Letter to Lamar Alexander
written upon the acquittal of Donald Trump
by Brian Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher
February 5, 2020
I find it horrifying that we have a president who can get away with treason, selling us out to the Soviets and openly calling for dirt on his opponents. Maybe the country NEEDS to be ripped apart if half of it believes that we should live in a dictatorship under an insane and evil demagogue, who has never met a dictator that he didn't like. If that's true, then I want to live in the other half of the country, that still believes in democratic institutions.
How dare America carry on its wretched Drug War, imprisoning an election-swaying million minorities a year for mere possession of substances that are our right under NATURAL LAW -- and yet the president gets to COMMIT CRIMES BRAZENLY ON NATIONAL TELEVISION CALLING FOR SOVIET AND UKRAINE INVESTIGATION OF HIS RIVALS?????
The Justice Department has lost all credibility and now can only do its job by brute force.
For shame!
What are Republicans going to do when this new IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY is occupied by a DEMOCRAT?
Editor's note, November 16, 2021: While Brian calms down a skosh, let me apologize on his behalf for the fact that this rant of his (as justified as it may be) has nothing whatsoever to do with Lamar Alexander, who it will be remembered was the Secretary of Education under one of the Drug Warrior Bushes. I think there's been some mix-up here, perhaps due to the overwriting of a file or two.
Brian: Thanks, Editor. My bad. There has indeed been some mix-up.
Editor: So what was the deal about Lamar Alexander?
Brian: Well, about a year ago, this Lamar chap started beefing about the fact that states were changing drug law policy when he thought it should be decided by the national government in conjunction with scientists. Am I like, "Lamar, baby, you had no right to outlaw plant medicine in the first place, homie! Second, you know as well as I do that plant medicine is only criminal these days because of the interests of racists, Big Pharma 1 2 , intolerant Christians, and the Corrections industry -- whose interests are all championed by the wealthiest 3% who control the Senate via bribery (see "Billionaire Democracy" by George R. Tyler). Under such a corrupt system, it makes perfect sense for Americans to change the system from the ground up when it comes to so-called drug policy, especially since you politicians feel the need to bow and scrape before the evil DEA, which has knowingly lied for half a decade now about godsend plant medicine -- and which poisoned American pot smokers with paraquat in the 1980s, a weed killer that causes Parkinson's disease.
There you go, Ed, baby. That paragraph contains both the warp and weft of the factual yarn that I'm spinning -- the original of which, as you rightly suppose, was probably overwritten due to some boneheaded error on the part of some lowly clerk or other, who shall be sacked quite momently, I assure you, with malice-a-freakin' forethought, even. (I'll be like: YOU are zee veekest link!) No, seriously, Eddy: How do you like that Lamar person? Typical politician -- wants to tell me what plant medicine I can use. He's the kind of politician who would have been cheering the DEA on as they stormed onto the once-"hallowed" ground of Monticello 3 in 1987 and confiscated Thomas Jefferson's poppy plants -- a coup against the whole concept of natural law upon which this nation was built.
Editor: Thanks, Brian, that was a delightful one and a half paragraphs. It did my heart good just to read them!
Brian: Aw, shucks!
Editor: Plus, it doesn't hurt that you're right as rain.
Brian: I think somebody should force Lamar to undergo a drug test -- 'cause I'm sure he's "used" alcohol in the last month or two. God help me, if we find so much as a trace of liquor in his blood, we're going to confiscate his house and remove him from the workforce! There's a Drug War for you, Lamar: one that isn't targeted against minorities either!
Editor: Okay, Brian, easy, boy! Easy!
Notes:
1: Seife, Charles. 2012. “Is Drug Research Trustworthy?” Scientific American 307 (6): 56–63. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican1212-56. (up)
2: LaMattina, John. n.d. “Why Is Biopharma Paying 75% of the FDA’s Drug Division Budget?” Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnlamattina/2022/09/22/why-is-biopharma-paying-75-of-the-fdas-drug-division-budget/. (up)
3: The Dark Side of the Monticello Foundation DWP (up)
Ten Tweets
against the hateful war on US
Scientists cannot tell us if psychoactive drugs are worth the risk any more than they can tell us if free climbing is worth the risk, or horseback riding or target practice or parkour.
This is why the foes of suicide are doing absolutely nothing to get laughing gas into the hands of those who could benefit from it. Laughing is subjective after all. In the western tradition, we need a "REAL" cure to depression.
Had the DEA been active in the Punjab and 1500 BCE, there would be no Hindu religion today.
One merely has to look at any issue of Psychology Today to see articles in which the author reckons without the Drug War, in which they pretend that banned substances do not exist and so fail to incorporate any topic-related insights that might otherwise come from user reports.
I don't believe in the materialist paradigm upon which SSRIs were created, according to which humans are interchangeable chemical robots amenable to the same treatment for human sadness. Let me use laughing gas and MDMA and coca and let the materialists use SSRIs.
If I want to use the kind of drugs that have inspired entire religions, fight depression, or follow up on the research of William James into altered states, I should not have to live in fear of the DEA crashing down my door and shouting: "GO! GO! GO!"
Prohibitionists are responsible for the 200,000-plus killed in the US-inspired Mexican drug war in the 21st century.
Drug prohibition represents the biggest power grab by government in human history. It is the state control of pain relief and mental states.
Everyone's biggest concern is the economy? Is nobody concerned that Trump has promised to pardon insurrectionists and get revenge on critics? Is no one concerned that Trump taught Americans to doubt democracy by questioning our election fairness before one single vote was cast?
The FDA tells us that MDMA is not safe. This is the same FDA that signs off on Big Pharma drugs whose advertised side effects include death itself.
Click here to see All Tweets against the hateful War on Us
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