Psychoactive drugs offer access to varied states of consciousness; restriction of this access is a fundamental form of repression. Consequently, the “war on drugs” is not just a campaign against the use of certain substances; it’s also an attack on “cognitive liberty,” or the right to control individual consciousness. This argument has a libertarian pedigree, but there is a growing movement,… return to article
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Reader Comments (39)Page 1 of 1 pagesThis argument certainly does (in my opinion)mesh with the libertarian mindset,and being a libertarian myself,I totally agree with this hypothesis. I also believe that the U.S Constitution was written in a libertarian spirit;that personal responsibility,self determination and non-intervention are evident throughout the document. My question is:How do we undo over a hundred years of treason by our three branches of Federal Government?
Posted by Dr.D on Nov 9, 2005 at 2:08 AM Give me cognitive liberty or give me a revolution.
Posted by David in Canada on Nov 9, 2005 at 2:20 AM What kind of revolution do you have in mind David? From my viewpoint,someone called David from Canada doesn’t really have a vested interest in what happens in another country.Aren’t there enough problems to address in the “Great White North”?
Posted by Dr.D on Nov 9, 2005 at 3:12 AM Gotta hit the sack,up at 4am,home at 6pm,free time til about 10pm or so.typically modern American.To be continued.
Posted by Dr.D on Nov 9, 2005 at 3:35 AM A revolution where nobody gets hurt.
I have an interest in what happens to anyone anywhere. One day I may be in the same situation and some advice would be helpful. Maybe I have already been in the same situation and some advice would be helpful.
Lots of problems here, there and everywhere.
Posted by David in Canada on Nov 9, 2005 at 3:36 AM I choose to care about what happens to others. I choose to help if I can. I choose Free Will.
Cognitive Liberty is Universal.
But nothing is really free or universal in this sense :
Cognitive liberty can be lost or taken away, especially if we forget what it is.
Posted by David in Canada on Nov 9, 2005 at 6:21 AM ” many things can trigger these transcendent states, including fasting, meditation, prayer, yoga and entheogenic drugs.”
I have always approached drugs with a certain amount of sacred ritual. Everything from coffee to teonanacatl.
Posted by David in Canada on Nov 9, 2005 at 7:23 AM Excellent article title, Mr. Muwakkil! Hard to imagine how it could be better.
Get it straight, you who are drug warriors, you hubristic controllers of other peoples’ minds, you bullies seeking command of my consciousness. I will not allow you to seize control of my thinking processes any more than I would allow you to dictate any other aspect of my life as a free man. You will not dictate how I pray, nor to whom I offer love, nor whether I tattoo, pierce, scar up, or paint this body of mine. You will not legislate what I eat, how much I drink, what I smoke, nor with whom I do any of these things. You will not prevent me from enjoying beauty, nor sharpening my logic, nor exploring the near-infinity of mental explorations that virtually defines humanity as a species.
And if you try, I will evade you, defy you, if necessary bite you. Your willingness to incarcerate my body in retaliation for my living and thinking as a free human being identifies you as the worst of tyrants.
The idea that a man’s mind should be subject to others’ votes or legislative processes is based on the simple, invasive premise that you are not your own, that your very physical and cognitive existence is subject to the values, whims and prejudices of any mass of strangers who can muster a petition or convince a judge or a cop that you are a danger to the continued domination of their totalitarian ethic.
Did I say totalitarian? I did. If you can control my mind, every other form of control over me is comparitively trivial.
If you catch me driving drunk or stoned, or some other legitimately dangerous activity I might carry out while altered, then and only then do you have a claim upon my behavior. But you won’t, because I’m too smart and too honorable to risk hurting you. When I buzz, no one is harmed or inconvenienced. No one’s health or well-being are risked.
But short of that, you unbelievers in freedom, you coercive, compulsive dominators of free men’s minds, you punishment addicts, all of you need to back the fuck up and look to yourself if you want to purify or cleanse anyone’s mentality. Cleanse yourself of the delusion that you have any claim or right upon the mind of another.
Posted by Kuya on Nov 11, 2005 at 5:12 AM Gee, do you get the impression I have a passionate attachment to the issue?
Posted by Kuya on Nov 11, 2005 at 5:17 AM Well said Kuya. Passionate indeed.
I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!
Cognitive liberty !! or go on being brain dead.
Posted by David in Canada on Nov 11, 2005 at 6:49 AM Peyote in use for 10000 years? That’s way longer than the earth’s been around, according to the present Administration!
Posted by Murray Bowles on Nov 12, 2005 at 2:55 AM Kudo’s to Kuya,and a tip of the hat to our good neighbor David. To lampoon/paraphrase another famous american,I say ; “I feel your passion”. (by the way,can somebody explain how to separate paragraphs in this format,I’m a bit of a computer dunce,and I think it shows.A little tutoring would be appreciated.)New paragraph: Fifteen years or so ago,the Corporation that I work for instituted random testing for drugs,and I have been in Don Quixote mode ever since. I can’t count the times that my “unconstitutional"diatribes were answered with the standard “if you don’t have anything to hide,there’s nothing to worry about “response. Believe me,it’s an uphill battle.
Posted by Dr.D on Nov 12, 2005 at 3:51 AM The Amerikan “war on drugs” is actually a war on working people and “liberals.” The shadow guvvament in Amerika’s
fake democracy realized that they could intimidate counter-cultural people and control the working poor by chasing and
imprisoning them for false crimes. The leisure classes get to consume what they want in their gated communities, all the while chuckling the working classes shooting each other in neighorhoods blighted by design. Pleeze, will a Canadian
sponsor me so i can escape this degenerate capitalist
nightmare?
Posted by rain~box on Nov 12, 2005 at 4:07 AM “Pleeze, will a Canadian sponsor me so i can escape this degenerate capitalist nightmare?”
Good one Rain Box. Come on up. Lots of room. All are welcome in Canada.
Posted by David in Canada on Nov 12, 2005 at 5:41 AM Good Article. About time this angle was articulated. This is the reason the so called “drug War” exists and Rabbit like others has always known it.
This is what makes “Drug Users” rebel against the system, not the substance. It is the realisation that the bastards are after interfering with our minds. We will expand our consciuosness, and if it is not good for us, how come we eat you MF’s in debate? Spoken to the prohibitionistas.
It is here the revolution begins. Rabbit has NEVER been one to creep around. He has smoked joints in pubs, in parks and at many places. He has shared a joint or bong with bands and committee member Agricultural societies, local politicians including a mayor, and his wife and about half the staff of the Shire. Back in his fireworks days. Rabbit knows it isn’t bad and he believes the best way to get things right was to confront the damned thing. Once Rabbit got stopped by a copper for speeding a little bit, on a country road once. The cop smelled Rabbit’s car and asked if “someone had been smoking cannabis in the car?”
Yes said Rabbit I was before I saw your lights, but I put the joint out before talking to a policeman. The policeman looked very confused for a minute, and then said “don’t you know it’s illegal?” Sure said Rabbit, but so what. Speeding is worth and I was doing that too. Rabbit told him he had always smokded pot, hardly a shock in that area of the country I might add, is respected and liked, everybody knows Rabbit smokes pot, and anyway, di the policeman really feel like standing up in court and saying, “I know the defendant was smokeing pot because he told me he was”
The cop shook his head after a moment, and just said,“Piss off, Just piss off” Rabbit said thankyou and wished the policeman a nice day. Hopped back into his car, and drove away. After lighting up the remainder of the scoob, of course.
True story.
A blow for mental freedom.
Posted by Rabbit on Nov 12, 2005 at 9:09 AM Not even a speeding ticket.
On the other hand fifty screaming cops with guns crashed my 8 yo daughters birthday party, once and made like big bust for nothing another weekend, not long after Rabbit had begun to become quite political.
Posted by Rabbit on Nov 12, 2005 at 9:12 AM Dr. D
An empty line between will separate paragraphs. The way you see it when you type it is how it will post.
Posted by David in Canada on Nov 13, 2005 at 12:00 AM To learn about using italics and bold and other HTML tags, only a few of which are allowed to be used posting at ITT, go here :
Posted by David in Canada on Nov 13, 2005 at 12:06 AM
Posted by David in Canada on Nov 13, 2005 at 12:09 AM David,thank you for sharing your expertise,whether or not I can utilize it is a different story,I am a computer dunce,after all. Now let’s get to the matter at hand.How do we get the point across to the somnambulent american masses to wake up and smell the proverbial coffee before it’s too late?
Posted by Dr.D on Nov 13, 2005 at 1:39 AM I can’t figure this thing out.Please bear with me and separate paragraphs by the common sense method.thanks.
Posted by Dr.D on Nov 13, 2005 at 1:43 AM We must be the change we wish to see. Ghandi
Best advice I can offer off the cuff.
Be a good example, for friends, family and strangers.
Posted by David in Canada on Nov 13, 2005 at 6:24 AM Ignore the HTML stuff.
Go to an old thread where nobody is posting anymore and experiment there..
Type stuff in ..
Hit ENTER twice ..
to start a new paragraph ..
Posted by David in Canada on Nov 13, 2005 at 6:31 AM Finally, an article from Muwakkil that actually has some sound logic to it…
Posted by g-love on Nov 15, 2005 at 12:44 AM You like everything .. logical or not .. are you high?
Just teasing :)
Posted by David in Canada on Nov 15, 2005 at 6:38 AM Hello Dr. D, don’t blame yourself, it’s the bloody machine.
My standard joke is that the role of computers in the modern world is evidence in favor of the Satan Hypothesis.
What is the Satan Hypothesis, you ask, on the edge of your seat with anticipation…?
That there’s a being in the universe with the powers of an angel and the ability to trick us into thinking we really, really need things that, in fact, we don’t need at all. Distracting us from pursuing the things we do in fact need, in favor of the illusory necessity.
It’s the damnable machine, Dr. D.
;-) (just a lighthearted Luddite interlude, forgive the digression)
Posted by Kuya on Nov 15, 2005 at 8:31 AM I forgive you and thank you. Or thank you and forgive you. Select what order pleases you.
Posted by David in Canada on Nov 15, 2005 at 8:49 AM Sorry to jump in on the question to you Dr. D
Am i forgiven?
Posted by David in Canada on Nov 15, 2005 at 8:50 AM Naturalmente, compan~ero D of C. No harm no foul no forgiveness needed.
Also a small advice to Dr. D, you might want to un-check (or un-tick, if that’s your phrasing) the little box that says “Notify me of follow-up comments”. I neglected to do that recently and my emailbox got flash-flooded with more than three dozen notifications in less than 48 hours! Ayyyy!
Not as offensive as all the damn spam I get offering me everything from Viagra to fake Rolexes to home re-fi to Brazilian porn sites, but life’s too short to wade through all that crap, no need to invite more.
You may also just get a raft of other posters’ snipes at each other. Happened to me about 6 months ago. Un-check the box, I recommend.
Posted by Kuya on Nov 15, 2005 at 8:59 AM ... I enjoyed the interlude ... maybe I am a Luddite?
Hmmm ... navel gazing commences .................
Posted by David in Canada on Nov 15, 2005 at 9:05 AM David&Kuya;, Thank you so much for your efforts to alleviate my CLD,or computer literacy deficiency(everything seems to have an acronym these days,so I made this one up).
Now can we get back to the issue at hand? I feel very strongly that libertarian principles solve this problem,and probably all social problems that we are faced with in this day and age(or any age for that matter).To paraphrase a neo-con neanderthal;what say you?
Posted by Dr.D on Nov 16, 2005 at 1:43 AM Hello again Dr. D,
I was a registered Libertarian Party member some years back (never been a reg’d Dem or Rep), but eventually abandoned any official party affiliation. Too many times I was hearing “our party upholds the right to discriminate”, and although I do “discriminate” every time I judge someone worthy of my love or friendship, and even when I award a student a letter grade on a piece of assigned work, I shied back from that repeated formulation. I don’t believe in forced equality, it’s based on illusions, but I still felt alienated and so went back to “no party affiliation” status.Having said that, I was and continue to be attracted to the idea that many areas of life should simply be beyond the values or votes of the neighbors. They should have nothing to say about it, no matter how earnest their concerns or how passionate their beliefs, unless they can show with certitude that my following my bliss in a particular area overtly harms them.
So voting on whether I can drink a glass of scotch, or light up a joint, or make love to or marry a man, should be beyond anyone’s power to influence since their feelings of affront are not sufficient grounds for them to control me.
Now, if I sell scotch or cannabis to their kids, or (yuck) try to get them into bed, then they have a leg to stand on because kids are and should be a protected class of people. In that case, I’ll agree that the law has a place of protecting those who are not mature enough to be granted the power of consent.
But short of that, the areas I mention should simply be out of bounds with regards to “community values”, whatever that is beyond majoritarian pushiness. I say that because I have a right to privacy, which exceeds their interest in shaping my behavior in accordance with their values.
So I guess that’s quite libertarian in spirit. My harangue up-thread might have had a few syntactic clashes because I’m not always too articulate, but it was a sincere statement of belief and (more important) behavioral intent.
Someone try to own or control ol’ Kuya’s mind or body, they gonna have a wicked fight on they hands! I’m a free human being, from birth til death, aint no doubt about it, and no one can make me forget that!
Posted by Kuya on Nov 16, 2005 at 2:38 AM I hate acronyms, there are too many of them these days and I get tired of asking what they mean.
I love libertarian principles. Give me that good old freedom, please.
We don’t need no thought control.
Posted by David in Canada on Nov 16, 2005 at 2:48 AM Hey, I want to start a new group, and plan on calling it ” The Children Raised By The Council on Spiritual Practices”.
We’ll start the meeting by acknowledging that there’s worse things than sobriety, and then we’ll all recount horrific histories of parents falling against the furntiure in ‘cognitively aware’ states, or wandering into ditches, or mindlessly humping anything that moved in their drugged inspired ‘religious’ experience.
Get off the pot ( in more ways than one, eh?)
If you can’t see the trees for the forest(or the forest for the trees) without escaping reality through a substance induced state, admit your stupidity and let the rest of us get on with the problem, ok?
Sheesh…I’m not against getting stoned. Let’s not glorify it though, ok. It’s an activity with few merits aside from it’s short term pain killing ability.
Posted by minerva on Nov 17, 2005 at 9:33 PM Minerva, good points made with humor. Excellent post.
I do not think excessive ‘cognitively aware’ states should be glorified either. The ‘abuse of’ and ‘addiction to’ drugs and alcohol (and other things too) has no glory at all, especially around kids.
Be the example you want to see. Moderation in all things.
Posted by David in Canada on Nov 18, 2005 at 3:23 AM Hi minerva and Dave in Canada,
Indeed, moderation. Dose, not overdose, and clarity of mind is always to be cherished. But the law is a bludgeon, and it’s freedom I glorify, sober or stoned. As for the mindset that underlies the laws of drug warriors… more destructive than herbs or distillations, any day. (btw, there’s every reason to be hinky about synthesized compounds like E, the research isn’t encouraging, but hey it’s your own risk so be damn careful).Still, all in all, prohibition just makes evil men rich. The evidence is overwhelming.
Posted by Kuya on Nov 20, 2005 at 4:21 PM And how easily we are led astray from the idea of dope as a key to the kingdom of heaven…..
are peyote visions a portal to God?
Only if you think of ‘God’ as a weird, surreal possibility, I guess, unobtainable except through strange experiments.
I think of “God’ as the wild, energetic loving spirit that runs through every person, that is only dulled and made mundane by market conditions, fashion, and our own navel gazing…
we are blunted and made smaller in stature and ability by so many forces .....
I guess I would not chose to fight over the ‘right’ to be a lesser mortal than I am already, lol
Posted by minerva on Nov 22, 2005 at 4:23 AM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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