Some more interesting connections, but I really think that to call this astroturfed, top-down, pushed (I can't italicize in the comments...) is to ignore that what we're seeing is more or less a legitimization of what people are already doing, and a push to bring these substances into the open---it's not as though no one uses MDMA or LSD or mushrooms, pretty much everyone who is interested in them already has. They're very easy to obtain---as I think I said before, it's not even like in the 90s or early 00s where you'd have needed, ugh, friends, to obtain them---or at least a "weed guy" who might know a guy. Today you can buy bitcoin or some other crypto and have basically any drug you like delivered to your home (or a PO Box) with basically zero risk. You don't even need, ugh, "friends."
For example, I first did mushrooms in my teens, by buying the spores online and growing them and then eating them. No one "pushed" me to do this, I was always vaguely aware of the psychedelic folk scene in North America, and I knew that I could mention the name Timothy Leary to adults and some of them would get a big smile, and some of them would be really worried I knew who he was---the first time I did this consciously was in Grade 3.
My Grade 8 French teacher suggested I read The Electric Koolaid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe's book about the LSD tests. I'll admit I didn't get through it because I hate Tom Wolf's style, but I did learn about shiny, black FBI shoes. I had a girlfriend whose father had a vial of acid in the freezer from back in the day. None of this is because I grew up in some exceptionally deviant atmosphere---I grew up in a middle class West Coast environment. From my French teacher to my girlfriend's father, these were all normal people. If you met them, you would hardly think they were deviants.
As for the helping of veterans, and MDMA for PTSD, there is pretty good evidence for that. If you are interested in reading about this topic, I'd recommend Ann and Alexander Shulgin's two books, PiHKAL and TiHKAL. You can get the chemistry sections online, but the narrative sections are what I would suggest you read, and you need to get the books for that, afaik. Another good book is Timothy Leary's Politics of Ecstasy, though it is a bit dated. Maybe you have read all of this stuff...but I am skeptical, given how you basically fall back on this notion that your DARE-infused Reaganite anti-drug education is some sort of "default position" for many people. I would say it is not. There is certainly a large minority who hold this position, and they occupy positions of power, for example, in the DEA, etc. but they really are the weirdos who won't...live and let live.
I was never much of a head case, but I have many friends who were, and anecdotally they credit things like psychedelics with getting over compulsive habits, like washing of the hands until they were raw, things for which there are not very good treatments. There is clearly some financial motivation to all of this, but I can't imagine you, given your political leanings, have much trouble with that. The real thing I wonder about, given what I think I understand about your position, is why you think that the Government should prohibit psychedelics (LSD, MDA, MDMA, psilocybin, mescaline, etc.) at all. And if you don't, why do you interpret the push to legitimize these substances as some sort of nefarious conspiracy, rather than simply people who are trying to push back against unjust governmental prohibition?
I think that your scholarship on this issue would benefit from actually trying one of these substances, something like MDMA or mushrooms. Then you could have an informed opinion.
Some more interesting connections, but I really think that to call this astroturfed, top-down, pushed (I can't italicize in the comments...) is to ignore that what we're seeing is more or less a legitimization of what people are already doing, and a push to bring these substances into the open---it's not as though no one uses MDMA or LSD or mushrooms, pretty much everyone who is interested in them already has. They're very easy to obtain---as I think I said before, it's not even like in the 90s or early 00s where you'd have needed, ugh, friends, to obtain them---or at least a "weed guy" who might know a guy. Today you can buy bitcoin or some other crypto and have basically any drug you like delivered to your home (or a PO Box) with basically zero risk. You don't even need, ugh, "friends."
For example, I first did mushrooms in my teens, by buying the spores online and growing them and then eating them. No one "pushed" me to do this, I was always vaguely aware of the psychedelic folk scene in North America, and I knew that I could mention the name Timothy Leary to adults and some of them would get a big smile, and some of them would be really worried I knew who he was---the first time I did this consciously was in Grade 3.
My Grade 8 French teacher suggested I read The Electric Koolaid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe's book about the LSD tests. I'll admit I didn't get through it because I hate Tom Wolf's style, but I did learn about shiny, black FBI shoes. I had a girlfriend whose father had a vial of acid in the freezer from back in the day. None of this is because I grew up in some exceptionally deviant atmosphere---I grew up in a middle class West Coast environment. From my French teacher to my girlfriend's father, these were all normal people. If you met them, you would hardly think they were deviants.
As for the helping of veterans, and MDMA for PTSD, there is pretty good evidence for that. If you are interested in reading about this topic, I'd recommend Ann and Alexander Shulgin's two books, PiHKAL and TiHKAL. You can get the chemistry sections online, but the narrative sections are what I would suggest you read, and you need to get the books for that, afaik. Another good book is Timothy Leary's Politics of Ecstasy, though it is a bit dated. Maybe you have read all of this stuff...but I am skeptical, given how you basically fall back on this notion that your DARE-infused Reaganite anti-drug education is some sort of "default position" for many people. I would say it is not. There is certainly a large minority who hold this position, and they occupy positions of power, for example, in the DEA, etc. but they really are the weirdos who won't...live and let live.
I was never much of a head case, but I have many friends who were, and anecdotally they credit things like psychedelics with getting over compulsive habits, like washing of the hands until they were raw, things for which there are not very good treatments. There is clearly some financial motivation to all of this, but I can't imagine you, given your political leanings, have much trouble with that. The real thing I wonder about, given what I think I understand about your position, is why you think that the Government should prohibit psychedelics (LSD, MDA, MDMA, psilocybin, mescaline, etc.) at all. And if you don't, why do you interpret the push to legitimize these substances as some sort of nefarious conspiracy, rather than simply people who are trying to push back against unjust governmental prohibition?
I think that your scholarship on this issue would benefit from actually trying one of these substances, something like MDMA or mushrooms. Then you could have an informed opinion.