They've got a lot of nerve, starting their set off with "Quinn the Eskimo" like that.
[drum] [laughter]
In the DEA Lounge of all places.
[laughter]
Don't they know that the government does not allow improved thinking and expanded consciousness via plants -- the coca leaves included?
Never mind that indigenous South Americans have used them for ages to achieve mental clarity.
Never mind that Sigmund Freud himself achieved prodigious vocational output and thus self-fulfillment via cocaine .
[applause]
Uh-oh. We seem to have a Drug Warrior in our midst. You've got to realize, madam, that it's absurd to criminalize plants and thereby make a black market and generate all sorts of violence.
[applause]
All I can say is, I hope you're enjoying that Bahama Mama while you're hypocritically trash-talking Mother Nature's plants.
Freud was like, "That psychotherapy mumbo jumbo is all well and good for my patients, but I demand REAL treatment in my own life, thank you very much!"
[laughter]
But it's funny trying to argue against the fascist Drug War on line.
[gasp]
And I call it fascist advisedly, mind you, because {^the Drug War is nothing but the enforcement of Christian Science with respect to mental states.}{
[applause]
My name is Thomas de Qunicey 3, and I'll be here through Friday, or until the United States outlaws criticism of its disgraceful Drug War, which could happen any day, considering that the government has already had the chutzpah to outlaw the plants and fungi that grow at our very feet.
[laughter] [applause]
Yes, madam, I'm sure you're very proud of yourself for having given up the vast majority of nature's godsend medicines, but I'll thank you not to make Christian Science the state religion with your anti-scientific drug laws.
[laughter] [applause]
For more groundbreaking anti-Drug War essays and comedy, visit AbolishTheDEA.com, preferably before it's outlawed by people like motormouth here.
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation is a drug war collaborator. They helped the DEA confiscate Thomas Jefferson's poppy plants in 1987.
In a free future, newspapers will have philosophers on their staffs to ensure that said papers are not inciting consequence-riddled hysteria through a biased coverage of drug-related mishaps.
I, for one, am actually TRYING to recommend drugs like MDMA and psilocybin as substitutes for shock therapy. In fact, I would recommend almost ANY pick-me-up drug as an alternative to knowingly damaging the human brain. That's more than the hateful DEA can say.
Drug prohibition is not a victimless crime.
In his book "Salvia Divinorum: The Sage of the Seers," Ross Heaven explains how "salvinorin A" is the strongest hallucinogen in the world and could treat Alzheimer's, AIDS, and various addictions. But America would prefer to demonize and outlaw the drug.
"The depression lifted from my mind like the sun coming out of the clouds." -- Arthur Crowley after using cocaine
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.
Now drug warriors have nitrous oxide in their sights, the substance that inspired the philosophy of William James. They're using the same tired MO: focusing exclusively on potential downsides and never mentioning the benefits of use, and/or denying that any exist.
The FDA tells us that MDMA is not safe. This is the same FDA that signs off on Big Pharma drugs whose advertised side effects include death itself.
We know that anticipation and mental focus and relaxation have positive benefits -- but if these traits ae facilitated by "drugs," then we pretend that these same benefits somehow are no longer "real." This is a metaphysical bias, not a logical deduction.
Unless otherwise indicated, no AI is used in the creation of site content. These essays represent the original ideas of their author and not the ideas that the author SHOULD have based on an algorithmic parsing of existing data. For more on this subject, consider the AI-related viewpoints to which the author subscribes as delineated in the New York Times opinion piece entitled "What 370,000 College Essays Tell Us About A.I.’s Effects on Creativity" by Rebecca Winthrop of the Brookings Institution.