Hypocrisy, Money, "Mind Control," and Cough Syrup

I have been recovering from pneumonia for the last few days and I am finally past the point of needing my prescription cough syrup. Since I have come down from that legal, medical high, I began to realize how intoxicating that particular substance (there were actually four drugs in it but it was a single syrup) had been. It was a strange blend of a stimulant (Sudafed), a dissociative cough suppressant (dextromethorphan), and alcohol. If truth be told, it would bring me to the border of what I would call a "trip," even at therapeutic doses. When I took this medicine and drove to work, I noticed that I was a far worse driver than I am under normal circumstances. That stuff can be dangerous too. I was told to carefully measure my doses to prevent the hazardous side effects that could potentially occur when consuming larger amounts. However, despite all those negative aspects of this syrup, it is perfectly legal. I considered that fact this morning and it began to make me angry. I was reminded of the incredible hypocrisy that exists in our laws and the mainstream culture's view of legal and illegal drugs. It, once again, became clear to me that drugs are not banned and permitted based on the level of danger that they may pose to the public or because an illegal intoxicant is somehow more debilitating than a legal one. Drugs are, instead, regulated based on how profitable they may or may not be for the existing and established systems of power and on how much their effects frighten the authoritative structures which seek to exert control over the population by limiting our freedom of thought.

Legal drugs aren't less dangerous than illegal ones but they are much more profitable for the establishment. Anyone with a patch of dirt can grow safe, mild, impossible-to-overdose-on weed. Most cow pastures are teeming with wild psychedelic mushrooms. Heroin and cocaine, despite the damage they may cause, are not particularly difficult to produce. Regular people can grow, manufacture, or forage for these things and that makes them unattractive as far as the corporate cartels are concerned. They (the drug companies, doctors, and other participants in the pharmaceutical industry) want to be the only source for our drugs. If any upstart with a field can compete with them, they lose their current monopoly and their potential to earn an unreasonably large profit erodes. They lobby to keep the easy to make drugs illegal and offer legal (and often more expensive and more dangerous) alternatives which are patterned and, typically, difficult to produce. The media and those with political power also stand to lose income in a more permissive drug market so they participate in the perpetuation of this absurd state of affairs as well. The media earns quite a lot of ad revenue from advertising legal drugs and it is unsurprising that they push an anti-illegal drug narrative. "Stay away from that scary cannabis and now here's an commercial for some sweet, tasty, fentanyl" CNN says. Political figures regularly receive rather large monetary contributions from the legal drug lords so they act in their favor too. "That harmless tray of weed brownies is a danger to our children and requires strict, unbending prohibition" says the senator who is off to cash a check from Purdue Pharma; a company whose products have likely killed more people than all of Pablo Escobar's coke ever could have.

Money may be the major driving force behind our hypocritical drug policies but there seems to be more at play and I believe that it has to do with controlling the minds of the population. I am not talking about "mind control" in that "woowoo" sifi/conspiracy sense of the word. Some drugs are known to expand one's consciousness and some are not. The systems of authority have allowed the use of the less mind expanding sorts of drugs like painkillers, stimulants, and depressants but they often staunchly oppose the use of less harmful drugs like psychedelics and cannabis. Unlike most legal drugs, these substances can have a profound and lasting positive impact on the way people think. Those effects are dangerous to an individual or group that seeks to control our behavior for his, her, or its benefit because our unquestioning submission is required to achieve that goal and the expansion of conscious usually generates questions. Psychedelics and cannabis can help us to see through the lies and propaganda that we are fed by the authorities and their allies in the media. Their attempts to incite fear become absurd and we laugh at their demands for obedience when we are under the influence LSD, mushrooms, or (sometimes) weed. These sorts of substances make things more difficult for the systems of control which is why we see powerful people glorify the consumption of deadly alcohol (I like a drink on rare occasions but let's not fool ourselves about what that drug is capable of) in one breath and scoff at the idea of using relatively harmless mushrooms in the next.

The war on drugs is a pet issue of mine but I think that our hypocritical drug market is a small part of a larger problem. Drugs are controlled in the way that they are because a lust for power and wealth that exists within the established ruling class. Mind altering substances are banned or allowed based on how profitable they can be for the elites and on how much they hinder the authority's ability to feed us a self-serving narrative. We can fight for change in our current drug laws (and we should) but that won't be the end of our struggle. If we want to live in a truly free society, we have to find a way to keep power and influence away from those who seek it without regard for the cost to our freedom and well-being. I can lay out how I think drugs should be legalized but, sadly, I don't know how to solve the underlying problem that resulted in our current system. While I do not have the easy answer that I would like to give here, I do think that we can start by looking at what motivates the policies that are being pushed on us. If the law selfishly favors the authority and reduces the freedom of the population, we can think about opposing the proposed policy. That won't be the end of our issues but it is a fine place to begin our efforts.

Peace.

All the images in this post are sourced from the free image website, unsplash.com.