Homepage of the Drug War Philosopher, Brian Quass
blog icon orange rss icon with stylized radio waves bird icon for twitter bird icon for twitter substack icon


back navigation arrow forward navigation arrow


Outraged Fingertips

How to get the Drug War Philosopher to write about the drug-related topic of your choice

by Brian Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher (Substack version)

August 10, 2026



A reader has been after me to publish essays concerning the effects of drug prohibition in other countries than the United States, and I have been pondering that suggestion for some months now. The idea does have merit. I do have a habit of writing as if America (and to some extent England) are the only stages upon which Drug War injustice is playing out. "What about the streets of Belgrade or Bangkok?" it might be asked. "What about Nassau or Nairobi?" And yet I have procrastinated about taking the reader's idea onboard. I have tried to justify my anglophone bias, at least to myself, with the reflection that philosophy, as such, is indifferent to geography. If a drug policy is philosophically flawed in the States, that same policy will be flawed overseas, and for the same reasons. Injustice is injustice the world over, after all.

Moreover, my site approaches drug attitudes from a philosophical point of view, I tell myself. It makes no pretense of covering drug prohibition from a journalistic or historical angle. Indeed, that's one of the problems that this site is addressing, one of the gaps that it is trying to fill: the fact that almost no one has ever approached drug use from a philosophical point of view, apart from the sporadic efforts of the philosophically underappreciated Timothy Leary1 and, most notably, the writings of Aleister Crowley, and in particular his provocatively named "Diary of a Drug Fiend."2 (It's instructive to note that these two anglophones -- both of whom had the nerve to champion the wise use of drugs for human benefit -- were thought of as "public enemy number one" in their respective countries during their lifetimes.)

That said, the reader has a point. The Internet audience is global, after all, and a reader-starved writer cannot afford to cavalierly ignore that fact, especially when said writer is an American living in an age when the regime in Washington, D.C. is doing everything it can do to turn that nationality into a term of reproach. Besides, the peculiarities of various national approaches to drug control can be suggestive of fruitful topics for philosophical discussion.

Take Bolivia, for instance. The country's then-president, Luis Arce, gave a speech in La Paz in 2025 in which he reminded the world that "coca is not cocaine."3 That may sound like a progressive statement to the brainwashed ear, but it is, in fact, a problematic declaration when parsed philosophically. It suggests that Arce still believes (with all the other South American leaders) that it is better to outlaw cocaine wholesale than to use that substance as wisely as possible for the benefit of humanity. In other words, so much for the rights of the depressed (to say nothing of those seeking religious inspiration, etc.). Cocaine must be demonized and outlawed. Arce still believes in the superstitious algorithm of drug prohibition: that a drug that can be dangerous when used at one dose for one reason by one demographic, must not be used at any dose for any reason by any demographic. Although I've flagged that antiscientific algorithm many times before, it is always more powerful when a writer mentions such counterproductive bromides in connection with a specific speaker in a specific place at a specific time. (Sure, coca is not cocaine, Luis, but then cocaine is not the devil itself, just as fire is not actually bad, as our prehistoric forebears used to think. Let's grow up, people!)

When I first started writing philosophical essays against drug prohibition seven years ago, I imagined that reader input would eventually dictate and guide, not so much what I would write, but the examples that I would provide and the backstories in which I would locate my philosophical foreground. Instead, my essays were completely ignored by both the hoi polloi and the cognoscente, meaning I had no feedback, no guidance, no suggestions -- except for the implicit suggestion that came from the roaring silence, of course: namely, that I should "give it up, at long last!" Fortunately or not, however, I have skin in the game: as a chronic depressive and a med-dependent "patient" for life, I live and breathe the downsides of drug prohibition every day. So I'm not sure that I could stop writing these essays even if I wanted to. The problem is this, however: Without any feedback whatsoever, I feel like an inexperienced pilot trying to fly a plane in a cloud bank. I can only hope that I am traveling right-side up and in the proper direction!

Viewed in this light, the reader suggestion above is greatly appreciated. It is just what I have been looking for over the years. In fact, I would like to encourage YOU as well (yes, you too!) to send me such suggestions for future essay topics regarding the hateful ideology of drug prohibition. That way I won't flip my jet over in this cloud bank. That way these essays may become, at least in some measure, the result of a joint effort on the part of a few of the remaining free-thinkers in the age of drug prohibition. I have just one request for you to bear in mind, however. Whenever possible, please include a URL whose content helps to illustrate the subject upon which you would have me write. That's always a great motivator for an unnecessarily depressed American like yours truly: almost any article about drug-related problems anywhere around the world. Take the above-mentioned reader, for instance: if he could now send me just one link for an article about the effects of drug prohibition in a specific given country of his own choice, then Bob would most definitely be my uncle. I would produce a philosophical essay inspired by that article quicker than you could say "drugs actually have benefits, believe it or not!"

In fact, this goes for all of you (Yes, you too! No need to look behind you, I mean you personally!): If you wish me to "hold forth," philosophically speaking, on any drug-related topic -- say, for instance, the current drug attitudes in Chile or the use of the Amanita muscaria mushroom in Siberia, or even a question about psychiatry and antidepressants, etc. etc. -- just send me a URL on the topic, either by messaging me on The Drug War Philosopher substack or by filling out the comment form on my essay site at abolishthedea.com.

Almost any drug-related URL is likely to rev my philosophical engines enough to inspire the creation of at least one complete essay on my part, simply because almost every author who opines on such topics inevitably ends up writing something that ticks me off good and proper. Drug prohibition may outlaw all the substances that focus my mind, but even a totally unnecessary case of writer's block is no match for a justified sense of indignation. It takes just one button-pushing article to oil the wheels. Then suddenly my very fingertips are like:

"Well, YOU may have writer's block up there in your brain, Brian, but as far as your outraged fingertips are concerned, we are ready and open for business. We are going to rattle out some home truths down here on this Steelseries keyboard of yours whether your depressed brain likes it or not! The very idea! Did your eyes not see the incoherent claptrap that this guy is passing off as gospel truth in this user-provided URL?! I mean, honestly!"










Notes for essay entitled Outraged Fingertips: How to get the Drug War Philosopher to write about the drug-related topic of your choice:

1: “Full Text of ‘the Politics of Ecstasy.’” 2026. Archive.org. 2026. https://archive.org/stream/ecstaspoliticsof00learrich/ecstaspoliticsof00learrich_djvu.txt. (up)
2: “Diary of a Drug Fiend by Aleister Crowley.” 2026. Payhip. 2026. https://payhip.com/b/srNvV. (up)
3: Alek Buttermann. 2026. “Bolivian President Arce Declares ‘Coca Is Not Cocaine’ as Country Expands Coca Industry.” Intellinews.Com. https://www.intellinews.com/bolivian-president-arce-declares-coca-is-not-cocaine-as-country-expands-coca-industry-361177/. (up)




read more essays here





Ten Tweets

against the hateful war on US




The Drug War is one big entrapment scheme for poor minorities. Prohibition creates an economy that hugely incentivizes drug dealing, and when the poor fall for the bait, the prohibitionists rush in to arrest them and remove them from the voting rolls.

William James knew that there were substances that could elate. However, it never occurred to him that we should use such substances to prevent suicide. It seems James was blinded to this possibility by his puritanical assumptions.

The outlawing of coca and opium is a crime against humanity.

I have dissed MindMed's new LSD "breakthrough drug" for philosophical reasons. But we can at least hope that the approval of such a "de-fanged" LSD will prove to be a step in the slow, zigzag path toward re-legalization.

I knew all along that Measure 110 in Oregon was going to be blamed for the problems that the drug war causes. Drug warriors never take responsibility, despite all the blood that they have on their hands.

I might as well say that no one can ever be taught to ride a horse safely. I would argue as follows: "Look at Christopher Reeves. He was a responsible and knowledgeable equestrian. But he couldn't handle horses. The fact is, NO ONE can handle horses!"

Drug prohibition is the perfect racist crime. It brought gunfire to inner cities, yet those who seek to end the gunfire pretend that drug prohibition has nothing to do with it.

I just can't believe... [image]

When Rick Strassman and Michael Pollan call for continued prohibition to protect young people, they ignore the ENORMOUS fact that prohibition has destroyed inner cities around the world. Wake up, guys! Prohibition is evil, not drugs! Ignorance is evil, not education!

The prohibitionist motto: "Billions for arrest, not one cent for education."


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






back navigation arrow forward navigation arrow
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..."

Purchase Your Copy
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.

Purchase Your Copy



No cookies, no ads paid for by amoral and immoral billionaires (or trillionaires).


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.

The Partnership for a Death Free America is a proud sponsor of The Drug War Philosopher website @ abolishthedea.com.


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

tombstone for American Democracy, 1776-2024, RIP (up)