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Prescription for Disaster

some thoughts inspired by the reading of

by Brian Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher

July 4, 2026



I have just read your highly informative article entitled "Who Decided You Need a Prescription?" 1 I now have a much better idea of how our various drug prohibitions came about and the role that the use of opium in the Philippines played in this history. Thanks. While reading the post, a number of corollary considerations came to mind that I wanted to share with you.

Please note that I am making this essay available to paid subscribers only, which essentially means that only you are able to see it, at least for the time being. I did this in part because I eventually hope to earn a little money from my exertions, but mainly because I did not want to post anything that might be misread by hasty readers as criticism of your excellent piece. America's Drug War (the one dating back to the 19th century, I mean) has poisoned the public dialogue on this topic such that readers will be quick to misconstrue subtle arguments to make them gibe with their own propaganda-inspired prejudice.

When I say "propaganda," I mean chiefly the fact that media conglomerates refuse to publish any stories, books, TV shows or movies that highlight wise and beneficial use of drugs, while yet saturating the market with documentaries, movies, magazine stories and tearjerker books and "redemption" novels about drug use gone wrong (failing to point out, meanwhile, that the government is now spending over $50 billion a year to ensure that drug use in America will, indeed, go wrong).

One problem with this propaganda (or rather with the mindset that it fosters) is that it has added a subjective element to ostensibly objective words. This is why, when in doubt, I always use the word "habitue" to describe a regular drug user rather than the word "addict." In the age of the Drug War, the use of the word "addict" is highly pejorative. It can basically be defined in the public mind as: "A person who overused drugs for no good reason until they became a problem user and now is a potential drain on society – or at least in need of prompt medical care from the $37-billion addiction industry in the U.S." Of course, the term "addict" has a number of definitions, but I believe that the one thing upon which all lexicographers would agree is that the addict's use of drugs is problematic.

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Notes for essay entitled Prescription for Disaster: some thoughts inspired by the reading of :

1: Parrish II, Richard Henry. 2026. “Who Decided You Need a Prescription?” Substack.com. Richard Henry Parrish II. June 27, 2026. https://richardhenryparrish2.substack.com/p/who-decided-you-need-a-prescription. (up)




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Ten Tweets

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NIDA is just a propaganda arm of the U.S. government -- and will remain so until it recognizes the glaringly obvious benefits of drugs -- as well as the glaringly obvious downsides of prohibition. We need a National Institute on Drug Use, not a National Institute on Drug Abuse.

My consciousness, my choice.

Prohibition never ended. Busybody Americans just gave alcohol a big Mulligan for killing 178,000 a year in America alone and then began fighting to outlaw everything else.

As such, "we" are important. The sun is just a chaos of particles that "we" have selected out of the rest of the raw data and declared "This we shall call the sun!" "We" make this universe. Consciousness is fundamental.

The media called out Trump for fearmongering about immigrants, but the media engages in fearmongering when it comes to drugs. The latest TV plot line: "white teenage girl forced to use fentanyl!" America loves to feel morally superior about "drugs."

The DEA stomped onto Thomas Jefferson's estate in 1987 and confiscated the founding father's poppy plants in violation of everything he stood for, politically speaking. And the TJ Foundation helped them! They sold out Jefferson.

There was no opioid crisis when Americans were free to smoke opium nightly in their homes. Now scientists around the country are making money hand over fist by "solving" the problem in a politically correct way, without even mentioning the drug prohibition that caused it.

To say that psilocybin has not been proven to work is like saying that a hammer has not yet been proven to smash glass. Why not? Because the process has not yet been studied under a microscope.

The WHO says that depression will be the number-one cause of disability by 2030. What they don't say is that this is only because drug prohibition has outlawed all obvious treatments for depression.

Philip Jenkins reports that Rophynol had positive uses for treating mental disorders until the media called it the "date rape drug." We thus punished those who were benefitting from the drug, tho' the biggest drug culprit in date rape is alcohol. Oprah spread the fear virally.


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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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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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