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How Scientific American reckons without the drug war

in response to 'A Talking Cure for Psychosis' by Matthew M. Kurtz

by Brian Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher



March 6, 2023



open letter to Professor Matthew M. Kurtz, in response to 'A Talking Cure for Psychosis' in the March 2023 print edition of 'Scientific American'

Dear Professor Kurtz:

When we say that drugs by themselves have not solved the problem of psychosis, I think we must specify which drugs we are talking about. As you know, we live in a country in which almost all psychoactive medicine is outlawed. So when we say that "drugs are ineffective," we are really saying that "drugs that work according to reductionist criteria" are ineffective. The latter is a very different statement from the former.

I would also caution against the reductionist approach in treating psychological disorders. I have been chemically dependent for over 40 years now on drugs that purported to treat my depression via scientific reductionist criteria. Not only has my depression not been "cured," but I have been turned into a ward of the healthcare state, taking expensive pills that tranquilize me rather than empower me to live large.

You write of a "new era of psychology," but psychology remains blind to all the obvious reasons why banned psychoactive drugs could help the depressed: Even if these substances did nothing but elate, they could be used intermittently to give the patient something to look forward to (which is far better than shocking a patient's brain or having them commit suicide). Moreover, coca wine has empowered the lives of HG Wells and Jules Verne, helping them to work harder, giving them greater self-esteem, creating a virtuous circle. In the 19th century, poets used opium wisely, in what author Richard Middleton called "a series of magnificent quarterly carouses,1" improving their work and giving them "something to look forward to," again creating a virtuous circle. Alexander Shulgin has synthesized hundreds of non-addictive drugs that elate and inspire the user. These drugs have not been found to be ineffective in treating psychological problems: rather they have been completely ignored in fealty to the Drug War ideology of substance demonization.

Scientists are blind to the benefits of such "drugs" because to acknowledge them would be to violate Drug War orthodoxy, which tells us that certain substances have no positive uses, for anybody, anywhere, at any time, ever -- which, of course, is an anti-scientific lie, as there are no substances of that kind in the world. Even cyanide and botox have legitimate medical uses.

Science today is censored by the Drug War. And this will never end as long as we continue to pretend that the Drug War does not even exist.

Mass Media and Drugs






Wonder how America got to the point where we let the Executive Branch arrest judges? Look no further than the Drug War, which, since the 1970s, has demonized Constitutional protections as impediments to justice. The media has played its role with movies like "Running with the DEA," "The Crisis" and "The Runner." In the first of these three, the DEA are the "good guys" for murdering a suspect in cold blood. In the second, the DEA plants evidence to cover up the murder of a drug suspect by an indignant mother. And in the third, a white detective stages a raid that kills a young Black teenager that said detective refers to as "a waste of space."

The Drug War is all about making us hate -- making us hate anybody except for the folks that brought about the violence and drug problems in the first place: the damned prohibitionists who, having failed to outlaw liquor, turned their scapegoating on every less dangerous substance in the world.

Meanwhile, the media have done all they can to support this drug war by holding the use of outlawed substances to safety standards that are never applied to any other risky activity on earth, meanwhile ignoring the fact that prohibition encourages ignorance and leads to contaminated drug supply. Thousands of American young people die each month because of unregulated supply and ignorance, not from drugs themselves.

The media also supports the drug war by failing to hold it accountable for all the problems that it causes. Just read any article on inner-city shootings -- today's journalists will trace the problem to a lack of jobs or to global warming, to anything but the drug war which incentivized violence in the first place. As for violence overseas, we're told that it's caused by evil rotten drug cartels -- without any acknowledgement that it was American drug policy that created those cartels out of whole cloth, just as liquor prohibition created the Mafia here in the States.

Meanwhile, the media have a field day superstitiously blaming drugs. It used to be PCP, ICE, oxy, crack, and now it's fentanyl... It's all part of the DEA's tried-and-true formula to stay relevant, as academic Philip Jenkins clearly demonstrates in "Synthetic Panics": Take a local drug problem and publicize it so that it goes national. Then work with a film crew at "48 Hours" to show that the drug in question threatens the white American middle class. Then go to Congress, hat in hand, and accept billions to 'solve' the latest drug problem.

And Americans fall for it every time. In fact, their gullibility seems to be increasing over time. They love to hate drugs, so much so that drugs have become the new horror trope. Recent movies have taken to personifying "evil" drugs in the forms of Crack Raccoons and Meth Gators. It's sad that America has become so superstitious and childish about drugs -- and the media can take much of the blame.

  • Attention American Screenwriters: please stop spreading Drug War propaganda
  • Colorado plane crash caused by milk!
  • Common Nonsense from Common Sense Media: So-called media watchdog scorns dirty words only, not dirty wars
  • Cop shows as drug war propaganda: How the TV cop show genre promulgates drug warrior lies about mother nature's plant medicines
  • COPS PRESENTS the top 10 traffic stops of 2023
  • COPS: TV Show for Racist Drug Warriors
  • Drug War Agitprop: a list of Movies that promote the pernicious ideology of substance demonization
  • Drug War Murderers: an open letter to People magazine
  • Fentanyl does not kill! Prohibition does!
  • Forbes Magazine's Laughable Article about Nitrous Oxide
  • Glenn Close but no cigar: Four Good Days full of drug war propaganda
  • How National Geographic slanders the Inca people and their use of coca: an open letter to the National Geographic Society
  • How Scientific American reckons without the drug war: in response to 'A Talking Cure for Psychosis' by Matthew M. Kurtz
  • How the Atlantic Supports the Drug War: a letter to the Atlantic editors
  • How the Atlantic Supports the Drug War Part II
  • Introduction to the Drug War Philosopher Website at AbolishTheDEA.com
  • Jim Beam and Drugs
  • Matthew Perry and the Drug War Ghouls
  • More Weed Bashing at the Washington Post
  • Movie Warnings from Uncommon Sense: find out if your favorite movies contain drug-war propaganda
  • Open Letter to Lisa Ling: whose documentary about Chicago violence does not even mention the Drug War!!!
  • Open Letter to Variety Critic Owen Glieberman: regarding his Drug War-biased review of the movie 'Four Good Days'
  • Science News Continues to Ignore the Drug War: open letter to Laura Sanders
  • Science News magazine continues to pretend that there is no war on drugs: an open letter to freelance writer Cassandra Willyard, author of 'A next-gen pain drug shows promise, but chronic sufferers need more options'
  • Science News Unveils Shock Therapy II: just when you thought it was safe to go back into the insane asylum...
  • Stigmatize THIS: More Drug War Agitprop from the Atlantic
  • The Criminalization of Nitrous Oxide is No Laughing Matter: an open letter to the Drug Policy Alliance
  • The Runner: Racist Drug War Agitprop
  • The Unpeople of Southeast Washington, D.C.
  • Time for News Outlets to stop promoting drug war lies: an open letter to WTOP News
  • Unscientific American: the hypocritical materialism of Elon Musk: how sci-fi nerds ignore the healing power of Mother Nature
  • Weed Bashing at WTOP.COM: an open letter to station manager Joel Oxley
  • Why CBS 19 should stop supporting the Drug War: an open letter to the CBS affiliate in Charlottesville, Virginia

  • Open Letters






    Check out the conversations that I have had so far with the movers and shakers in the drug-war game -- or rather that I have TRIED to have. Actually, most of these people have failed to respond to my calls to parlay, but that need not stop you from reading MY side of these would-be chats.

    I don't know what's worse, being ignored entirely or being answered with a simple "Thank you" or "I'll think about it." One writes thousands of words to raise questions that no one else is discussing and they are received and dismissed with a "Thank you." So much for discussion, so much for give-and-take. It's just plain considered bad manners these days to talk honestly about drugs. Academia is living in a fantasy world in which drugs are ignored and/or demonized -- and they are in no hurry to face reality. And so I am considered a troublemaker. This is understandable, of course. One can support gay rights, feminism, and LGBTQ+ today without raising collegiate hackles, but should one dare to talk honestly about drugs, they are exiled from the public commons.

    Somebody needs to keep pointing out the sad truth about today's censored academia and how this self-censorship is but one of the many unacknowledged consequences of the drug war ideology of substance demonization.



  • America's Blind Spot: Open Letter to Jospeh Koterski
  • Canadian Drug Warrior, I said Get Away: an open letter to Cory Morgan, columnist for the Western Standard
  • Common Sense Drug Withdrawal: an open letter to Austin of the Huachuma Project
  • Drug War Murderers: an open letter to People magazine
  • Drugs are not the problem: no, not even in nursing homes
  • End the Drug War Now: an open letter to American Senators in Washington, D.C.
  • Feedback on my first legal psilocybin session in Oregon: an open letter to the Psilocybin Advisory Board of the Oregon Health Authority
  • Finally, a drug war opponent who checks all my boxes: an open letter to Julian Buchanan
  • Freedom of Religion and the War on Drugs: an open letter to Ligare, a Christian Psychedelic Society
  • Getting off antidepressants in the age of the drug war: an open letter to Charley Wininger, author of 'Listening to Ecstasy'
  • God and Drugs: why I am not (entirely) a Christian
  • Hello? MDMA works, already!: An open letter to Dr. Jessica Maples-Keller, principal investigator for the 'MDMA Plus Exposure Therapy for PTSD' at Emory University
  • How Addiction Scientists Reckon without the Drug War: an open letter to Professor Thad Polk
  • How National Geographic slanders the Inca people and their use of coca: an open letter to the National Geographic Society
  • How Scientific American reckons without the drug war: in response to 'A Talking Cure for Psychosis' by Matthew M. Kurtz
  • How the Drug War is Threatening Intellectual Freedom in England: an open letter to British Philosophers
  • How the Drug War Outlaws Criticism of Immanuel Kant: an open letter to Professor Daniel A. Bonevac of the University of Pittsburgh
  • How the Monticello Foundation betrayed Jefferson's Legacy in 1987: open letter to the 'Sites of Conscience' website
  • How the US Preventive Services Task Force Drums Up Business for Big Pharma: an open letter to Task Force member David Chelmow MD
  • I'll See Your Antidepressants and Raise You One Huachuma Cactus: an open letter to Austin from the Huachuma Project
  • Ignorance is the enemy, not Fentanyl: open letter to Lynn Walker of the Wichita Falls Times Record News
  • Illusions with Professor Arthur Shapiro: a philosophical discussion of the fascinating series on Curiosity Stream
  • In Defense of Religious Drug Use: an open letter to Samuel Bendeck Sotillos
  • Introduction to the Drug War Philosopher Website at AbolishTheDEA.com
  • Keep Laughing Gas Legal: Open letter to Niamh Eastwood (Executive Director of Release) and Dr. David Nicholl (NHS neurologist), in response to their recent interview about laughing gas on Channel 5, UK
  • MDMA for Psychotherapy: open letter to researcher Michael Mithoefer, MD
  • My Realistic Plan for Getting off of Big Pharma Drugs and why it's so hard to implement: an open letter to Mad in America
  • No drugs are bad in and of themselves: an open letter to Steven Urquhart, founder of the Divine Assembly
  • Open Letter to Addiction Specialist Gabor Mate: ending the torture-friendly 12-step programs
  • Open Letter to Anthony Gottlieb: author of The Dream of Enlightenment
  • Open Letter to Congressman Ben Cline, asking him to abolish the criminal DEA
  • Open Letter to Diane O'Leary: author of 'Medicine's Bad Philosophy Threatens Your Health'
  • Open Letter to Erica Zelfand: or at least to her gatekeeper
  • Open Letter to Francis Fukuyama: author of Liberalism and its Discontents
  • Open letter to Kenneth Sewell: author of Red Star Rogue
  • Open Letter to Lisa Ling: whose documentary about Chicago violence does not even mention the Drug War!!!
  • Open letter to Professor Troy Glover at Waterloo University: in response to his paper at Academia.edu entitled 'Regulating the Rave Scene'
  • Open Letter to Richard Hammersley: about addiction
  • Open Letter to Rick Doblin and Roland Griffiths: the downsides of 'working within the system'
  • Open Letter to Roy Benaroch MD
  • Open Letter to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
  • Open Letter to the Virginia Legislature: on behalf of my 92-year-old mother
  • Open Letter to Variety Critic Owen Glieberman: regarding his Drug War-biased review of the movie 'Four Good Days'
  • Open Letter to Vincent Hurley, Lecturer: at Maquarie University, Department of Security Studies and Criminology
  • Open Letter to Vincent Rado: agreeing to disagree?
  • Open letter to Wolfgang Smith: author of 'The Quantum Enigma'
  • Predictive Policing in the Age of the Drug War: open letter to computer scientist George Mohler
  • Prohibitionists Never Learn: an open letter to San Francisco DA Brooke Jenkins
  • Regulate and Educate: an open letter to Oregon Governor Tina Kotek
  • Replacing antidepressants with entheogens: new hope for the millions who are dependent on SSRIs and SNRIs
  • Review of When Plants Dream
  • Science News Continues to Ignore the Drug War: open letter to Laura Sanders
  • Science News magazine continues to pretend that there is no war on drugs: an open letter to freelance writer Cassandra Willyard, author of 'A next-gen pain drug shows promise, but chronic sufferers need more options'
  • Solquinox sounded great, until I found out I wasn't invited: an open letter to the Psychedelic Society of Vermont
  • Speaking Truth to Big Pharma: an open letter to the Heffter Research Institute
  • Teenagers and Cannabis: an open letter to Clinical Professor Bobby Smyth at the School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin
  • The common sense way to get off of antidepressants: an open letter to Frederick S. Barrett, Ph.D., cognitive neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University
  • The Criminalization of Nitrous Oxide is No Laughing Matter: an open letter to the Drug Policy Alliance
  • The Depressing Truth About SSRIs: why psychedelic therapy must REPLACE modern psychiatry rather than simply complement it
  • The Invisible Mass Shootings: open letter to Criminologist James Alan Fox
  • The Menace of the Drug War: open letter to Arab Naz, author of The Menace of Opiate
  • The problem with Modern Drug Reform Efforts: an open letter to Professors Peter Reuter and Alex Stevens
  • The Pseudoscience of Mental Health Treatment: an open letter to Dr. Jonathan Stea
  • The Right to LIVE FULLY is more important than the Right to DIE: open letter to Gino Kenny, People Before Profit
  • There is nothing to debate: the drug war is wrong, root and branch: an open letter to Nathan of TheDEA.org
  • Time for News Outlets to stop promoting drug war lies: an open letter to WTOP News
  • Top 10 Problems with the Drug War: and how we respond to it -- an open letter to Professor Nathan Nobis
  • Unscientific American: How the authors at Scientific American self-censor their articles in deference to America's Drug War
  • Using plants and fungi to get off of antidepressants: an open letter to the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines
  • Vancouver Police Seek to Eradicate Safe Use: open letter to the Vancouver Police Department
  • Weed Bashing at WTOP.COM: an open letter to station manager Joel Oxley
  • Whitehead and Psychedelics: an open letter to Dr. Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes at the University of Exeter
  • Why DARE should stop telling kids to say no: open letter to the Christian Science propaganda organization called DARE
  • Why Rick Doblin is Ghosting Me: An open letter to apologists for the psychiatric pill mill
  • Why the Drug War is Worse than you can Imagine: an open letter to Damon Barrett
  • Why the FDA is not qualified to judge psychoactive medicine
  • Why the Holocaust Museum must denounce the Drug War: an open letter to the UHMM in Washington, DC




  • Notes:

    1 "He took life as young poets take opium: in a series of magnificent quarterly carouses." --'The Last Adventure' by Richard Middleton (up)



    People

    about whom and to whom I've written over the years...

    Alexander, Lamar
    Letter to Lamar Alexander
    Barrett, Frederick S.
    The common sense way to get off of antidepressants
    Why the Drug War is Worse than you can Imagine
    Benaroch MD, Roy
    Open Letter to Roy Benaroch MD
    Bloom, Josh
    Science is not free in the age of the drug war
    Buchanan, Julian
    Finally, a drug war opponent who checks all my boxes
    Chalmers, David
    David Chalmers and the Drug War
    Chelmow MD, David
    How the US Preventive Services Task Force Drums Up Business for Big Pharma
    Chomsky, Noam
    Chomsky is Right
    Chomsky's Revenge
    Noam Chomsky on Drugs
    Cline, Ben
    Open Letter to Congressman Ben Cline, asking him to abolish the criminal DEA
    Close, Glenn
    Glenn Close but no cigar
    Cossin, Daniel
    How AI turned William James into a Drug Warrior
    De Quincey, Thomas
    The Therapeutic Value of Anticipation
    Dick, Philip K.
    Drug Laws as the Punishment of 'Pre-Crime'
    Doblin, Rick
    Constructive criticism of the MAPS strategy for re-legalizing MDMA
    Is Rick Doblin Running with the Devil?
    Why Rick Doblin is Ghosting Me
    Ellsberg, Daniel
    Drug Warriors Fiddle while Rome Gets Nuked
    Falcon, Joshua
    Drugs are not the enemy, hatred is the enemy
    Floyd, George
    The Racist Drug War killed George Floyd
    Fort, Charles
    The Book of the Damned
    Fox, James Alan
    The Invisible Mass Shootings
    Friedman, Milton
    How Milton Friedman Completely Misunderstood the War on Drugs
    Fukuyama, Francis
    Open Letter to Francis Fukuyama
    Gibb, Andy
    How The Drug War Killed Andy Gibb
    Gimbel, Steven
    Heroin versus Alcohol
    Glaser, Gabrielle
    Open Letter to Gabrielle Glaser
    Glieberman, Owen
    Open Letter to Variety Critic Owen Glieberman
    Glover, Troy
    Open letter to Professor Troy Glover at Waterloo University
    Goswami, Amit
    Alternative Medicine as a Drug War Creation
    Gottlieb, Anthony
    Open Letter to Anthony Gottlieb
    Grandmaster Flash, musician
    Grandmaster Flash: Drug War Collaborator
    Griffiths, Roland
    Depressed? Here's why you can't get the medicines that you need
    Open Letter to Rick Doblin and Roland Griffiths
    Gupta, Sujata
    The Mother of all Western Biases
    Hammersley, Richard
    Open Letter to Richard Hammersley
    Handwerk, Brian
    How National Geographic slanders the Inca people and their use of coca
    Harris, Kamala
    Why I Support Kamala Harris
    Harrison, Francis Burton
    Screw You, Francis Burton Harrison
    Hart, Carl
    Open Letter to Dr. Carl L. Hart
    What Carl Hart Missed
    Harvey, Dennis
    How Variety and its film critics support drug war fascism
    Heidegger, Martin
    Heidegger on Drugs
    Hogshire, Jim
    I've got a bone to pick with Jim Hogshire
    Opium for the Masses by Jim Hogshire
    What Jim Hogshire Got Wrong about Drugs
    Hurley, Vincent
    Open Letter to Vincent Hurley, Lecturer
    Hutton, Ronald
    Drug Dealers as Modern Witches
    James, William
    How the Drug War is Threatening Intellectual Freedom in England
    Keep Laughing Gas Legal
    The Criminalization of Nitrous Oxide is No Laughing Matter
    William James rolls over in his grave as England bans Laughing Gas
    Jefferson, Thomas
    A Misguided Tour of Monticello
    How the Jefferson Foundation Betrayed Thomas Jefferson
    How the Monticello Foundation betrayed Jefferson's Legacy in 1987
    Jefferson
    The Dark Side of the Monticello Foundation
    Jenkins, Philip
    'Synthetic Panics' by Philip Jenkins
    Jenkins DA, Brooke
    Prohibitionists Never Learn
    Kant, Immanuel
    How the Drug War limits our understanding of Immanuel Kant
    How the Drug War Outlaws Criticism of Immanuel Kant
    Kastrup, Bernardo
    How Bernardo Kastrup reckons without the drug war
    Kenny, Gino
    The Right to LIVE FULLY is more important than the Right to DIE
    Kirsch, Irving
    Brahms is NOT the best antidepressant
    Klang, Jessica
    All these Sons
    Kotek, Tina
    Regulate and Educate
    Koterski, Jospeh
    America's Blind Spot
    Kurtz, Matthew M.
    How Scientific American reckons without the drug war
    Langlitz, Nicolas
    Why the FDA is not qualified to judge psychoactive medicine
    Lee, Spike
    Spike Lee is Bamboozled by the Drug War
    Leshner, Alan I.
    How the Drug War Screws the Depressed
    Lewis, Edward
    Psilocybin Mushrooms by Edward Lewis
    Ling, Lisa
    Open Letter to Lisa Ling
    Locke, John
    John Locke on Drugs
    Maples-Keller, Jessica
    Hello? MDMA works, already!
    Margaritoff, Marco
    In Defense of Opium
    Open Letter to Margo Margaritoff
    Marinacci, Mike
    Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches: LSD, Cannabis, and Spiritual Sacraments in Underground America
    Martinez, Liz
    Replacing antidepressants with entheogens
    Mate, Gabor
    In the Realm of Hungry Drug Warriors
    Open Letter to Addiction Specialist Gabor Mate
    Sherlock Holmes versus Gabor Maté
    McAllister, Sean
    How to Unite Drug War Opponents of all Ethnicities
    Mithoefer, MD, Michael
    MDMA for Psychotherapy
    Mohler, George
    Predictive Policing in the Age of the Drug War
    Morgan, Cory
    Canadian Drug Warrior, I said Get Away
    Naz, Arab
    The Menace of the Drug War
    Newcombe, Russell
    Intoxiphobia
    Nietzsche, Friedrich
    Nietzsche and the Drug War
    Nixon, Richard
    Why Hollywood Owes Richard Nixon an Oscar
    Noakes, Jesse
    Americans have the right to pursue happiness but not to attain it
    Nobis, Nathan
    Top 10 Problems with the Drug War
    Nock, Matthew K.
    How Harvard University Censored the Biography of William James
    Nutt, David
    Majoring in Drug War Philosophy
    O'Leary, Diane
    Open Letter to Diane O'Leary
    Obama, Barack
    What Obama got wrong about drugs
    Offenhartz, Jake
    Libertarians as Closet Christian Scientists
    Pearson, Snoop
    Snoop Pearson's muddle-headed take on drugs
    Perry, Matthew
    Drug War Murderers
    Matthew Perry and the Drug War Ghouls
    Pinchbeck, Daniel
    Review of When Plants Dream
    Polk, Thad
    How Addiction Scientists Reckon without the Drug War
    Pollan, Michael
    Michael Pollan on Drugs
    My Conversation with Michael Pollan
    The Michael Pollan Fallacy
    Rado, Vincent
    Open Letter to Vincent Rado
    Reuter, Peter
    The problem with Modern Drug Reform Efforts
    Rovelli, Carlo
    Why Science is the Handmaiden of the Drug War
    Rudgeley, Richard
    Richard Rudgley condemns 'drugs' with faint praise
    Sabet, Kevin
    Why Kevin Sabet's approach to drugs is racist, anti-scientific and counterproductive
    Sanders, Laura
    Science News Continues to Ignore the Drug War
    Santayana, George
    If this be reason, let us make the least of it!
    Schopenhauer, Arthur
    Ego Transcendence Made Easy
    What if Arthur Schopenhauer Had Used DMT?
    Schultes, Richard Evans
    The Drug War Imperialism of Richard Evans Schultes
    Segall PhD, Matthew D.
    Why Philosophers Need to Stop Dogmatically Ignoring Drugs
    Sewell, Kenneth
    Open letter to Kenneth Sewell
    Shapiro, Arthur
    Illusions with Professor Arthur Shapiro
    Smith, Wolfgang
    Open letter to Wolfgang Smith
    Unscientific American
    Smyth, Bobby
    Teenagers and Cannabis
    Sotillos, Samuel Bendeck
    In Defense of Religious Drug Use
    Stea, Jonathan
    The Pseudoscience of Mental Health Treatment
    Strassman, Rick
    Five problems with The Psychedelic Handbook by Rick Strassman
    What Rick Strassman Got Wrong
    Szasz, Thomas
    In Praise of Thomas Szasz
    Tulfo, Ramon T.
    Why the Drug War is far worse than a failure
    Urquhart, Steven
    No drugs are bad in and of themselves
    Vance, Laurence
    In Response to Laurence Vance
    Walker, Lynn
    Ignorance is the enemy, not Fentanyl
    Walsh, Bryan
    The Drug War and Armageddon
    The End Times by Bryan Walsh
    Warner, Mark
    Another Cry in the Wilderness
    Watson, JB
    Behaviorism and the War on Drugs
    Weil, Andrew
    What Andrew Weil Got Wrong
    Wells, HG
    HG Wells and Drugs
    Whitaker, Robert
    Mad at Mad in America
    Whitehead, Alfred North
    Whitehead and Psychedelics
    Willyard, Cassandra
    Science News magazine continues to pretend that there is no war on drugs
    Winehouse, Amy
    How the Drug War Killed Amy Winehouse
    Wininger, Charley
    Getting off antidepressants in the age of the drug war
    Wuthnow, Robert
    Clodhoppers on Drugs
    Zelfand, Erica
    Open Letter to Erica Zelfand
    Zinn, Howard
    Even Howard Zinn Reckons without the Drug War
    Zuboff, Shoshana
    Tune In, Turn On, Opt Out



    computer screen with words DRUG WAR BLOG


    Next essay: Science Set Free... NOT!
    Previous essay: Materialism and the Drug War Part II

    More Essays Here




    Some Tweets against the hateful war on drugs

    Alcohol makes me sleepy. But NOT coca wine. The wine gives you an upbeat feeling of controlled energy, without the jitters of coffee and without the fury of steroids. It increases rather than dulls mental focus.
    Even when laudanum was legal in the UK, pharmacists were serving as moral adjudicators, deciding for whom they should fill such prescriptions. That's not a pharmacist's role. We need an ABC-like set-up in which the cashier does not pry into my motives for buying a substance.
    This is why America is creeping toward authoritarianism -- because of the prohibitionists' ability to get away with everything by blaming "drugs." The fact that Americans still fall for this crap represents a kind of collective pathology.
    When folks die in horse-related accidents, we need to be asking: who sold the victim the horse? We've got to crack down on folks who peddle this junk -- and ban books like Black Beauty that glamorize horse use.
    It's disgusting that folks like Paul Stamets need a DEA license to work with mushrooms.
    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. Wrong. Substance demonization is wrong, root and branch. It always causes more suffering than freedom.
    The drug war is the defeatist doctrine that we will never be able to use psychoactive drugs wisely. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy because the government does everything it can to make drug use dangerous.
    Oregon's drug policy is incoherent and cruel. The rich and healthy spend $4,000 a week on psilocybin. The poor and chemically dependent are thrown in jail, unless they're on SSRIs, in which case they're congratulated for "taking their meds."
    Prohibition is wrong root and branch. It seeks to justify the colonial disdain for indigenous healing practices through fearmongering.
    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.
    More Tweets



    The latest hits from Drug War Records, featuring Freddie and the Fearmongers!


    1. Requiem for the Fourth Amendment



    2. There's No Place Like Home (until the DEA gets through with it)



    3. O Say Can You See (what the Drug War's done to you and me)






    front cover of Drug War Comic Book

    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 Scientific American reckons without the drug war: in response to 'A Talking Cure for Psychosis' by Matthew M. Kurtz, published on March 6, 2023 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)