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Comment by rekttrader

2 days ago

That’s an amazing sentence…

For those who don't remember what it was like when LSD was still legal, this is an accurate synopsis of what could be observed as it quickly was prohibited to the max degree and categorized along with truly more toxic dangerous drugs like opiates. When things like opiates had been recognized for their potentially devastating effects for thousands of years, while psychedelics were still experimental substances.

Realistically an entire new agency (DEA) was chartered to enforce the new regulations, and the greatest threats were those thought to disrupt an "ordained" vision of reality that was not to include the kind of experimentation which made clinical evaluation possible.

Rapidly, before the most thorough experiments could be conducted which would have more accurately informed the established pharma regulation process.

Rather it was superstition that was included in the new regulations, and the enforcement agency was mustered to fight to preserve more superstition than should ever be allowed.

This really really stands the test of time, and if kelsey did not personally observe this phenomenon, it's even more amazing than it appears on the surface.

  • I'm only 40 years old, so no. I came of age in the midst of the DARE era. I just read a lot of philosophy and sociology[1] and synthesize them. It's always strange that HN seems to slightly favor philosophy, but tends to see sociology highly unfavorably.

    It's not difficult to draw a line between social reproduction and drug policy; what's difficult is to convince people that it exists.

    1. Specifically social ontology, various constructivist texts, and frame analysis.