Doses

The most emphatic recommendation for my column this week came from one of my editors: “a well-researched piece about the reasons for marijuana prohibition.” Why think so small? Let’s talk about the reasons for the prohibition of any drug. Danger is the most basic reason. Losing control of ourselves and of other people. Permanent insanity. All true and laid down in health class but also incomplete. What teacher has extolled to you the blazing clairvoyance of mescaline? Or the sweet-and-sour snuggle of an afternoon spliff? These things are also true, and if our educators are unwilling to speak, then let us lead the discussion ourselves.

We begin with the ancients. Stephen Hawking has signed on to an evolutionary theory positing that when our primate ancestors came down from trees, part of their experimental diet had to include psychoactive mushrooms, which at the time were abundant in North Africa. The theory uses Roland L. Fisher’s research to suggest that consuming psilocybin would have induced creativity in the primates through hallucinations, glossolalia and synesthesia. One possible synesthetic mutation that occurred in our ancestors’ genes is the capacity for language: forming pictures in the mind based on vocal sounds. I know, right?

It’s sad that most illegal drugs are the fun ones. Some are banned for everybody. Others are available only to the extremely sick. Looking at the legal system, how would you describe the user population? Criminals and sick people. Do you count them as your friends? Last month, I witnessed a horrifying scene unfold in Proctor. A table of kids called over a Public Safety officer, who happened to be scouring the premises during dinnertime, and proceeded to list all the rooms, not just on their floor but in their entire dormitory, where they had smelled marijuana smoke. I sat in disbelief at this brutal and unprovoked act of aggression. Crime-fighting traitors.

For your neighbor’s sake and your own, please kick the valiance out of these aspiring fascists. If you want to change the way people think about drugs, change the way you talk about drugs. Stop acting shady when you’re doing some or trying to get some. Quit lying to your parents about what you do over the weekends, and tell them to stop lying about what they did when they were your age. I’m not calling for exhibitionism, but for acceptance of the fact that drugs are a part of our culture, and should be regarded as normal, considering how widely they are used in secrecy. Once this happens, the law will follow.

Then, of course, the human race will perish in the friction of an ecstatic worldwide gangbang. The sources of our demise can be gleaned from the work of Harry J. Anslinger, the first commissioner of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics, who led the nationwide campaign that made marijuana illegal by 1937. He warned of the evil weed’s “effect on the degenerate races.” A senator from Texas, speaking on record, was of the same mind: “All Mexicans are crazy, and this stuff is what makes them crazy.” Worse, says Anslinger, “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men,” it “causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others,” and leads to “pacifism and communist brainwashing.” The commissioner’s fear of pacifist stoners was fuelled by his concurrent belief that “marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”

But consider the shallowest possible counterincentive — economic gain. If certain drugs become legal again, a support structure will have to be implemented, including shops, clinics, counseling services, recreational spaces, rules and enforcement agencies. It will become an industry specifically designed to help people minimize the danger of experimenting with drugs. Why do it in the first place? Because your mind is strong and capable of experiencing more than one spectrum of reality. When you learn to speak another language, you develop a different personality based on what you are able to think and express in that language. When you learn to play an instrument, you change the way you hear music. Likewise, when you take drugs, you experience your world with a new set of senses. The most cathartic hi-fives are found around the beirut table. The structure of DNA appeared to Francis Crick during an acid trip. All that stuff is already in your brain, just waiting to be activated by a new substance, but it doesn’t have to be drugs — it can be.

Paul McCartney didn’t do a lot of LSD, but he did write “Got to Get You into My Life” about smoking up for the first time. John Lennon did a lot of everything. Who’s the better Beatle? When asked about his drug use, Lennon replied “It’s like saying, ‘Did Dylan Thomas write “Under Milk Wood” on beer?’ What does that have to do with it? The beer is to prevent the rest of the world from crowding in on you. The drugs are to prevent the rest of the world from crowding in on you. They don’t make you write any better. I never wrote any better stuff because I was on acid or not on acid.”

So find what turns you on and don’t ignore your options. Research is helpful, but experience is satisfying. Ask your friends about their drug use and tell them about yours. Try new things and learn your limits. A drunken professor here once told me that sufficiency is “enough plus one step in the direction of excess.” Go ahead — if it happens, you’ll know it’s a part of life.