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The Mother of all Western Biases

an open letter to Science News

by Brian Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher

July 7, 2022



In response to: "The idea that many people grow following trauma may be a myth" by Sujata Gupta.

Once again, Science News reckons without the Drug War. Ms. Gupta does not even mention MDMA , which has delivered fabulous results for PTSD sufferers over the last 35 years - albeit only in trials, since the self-serving DEA decided against the advice of its own counsel to criminalize the ultra-safe substance in 1985. Meanwhile, there is plenty of prima facie evidence that psychoactive botanicals could work wonders for PTSD patients in the proper settings. Some of these substances have inspired entire religions after all and given Plato his visions of an afterlife, but the Drug War either criminalizes such research or stigmatizes it such that little or no funding can be found for pursuing these tantalizing new approaches.

Update: May 05, 2025

One can hardly blame the writer, however, since the experts that she interviews are also in denial about the way that the Drug War has limited their research on PTSD, as if they were approaching the problem from a natural baseline when nothing could be further from the truth; rather, they are approaching the problem in a country in which drug-war proscriptions have become so internalized that scientists do not even realize that they are censoring themselves. And how are they censoring themselves? By completely ignoring the role that psychoactive medicine could play in changing the prognosis for conditions like PTSD. This self-censorship on the part of scientists is the mother of all "western biases" and yet it is apparently invisible to psychologists like Iara Meili and Andreas Maercker, who are otherwise so sensitive to the mere theoretical possibility of culturally-based presumption1.

And they're not the only scientists in this article who have been bamboozled by the Drug War. Psychologist Richard Tedeschi is quoted as saying: "You can't expect people to change their spiritual beliefs in eight weeks." But actually you can, if you dare to consider the use of medicine that the Drug War has gone to such great pains to demonize over the last 100+ years (since anti-Chinese politicians first effectively criminalized the poppy plant in 1914). People have changed their spiritual beliefs in less than eight weeks, and usually for the better, under the influence of properly administered psychoactive medicines like psilocybin and MDMA . (See the work of such researchers as James Fadiman, Stanislav Grof, Rick Doblin, David Nichols, DJ Nutt, Julie Holland, Charles Grob, Michael and Annie Mithoefer, and Amanda Feilding.) But Richard Tedeschi is apparently not aware of such research. And why not? Because he has ruled out the consideration of "drugs" a priori in fealty to the Christian Science metaphysic of the Drug War.

There is yet a third psychologist whose comments only make sense in the age of the Drug War, namely psychologist Eranda Jayawickreme, who helps conclude Gupta's article by telling us:

"The most compassionate response to suffering is to validate survivors' feelings."


This is just plain wrong. The most compassionate response, at least to PTSD suffering, is to end the War on Drugs and call for the immediate legalization 2 of godsend medicines like psilocybin and MDMA 3 .

PTSD sufferers want help, not kind words.

Moral: the Drug War is impeding scientific progress, and Science News should not be writing articles that imply that such a war does not even exist.



Author's Follow-up:

May 05, 2025

picture of clock metaphorically suggesting a follow-up




In the above letter, I criticize scientists for completely ignoring godsend medicines whose use could profoundly change attitudes and so profoundly help victims of traumatic shock -- not to mention folks with simple everyday psychological hang-ups. It occurs to me, however, that most modern Americans (scientists included) are unaware of the ability of "drugs" to perform such psychological feats. I ask the reader, therefore, to contemplate the actual reported effects of beneficial drug use (phenethylamines, in this case) as reported in "Pihkal" by Alexander Shulgin4:


"I feel that it is one of the most profound and deep learning experiences I have had."

"Excellent feelings, tremendous opening of insight and understanding, a real awakening."

"An energetic feeling began to take over me. It continued to grow. The feeling was one of great camaraderie, and it was very easy to talk to people."

"Tremendous clarity of thought, cosmic but grounded, as it were."

"I am experiencing more deeply than ever before the importance of acknowledging and deeply honoring each human being. And I was able to go through and resolve some judgments with particular persons."

"This feels marvelous, and a whole new way to be much more relaxed, accepting, being in the moment. No more axes to grind. I can be free."


Trump is sometimes right, albeit always for the wrong reasons. There is such a thing as fake science: it is the science that we have today on the subject of mind and mood -- because it is all predicated on the notion that psychoactive substances do not exist and so we can ignore the obvious implications of beneficial drug experiences, especially insofar as Drug War dogma and censorship holds that beneficial use is an oxymoron.

Nor is it just the effects of synthesized medicines that scientists overlook in discussing trauma and related conditions. Consider this citation from the 19th-century short story entitled "What Was It?" by Fitz-James O'Brien5:

"Those hours of opium 6 happiness which the Doctor and I spent together in secret were regulated with a scientific accuracy. We did not blindly smoke the drug of paradise, and leave our dreams to chance. While smoking, we carefully steered our conversation through the brightest and calmest channels of thought."


"Drug of paradise!" Surely, our scientists are gaslighting 7 us when they pretend that such drugs can have no beneficial effects for a victim of trauma. And yet the article above shows that they are willing to pretend that such substances do not exist. They can get away with this for two reasons: first, because Drug War ideology holds as a matter of faith that psychoactive medicines can have no positive uses, and second, because materialist scientists are passion-scorning behaviorists when it comes to emotional issues and so feel free to ignore anecdote, history and common sense when it comes to the glaringly obvious benefits of drug use.

This is why it was a category error to place materialists in charge of mind and mood medicine in the first place. Scientists can work wonders with hadron colliders and nuclear reactors, but they have no expertise in dealing with the hopes and dreams of real people. This is why we need to replace materialist psychiatrists with what I call "pharmacologically savvy empaths.8"











Notes for essay entitled The Mother of all Western Biases: an open letter to Science News:

1: How psychologists gaslight us about beneficial drug use DWP (up)
2: “National Coalition for Drug Legalization.” n.d. National Coalition for Drug Legalization. https://www.nationalcoalitionfordruglegalization.org/. (up)
3: How the Drug War killed Leah Betts DWP (up)
4: Shulgin, Alexander T, and Ann Shulgin. 2019. Pihkal : A Chemical Love Story. Berkeley, Ca: Transform Press. (up)
5: Great Ghost Stories O'Brien, Fitz-James , Dodd, Mead and Company, Inc., 1918 (up)
6: The Truth About Opium by William H. Brereton DWP (up)
7: The Semmelweis Effect in the War on Drugs DWP (up)
8: Replacing Psychiatry with Pharmacologically Savvy Shamanism DWP (up)




read more essays here





Ten Tweets

against the hateful war on US




Getting off some drugs could actually be fun and instructive, by using a variety of other drugs to keep one's mind off the withdrawal process. But America believes that getting off a drug should be a big moral battle.

In "Psychedelic Refugee," Rosemary Leary writes: "Fueled by small doses of LSD, almost everything was amusing or weird." -- Rosemary Leary In a non-brainwashed world, such testimony would suggest obvious ways to help the depressed.

The Drug War is based on a huge number of misconceptions and prejudices. Obviously it's about power and racism too. It's all of the above. But every time I don't mention one specifically, someone makes out that I'm a moron. Gotta love Twitter.

The drug war normalizes the disdainful and self-righteous attitude that Columbus and Pizarro had about drug use in the New World.

Proof that materialism is wrong is "in the pudding." It is why scientists are not calling for the use of laughing gas and MDMA by the suicidal. Because they refuse to recognize anything that's obvious. They want their cures to be demonstrated under a microscope.

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies." -- Groucho Marx

71% of the depressed have relapses after getting off their meds. Doctors blame this on depression, but increasing evidence suggests that these people are having withdrawal problems.

Katie MacBride's one-sided attack on MAPS reminds me of why I got into an argument with Vincent Rado. Yes, psychedelic hype can go too far, but let's solve the huge problem first by ending the drug war!!!

Timothy Leary's wife wrote: "We went to Puerto Rico and all we did was take cocaine and read Faust to one another." And there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG with that!!! The drug war is all about scaring us and making illegal drug use as dangerous as possible.

We have to deny the FDA the right to judge psychoactive medicines in the first place. Their materialist outlook obliges them to ignore all obvious benefits. When they nix drugs like MDMA, they nix compassion and love.


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






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