Themes in Chemical Prohibition

National Institute on Drug Abuse ^ | 1979 | William L. White

[WindMinstrel]

bong

[Consort]

Chemical intoxicants have been available to humans in almost all cultures since the beginning of time.

We know that the history of man includes some horrific chapters right up to this day. What part, if any, do those "chemical intoxicants" play in human behavior? What would history have been like if human behavior was not altered by those substances?

[vin-one]

bong back at ya,

BTTT for future read....

[coloradan]

Let's hear from the drug warriors about the evils of chocolate coffee alcohol tobacco drugs.

[WindMinstrel]

what value is there in a "what if" discussion? The point is moot, no?

[steve50]

Good piece Wind, thanks. I came across alot of this information when I first started researching prohibition. The schafferdrug library has some great reads from those days.

Can you imagine someone standing before congress and making these types arguements today?

[tacticalogic]

what value is there in a "what if" discussion? The point is moot, no?

It might make an interesting discussion though. What if there were no opiate receptors in the brain? Would our history have been any more or less horrific if there were no painkillers or anaesthetics, or if there were no drugs to treat chemical imbalances in the brain?

[steve50]

I know you're not one of the Anti WOD crew SheLion, but there's some great info in this piece on earlier efforts to prohibit tobacco I thought you might get a kick out of.

Hope I don't offend you by pinging you here.

[steve-b]

Can you imagine someone standing before congress and making these types arguements today?

Actually, the arguments made today are pretty much the same in substance -- they're just stripped of the blatant racism and over-the-top sexual fears.

[WindMinstrel]

good point -- I hadn't realized that tobacco had been prohibited in the past. Interesting how history repeats itself, eh?

[philman_36]

What part, if any, do those "chemical intoxicants" play in human behavior? What would history have been like if human behavior was not altered by those substances?
How about you state what your opinions are on those subjects and then let the conversation progress?
Posing questions with such wide latitude, such as yours, isn't very productive IMO. It would necessitate another paper similar in scope to the one linked.
Some might call your questions rhetorical even.

[steve50]

Actually, the arguments made today are pretty much the same in substance -- they're just stripped of the blatant racism and over-the-top sexual fears.
I agree, but the racism and "where's the white women" BS was the key to ingrain the original bias. You can't get to where we are today without them, they're just buried a little below the surface in the older crowd. Most under 50 or so don't carry the gene anymore, the WOD guys are slowly dying off. May get get their just rewards in the afterlife,lol.

[truenospinzone]

BUMP for later reading.

[steve50]

And coffee... I'll shoot the b@stard that tries to take my coffee pot

[KarlInOhio]

Bump for future reading.

I want to find out what all of those steps on the road to the Drunkard's Grave are. I am facinated by the idea that one step is "Plenty of pickles and pork".

[dcwusmc]

Good find. This is from NIDA? VERY intesting, very interesting indeed. Great read. But doomed to be ignored by our resident drug warriors on the basis that it's old and outmoded and we need to keep the WOD going "for the cildruns" or some such thing.
I have asked them to defend their precious WAR based on the knowledge that its underpinnings are lies, deceits and half-truths... they ignore and continue their evil ways of villifying anyone who questions them and their "mission from God." Kinda like an EPA lawyer I knew once. He got ALL incensed if it was suggested that he slow down in the persecution of people and the introduction of new regulations. It was his "MFG" on the line...

[JediGirl]

What would history have been like if human behavior was not altered by those substances?

We wouldn't have any good music?

[JediGirl]

take a look at this one, fellows.

[Consort]

We wouldn't have any good music?

You're right about the good music, but the bad music is worse than worse and there's is a lot more of it.