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I want credit where credit's due

an open letter to posterity from the only philosopher in the world who is pointing out the full evil of drug prohibition despite being completely ignored by the mainstream

by Brian Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher

March 20, 2026



I do so hate to brag, but there is at point which humility becomes a kind of dishonesty. Know, therefore, that I am the only one in the world who has pointed out that assisted suicide cannot be discussed advisedly without discussing the drug prohibition that renders it necessary. There, I've said it. What's more, drug prohibition denies us the kinds of drugs that might make us want to live. Drug use inspired the Vedic religion and use of the coca leaf was -- and continues to be -- an inspiration to the Inca and their descendants. What does it say about America when I am the only one who connects these facts? And I have not sat on this stuff. I have spread the news to the movers and shakers in the assisted suicide game and no one even acknowledges my letters.

I do not say that all pain patients could necessarily be helped in this way -- but I am saying that it is evil not even to try to help them in this way, just as it would be evil to withhold medicines for "physical" purposes.

One of the main problems is that that we have placed doctors in charge of mind and mood medicine. And so the conversation on this topic is going on behind academic paywalls in the form of heavily annotated papers from folks without any skin in the game and who completely ignore the power of drugs to inspire and elate. I am not invited to the party where my fate is decided by our highly paid professionals who are dogma-bound to ignore common sense when it comes to drugs, like the obvious fact that laughing gas cheers one up and the once-obvious fact that it is better to use drugs than to die! Imagine that.

But then I am also the only one in the world who has pointed out that outlawing laughing gas is the outlawing of academic freedom. It truly seems like drug-bashing and drug-scapegoating is built into America's DNA. The irony is that so many Americans pride themselves on recognizing and denouncing colonialism when they see it, and yet by promoting drug prohibition, they are promoting pharmacological colonialism around the world, ending the time-honored use of substances that for more intelligent cultures were used wisely.

Cartoon man wearing red rob with laurels on head.
Iranians were peaceably smoking opium until the Shah of Iran outlawed the drug at the behest of America -- the same America that is now worried that Iranians are hotheads?

I write this short essay just to remind posterity: I want credit where credit's due -- assuming that the western world ever comes to its senses -- or better yet to the senses of holistic-thinking indigenous peoples -- when it comes to drugs.

PS If I'm wrong, let me know. But I have yet to hear of any philosopher but myself (or academic, for that matter) who is complaining to the FDA about their plans to outlaw laughing gas, complaining on behalf of academic freedom and the legacy of William James. In fact, the online biography for James at his alma mater of Harvard University does not even mention James' use of laughing gas, which changed his whole ideas about consciousness and the nature of reality! Likewise, I have heard of no one else pointing out the glaringly obvious fact that assisted suicide cannot be advisedly discussed without discussing the drug prohibition which keeps folks from adopting positive attitudes and hence potentially deciding to live instead of die! Let me know who's out there that is speaking up on these topics. I'd love to chat with them! I know there are plenty of enemies of drug prohibition in general, but I have yet to hear these rather obvious points being made by any of them. The laurels seem to be mine for now. And just imagine how brainwashed the world has become to make a relative dimwit like myself the leader in this field. Wow! It's flattering in a way. Thanks for hanging back, everybody, and letting an unknown contender take the lead.

Now I'll just wait for posterity to sing my praises -- assuming of course that sanity one day prevails.




Key Takeaways:





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Ten Tweets

against the hateful war on US




Did the Vedic People have a substance disorder because they wanted to drink enough soma to see religious realities?

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.

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.

The idea that "drugs" have no medical benefits is not science, it is philosophy, and bad philosophy at that. It is based on the idea that benefits must be molecularly demonstratable and not created from mere knock-on psychological effects of drug use, time-honored tho' they be.

Thanks to the Drug War, folks are forced to become amateur chemists to profit from DMT, a drug that occurs naturally in most living things. This is the same Drug War that is killing American young people wholesale by refusing to teach safe use and regulate drug supply.

The Shipiba have learned to heal human beings physically, psychologically and spiritually with what they call "onanyati," plant allies and guides, such as Bobinsana, which "envelops seekers in a cocoon of love." You know: what the DEA would call "junk."

When it comes to "drugs," the government plays Polonius to our Ophelia: OPHELIA: I do not know, my lord, what I should think. POLONIUS: Marry, I'll teach you; think yourself a baby!

A generally educated person meets new ideas with curiosity and fascination. An illiberally educated person meets new ideas with fear. --James B. Stockade.

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.

That's why I created the satirical Partnership for a Death Free America. It demonstrates clearly that drug warriors aren't worried about our health, otherwise they'd outlaw shopping carts, etc. The question then becomes: what are they REALLY afraid of? Answer: Free thinkers.


Click here to see All Tweets against the hateful War on Us






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Book Cover

Break the ice with a sledgehammer: place this book on your coffee table.

This book features 150 annotated images, designed to force brainwashed Americans to confront the fact that drug prohibition is wrong. Here is what author Richard Parrish II says of the book's compiler: "The drug prohibition philosopher provides first-hand, principled, persuasive, and insightful arguments against the current drug prohibition regime..."

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Book Cover

Diary of a Drug Fiend

This is the only full-cast recording of Aleister Crowley's 1922 classic paeon to common sense. It is the first book -- and so far almost the only book -- to stake out a philosophy of drug use that is compatible with human freedom, one in which we learn to use drugs as wisely as possible for the benefit of humanity. This recording was produced by the Drug War Philosopher and your purchases help support his effort to push back against the tragically counterproductive policy of drug prohibition, in the name of human freedom and of humanity's right to heal.

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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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Copyright 2026, Brian Ballard Quass Contact: quass@quass.com

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