"The substantial reason for rejecting a philosophical theory is the 'absurdum' to which it reduces us." --Alfred North Whitehead, Concept of Nature3
My argument here can best be summed up by the following dictum: that saying things like "Fentanyl 4 kills" -- the superstitious claim with which Philadelphia billboards5 are plastered even as we speak -- is philosophically equivalent to saying things like "Fire bad!" as did our paleolithic forebears. Both statements would have us fear dangerous substances rather than learn how to use them as wisely as possible for the benefit of humanity."The right to chew or smoke a plant that grows wild in nature, such as hemp (marijuana), is anterior to and more basic than the right to vote." --Thomas Szasz, Our Right to Drugs --p xvi14
"Imagine how many people would have benefited during the past half-century had the government respected their autonomy and their right to self-medicate." --Jeffrey A. Singer, Your Body, Your Health Care --p. 9715
"Lacking the usual grounds on which people congregate as a nation, we [Americans] habitually fall back on the most primitive yet most enduring basis for group cohesion, namely, scapegoating." --Thomas Szasz, Our Right to Drugs --p 3218
This is why so many smart Americans are ignorant about the Drug War. They sense at some level that a critical investigation of that inherently racist project would reveal lie after lie, as in the peeling of an onion, and they do not want to go down that rabbit hole. They know that to do so would make them an outsider in brainwashed America -- a minority of one -- and probably piss them off into the bargain. Who needs that agony? Better to simply play along with the injustices of the Drug War -- like, for instance, mandatory urine testing for employment19, which has nothing to do with impairment but is rather all about "outing" those workers who dare to use substances of which our beer-swilling and gun-toting politicians disapprove. Strategic ignorance about such things makes life easier for Americans. Were they to allow themselves to think critically, they would soon come to the infuriating conclusion that drug prohibition has thoroughly censored academia, to the point that most authors today pretend that outlawed drugs do not even exist, and therefore ignore all the inconvenient truths about which drug use could inform them -- like the fact that cocaine 20 is a cure for depression (as Freud well knew21) and that it causes infinitely less dependencies than those fostered by Big Pharma drugs -- or that only 5% of American soldiers who used heroin in Vietnam had trouble getting off the drug when they returned to the States22. 5%. Consider that statistic in light of the fact that Big Pharma drugs like Effexor cannot be kicked AT ALL by the long-term user, not AT ALL!23 Okay, maybe 5% can manage to stay off the drug for three years, but only at the price of their ability to think straight (thanks to the way the drug irreversibly scrambles brain chemistry).
In fact, 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???
Your drug war has caused the disappearance of over 60,000 Mexicans over the last 20 years. It has turned inner cities into shooting galleries. It has turned America into a penal colony. It has destroyed the 4th amendment and put bureaucrats in charge of deciding if our religions are "sincere."
Oregon has decided to go back to the braindead plan of treating substance use as a police matter. Might as well arrest people at home since America has already spread their drug-hating Christian Science religion all over the world.
There are no recreational drugs. Even laughing gas has rational uses because it gives us a break from morbid introspection. There are recreational USES of drugs, but the term "recreational" is often used to express our disdain for users who go outside the healthcare system.
Pundits tell us that there are medical reasons not to "snort" cocaine. So what? There are medical reasons not to drive a car: you may have an accident. The question is: does cocaine use or car driving make sense in a given case! Details matter!
"The depression lifted from my mind like the sun coming out of the clouds." -- Arthur Crowley after using cocaine
Scientists are not the experts on psychoactive medicines. The experts are painters and artists and spiritualists -- and anyone else who simply wants to be all they can be in life. Scientists understand nothing of such goals and aspirations.
Drug warriors are too selfish and short-sighted to fight real problems, so they blame everything on drugs.
The Hindu religion was created thanks to the use of a drug that inspired and elated. It is therefore a crime against religious liberty to outlaw substances that inspire and elate.
The FDA is not qualified to tell us whether holistic medicines work. They hold such drugs to materialist standards and that's pharmacological colonialism.
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