Why Almost Any Psychoactive Drug Can Be Used for Religious Purposes
by Brian Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher
January 20, 2024
here is a simplistic notion, even on the part of reformers, that only officially "entheogenic1" medicines can be used religiously. To say this is to ignore the obvious, something that modern psychology, alas, has found all too easy to do in the age of the Drug War.
Take the following instance:
For at least 48 hours after I was sedated for dental surgery, I felt an unusual sense of being 'favorably disposed' toward the world. I was thinking of ways to be more generous to folks around me and was, in general, taking my problems a little less seriously. this state of mind was apparently induced by the effects of the anesthesia. and yet the substance(s) used would surely not classify as an entheogen, or even as an empathogen, as the terms are currently defined. yet common sense tells us that such a drug can help us achieve religious goals, such as being more loving toward our fellow human being. Unfortunately common sense has been banned from the laboratory in the age of the Drug War. That's why modern materialists can't figure out whether drugs like laughing gas and MDMA could help the depressed.2.
One could imagine, in fact, a church at which one is given, once a week, say on Sunday, a dose of such anesthetic to help favorably dispose one toward the world during the upcoming week. But Drug Warriors have raised such a big stink about "addiction" that this is literally all that Americans can think of when one writes of such a scheme. They've been given the message since grade school: drugs=addiction. This is about as scientific and unbiased as saying "horse riding equals brain trauma." Now, horse riding is, in fact, the leading cause of brain trauma in the United States, but to say that horse riding can only result in brain trauma is clearly a political statement designed to inspire hatred toward equestrian activities3.
There are endless ways that we could tackle potential habituation issues were we to adopt the proper and scientific mindset toward drugs4, especially if we spent billions on the problem rather than billions on arresting users. We need to start seeing drugs as the amoral inanimate substances that they are: substances that can and should be harnessed for the benefit of humankind. I have already written extensively on this topic so I will not go into detail here. Moreover, when all psychoactive drugs are legal again, we can start fighting drugs with drugs, for the biggest problem with "kicking" most drugs is psychological in nature, and these psychological misgivings can be easily negated and obfuscated when we use other drugs to make the user forget (and perhaps even wish "good riddance" to) the drug with which he or she seems to be having problems. As for physical addiction, there are already sleep cures for opiate addiction - and these can be perfected and then made permanent once we attack the psychological issues as stated above.
Finally, there are worse things than addiction, such as suicide, self-harm, and living a life of what one considers to be absolute meaninglessness. Moreover, "addiction" is really a political term, since we refer to the daily use of Big Pharma drugs as "maintenance therapy" - and there is no logical reason why it's okay to be dependent on Big Pharma but wrong to be dependent on naturally occurring substances.
But for now, my point is simply that almost any drug can be used religiously, given the proper mindset toward use. It depends on the goal of the religion too. If the goal is to encounter godhead, then drugs like coca and anesthetics may not work as directly as some might like -- and yet one is more likely to "encounter godhead" when living a fulfilled life, and non-entheogenic drugs can help that happen.
Even coca could be used religiously, for those who believe in the power of the human mind and reject the idea that it's somehow wrong to improve it with coca -- while yet being somehow right to jangle the brain with caffeine. Coca was considered divine by the long-lived Inca, who chewed the leaf daily for inspiration and endurance5.
In fact, a church in a free world could use a wide variety of drugs to induce states to help achieve various goals; but such an idea is so far ahead of our barbarous drug-demonizing times that I almost do not bother to mention it.
Finally:
I mentioned that the anesthetic left me feeling more friendly and outgoing than usual. Here's one concrete example of that.
My dentist happens to be the founder of a new line of healthy soft drinks, some of which I purchased at the local store after surgery. For the first 48 hours after surgery, I was thinking of writing a letter to him commending his soda and giving him some marketing ideas based on my past sales efforts as part of a start-up. Now, this is just not "like me." I would normally not be so other-minded and indeed the feeling has faded now to the point that I probably will not write such a letter after all.
But what strikes me is that no one ever includes such benefits when they discuss drugs, the benefits of turning the user into a better person. The typical "scientific" approach assumes that drug use is unnecessary and wrong and can have no positive sides. This is sheer propaganda and a Big Lie. Yet it is clearly accepted as gospel truth by the pharmacological powers that be. Otherwise we would be rushing to make laughing gas and MDMA available for the severely depressed. But we have been brainwashed so thoroughly that we would rather Americans kill themselves than use substances of which politicians disapprove.
Author's Follow-up: March 13, 2024
Both physical and psychological addiction can be "beaten" by using drugs to fight drugs (see my many essays on this topic: search the word 'addiction' here), but Drug Warriors do not want to end addiction; they want to use the threat of addiction as an excuse to outlaw the substances that they hate. Moreover, Americans are intensely hypocritical when they tell us that drug dependence is horrible. The fact is that more than 25% of American women are dependent on Big Pharma drugs6. Why is that a good thing, while dependence on other substances is a bad thing? The reason is not scientific, the reason is political.
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.
Now the US is bashing the Honduran president for working with "drug cartels." Why don't we just be honest and say why we're REALLY upset with the guy? Drugs is just the excuse, as always, now what's the real reason? Stop using the drug war to disguise American foreign policy.
Just saw a People's magazine article with the headline: "JUSTICE FOR MATTHEW PERRY."
If there was true justice, their editorial staff would be in jail for promoting user ignorance and a contaminated drug supply.
It's the prohibition, stupid!!!
That's how antidepressants came about: the idea that sadness was a simple problem that science could solve. Instead of being caused by a myriad of interrelated issues, we decided it was all brain chemistry that could be treated with precision. Result? Mass chemical dependency.
Folks who believe in the drug war should consider that it is a multi-billion-dollar campaign to enforce the attitude of the Pizarro's of the world when it comes to non-western medicines. It is the apotheosis of the colonialism that most people claim to hate.
In "How to Change Your Mind," Michael Pollan says psychedelic legalization would endanger young people. What? Prohibition forces users to decide for themselves which mushrooms are toxic, or to risk buying contaminated product. And that's safe, Michael?
Someday, the First Lady or Man will tell kids to "just say no to prohibition." Kids who refuse will be required to watch hours' worth of films depicting gun violence, banned religions, civil wars, and adults committing suicide for want of medicine that grows at their very feet.
Musk and co. want to make us more robot-like with AI, when they should be trying to make us more human-like with sacred medicine. Only humans can gain creativity from plant medicine. All AI can do is harvest the knowledge that eventually results from that creativity.
Why don't those politicians understand what hateful colonialism they are practicing? Psychedelics have been used for millennia by the tribes that the west has conquered -- now we won't even let folks talk honestly about such indigenous medicines.
The Partnership for a Drug Free America should be put on trial for having blatantly lied to Americans in the 1980s about drugs, using our taxpayer money to do it!
Buy the Drug War Comic Book by the Drug War Philosopher Brian Quass, featuring 150 hilarious op-ed pics about America's disgraceful war on Americans
You have been reading an article entitled, Step Aside, Entheogens: Why Almost Any Psychoactive Drug Can Be Used for Religious Purposes, published on January 20, 2024 on AbolishTheDEA.com. For more information about America's disgraceful drug war, which is anti-patient, anti-minority, anti-scientific, anti-mother nature, imperialistic, the establishment of the Christian Science religion, a violation of the natural law upon which America was founded, and a childish and counterproductive way of looking at the world, one which causes all of the problems that it purports to solve, and then some, visit the drug war philosopher, at abolishTheDEA.com. (philosopher's bio; go to top of this page)
here is a simplistic notion, even on the part of reformers, that only officially "entheogenic1" medicines can be used religiously. To say this is to ignore the obvious, something that modern psychology, alas, has found all too easy to do in the age of the Drug War.
You have been reading an article entitled, Step Aside, Entheogens: Why Almost Any Psychoactive Drug Can Be Used for Religious Purposes, published on January 20, 2024 on AbolishTheDEA.com. For more information about America's disgraceful drug war, which is anti-patient, anti-minority, anti-scientific, anti-mother nature, imperialistic, the establishment of the Christian Science religion, a violation of the natural law upon which America was founded, and a childish and counterproductive way of looking at the world, one which causes all of the problems that it purports to solve, and then some, visit the drug war philosopher, at abolishTheDEA.com. (philosopher's bio; go to top of this page)
