"Any question of philosophy which is so obscure and uncertain that human reason can reach no fixed determination with regard to it; if it should be treated at all, seems to lead us naturally into the style of dialogue and conversation." - Dialogues Concerning Natural Religions. David Hume.
Brian
Okay. Take a load off.
Kevin
Oh, thank you, old boy. I just got back from the "just say no" rally, don't you know. It was a jolly good show, what?
Brian
Oh, really? And you have no problem just saying no to medicines that have inspired entire religions?
Kevin
What do you mean, sir?
Brian
The Vedic-Hindu religion was inspired by Soma. Coca inspired the Inca religion. Psychedelics gave Plato his view of the afterlife.
Kevin
Oh, that. I thought you were talking about board certified religions, old boy, like Christianity.
Michael
No, he's got a point there. In light of the facts thus enumerated, one might say that the Drug War outlaws the very impulse of religion.
Brian
Bingo.
Kevin
Well, that's rather ripe coming from you, Michael, my dear boy.
Michael
How do you mean?
Kevin
Didn't you just write a book in which you claimed that it was too dangerous to legalize the use of mushrooms and other psychedelics, what what?
Brian
He's got you there, Michael.
Kevin
It seems that some things are more important to you than religious liberty, old man.
Michael
So I want to protect junior from misusing drugs. So sue me.
Brian
And you want to do that at the expense of denying me my religion?
Michael
What?
Brian
Nay, worse: you've denied me the religious impulse that such substances create, thereby preventing me from even conceptualizing new religions, let alone joining them.
Michael
That's just like you, Brian: you're always interested in abstract principles, while I'm worried about real lives.
Brian
Yes. Real WHITE lives in the American suburbs.
Kevin
He's got you again, Michael, old man.
Brian
How about the 'real lives' of the thousands of Mexican kids who have lost their parents to the War on Drugs that America exported to the world beginning in the early 20th century?
Brian
How about the thousands of black Americans who are killed every year by the heavily armed gang violence that prohibition has caused in inner cities?
Brian
Besides, if you're worried about the negative effects of drugs, why aren't you fretting about the psychoactive drug called sugar, which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of diabetes deaths in Mexico over the last decade, thanks to that country's massive imports of Coca-Cola and American processed foods?
Kevin
Looks like he's clammed up on you, old boy.
Brian
Well, that always happens to me: whenever I spout an incontrovertible truth, my critics always clam up on me, and henceforth cut me entirely, I might add.
Kevin
Not to worry, Brian, old boy, for I'm here, and I can grill Michael on your behalf, even if he stiffs you, dialectically speaking, that is.
Brian
But I thought you were in favor of the Drug War.
Kevin
I am, old boy. But I have good religious reasons for just saying no.
Brian
Oh, really?
Kevin
Yes, really. What's more, I want to save junior from more than just psychedelics. I want to save him from the scourge of excessive marijuana use as well.
Brian
Oh, here we go.
Kevin
Yes, here we go old man: See what your legalization 1 talk has led to? Toke City, baby! (er, I mean, 'old man').
Brian
Yes, and do you know why it's Toke City, today, baby?
Kevin
No. Enlighten me, dear boy.
Brian
Because you Drug Warriors have outlawed almost every other psychoactive substance on the frickin' planet!
Michael
Now Brian's got YOU, old boy.
Brian
And you've thereby outlawed my religion, which holds that the unexamined life is not worth living.
Kevin
Oh, I see old man. So you have to be 'stoned,' I suppose, in order to examine life?
Brian
No.
Kevin
Steady, old boy.
Brian
"Stoned" is your prejudiced and derisive terminology. I have to be inspired by medicines to reach states that help me see outside my own limited understanding of the world in which I dwell, both psychologically and physically speaking.
Kevin
Far better to just say no, old boy.
Brian
Why?
Kevin
Well, because... because... um...
Brian
Why is a state of sobriety the ultimate goal in your life? Gunmen shoot up schools when they're sober; they commit suicide 2 when they're sober; they launch nuclear weapons when they're sober.
Kevin
Well, I never!
Michael
You should try it some time, 'old boy.'
Brian
Do you know what?
Kevin
Pray continue.
Brian
I wish there were some undiscovered country that I could set sail for in emulation of my Mayflower ancestors, so that I could found a country based on the idea that psychoactive medicine should be used for the benefit of humanity without being stigmatized either by politicians or the sensation-seeking tabloid press.
Kevin
Now now.
Brian
What's more, I would be setting sail for the same reason my ancestors did: to found a country wherein they could exercise religious freedom and freedom of conscience.
Michael
I'm with you... kind of.
Brian
I'm sorry Michael, but "kind of" doesn't cut it. In fact, with friends like you, we opponents of the Drug War don't need enemies.
Michael
Hey, in case you hadn't noticed, I represent the consensus view on these topics!
Brian
That's true, unfortunately, and the consensus view is very confused indeed.
Michael
What?
Brian
The average American senses that the Drug War is full of crap, but they can never really grasp the full evil at work here because they have been programmed from birth to hate and fear psychoactive medicines rather than to understand them.
Michael
How so?
Brian
The propaganda of omission has kept them from learning about the positive uses of mind medicine because TV, films and academia only ever talk about misuse and abuse, never about positive use, whether theoretical or historical.
Michael
Well--
Brian
This keeps us from grasping an obvious truth: that the Drug War is wrong through and through. Why? Because it tells us there are substances that have no positive uses for anyone, ever, at any time, in any place, for any reason, at any dose.
Michael
Well, yes, but--
Brian
And guess what?
Michael
What?
Kevin
What?
Brian
There are no substances of that kind. Moreover, to insist otherwise, is anti-scientific because it keeps us from finding the very uses that could disprove the theory.
Michael
Well--
Brian
In other words, the Drug War is just a superstition.
Kevin
Well--
Brian
A superstition that keeps me from practicing my religion and following the Platonic imperative of knowing myself and the world around me.
Kevin
Well, all I can say is that I'll pray for you, old man, in the name of the drug free Father, and the drug Free Son, and the drug free Holy Spirit. Amen.
Michael
And I'll write some more books, explaining why we have to continue going slow on approving the use of dangerous botanicals like mushrooms. I think I'll call my new book, "How to Change Your Mind with Shock Therapy: why it's better to fry your brain with electricity than to partake of evil plants and fungus."
Brian
Gee, that's swell, fellas. NOT! As for me, I'll keep writing articles on the Internet in an attempt to waken America to the obvious: that the Drug War is wrong root and branch...
Michael
Yes, yes...
Brian
Yes, and that it is a violation of my religious liberty.
Kevin
Oh, this passes!
Brian
And you, with your quaint 19th-century British tropes: don't you realize that the Drug War is the enforcement of the drug-hating religion of Christian Science with respect to psychoactive medicine?
Kevin
May God forgive you for saying so, old boy.
Michael
Oh, Brian, can I get the spelling of your complete name, please?
Brian
Oh, yes, Michael, I'd be flattered.
Michael
Don't be. I just want to search the text of my latest manuscript to make sure that I did not inadvertently mention your name therein!
Notes for essay entitled Hey, You, Get Off Of My Creed!: how the drug war bans my religion:
When Americans "obtain their majority" and wish to partake of drugs safely, they should be paired with older adults who have done just that. Instead, we introduce them to "drug abusers" in prerecorded morality plays to reinforce our biased notions that drug use is wrong.
Prohibition never ended. Busybody Americans just gave alcohol a big Mulligan for killing 178,000 a year in America alone and then began fighting to outlaw everything else.
The UN of today is in an odd position regarding drugs: they want to praise indigenous societies while yet outlawing the drugs that helped create them.
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!
Opium and cocaine have a vast host of potential rational uses -- yet we all have to pretend otherwise in the age of the Drug War.
The problem with blaming things on addiction genes is that it whitewashes the role of society and its laws. It's easy to imagine an enlightened country wherein drug availability, education and attitudes make addiction highly unlikely, addiction genes or no addiction genes.
Everyone's biggest concern is the economy? Is nobody concerned that Trump has promised to pardon insurrectionists and get revenge on critics? Is no one concerned that Trump taught Americans to doubt democracy by questioning our election fairness before one single vote was cast?
Drug warriors think only about young people misusing drugs. They never think about the millions of the depressed whom they're condemning to a lifetime of totally unnecessary misery by outlawing drugs.
The goal of rehab should not be to get people off of all drugs, it should be to teach them to be in control of their drug use and to use drugs wisely for beneficial purposes.
Opium is a godsend, as folks like Galen, Avicenna and Paracelsus knew. The drug war has facilitated a nightmare by outlawing peaceable use at home and making safe use almost impossible.
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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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