How National Geographic slanders the Inca people and their use of coca
an open letter to the National Geographic Society
by Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher
May 21, 2024
Dear National Geographic Society:
Your 2013 article is biased against the Inca and their use of coca. The title reads "Inca Child Sacrifice Victims Were Drugged: Mummy hair reveals that young victims were heavy users of coca and alcohol" by Brian Handwerk1. The implication is that the sacrifice victims were made compliant and drowsy via coca. But that is not what coca does. It sharpens one's senses. Does your author think that one can be "drugged" by drinking coffee? And what does he mean by "heavy users of coca"? The Inca WERE heavy users of coca, and the child was at the age of maturity, when they are allowed to chew their first quid. Sure, they are "heavy users" by prudish American standards, but not by Inca standards.
You also defame coca in an article entitled: "Coca: A Blessing and a Curse."2 That's a political statement on your part, not fact. Coca is not a curse, prohibition is the curse! It has consigned coca growers to a life of poverty and caused a civil war in Mexico.
Author's Follow-up: May 21, 2024
I submitted the above comment to the National Geographic Society today on their contact page3. The site returned the message "YOUR CASE WAS CREATED. We'll get back to you soon." Past experience suggests that they won't actually do that, but watch this space for updates just in case the moon should indeed turn blue.
Author's Follow-up: June 14, 2024
Surprise! Nat Geo has not gotten back to me yet. Only fancy!
That's why we damage the brains of the depressed with shock therapy rather than let them use coca or opium. That's why many regions allow folks to kill themselves but not to take drugs that would make them want to live. The Drug War is a perversion of social priorities.
I think many scientists are so used to ignoring "drugs" that they don't even realize they're doing it. Yet almost all books about consciousness and depression (etc.) are nonsense these days because they ignore what drugs could tell us about those topics.
It's funny to hear fans of sacred plants indignantly insisting that their meds are not "drugs." They're right in a way, but actually NO substances are "drugs." Calling substances "drugs" is like referring to striking workers as "scabs." It's biased terminology.
The drug war has created a whole film genre with the same tired plots: drug-dealing scumbags and their dupes being put in their place by the white Anglo-Saxon establishment, which has nothing but contempt for altered states.
Folks like Sabet accuse folks like myself of ignoring the "facts." No, it is Sabet who is ignoring the facts -- facts about dangerous horses and free climbing. He's also ignoring all the downsides of prohibition, whose laws lead to the election of tyrants.
It's because of such reductive pseudoscience that America will allow us to shock the brains of the depressed but won't allow us to let them use the plant medicines that grow at their feet.
The first step in harm reduction is to re-legalize mother nature's medicines. Then hundreds of millions of people will no longer suffer in silence for want of godsend medicines... for depression, for pain, for anxiety, for religious doubts... you name it.
The goal of drug-law reform should be to outlaw prohibition. Anything short of that, and our basic rights will always be subject to veto by fearmongers. Outlawing prohibition would restore the Natural Law of Jefferson, which the DEA scorned in 1987 with its raid on Monticello.
In a sane world, we'd package laughing gas for safe use and give it to the suicidal -- saying, "Use before attempting to kill yourself." But drug warriors would rather have suicide than drug use.
Psychiatrists keep flipping the script. When it became clear that SSRIs caused dependence, instead of apologizing, they told us we need to keep taking our meds. Now they even claim that criticizing SSRIs is wrong. This is anti-intellectual madness.
Buy the Drug War Comic Book by the Drug War Philosopher Brian Quass, featuring 150 hilarious op-ed pics about America's disgraceful war on Americans
You have been reading an article entitled, How National Geographic slanders the Inca people and their use of coca: an open letter to the National Geographic Society, published on May 21, 2024 on AbolishTheDEA.com. For more information about America's disgraceful drug war, which is anti-patient, anti-minority, anti-scientific, anti-mother nature, imperialistic, the establishment of the Christian Science religion, a violation of the natural law upon which America was founded, and a childish and counterproductive way of looking at the world, one which causes all of the problems that it purports to solve, and then some, visit the drug war philosopher, at abolishTheDEA.com. (philosopher's bio; go to top of this page)
You have been reading an article entitled, How National Geographic slanders the Inca people and their use of coca: an open letter to the National Geographic Society, published on May 21, 2024 on AbolishTheDEA.com. For more information about America's disgraceful drug war, which is anti-patient, anti-minority, anti-scientific, anti-mother nature, imperialistic, the establishment of the Christian Science religion, a violation of the natural law upon which America was founded, and a childish and counterproductive way of looking at the world, one which causes all of the problems that it purports to solve, and then some, visit the drug war philosopher, at abolishTheDEA.com. (philosopher's bio; go to top of this page)