there will no longer be a distinction between legal and illegal
psychopharmaceuticals/enthogens/psychotropics.
The modern world lives in a duality where doctors prescribe addictions
and dealers sell highs. One is legitimate and the other is a criminal.
Both do the same thing: offers fixes for mental health.
Illegal drugs are starting to make an impact in mental healthcare.
Research into cannabis led to the discovery of the endocannabinoid
system in the body. It has also led to the development of at least 2
pharmaceuticals (sativex and marinol). Prospective studies into
psychobycilin have shown promising results for mental and physical health.
Like the school counsellor in South Park said, "drugs are bad....'kay?"
and as a long term drug addict I'm well aware of the truth of that
statement (they're bad like love is bad, and I still continue to fall in
love). The illegal manufacturer, distribution, dilution and adulteration
are the greatest danger. They are unregulated but as potent or more so
than legal narcotics. The numerous deaths to users are a list of harm
through the results of criminalisation (this includes lack of knowledge
about how to be safe with the drug, e.g. in the tragic story of Leia
Betts).
The risks that come from extreme negative delusional or psychosis-like
states induced by psychopharmaceuticals - legal or otherwise - for
suicide and homicide are as high as for schizophrenia. I have seen an
image of someone who took PCP (aka Angel Dust; one of the most powerful
hallucinogens available and one that can create a state of immunity to
physical pain) who shredded the skin from their face because they
thought it was crawling with insects. There may be other more dangerous
drugs. This is why drugs must be legal: there are some people who would
still sell that drug. In a regulated system where the entire manufacture
and supply chain is regulated and controlled - even more stringently
than the psychiatric pharmaceutical industry - then users can be
informed of the very high risks.
He also said "if you do them you're bad....'kay?" This is stigma and
prejudice. It is illegal to take drugs however it is no crime, just as
it was illegal for same sex couples to have sex however a century of
progress sees the developed world no longer stigmatise people for that
choice. There's an episode of South Park where he tries drugs. He
discovers why people take drugs. It's worth watching.
The benefits of positive delusional or psychosis-like states are little
studied in mainstream psychiatry though recent research is once again
exploring their potential. A recent study at John Hopkins (one of the
world's top medical research establishments) in America trialled a
hallucinogen for depression in terminal cancer. The hallucination
combined with the therapy was to help convey the idea that a person was
part of a greater whole and their death was small in the grand scheme of
things. It was using the drug in a spiritual way. The technique used
trained practitioners and there were no adverse psychiatric illness
reported in the study caused by the process.
Legalisation of drugs shouldn't follow the same anarchy as alcohol. Some
of them are much more dangerous. It's not just regulation of the
manufacture and supply chain. Information is the key. People need to be
aware of the pleasures as well as the risks, that drugs can lead to life
changing and transcendal experiences, bring joy and happiness, increase
the intesity of emotions, help thinking, boost creativity and
imagination and create wonderful, life affirming experiences, and that
they can lead to addicition, a downward spiral into depression, problems
with behaviour, problems with employment, problems with relationships
and friendships, cogntiive problems and the risk of mental illness.
Information about drug safety - how to stay safe and how to look after
other people - would be made available.
Many people don't read the information. That's why there would be a
license system. People would need to learn to take drugs just as they
learn to drive a car before they can get out on the road themselves.
Drugs are probably a bit more like motorbikes than cars, a riskier mode
of transport but a better experience. There would be regular re-examination.
The dealers become the most important people in the legal drug system.
From my personal experience of dealers there are a wide range of good
and not so good people. The idea in my head is that dealers have to use
the drugs they sell and they also have to have psychiatric/mental health
training. All use is monitored and there would be limits on amounts.
Obviously a grey market could exist though that's better than the whole
market being a black market. The dealers would have a strict code - as
strict as for psychiatrists. The dealers have the responsibility to keep
users safe: physical and mental health, psychosocial development and all
the other stuff.
I'd hate to see one of the big pharmaceutical firms get into the
enthogen market. I'm sure the tobacco industry would jump at the chance
of a new lease of life selling better highs. This is the main reason why
I think that drugs will remain illegal: if they are commericalised they
are open to the legal evils committed by large corporations (I'm not
saying those evils are better or worse than those of dealers). The legal
psychopharmcy industry invests millions in marketing and in the US they
market to the public. The trend over the latter 20th century since the
FDA approved the first major tranquiliser has been for the increase use
of drugs for the mind to ever larger swathes of the population and ever
more 'problems'.
For all the benefits of legalisation the risk from the mindset of the
big corporations and bad dealers is the greatest if all drugs were ever
legalised Iain M Banks had an idea that in the very far future everyone
would have a small neurochemical factory built into their brain that
they could control. There would be a range of compounds. People would
know how to use them and how to mix them, what the effects and side
effects were. People would make the choice whether to use them or not.
The system meant that they would always be safe but they had the full
choice in the drug they took and how they lived their life.
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