Two months ago, the DEA ruled a 12-month emergency ban on synthetic cannabis chemicals being sold legally in convenience stores nationwide under the moniker, “Spice.” The emergence of Spice is a direct result of cannabis prohibition; nobody would buy fake weed if they could buy the real thing. Now that Spice has also been banned, another legal drug is popping up to fulfill the demand of drug consumers who are deprived of their natural birthright to the perfectly safe pleasure-chemicals provided by marijuana.
This time, instead of harsh herb clippings sprayed with synthetic cannabis, we have deadly bath salts on our hands. Sold once more in convenience stores throughout the USA under names like Vanilla Sky and Ivory Wave, these salts contain a synthetic stimulant called mephedrone. This is an amphetamine-class chemical that can be smoked, snorted, injected or simply mixed with water. Even mild users report that the hallucinations the drug induces are horrible, with psychosis a regularly re-occurring result.
Mark Ryan, director of the Louisiana Poison Center, has reported a case of mephedrone psychosis involving a man sealing himself inside his attic with a rifle and vowing to “kill the monsters before they kill me.” Another case Ryan has reported involves a bath salt user vowing to remove his own liver using a mechanical pencil as a surgical tool.
Now the DEA is considering enacting another 12-month ban on the amphetamine bath salts, just like it did with Spice, except this time I agree that the drug in question should be restricted. Health of the user and addiction potential are legitimate measures to go by when considering if a chemical should be restricted. These bath salts are clearly a health problem, and evidence suggests that these salty stimulants have massive potential for addiction, similar to other amphetamine drugs.
What the DEA refuses to realize is that the rise of methed-out bath salts is of its own doing. The only person who checks in to a rehabilitation clinic for marijuana is someone who was ordered to do so by a court of law, or a supremely lazy person. At no point in history has independent evidence suggested that marijuana induces permanent psychosis or is physiologically addicting. Both characteristics have been attributed to the meth salts.
The problem of the psycho bath salts is in the same category as the problem of methamphetamine. Mark Thornton of Mises.org explains the phenomenon in terms of free market economics: “The scourge of crystal meth is another example of the ‘potency effect’ or what has been called the ‘iron law of prohibition.’ When government enacts a prohibition, increases enforcement or increases penalties on a good such as alcohol or drugs, it inevitably results in substitution to more adulterated, more potent and more dangerous drugs.”
Everything in our world today comes down to money. If you ban a drug, the price will rise. If the price of one good or service rises, the opportunity for substitute goods or services to compete will manifest as a new market. If there were no War on Drugs, users would return to the safest, most economically viable source of pleasure-chemicals. There is no drug that can be created more safely and easily than marijuana. If it were legalized, the price of marijuana would fall to its natural level, far below what it is today. Between $40 bath salts, an 8-ball of cocaine for $80 and a $10 eighth of marijuana, even a heavily-addicted drug user is eventually going to figure out the true value.
Thornton summarizes the answer to this problem in easy terms; the DEA should cut the bullshit and just legalize weed: “So the solution is quite simple, really: end the drug war. Less enforcement and lower penalties would reduce the price of marijuana and shift demand from crystal meth back to marijuana, a drug that has few of the problems associated with meth.”
As a Reno native, Daily Nexus drug columnist and human being who has seen his fair share of weird shit in life, I can declare that the one drug I truly hate is methamphetamine. Now bath salts are being sold that are causing similar mental health problems to those induced by meth, and once more it is the natural result of one massive stupid decision — the decision to criminalize a plant called cannabis.
Go ahead and ban every pleasure-chemical you can find, National Drug Control Policy Chief Gil Kerlikowske, but you won’t win this war. For every hundred cops you put on the street, there will still be one rogue chemist who will outwit them all. For every thousand dollars taken through drug court sentencing, there will still be a million dollars made by drug dealers selling substitute stimulants. Finally, for every man that obeys the federal drug laws out of fear, there will still be a dozen that ignore them because they know: drug policy in America is made by black boot fuck-ups and retards.
Thanks Kevin, it’s rare to see anything that is as spot on as this is. Esp. that last sentence. One day this drug war idiocy will end, but the damage done before then may be fatal for our society.
The end of this failed policy is not a question of if, but when and where. I believe 2011 is the year and Washington State is the place. A group in Washington State, Sensible Washington, will once again be running a petition to fully legalize marijuana at the state level. This would not supersede or invalidate federal law it would simply stop the state from charging people with marijuana offenses. Prohibition of marijuana will end one state at a time. If we can do it here this year, two or three more states will end prohibition next year. When the… Read more »
The federal government has historically clearly been deceptive and dishonest regarding the public-policy issue of marijuana. Their true motives are ill-gained profit and power, against the will and at the expense of the tax-paying populace. As the Lord is my holy witness and in the name of Jesus Christ, I admonish the demons driving the misguided Prohibitionists’ actions back into the depths of darkness from which they have slithered.
WORD. This statement should be used in a film about prohibition.
The DEA has NOT banned the 5 compounds yet. They have only stated that they are going to, when, well we don’t know, could be any day.
“At no point in history has independent evidence suggested that marijuana induces permanent psychosis or is physiologically addicting.” What? Dude anything you put into your brain causes your brain to adapt to it…thus physiologically addicting. I’m a medicinal chemist I’m not making this up. I love weed and I smoke it, but don’t spout misinformation, leave that for the propaganda machine. Be a responsible pot head and inform people that it is actually physically addicting, but nothing like alcohol or opium, but the withdrawal symptoms from marijuana can be very real…I’ve had them…full on night sweats and tremors. Check out… Read more »
BTW Physical addiction isn’t the part to be scared of. For most drugs the physical addiction is gone in a couple of weeks to a month….marijuana actually takes about a month for the heavy smoker.
It’s the psychological addiction that’s the hardest to break. BE VERY SCARED OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ADDICTION….it will change your entire life.
Physical addiction is jump change unless you are talking about heroin, crack, or severe delerium tremors from alcohol.
That’s a good point. The insomnia and anxiety are real consequences of marijuana withdrawal. Still, as you said, anything you put into your body will alter brain chemistry. By that insight, marijuana is no more physiologically addicting than fast food or television. Without a severe biological sign of withdrawal (like delirium tremens) to define “physiological addiction” then those words lose their meaning.
When will America wake up? It is obviously time to legalize Marijuana. This country was founded on the belief that one should have freedom and the right to pursue happiness. Prohibiting cannabis goes against the very fundamentals our Founding Fathers envisioned for this great country. In these trying economic times, it is becoming more imminent that weed should be legalized; but for some reason, our blatantly ignorant politicians will not allow it. It is estimated to save billions of dollars a year. (What’s the point of investing money into a failing War on Drugs campaign?) Millions of Americans enjoy smoking… Read more »
Exactly what I believe completely I hate this bullshit already just thinking about this subject pisses me off because people don’t seem to get it
Marijuana has been repeatedly proven to NOT cause cancer, heart disease, brain damage, liver disease, emphysema, or overdoses, and its addictive potential is about on par with coffee. The DEA is 100% misinformed when it calls marijuana “extremely harmful”! The marijuana prohibition empowers drug dealers and cartels, and makes our children LESS safe! Because of the failings of the prohibition, our children now have easier access to marijuana than to alcohol! We parents have been patient long enough, we must speak up and demand that marijuana be legally sold to adults in gas stations and supermarkets just as beer and… Read more »
The DEA and the government have to realize if they make marijuana legal then they won’t have all this conflict.
states right, not federal is the way to go
Wow nice feedback, seems like you all forget how far we’ve come in the last 30-40 years.( Im 43 and am a casual user of several legal substances and depending on the state, illegal…was so happy to find “spice” -blah blah by a thousnad names i still dont drop dirty!- and it helps me to focus with my adhd. Im so the opposite of what people associate with mj use. It hypes me, i clean, im friendly i enjoy mundane bs and life is much simpler and tolerable. It doesnt affeect my prescribed bipolar meds and i am super functional.… Read more »
Please don’t ever do bath salts. My dad ruined my & his life from these. Now he lives on the street because he stole from my mom & I. He stole 3,000 dollars, my camera, my money that was hidden in my closet & he become insane saying stuff like the police were in our basement trying to kill him. If you love your family & your life please don’t EVER try these.
Your dad sounds like a sketchy dude
i love u all! Lol certinly the black boot retard statment i totally feel you……….
how do i order
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You say,”drug policy in America is made by black boot fuck-ups and retards.” Do research US Federal drug prohibition laws. Everyone of them were created by Democrat lead US Congresses. Nixon only signed the drug laws that Congress created. But, the GOP jumped on the prohibition bandwagon. So, they catch all the H@LL for our drug laws. The Volsted Act was even forced through over the Veto of the President by Democrats. More US citizens were arrested over marijuana by President Clinton than any other President. Have you seen Bill & Hillary’s hippy days photo? Traitors? Now President BO is… Read more »