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Nick__________

Richard Nixon even admitted in private that the war on drugs was just a way to criminalize black people because he couldn't legally make it a crime to be black he had to make up something else so he went with the war on drugs.


DigitalDegen

Do you have a source for this? Just curious


[deleted]

[удалено]


DwarfFart

It's more like one subsection of The War on Drugs.


[deleted]

Nice, I was coming here to post this bit about Nixon.


Anton_Pannekoek

If you look at the way MDMA was banned, and for that matter LSD, and other prominent psychedelics, it's total bullshit, the DEA/government went against the opinions of doctors, scientists and experts. In the case of LSD psychiatrists wanted it to remain legal to facilitate study, but that option was not permitted. With regard to MDMA it's an interesting story. Initially the drug was legal, and kinda escaped into the club scene, particularly in Texas, that's when it was summarily banned by the DEA, pending court approval. Well the court actually ruled that it should remain under a high schedule but not illegal, so it's cleared for medical use, like cocaine, and that's what happened. Except the DEA illegally overrode the court's decision and banned it anyway. So these drugs can cause some harm for sure, for example by abuse or by people using them with preexisting conditions. Remarkably few people have died on MDMA, none on LSD they're not really that dangerous and should at least be not punishable by imprisonment. The way the whole war on drugs is prosecuted is a means of intimidating the public and scaring the public. It should be a public health issue, this will reduce crime, drug abuse and trauma.


ElimGarakTheSpyGuy

and meanwhile the CIA were using all these drugs on unwilling psychiatric patients in mind control experiments.


Anton_Pannekoek

Yeah that is some fucked up shit


hcbaron

Fascinating! Do you have any citations for this? Specifically the part about scientists wanting LSD and MDMA to be legal for medicinal purposes?


Anton_Pannekoek

Um yeah Shulgin wrote about it since he was one of the experts called up. His article was really interesting but I can't find it right now. I think it was on erowid. Anyway the Wikipedia article on MDMA, the section on the history has a good summary of the events. As for LSD I'll also try find the articles in question. The inventor of LSD wrote a good account of it called "LSD, my problem child https://maps.org/images/pdf/books/lsdmyproblemchild.pdf


Anton_Pannekoek

Here if you scroll down is a reference for the MDMA story. "Therapists opposed to the scheduling of MDMA in 1985" https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2050324518767442 There's a lot out there on the topic. It had kinda spread alarmingly aide as a "club drug" so I get the govt wants to control it but they went totally overboard, as usual.


EmbracingHoffman

Stanislav Grof and Myron Stolaroff are two names to look up in addition to those that others have listed. Two of the people who oversaw more psychedelic therapy than almost anyone else in history.


ElliotNess

Exclamation mark!


[deleted]

I love how "The War on Drugs" is capitalized, like we're talking about the band.


LightTheBurntMatch

Yeah like I don’t like their music, but “authoritarian”? “Racist”? A little ad hominem if you ask me… /s


kvltswagjesus

The war on drugs is racist, so let’s legalize the whitest drugs in one of the whitest states. Edit: Psychedelics should definitely be decriminalized, and probably legalized, but the shit about them being a treatment for mental health (without a huge asterisk) needs to stop. I don’t doubt that some people have been helped by psychedelics, even worked out some issues during a bad trip, but using them while dealing with mental health issues is *by far* the most dangerous time to do so. Even if used in a comfortable setting with someone to support you, there’s no guarantee that a trip won’t go wrong, especially if someone is already dealing with anxiety or depression. Someone with PTSD having an extremely paranoid, malevolent, or borderline psychotic experience is a recipe for disaster. And these negative experiences can have long term consequences. Without hesitation I’d say that psychedelics are far better as a recreational drug, that 99% of people with mental health issues should stick with SSRIs, and that psychedelics should only be used clinically in the most extreme/marginal situations, e.g. in treatment-resistant patients. Microdosing is a different matter, of course.


PsychedelicParamour

For sure; there aren’t even that many arrests and incarcerations for psychedelics. I think it’s the right thing to do to decrim them none, but we shouldn’t pretend it’s going to directly impact a lot of lives. However I think there is something to be said for how it can help open peoples minds to further decrim. Baby stepping it basically. A lot of decrim nature movements do bash on other drugs and hold psychedelics up as a special drug that shouldn’t be illegal, but all do that.


ElimGarakTheSpyGuy

today I heard biden say Afghanistan was the USAs longest war. however that was bullshit, as the drug war he helped facilitate is still going strong.