To My Worldwide Readers:

Shout out to my readers in Singapore, the Philippines & other countries with drug policies more psychopathic than even the United States.  I see you.  It's incredibly humbling that you consider my little blog a source of reliable drug information/entertainment, but I hope you'll continue seeking out a variety of sources for your drug info.  PubMed, Google Scholar, the Harm Reduction Journal at BioMedCentral & Erowid.org are all great resources.  If your gov't has them blocked, a VPN can bypass the block but choose your provider carefully to ensure privacy & security.  Stay up to date on nationwide & local laws so you know the legality and risks of what you're researching.  

Please be careful with your online & real-life OPSEC & consider moving somewhere more welcoming so your life isn't at risk or controlled by authoritarian tyrants.  NOBODY deserves to be beaten, killed or locked in prison for non-violent drug possession or dealing.  I know I complain a lot about our draconian drug laws in the U.S. but I can't imagine what it would be like to have to fear public caning(!!!) or being hunted down and shot in the street every time I ingested my daily dose of a non-prescribed medicine. That degree of belligerence, prejudice & sadism is beyond my level of comprehension.

Filipino citizens protest extrajudicial killings of drug users under Rodrigo Duterte

And for any smart asses wondering, no: that fear wouldn't deter me from using drugs in the 1st place.  My quality of life is just as important as the quantity of my years & I have none without the meds. I have 0 shame or regret because I harm no one.  So far, not even myself (22 years & counting).  If healthcare was affordable & accessible and the dosage of meds I needed was consistently available without having to jump through unbelievable (like, honestly I'd laugh if it wasn't happening to me because it sounds unreal) flaming hoops to obtain it, I wouldn't have to go this route.  But that's not the case so here we are.

It is quite possible to use drugs responsibly even in a prohibitionist hellscape without medical oversight, but you must be vigilant: of addiction, of adulteration, of all the bad things the government propagandists warned you about.  Because despite the overblown scaremongering, there IS some truth buried in the stereotypes & cliches, even if most of the danger comes from prohibition itself.  But those dangers are a medical issue, not a legal or political one.  Lawmakers, cops, religious zealots, corporate media, hysterical parents with no medical background & career politicians should have zero role in drug policy, the abortion issue or any other medical issue.  Those things should be left to scientists, doctors, nurses, specialists in their respective fields & others with relevant degrees & experience.  And even they must be vigilant to keep their personal moral beliefs OUT of it because these are issues of public health, not subjective morality. 

None of us is free until we're all free.  Drug use is a victimless act so long as consenting adult drug users make informed, thoughtful choices such as not driving intoxicated or exposing their children to drugs.  In no universe should the penalties for a "crime" be worse than the social effects of the crime itself.  Suicide is not a crime and if a person wants to kill themselves with drugs, that is their choice.  If someone wants to alter their consciousness with drugs, it's THEIR brain and body to do with as they please.  Taking their freedom or their very life for doing so is the real crime.  

The only person you control is YOU.  If you don't like drugs, don't consume them & leave the rest of us alone.  Better yet, create a society that people don't feel forced to drown their sorrows with hard drugs in.  That's where your power ends.  R.I.P. to everyone who died at the hands of these ruthless, punitive government thugs as well as all the precious people killed by the secondary effects of prohibition (cartel violence, drug adulteration, death in prison for minor drug offenses, etc).  Your lives MATTERED & you won't be forgotten.  The only thing tyrants like Duterte, Nixon, the Reagans, Jair Bolsonaro, Uhuru Kenyatta & every Singaporean president to sign off on drug executions will be remembered for is murdering their own citizens.  That and their dark, savage hearts.   

Vigil for intellectually disabled Indian-Malaysian man executed for drug trafficking in Singapore