On The Prohibition Of Psychoactive Substances

Posted: 9/17/2017

Introduction

This is a work in progress. I am still trying myself to understand the issues involved. This article will most likely be amended, revised, updated as time goes by.

Some Reasonable Assumptions About This Subject

Here is preliminary, tentative list of statements probably most reasonable people can agree on:

1. There will always be people attempting to try psychoactive substances in one form or another. The genie is out of the bottle presumably since homo sapiens came on the scene
2. The more than one hundred years of international prohibition of psychoactive substances has failed not unlike the alcohol prohibition in the U.S.
3. Minors should be protected and not have access to such substances or only under very restricted circumstances
4. Some other areas may also have to be restricted as far as consumption is concerned: military service, driving a vehicle, employment come to mind
5. In the name of individual liberty nobody should be prevented from taking such substances or trade or produce such substances
6. Individual responsibility demands that under the influence of such substances your responsibility and culpability to prevent harm to others or damage is greatly increased. Harsh punishment should follow if this great responsibility is neglected
7. Individual responsibility demands that those who become dependent or addicted to these substances seek immediate help and do everything possible to overcome or cope with the addiction
8. Given today’s advances in science and technology, it is much easier to prove if a person has been under the influence of such a substance  
9. Education and informing the public about the pros and cons of such substances would be much better without prohibition. People could learn how to responsibly take such substances etc.
10. It is probably one of those long held myth that the widespread availability of such substances would destroy a civil society (like Sodom and Gomorrah). The long life of this myth could be attributed to Big Government interests of power and control over its subjects
11. Big Government in many Western countries has allowed for one psychoactive substance to be widely available, i.e. alcohol. This is clearly not enough. Further it is an inherent contradiction to allow one substance, but to prohibit essentially all the others irrespective of potency or addictive potential
12. We know that the arts have benefitted from artists taking psychoactive substances

The Curse Of Prohibition

Here is a list of the many terrible side effects of the aggressive prohibition:

1. The known and suspected medicinal properties of psychoactive substances were not scientifically researched and applied prevented and inhibited by prohibition. Only today are we perhaps at the cusp of successfully breaking addiction
2. Medical treatment options were not fully developed as they could have been. Without prohibition we could have offered much better treatment alternatives decades ago
3. A totally unnecessary promotion of  a very lucrative crime and its attendant negative effects and issues thanks to this prohibition. Not to mention the corruption and other subversive effects that come with this crime.