It all seems fine until you crash and burn

Hoodwinked

I truly believe the biggest hoodwinking our society has allowed itself to believe is that our country has always held a harsh stance on drugs. It is a given truth in Western culture that drugs are bad and cause many intense harms and distress that reverberate through every facet of our society. Public skid rows have become common in pretty much any major American city and the overdose rates continue to break records year after year. That is why it is so important that Western society continues to enforce their narcotic laws. Right?

The fact is that America used to be a haven for drug users. Cocaine, Dilaudid and amphetamines flowed freely over pharmacy counters, even after the opium dens in the east were all but gone. America has only had its “awakening” towards the evil of drug use within the past 60 or so years! Yet, ask anyone over sixty years old and they will generally give the answer that drug use has always been looked down upon and seen as a corrupt evil. This is not just a simple case of people having a collective senior moment. No! This canned diatribe is a direct result of the aggressive propaganda perpetuated by our government, its controlled media and most unfortunately, by its own civilians.

The whole differentiation of drugs versus alcohol However, our culture’s need to differentiate it from the “bad” drugs is sophisticated misinformation. Our government’s strategy of oppression in the last 60 years is to keep alcohol legal, while criminalizing and stigmatizing all other drugs, even though alcohol is a harder substance than most Schedule one drugs. Alcohol has the highest toll of disease in the world, more than cancer or heart disease and if you ask around, it is very rare to find someone who does not at least know someone whose life was destroyed by alcohol. We cognitively know that alcohol is dangerous yet are forced to consume it or find alternative, usually illegal highs. Talk about a rock and a hard place!

Everyone I know that is against drug use cites the same argument against decriminalization. It usually goes something like “if we decriminalize/legalize all drugs drug use will skyrocket”. While I can't necessarily argue with this, since I do believe easy access leads to more use, especially in demographics that would never think to break the law or search the street for drugs, I believe it is a moot point. So what if drug use increases, the real data we should be looking at is overall rate of dysfunction and overdose deaths. If more people are using ketamine and LSD but not alcohol or heroin, is this better or worse for society? It is the ugly truth that the real reason for our aggressive campaign against illicit drugs is profit and the inherent human desire to view others as lesser than.