D.A.R.E. to Decriminalize
By: Desmond Donovan
Tags: Dare, Decriminalization, Drugs, Psychedelics, Psychonauts

Drug use is a contentious issue in our current society. There are many sides to the debate, from full on legalization to full on illegalization to some form of decriminalization. There are adamant advocates for each option, armed with well thought out arguments and statistics. Weed legalization has been a huge issue in the U.S. for a very long time — and we are only recently beginning to see the fruits of that struggle.

The decriminalization of other drugs shouldn’t be too far behind. We are beginning to see the sense in helping addicts rather than attacking them. Progress is being made.

But why did this take so long? Why did it take so long to establish a cultural norm that should have been obvious from the beginning?

I am a product of the D.A.R.E. generation. When I was in elementary school, we were given a “drug education” program called “D.A.R.E.” (Drug Abuse Resistance Education). This program was not education at all, but indoctrination into an obviously false set of ideas about drugs. Anyone who had done drugs could take one look at the drivel that was being spouted at us and tell you that it was all hogwash. Nevertheless, we were children and as such, couldn’t tell the difference between this deranged oppressive fantasy and reality, so we took (for the most part) their lies as truth.

I think what made their narrative so convincing, at least to me, was that every adult I knew seemed to support it. How could you go against a narrative that was, apparently, so universally accepted? As an adult, I of course now understand that the reason adults would not speak out against D.A.R.E. was because they could not — they were trapped in the narrative as well. Any dissent from the official story could be met with severe punishment. An adult praising drug use? In front of children, no less? Unimaginable in the 90’s. Outcry against the insanity of the D.A.R.E. narrative may have even outed you as a drug user yourself — or drew suspicion at the very least.

The lies told were so consistent, and told over such a long period of time (all through elementary school — starting at a very young age) that it would have been considered ludicrous to rebel against them. It would have been like refuting math, or geography. It wasn’t something a child was capable of doing.

It was very similar to religion, to be honest. We prayed to the Great God of Abstinence, studied the holy word of “just say no”.

It was indoctrination, pure and simple, and it worked. I grew up believing that while drugs were probably not as bad as I had been told (adults always exaggerated things), they were still probably not that great, and something to be avoided. This attitude followed me all the way to high school, and would ultimately lead to my demise in college (where I was surrounded by substance use but had no instruction on how to properly administer it myself).

See, what I didn’t understand (no one had taken the time to explain it to me) is that some people actually need drugs in order to function normally like everyone else. Especially in the abnormal “modern” society where we live like “civilized” humans rather than the animals we are, we are increasingly forced into roles that our genetics cannot support.

Many people say, or secretly think to themselves, that were we in a different age, they would thrive and the rest would fail. Other counter them by saying “if you can’t make it here, you wouldn’t make it anywhere”. Patently false. The truth is, those who make it in this world would most probably have not survived in eons past, and those who are not surviving now may have very well done much better at another time. Each individual’s genetics are his own, and each is best suited for a particular environment. When Darwin spoke of “survival of the fittest” he did not mean “survival of the best” or “survival of the most powerful”. He meant survival of the most well adapted. That creature who best fit in with his environment — may he survive!

As human evolution has ended (due to medical advances) civilizational evolution has increased in speed. A new civilizational order means a new breed of human will rise to the top. As civilization changes, the valued attributes of great men also change. The heroes of today are surely different in character than the heroes of yesteryear. People don’t change, but the top of the stratified social pyramid does. Survival of the “fittest”.

So what of those who do not have the genetic backing to thrive in the modern age? Those who are designed to dominate ages past or ages not yet reached? Are these men forsaken, doomed to a lifetime of unearned suffering due to an error of timing?

I say no. The genetic deficiencies that prevent archaic DNA from triumphing in our modern world can easily be rectified chemically. The absolute plethora of modern drugs (prescription and non) that we have available today can alter the chemical composition of a body so thoroughly as to create almost any change needed. Changing the body’s chemistry is not the deadly sin that we were told it was.

If I spend time exercising my body, and I feel good from that, am I not enjoying a chemical change? If I meditate, and I find it helps me to focus better, am I not enjoying a chemical change?

Chemical changes in the body happen all the time, whether you want them to or not.

The idea that we shouldn’t create beneficial chemical reactions in the body stems from ignorance and old religions.

Eating food is a beneficial chemical reaction. Working out is a beneficial chemical reaction. Sleeping is a beneficial chemical reaction.

We are walking skin-bags of chemicals. Maybe that isn’t all we are, but we are at least that.

The beneficial (correct) use of drugs to create bodily chemical concoctions that would not otherwise be possible because of our genetics is an overwhelmingly good thing.

Can it be harmful? Obviously. Any power, if it is power at all, can be harmful if misused. Power itself is not harmful.

With great power comes great responsibility, and this applies double to drug use.

Using drugs to reach states of consciousness and joy that are otherwise unattainable is a practice that has been going on for centuries.

There isn’t an adult alive who doesn’t wish he could reexperience the unrestrained joy of childhood. Not necessarily the events of childhood, but the potential for happiness and inspiration that is simply inaccessible to an older person.

Chemical change, and chemical degradation, occurs whether we want it to or not. Nothing in the world is static, including our bodies, including our consciousness, including our mental state.

The idea that we, despite having the ability, would decide to not regulate the chemical composition of our bodies in a way that creates a better life (however you choose to define that) is utter lunacy.

If we are truly sovereign people, do we not have a right to the proper regulation of our bodies?

Do we not have a right to optimum functionality?