial America can intervene at will in the countries of its choice, under the pretext of enforcing the American Empire's drug laws -- when we're actually enforcing the monopoly power of Big Liquor and the ideology of the religion known as Christian Science.
The best harm-reduction strategy is to re-legalize drugs.
If Americans cannot handle the truth about drugs, then there is something wrong with Americans, not with drugs.
At best, antidepressants make depression bearable. We need not settle for such drugs, especially when they are notorious for causing dependence. There are many drugs that elate and inspire. It is both cruel and criminal to outlaw them.
Researchers say that the New York Times has been flooding the world with Drug War agitprop.
How would we even KNOW that outlawed drugs have no positive uses? We first have to incorporate them in a sane, empathic and creative way to find that out, and the drug war makes such a sensible approach absolutely impossible.
Scientists are so used to ignoring "drugs" that they don't even realize they're doing it. Yet almost all books about consciousness and depression (etc.) are nonsense these days because they ignore what drugs could tell us about those topics.
What bothers me about AI is that everyone's so excited to see what computers can do, while no one's excited to see what the human mind can do, since we refuse to improve it with mind-enhancing drugs.
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.
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.
Just think how much money bar owners in the Old West would have saved on restoration expenses if they had served MDMA instead of whiskey.
(up)