RE: "It's the Law:" The Mantra of the Brainwashed
You are free to disagree and I won't take it personally. You don't seem unreasonable but I suspect we are working from two very different world views. I do not believe that the possession, use, sale, or manufacture / production of any drug should be illegal. It really comes down to what values more between society and the individual and from my prospective the individual's rights (even the right to self-harm) should be placed above social norms or a culture's view otherwise we are forced to live under the tyranny of the majority. I am certain that you know as well as I do that the majority is wrong as often as it is right.
I appreciate that you recognize that excessively harsh punishments are the wrong way to go and I agree that proper education is helpful.
I do take issue with the idea that drug use is a negative thing. In some cases it can be. I wouldn't recommend that a person use heroin for fun or snort cocaine at a party but there are well documented benefits to the use of cannabis and psychedelics but they are slandered and demonized because it serves a purpose for the systems of authority which we are subject to. Cannabis costs drug companies money because it treats some illnesses better than their products so they lobby governments to keep it illegal. Psychedelics lead people to ask troublesome questions so authorities ban them out of fear of the mode of thinking which they bring. Things aren't as simple as they seem and just because someone somewhere said that a thing is bad does not make it so.
To clarify, the indoctrination which I mention here is used to make people comfortable with the idea of destroying a person's life because they broke an unjust law. A person must believe a number of lies in order to justify locking someone in a cage for twenty years over a pan of weed brownies which is the system we have here in the United States.
This goes well beyond the drug war (that is just my pet issue). "It's the law" was used to oppress, women, gays, people of various races, and to justify countless other terrible things throughout history. That thought process is the real target of this post and the flaws in its logic are undeniable.
Now that, I could not agree with more than I already do. I think we are completely in the same boat although, one small concern would then again be how can a person with mental disease be allowed to make use of the drug of their choice? Weed has been proven to have multiple benefits which I dare not dispute as I have seen these first hand when I did a story on a local guy who suffered from stage 4 squamous cell carcinoma - pardon me for not saying this earlier, I am a journalist. Long story short, he ran out of canabis oil and luckily, through reporting on the matter, he was able to be put in touch through someone to another person who was able to aid him in obtaining canabis oil - I can't mention names of course but you get the point. Certain 'drugs' do have benefits. And yes, I do see from which point you were approaching indoctrination (it took me a while clearly). Super long story short, this man is now doing better from what I've heard and some of his cancer has regressed which is amazing. Keep up the great posting and thanks for entertaining my view.
PS. The modern-day views carried over from the past in terms of oppression, women, gays and lesbians, human beings etc is just as screwed up. Not referring to myself but, can you imagine being an african gay man in South Africa, you'd very likely be killed.
No problem, people get too upset over little things but I think being challenged on things is fine.
That is the issue. The laws vary from place to place but here, if a person is severely mentally impaired they lose their power of attorney which gives their right to make personal decisions to a care giver. I suppose if someone loses their right to manage their own affairs they would be considered unable to make the decision to use a drug but it would be difficult to enforce a law like that. Imagine for a moment that drugs are legal and you own a store that sells them. If someone walks in and seems normal enough, how would you know if he or she is crazy or not? Age restrictions would be easier and they seem to work fairly well to keep kids from getting alcohol and tobacco. When I was a teenager I (or any other teenager) could have found just about any illegal drug with much less effort than it would take to get a few beers.
Cannabis really needs to be legal for those reasons. Change is coming on that front because no one really believes those lies anymore. Canada is about to legalize this year, if I am not mistaken. About half of the U.S. has some form of legal weed. Mexico has been talking about making it legal for years and some European countries are toying with the idea. As it spreads it will be harder to justify the laws against it. Some places may never come around but most will at some point, I think.
Psychedelics have some potential benefits also. Psilocybin mushrooms can treat a certain sever type of headache and are being used to help people with the end of life anxiety. Others have even shown promises in treating opioid addiction (I just read an interesting article about earlier, in fact).
Oppression and prejudice are stubborn beasts but hopefully people can move past those ideas and practices. Division is what allows the corruption to continue and I think people are starting to realize that more and more.
Too true - I've seen some studies on shrooms as well but the prospect of tripping my face off has kind of got me thinking that it could be a bit daunting, however, I luckily don't suffer with such troubles. I think the headache article was a study done with people who suffer from chronic headaches of which oxycodone was even unable to relieve the pain. In that instance I think shrooms would be a better alternative as oxy has been known to be one of the worst abused painkillers in the States. The benefit of shrooms however is that they apparently do not cause a physical addiction which is super great. Also, I think treating people with shrooms who suffer with issues like end of life anxiety could be quite interesting - would also love to read the article you read if you still have the link.
This is what I read today:
https://steemit.com/opioid/@andrewjoseph/the-cure-for-opioid-addiction-is-illegal
I have seen a lot of information about this stuff going around lately.
Definitely a great read and also insightful - America really does have a big problem with opioids. Thanks for sending me the link and thanks for entertaining my views.
No problem. Thanks for reading and commenting.