On Psychedelics
The True Reason for
Drug Prohibition
A Crime against Nature
WIN THE WAR WITH NO MORE CASUALTIES
One of the ideas that developed throughout this period
was that the psychedelics (I still feel most comfortable with this old term
coined by Humphrey Osmund) were some sort important hormone -like substance
which was necessary to the human race, like the various hormones which the
body produces within its structure. Unlike these hormones, there are others,
perhaps you could call them "planetary hormones" which the plant
world produces for the use of animals, and are part of the Gaia or conciousness
of the biomass of the whole planet. Healing plants are part of this category.
The ones which alter our state and perception of the universe around us
are no less important to our development as enlightened entities than those
which heal our bodies. Research into the ethnobotanical practices of indigenous
peoples around the world show that only the "modern" or western
(ie. ours) cultures place any opprobrium on the use of these plants. In
fact only the "west" is in the business of trampling on the environment
with out regard for the conciousness of the whole or of its importance to
us as a part of it. Indigenees almost universally hold that the planet is
something alive and that their role is as the protectors of that life. The
concept of "owning" the land is nearly impossible for these people
to grasp.
I thought that we might just survive and the planet with
us if we could manage to get enough people to experience the view which
the psychedelics sacraments give. I know that some of you who will read
this will object to the term sacrament, but the word is completely appropriate.
With the advent of Christianity sacrament has come to be divested of the
old meaning and to assume a more ephemeral definition. The magical plants
used by folks for tens of thousands of years have been for the most part
forgotten. People need to alter their perception of the world around them,
in fact it seems to be something done by all animals. In the west there
is only two permitted options Alcohol and tobacco. I'm not going to belabor
the point, but this "choice" is not something which leads in any
way to higher ground.
Shamanism and the use of plants to alter conciousness
has a long and respected history in the development of human society. Today
it is still found in parts of the world, coexisting with the modern forms
of accepted religious activity. In fact, in places like the remote areas
of Mexico some of the old ways are openly part of the worship rituals of
the Catholic church. Not usually the plants, but the Native American Church
in the US has certainly achieved a synthesis of sacred plant use and a form
of Christianity. Perhaps this (the inclusion of aspects of Christianity)
was necessary to be accepted as a real religion, although that seems odd,
the scientologists have succeeded in having their organization accepted
as a "church", and it has nothing even remotely suggestive of
a spiritual nature about it. Or perhaps it's to do with the fact that the
people are the dispossessed Indigenees of a land of colonial immigrants.
Or with the fact that they are using the plants.
Today the followers of the Grateful Dead have been preyed
upon by law enforcement at many of the venues the Dead visited. They could
not peacefully practice what is to them a true religious practice without
persecution. I guess it'd be the modern version of feeding Christians to the lions practiced
by the government of Rome a couple of thousand years ago. So much for the
rhetoric of "freedom of religion", so oft repeated nowadays. So
what if the psychedelic of choice is LSD rather than peyote? Is it OK to
eat peyote if you are a native American indigenee but not if you are a white
or black or other native of America? Since when is there any difference?
Why should there be some sort of barrier to joining any religious group?
There is only one answer: you are not allowed to be different, to think
original thoughts, to act as if you were really free. You are not supposed
to experience the world in any way differently to the way those in power
wish you to.
It is a fairly modern turn which has led us to this point
in time. Plants have only in recent times been unlawful. Although there
have been reactions to the introduction of various kinds of psychically
active plants into social use...coffee caused a bit of a stir when it was
first introduced, as was chocolate. Still, the prohibition movement is a
phenomenon of this century. First the war against alcohol, which failed
to successfully introduce laws through Congress outlawing booze (the Supreme
Court declared that Congress didn't have the authority to do that), succeeded
in pushing through an amendment to the Constitution. This was a terrible
mistake, and the country still has a powerful Mafia as a direct result of
the huge "money for nothing" fees people paid to have access to
the drinks they wanted. Even the Volstead amendment didn't criminalize use
or possession.
With the repeal, those used to the easy money, having
acquired money and therefore power, set about to have introduced new laws
which would recreate the money tree. This time they were able, by claiming
that the drugs represented a "health and safety" problem, to get
passed and approved by the court laws outlawing a variety of plant derived
drugs from cannabis to coca and opiates. The inclusion of cannabis may have
been the desire of certain industrialists to limit the competition hemp
fibers presented to the emerging synthetic fiber industry. Funny thing the
court actually said that a tax stamp created with the express intent of
never being issued, therefore a defacto prohibition was constitutional!
Harmless and joyful cannabis, the wonderful plant which has adapted itself
so completely to the service of man, was depicted as a Killer of Youth,
Creater of Madness, with all the power of a popular press in the full vigor
of its prime. Whether Hearst was paid off to do this, or just thought that
anything sensational enough to sell newspapers was ok, will probably never
be known.
Today we are seeing a more moderate approach to the hemp
matter. People are rediscovering all the uses to which this plant can be put,
from making paint to paper. Still there is a weird aversion to the medicinal
and recreational values so celebrated throughout history until recent times.
"Drug free" strains are touted for the production of fiber and
oilseed. What a load of nonsense, as if the conventional recreational drugs
were safe and desirable? Even the opiates wouldn't be much of a problem
if they weren't illegal, forcing a myriad of eager dealers into the streets
for the money for nothing of the black market created by the laws.
Society should never intentionally create a black market.
All black markets are a danger to the community due to the lack of controls
and the high delivery fees that they force on the delivery system. Likewise
there is a huge loss in revenue to the normal flow of commerce through the
community. The amounts of money available leads to the inevitable corruption
of all who attempt to interfere in the flow of goods in this black market.
Black markets made fortunes to the entrepreneurs of the world wars. Tires,
fuel and meat made fortunes for those who could divert supplies to their
clients. Anything can be a black market. The only thing required is scarcity,
or illegality, and a demand for the items.
The use of psychedelics as a part of the religious experience
has forced literally hundreds of thousands of otherwise law abiding people
into the black market for their supplies. Due to the dangers and costs many
have had to turn to dealing to gain access. Within a community which is
devoted to the ingestion of these sacred substances there are many who feel
that it is a noble calling to be the source for their friends and fellow
worshippers. Hold on, some may say, what about those who are merely thrill
seekers? Well, maybe the first time a person uses LSD or the other entheogens,
they may be motivated by such a motive. The nature of the experience is
that of a profound union with the universal mind. This takes place over
time, at first things happen one way, then they change with further trips.
The term, "War on Drugs" is a non sequitur. There
cannot be a war on anything except people. The question is, why does the
government want to wage a war against its own people? The simple principle
of harm reduction dictates that all drugs should cease to be illegal. Very
few people would become junkies without someone on the street corner offering
it to them, with the added attraction to the young of defying authority.
Likewise the widespread belief that advertising is a form of speech which
should be protected, and therefore unregulated, is wrong. Advertising is
a form of coercive behavior, directed at producing a response without regard
to the real merits involved, as long as there is a profitable result for
the advertiser. This has nothing to do with the value to the individual
or to the community. Tobacco is an excellent example. Joe Camel has been
implicated in the early commencement of tobacco use by children. Why advertise
tobacco? Any one would not have any trouble knowing about the stuff as long
as it was available. No coercion can be intelligently defended.
As well, what about the ads "You can win a million"
promulgated by the usually government run lottos? Anyone with any knowledge
of gambling knows that the odds against winning are around 50 million to
one. You are far more likely to be struck by lightning, or even a meteorite
than to pick the winner in a lotto. But the ads imply that it's easy...not
one word about the odds. Somebody has to win, I hear it said, but the roll
over to super jackpots should put paid to that one. Even so, it's the people
least likely to afford it that wind up pouring their money into it in the
vain hope of being the lucky one. I don't think such things should be outlawed,
people want to gamble, take drugs, smoke tobacco and/or pot, and they should
not have these activities criminalized. But neither should they be the subject
of advertising.
The US Constitution directs the government to "provide
for the general welfare" illegality of drugs creates a health and welfare
crisis of immense dimensions. Unknown dosages, unknown composition, contamination
both chemical and biological. Death and disease are the direct result of
the laws, not the use of various drugs. So far as I know the Supreme Court
has never ruled as to whether the laws on drugs violate the powers given
to congress. Judging on the basis of the Volstead Act, it would appear that
they should throw the lot out. But there is no mechanism whereby a case
may be forced to the attention of the court. Perhaps in the current climate
of illogic, where a kid who introduces a couple of people he knew, one who
grew, and one who sold marijuana, can be given life in prison, although
he didn't see the weed nor share in any monies, the electorate might pass
an amendment to the constitution to continue the insanity.
The authorities likewise don't give a stuff about what
any particular drug does. The stance that pot is a dangerous drug of abuse
is only a surface excuse, propaganda for the masses. Marijuana was made
illegal in the 1937 to remove a threat to the synthetic fibers made by DuPont,
just as the same company has connived a ban on Freon, now that their patent
on it has run out, under the pretense that it is "harming the ozone"--
a claim completely without any proof whatsoever. DuPont has never had any
interest in the welfare of people. The law against LSD was put into place
in 1966 primarily by Sen. Thos. Dodd, who set up and put through the law in 1966. The only real function of the drug prohibition is to create a black market trade, otherwise known as "money for nothing".
The addition of any particular drug to the prohibition
is a matter of the same policies which will maintain the illegality of all
drugs to the bitter end. The drug trade is now the single biggest money
operation in the US economy, and the money it produces is used to see to
it that the laws will not change. I was told recently that the current value
of the drug trade is estimated at $500 billion, a figure which agrees with
the statements I heard about the amount of money leaving the US for cocaine
in 1980, which was said to be $1 billion/day passing through Miami, at that
time the main portal for the trade. Watch them invalidate the plebiscites
in Arizona and California for the medical use of pot. I can almost gaurantee that these laws will never be implemented, for the authorities cannot tolerate any "erosion" in the wall of prohibition.
Pot isn't even important to those in the big-money drug
trade, except for maintaining a solid wall of prohibition, the same reason
I noted above for the uselessness of proving scientific merit for the use
of any prohibited drug. Money does indeed drive these things, which is why
you have no chance to change anything No one gives a minute's notice to
thoughts of "hypocrisy". It isn't a question of what's "good
for you" or "what's bad for you". Alcohol is not as good
a way to create money-for-nothing as heroin and cocaine (too easy to make
at home), plus it was put outside the rules by the repeal of Prohibition. Wm. Bennett, like the current fool, Barry McCaffrey, in charge of the "war
on drugs", is only a lackey of the money which runs the US government,
ie "Big Business", and the biggest business in the US is drug-running,
so give it up...barring a revolution or a new constitution, the US congress
will never change the way election financing is structured, and that is
one of the most important principles these interests will protect at all
costs. This is a serious threat to the social stability and future of the
country, so everyone must try to understand the real reasons behind it.
The example provided by the unwillingness of the US Congress to impeach Nixon, and now the statement by members of the House of Representatives that Newt Gingrich's use of political campaign funds to establish a school to teach people how to subvert the system by playing dirty politics is "no worse than jaywalking", shows how far from reality these powerful figures in the government are, and gives us little hope for reform. On Psychedelics
There has been a trip taken by many people over a number
of years, starting in the 1960's. It is a trip to renew our connection with
the planet we live on and its lifeforms. It seemed as though this journey
was a natural and important one for our survival and the survival of the
world as our home. We thought of ourselves as exploring new ways of looking
at the universe, but as it turns out, the adventure is almost as old as
man himself.
The True Reason for Drug Prohibition
The authorities don't have any valid arguments against
pot, their purpose in opposing legalization is to prevent any chinks in
the armour, or cracks in the wall of prohibition. All propaganda against
drug usage is false and/or misleading.
Most probably the association is at least hundreds of thousands of years old, way back in prehistory. The plant is unique, and the form of the plant is very simple, reflecting ancient structures which most plants no longer retain. In the Chinese orthography the word for cannabis, "ma" is a pictograph with the meaning "house", with the pictograph "plant " shown growing under the eaves, for the cannabis plant is very much a compost loving plant. The ancient relationship is not due to the provision of fiber, nor for the edible seeds, because the association predates the production of cloth and cordage, and likewise began before the use of large amounts of plant origin foodstuffs.
It is in fact, the resin and its wonderful effects on the mind and perception that has made the relationship so unique. The plant's sole reason for producing the resin is to induce men to cultivate and propagate it. In fact experiments have shown that the resin does not affect herbivorous animals, only carnivores. There is no other carnivore but man who could do anything useful for the cannabis plant. I know from my own experience that animals such as deer seem to consider the plant just like any other plant, as food, and do not seem the least affected by it. On the other hand, as little as half an ounce of the same plant will make a dog unable to stand up.
If you consider the antiquity of this special "dance" and the plant's distinct form and structure, this plant has given itself to us in a very special way. Nothing about the plant is other than a good, gentle thing. Growers have found that the plant seems to sense the sort of effects, the "high", that the grower likes to experience, and will strive to produce that for him (or her). It is common in the areas where it is grown to be able to identify the person from his/her smoke, regardless of the genetics of the seed.
I have a real hard time relating to the kind of attitude which leads us, on a world wide scale, to attempt to destroy a plant which has made its very existence dependent upon our cultivation, and which only wants to make us happy. For money, of course, as Jack Herrer so eloquently points out in his booklet "The Emperor wears no Clothes". First we had the prohibition against alcohol, and when that ended the enforcement and bootleg organizations needed a new source of easy money, and the poor cannabis plant, due to circumstances unrelated to the euphoric effects, namely the useful fiber which threatened Dupont's new synthetics, was one of their victims.
It is the laws which are the greatest sort of crime against nature. The plant is of such ancient association and use, that no possible argument can be made against it on either health or moral grounds. If we are to consider health, then why do we have to put up with some very dangerous things such as alcohol and tobacco, both of which are manifestly lethal... who's the fool here? We cannot make people stop using things which they want to use by passing laws, in fact those sort of laws are not really within the "rightful" authority of governments, since they are so destructive to the social fabric. To be accurate, the very concept of "government" is a very recent thing compared to the relationship between man and cannabis. Tribal man has never made "laws" which were not the will of the whole community, this is a modern aberration. We cannot properly deal with the world without re-evaluating the social and governmental systems we have, and trying to reform them to more nearly match the ancient tribal structures which guided us for most of our existence. It is only logical to live by the rules which we evolved over hundreds of thousands of years, rather than trying to reduce everything to a situation which only benefits a small portion of our population.
The cannabis plant is a truly special emissary of the plant world to man, and is a great teacher of appreciation for the wholeness of the lifeforce which animates this planet. It is a very beautiful plant, with a great vibrance and serenity, the very essence of the feminine creative energy. The Princess of the plant world, who gives us a wonderful gift in return for our care and attention.
I will note that the male cannabis plant also is valuable, as it is the males which yield the long fibers for making hemp products. One of the things which seem to have been lost is knowledge of the practice of growing only the males, set closely together to force them to become very tall and without branching. This can produce fibers of nearly 6 meters in length.
One of the more remarkable uses for the euphoric smoke is that of enhancing one's perceptions. Sound, such as music is full and rich, colours are intense, and the effect on the perception of sex is little short of heavenly. Although I will admit that I didn't really notice a large effect on my sex enjoyment until I was about 40, it is very noticeable with increasing age. It not only increases sensation, it seems to prolong orgasm to a noticeable degree.
So far as an artist's visionary ability, I don't think that there is much disagreement as to the value of cannabis to all artists and creative people. In all the years that I have been associated with music and art, virtually everyone I have met is fond of cannabis. In that vein, who really wants to go to a party where you can't have a meaningful conversation due to an alcohol induced stupor in the participants?
A Crime against Nature
The earth is an old place, and we humans are an old "race". We have been in close association with all the living things on the planet for millions of years. Man has adapted and uses many animals and plants in his world, but one plant is special. Special in a way that no other plants even come anywhere close to. Man's relationship with this plant is so ancient that all the near relatives of the plant have disappeared through evolutionary pressure and we don't even know for sure in which botanical grouping to place it. This plant is cannabis.
WIN THE WAR WITH NO MORE CASUALTIES
In the effort to "control" drug use, the approach taken on an
international scale has been to prohibit even the use and possession of
many materials. This model is the "American" one. That this
approach is a failure has been widely noted by many prominent and even conservative
commentators. The use of substances which alter in various ways the conciousness
of man, is an extremely ancient and established practice, in spite of the
belief of those who feel their moral views are the ones which should be
imposed on all humanity. The use of draconian legal laws as deterrents,
to attempt to eliminate ("control") drug use has already led to
the widespread development of a powerful and dangerous black market, and
in fact, any further movement in this direction will have the following
inevitable results:
1. The use and distribution of drugs of all kinds will increase in direct
relation to the increase in penalties. The penalties represent the "degree
of risk" to the supplier.
2. The price on the street will also increase, removing ever larger amounts
of money from the legitimate economy.
3. The number of dealers on the street will increase, especially those targeting
the most vulnerable of our society- in particular, children.
4. Dangerous infectious diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis will increase,
perhaps to epidemic proportions. At the same time, many more users will
die of overdoses and blood infections due to the unknown purity and concentration
of the drugs as furnished.
5. Crimes will increase, especially property crimes like burglary and armed
robbery.
6. The increased flow of money into the criminal element will increase
the likelihood of police corruption to the point where it will become the
norm.
7. All political systems will be placed under great corrupting influence
as the elements profiting from the money-for--nothing drug trade use their
funds to buy influence to maintain the level of prohibition.
8. Our systems of taxation, already stretched to the limit to provide services
will be threatened with collapse in the attempt to imprison all the people
who will be convicted and require incarceration.
9. The lure of "easy money" will entice many perfectly ordinary
citizens to become criminal cultivators in order to make ends meet (interested
persons are urged to examine the American Broadcast Company News Special
"Pot of Gold", Peter Jennings, reporter, on marijuana cultivation
in the USA. Aired on 13 March 1997. and available on video from the ABC).
10. The money paid for drugs is not based on the real value of the drugs
themselves, but is based on the risk of delivery, which in turn is the result
only of the law. This presents us with an economic crisis of enormous impact,
wherein a person with no skills, experience or education can have an income
(tax-exempt), greater than the highest paid individual in the entire industrial
world. Such a situation destroys the mutually agreed upon basis of modern
society, which is the assumption that a person is rewarded, or remunerated
in direct relation to their contribution to the economic whole.
There are other important factors which figure into the wider picture in
a negative way, such as the outflow of money to pay for the illegal importation
of many of the drugs in use, which affects the balance of trade in a way
that is impossible for even the experts to compensate for. Consider also
the hazards to agriculture to farmers everywhere of the smuggler's importation
of large amounts of plant material such as marijuana without quarantine
inspection, which could conceivably lead to the local introduction of serious
pests and diseases, possibly damaging agriculture, livestock, and wildlife.
Some proposals suggest that a person who is cultivating a certain amount
of marijuana plants be sentenced to life in prison. This is for an activity
no more difficult nor unusual than growing a field of tomatoes. This seems
hardly the sort of action worthy of any democratic nation.
All of the drugs which are used in a recreational way by people are either
plant materials, or are derived from plants. These plants have been a part
of the life on this planet as long as man has, perhaps even before we became
recognizably human. All of these drugs have had traditional, sometimes
ritual use among humans for uncountable ages. Until the first decades of
this century there were no prohibitions against the use of any of them.
During this long period there seem to have been few problems associated
with drug use. Almost all of the problems relating to drug use seem to
have been the result of only two factors, advertising and prohibition.
Opium was employed in the 19th century by Great Britain to subjugate China.
The use of opioids in India is of ancient origin, and like the cannabis,
caused no harm in the traditional setting, but transplanted to China under
a form of prohibition, the effects were devastating. In the US, the sales
of "patent medicines" containing paregoric and other opium extracts
as cure-alls, which were heavily advertised as a feel-good cure for anything
that ailed you, led to widespread addiction, and resulted in the Harrison
Narcotic Act of 1914, which required that all narcotic containing medicines
be subject to a doctor's prescription.
The Volstead Act and the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution, passed in
1919, showed the Mafia how valuable prohibition was as a tool for making
cheap things yield vast profits. With the end to prohibition, marijuana
was made a model to prohibit all possession and use of any substance as
well as production and distribution, (which were the only proscribed acts
in the Volstead law). These laws all originated in the United States and
were then exported to the rest of the world through the coercive powers
the US wields through its economic threat of withholding foreign aid. In
this way all the members of the United Nations were
induced to sign the Single Convention on Drugs, thereby creating a world-wide
black market for the drug trade. No one has had the temerity to oppose
this "law", even the Dutch still officially honour the treaty,
although they don't enforce its provisions. Of course, in order to implement
the removal of drug prohibition, some brave country must stand up as an adult in
the world community and repudiate this unreasonable treaty. Perhaps the
origin of this prohibition movement was the Puritan tradition of forbidding
"sin", but it has since been pre-empted and maintained by the
drug traders themselves. Without the laws there would be no lucrative trade.
The problems with alcohol and tobacco, as well as addictive gambling, are
the direct result of advertising, which may be looked upon as a coercive
behaviour, and is often laced with misinformation and the suppression of
information about the consequences of usage. We generally have a habit
of confusing the "speech" of advertising with the "speech"
meant in the phrase "freedom of speech", which refers to the right
to freely express one's opinion in the political sense. Advertising is
not the act of expressing an opinion, but is used in facilitating the acquisition
of money, and needs to be controlled, so that coercion is not used to encourage
practices which may be harmful in their consequences.
Leashes are employed to make dogs behave, and Society has the responsibility
to limit coercive behavior to ensure the public is protected from the unscrupulous.
This is made very clear by the behavior of the big tobacco companies with
regard to the hazards of smoking. In the following sections it is to be
understood that none of the items in either Category "A" or Category
"B" may be advertised by anyone in any way, either directly or
indirectly. This applies to the government owned lotteries as well. The
principle here is to not encourage behavior while not prohibiting it.
The laws of the last 60 years prohibiting drugs have led to very widespread
drug use, and almost total disregard for the genuine and useful laws of
society. In the days while I attended high school, 1949 to 1952, I never
heard the word "marijuana" nor, as delinquent as I was at times,
did I even know anyone who used any sort of drug. It was at least ten years
before there was any visibility to marijuana and other drugs in the general
public arena of the USA.
Having said this, I wish to put forward the following proposal as a solution
which I hope will be seriously considered. This is based on the Dutch approach,
but is far more complete and coherent. I believe that we are now presented
with a unique opportunity for some brave country to lead the world in eliminating
this disastrous prohibition, which may very well be threatening the survival
of all of humanity's social fabric. The operant principle here is harm
minimization. The best laws are always the simplest.
An outline for the reform of present laws on drugs and their use.
First, the entire designation until now called "illegal drugs"
needs to be divided into two classes, much as the drugs used in legitimate
medicine are divided, into those which are freely available to any adult
person, as are the over-the-counter products, and those which require medical
advice and/or supervision, such as the prescription drugs.
Category A
This category includes all plants and crude plant derivatives including
tobacco, opium and hashish, alcohol and (although not a drug per se) gambling.
Including, but not limited to all plants containing the substances psilocybin,
ergoline alkaloids, mescaline, cannabinoids, opioids, nicotine, caffeine,
ecgonines (coca alkaloids) and ethanol. Although it is not a "drug",
I believe the costly, socially disruptive and frequently addictive practice
of gambling should also be grouped in this category, since "problem
gamblers" often require counselling and rehabilitation, which is similar
to that needed by people with problems controlling their use of drugs.
Here too, advertising never mentions the odds against winning.
Category B
This includes all the chemical and highly purified products, whether derived
from natural materials, or synthetic. Whether currently used in medicine,
or not.
These two categories would then be dealt with in the following fashion.
Those in Category A:
The plants and materials in this category would be permitted freely to be
grown, processed, possessed, and used by an individual for the personal
use of that person and immediate family, but cannot be sold. A small fee
must be paid on a yearly basis by those exercising this right.
Individuals may, however apply and be granted a license to produce these
materials for sale to others, provided they are of good character, and pay
a licensing fee. All the sales made under this provision will have a small
fee attached at the point of sale. These fees are not tax, and cannot be
transferred to general revenue. All such revenue derived from this fee
must be used in the following manner by government: A portion of all fees
collected under this rule will be set aside for education, detoxification
and rehabilitation, and the remainder will be passed on to the health service
to help with defraying the costs of treatment of the increased number of
ailments which are the result of such drug use. In this way the system
is prepared to deal with any problems, by making it "pay its own way".
Those in Category B:
The material in this category may only be bought and used under the supervision
and/or authority (prescription) of a medical practitioner, but otherwise
are not restricted. The same licensing and fees for producers and sales
as in Cat. A will apply.
Educational, detox and rehabilitation facilities must be well funded, staffed
and available to anyone who needs them. A drug-user's equivalent of "driving
licenses" could be required for the Cat. B (and perhaps also for Cat.
A users). This license would take the form of a required course in the effects,
dosage, hazards and health risks, followed by a test and the issuance of
an ID card similar to that issued to road vehicle operators. The user is
then informed of all the pertinent facts. Both categories would require
that the user be an adult.
A requirement might also be made that a person who wishes to use the psychedelics
be a member of a support group which should have a trained psychological
worker associated with it.
An important principle is that the fees are kept reasonable and do not represent
a "sin tax" mentality, so as not to raise the price too high and
re-establish the black market. Drugs and gambling are not of benefit to
society and governments must not derive revenue from them, otherwise there
is little motivation for the powers to discourage the practice.
Other drugs under consideration for prohibition, like anabolic steroids,
must be returned to the medical community so as to destroy the growing international
black market in these substances.
It is important to realize that ALL black markets are dangerous to the public
health, damaging to the economy, corrupting to officials, and create a basis
for crime. Honest democratic governments must never knowingly act to create
situations which will allow black markets to develop, no matter how reasonable
the impulse to do so seems at the time. It is also important to understand
that legalizing the use of drugs will not encourage more people to use drugs,
nor will it, as many have proclaimed, "send a message" to youth
that drug use of any kind is approved of by society.
