The Drug War Museum

Homepage of the Drug War Philosopher, Brian Quass

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The Drug War Museum

by Brian Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher

January 27, 2026

Two cavemen in cave. Caveman on right, holding burning stick toward second caveman on left. Caveman on left says: 'Fire bad. Fire kill.' — Saying things like 'Fentanyl kills' is philosophically equivalent to saying 'Fire bad'. Both statements would have us fear dangerous substances rather than to learn how to use them wisely for the benefit of human beings.

Cartoon titled Euthanasia Meets the Drug War. Doctor talks to patient: The bad news is we can't give you drugs for your depression. The good news is, we can kill you if your depression gets too bad. — Americans have been taught to superstitiously believe that drugs are bad. Drugs are not bad or good. They are inanimate objects. Their widespread misuse tells us something about society, not about drugs.

Green bullet-riddled sign says 'Welcome to Chicago'. To right, yellow bullet-riddled sign says 'Pardon our Drug War' — Americans completely ignore the role of prohibition in destroying inner cities.

DEA agent holds gun to back of head of kneeling subject. Subject asks: 'Are you with the Mafia?' Agent responds: 'Close. I'm with the DEA.' — No organization like the DEA belongs in a free country: it is an organization designed to harass, arrest and/or kill people who dare to take care of their own health.

Cartoon depicting cocaine users before and after Drug War propaganda. The before picture shows suave and debonair Sigmund Freud, the after picture shows a loser madly snorting the drug. — Freud knew that cocaine was a godsend for the depressed. But doctors saw it as a threat to their bottom line and so they studied only the rare misuse of the drug.

Mad doctor zapping brain of helpless and grimacing patient on operating table. — This is the state of healthcare in the U.S.: We prefer to damage the brain of the depressed rather than let them use substances that could inspire them with joy and purpose.

(abolishthedea.com)

Billboard reading 'End the War on Drugs' — Here is a billboard you might see in a free country in which the narrative is not controlled by conglomerate media.

Dog urinating on vehicle inscribed with the words 'Drug Testing Labs Inc.' — Indiscriminate drug testing is the greatest violation of the Fourth Amendment imaginable, predicated on the uniquely western idea that drugs are an existential threat rather than a potential godsend.

Hand holding table marked 'E' in front of angry-looking cartoon Earth in distance. Off-screen voice saying: 'Time to take your meds!' — The world is on the brink of nuclear annihilation, yet none of our politicians see any benefits in drugs that help people like each other.

Photo of the Life board game above a Life Card that reads: 'You failed drug test. Return job card to deck.' — Don't worry, there's also a Life Card that gives you $20,000 for renouncing godsend medicines!

Heart-shaped Valentine's day candy featuring anti-Drug War messages like STOP DEA, COCAINE NOT EVIL, NO DRUG TESTS, DEA LIES, AND PSILOCYBIN GOOD — Here's hoping you have a Drug-War Free Valentine's Day!

A four-panel comic strip. PANEL 1: the cartoon title, That Nutty Drug War! PANEL 2: Son: 'I'm on my way to the Just Say No Rally' PANEL 3: Mom: 'Did you remember to take your meds?' PANEL 4: Son: 'Oh, yeah, thanks for reminding me!' — Americans claim to hate drugs, and yet 1 in 4 American women are dependent on Big Pharma drugs for life, and we consider them to be good patients!

American flag propped up by beaker containing yellow urine. To the right, the words: America, where a man is judged not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his urine. — Drug testing is the extra-judicial enforcement of Christian Science sharia, designed to remove Christian Science heretics from the workforce.

Tribal people use plant teachers and enjoy dancing to beat of drum as non-dancing native on left says: 'Personally, I think that we should just say not to Mother Nature's plant medicines.' — Westerners not only disapprove of drugs used by indigenous people for millennial, but westerners are trying to eradicate such drugs -- especially coca -- from the face of the Earth, which is a new low for colonialism.

Comic book featuring superhero in red cape capturing drug scumbag Benjamin Franklin to stop him from smoking opium. — Ben Franklin loved the inspirational power of opium! Today he would be in a rehab group -- er, an indoctrination camp, I mean -- learning to hate godsend medicines like the rest of us.

Cartoon, psychiatrist to patient on couch: 'And how long have you felt that psychiatrists were withholding godsend medication from you in deference to the Drug War and that psychiatry should become pharmacologically savvy shamanism... etc. — Here's a political cartoon that the New Yorker magazine would not touch with a 10-foot drug-testing kit.

Gavel behind plaque that reads: 'Sharia Law." Caption below: Traveling? Know your Sharia law! Music is fiercely criminalized in Taliban-controlled territory. Plants are ruthless criminalized in territories controlled by Drug Warriors. — Americans shiver at the thought of Sharia law, never realizing that they themselves live under just such restrictions with regard to psychoactive medicines.

A city sign with bullet holes requests "Pardon our drug prohibition." — Drug prohibition has destroyed minority communities around the world by introducing guns and violence to poor neighborhoods.

Historic cartoon featuring Conquistadors landing in the New World and being greeted by peaceful natives. The herald dries: 'Presenting your new Drug Czar, Francisco Pizarro!' — Drug prohibition is an imperialistic policy. It privileges alcohol over natural medicines that indigenous people have used for human benefit for millennia. Drug warriors have the same hateful outlook as the Conquistadors.

Ad for Schedule 1 Laundry Detergent 'for those special moments', bottle on top left. In center, young proud father fixing tie on his preteen son, with the caption 'It's his very first drug test!' — Schedule 1 Laundry Detergent -- because it's not enough to pass your drug test anymore, you need to pass it with flying colors!

Picture of beautiful Mexico before drug prohibition and deadly Mexico after drug prohibition. Text for Before: This is Mexico. Text for After: This is Mexico on the Drug War (in ruins, that is). Any questions? — Drug warriors are blind not only to all the positive uses for drugs but to all the negative effects of drug prohibition. Someday they will finally be held accountable for turning poor and minority communities into rubble.

A sign in a library directs people about drug risks, abuse and misuse -- but no directions to books about drug benefits. — Don't think your life has been censored? Look for books about wise and beneficial drug use in your local library!

Cartoon: Man on black-and-white TV screaming. Above him, in large black letters on a right red background, the words 'Killer Drugs!' — The government is spending billions of dollars to encourage Americans to fear drugs rather than to understand them and use them as wisely as possible for human benefit.

Founding Fathers meeting to discuss the contents of the proposed U.S. Constitution. One says: 'What about our right to Mother Nature's Bounty?' Another answers: 'Oh, surely that goes without saying!' — No wonder Drug Warriors trash plant medicine with the pejorative epithet of 'drugs' -- they don't want people realizing that they have lost the fundamental right to take care of their own health with the bounty of Mother Nature.

Young children playing doctor. Little girls in a lab coat and wearing glasses says to little boy: 'I'm starting you on a lifetime course of antidepressant pills.' — Americans have been taught to ignore the fact that cocaine is a cure for depression and to assume that one must be dependent upon Big Pharma meds for life in order to 'scientifically' treat their 'real problems.'

Three holiday hydration games, in which the goal is to get irresponsibly drunk: Chug O War, Do or Drink and Buzzed. — Walmart stocks holiday games that encourage irresponsible drinking, like Chug of War, Do or Drink, and Buzzed, and yet we're told we should not glorify the use of drugs that have been considered godsends in the past.

Doctor in a confessional hearing a penitent say: 'Forgive me, Father, for I have self-medicated.' — Self-medicating is just a pejorative term for taking care of one's own psychological health. Doctors demonize the practice for obvious financial reasons.

A house being crushed thoroughly into bits and pieces by a bull dozer. Man saying: 'Keep looking! There's got to be drugs in here somewhere!' — The death in 1994 of 75-year-old Rev. Accelyne Williams thanks to a SWAT raid at the wrong address should have been a wake-up call about the inhumanity of drug law -- but it's business as usual for unrepentant prohibitionists.

Photograph of philosopher William James under headline reading 'Laughing gas ring uncovered. William James arrested.' — James told us to study altered states with substances like nitrous oxide to learn about reality, but the FDA wants it outlawed. The DWP (Brian Q) is the only philosopher who protested outlawing N20 on behalf of academic freedom.

Cartoon shows businesspeople at table in front of chalkboard reading: The Ecstasy Crisis. Person 1 says: 'Multiethnic dancers are actually cuddling on the dance floor.' Person 2 says: 'Disgusting!' — Ecstasy brought about UNPRECEDENTED peace to British dance floors in the 1990s. Instead of praising the drug, however, MP's cracked down on it, after which the dance floors erupted with alcohol-fueled violence.

A man in a yellow shirt is holding a sign that says "Don't Tread on Me" and "That Said, Please Keep Telling Me Which Plants I Can Use." — Conservatives and gun lovers demand to be free from government -- except they want the government to control their access to pain relief and their ability to relax and concentrate, etc. etc. etc.

Cameraman holding camera outside of Monticello estate, musical note with lyrics reading: 'They raided Monticello (quite wrongly!)' — Ronald Reagan's DEA raided Thomas Jefferson's Monticello estate in 1987, with the help of the Jefferson Foundation! The garden-loving Jefferson would have been horrified that American government had devolved into a plant-demonizing republic!

Cartoon: Sign over door reads: 'Children's Hospice... Drug Free!' Speech bubbles show children inside crying, 'It hurts!' and 'Mommy!' (because doctors cannot use drugs like morphine thanks to American fearmongering) — Most hospitals in India no longer carry morphine thanks to the Drug War. Fearmonger Americans have so demonized the drug that it is too expensive and difficult to administer, even to children in hospice care.

Cartoon shows therapist on stool asking patient on couch if he has ever considered suicide, to which patient responds: Only when I think how the Drug War has turned me into an eternal patient. — Drug prohibition turns depressed Americans into demoralized wards of the healthcare state by shunting them off onto dependence-causing meds.

Nurse hands patient report to doctor, who says: 'That's right, Nurse. Just dump them on a coat without any godsend rain forest medicines and charge them $3,000.' — Detox is the modern equivalent of bloodletting. We torture the patient because we refuse to give them drugs that would cheer them up and help them, psychologically speaking, to get off unwanted substances.

Drug war morality featuring depiction of pill floating in air in heavenly setting while showing nature's plant medicines beside grinning skull. — Americans have been taught to hate Mother Nature's plant medicines and to trust in Big Pharma 'meds' instead, many of which turn the depressed into patients for life with extreme chemical dependency.

(abolishthedea.com)

A doctor holding a crutch in the air above a caption reading: 'This is nothing but a crutch!' — There is nothing wrong with crutches. Hubristic materialist science set out to 'cure' human sadness, and what is the result? 1 in 4 American women are now dependent on Big Pharma drugs for life.

Cartoon featuring a sign in front of a grade school reading: Drug Free Zone... except for coffee, nicotine, alcohol, cigarettes, SSRIs... sugar, chocolate, aspirin, Monster-Energy drinks... — Signs that read Drug Free Zone are proselytizing on behalf of the drug-hating religion of Christian Science. We should not want to be free of drugs in cases where they could be useful -- which are potentially legion in a sane world.

(abolishthedea.com)

A classified advertisement torn out of the newspaper. It reads as follows: DEA AGENTS WANTED. Must have demonstrated ability to harass minorities in an urbans setting. — Do you have what it takes to support a social policy that has destroyed inner cities and forced pain patients and the depressed to go without godsend medicine? Help us enforce Drug War sharia in the United States!

(abolishthedea.com)

(abolishthedea.com)

To-do list containing the following text: Get milk, fix car, abolish the DEA — Just a quick reminder to get rid of America's Gestapo -- when you get the chance, of course.

(abolishthedea.com)

(abolishthedea.com)

Sad and angry woman holding up a poster reading: 'My son was killed by a skateboard' — For Discussion: How do Drug Warriors use the power of the media to make us 'feel' a certain way about the substances that they demonize with the pejorative epithet of 'drugs'?

Cartoon featuring little green man on rocky planet, being greeted by American astronaut who says: 'We come in peace... provided, of course, that you let us burn all of your psychoactive plant medicines.' — Americans are childish about drugs. We blame our problems on inanimate objects and burn other countries' plants so that we can feel safe at home. We need to grow up and learn to use nature's bounty wisely for human benefit.

Man ask police officer: 'What's in there, plutonium?' The officer responds: 'Worse yet, MDMA!' — The DEA requires drug researchers to handle drugs like MDMA as if they were fissionable material.

See also Visualize the Injustice of Drug Prohibition at the Drug War Museum and Pissed Off About Drug Testing.

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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.

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

tombstone for American Democracy, 1776-2024, RIP

tombstone for American Democracy, 1776-2024, RIP

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