(A Public Service Announcement from Suburra Publishing.)
Myth #7
Drugs Do Not Do Anything For You
Page 1
The law of utility applies to an illegal drug’s popularity. Contrary to assertions made in propaganda, most drug users are not stupid. (See Drug Hall of Fame.) A drug becomes popular because it provides more benefit than harm to its responsible users. Although some users have a “desire to erase” themselves, most do not. Drugs that destroy responsible users become obscure, e.g. barbiturate.
A longer documented list is contained within You Will Die, but here is an abbreviated list of some of the benefits that illegal drugs can provide:
A. Meeting God: Mind Expansion / Religious Reasons
Hallucinogens have been used in religious rites for tens of thousands of years. The sacred scriptures of India contain over 1,000 hymns in praise of soma, a psychedelic mushroom. This drug use has not been a trivial sideshow but a hallowed mystical experience central to these religions.
An example of the importance of drug rituals can be seen with the Eleusian
mysteries. In ancient Greece and Rome there was a cult based at the Athens
temple of Eleusis. Up to 3,000 people a year were initiated in an annual
week-long affair that culminated in the mysteries, rites kept secret under the
penalty of death. The cult had amazing endurance beginning around 1500 B.C. and
not ending until the Romans’ enforcement of Christianity shut it down at the end
of the 4th century A.D.
Cult members included such celebrated
figures as Aristotle, Sophocles, Plato, and several Roman Emperors. The poet,
Pindar, wrote of the mysteries, “Happy is he who, having seen these rites, goes
below the hollow earth; for he knows the end of life and its god-sent
beginning.” The Roman Emperor Cicero believed them to be the greatest
contribution of Athens. It is now believed that the mysteries’ rites
incorporated LSD. This powerful mystical experience held the cult together for
2,000 years.
A mystical experience is a profound event in which one is, “left with a greater awareness of God, or a higher power, or ultimate reality.” The ability of hallucinogens to facilitate these revelations was demonstrated in numerous studies conducted before hallucinogens were outlawed. In one 1962 study, before a Good Friday church service fifteen theology students and professors were given psilocybin and another fifteen were given placebos. Despite not knowing who received the placebos, those who received psilocybin had experiences dramatically more mystical than those who did not.
One of the participants who received psilocybin said over thirty years later, “it enlarged my understanding of God by affording me the only powerful experience I have had of his personal nature.”
B. I Like You: Social Reasons
Some people enjoy stimulants, like
cocaine, for confidence in dealing with people, others prefer sedatives, like
alcohol, to help them relax around others. Other social motives are more
esoteric. For example, Louis Armstrong said of marijuana, “When you’re with
another tea smoker it makes you feel a special sense of kinship.”
Science has found the biological underpinnings of some of these social benefits. One example is the affect of alcohol on the male brain. Men have more difficulty expressing their feelings verbally than women. The portions of the male brain that handle these matters are less integrated than in the female brain. Alcohol breaks down the discrete compartments in the male brain and allows males to “open up” emotionally. (Because alcohol has not been criminalized scientific studies can be done to understand its positive effects.)
C. Ow!: Pain Tolerance
Since the 1920s federal drug agents have harassed the medical profession into ignoring patients with chronic pain from catastrophic injuries. During fiscal year 2005, the DEA initiated 595 investigations against doctors. Less than 1% of users of medically prescribed opiates develop any form of addiction.
D. Third Wind: Energy
Winston Churchill used amphetamine and barbiturate to help him navigate World War II. The entire American military used as well. With amphetamines being packed in ration kits, the American soldier in World War II averaged one pill per day. The effects of amphetamine are similar to another stimulant, cocaine. Despite going through the equivalent of a five year coke binge, “The Greatest Generation” managed to avoid mass addiction and went on to, “build modern America.” It did not appear to damage the faculties of greatest generation member, John F. Kennedy. Kennedy allegedly continued to use speed into his presidency, including during his summit meeting with Nikita Khrushchev in 1961 and during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.
World War Speed – Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy
both used amphetamine while leading their countries.
E. Don’t Worry, Be Happy: Relaxation
Just as stimulants are used for energy, depressants are used to relax. The most
common one is alcohol. During the late 1960s and 1970s, another popular
depressant was Quaaludes. Brooklyn College went through 5,000 pills a day and at
Ohio State University, where fraternities had jars of it available, football
players routinely used Quaaludes to come down after games.
Before the war on drugs, other drugs were used to relax as well. One of these
was opium, the precursor of heroin. Unlike alcohol and Quaaludes, opium – taken
in moderation – did not interfere with performance. William Gladstone
(1809-1898), one of Britain’s most esteemed prime ministers, took laudanum (an
opium/alcohol mix) before giving speeches to appease his nerves and keep him
controlled. The noted British abolitionist, William Wilberforce (1759-1833),
contributed all his success as a public speaker to taking opium beforehand
All information taken from You Will Die: The Burden of Modern Taboos, Book I by Robert R. Arthur. Detailed documentation of sources can be found therein.
Page last modified August 29, 2007.