{"id":3464,"date":"2015-11-22T06:34:02","date_gmt":"2015-11-22T06:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eskimo.com\/~nanook\/?p=3464"},"modified":"2015-11-22T07:36:44","modified_gmt":"2015-11-22T07:36:44","slug":"war-on-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eskimo.com\/~nanook\/2015\/11\/22\/war-on-drugs\/","title":{"rendered":"War on Drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The reason we can’t end the war on drugs is that if we did so then we’d have to fund the CIA fully with tax dollars.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If we funded the CIA fully with tax dollars, the CIA would be forced to be accountable to congress and indirectly to citizens.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Since that can’t happen in todays world, neither can an end to the drug war which keeps drug prices high enough that thousands of people are willing to kill for market share and the CIA can continue to generate sufficient revenue to fund all of it’s off the book projects such as the overthrow of foreign governments.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Prohibition was an expensive and failed experiment, and so is the war on drugs.\u00a0 In Washington State, more than a year after marijuana was legalized, the results have been very positive.\u00a0 In Portugal where ALL drugs have been decriminalized since 2000, it has been a very successful experiment and one that should be replicated here.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 One very negative effect of the drug war here is that many substances which have substantial medical potential get placed on schedule one in spite of meeting NONE of the requirements of being on that schedule and can’t even be studied in the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A good example are hallucinogenics.\u00a0 Hallucinogenics work by increasing serotonin often selectively in a way that doesn’t cause serotonin syndrome as excessive SSRIs can.\u00a0 At sub-hallucinogenic doses they can be extremely effective as antidepressants and generally lift mood, creativity, and functionality in depressive individuals.\u00a0 The increase in serotonin also causes an increase in neurogenesis, the creation of new neurons in the brain. They can also be very effective at eliminating addictions to other substances ranging from alcohol to heroin.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Some hallucinogenics, particularly psilocybin, have been shown to increase neurogenesis<\/a> in the adult hippocampus resulting in improvements in memory and mood, and the effects are not just immediate but long term in nature.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Likewise, cannabinoids have been shown to promote neurogenesis<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There are many other substances that end up on schedule 1 that clearly have medical uses but these can’t be adequately proven because schedule 1 prevents even research uses.\u00a0 Some of these substances might help people with serious diseases such as Parkinsons, Alzheimers, and other forms of dementia if they could be studied.\u00a0 Even where these substances can’t be used because of side effects, often subtle tweaking of molecules can eliminate those but this is prevented by the analog drugs act.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 With a rapidly aging population, cures and prevention of dementia in the elderly should be a priority.\u00a0 Our current drug laws place a significant restraint in finding and developing these cures<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Another area where some of these substances may have application is in the arena of improving fluid intelligence and brain plasticity.\u00a0 As we age these things decline, but our environment is changing rapidly and the need for these capacities is greater than ever.\u00a0 We often say that old people are set in their ways.\u00a0 What this really means is that they have a difficult time creating new memories and eliminating outdated information.\u00a0 Some of these substances show great promise in those areas.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Our current drug policies are insane.\u00a0 End the needless violence, death, and inability for research to be conducted.\u00a0 End the break-up of families caused by people being imprisoned for possessing a substance.\u00a0 This is NOT something that should be happening in the land of the “free”.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The reason we can’t end the war on drugs is that if we did so then we’d have to fund the CIA fully with tax dollars. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If we funded the CIA fully with tax dollars, the CIA would … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpautop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eskimo.com\/~nanook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eskimo.com\/~nanook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eskimo.com\/~nanook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eskimo.com\/~nanook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eskimo.com\/~nanook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eskimo.com\/~nanook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3464\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eskimo.com\/~nanook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eskimo.com\/~nanook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eskimo.com\/~nanook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}