Well there are bound to be some conspiracies which are true. For instance, the 9/11 attacks were carried out by a conspiracy of Muslim suicide-bombers.
I generally don’t hold with conspiracy theories, but I can’t think of a reasonable explanation for why drugs are illegal. Firstly, consider the demand. Surely there are enough people who want drugs? Secondly, the laws are completely ineffective. There is so much money to be made selling drugs that the authorities cannot enforce the laws. Thirdly, the money thus generated is used to empower the violent and the cruel and to subjugate the weak. Fourthly, the government looses all control over quality of the product and is unable collect tax revenue from profits generated.
I’ll take a weak stab at it and say that those who stand to loose the most would be the drug lords, and that thus they must somehow be manipulating things. However, even stoned as I am, I find that a little hard to believe. I will leave it up to my fellow skeptics (perhaps more sober?) to provide a more convincing answer.
Don’t have an answer, but it always struck me as odd that tobacco and booze are so freely available, while anything that makes ya see colours and dead ancestors ain’t.
I have had lengthy conversations with hallucinated dead people and, although I always knew they were no more than creations of my mind, found the experience therapeutic and enlightening nonetheless.
Come on guys! Skeptics should be better than anyone at coming up with conspiracy theories, we spend so much time debunking them…
Okay, how about that the illegality of drugs is the result of Big Pharma not being allowed to copyright or patent hallucinogens, amphetamines and downers because most of them are either folk medicine or in the public domain. So, Big Pharma can’t make oodles of money from them and doesn’t want anybody else to benefit financially from their sale and distribution, and therefore it has taken it upon itself to convince governments and legislators that such drugs open the door to criminal and civil case pleas of “not guilty by reason of drug-induced diminished capacity.”
If you think that’s implausible, you need to ask yourself what drugs Big Pharma has secretly put into your water supply to make you think so.
If the taxi bosses want to start a war over the BRT program what will happen if all the drug lords and pushers are suddenly without work? World War 3. Better to keep them occupied and wealthy. They spend lots of money, the economy benefits and that is good for me. ;D
But I agree; Government may as well make something out of this, the risk of over dosing will be less (better quality control)and those who want it will get it anyway. I don’t think drug use is significantly higher in the Netherlands, were it is sort of not illegal.
Of course I might change my mind if my children were to get addicted.
A story that I once heard and will repeat here only for its novelty value, is that cultivation of Canabis sativa is outlawed, not so much due to its narcotic properties, but because it is fast growing and an excellent source of paper fiber. Big powerful paper companies (yes I know, there’s ALWAYS a big powerful company a-lurkin’), have invested lots of money in the processing of pine and other plants, and will not be able to compete against new companies that will flood the market with cheap-and-easy hemp derived paper.
If I had kids (thank goodness I don’t), I wouldn’t necessarily want them to drink or smoke either. But if they did, I’d want it to be legal, and as safe and inexpensive as possible.
Alcohol and tobacco would be illegal as well were it not for the fact that they cause cumulative harm to the system. The ideal situation for the state is that their citizenry drink and smoke as much as is consistent with their ability to pay taxes on the products, then die of a smoking-induced heart attack or booze-liver explosion at their retirement party. Then the state does not have to bear the burden of supporting them in their old age.
A smoker of whacky weed, on the other hand, can smoke the stuff every day and still be alive at 105, pinching the nurses backsides and consuming state resources.
Well, as long as we’re throwing wacky theories out there…
A completely different conspiracy theory I’ve heard is that they are illegal because of racism back in the day, and to give the police something to do after the end of prohibition in the states.
Might it be that Graham Hancock was correct when he wrote supernatural . The hallucinogens will trigger the junk DNA sequences in our apparantly quantum mechanical consciousness to help us get to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8-Circuit_Model_of_Consciousness > 8th model of consciousness.
So in a nutshell, it’s illegal because it will allow us a peek down the rabbit hole…
Not to be difficult, but not all drugs are illegal - there’s some pretty trippy over-the counter stuff available in SA if you know what to look for.
Personally, I dont get high anymore. have done, but got the feeling i was losing control too often. And I suppose thats why mind-altering substances cannot be made legal and freely available: there are just too many people like me who won’t necessarily know when to stop. And if the entire nation is tripping all the time, who would ever get anything done?
Please provide some names or links, I’m always on the look out for new and interesting chemicals. ;D
It could be argued that a large portion of the nation is already tripping most of the time, I don’t think legalisation would necessarily convince the rest to join in.
No indeed. The legality of alcohol and tobacco has yet to convince me to join in. Same goes for just about any other psychoactive compound, with the exception of caffeine.
Wait, you’re saying drugs are freely available, but if they are freely available, our society can’t function? By that rationale, our society should already be in ruin. Not everyone drinks spirits and sniffs glue every night, even though those things can get you really sideways and are freely available. As is DXM. But drugs are not for everyone… Just like you said.
So there. 
Thanks, this is becoming even more entertaining than I expected!