How drug prohibition destroys the lives of the depressed

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How drug prohibition destroys the lives of the depressed

meanwhile turning them into wards of the healthcare state

by Brian Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher

August 30, 2025

It is frustrating to deal with one's deeply depressed kinfolk in the age of drug prohibition. All the medicines that could help them are outlawed and so one is only able to comfort them with "words, words, words," which are meaningless, however, to a soul in despair. I know because I have been there myself. Such family members belong to a completely unrecognized class of drug-war victims: namely, those who are forced to suffer in silence thanks to the unprecedented outlawing of time-honored medicine. For the most part, however, these victims refuse to protest because they have been told that science has solved depression and that they just have to wait until they discover the right dependence-causing pill combination from Big Pharma and then all will be fine. Well, I know family members who have been playing that game for over forty years now, and they have been cycled through long periods of despair and hope as they are given one dependence-causing med after another to see "what works for them." In between each drug trial, they are unconscionably forced to go cold turkey for the benefit of the doctor, who prioritizes limiting variables over the "patient's" peace of mind. As much as we love to demonize them, a drug dealer would never insist on such an inhumane protocol.

I write therefore on behalf of the sufferers of the future -- in an effort to make America rethink its unprecedented wholesale demonization of psychoactive substances.

Of course, there are many reasons to re-legalize psychoactive medicine. By so doing, we would end the violence of turf wars and the militarization of police forces around the world. We would restore our basic rights which Americans have renounced in favor of fighting the politically created scapegoat called "drugs." We would get rid of our penal colonies for minorities. We would begin to atone for the fact that we have killed half a million Americans since 1971 in our paleolithic War on Drugs ¹. I focus on the rights of the depressed, however, partly because I have skin in this game and partly because no on else seems to be aware of the obvious way that drug prohibition keeps the depressed from enjoying life. I myself have been deprived of godsend medicines for a lifetime and so deprived of my most basic of rights: to take care of my own health. This is a crucial criticism of the Drug War that someone must finally make, but Americans have been bamboozled on this topic by the propaganda of Drug Warriors and Big Pharma ² ³ alike. Companies like Astra-Zeneca and Eli Lilly sponsor ads for "depression awareness," in an effort to have us all "take our meds," and these ads have worked ⁴. Americans like to boast that they are on the same page as the pharmaceutical companies when it comes to their need to take dependence-causing meds on a daily basis.

And yet the depressed could be cheered up in a trice -- if we merely began using drugs for the benefit of humanity. And this could be done without addicting the user -- bearing in mind that even dependence is preferable to having that user commit suicide. As Carl Hart reminds us, the majority of drug users use wisely, this despite the fact that our government is doing everything it can to ensure that use is problematic, by refusing to teach safe use, refusing to regulate drugs as to quantity and quality, and refusing to provide would-be users with true choice. All risky activities have victims, however, from horseback riding to mountain climbing to alcohol drinking. Only when it comes to the hypocritically defined category of "drugs" do we insist that the concerns about one demographic -- namely white suburban young people -- must be prioritized over the healthcare needs of everybody else in the world. This is an imperialist and racist evil. It is a crime against humanity ⁵ to deny peace of mind to the depressed -- especially when we do so merely because we refuse to educate young people about drugs, under the bizarre anti-democratic philosophy that ignorance is the best policy.

My uncle underwent brain-damaging shock therapy thanks to these Drug Warrior clowns. The doctors told the family that it was performed as a "last resort," but this was a lie. Shock therapy is never performed as a "last resort" in the age of drug prohibition, it is performed because we have outlawed all common-sense treatments for human sadness.

The world is full of substances that inspire and elate. Consider the following user reports from the book Pihkal by Alexander Shulgin ⁶.

"More than tranquil, I was completely at peace, in a beautiful, benign, and placid place."

"A glimpse of what true heaven is supposed to feel like."

"This is total energy, and I am aware of my every membrane. This has been a marvelous experience, very beautiful, joyous, and sensuous."

Just imagine how frustrating it is to deal with a sorrowing loved one, knowing that America would rather demonize substances that produce such results rather than to learn how to use them as wisely as possible for the benefit of humanity.

Pharmacologically Savvy Empaths

Notes:

1: Prohibition Blunder (up)
2: Seife, Charles. 2012. “Is Drug Research Trustworthy?” Scientific American 307 (6): 56–63. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican1212-56. (up)
3: LaMattina, John. n.d. “Why Is Biopharma Paying 75% of the FDA’s Drug Division Budget?” Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnlamattina/2022/09/22/why-is-biopharma-paying-75-of-the-fdas-drug-division-budget/. (up)
4: “Medicalization of Everyday Life, the – Syracuse University Press.” 2026. Syr.edu. 2026. https://press.syr.edu/supressbooks/953/medicalization-of-everyday-life/. (up)
5: Drug Prohibition is a crime against humantiy DWP (up)
6: Shulgin, Alexander T, and Ann Shulgin. 2019. Pihkal : A Chemical Love Story. Berkeley, Ca: Transform Press. (up)

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Ten Tweets

against the hateful war on US

Before anyone receives shock therapy -- or the right to assisted suicide -- they should have the option to start using opium or cocaine daily -- in fact, any drug that makes them feel that life is worth living again.

There are times when it is clearly WRONG to deny kids drugs (whatever the law may say). If your child is obsessed with school massacres, he or she is an excellent candidate for using empathogenic meds ASAP -- or do we prefer even school shootings to drug use???

The Hindu religion was inspired by drug use.

A company will be put out of business if someone happens to die while using "drugs," even if the drug was not really responsible for the death.

ECT is like euthanasia. Neither make sense in the age of prohibition.

We give kids drugs to improve their concentration -- but if adults use drugs to concentrate, we call them names and throw them in jail.

Many psychedelic fans are still drug warriors at heart. They just think that a nice big exception should be carved out for the drugs that they're suddenly finding useful.

People magazine should be fighting for justice on behalf of the thousands of American young people who are dying on the streets because of the drug war.

I can't believe people. Somebody's telling me that "drugs" is not used problematically. It is CONSTANTLY used with a sneer in the voice when politicians want to diss somebody, as in, "Oh, they're in favor of DRUGS!!!" It's a political term as used today!

The media called out Trump for fearmongering about immigrants, but the media engages in fearmongering when it comes to drugs. The latest TV plot line: "white teenage girl forced to use fentanyl!" America loves to feel morally superior about "drugs."

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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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