If you want evidence that the American people have been bamboozled by the Drug War, just search the Web for "famous drug users." Almost all of the "hits" will feature the judgmental term "addiction" (rather than "habituation" or "use") and almost none of the "hits" will refer to addiction to LEGAL drugs, thereby ignoring the astounding fact that 1 in 4 American women are chemically dependent on SSRI antidepressants 1 even as I type this.
This evidence is proof of at least two things: 1) that the Drug War has scrambled our brains when it comes to logical thinking, and 2) that the Drug War is not about America's health: it's about disempowering Americans when it comes to controlling their own mental state, meanwhile turning that power over to "health care professionals" and their arsenal of addictive synthetic medications supplied to them by Big Pharma 23 .
In short, it's all about keeping the DEA, psychiatrists, and drug companies in business for many years to come (and patients be damned, addicted and charged high prices), by continuing the American government's immoral and unconstitutional criminalization of the plants of Mother Nature, the birthright of every human being. It's all about what Thomas Szasz called the infantilization of Americans when it comes to psychoactive substances4.
It must warm the heart of any DEA hardliner to scan these links which describe Mother Nature as a drug kingpin and describe us human beings as mere babies when it comes to psychoactive substances, as if we're all totally unable to advisedly use the plants of Mother Nature to sharpen our mental acumen and see behind the veil.
The facts show otherwise - as if in a sane and free world we should even need to justify our prima facie human right to the plants and fungi that grow at our very feet.
Bill Gates used "drugs," Richard Feynman used "drugs," Sigmund Freud used "drugs," Thomas Edison used "drugs," Benjamin Franklin used "drugs," Omar Khayyam used "drugs," Marcus Aurelius used "drugs," even Plato himself used what we'd call "drugs" at the Eleusinian mysteries5 - but you won't see the beaming faces of any of these highly successful people splattered over the front-pages of these moralizing anti-drug websites. Instead, look for the deathly pale head shots of John Belushi, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin, the holy trinity of anti-heroes which the Christian Scientists of the Drug War want to keep before our eyes, lest we humans take it into our head that we have the power and the right to decide what plants we'll eat and which we will avoid.
The Drug Warriors (which is to say 95% of the American public, judging by the plethora of moralizing pages returned in the above-mentioned Web search) want the whole "drug" story to be about the John Belushis of the world, the irresponsible drug users, and those who make bad choices. Why? Because they need to keep distracting our attention from the unprecedented injustice that they perpetrated on humanity in the 20th century when they criminalized plants, of all things, thereby denying human beings free access to the therapeutic output of Mother Nature that grows at their very feet. They want the whole narrative to be about 12-step programs and fallen humanity, with nothing about those luminaries who have chosen wisely from Mother Nature's psychoactive bounty and come away better for the experience, with more focus, energy and empathy for humankind.
Americans will play along with the maudlin Drug Warrior narrative (of a weak humanity, ever threatened by nature's far-too-powerful substances) until we finally notice that the Drug War is a religion: namely, Christian Science as applied to psychoactive substances: i.e., the metaphysical notion that we "should not be" using nature's substances to improve our minds.
The latest research on psychedelic therapies shows that this creed is not only wrong, but that it has resulted in untold suffering over the last 50 years, thanks to the fact that the Drug War mindset has strongly discouraged research and clinical trials of these promising new treatments.
We'll know we're finally on the right track when a Web search for "famous drug users" turns up unbiased Web pages that unapologetically reveal how famous Americans have improved their minds with the help of the psychoactive bounty of Mother Nature. What a welcome change that will be from the usual party-line Websites delivering the usual maudlin narrative according to which every so-called "drug" user is a latent John Belushi.
Until then, the Drug War remains a violation of natural law and a political pretext to invade other countries on behalf of securing the monopoly interests of Big Liquor against all comers, including those substances that America loves to hate (such as coca, opium 6 and entheogenic plants) that have been used responsibly by non-western cultures for millennia.
Author's Follow-up: April 1, 2025
Psst! Don't tell anyone, but the Hindu religion was inspired by a drug. They called it Soma. To learn more, please see my essay entitled: How the Drug War Outlaws Religion.
In fact, there are times when it is clearly WRONG to deny kids drugs (whatever the law may say). If your child is obsessed with school massacres, he or she is an excellent candidate for using empathogenic meds ASAP -- or do we prefer even school shootings to drug use???
There are a potentially vast number of non-addictive drugs that could be used strategically in therapy. They elate and "free the tongue" to help talk therapy really work. Even "addictive" drugs can be used non-addictively, prohibitionist propaganda notwithstanding.
There would be almost no recidivism for those trying to get off drugs if all drugs were legal. Then we could use a vast variety of drugs to get us through those few hours of late-night angst that are the bane of the recidivist.
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.
SWAT raids have increased by 15,000 percent from the late 1970s to today, resulting in 50,000 to 80,000 SWAT raids annually in the US alone. --War On Us
Just think how much money bar owners in the Old West would have saved on restoration expenses if they had served MDMA instead of whiskey.
Ug! Fire bad!
There were 4,731 fire-related deaths in America in 2023.
Learn more at the Partnership for a Death Free America.
The term "drugs" is no more objective than the term "scabs." Both are meant to defame the things that they connote.
Billboards reading "Fentanyl kills" are horrible because they encourage the creation of racist legislation that outlaws all godsend uses of opiates. Kids in hospice in India go without morphine because of America's superstitious fear of opiates.
I'm told antidepressant withdrawal is fine because it doesn't cause cravings. Why is it better to feel like hell than to have a craving? In any case, cravings are caused by prohibition. A sane world could also end cravings with the help of other drugs.
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