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DdC · 10-09-2005, 09:37 PM

The Law on Drugs
October 06, 2005
By Peter Wicks, Observer Viewpoint *

USA -- Timothy Leary was a Sixties radical, a revolutionary. Nixon called him the most dangerous man in America. From the perspective of the burgeoning counterculture no greater endorsement could be imagined.

But while the Weathermen and the Black Panthers advocated overthrowing the government by any means necessary (and violently for preference), Leary was seeking a revolution of consciousness, and the means he advocated were hallucinogenic drugs. While Huey Newton said (quoting Mao) that political power came through the barrel of a gun, Leary enjoined the new generation of young people to "turn on, tune in, and drop out," which quickly became one of the signature phrases of the age.

After taking his Ph.D from the University of California at Berkeley, Leary went to Harvard where he founded the Psilocybin Project, which researched the therapeutic effects of hallucinogenic mushrooms and later LSD. In 1963 he was dismissed from Harvard but founded the Castalia Institute in Millbrook, New York to continue his studies, and as the Sixties continued he became the country's most prominent advocate of the beneficial effects of LSD.

As Leary's notoriety grew he inevitably attracted the attention of the authorities who eventually busted him for possession of marijuana and sent him to jail. Leary was made to take a series of psychometric tests to establish where he should be placed within the prison system. The test results, surprisingly, identified him as a strongly conformist character who would not attempt to escape. So Leary was assigned to a minimum security prison, from which he promptly escaped.

It was one of the greatest jailbreaks of all time. Not because escaping from the minimum security prison was especially difficult; it wasn't. No, what makes it great is that the tests which resulted in his being assigned to a minimum security prison were ones that he had designed while on the faculty at Harvard.

Leary was raised an Irish Catholic, but he didn't have much time for Catholicism or any other form of traditional monotheistic religion. But the tenor of his message was undeniably religious. He insisted that, used properly, psychedelic drugs had a sacramental effect and he composed a syncretistic theology which borrowed liberally from the I Ching, the Tibetan Book of the Dead and Shamanism - though calling Leary's views a theology probably makes it sound more systematic than it really was. Essentially, he surveyed different belief systems and seized upon whatever ideas seemed appealing, discarding the rest and seemed to regard the world's religions with much the same attitude that a man with the munchies takes towards the contents of his refrigerator. It was the spirit of the age.

You can still find people, most conspicuously in rave culture, who advocate the use of drugs in fundamentally religious terms. But no well-known figure has taken up Leary's mantle as prophet of the psychedelic revolution, and these days most of the arguments heard in favor of legalizing drugs are straightforward appeals to the right to privacy; people should be free to pursue their private pleasures in any way they see fit, provided that they do not harm anyone else.

The difficulty is that the boundary between public and private is rather more porous than this sort of argument typically assumes. This leads to problems, particularly for those who simultaneously advocate liberalizing drug laws and extending the government's support for the socially disadvantaged, through welfare, the provision of health care to those who cannot afford it and various other programs of government assistance.

Since the public purse is filled through taxation, the more the state does to help those in need, the more interest the general public has in the ostensibly private choices of individuals. The public has an interest in matters of public expense, so if you wish to claim a right to have your health care provided by the state, then it should come as no surprise if the state claims a right to prevent you from ingesting substances that are likely to damage your health. In general, the more we expect from the state, the more we can expect the state to regulate and interfere in our lives. I am not a libertarian on this issue, but it seems to me the libertarian position at least has the virtue of consistency.

I do think a compelling case can be made for the legalization of marijuana, based on pragmatic grounds rather than any absolute right to privacy. The health risks associated with the drug are not trivial, but they are far less severe than most other illegal substances and comparable to substances that are currently legal, most obviously tobacco. But most importantly, the current law is rarely and erratically enforced, which courts the danger of arbitrary enforcement.

In the case of harder drugs, the problem is less one of erratic enforcement and more that in the case of the rich and famous, the laws are often not enforced at all. The endless stories of celebrity drug binges that saturate the media don't just cater to a voyeuristic appetite, they also broadcast the fact that amongst the luxuries available to the very rich is the freedom to break the drug laws with something approaching impunity. The rule of law depends upon the idea that laws apply to rich and poor alike, otherwise people will be punished not for doing cocaine, but doing cocaine and not being able to afford to spend time at the Betty Ford Center.

Peter Wicks is a graduate student in the philosophy department.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
Note: The Independent Newspaper Serving Notre Dame and Saint Mary's.
Website: http://www.ndsmcobserver.com/main.cfm
Contact: http://www.nd.edu/~observer/today/edletter.html

Hallucinating Stars and Stripes
United Kingdom -- Forty years after Timothy Leary advised everybody to turn on, tune in and drop out, and despite the most punitive drug laws of any Western society, America is getting as stoned as ever. Alex Kershaw enjoys a former addict's "clear-headed examination of Americans' love-hate relationship with intoxication"

Dr. Timothy Leary's NEUROCOMICS

Hey you, out there in the cold
Getting lonely, getting old
Can you feel me?
Hey you, standing in the aisles
With itchy feet and fading smiles
Can you feel me?
Hey you, don.t help them to bury the light
Don.t give in without a fight.

Hey you, out there on your own
Sitting naked by the phone
Would you touch me?
Hey you, with you ear against the wall
Waiting for someone to call out
Would you touch me?
Hey you, would you help me to carry the stone?
Open your heart, I.m coming home.

Hey you, standing in the road
Always doing what you.re told,
Can you help me?
Hey you, out there beyond the wall,
Breaking bottles in the hall,
Can you help me?
Hey you, don.t tell me there.s no hope at all
Together we stand, divided we fall.
-- Pink Floyd, The Wall

Long Live Timothy Leary by John Perry Barlow
May 31, 1996
A couple of hours ago, at 12:45 am Beverly Hills time, my old friend and the corrupter of my youth Timothy Leary made good on his promise to "give death a better name or die trying." Willingly, peacefully, and unafraid, he headed off on his last trip.

Deoxyribonucleic Hyperdimension
Terence McKenna
Terence McKenna Land

Abbie List: Reefer Madness
"There is absolutely no greater high than challenging the power stucture as a nobody,
giving it your all, and winning." --Abbie Hoffman

The Ganjawar Fraud...

10-09-2005, 09:37 PM	#3 (permalink)
DdC Decade Yahookan Join Date: Feb 1999 Location: Santa Cruz,CA,USA Posts: 2,088 Blog Entries: 5 Thanks: 47 Thanked 570 Times in 378 Posts	The Law on Drugs The Law on Drugs October 06, 2005 By Peter Wicks, Observer Viewpoint * USA -- Timothy Leary was a Sixties radical, a revolutionary. Nixon called him the most dangerous man in America. From the perspective of the burgeoning counterculture no greater endorsement could be imagined. But while the Weathermen and the Black Panthers advocated overthrowing the government by any means necessary (and violently for preference), Leary was seeking a revolution of consciousness, and the means he advocated were hallucinogenic drugs. While Huey Newton said (quoting Mao) that political power came through the barrel of a gun, Leary enjoined the new generation of young people to "turn on, tune in, and drop out," which quickly became one of the signature phrases of the age. After taking his Ph.D from the University of California at Berkeley, Leary went to Harvard where he founded the Psilocybin Project, which researched the therapeutic effects of hallucinogenic mushrooms and later LSD. In 1963 he was dismissed from Harvard but founded the Castalia Institute in Millbrook, New York to continue his studies, and as the Sixties continued he became the country's most prominent advocate of the beneficial effects of LSD. As Leary's notoriety grew he inevitably attracted the attention of the authorities who eventually busted him for possession of marijuana and sent him to jail. Leary was made to take a series of psychometric tests to establish where he should be placed within the prison system. The test results, surprisingly, identified him as a strongly conformist character who would not attempt to escape. So Leary was assigned to a minimum security prison, from which he promptly escaped. It was one of the greatest jailbreaks of all time. Not because escaping from the minimum security prison was especially difficult; it wasn't. No, what makes it great is that the tests which resulted in his being assigned to a minimum security prison were ones that he had designed while on the faculty at Harvard. Leary was raised an Irish Catholic, but he didn't have much time for Catholicism or any other form of traditional monotheistic religion. But the tenor of his message was undeniably religious. He insisted that, used properly, psychedelic drugs had a sacramental effect and he composed a syncretistic theology which borrowed liberally from the I Ching, the Tibetan Book of the Dead and Shamanism - though calling Leary's views a theology probably makes it sound more systematic than it really was. Essentially, he surveyed different belief systems and seized upon whatever ideas seemed appealing, discarding the rest and seemed to regard the world's religions with much the same attitude that a man with the munchies takes towards the contents of his refrigerator. It was the spirit of the age. You can still find people, most conspicuously in rave culture, who advocate the use of drugs in fundamentally religious terms. But no well-known figure has taken up Leary's mantle as prophet of the psychedelic revolution, and these days most of the arguments heard in favor of legalizing drugs are straightforward appeals to the right to privacy; people should be free to pursue their private pleasures in any way they see fit, provided that they do not harm anyone else. The difficulty is that the boundary between public and private is rather more porous than this sort of argument typically assumes. This leads to problems, particularly for those who simultaneously advocate liberalizing drug laws and extending the government's support for the socially disadvantaged, through welfare, the provision of health care to those who cannot afford it and various other programs of government assistance. Since the public purse is filled through taxation, the more the state does to help those in need, the more interest the general public has in the ostensibly private choices of individuals. The public has an interest in matters of public expense, so if you wish to claim a right to have your health care provided by the state, then it should come as no surprise if the state claims a right to prevent you from ingesting substances that are likely to damage your health. In general, the more we expect from the state, the more we can expect the state to regulate and interfere in our lives. I am not a libertarian on this issue, but it seems to me the libertarian position at least has the virtue of consistency. I do think a compelling case can be made for the legalization of marijuana, based on pragmatic grounds rather than any absolute right to privacy. The health risks associated with the drug are not trivial, but they are far less severe than most other illegal substances and comparable to substances that are currently legal, most obviously tobacco. But most importantly, the current law is rarely and erratically enforced, which courts the danger of arbitrary enforcement. In the case of harder drugs, the problem is less one of erratic enforcement and more that in the case of the rich and famous, the laws are often not enforced at all. The endless stories of celebrity drug binges that saturate the media don't just cater to a voyeuristic appetite, they also broadcast the fact that amongst the luxuries available to the very rich is the freedom to break the drug laws with something approaching impunity. The rule of law depends upon the idea that laws apply to rich and poor alike, otherwise people will be punished not for doing cocaine, but doing cocaine and not being able to afford to spend time at the Betty Ford Center. Peter Wicks is a graduate student in the philosophy department. The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer. Note: The Independent Newspaper Serving Notre Dame and Saint Mary's. Website: http://www.ndsmcobserver.com/main.cfm Contact: http://www.nd.edu/~observer/today/edletter.html Hallucinating Stars and Stripes United Kingdom -- Forty years after Timothy Leary advised everybody to turn on, tune in and drop out, and despite the most punitive drug laws of any Western society, America is getting as stoned as ever. Alex Kershaw enjoys a former addict's "clear-headed examination of Americans' love-hate relationship with intoxication" Dr. Timothy Leary's NEUROCOMICS Hey you, out there in the cold Getting lonely, getting old Can you feel me? Hey you, standing in the aisles With itchy feet and fading smiles Can you feel me? Hey you, don.t help them to bury the light Don.t give in without a fight. Hey you, out there on your own Sitting naked by the phone Would you touch me? Hey you, with you ear against the wall Waiting for someone to call out Would you touch me? Hey you, would you help me to carry the stone? Open your heart, I.m coming home. Hey you, standing in the road Always doing what you.re told, Can you help me? Hey you, out there beyond the wall, Breaking bottles in the hall, Can you help me? Hey you, don.t tell me there.s no hope at all Together we stand, divided we fall. -- Pink Floyd, The Wall Long Live Timothy Leary by John Perry Barlow May 31, 1996 A couple of hours ago, at 12:45 am Beverly Hills time, my old friend and the corrupter of my youth Timothy Leary made good on his promise to "give death a better name or die trying." Willingly, peacefully, and unafraid, he headed off on his last trip. Deoxyribonucleic Hyperdimension Terence McKenna Terence McKenna Land Abbie List: Reefer Madness "There is absolutely no greater high than challenging the power stucture as a nobody, giving it your all, and winning." --Abbie Hoffman The Ganjawar Fraud...