bird icon for twitter bird icon for twitter


Calling Doctor Scumbag

a radio play about that crazy drug war!

by Brian Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher

October 28, 2023



Listen to a dramatic reenactment of this story. Click the audio link above.

Dr. Scumbag, you're wanted in the penitentiary. Dr. Scumbag to the penitentiary, please.

FRIDAY: My name is Friday. I carry a drug testing 1 kit.

I had just gotten the call from headquarters. It seems some children in a Van Nuys hospice center were being given morphine to treat some quote unquote severe pain. I thought I'd check out the report. If doctors are really dealing junk to children, heads have got to roll.

So thinking, I turned to my partner Frank and said...


Chop-chop, baby. There's a report of some bigtime drug abuse at Panorama City Medical Center.

FRANK: Panorama City Medical? Isn't that in a drug free zone?

FRIDAY: That's right, Frank. It's practically right across the street from Ranchito Avenue Elementary School.

FRANK: Yeah. Those drug dealing scumbags will be eligible for the death penalty if we catch them trying to dope up those helpless kids.

FRIDAY: Turn on the light show, Frank, my scumbag radar is going off.

FRANK: Say, what is a hospice anyway, Joe?

FRIDAY: A hospice? I don't know exactly, but it's obviously some kind of hospital.

FRANK: Whee doggie, you mean we're going to be arresting doctors?

FRIDAY: That's right, Frank. At least if we can keep ourselves from shooting them in cold blood when we see them dealing junk to the unsuspecting children.

2:38 P.M. We arrived at the hospital and made a self-righteous beeline for the Admissions department, where we were greeted by the receptionist.


RECEPTIONIST: How may I help you, gentlemen?

FRIDAY: We're looking for the Hospice Center.

RECEPTIONIST: Upstairs and to the left. Next?

FRANK: I'm with him!

RECEPTIONIST: All right, keep your shirt on. Jesus.

FRIDAY: 2:39 P.M. With guns drawn, we ran up the stairs and out into an open area full of hospital beds where we stopped to reconnoiter.


FRANK: I give up, Joe? Where exactly is this hospice center? All I see is a bunch of sick children.

FRIDAY: Did you say sick children, Frank?

FRANK: Yes, I did, Joe. Why?

FRIDAY: Then this must actually BE the hospice center.

FRANK: Good catch, Joe. What now?

FRIDAY: Now we just hide ourselves behind this water cooler and wait for a doctor to come along with the goodies.

FRANK: How can they do it, Joe? I mean, the kids are already sick. And now they want to turn them into addicts as well?

FRIDAY: I know, right? But get behind the water cooler so that we can catch them in flagrante delicto.

FRANK: In fragrant what?

FRIDAY: Never mind, Frank, just hide.

2:41 P.M. We waited for what seemed like hours but was actually only three minutes. Finally our patience was rewarded as a doctor walked in carrying a very suspicious looking syringe.


GIRL: Doctor, it hurts.

DOCTOR: Don't worry, sweetie. This will make you feel better.

FRANK: No it most certainly won't. Drop the syringe now!

DOCTOR: Who are you?

FRIDAY: We're your worst nightmare. Now drop the syringe and come away from the little girl.

DOCTOR: But she's in pain.

FRANK: The nerve of this guy, trying to use the little girl's unfortunate medical condition to excuse his own sordid drug pushing.

GIRL: What's happening?

FRIDAY: Everything's fine, honey. This man isn't going to bother you ever again.

2:55 P.M. We arrived back at headquarters with scumbag in tow. Our lab guys verified that the syringe was indeed filled with medical-grade morphine 2 , enough to bring peaceful sleep to dozens of hospice kids, thereby turning them into mindless junkified addicts for life.


FRANK: When will folks learn that drugs are not the answer, Joe?

FRIDAY: Hopefully not before December 31st, 2045, Frank.

FRANK: Why's that, Joe?

FRIDAY: Because that's when I retire from the police force, Frank.

FRANK: Oh.

ANNOUNCER: On November 9th, trial was held in the superior court of Los Angeles county. The scumbag was found guilty of 7 counts of drug possession, drug dealing, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He is currently on death row. In a strange twist, the hospice is reporting an unusually high rate of deaths among their young clientele. Police theorize that the creep was not only injecting kids with drugs, but with contaminated drugs at that.



Notes:

1: Drug Testing and the Christian Science Inquisition DWP (up)
2: Three takeaway lessons from the use of morphine by William Halsted, co-founder of Johns Hopkins Medical School DWP (up)







Ten Tweets

against the hateful war on US




We need to stop using the fact that people like opiates as an excuse to launch a crackdown on inner cities. We need to re-legalize popular meds, teach safe use, and come up with common sense ways to combat addictions by using drugs to fight drugs.

There's a run of addiction movies out there, like "Craving!" wherein they actually personify addiction as a screaming skeleton. Funny, drug warriors never call for a Manhattan Project to end addiction. Addiction is their golden goose.

If psychoactive drugs had never been criminalized, science would never have had any reason or excuse for creating SSRIs that muck about unpredictably with brain chemistry. Chewing the coca leaf daily would be one of many readily available "miracle treatments" for depression.

News flash: certain mushrooms can help you improve your life! It's the biggest story in the history of mycology! And yet you wouldn't know it from visiting the websites of most mushroom clubs.

If I want to use the kind of drugs that have inspired entire religions, fight depression, or follow up on the research of William James into altered states, I should not have to live in fear of the DEA crashing down my door and shouting: "GO! GO! GO!"

The FDA says that MindMed's LSD drug works. But this is the agency that has not been able to decide for decades now if coca "works," or if laughing gas "works." It's not just science going on at the FDA, it's materialist presuppositions about what constitutes evidence.

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.)"

But that's the whole problem with Robert Whitaker's otherwise wonderful critique of Big Pharma. Like almost all non-fiction authors today, he reckons without the drug war, which gave Big Pharma a monopoly in the first place.

Ketamine is like any other drug. It has good uses for certain people in certain situations. Nowadays, people insist that a drug be okay in every situation for everybody (especially American teens) before they will say that it's okay. That's crazy and anti-scientific.

I'll never understand Americans. Most of them HATE big government -- and yet they have no problem with government using drug prohibition to control how and how much they can think and feel in this life. Talk about warped priorities.


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






Four reasons why Addiction is a political term
Vancouver Police Seek to Eradicate Safe Use


This site uses no cookies! This site features no ads!



Thanks for visiting The Drug War Philosopher at abolishthedea.com, featuring essays against America's disgraceful drug war. Updated daily.

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


(up)