Drug Prohibition is for the Birds

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Drug Prohibition is for the Birds

What the Walmart toy department tells us about Drug War hypocrisy

by Brian Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher

December 5, 2025

So I'm in Walmart yesterday buying some peanuts on the cheap for the local birds.

A cartoon bird holding a glass of wine. — Let's drink to treating drugs just like we treat alcohol!

I know, I know. It was against my principles. I don't like to shop at a store that has single-handedly bankrupted almost every mom-and-pop business in the country, but I guess everybody has their price. I draw the line when it comes to bird food. I like my jays and cardinals a lot, but I am not going to pay $90 for six pounds of peanuts when I can get the same quantity for $30 at Walmart, even if I have to slink into the store like Hamlet's ghost, "like a guilty thing upon a fearful summons."

The trip turned out to be an educational experience for me, however.

Three holiday hydration games, in which the goal is to get irresponsibly drunk: Chug O War, Do or Drink and Buzzed. — Walmart stocks holiday games that encourage irresponsible drinking, like Chug of War, Do or Drink, and Buzzed, and yet we're told we should not glorify the use of drugs that have been considered godsends in the past.

As I was shuffling toward the checkout counter with upturned collar, fearful of being spotted by one of my censorious cronies who would be sure to razz me for my hypocritical presence in the enemy's lair, it occurred to me that I might as well kill two birds with one stone while I was here. I might as well buy gifts for both human beings AND birds. I was already in Walmart, after all. The damage had already been done. In for a penny, in for a pound, as they say. So thinking, I began skulking toward the toy department with a view toward checking out the coolest new games for Christmas. What I was to discover there was a real eye opener.

I had scarcely deposited my three bags of surprisingly heavy peanuts on the floor, when I beheld a set of toy shelves before me positively crammed with so-called "hydration games." You've heard of "hydration games," right? These are those games in which the basic point is to get as irresponsibly drunk as possible. (Actually, I had never heard of the phrase before. I didn't know that "hydration games" was even a "thing." The penny only dropped when I noticed that the word "hydration" was prominently emblazoned on every other game box, as if to say to the curious window shopper: "Wink-wink! We know how fun it is to stay 'HYDRATED,' don't we, game lover?! Wink-wink!")

"How ironic!" I thought to myself. "If I proclaim (with Sigmund Freud himself ¹) that cocaine could be a godsend for the depressed and help those with cognitive impairment, I am told that I am glorifying drug use. But when it comes to the drug called alcohol, Americans are actually encouraged, not simply to use the drug, but to use it IRRESPONSIBLY! That's the whole fun of drinking, apparently, at least on the holidays! Who knew?"

Here are just a few of the (wink-wink) "hydration games" that Walmart is targeting at our precious white vulnerable young people -- and for Christmastime, no less!!!

The game titles include:

-Chug o' War
-D is for Drink
-Buzzed
-You Laugh, You Drink
-Drunk Confidence
-Drink If...
-These Cards Will Get You Drunk
-Tipsy Land
-Shot Roulette
-Girls in Bar Bathrooms
-Drunk as an A**

Holiday games from Walmart that encourage irresponsible drinking, including Shot Clock, D is for Drink, and These Cards Will Get You Drunk — More holiday 'hydration' games from Walmart, where the goal is to get 'wasted' -- and this in a world where we're told not to glorify time-honored drug use that actually helps with mood and mentation!

Now, I have nothing against drinking whatsoever, even if it is connected with 178,000 deaths a year in America alone ², far more than any other drug, except for nicotine ³. I even believe that most Americans are smart enough not to overdo it, even in a world in which "hydration games" are a "thing." My point is rather that the popularity of these games in America today -- and the fact that they are being brazenly flogged by Walmart, the "mainstream company" par excellence -- speaks volumes about the enormous hypocrisy of America's attitudes toward mind-affecting substances.

Imagine if any outlawed drug were promoted in a similar way. There would be howls of protests from white parents around the nation. There would be predictions of dire outcomes for public health and safety. "Imagine, telling our children to use drugs," Henny Penny would cry, "and to use them irresponsibly at that!" Government agencies would begin scouring the statistics to prove that such games -- and the publicity surrounding their existence -- result in an increase in car accidents, murders, depression, and suicide!

But if the drug is alcohol, Americans switch from an outraged Dr. Hyde, crushing all human beings that get in their way, to the genteel Mr. Jekyll, striding the world with the aplomb of an aristocrat. "Oh, alcohol," they say. "Why didn't you SAY so? No worries there, old boy. Kids will be kids, after all, eh, what? Besides, surely it's up to parents to teach their kids to be responsible, not government -- or even Walmart, for that matter!"

This kind of spoiled my day, to be honest. This preponderance of drinking games in the toy aisle had really rattled me. There are times when I like to take a break from thinking about drug-war hypocrisy, and this was one of those times. Now I had been reminded of everything that I was trying to forget: namely, the hateful Drug War and how it illustrated everything that is wrong with America today. On the bright side, however, I was no longer worried about being spotted by one of my irreverent cronies. Let the neck craning commence as far as I was concerned. I could no longer care less.

And so I positively stalked back to the checkout area, chin in the full upright position, determined to lambaste the Drug War with my very next essay. I would show them now, thank you very much! Humph! The idea: promoting the deliberate misuse of alcohol while outlawing drugs that could prevent suicides and render shock therapy unnecessary!

Hydration games for the holidays available at your nearest Walmart, including Drunkish, You Laugh You Drink, and Dizzy Date — For well over half a century, prohibitionists have been telling us not to glorify drug use, and yet Walmart carries games that not only glorify alcohol use, but glorify ABUSING alcohol!

I never did get around to buying a Christmas gift for a friend or loved one, by the way; that is just how distracted I had become by the logically and morally challenged game selection at Walmart. Indeed, I was actually mad as I strode back to the front of the store, and not just about the Drug War either. My anger recognizes no topical boundaries at such times, so the folks around me had better beware! I was actually hoping that one of them would cross me in some way or other so that I could give vent to my pent-up indignation. That's not really fair of me, of course, seeing as my real indignation would have been generated elsewhere, namely in the game department, but I could technically excuse an outburst on my part, provided only that my victim vouchsafed me an affront of any kind, be it never so slight and unintentional. All I needed was for them to "make my day!"

Meanwhile, I would have to content myself with muttering under my breath as I approached the front of the store:

"Why are there so few cashiers here today, AS USUAL?! Why do they always force me to check stuff out myself! Talk about cheapskates! I see only one regular checkout aisle that might actually be open and that one's located a full mile away on the complete other side of the store!"

So thinking (or rather so muttering) I headed toward the next available self-checkout machine, nursing an ever-growing list of grievances enroute.

But I can never stay angry for long.

These misanthropic states of mine are both rare and short-lived. They are by no means characteristic of my personality in general. Indeed, I have been known, time out of mind, for the pensive serenity of my disposition. (What, you mean you didn't KNOW that?) Moreover, the gloominess thus occasioned is always dispelled in a trice by the least act of kindness toward my person, which brings me to the surprisingly upbeat conclusion of this story.

The young Walmart overseer of the self-service section was so unexpectedly friendly to me that I instantly repented of my grouchiness, the more so when I reflected that she was probably receiving a substandard wage for her exertions. If she can turn lemon into lemonade, why can't I? Life wasn't that bad after all, was it? I should be thinking about my jays and cardinals back home. Won't they be delighted when I start shelling out the peanuts again after a two-week hiatus brought about by a disruption in the supply chain? I suddenly couldn't wait to see the looks on their faces when I resumed my practice of placing peanuts on the railing of my upstairs balcony. Won't THEY be surprised?! Yes, life was good, wasn't it? Better enjoy it while one can, right?

At least until the next real-world reminder of Drug War hypocrisy comes along! Humph!

EPILOGUE

cartoon of boy genius with lightbulb over head

cartoon of boy genius with lightbulb over head

I wish I had been a child prodigy: I wish I had been able to see all this clearly in my youth. It would have been hilarious. Just imagine a freshman creative writing class in which I turn in a story about "My Trip to Walmart." The teacher is expecting a few mildly amusing anecdotes about modern consumerism. But I stand up before the class and explain to the students how I found Walmart's promotion of drinking games in the age of drug prohibition to be logically incoherent.

The teacher would be like: "Okay, that's very interesting, Brian. But we have to move along to the next speaker."

And I would be like: "No, seriously, teacher: how do you square drug prohibition with the belief that we should treat the most inherently dangerous drug of all as if it were absolutely harmless, so much so that we can -- and even SHOULD -- misuse it at will? What? Help me out here. I'm trying to understand." Then, turning toward my fellow students: "And what are YOU guys gaping at? Surely, even a five-year-old can see the cowardly self-interested hypocrisy at work here. Don't embarrass yourselves by playing dumb. It's an affront to Reason!"

Actually, I would have had to ask my Fairy Godmother for two things to bring about this deliciously subversive utopia. In addition to my metamorphosis into a teenage genius, I would have had to have asked her ladyship for a side order of self-confidence -- biggie-sized.

Notes for essay entitled Drug Prohibition is for the Birds: What the Walmart toy department tells us about Drug War hypocrisy:

1: “Freud on Cocaine : Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive.” 2023. Internet Archive. 2023. https://archive.org/details/freudoncocaine0000freu/page/n5/mode/2up?view=theater. (up)
2: CDC. 2024. “Facts About U.S. Deaths from Excessive Alcohol Use.” Alcohol Use. July 8, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/facts-stats/?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/features/excessive-alcohol-deaths.html. (up)
3: 8 Million Tobacco Deaths Could Be Avoided by Slashing Nicotine Edney, Anna, 2017 (up)

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against the hateful war on US

The WHO says that depression will be the number-one cause of disability by 2030. What they don't say is that this is only because drug prohibition has outlawed all obvious treatments for depression.

What prohibitionists forget is that every popular but dangerous activity, from horseback riding to drug use, will have its victims. You cannot save everybody, and when you try to do so by law, you kill far more than you save, meanwhile destroying democracy in the process.

It's already risky to engage in free and honest speech about drugs online: Colorado politicians tried to make it absolutely illegal in February 2024. The DRUG WAR IS ALL ABOUT DESTROYING DEMOCRACY THRU IGNORANT AND INTOLERANT FEARMONGERING.

Americans believe scientists when they say that drugs like MDMA are not proven effective. That's false. They are super effective and obviously so. It's just that science holds entheogenic medicines to the standards of reductive materialism. That's unfair and inappropriate.

In "Four Good Days" the pompous white-coated doctor ignores the entire formulary of mother nature and instead throws the young heroin user on a cot for 3 days of cold turkey and a shot of Naltrexone: price tag $3,000.

The drug war is a whole wrong way of looking at the world. It tells us that substances can be judged "up" or "down," which is anti-scientific and blinds us to endless beneficial uses.

Drug Warriors never take responsibility for incentivizing poor kids throughout the west to sell drugs. It's not just in NYC and LA, it's in modest-sized towns in France. Find public housing, you find drug dealing. It's the prohibition, damn it!

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!"

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.

Both physical and psychological addiction can be successfully fought when we relegalize the pharmacopoeia and start to fight drugs with drugs. But prohibitionists do not want to end addiction, they want to scare us with it.

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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.

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Drug Prohibition is for the Birds

What the Walmart toy department tells us about Drug War hypocrisy

Ten Tweets

against the hateful war on US

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