Religion, political fanaticism, television, drugs.... Seems like humans have a great need to perceive reality in a twisted way. We should change the name of our species, drop the "Sapiens" and replace it with something appropiate. Is the latin expression for happily stoned "Lapidaurs Felix" or something like that? Maybe "Idioticus Maximus" will do.

...and alcohol is still the most harmful drug of them all, then tobacco...but those are ok, because your politicians said so...because big pharmaceutical, alcohol, and tobacco corps paid them to say so, so it must be true...

Too bad this information will fall on deaf ears since it uses 'logic' and 'common sense.'

Hopefully California will once again be the trailblazer on this subject and legalize today.

Perhaps, Cball, but I can sip a glass of wine or beer (German for me), or coffee or cappuccino with a meal, with little enough noticable effect upon my perceptions. I've no particular need nor desire to experience more; the pleasure of the company of my wife and family are sufficient.

I have long held the position that the use of mind-altering substances, especially those that significantly alter consciousness - including the drugs alcohol, marijuana, LSD, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, etc., is part of a normal human practice. This belief is based on the fact that this practice has been found in every civilization having access to these drugs in all recorded history. Further, the preference of one of these over another is simply a matter of cultural identity. Use of non-culturally approved drug is considered deviance, making the user a societal outlaw. In a multi-cultural society such as the United States and most of Western Europe, this counter-culture (good grief, that's a term from the 60's) activity becomes much more common and socially, much more complex.

It is unfortunate that these types of news items usually generate comments that only perpetuate the argument that "my drug is better than your drug" - such as we should make pot legal and alcohol illegal. This only adds to the cultural conflict. Rather, we should accept that the use of drug to alter one's mental state is normal, and seek a deeper understanding of what it is that makes us desire these various inter and intra-psychic conditions.

My suspicion is that the drug use provides us with three different, yet important psychological states: opening social interaction; intra-psychic relief; and psychic interaction with a deeper reality. "Opening social interaction" offers a lowering of personal barriers allowing closer social connections (alcohol, cocaine, and to some extent psychedelics (LSD, Psilocybin, Ecstasy, etc.). "Intra-psychic relief" offers a reduction of physical and psychological pain or discomfort (narcotics). "Psychic interaction with a deeper reality" or an introspective, perhaps mystical experience in connecting to the ineffable, or to God if one is religious (psychedelics, marijuana, Ecstasy, etc.).

Each of these experiences may be preferred over the other based on the personal needs or desires of the user. It doesn't make one drug better than the other, just more accessible to one's individual needs. The need for these experiences seems more pronounced when we are younger - perhaps because we are new at making social connections, or we are having a difficult time getting used to the complexities or pressures of adulthood, or we are inclined toward religious or mystical experience but haven't fully developed other safer means to achieve this experience.

Anyway, that's my thinking on the subject...

It's about time they trust American test, and reasearch, for some of these substances, like weed, in its natural form. As Maronol, the Synth version has had leathal side effects, the plant form does not. its about time the AMA stopped thinking about there wallets,and practiced there own oaths, to do no harm. as weed does no harm, and they know this in there hearts, and minds.thank you.

I agree that unless someone is causing harm to "others" through their use of substances legal or otherwise, the .gov has no cause to interfere. Having said that, they(the .gov) WILL continue to interfere on some or several levels, simply based on the fact that "others"(taxpayers) now have to foot that bill as well, and THEY(the .gov) need the money/employment as well.

Taking much of the profit, and therefore the violence, etc. from the drug trade(on both sides) is an admirable goal, and, legalization is one avenue toward this end. I often wonder what criminals will turn to after that, and, what all those .gov employees will do for work.

How shall we, as a society deal with what comes next(after most, if not all so-called "victimless crimes" are "legalized")? Bear in mind that the .gov has thousands of employees in large bureacuracies and a lot of money-making going on with the status-quo, so, I feel their interest lies more in their profit/employment than with any semblance of "public good".

I say this after watching over forty years of failed "drug wars" that haven't changed anything but their rhetoric.

Yoshi

I just groppled som acrids and I don't feel a fotato!

And watch, I can catch my hand!

I miss LSD terribly. It is a major life enhancer.

Come on, chemists, get busy.

Prescription drugs are nearly, as much abused in this country as alcohol and almost as easy to obtain. Marijuana is a mild narcotic and hardly in the class of amphetamines or psychedelics, heroin or opium. Pot is not addictive and has no major withdrawal symptoms, except in rare cases with chronic abusers. Neither does it cause Cancer!

This is a slippery slope.  I would be for the legalization of marijuana.  There isn't any research that has identified any reasons not to legalize.  However, there remains many drugs that have been proven to be dangerous.  Up to 50% of all people trying crack cocaine once find themselves addicted.  A drug that would make a 9 or 10 year old sell herself in order to get it has no place in our society.  Likewise, metamphetamines are dangerous as well.  Crime related to drug use is a very real problem.  Let's not make it worse. 

America's failed war on plants and drugs has greatly fed the Mexican drug cartels, the Chinese Triad's and the drug cartels in Columbia who continue to place more and more Customs, Border, Sheriff's, Police, ATF, DEA and FBI agents and officers on their payrolls every week across America.

Much the same happened during America's failed war on Alcohol which turned small time Jewish, Irish and Italian criminal family's into large scale criminal syndicates which went on to prey on all American's for many decades.

All Americans should openly question the evil agenda which pours huge amounts of taxpayer revenues into the hands of questionable law enforcement departments and hundreds of Billions of dollars into power criminal syndicates around the world both of which prey on the American people.

With legal drug stores found in all cities across America, it is long past time to reform America's drug laws to the 21st. century, taking back control of drugs from the politicians and giving it back to the medical community and the American people.

Timothy Leary used LSD with prison inmates before his fall from grace.

He found that when his patients (the inmates) were properly led through a psychedelic "trip" by someone who understood the effects of the drug and who also was supportive, they could have transformative experiences; that literally changed their lives by allowing them to see themselves in a way that motivated such changes. As I understand it, the recidivism (numbers that end up back in prison after release) rate for most criminals is that around 70 percent return. Among Leary's study group only 30 percent plus or minus returned; in other words, if this was true, he turned the entire system on its head.

How? The reason may be that LSD - which allows no one to stop it from doing whatever it does once it gets going - had the ability to break down (giving them no choice) the conditioned, reflexive defense and habit patterns of the inmates and because they no longer were able to view the world through their hardened, clouded prism of anger and learned, negative habit patters - or whatever - enabled them to connect with a level of their minds and emotions they had probably forgotten they even possessed and/or were capable of feeling; given they had shut down being open to them as children.

Of course, you need someone to run such studies who isn't himself locked into his own rigid preconceived ideas.; not an easy thing to find. Leary was on to a good thing, but sadly made a laughing stock out of himself in the end and was also thinking that the powers that be of that day actually were really interested in the inmates being transformed. That doesn't mean he might not have been on to something postive and real.

So why wouldn't "the powers that be at that time" have been interested?

Remember, that was the time period when they still were trying to sell "Reefer Madness" as the reason to "Just say NO" - do a search re Reefer Madness - and the video related to it.

Remove all restrictions on all drugs and let the chips falll where they may. The natural progression of market forces will eventually make some more or less profitable than others and even if some of the more deadly ones are profitable the fact that they will eventually kill all the consumers will cause their use to decline which will again place a strain on their profit margins and eliminate or greatly reduce the use, production and sustainability of the industry. In effect elimination of restrictions on the use of drugs will eventually eliminate (for the most part) the supply by removing the motivation for production.(profit). even given that there would still be some demand the social problems associated with it would be greatly diminished due to the fact that demand cannot be satisfied with out supply, supply cannot exist without profit,and eventually the demand would evaporate due to lack of supply and consumers being eliminated due to the nature of the product. Much the same way that tobacco use is on the decline for all the same reasons.

Alex, you make some excellent points. Back in the day, I hit acid maybe a half dozen times, give or take...I don't quite remember. But, EVERY trip was uniquely insightful for me and to this day, some of the attitudes and feelings I "discovered" while tripping are still with me. Just no tracers, which I loved!

I also agree with Stevemarch55 in that all currently illicit drugs should be legalized.

Two reasons. One, there are those who will abuse the drugs to their death, which kinda supports Darwin's Law that idiots do idiotic things. Second, the more reasonable population, the GREAT majority of what we call "drug abusers" today would be more apt to control their intake. Most of don't eat the whole cake at one time, we take a slice and that's enough for a good while.

We ALL have habits! Some healthy, some not so much. I'm tired of the government dictating an area of my life that is none of their concern. Now, if I cause injury or death to another...totally different story. Prosecute me to the full extent of the law and throw my ass in jail. BUT...if I am harming no one, not enticing minors, acting in a reasonable fashion, then leave me BE!!!

Research on "psychedelic" drugs--real research by real doctors and psychiatrists--has been going on since they were discovered. The people who are doing this believe they have a great potential for discovering the true workings of the human brain; others believe they are a spiritual path to enlightenment. It's not just kids and old hippies getting high, though of course that is part of it. Much of this research has gone on in guess where--California--for many years.

Megan D, widow of Bob "just my opinion" Wallace, 1949-2002 (He's the first "Bob Wallace" listed in Wikipedia).

I'm worried about the new Acai Berry fad.