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 Posted by Aron on July 08 2008 (Tuesday) : 06:38 PMI have a very nuanced view on the use of psychoactive substances. My drug of choice is caffeine delivered via coffee, and I do enjoy wine and the occasional scotch and soda. But in general I don't see the necessity or benefit in "enjoying" life through a drugged haze. Nonetheless, I strongly oppose the criminalization of the use of any psychoactive substance, although I can certainly understand the need to regulate their use and sale (with various degrees of regulation depending on the substance). Psychoactive substances have been used from the time the species homo sapiens first roamed this planet and probably before that. Such substances were often part of sacred ceremonies or used by healers (and thereby regulated). To make them illegal seems, well, crazy. On the other hand, I find it appalling how in Western societies, particularly the US where the "war on drugs" is waged in a most appalling fashion, psychoactive drugs are prescribed by doctors as if they are candy. Of course, the "war on drugs" and the over-prescription of "legal" drugs are intimately related. Here too, war is a racket, and the big pharma companies make huge profits as legalized drug pushers, while more effective natural drugs that have no associated patents (and are therefore less profitable to manufacture and distribute) are banned and criminalized. I was encouraged to read this article in Newsweek, about a doctor who is waging his own "war on drugs", by "pushing" alternative approaches to treating depression and anxiety. There is even an Israel/Palestine angle to the story! < The War on Terror | The Surge is Working! >
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  Cost of the War in Iraq
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"Entre los individuos, como entre las naciones, el respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz -- Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace" -Benito Juárez
"It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it." -Eleanor Roosevelt "Let them call me a rebel and welcome. I feel no concern from it. But should I suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul" -Thomas Paine | |
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The War on Drugs
