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Originally Posted by zen_tom
But why is it outlawed? Because kids would be out in the streets using the stuff to get high, rather than using it in the way you describe, to extend and explore the realm of their consciousness.
Fewer people are as interested in cosmic enlightenment as you might imagine.
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Probably true on both charges, but
a) is getting high really a bad thing? We already allow all kinds of pain-relieving/pleasure-inducing drugs to be sold, alcohol, nicotine, beef, why not allow more choices? Could it be because the pharmacuetical companies want you to pay top dollar for new expensive pain-relievers and drugs rather than stuff you can grow in your backyard? Pain-relief (for the kind of pain every workingman feels when he whores himself out to the man 10 or 12 hours every day of his life) is a legitimate medical concern, and these substances provide just that.
b) Just because people might abuse something is not a reason to outlaw it. Some people really are interested in cosmic enlightenment and they are being denied that opportunity because of people's irrational fear of drugs. If people abuse drugs and they die, so what? Why should it be the government's job to protect people from their own actions?
Of course, there's also an economic aspect to outlawing drugs. If people did more drugs they might be less focused on bullshit material goods used to fill the empty void inside them. That might make them less productive workers, and we can't have that. If you worked less and enjoyed life a little more, where would that leave the man? He relies on taking part of your salary to keep him in the lifestyle he has become accustomed to. If you produced less for him he might have to forget about a new car purchase this month.
Life is empty, painful and meaningless. Drugs relieve some of that pain and let some people accept their fate. How can that be a bad thing? It's better than working under the delusion that you'll achieve the American dream someday.
And in case you are wondering, no, I don't take illegal drugs. Not because I don't want to (I do) but because they are illegal and I don't want to go to prison and be ass-raped.