State, Consciousness, Liberty and Religion – Graham Hancock
31 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: ayahuasca, consciousness, drugs, freedom, humanrights, liberty, oneness, shamanism, war on drugs
Thoughts on consciousness, cognitive liberty, the so-called “war on drugs”, the evils of the State, the delusions of patriotism and nationalism, the tyranny of established religions, the mysteries of Ayahuasca, and the strength and fundamental goodness of the human spirit.
Magic mushrooms, international law and the failed ‘war on drugs’
08 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: consciousness, drugs, freedom, global, magic mushrooms, news, psychedelics, war on drugs
It’s been a busy fortnight. First the publication of two major peer-reviewed research papers about magic mushrooms that attracted worldwide publicity. Then off to Prague for an international drugs policy symposium. And just last week, news of a large grant for our next collaborative study with Imperial College. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
I established the Beckley Foundation some 14 years ago as a think tank on drugs policy. It was apparent even then that the “war on drugs” had failed. A 1997 report by the United Nations Drugs Control Programme put the value of the global trade in illicit drugs at around $400bn. Recent UN figures show that global production of opium (used mostly to make heroin) rose by almost 80% between 1998 and 2009. The market in illicit drugs is the third largest market in the world, after food and oil.
The health statistics are equally grim. In some countries – including some within the EU – more than three-quarters of intravenous drug users are infected with hepatitis C. Worldwide, there are several million non-fatal drug overdoses each year. Drug wars themselves also claim a dreadful toll: more than 47,000 deaths in the past five years for Mexico alone, according to the latest estimates.
However, while it is clear that existing policies are crying out for reform, what is less clear is how to foster the required political will.
The Beckley Foundation is the only organisation to combine rigorous scientific research with detailed policy analysis in an attempt to address that question. Our premise is simple: drugs policies should focus on health, harm reduction and cost-effectiveness, and should be based on the best available scientific evidence. That means trying out and evaluating a variety of policy ideas, as well as researching the physical effects of drugs.
Drugs policies around the world are based on three UN conventions, dating from 1961, 1971 and 1988. The conventions allow limited production and possession of drugs, but only for scientific and therapeutic use. In particular, parties to the 1988 Convention (which include the vast majority of UN member states) are obliged to criminalise the production, distribution, sale, purchase and possession of listed drugs other than for approved scientific and medical purposes. The result is the criminalisation of millions of people guilty of nothing other than personal drug use.
“The War on Drugs” explained by Graham Hancock – The Joe Rogan Experience
26 Oct 2011 1 Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: consciousness, drugs, freedom, global, hancock, humanrights, liberty, nature, peace, war
Bill Hicks – Drugs and Evolution
09 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: consciousness, drugs, evolution, freedom, hicks, humanrights, life, love, nature, peace
Graham Hancock & Joe Rogan on the war on drugs
06 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: ayahuasca, consciousness, drugs, freedom, humanrights, nature, peace, psy, substance, war
Graham Hancock & Joe Rogan talk about how over the past 40 years society has been conditioned to ignore individual consciousness.
Bill Hicks on Marijuana, wars, Government, conspiracies, and Life
26 Sep 2011 1 Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: consciousness, drugs, freedom, global, government, hicks, life, love, marijuana, peace
THERE NEVER WAS A WAR!…. A WAR IS WHEN TWO ARMIES ARE FIGHTING…Not a super power with billions of dollars, and half the world helping it, against poor, nameless, unequipped civilians, trying to stop invaders from occupying their lands.
“Today a young man on Acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration.
That we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively.
There is no such thing as death.
Life is only a dream and you are the imagination of yourself.” – Bill Hicks
They lie about marijuana. Tell you pot-smoking makes you unmotivated. Lie! When you’re high, you can do everything you normally do, just as well. You just realize that it’s not worth the fucking effort. There is a difference.
A lot of Christians wear crosses around their necks. You think when Jesus comes back he ever wants to see a fucking cross? It’s like going up to Jackie Onassis wearing a rifle pendant.
Here is my final point. About drugs, about alcohol, about pornography and smoking and everything else. What business is it of yours what I do, read, buy, see, say, think, who I fuck, what I take into my body – as long as I do not harm another human being on this planet?
Jodie Emery at Washington state legalization bill press conference
07 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: consciousness, drugs, freedom, humanrights, legalization, marijuana, nature, peace, us, washington
Jodie Emery gave testimony on Wednesday March 16th at a Washington State Legislature work session for House Bill 1550, which would have legalized, taxed and regulated marijuana for adults.
HB 1550, introduced by Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, would allow adults over 21 to purchase cannabis from licensed liquor stores, or grow their own at home. It also legalizes industrial hemp manufacturing and decriminalizes cannabis for 18 to 21-year-olds.
Inside Story – Is Mexico losing the war on drugs?
04 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: consciousness, drugs, freedom, humanrights, justice, mexico, nature, peace, substance, us, war
What will it take to root out drug violence in Mexico?
The Last Chance Of Freedom
02 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: consciousness, drugs, freedom, global, humanrights, marijuana, nature, peace, substance, war
The war on drugs is a failure. It has failed to prevent drug abuse. It has failed to keep drugs out of the hands of addicts. It has failed to keep drugs away from teenagers. It has failed to reduce the demand for drugs. It has failed to stop the violence associated with drug trafficking. It has failed to help drug addicts get treatment.
But the war on drugs has also succeeded. It has succeeded in clogging the judicial system. It has succeeded in swelling prison populations. It has succeeded in corrupting law enforcement. It has succeeded in destroying financial privacy. It has succeeded in militarizing the police. It has succeeded in hindering legitimate pain treatment. It has succeeded in destroying the Fourth Amendment. It has succeeded in eroding civil liberties. It has succeeded in making criminals out of hundreds of thousands of law-abiding Americans. It has succeeded in wasting hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. It has succeeded in ruining countless lives.
Clearly, the financial and human costs of the drug war far exceed any of its supposed benefits. Clearly, the drug war violates the Constitution and exceeds the proper role of government. And clearly, the drug war is a war on personal freedom, private property, personal responsibility, individual liberty, personal and financial privacy, and the free market.
But the war on drugs is also something else. It is the most senseless of the government’s wars.
If the federal government is going to make a harmful substance illegal, then it seems logical that that substance should be tobacco. It is the cultivation, processing, sale, and use of tobacco that should be illicit, not marijuana. The number of deaths attributable every year to marijuana smoking is a big fat zero. And marijuana does have some known health benefits. If smoking cigarettes causes cancer; causes strokes and heart disease; causes fatal lung disease; is addictive; harms fetuses, children, and nonsmokers; poses serious risks to your health; and kills you, then it only makes sense to criminalize tobacco instead of marijuana.
But what about other illicit drugs such as LSD, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine? There is no question that deaths have occurred from the use of those drugs. But more than 100,000 people die every year from drugs prescribed and administered by physicians. And more than two million Americans a year have in-hospital adverse drug reactions. Thousands of people die every year from reactions to aspirin.
Now, lest there be any misunderstanding, I am not in favor of any government at any level banning tobacco. That is because I am not in favor of any government at any level banning the buying, selling, growing, processing, use, or possession of any substance. And that is because, as a libertarian, I believe in individual liberty and personal responsibility instead of a nanny state run by bureaucrats looking out for my health and safety.
The war on drugs is senseless, just as a war on any other substance would be.
The Exile Nation Project
30 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: consciousness, drugs, freedom, global, history, humanrights, justice, life, peace, war
An Oral History of the War on Drugs & The American Criminal Justice System
