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YOUR DRUGGED FUTURE. by DJ Deadly Buda ...“Why Mr. Platt, I said, “I thought you were so anxious to stop the use of the drug altogether. I thought it was you who were chiefly responsible for the putting through the Diabolical Drug Act.“ He drew his chair closer to mine, and began to talk in a quiet, persuasive voice. “It‘s this way, my dear Sir Peter. The workings of Providence are indeed strange. Just before the passing of my Act, I had invested what little fortune I possessed in the purchase of a Cocaine factory in Switzerland, with the intention of putting an end to it‘s nefarious activities. Now here is an instance of what I can only refer to with reverent gratitude as the Moving of the Divine Finger. On the one hand, my chemical manager informed me of the marvelous scientific discovery which I have already mentioned - I am sure you feel no ill effects from what you have taken?” His voice took on a tone of grave concern, almost paternal. "Not much!“ I countered cheer-fully, “it‘s splendid. I can go with another sniff right now!“ I suited the action to the words, like Hamlet‘s ideal Mummer. "Won‘t you be persuaded?“ I queried maliciously. "Ah, no, I thank you, dear Sir Peter! Your remarks have raised me to the highest pinnacle of happiness.“ I took a fourth dose, just for luck. "Well, on the other hand, I discovered that, thanks to the very Act which I had so arduously labored to put upon the Statute Book, that little bottle of yours which costs me less than five shillings, and now be sold retail for a matter of fifteen shillings, can now be sold–discreetly, you understand– in the West End for almost anything one cares to ask–ten, twenty, even fifty pounds to the right customer. Eh? What do you say to that?“ He laughed gleefully. “Why, ill-natured people might say I had put through the Act for the purpose of making a bull market for my produce!“
"And you save humanity from its follies and vices at the same stroke!“ The cocaine had cleared my mind– it was like one of those transparent golden sunsets after a thunderstorm in the Mediterranean. I revelled in the ingenuity of Mr. Platt‘s proceedings. I gloated with devilish intensity upon the jest of carrying out so magnificent a scheme beneath so complete a camouflage. It was the vision of Satan disguised as an angel of light. "Yes, indeed, the whole affair is eminently gratifying from every point of view,“ answered Platt. "Never in all my life have I been permitted to see with such luminous clarity the designs of providential loving-kindness.“ Fictional conversation between Sir Peter Pendragon and Mr. Jabez Platt, portrayed in Aleister Crowley’s-Diary of a Drug Fiend ©1922 Ordo Templi Orientis Published in 1970 by SAMUEL WEISER, INC. Once again the spectre of the 1920’s relates sinisterly to our present era. Crowley’s Diary of a Drug Fiend was essentially a thinly veiled account of his own addiction to heroin and cocaine in the early part of this century. He represented himself with two different characters; Sir Peter Pendragon, who relates the tale of his personal addiction in the first person, and King Lamus, who is Crowley’s “enlightened” alter-ego, guiding the innocent Sir Peter and his new wife, Lou, out of the hell of addiction. The book is admirable for its unflinching and realistic portrayal of the drug experience, from a personal and social perspective. So often today we are faced with “madmen” screaming seemingly incoherently about a “plot” or “conspiracy” (Iran-Contra, the crack epidemic, the rise of the prison industry, the “War on Drugs”, etc.) to control our society with drugs, in practically the precise manner as described above. Crowley published this in 1922. One can only assume the above passage is based on first hand experience, as Crowley’s upbringing allowed him to be privy to the social class governing England. Even if entirely fictional, it would seem someone would stumble on the ideas and utilize them in the last 76 years or so. The book is used for historical perspective in this article’s examination of the present days’ use, misuse, thought and social-physical constructs concerning “Recreational Drugs.”
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...“Why Mr. Platt, I said, “I thought you were so anxious to stop the use of the drug altogether. I thought it was you who were chiefly responsible for the putting through the Diabolical Drug Act.“
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THE PREMISE... I premise that recreational drugs are rarely in fact, used for recreation. Unfortunately, they are all-too-often used for self-medication by the members of a society. For instance, in 1960’s America, affluence and education brought with it, a questioning of traditional Christian values and spirituality. LSD was used to induce a spirituality that was perceived missing from Christianity. Cocaine in the 80’s gave people the impression they were doing and talking about interesting things. In the 90’s, Exstacy overcame the social barriers and separation from compassion, emotion and community. Today we see drugs relating to our work ethic: people take meth to work more, smoke pot to relax after too much work. And, as always, alcohol continues to anesthetize every part of the brain to placebo-medicate everything from shyness to hyperactivity to workload to depression-you name it. The term “recreational drug” is curious--recreation implies enjoyment, and drug implies a cure for an illness. THE ALL-CONSUMING, PERMEATING BOREDOM The most common illegally medicated ailment is boredom. Drugs are exciting to a certain extent by their illegal status. More significantly, the actual fact that they produce an alien mental geography is desirable because, for a lot of people, life fucking sucks. Any brief respite, even at the expense of their own health and welfare, is worth escaping the boredom that permeates society. Day in and day out seem to be the same, never ending cycle, of bills and responsibilities, without any significance or importance. Seems like you’re get-ting no where? Well, a lot of you are right! We try to cover up the situation by buying “stuff”, but very soon it acquires that aura of blandness, control and un-originality that seems to infiltrate capital existence. Boredom is in fact, a buy-product of control. We close off many options, opportunities and possibilities, because we are fearful that we will offend people with the boldness of our actions, because this could lead to mild disapproval, or in some cases, incarceration. In some cases, our common desires our deemed illegal, or crazy. We are then left solely entertaining thoughts and actions already prescribed, tested and deemed safe by our society-essentially boxing us into a unforgivingly predictable existence. You can only repeat the same action so many times before a mild depression sets in that is boredom. No matter how our society dresses it up, a fast food joint is a fast food joint, a car is a car, a TGI FRIDAYS is a CHILIS, is a Fudruckers, is any of a slew of suburban after-work swill houses that many of us frequent before we watch the same thing on 122 different TV stations, and read the same bullshit propaganda consum-a-bot newspapers, magazines, and “best-sellers” before bed-time. Drugs are very good at making all this seem somehow tolerable. In fact, their very harmful nature, be it in a physical, emotional, mental, psychic or legal, actually makes them even more attractive, because at least through pain and loss we realize we are in fact-ALIVE. Much like a Native American sweat lodge, where you are deprived of air and water-in an effort to make you value the things you might otherwise take for granted, drugs can deprive you of any number of things you value for a pleasantly functioning life. Observe the manic speeches of “recovered” addicts going on forever about family, God, sunrises, the “thrill of waking up every day” etc. Put simply, drugs provide a stimulation that is otherwise non-existent for many members of society. CURING THE SICK Drugs seem to work by amplifying certain parts of the brain and body, by circumventing and/or compromising others. Thus, when you take drugs, you are essentially addressing a perceived need-you are either attempting to restore a missing balance, or you are inadvertently making yourself sick. The mainstream media keeps telling people that the popular rec. drugs will put your life into a miserable hell. This is in fact, not always true. Most people have a lot of fun doing drugs at first because it cures certain ailments-boredom for one. Drugs are illegal, so it’s exciting-you could go to jail but you just got away with it. No more boredom. In addition, the aforementioned specific social problems and their arguably temporary cure are immediately addressed. These are, in and of themselves, essentially good things. It is virtually impossible to convince someone on the dangers of drugs when they first get involved with them, because they are in fact innocuous substances that do seem beneficial. I would say the hellish aspects of drug use result from the emotional attachment mis-associated with the cure. If you are shy, alcohol can help you overcome your fears by slam-dunking the part of your brain that registers fear. But after a few times, it should be proven to you that this socializing is generally a safe situation and you have no reason to fear these encounters. All too often, in the user’s mind, he/she equates the “cure” to the drug itself, not the “lesson” it helped produce. This is then reinforced by society. Advertising, social contacts, and even alcohol opponents reinforce a false image of the over-whelming power imbued in alcohol (cigarettes, and every single illegal rec.drug) and it’s mind-blowing effects, that in fact, is not really there. When the user continues to use when the original ailment no longer exists, an imbalance is created in other areas of his or hers life, because the very physical properties of the drug which is ingested still must carry out their natural function. Of course, this makes the user physically and or mentally ill and thus, the real OR perceived need for more drugs is produced anew. SAFE DRUG USE By understanding and accepting our initial reasons for taking drugs, we gain a degree of control so that we can use them safely. Unfortunately, these often very personal reasons can not easily be understood initially, or are so fundamentally embarrassing and scary to ourselves, that we avoid them. All too often we externalize our lives, trying to achieve an inner-peace and satisfaction by accumulating external symbols or acting in ways we mistakenly associate with producing satisfactory results. It then becomes increasingly difficult to wade through the sea of debris and memories to find ourselves and what we truly desire for satisfaction. In some cases, I would say quit your job or leave your spouse or significant other before trying to quit drugs, you may be getting closer to the problem, which will make getting continually-fucked-up-to-deal-with-it easier to extricate from your life. A simple individual cure for drug or other addictions is as follows: for undesirable physical addictions, and habits: immediate or gradual withdrawal, for mental, take the time to find out what you actually want, and why. WHY IT’S NOT THAT EASY Quite frankly, there are not a lot of people in our society that truly want to see you cured of your addictions. They want you to be addicted to whatever they are selling, so they can support their own addictions. Every day we are bombarded countless times by entities claiming to give us happiness and satisfaction or any other human need, when we buy or do certain things. It’s like bait-and-switch, and is actually false advertising. For instance, most people want sex, so the beer company has a pretty girl or guy holding the beer. You may not get to have sex with the presenter, but you do get the beer. In fact, too much beer and you will be physically too ill to have sex. Another example... Everyone wants security to a certain extent, so the truck company advertises that it’s new SUV is big and powerful and safe. You still could get hit in the parking lot while walking to your car, but you did just spend $30,000.00. Essentially you have directed your efforts to the symbolic. With that in mind, can the drug addict truly be considered that stupid, when he or she actually is getting a faster, cheaper, possibly safer, more easily apparent mental and physiological solution to his or hers’ perceived needs? For this reason “Treatment Programs” often fail, because they simply are either replacing the addiction with religion (an even more abstract concept to achieve happiness than materialism) or trying to re-create a model consumer that will buy things to make themselves happy. These are things that many of the “recovering addicts” were initially trying to escape. Undoubtedly, at some point it understandably and realistically seems like its all bullshit and a relapse follows. I am not saying that these programs are all bad, I actually had a good experience with Alcoholics Anonymous once and found talking to people in my particular group informative and enlightening, but this aspect in my mind was removed from the strong religious and/or consumer bent this and other programs can have. |
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...the actual fact that they produce an alien mental geography is desirable because, for a lot of people, life fucking sucks. Any brief respite, even at the expense of their own health and welfare, is worth escaping the boredom that permeates society...
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"Suppose we made all the fuss about eating that we do about drinking and loving, can‘t you see what evils would immediately arise? Remember the food restrictions during the war?“ "By Jove, I never thought of that,“ I said, as a hundred half-forgotten incidents bounced into my mind. There were all sorts of stratagems for dodging the regulations, on the part of people who in the ordinary way were plain, straightforward law-abiding citizens. "Of course, we must have restrictions about love and drink and drugs. It is quite obvious how frightfully people would abuse their liberty if they had it.“ "I‘m sorry, I have to disagree,“ said Lamus. "And as you know, I‘ve got into endless trouble of one sort or another for holding the views I do. But I am afraid I do honestly think that most of the trouble spring directly from the unnatural conditions set up by the attempts to regulate the business. And in any case, the state of mind brought about by them is so harmful indirectly to the sense of moral responsibility that I am really not sure whether it would not be wiser in the long run to do away with the Blue laws and Lizzie laws altogether. Legislative interference with the habits of the people produces the sneak, the spy, the fanatic, and the artful dodger. Take finance! Swindling has become a fine art, and is practiced on a gigantic scale in ways which would have been impossible when there were no laws intended to protect the public.“ It was a strange view to take. I could hardly believe that Lamus was serious; and yet it did seem to me that the modern criminal millionaire was actually assisted by the complexity of the Company laws. It is impossible for the plain man to understand them, so that an unscrupulous man armed with expert knowledge is much more likely to get the better of his unwary fellows than in the old days when his activities were confined to thimble-rigging and pulling favourites. p.276 Fictional conversation between Sir Peter Pendragon and King Lamus, portrayed in Aleister Crowley‘s-Diary of a Drug Fiend ©1922 Ordo Templi Orientis Published in 1970 by SAMUEL WEISER, INC. America’s drug policies have created a mockery of civilized society that would be hilarious if it did not ruin so many promising lives. The pathetic industries and their players are a grim caricature of supply and demand. We are witnessing an ever increasing number of prisons being built. In many cases, privately owned and run prisons that sell their services to local and state governments who sell the prisoners labor to private industry. The vast majority of criminals populating these facilities are incarcerated for drug or drug-related crimes. So the politician is being lobbied and bribed to spend our tax dollars on building more prisons by the construction industry. This requires a constant source of criminals. Thus, there is a direct interest in keeping mandatory sentencing laws in place, though they are arguably un-constitutional and detrimental to justice. In order to justify these positions, the politician must take a “get tough on crime” stance in his or hers campaigning, that requires rhetoric and advertising that invokes fear and hostility in the general population. Essentially, a problem must be dreamed up and then exaggerated beyond reality to justify the expense. Furthermore, the portrayals of the “drug addict” are often a thinly veiled stereotype of a different race or class of people. The “drug problem” can function as substitute hostility, because people are uncomfortable displaying their base prejudice. The sentencing disparity between crack convictions and powdered cocaine convictions is such an obvious example of racial prejudice that I fail to see how it cannot boil the blood of anyone even remotely interested in a vague concept of social justice! First off, minorities are unfairly targeted by the police as potential criminals, then they get hit with a ludicrous sentencing procedure to placate the media-induced fears of soccer-moms in the suburbs— and then the collective “we” is stuck with the bill! |
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...The law enforcer and criminal dance in lock step to the seemingly never-ending refrains of power, control and their inspiration: fear and insecurity. The weak and mean-spirited are elevated to position and authority, while the barrage of lies and deceit that build their tragic palaces ensnare and victimize every newborn...
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OK, so we have a significant segment of the “straight” population with a significant economic interest in the continual supply of drugs in society. What about the “criminals”? Because of the risk involved with supplying the illegal contraband, vastly inflated prices can be demanded for the product. There are your fair share of drug dealers that “just want to have a good time” and supply their habit, but those supplying them are a different story. Think about who would be interested in being majorly involved with the drug trade-You would have to be interested in making a lot of money to live beyond your present means, yet have no way to do it, other than through illegal activity. This generally implies greed with no considerable talent in any recognizable social activity. Essentially, our society has set-up a situation where millions of temporarily sick or weak people, the young or ill-informed, are handing over vast amounts of money for medication, recreational or otherwise, to greedy social parasites of limited talent, skill, or intelligence, that our taking far more than they are giving back to society. Come to think of it, that’s not too different from the politicians that also seem to be getting ahead these days! Last year I was pulled over for drunk driving, (I was actually at a bank machine and not in my vehicle, but the continual erosion of civil liberties is a whole article in itself). While being processed in the station, I had a chance to read the police magazines. Like any magazine that chronicles a particular occupation, it had tips on how to be a better police officer. What was surprising was the gross misinformation the magazine contained. There was the “glossary of street terms” of course, and it mentioned all these “code words” for marijuana that I think were outmoded in the late 50’s: ”Mary-jane” and “Wacky-weed”, for example. This was in addition to the usual misinformation that you find in any mainstream magazine, except this misinformation was reminiscent of the misinformation of say, 10-15 years ago- generally more paranoid and sensational, like pot-heads going ballistic in violent psychotic episodes and such. So the police are being internally fed a steady diet of false propaganda, in order to instigate a harsher attitude toward the “drug addict”. Any police officer that joined the force in the last 10 years or so has probably experimented with drugs in their youth. So, any officer that knows better would be in a position of having to enforce laws they don’t necessarily agree with. I think this would lead to cynicism and then corruption. It would likely be the safest route in your hairier neighborhood situations. The dealers’ paranoia of getting arrested, combined with staying up a little too long while under the influence of drugs, while having it be a main source of income and sadly, self-worth and social acceptance, combined with guns to protect the stash from other ne’er do wells in the same trade, in similar states of minds, can be a volatile situation. As an officer you could aid the biggest dealers, get paid well on the side, be forewarned of potentially volatile situations, and even know the most convenient person to bust in order to make it look like you are doing your job. Or you could get shot enforcing some bogus law. What would any rational human decide? As the corruption deepens, there is the constant need for scapegoats, usually the small-time dealer or user. These people are generally just trying to have something for going out on the week-end, or trying to maintain their high. Being low on the totem pole, they are the ones getting incarcerated in order to back up the politicians “get tough on crime” platforms. So your absent minded partier clogs up the jails, while your social parasite continues making more money, while your dedicated cop puts his or hers life on the line to line the pockets of red-nosed politicians and the incarceration industry, while your intelligent cop takes bribes. SOLUTION But where a man has to think of a thousand things before he has his dinner. What he eats, and how he eats, and how it was killed, and who cooked it, and so on for ever and ever, he gets no chance to develop his mind in more important ways. Taboo is responsible for the low mental and moral development of the peoples whom it afflicts, more than anything else. An appetite should be satisfied in the simplest and easiest way. Once you begin to worry about the right and wrong of it, you disturb the mind unnaturally, and begin to think awry in all sorts of ways that have apparently nothing to do with it. p277 Fictional conversation between Sir Peter Pendragon and King Lamus, portrayed in Aleister Crowley's-Diary of a Drug Fiend ©1922 Ordo Templi Orientis Published in 1970 by SAMUEL WEISER, INC. I propose a solution that is quite simple, so much so that it will be initially perceived with a bit of skepticism. That being said, after some time, I hope any reasonable person will see the advantages to the solution I propose after some thought on the subject. Herbalists should undertake a mission to make a concoction that alleviates the come-down with drugs such as speed, cocaine, and heroin, taking into consideration that they may have been mixed with alcohol, and accounting for the common additives to fluff the product. It should be mass marketed through magazines such as “High Times” and music magazines. This should not be mind-numbingly difficult for a good herbalist. I have had success in the past using St. John’s Wort to counteract the effects of a bad come-down, nothing spectacular, but enough to give me hope that someone who knew what they were doing would have a good chance of perfecting a quality solution. The main problem for society is not that the “addict” is getting high, it’s when that person comes down and is craving more drugs at inflated prices, in order to forestall depression and craving. These aberrant states instigate: crimes such as burglary and mugging—withdrawing most of your rent money for another couple grams at 5 in the morning— and crabby behavior towards your friends and family. With the craving gone, the price for the drug would go down. This would lower crime rates and uncomfortable situations, and bypass the power structure built around the drug and incarceration trade. Furthermore, whoever undertakes the project will make tons of money, because for every gram of powder sold there will be a packet of “NO-JONZ” (or whatever the various products may be called) sold. We can cry for legalization all we want, but without something to alleviate the ill effects of the drugs themselves, any gains in that arena will simply concentrate more power into the hands of the useless dolts that lord over the present situation. "I'm afraid the only thing that you can do, he said to me, "is to chain yourself to Buckingham Palace and then go on hunger strike, until they give you permission to vote more early and often than ever, after which you won't care to go to the polls at all. That's another example of the same old story. However little we want a thing, we howl if we discover that we can't get it; and the moment we've got it the whole business drops out of sight. You'll find the same with your drugs. You've practically hypnotized yourself into thinking you can't do without them. It's not a real need, as you know. It's a false and perverse appetite, and as soon as you get out of the way of thinking that it's vitally important, you'll begin to forget how much you depend on it." p278 Fictional conversation between Sir Peter Pendragon and King Lamus, portrayed in Aleister Crowley's-Diary of a Drug Fiend ©1922 Ordo Templi Orientis Published in 1970 by SAMUEL WEISER, INC. |
