Are the elderly depressed? America wouldn't have it any other way.
How many readers know of an elderly friend or loved one wasting away in a nursing home? Let me see a show of hands.
Now, how many people know that this is a tragedy created by the Drug War?
Mother Nature's pharmacopeia contains a world of psychoactive substances that can be used in a strategic manner by a pharmacologically savvy empath 1 to not only elevate mood, but to give the treated individual a new perspective on life, while encouraging the growth of new neurons in the brain.
But Drug Warrior America wants none of this. Why? Because they hold a masochistic Christian Science view that says it is somehow wrong to use psychoactive substances in this fashion, a view that's supported, unfortunately, by a breed of scientism that treats the human body as an interchangeable widget (a robotically functioning Newtonian animal) for which we must find one-size-fits-all 'cures' that can be marketed in pill form by any psychiatrist with a prescription pad.
The result: as much as we Americans wring our hands about the suffering of the elderly, we wouldn't have it any other way. The Drug War mentality has fostered in us a knee-jerk association between psychoactive substances and hedonism, and we use that as an excuse to willfully ignore the myriad utopian scenarios whereby such substances could, in the hands of a pharmacologically savvy shaman, give the depressed elderly new hope and even help them make their peace with death.
In this sense, drug law sharia is a godsend to modern psychiatrists because it gives them the perfect excuse for doing such a poor job in treating the elderly. If we confront these psychiatrists with the utopian possibilities inherent in nature's pharmacy, they have only to respond that all the substances that could be used in that fashion are illegal. And so drug law sharia keeps an entire new treatment paradigm at bay, leaving psychiatrists with nothing but a handful of heavily marketed addictive pharmaceuticals wherewith to treat severe emotional deficits - and then we have the gall to ask where the opioid crisis comes from. {^The opioid crisis results from the fact that we have outlawed all of the non-addictive substances that can powerfully affect mood, leaving those who seek self-transcendence with few choices except for the highly addictive ones offered by Big Pharma .}{
It should come as no surprise that the Drug War leads to such hideous outcomes, since the Drug War is anti-scientific by design. It represents the triumph of politics over science, propaganda over logic, common law over natural law, and if the casualties of that doctrine include the depressed elderly, then so be it. America really wouldn't have it any other way. After all, pharmacologically informed shamanism can't be neatly fit into a capitalist format that can enrich shareholders. Besides, it would involve ending the Drug War, which is the goose that lays the golden eggs for law enforcement and the corrections industry. And it would keep America from intervening in the country of its choice by playing the 'narcotics' card, saying in effect: 'You are dealing in plants that pose a threat to Big Liquor, therefore we can remove you from office.'
And so the honest Drug Warrior would stand by the side of the depressed loved one and say: 'Sorry, Mama, we'd like to make you feel better by ending the Drug War, but then America would no longer have an excuse to intervene in countries of whose politics we disapprove!'
Author's Follow-up: August 21, 2022
Speaking of anti-elderly, the Drug War ideology of substance demonization teaches us that it's morally right to 'take the elderly off of life support' should they request it, and yet it's morally wrong to allow them to use morphine 2 in order to painlessly leave the world. This is the twisted morality of the Drug War, which is equally anti-children. Why? Not just because of all the drug-war orphans that America's imperialist Drug War leaves behind in South America, but because some countries refuse to give children in hospices morphine 3 , under the twisted Drug Warrior belief that it's better to let children suffer than to give them dirty evil 'drugs.' This is Christian Science with a vengeance, supported by state governments in fealty to damnable Drug War superstition.
August 21, 2022
Brian should also add that the above-mentioned goose is laying golden eggs by the dozen for the healthcare industry, which, beginning in 1914, was slowly but surely given a complete monopoly not just for treating physical ills, but for treating mental states as well, thereby turning countless Americans into demoralized wards of the healthcare state, including the 1 in 4 American women who are hooked on Big Pharma 45 meds for life. How did this come about? Because the Drug War was to eventually outlaw almost all effective psychoactive medicines in the world. And yet pundits today scratch their head and wonder why there are so many depressed and anxious. The answer is easy: an overreaching state has run interference between human beings and the botanical medicine that grows all around them. And so America is now simultaneously the most depressed nation in the world and the one that pops the most pills. Another one of the seemingly endless Pyrrhic victories for America's unprecedented political war on inanimate substances.
Cocaine is not evil. Opium is not evil. Drug prohibition is evil.
Jim Hogshire described sleep cures that make physical withdrawal from opium close to pain-free. As for "psychological addiction," there are hundreds of elating drugs that could be used to keep the ex-user's mind from morbidly focusing on a drug whose use has become problematic for them.
We throw people out of jobs for using "drugs," we praise them for using "meds." The categories are imaginary, made up by politicians who want to demonize certain substances, but not cigs or beer.
Americans were always free to take care of their own health -- until drug warriors handed doctors a monopoly on providing mind and mood medicine.
Harm Reduction is not enough. We need Benefit Production as well. The autistic should be able to use compassion-enhancing drugs; dementia patients should be able to use drugs that speed up and sharpen mental processes.
Someday the world will realize that Freud's real achievement was his discovery of the depression-busting power of cocaine.
LA Police Chief Daryl Gates said drug users should be summarily executed. William Bennett said drug dealers should be beheaded. These are the Nazi attitudes that the drug war inculcates. This racist and brutal ideology must be wiped out.
In "Psychedelic Refugee," Rosemary Leary writes:
"Fueled by small doses of LSD, almost everything was amusing or weird." -- Rosemary Leary
In a non-brainwashed world, such testimony would suggest obvious ways to help the depressed.
I personally hate beets and I could make a health argument against their legality. Beets can kill for those allergic to them. Sure, it's a rare condition, but since when has that stopped a prohibitionist from screaming bloody murder?
This pretend concern for the safety of young drug users is bizarre in a country that does not even criminalize bump stocks for automatic weapons.
(up)