I have fretted about the fact that there are drugs, both legal and illegal, which very likely could help me with my C-PTSD, but getting them is a major difficulty because of the "war on drugs." In my reading on the internet I found these several sources which I think give some perspective on the attitudes prevalent among the general public and the US medical establishment. This is a link to an article by some Harvard public health PhDs and MDs. https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.20240030 who object to the demonization
of benzodiazepines. The authors point to words like "stigma" and "fear" that patients who need these drugs often feel. As the authors say, some patients simply cannot function without such help.
And the quote below is from a brief interview that the journalist Dan Baum (he wrote for the Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker and many other publications) had with John Ehrlichman, a a prominent aide to President Richard Nixon. Ehrlichman says that the "war on drugs" was a political tactic intended to sideline minorities and anti war protesters. The quote is contained in this Harper's article : https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/
"We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders...Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."
Ehrlichman went to jail, along with several other Nixon aides, because of his part in the Watergate scandal. That the "war on drugs" began as a political tactic had never entered my head, though it certainly explains why marijuana is a schedule 1 drug. I don't think you can overdose on grass, but you can on ...water, it's called hyponatremia.
At any rate, I found these articles interesting and thought provoking. Oh, and there is a book
"Undoing Drugs" that is utterly fascinating on the history of the war on drugs and the more recent movement toward "harm reduction." Well written and informative with detailed references .
of benzodiazepines. The authors point to words like "stigma" and "fear" that patients who need these drugs often feel. As the authors say, some patients simply cannot function without such help.
And the quote below is from a brief interview that the journalist Dan Baum (he wrote for the Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker and many other publications) had with John Ehrlichman, a a prominent aide to President Richard Nixon. Ehrlichman says that the "war on drugs" was a political tactic intended to sideline minorities and anti war protesters. The quote is contained in this Harper's article : https://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/
"We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders...Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."
Ehrlichman went to jail, along with several other Nixon aides, because of his part in the Watergate scandal. That the "war on drugs" began as a political tactic had never entered my head, though it certainly explains why marijuana is a schedule 1 drug. I don't think you can overdose on grass, but you can on ...water, it's called hyponatremia.
At any rate, I found these articles interesting and thought provoking. Oh, and there is a book
"Undoing Drugs" that is utterly fascinating on the history of the war on drugs and the more recent movement toward "harm reduction." Well written and informative with detailed references .
OOTS.