'The Real History of Drugs' Educates Millions

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'The Real History of Drugs' Educates Millions
Tony Newman Become a fan
Director of Media Relations, Drug Policy Alliance
08/24/2015

The United States' longest, unwinnable war is the "war on drugs." Despite decades of arrests and locking up millions of Americans, politicians and PSA's urging us to "Just Say No," illegal drugs are still as available as ever.

But why are some drugs legal and some prohibited? Why do we arrest approximately 600,000 Americans each year for marijuana possession, but sell tobacco and alcohol on most corners? Why do we lock up people who use meth for years, and dole out the similar drug Ritalin to our children? It is not based on science and health harm, but most often because of racism, stigma, and who is perceived to be using the illegal drugs.

The social impact company, ATTN: produced a series of short videos called "The Real History of Illegal Drugs" which explains why, when, and how some illicit drugs such as marijuana, MDMA, cocaine, opium and LSD became illegal.

These catchy, well-produced videos have been viewed millions of times on Facebook and other social media channels, packing in an incredible amount of history in a thoughtful and entertaining way.

Check out these excellent videos from ATTN:. They will educate, entertain, and inspire you to join the movement to end our county's disastrous war on drugs.

The Real History of Drugs: Cocaine

Small amounts of cocaine used to be in Coca-Cola and didn't carry any stigma. Harsh laws came about when the drug became associated with Black Americans. The crack version of cocaine fueled draconian mandatory minimums that are still felt today. Even though the majority of people who use crack cocaine are white, most people arrested and imprisoned for it are black.

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continued with links and more video http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tony-newman/the-real-history-of-drugs_b_8034038.html
 
I think the Book, Chasing The Scream, goes even more in depth about the connection between the racial fears and drug hysteria of the ruling white culture. Each time there was a new "race" or nationality to fear, a drug was associated with that group.
 
It's not really based on who is using the drug...but more on who is profiting from the drug.

The legality of a drug depends largely on who benefits from the sale and distribution of that drug.

Heroin, cocaine, meth, weed, etc. compete with the legal drugs, and compete with them well, which is why they are banned, so that people are scared into buying the legal stuff. This means those benefiting from the sale/distribution of the legal stuff are getting the money instead.

Simple, huh?
 
Flynnal said:
It's not really based on who is using the drug...but more on who is profiting from the drug.

The legality of a drug depends largely on who benefits from the sale and distribution of that drug.

Heroin, cocaine, meth, weed, etc. compete with the legal drugs, and compete with them well, which is why they are banned, so that people are scared into buying the legal stuff. This means those benefiting from the sale/distribution of the legal stuff are getting the money instead.

Simple, huh?
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I'm just going to sound stupid and play the devil's advocate, but what if... Those in control of the ethanol, nicotine industry were to take over the heroin, meth etc industry at the same time as they were legalized? More money? I'd say so. So why not? Maybe it's not that simple.

I agree that what you point out is one aspect. We've all heard of the alcohol-industry funded anti-cannabis "research" et cetera. But that's what it is - one aspect. I think we shouldn't discard the blatantly racist motives behind what Anslinger did and what continued to be done afterwards.

PS I'm surprised circumcision isn't the reason behind all this (giggles)
 
I'm happy to see someone posted about Chasing the Scream here. This would be my book list for our topic here, or at least what I can think of while riding the bus: Are Prisons Obsolete? (Angela Davis)*, The New Jim Crow (Michelle Alexander)*, High Price (Carl Hart)*, The Birth of Heroin and the Demonization of the Dope Fiend (Th. Metzger), In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts (Gabor Maté)*, Chasing the Scream (Johann Hari)*, Ceremonial Chemistry (Thomas Szasz) and another book or two the titles of which I can't recall off the top of my head - I'll add them later as one is essential. Note the list in not in any particular order, although Are Prisons Obsolete, then The New Jim Crow and Chasing the Scream is a fantastic place to start. The asterisks denote particularly essential reading regarding true WOD.
 
blowpipe said:
Bigpharma would benefit from legalizing and regulating all drugs though.
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Not really, who is going to buy any opiates if opium/herion are legal and can be extracted from plants?? Also weed could be grown Legally and Is a safer alternative to a lot of pharmaceuticals. Companies cannot make money if you can make your own medacine.
 
I'm not so sure. Big tobacco has benefitted tremendously from the e cig and the personal vaporizer business,vso I'm not so sure big pharma wouldn't benefit to some degree. However the thing about decriminalizing drugs and "legalizing" the use of drugs - especially when it comes to the "hard" drugs like cocaine, crack, heroin, morphine, MDMA, etc etc - is that demand quickly reaches a saturation point, even declining a bit, as demonstrated by policies in countries like Switzerland and Portugal. Of course to a significant degree that would depend on the government also establishing support services, policies, and networks making it possible for addicts and those struggling with problematic drug use to move on with their lives - by which I mean to say policies and such making it so individuals aren't just left on their own, without any systemic support whatsoever, which just happens to be the case in the US, and therefore pretty much every other country out there - especially our allies, with a small handful of exceptions - at the moment (as well as the foreseeable future).
 
FuckWithRaw said:
Not really, who is going to buy any opiates if opium/herion are legal and can be extracted from plants?? Also weed could be grown Legally and Is a safer alternative to a lot of pharmaceuticals. Companies cannot make money if you can make your own medacine.
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The same people who buy cigarettes and alcoholic drinks from the shop instead of growing tobacco plants or brewing beer themselves. There's a reason both industries flourish - ease of access; same would most likely happen with opium, coca, cannabis. Also don't forget about synthetic drugs that people would still prefer over naturals: LSD, synthetic NMDA antagonists, (semi-)synthetic opioids, benzos, amphetamines - the list goes on.
 
blowpipe said:
PS I'm surprised circumcision isn't the reason behind all this (giggles)
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Well, knowing that mutilating someone's genitals as a baby unquestionably subjects that baby to enormous amount of trauma, as well as depriving them of the most sensate part of their genitals, would have to have some sort of psychopathological consequences - of which ending up a psychopath could be one likely result. There is proof that circumcision can lead to the victim of such procedure being more prone to violence. What precedes being more prone to violence? Being a fucking asshole, basically. Why was that person an asshole? Because he learned to associate pain with what should have been pleasure - that is, his genitals were mutilated, enormous pain was inflicted on his genitals, that was his first sexual experience, and it was fucking painful. You're telling me that this won't affect someone's personal development? If you don't, well, what can I say? Common sense and instinct seems to be lacking in a lot of discussion as to why people do fucking asshole things - asshole things like banning drugs because they don't like the colour of someone's skin. Or fucking asshole things like banning some drugs because they want to create a huge prison-industrial complex or because it might interfere with greedy business interests capitalising on the fact that the drug is banned.

You know...stuff like that. Yeah, genital mutilation does create a lot of fucking assholes. Many of them exist here in Australia too. People complain that Australia is backwards just like America is...and BOTH countries have a background history involving mass circumcision of baby boys - a great many of whom later grow into typical assholes. A great many of whom would NOT have grown into assholes had their genitals been left alone as mother nature intended them to be, and had their BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS been RESPECTED but WHICH WHERE NOT.

Australia and the USA tend to have the most backward lunatic drug policies. Connect the dots. Do the homework. It's not that hard.

BTW if I ever see someone doing this to an infant, I'll take that sharp thing out of their hands, punch, kick, and stomp them the fuck out, castrate them and force them to swallow their own testicles under the threat of having both their eyes gouged out with that sharp thing.
 
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