On the Legalization of All Substances in the US

see note for reviewers.

at what point in our evolution did some of us see fit to

decide for the rest of us,

what we can & cannot do with these physical

bodies of ours?

certainly, the supposed backbone of the “free” & “democratic”

westernly

civilized

nations,

does not depend on whether or not its citizens,

on their own free time,

pump substances into themselves

in order to escape a reality which established states

do such a good job of

destroying,

does it?

 

nations were great at killing off each other in the race to

rape the earth of all that it can give us---

nations were great at oppressing their own people &

draining them of all that they actually need to survive,

striving without a moment to rest

in the systematic erasure of those 95% or so of us

who have less than the 1-5%,

combined---

now that the nation-state is dead,

multi-nationals dictate what we can & cannot do,

through the puppetry of illusory government.

 

petty discrepancies over what substances should be legal

is so transparently oppressive at this point,

that one only needs to look at the statistics of those who

have been locked away behind bars for minor

possession or selling infringements,

in dealing with laws that are meant to

keep the people of these “civilized” countries

from doing what they want to with the

“freedom” that they have attained through such

“cultural evolution.”

 

people kill each other when they are addicted to something

in order to get more of it & because it is

harder to attain than say, soap or

lemonade.

 

governments make money off the taxes taken from the few

legal substances,

and we all know that those that are legal kill more than those that

aren’t---

the fact remains that those prisons that are smack dab in the middle of

nowhere in the US,

provide jobs to a whole town that would be crippled when those

in jail for drug related infractions

are all freed.

 

those that enjoy the art of

fear mongering,

tell us that if all substances were legal,

we would all be running amok,

every single one of us hooked on something,

and society as a whole would

break

down---

this writer submits that it is those very institutionalized forms of

oppression that force individuals to escape in such a manner

that at present,

one would come to such a conclusion.

 

with the lifting of obstructions on our freedom,

the enjoyment of the ability to live as we alone see fit,

on our own,

for our own,

with the acknowledgement of others around us,

most assuredly,

our species will not fall back to the dark ages,

but instead excel.

 

you have heard the arguments about what legalization of

one “drug” would do for the US economy...

imagine what all substances being available in such a way

would do---

imagine how many people would be allowed to leave prison &

live their lives without big brother looking over their shoulder---

imagine what the US could do with that money,

how it could better the education system,

how it could attain universal health care,

how it could make our lives better.

 

we need to stop imagining, stop settling & start

doing. 

Author's Note

Drugs: Case for Legalizing Marijuana
In the Long Run It Would Save Lives And End Hypocrisy
By Gore Vidal, 1970

LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/01/home/vidal-drugs.html

Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work?
By Maia Szalavitz, 2009

Portugal, in 2001, became the first European country to officially abolish all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine..."Judging by every metric, decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success," says Glenn Greenwald, an attorney, author and fluent Portuguese speaker, who conducted the research. "It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country does."

Compared to the European Union and the U.S., Portugal's drug use numbers are impressive. Following decriminalization, Portugal had the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 in the E.U.: 10%. The most comparable figure in America is in people over 12: 39.8%. Proportionally, more Americans have used cocaine than Portuguese have used marijuana.

LINK: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html