Ending the Drug War

David Musick (David_Musick@msn.com)
Wed, 30 Oct 96 20:34:32 UT


Hey, Ian, thanks for the info. on Cannabis. I didn't know it was such good
medicine for so many things. I'll have to increase my dosage. Aren't herbal
remedies great!

I thought your article was wonderful, so I formatted it nicely with my word
processor and faxed it to a bunch of news outlets across the country. I know,
you wrote on it that it could be freely copied for non-profit (and I inclueded
that), so I don't know if any of the news outlets will publish it, but it may
inform some of the reporters there, and they may do their own research on the
subject and publish that.

I think the War on Drugs, like all violent activity, is highly entropic, and I
think working to end the Drug War Nightmare is a worthy Extropian goal. There
are so many psychoactive drugs which are wonderful for mind exploration and
growth. As an Extropian, I wish I had greater access to these substances, to
use in my self-transformative work.

One thing I've started doing to help end the War on Drugs is to write letters
to the editor of my local newspapers. The problem, though, with letters to
the editor is that the newspaper will only publish so many letters from a
single author. I've written so many letters to the editor on various
subjects, that I have a hard time getting my stuff printed any more. But I
found a loophole -- the paper usually requires a name and address on all the
letters, but if one has a compelling reason to remain anonymous (if what you
have to say would embarrass or endanger you, for example) then the newspaper
may print the letter anyway. So, I've started writing anonymous letters,
written as though they are from various people who use drugs and are
productive members of society. The letters bring up the fact that if they
were caught, they would be put in jail and no longer able to contribute to
society or support their families with their work. They also bring up other
injustices and stupidities of the drug war. I'm hoping that if I send in
enough of these types of letters, a few of them will actually get printed. In
some of the letters, I will encourage other drug users to write their own
letters. Hopefully, these will be printed, and more people will write letters
about the subject. Also, including that instruction in some of my letters
will help me maintain the illusion that the many letters I send in are in fact
coming from many different people. Writing them in different styles and fonts
will also help maintain this illusion.

I encourage other Extropians who are interested in ending the War on Drugs to
do similar things and to encourage others to help in our effort for Peace.
Also, if anyone has addresses of various newspapers, even if it's only your
local newspaper, I would be interested in having that information. I'm
wanting to send stuff to lots of newspapers around the country.

If anyone has any other ideas for how we can help end the War on Drugs, I
would be glad to hear them.

- David Musick

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