In 1975, Congress passed a law that mandated mainstreaming students with disabilities. The majority of funding for such programs was never enacted, leaving schools crippled with lower student achievement, increased teacher turnover, and wider educational equity gaps, particularly impacting low-income and minority students. These well-intentioned programs have led to overcrowded classrooms, reduced access to specialized services (such as special education), and fewer extracurricular opportunities, hindering long-term student success and limiting workforce readiness.
The inevitable subsequent shortcomings of education opened the door to other assaults. In the lack of adequate funding, schools frequently cut arts, music, advanced placement courses, and crucial special education, behavioral intervention, and occupational therapy services, most of which offset the likelihood of substance abuse and are key for some students’ success in life. Opportunities are increasingly lost for the social bonding which occurs for participants in school extracurriculars like band or debate to form important relationships that can extend throughout lifetimes. [1]
When Congress passed a broad law on educating children with disabilities in 1975, it agreed to kick in federal dollars to help cover the excess costs of meeting students’ individual education needs. In the time since, federal funding for what’s now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has consistently fallen short of the target included in the law, leaving state and local officials on the hook. Education groups, who call that shortfall an unfulfilled promise, have long campaigned for “fully funding” IDEA, which underpins services for nearly 7 million students with disabilities. More federal funding for IDEA, which gets $13.6 billion in the current budget, would help special education programs, they say, but it would also more broadly affect all students as schools would no longer have to pull as much from their general education budgets to meet the law’s mandates.
The failure of Congress in 1975 has meant fifty subsequent years of underfunded public education in the United States. Despite some improvements and recoveries, experts note that student achievements have not consistently regained the levels reached in the mid-1960s, while international rankings for math and science have dropped in more recent decades.[2] This educational decline has served as a convenient back door which religionists began using as a justification (along with civil rights legislation forcing school integration and other factors) to put children in private schools.
Currently, according to the Congressional Research Service, funding is at less than 12 percent, and the IDEA shortfall in the 2024-2025 school year nationwide was $38.66 billion. A bipartisan bill currently in Congress, the IDEA Full Funding Act, would fully fund the IDEA programs. By forcing the federal government to meet its obligation of funding 40% of special education costs, local districts could free up their general budgets—currently used to fill the special education funding gap—to support regular education initiatives.
As a result of this deficiency and along with the obsessive intentions of the new Puritans, even greater burden now falls upon public schools as private and religious school vouchers allow those schools to deny admission to special education students. Only about 58.7% of all private schools in the U.S. enroll at least one student with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or a formally identified disability. While overall enrollment is lower in Catholic schools, they have higher inclusion rates, with 72.7% to 83.8% serving students with disabilities. This means that only about 1.4% of total students in private schools have formally identified disabilities, although studies suggest a higher 6-9% of students may actually have needs.
This funding gap causes inadequate disability services in public schools. Ironically, as more funding is diverted from public schools via vouchers, schools have even fewer resources to serve students with disabilities, accelerating the demand for school choice and further diminishing public education resources.
Exacerbating this problem is a continuing increase in the number of handicapped students. The number of students with disabilities served under federal programs has roughly doubled since the mid-1970s, growing from approximately 3.6 million in 1976-77 to over 7.5 million by 2022-23. Students with disabilities now account for 15% of total public school enrollment, up from 8.3% in 1976, dramatically increasing the financial burden on public schools. This rise is driven by increased diagnoses of ADHD, autism, and severe anxiety (especially post-pandemic), coupled with reduced stigma, better screening, and greater awareness of legal rights for accommodations.
In classrooms where students with disabilities lack a dedicated personal attendant, responsibility for bathroom and feeding needs falls on school-provided staff, typically special education teachers, para-educators (TAs), or classroom aides. These services are legally mandated under a student’s IEP (Individualized Education Program) or 504 Plan to ensure participation in the least restrictive environment, but are often not provided but to inadequate funding.
As a result, classroom teachers have been forced to step away from teaching the rest of the class to personally attend key tasks including toileting support, feeding, dressing, hygiene (such as nose wiping, menstrual care), and mobility assistance like transfers or repositioning. This care often includes behavior management, medication supervision, and facilitating meal times. Ideally, such duties would fall to paraprofessionals trained and hired to provide such care, but lack of school funds often leaves these duties up to classroom teachers who are not only not trained for such efforts, but also not able to accommodate the needs of the rest of their students.
No wonder teachers are leaving the profession. Data indicates that 51% of classroom teachers feel ill-equipped to implement required IEP services, and high turnover exists due to excessive workloads in special education. One elementary teacher stated that by the time she had tended one student’s temper tantrums and assaults on other students plus feeding and bathroom duties in her first grade class, she had almost no time left to actually teach the other 23 students in her classroom.[3]
That unfunded mandate continues to echo through much of the failure cited today in justification for school vouchers. No one can claim that promoters of IDEA foresaw the lack of funding perpetuated by Congress or the long term role that failure would have in the promotion of school vouchers, but in hindsight the facts are clear: the compromise of public education quality due to the underfunded mandate of IDEA contributed significantly to a rising call for school vouchers.
Adding Insult to Injury
Eliminating the federal department overseeing education is just one of several recent attacks on U.S. public education. As recently as 20 years ago, the United States was ranked No.1 in high school and college education. Sadly, by 2025, in the World Top 20 Project’s Final Rankings of 201 nations’ education systems, the list of best twenty educated countries for 2025 does not include the United States. The U.S. education system generally ranks in the middle to lower tier of developed nations for K-12, particularly struggling in mathematics while performing better in science and reading. According to 2022 PISA data, the U.S. ranked 34th in math, 16th in science, and 9th in reading among 81 education systems, though it remains a global leader in higher education.[4]
Although funding is a critical criterion for the system, American students are also falling behind due to a combination of pandemic-era learning disruptions, increased technology distractions, a deepening teacher shortage, and systemic inequality. Scores in reading and math dropped to historic lows following 2020, with declines continuing due to, in part, reduced student focus, weak accountability, and declining mental health. While remote learning during COVID-19 accelerated losses, student performance in math and reading was already declining since roughly 2013. Heavy use of smartphones and social media is linked to reduced attention spans and lower academic engagement. A 30% drop in teacher enrollment (2010–2019) and low salary growth have made it harder to fill positions.
The U.S. system leaves behind low-performing students more than other developed nations, with significant achievement gaps linked to school funding and location. Schools are facing lower standards and fewer consequences for poor performance compared to previous decades. In 2022–2023, schools reported that roughly half of their students were behind grade level. Many students arrive at college underprepared, leading to high drop-out rates and debt, as schools struggle to align with modern workforce demands. Experts suggest focusing on tutoring, intensive learning recovery, and addressing student mental health.
But that’s hardly enough. American schools face severe faculty shortages, largely due to high turnover rates and a shrinking pipeline of new teachers. Key causes include stagnant, low salaries relative to the cost of living, heavy workloads, declining professional prestige, and intense political scrutiny. These factors drive roughly 40% of new teachers to leave the profession within five years. To gain and maintain sufficient faculty, U.S. schools need competitive compensation, improved retention through mentorship, and broadened hiring criteria—such as valuing professional experience alongside terminal degrees.
Lack of respect for educators is most obvious in the approach to curriculum and teaching methods. Teachers in U.S. public schools often lack a voice in curriculum due to top-down mandates from state and district leaders, high-stakes testing pressures, and increasing political interference. Curricula and textbooks are frequently chosen by politicians and administrators to meet standardized goals or as sold by companies, forcing teachers to follow rigid plans rather than exercising their professional expertise to meet the needs of their students.
Evidence suggests U.S. education rankings and student achievement would likely improve if teachers had greater control over curriculum, textbooks, and school operations. Schools with high teacher leadership in school policy and curriculum development can see student proficiency scores in math and reading increase by at least 10 percentile points.
Teachers are the only persons in the entire educational system certified to have the necessary tools to actually educate. Specialized coursework educates prospective teachers in educational psychology, child development, curriculum planning, assessment methods, classroom management, and technology integration, alongside supervised student teaching. Their college educations for secondary education provide knowledge of history, mathematics, science (biology, chemistry, or physics), social studies, and English and language arts, and depending on their major field of study, experience with arts, music, foreign language, or physical education. Students preparing to teach at the elementary level focus on reading development, foundational math, science, and social studies.
Policymakers, politicians, and district leaders often prioritize compliance over teacher expertise, leaving educators restricted in what they can teach. Many educators self-censor their curriculum choices due to fear of backlash over political or social issues, knowing they lack support from administration if complaints arise. School leadership and state governments often impose curricula rather than collaborating with classroom experts, reducing teachers to implementers rather than creators. Also, the obsession with high-stakes testing encourages, or requires, teachers to follow a rigid script that ensures covering tested materials. In an Alice-in-Wonderland twist, potential backlash is itself a symptom of failed education among the voting public.
A love of learning significantly helps people later in life by protecting against cognitive decline, fostering adaptability, and increasing fulfillment in retirement. It boosts mental health by creating new neural pathways, reduces risks of dementia, and provides a sense of purpose. Lifelong learners maintain better social connections and professional relevance. A love of learning fosters critical thinking and curiosity, and empowers citizens to analyze complex issues rather than blindly following narratives, directly strengthening democracy. Educated individuals are more likely to participate in political processes, stay informed, and tolerate diverse viewpoints, reducing polarization.
Individuals with a love of learning often have higher education levels, which strongly correlates with increased voter turnout, political discussion, and civic engagement. Education teaches citizens to gather empirical evidence and analyze political issues rather than merely accepting rhetoric. A committed, curious citizenry is essential for identifying misinformation, especially as AI makes fabricated media harder to detect which, in turn, leads to the kind of political chaos currently occurring in the United States.
Teachers can and do foster a love of learning by cultivating curiosity, building safe environments, and modeling passion for their subjects. Teachers inspire this through student-centered learning, rather than just lecturing, which transforms students into active participants. Yet in a 2003 survey, only 24% of teachers identified “inspiring a love of learning” as the most important part of good teaching. While almost all teachers value curiosity, studies indicate that only a minority consistently implement high-level curiosity-promoting behaviors, with one study finding that only about 60% provide general opportunities to think or participate.
A group of University of California, Berkeley researchers found that when young children were shown exactly how to do something, they subsequently engaged in less exploration on their own than those who had received no explicit direction. Likewise, enthusiasm about reading—a key predictor of proficiency—tends to be lower when children are subjected to systematic phonics-based instruction rather than a literature-based approach, as Dominic Wyse and Charlotte Hacking explain in their new book The Balancing Act. Math teacher and research mathematician Paul Lockhart, meanwhile, wryly described the conventional curriculum in his field as “a proven cure for curiosity”—also an apt epithet for worksheets.[5]
Research also shows a sharp decline in curiosity as students get older, often due to school practices.[6]
This isn’t a failure of teachers, who often struggle to encourage student curiosity in the quagmire of rigid, test-driven school structures, packed curricula, and a focus on compliance over exploration. Structural constraints like inflexible schedules and standardized testing force teachers to prioritize efficiency over organic, student-led inquiry, which requires time to explore. Further, many teacher training programs prioritize classroom management and content delivery over teaching storytelling, curiosity hooks, or how to spark wonder.
Decreasing educational outcomes in the U.S. diminish long-term economic growth by reducing workforce productivity, lowering lifetime earnings, and increasing public expenditures on social services. A less skilled workforce slows innovation and global competitiveness, with gaps in achievement potentially causing trillions in lost GDP. These declines fuel social inequality, as students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are disproportionately affected, hindering social mobility. Long-term consequences include increased income inequality, higher crime rates, and strained public resources.
Perhaps more importantly, these shortcomings significantly alter the political landscape by driving educational realignment, widening the partisan divide, and potentially lowering overall voter turnout. Voters without college degrees increasingly favor the Republican Party, while college graduates lean Democratic, shifting party platforms and strengthening political polarization.
This political alignment resulting from diminished educational success is without question a driving principle behind Trump’s aggressive attack on the nation’s flagship universities.[7]
The Trump administration has gutted scientific research funding in the United States to punish ‘liberal’ universities and threatened research institutions with sanctions. …Universities are now afraid to collaborate with any other country. Private industry has not stepped up to fund basic research. Science and technology are collapsing in America and we are steadily falling behind the rest of the world. China, Japan, the European Union, and the United Kingdom have all maintained robust scientific research programs. Trump’s failure to understand the value of scientific knowledge is creating a Sputnik-like technology deficit in the U.S. that will be extremely difficult to overcome.
As reported in October 2025, the Trump administration sent schools a 10-point memo titled “Compact for Excellence in Higher Education.” Largely rejected, the compact would limit international student enrollment, force universities to share student information with the federal government, enforce the adoption of a specific definition of gender and threaten affinity spaces, and take action against actors that “punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.”
Enter the Heritage Foundation
Project 2025, a policy blueprint authored primarily by The Heritage Foundation, envisions a nation without a department of education. Currently more than 50 high-level officials and approximately 70 percent of the Cabinet have documented ties to the Heritage Foundation and the groups allied behind the Project 2025 agenda. The goal is to install a “4-pillar” plan to restructure the executive branch, focusing on conservative, and often right-wing, ideals. The project explicitly targets for removal or avoidance several ideologies and policies it deems anti-conservative, “woke,” or contrary to its vision of American society. A review of this “blueprint” reveals an absolute denial of science that puts human existence at risk.
The main ideas, policies, and ideologies to be avoided or eliminated by Project 2025 include: [8]
The project treats “gender ideology” and “transgender ideology” as “social contagions” to be removed from public life, education, and government. It calls for outlawing transgender rights, ending protections for trans people in the military, and equating “transgender ideology” with pornography. Yet science has confirmed that gender identity exists on a spectrum, an unavoidable physical condition set in the womb including being born appearing female but have a 5-alpha reductase deficiency and grow a penis at age 12.
Such conditions of gender dysphoria often remain hidden until adolescence when hormones rise to manifest their genetic directives. What a tragedy for young people with one of these conditions who may be forced to suffer a condition becoming increasingly obvious as they move through adolescence. Medical treatments can mitigate the advancing crisis, but those represented by the Heritage Foundation (and others ignorant of science) would deny the existence of their conditions, creating not only a physical crisis but also emotional and psychological trauma. Needless to say, such a crisis severely undercuts a young person’s ability to gain an effective education.
Another hidden tragedy in this ignorance of science is that it embeds hypocrisy into religious thinking. Modern science has discovered not only the cause of such genetic factors, but also hormonal means of helping these people gain greater equilibrium in their conditions. In a rational consideration, to deny both the medical diagnosis as well as an effective treatment for gender dysphoria would also deny diagnosis and treatment for a myriad of other medical conditions: cancer, for example, or tuberculosis, epilepsy, or diabetes, all of which were considered total mysteries, frequently believed caused by divine punishment or demonic possession. What other conditions and treatments would the new Puritans discard from our society?
Whether or not a person identifies as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (or Questioning) (LGBTQ) also falls into the science denialism of Christian Nationalists. As typical of religious extremists, other people’s private activities, in particular their sexual relationships, form a primary target for authoritarian control. Yet despite wishes to the contrary, sexual identity is not a matter of choice or ‘perversion.’
Genetics play a role in a person’s sexual identity, but it is highly complex. Hundreds of genetic variants can predispose a person to same-sex behavior, meaning DNA alone cannot predict a person’s sexuality. Scientists believe that conditions in the womb significantly influence sexual orientation. Factors such as fetal exposure to varying levels of sex hormones (like androgens) during critical periods of brain development and maternal immune responses during pregnancy help wire attraction before birth.
Separately, the environment can influence how genes work without changing the DNA sequence itself, a process called “epigenetics.” Some theories suggest epigenetic “switches” are passed down across generations and act to protect parents from hormonal extremes in the womb, which can subsequently influence brain development and attraction in their offspring.
The reality of science should serve to deny religionists the ability to blame matters of gender and identity as a sinful choice. It should eliminate any idea of forcing such persons into conversion therapy, either private practice or facilities operating under the scientifically debunked premise that LGBTQ+ identities are a mental illness, defect, or choice and using harmful practices such as faith-based boot camps or church-operated programs that use prayer, isolation, and guilt to “cure” same-sex attraction along with extreme measures including physical labor, emotional abuse, and deprivation.
Another Puritan initiative seeks to purge DEI programs, race-conscious admissions, and “wokeism” from federal agencies, the military, and educational institutions, labeling them “managerialist left-wing race and gender ideology.” These include Critical Race Theory, calling for the removal of critical race theory from public schools and federal funding for programs that teach it. CRT is an academic and legal framework, developed in the 1970s and 80s that examines how racism is systemic and embedded in legal systems and societal institutions, rather than just a product of individual prejudice. Denialism by religionists does not erase the reality of prejudice in cultural traditions driving racism and other harmful discriminations.
Project 2025 also calls for eliminating all references to climate change and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The policy seeks to stop the “war on oil and natural gas,” leaving young people without the knowledge of how to address the warming of our climate.
Project 2025 advocates for the abolition of the U.S. Department of Education, returning control of education to states, and promoting school choice over public schools. It aims to remove “pornography” and “woke propaganda” from school libraries, often targeting books with LGBTQ+ content, and seeks to move the nation away from what it considers “leftist” and “woke” ideologies, focusing instead on a “biblically-based,” traditional, and nationalistic approach to American governance and society.
Despite the new Puritan efforts, every thinking person knows that public education must embrace the truths revealed by modern science, bestowing upon our coming generations the insights and understanding necessary to motivate participation in our democracy. Above all, secular education must ensure the survival of our Constitution in its original intent, that religion remains utterly separate from the operations of our government.
[1] Blad, Evie. “Why the Fed Still Falls Short on Special Education Funding,” Education Week, Jan 10, 2020. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/ why-the-feds-still-fall-short-on-special-education-funding/2020/01
[3] Author’s personal correspondence with the teacher
[4] New Jersey Minority Educational Development (NJMED) organization. Each country’s ranking is based on five educational levels: early-childhood enrollment rates, Elementary Math, Science and Reading scores, Middle-School Math, Science and Reading scores, High School Graduation rates, and College Graduation rates. https://worldtop20.org/worldbesteducationsystem/
[6] Regarding student curiosity as part of classroom outcomes, see Jirout JJ, Zumbrunn S, Evans NS, Vitiello VE. Development and Testing of the Curiosity in Classrooms Framework and Coding Protocol. Front Psychol. 2022 Apr 7;13:875161. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.875161. PMID: 35465531; PMCID: PMC9022842.
[8] See, for example, Boucher FJO, Chinnah TI. Gender Dysphoria: A Review Investigating the Relationship Between Genetic Influences and Brain Development. Adolesc Health Med Ther. 2020 Aug 5;11:89-99. doi: 10.2147/AHMT.S259168. PMID: 32801984; PMCID: PMC7415463. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7415463/
Laws against drug use do not stop drug use or abuse, as clearly evidenced by the continuing rise of substance abuse and overdose deaths over the last sixty years despite the so-called “drug war.” We spend nearly a trillion dollars a year supporting draconian laws and their enforcement, but that only exacerbates conditions which lead individuals to substance abuse. Current drug policy feeds a system of violence by funneling drug traffic to underground markets which in turn finance gangs and cartels. This violence escalates as community law enforcement shifts toward militarized weaponry and strategies, which leads to violations of individual, constitutionally-guaranteed rights.
The following discussion uses existing research and statistics to show that the drug war has failed in a wide array of human needs as well as public policy. We show what changes would useful in eliminating this destructive approach and how we can improve American lives and the society as a whole.
With the onslaught of massive data centers heating up the climate and burning precious resources, we stand on the threshold of a new age ruled by a handful of Big Tech leaders. Risk analysts view AI’s threat as a 10 to 100 times greater risk than current social media due to its capacity for permanence and existential risk to our mental health, democratic discourse, and social cohesion. The core difference in predicted magnitude levels lies in the potential for complete, irreversible ruin. This booklet explores the many arenas where such ruin could play out.
Like the slow spread of a fatal disease, certain interest groups within the United States have been working to undermine the nation’s education system. Their goal, as so clearly outlined in the 900 pages of Project 2025, is to change our democratic republic into plutocratic theocracy. Ruling from the top, the wealthiest citizens (U.S. Peerage) will enjoy virtually no restrictions on their profits or the damage caused by their industries, while ruling from the bottom, the Christian Nationalists and other religious extremists (New Puritans) will ensure the population lives by Christian rules.
This is not a theory. This is the fact of the current situation as recent Supreme Court decisions have opened the door for unregulated homeschooling and religious private schools to receive our tax dollars in support of their operations. This is in direct opposition to the Constitution’s First Amendment, which specifically prohibits any government support for any religion.
This workaround has been steadily advancing since colonial days but has increased significantly since the 1940s when the “Red Scare” brought a fresh level of religious fanaticism to the public arena. The result? Today, billions of our tax dollars flow into religious school coffers while public schools suffer for inadequate funding even though 90% of K-12 students attend public schools. Perhaps more damaging than the financial costs are the lessons learned under religious instruction: that the Earth is only 6,000 years old; that vaccinations are harmful; that men are superior to women. These are the seeds of a modern nation’s destruction.
Like the slow spread of a fatal disease, certain interest groups within the United States have been working to undermine the nation’s education system. Their goal, as so clearly outlined in the 900 pages of Project 2025, is to change our democratic republic into plutocratic theocracy. Ruling from the top, the wealthiest citizens (U.S. Peerage) will enjoy virtually no restrictions on their profits or the damage caused by their industries, while ruling from the bottom, the Christian Nationalists and other religious extremists (New Puritans) will ensure the population lives by Christian rules.
This is not a theory. This is the fact of the current situation as recent Supreme Court decisions have opened the door for unregulated homeschooling and students at religious private schools to receive our tax dollars in support of their operations. This is in direct opposition to the Constitution’s First Amendment, which specifically prohibits any government support for any religion.
This workaround has been steadily advancing since colonial days but has increased significantly since the 1940s when the “Red Scare” brought a fresh level of religious fanaticism to the public arena. The result? Today, billions of our tax dollars flow into religious school instruction while public schools suffer from inadequate funding even though 90% of K-12 students attend public schools. Perhaps more damaging than the financial costs are the lessons learned under religious instruction: that the Earth is only 6,000 years old; that vaccinations are harmful; that men are superior to women. These are the seeds of a modern nation’s destruction.
For the record, I predict that Trump is in the last stages of destroying the goals of his Enablers—Evangelical extremists and their Zionist fantasies, Christian Nationalists, oligarchs, racists, misogynists, and the rest. By the time they wake up to the damage he is doing in his ignorant, ham-fisted effort to implement their objectives, it will be too late to undo it. The end result will be a complete destruction of those Enabler goals and their power in U.S. society.
Make no mistake. In the process already well underway, these morons including Trump will have significantly damaged our nation and each of us individually. Any respect or trust felt toward the United States by other nations will have been destroyed. Our military will have squandered its strategic reserves as well as uncounted lives in a war initiated on a whim without any strategic preparation. Our standing in the world will be trashed.
Our privacy in Social Security, tax, and medical records is lost as the DOGE boys walk off with that information on flash drives. Our natural treasures from forests to wetlands to wildlife is being sold off to the highest bidder, and our hope of stopping global warming will be utterly destroyed. Hard-working men and women, along with their families, who dared to attempt citizenship in this country are being lost to the gulags of foreign countries while our crops rot in the fields. Gas prices are skyrocketing in Trump’s little war, not to decrease for untold months as our fate rests in the hands of the nation Trump attacked.
The end of the Enabler wet dream is near. While the draft dodger plays war games from the Oval Office, his Gestapo/ICE is killing U.S. citizens. Thanks to the SCOTUS, his tariff wet dream is over, with only his remaining grab lasting until July. Invading Venezuela pushed the envelope, and invading Greenland was too much to allow. We have yet to discover the full truth of his submission to Russia, but the irrefutable evidence is mounting.
There’s only so much Trump can do to avoid the consequences of his party time with Epstein, and he’s up to his neck in doing it. But his grab bag of distractions is slowly emptying, and one way or the other, the truth will out.
And there’s only so much the Enablers can do to keep him awake and walking before dear old Mother Nature cuts him off for good.
The Enablers chose to elevate him to the presidency because he is easily manipulated. He pretends to be Christian, enough for the Evangelical and Zionist Enablers to claim he was sent by God as a “flawed vessel,” an imperfect man guided by God’s own hand to lead a nation away from its wanderings; they seek to ensure Israel’s dominance in the Middle East in order to usher in the Second Coming. Why, he could lead the nation back to its Christian roots, its Manifest Destiny to claim this land from its former residents (those heathen tribes) and turn it to God’s plan for a white Christian patriarchy just like the Bible promised!
The Oligarch Enablers touted his financial experience, claiming he was a billionaire who knew the business world. They promoted his reputation of wealth and ignored the common knowledge that in his stomping grounds of New York, Donald Trump was viewed by many, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s, as a “slippery” real estate developer and a “laughing stock” who was “wildly tacky,” according to reports. He was often described in NY as a “con man” or a “shyster” in the context of being a negotiator who would use any means, including “spurious” lawsuits and “scurrilous” tactics, to get his way. But he was malleable, which is all the billionaires needed, claiming that with his financial skills, he could turn the economy around to benefit all people. They knew he had failed at all his financial projects, but believed he would be successful in shifting onerous taxes away from the superrich, which was their true objective.
Then there were White Supremacist Enablers’ concerns about all the non-white immigrants (even those who were citizens) slowly shifting the population away from whiteness. Oh my, what will happen when the browns outnumber the whites?! Could it be that browns will treat whites the way whites have treated browns? After all, whites are by far superior, inventing “everything,” as Trump announced at the 2025 DAVOS meeting. Well, he said the United States was the ‘inventor of everything,’ but to him, in that setting of Western European whites, he meant white. In his garbaged brain, he has no inkling of all the important inventions made by brown people. His personal racism was inherited from his father and grandfather in the tradition of paternal relatives living in Germany in a culture that embraced Hitler’s vision of a white Christian Europe. This all made Trump a great candidate to implement the Enablers’ vision.
The White Racists overlap with the ChristoFascists, whose entire existence seems riveted to the idea that their ticket to heaven lies in convincing everyone to believe what they believe. Already their ‘gospel’ of greed, hate, and selfishness is being effectively repudiated by people who understand and follow the teachings of Christ, not that those teachings differ much from those of basic human morality.
Then, women. For crying out loud, the WOMEN! How dare they stand alongside men as ‘equals’ instead of being barefoot and pregnant in men’s kitchens?! Didn’t God Himself ordain that woman were men’s helpers? But God of the Jews didn’t ordain women as ‘less.’ That idea came from the Romans who by around 400 AD had managed to edit the early Christian writings down to what they deemed appropriate in their patriarchal society: “In Roman culture, a paterfamilias could legally kill a wife or daughter primarily for adultery (violating sexual purity). Other actions, such as drinking wine or other perceived transgressions, were historically punished with death in early Roman history.” (See Council of Nicaea, “…The primary purpose of the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, convened by Emperor Constantine, was to unify the Christian Church by resolving the Arian controversy over the divine nature of Jesus Christ and establish core doctrines, leading to the creation of the Nicene Creed and decisions on Easter dates.”)
Those pesky early Christian writings revealed, in the Gospel of Mary, a path to faith without churches or hierarchy, “a radical interpretation of Jesus’ teachings as a path to inner spiritual knowledge; it rejects His suffering and death as the path to eternal life; it exposes the erroneous view that Mary of Magdala was a prostitute for what it is—a piece of theological fiction; it presents the most straightforward and convincing argument in any early Christian writing for the legitimacy of women’s leadership; it offers a sharp critique of illegitimate power and a utopian vision of spiritual perfection; it challenges our rather romantic views about the harmony and unanimity of the first Christians; and it asks us to rethink the basis for church authority.”
But I digress.
Trump is a figurehead, uninterested and incapable of “running” the United States of America. Instead, he does what his Enablers direct him to do, which is to appoint sycophants to do this administration’s various jobs. Stephen Miller is the force behind Homeland Security, ICE, and all the other ugly, criminal activities currently underway in our Democratic cities. Perhaps criminally insane, Miller is thrilled that brown people are being killed and dispossessed but most of all he enjoys seeing people and their families being terrorized. The terror for the rest of us is just so much collateral damage.
The Enablers have a plan, Project 2025. Destroying the federal government ranks high on the list, with only a few to be saved from the Musk/DOGE destruction which not only eliminated 260,000 to 308,000 federal jobs but also stole a “dataset of more than 300 million Americans’ sensitive information into a virtual database without following required security protocols.”
That information can be used in several damaging ways to:
• Copy data to use for unauthorized purposes
• Deny access to public services, benefits, and opportunities such as: medical care, housing, food or student financial assistance, veteran or military benefits, public contracts, and more.
• “Doxx” (share personal information online)
• Provide or sell data to foreign governments, data brokers, and/or private companies
The Enablers don’t feel personally at risk from these data thefts and have specific methods of using such data to their own financial advantage.
Evangelical Extremists won’t turn away from Trump because their religious beliefs fix them in unquestioning support of the Flawed Vessel. Likewise, few Racists will never be able to overcome their inbred fear and hatred of brown people.
I predict it will be the Oligarchs who finally draw the line and end Trump. It will be interesting to see what finally flips their switch and ends him. Sadly, unless Republicans in Congress stand up and impeach with the Constitution’s Article 2, Section 4 (President, Vice President, and “civil Officers of the United States” including cabinet secretaries and federal judges) to rid us of the entire Trump circus, we’ll be saddled with the vice president who is already groomed by oligarch Peter Thiel for the job.
We can’t count on patriotism to motivate any Enabler to take action. One group has traded its moral judgment for what they believe is God’s favor. Another group has lost their humanity in fear and hatred for brown people. The Oligarchs see nothing wrong with skewing the tax scales in their favor, since their concept of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” means dog-eat-dog capitalism. But now with the losses of war in the Middle East and the stranglehold on oil supply, how much longer will the Oligarchs wait?
Laws against drug use do not stop drug use or abuse. Instead, such laws and their enforcement exacerbate conditions in individuals which have led to their substance abuse. Current drug policy feeds a system of violence by funneling drug traffic to underground markets which in turn finance gangs and cartels. This violence escalates as community law enforcement shifts toward militarized weaponry and strategies, which leads to violations of individual, constitutionally-guaranteed rights. Meanwhile, taxpayers fund ever increasing costs for failed policies.
The Money $$
Incarcerating drug offenders costs U.S. taxpayers over $10 billion annually for over 485,000 prisoners. The federal government spends approximately one million dollars per day just on drug-related incarcerations, with state governments spending billions more. The average annual cost to incarcerate a single person is roughly $40,000 to over $65,000, far exceeding the cost of treatment.[1]
Imprisonment: $10 billion
Beyond incarceration, the total cost for police, prosecution, and adjudication of drug law violations are estimated at over $47 billion per year. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) budget for 2021 (last available year) was $3.28 billion.
Enforcement: $47 billion.
When including the societal costs of substance abuse (health care, criminal justice, lost productivity), the total impact is estimated at over $500 billion annually for substance abusers. Then there’s the cost of social services for families of persons convicted for drug crimes. An average of nearly $4,200 annually is paid by families to support their incarcerated loved ones, with a cumulative financial burden on families estimated at approximately $350 billion per year nationwide. Federal prison populations average 42.9% drug prisoners, costing tax payers $150 billion in social services for their dependents, while state prisons contain an average of 20% for drug crimes adding another $70 billion for social services, a total of $220 billion.[2][3]
Society: $720 billion.
The total societal cost for individuals with substance abuse problems, including lost productivity and health consequences, is much higher, with estimates exceeding $820 billion annually. For illegal drugs, the cost is estimated at $193 billion.
The United States military spends roughly $1 billion annually directly on drug interdiction and counter-drug activities, with over $8 billion in surplus equipment transferred to law enforcement agencies since 1990. This spending involves the Department of Defense (DoD) supporting federal, state, and local agencies through intelligence, surveillance, and equipment transfers, particularly through the 1033 program.[5]
Military: $9 billion
Total estimated dollar cost of the U.S. drug war: $979 billion ANNUALLY.
The Human Cost
Roughly 75% of illegal drug users are self-medicating.[6] Research has shown that people with conditions like depression, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, PTSD, and ADHD may use illegal drugs to temporarily alleviate symptoms. For example, a person struggling with alcoholism through most of the fifty years of his life seeks therapy and discovers that he was bi-polar. Once appropriately medicated for bi-polar disorder, he no longer cared to drink. Many patients misusing drugs and alcohol have chronic pain and use these substances (such as marijuana and heroin, which have pain-relieving properties) to cope. Finally, in the absence of emotional support, individuals may use drugs to deal with increased stress, trauma, or a recent loss.
In a nation eager to spend billions of dollars to punish intoxication, far less energy and money is expended to provide physical and mental health care for persons in need. Illegal street drugs are less expensive than medical care. Even subsidized medical care often fails to fully address mental health or nutritional needs. For a chronically depressed person, for example, methamphetamine can elevate that person’s mood. Opiates can also seem the perfect answer, i.e. escape from reality.
Enforcement of prohibition laws further harms a person using illegal drugs. Humiliation, disenfranchisement, and poverty are collateral damage intentionally inflicted by arrest and prosecution. An arrest or conviction record can lead to eviction or denial of housing, particularly in public housing, with formerly incarcerated people being ten times more likely to experience homelessness. Interactions with the legal system can trigger child welfare investigations, potentially leading to family separation and foster care placement, adding to generational damage. Consequences can include the loss of voting rights, firearm privileges, and driver’s license suspension. Individuals may lose access to student loans, public benefits (like TANF or SNAP), and face significant financial burdens. These deleterious effects of prohibition laws only exacerbate an individual’s underlying problems.
There were approximately 105,000 to 108,000 annual drug overdose deaths reported in 2022 and 2023, with provisional data for 2024 indicating a significant decrease to around 80,000–81,700 deaths. The vast majority of these deaths involve illicit drugs, specifically synthetic opioids like illegally-made fentanyl, the primary driver of the overdose crisis in the United States, responsible for approximately 72,000 to 73,000 deaths annuallyas of 2023. These synthetic opioids account for nearly 70% of all illegal drug-related deaths.
Between 2001 and 2018, deaths from drug and alcohol intoxications in prisons and jails rose 600% and 400%, respectively. Factors in these surprising numbers include limited access to evidence-based treatment, such as Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) (e.g., methadone, buprenorphine), and high-turnover, high-stress environments. Additionally, researchers suggest that the true number of intoxication-related deaths is likely higher, as many are often miscoded on death certificates as “illness” or “unknown” causes, particularly when they occur shortly after booking. Treatment or medications for substance use disorder are rarely available behind bars.[7]
What makes the news are deaths from fentanyl, over 80,000 annually as noted above. But compared to drug deaths, deaths from legal alcohol use are estimated at 178,000 annually. Additionally, another 13,000 deaths (average) per year result from drunk driving. Excessive alcohol use remains a leading preventable cause of death, with estimates frequently exceeding 100,000 annual deaths attributable to chronic health conditions and acute events like accidents.[8]
Death from illegal drugs:
2024 (Provisional): Approximately 79,384 drug overdose deaths were reported, representing a substantial, nearly 24% decrease from 2023.
2023: Approximately 105,007 people died from drug overdoses, which was a slight decrease (about 3%) from the 107,941 deaths reported in 2022.
2022: A total of 107,941 drug overdose deaths occurred.
2021: A total of 106,699 drug overdose deaths
In comparison, deaths due to excessive alcohol use increased from 30,722 in 2014 to 54,258 in 2020-21 to 46,796 in 2024. These are direct results while alcohol-related causes totaled 178,000 deaths “in an average year.”[9] Polling shows that 54% of adults say that someone in their household has struggled with an alcohol use disorder.[10]
As we should have learned from efforts to eliminate alcohol use/abuse with the 1920 passage of the Volstead Act (repealed in 1933), prohibition laws open a vast underground market where criminals earn huge profits by supplying prohibited substances to the public. While there is no single definitive figure for the total size of the underground alcohol market between 1920 and 1933, the federal government lost an estimated $11 billion in tax revenue during Prohibition and spent another estimated $300 million in enforcement. Meanwhile, organized crime syndicates flourished, with major figures like Al Capone generating up to $100 million annually. Deaths attributed to alcohol poisoning during the thirteen years of prohibition are estimated at 50,000, i.e. slightly less than 4,000 per year.[11] This total is separate from other alcohol-related deaths including drunk driving and alcohol-related diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver.
Worse than the dollar cost for the current prohibition laws on certain drugs, however, is the human cost and the cost to our democracy.
Prohibition was—and is—a powerful political tool heralded by countless public office hopefuls who don’t hesitate to proclaim their support for prohibition laws. Notably, President Donald Trump has used drug trafficking to justify the outright murder of (so far) over 130 individuals by claiming they were carrying drugs in their boats—no judge, no jury.[12] Keep in mind that over 100,000 people die each year from prescribed drugs. Legal drugs. These include psychostimulants, cocaine, prescription opioids, benzodiazepines, heroin, antidepressants.
Data shows us that 27.9 million people, 9.7% of the population, will suffer an alcohol use disorder, while 28.2 million (9.8%) will suffer a drug use disorder. Equally noteworthy is that 21.2 million people had both a mental health disorder and a substance use disorder.[13] Other evidence is found to support the idea that at least half of persons with a substance abuse problem are self-medicating an underlying problem. Contributing factors include early use (before age 15 compared to those who wait until age 21 or later) and/or a family history of problem drinking. Altogether, nearly 20%–one in five people—face substance abuse problems.
The cost to our democracy is not just the extra-judicial murder of people in boats. It is the ridiculous idea that the government has the right and capability to monitor individual lives. To this end, government has armed community police departments with military-grade weapons and the development of SWAT teams in order to carry out the ‘war’ on our citizens. Yes, this is a response to wealthy street gangs protecting their turf against competing gangs as well as against law enforcement, but prohibition policies created this war that can never be won. People will continue to recreate and self-medicate. Police will continue to try to enforce the laws, failed as they are. Such laws open the way to selective enforcement, wherein persons of color or low income become easy targets. Black people are significantly more likely to be arrested for drug violations, with studies showing they are 3.6 times more likely than white people to be arrested for marijuana possession. Black and Latino people make up the majority of those in state and federal prisons for drug offenses. The imprisonment rate for Black adults for drug charges is nearly six times that of white adults. Almost never does law enforcement act against the wealthy or other ‘elites’ who most certainly can access effective legal advice before ever entering a jail cell.
These shameful outcomes in a so-called free society are due to the fact that drug laws are fundamentally unenforceable. Government cannot surveil private activity in the homes of American citizens, so traffic stops for spurious reasons lead to police sniffing the air rolling out of the car window to justify acceleration of their ‘investigation.’
This ouroboros of ill-considered public policy not only destroys our communities, it infects the entire nation with violence and lost opportunities.
Cost of Appropriate Care for Persons with Substance Abuse Disorder
Experts emphasize that substance abuse is often both a cause and a consequence of homelessness. While addiction can contribute to housing loss, many individuals also experience substance use as a form of “self-medication” to cope with the trauma and physical pain of living without stable housing, as previously discussed.
Walk-in, free community health clinics that focus on addiction treatment should include excellent nutrition, mental health diagnosis and treatment, and healing exercise (T’ai chi, mindful meditation, low impact exercises, walking, swimming). Such clinics must be established in every community where homeless populations are found and, subsequently, in every community of 25,000 or fewer or equivalent parts of larger communities. Each person must be linked with a counselor who advises not only on treatment options, but also on what social services are available and recommended, to include physical (including dental) and mental health care, educational options, job training programs, counseling on matters of family, personal relationships, and living conditions. Referral to housing with follow-up oversight requires that housing be available.
Housing for unsheltered persons is an important element in addressing addiction and mental health issues. Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) is the gold standard for individuals experiencing chronic homelessness who have diagnosed disabilities. It combines long-term, stable housing with intensive, voluntary supportive services (such as mental health care, addiction treatment, and case management) to ensure long-term success. Cost: $12,000–$20,000 range, with some specialized cases involving higher service needs costing more. Rapid Re-Housing (RRH), often in the form of tiny home villages, is best suited for those experiencing non-chronic homelessness. This model focuses on getting individuals into their own apartments as quickly as possible. It provides short-term financial assistance (rent/utilities) and time-limited support services to help people stabilize and gain independence. RRH is lower-cost, short-to-medium-term assistance, estimated at roughly $8,500 annually.
Many experts argue that the high cost of homelessness—driven by public spending on emergency rooms, jails, hospitals, and crisis services—often exceeds the cost of providing stable, permanent housing.
National Alliance to End Homelessness:
We calculated the additional Housing First placements needed to provide assistance for every household who experienced sheltered homelessness in 2022. Table 2 applies financial cost estimates (in 2022 dollars) to this expansion in placements. At an annual cost of $8,486 and $20,115 per adult household for each placement in Rapid Re-Housing and supportive housing, respectively, it would cost an additional $8.2 billion to rehouse all adult households who stayed in shelter in 2022.
The comparatively smaller number of families experiencing homelessness, almost all of whom are temporarily homeless, would mean that all sheltered homeless families could be rehoused using Rapid Re-Housing at an additional annual cost of $1 billion. The highly successful veterans Housing First placements can be expanded to cover all sheltered homeless veterans at an additional annual cost of $442 million. At an estimated total additional cost of $9.6 billion, all households that used shelter in 2022 could have been provided with a Housing First program.
Between 2001 and 2018, deaths from drug and alcohol intoxications in prisons and jails rose 600% and 400%, respectively. Treatment or medications for substance use disorder are rarely available behind bars.[14]
Estimated number of homeless persons in the United States (2024) is 772,000. For this number, high end estimated cost for PSH would total $15.4 billion.
Subtracted from the savings found in ending the drug war, providing housing for the homeless would leave$963.6 billion for other uses.
Lost Potential Income
The global illegal drug industry is estimated to be worth between $426 billion and $652 billion per year. The United States illegal drug industry is estimated to be worth between $200 billion and $750 billion per year. If you believe the people profiting from this income flow will hesitate to spend some of their ill-gotten wealth to lobby legislators at any hint of drug policy reform, I have a bridge to sell you.
If currently illegal drugs were legalized in the United States, regulated like alcohol for purity and dosage strength, and taxed, the income from those taxes would range between $7.5 billion and $225 billion per year. This 3% approximation is based on the rate used on alcohol in Arkansas. Alcohol tax differs from state to state, in addition to federal tax per ounce of pure alcoholic content. For spirits, wine, and beer, the federal rate is 21 cents, 6 cents, and 9 cents, respectively, leaving no easy method of comparing alcohol tax rates to potential tax on currently illegal drugs. No doubt a modest tax rate on what is currently sold on the black market would be substantial. Potential tax income from legalized drug tax: $7.5 to $225 billion.
Also profiting the nation would be new income for farmers, processors, and retailers providing drugs to the public. For comparison, consider the Arkansas medical marijuana market. Since its 2019 launch, the Arkansas medical marijuana industry has exceeded $1.1 billion in total sales. In February and March 2024 combined, the state’s 38 dispensaries sold nearly $45 million in products. As of March 2, 2026, the average annual pay for a Cannabis Grower in Arkansas is $51,905 ($24.95/hour), with most salaries ranging from $31,100 to $66,500. Top earners (90th percentile) in the Arkansas cannabis cultivation sector can make up to $81,841 annually. Broader roles within the Arkansas cannabis industry average around $118,867 a year ($57.15/hour). Of key note, Arkansas has collected over $127 million in state tax revenue from medical marijuana in the last five years.
Imagine these numbers amplified if production and sales weren’t limited to people certified as medical use! Instead, current policies are supporting various actors in this international underground drug trade, including:
Transnational Criminal Organizations (Cartels): These “international logistics companies” manage the large-scale trafficking and distribution. Leaders (“kingpins”) can accumulate immense personal fortunes, often running into billions of dollars, though the majority of revenue is distributed among lower-level participants in destination countries.
Wholesalers and Distributors: Individuals in destination countries like the US and the UK who break down large shipments and distribute them to local dealers capture an estimated 70% to 80% of the total revenue, primarily due to the high retail price and significant risks involved at this stage of the supply chain.
Street-level Dealers: While often making modest incomes (sometimes compared to minimum wage, though still a living wage for many), these individuals are numerous and collectively account for a large portion of the market’s revenue. Their earnings are often used for everyday living expenses.
Farmers and Producers: At the very beginning of the supply chain, farmers in producer countries (e.g., Afghanistan for poppy, Colombia for coca) earn very little compared to the final street value of the drugs.
Corrupt Officials: Bribes and payoffs supplement the incomes of government officials, police, and border control agents at various levels, enabling the flow of drugs and money.
Professionals involved in Money Laundering: Individuals such as lawyers and accountants are involved in creating shell companies, using offshore accounts, and running cash-intensive businesses (like bars, salons, or construction companies) to disguise illicit funds as legitimate income.
Legitimate Businesses: Drug money is often laundered by investing it in the legitimate economy, including the stock market, real estate, and various small businesses, which in turn profits from these cash infusions.
For example, a DEA memo, part of a recent (early 2026) release of Justice Department files, shows that the agency opened an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and others in December 2010. The investigation was still pending as of 2015, the date of the memo. The document specifically noted that Epstein was suspected of transferring more than $5.6 million for the purpose of acquiring narcotics.
Ultimately, illegal profits sustain the operations of the entire criminal network and fund related illicit activities such as human trafficking and arms trafficking.
Farmers would be one of the primary beneficiaries of legalized drugs, capable of producing not only crops of marijuana, but also opium poppies and coca bush. The two latter agricultural products are well established outside the continental U.S., as are harvesting and processing methods. Populations which have traditionally produced opium are primarily Afghanistan and parts of the North-West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan). Coca production and processing are traditionally in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, and Ecuador. These areas would greatly benefit from legalizing their farming of these substances.
Clearly, ending the U.S. drug war would create tremendous benefits around the world.
The Drug War’s Role in Illegal Immigration
In particular, legalized drugs would remove the U.S. boot from the necks of Central and South American nations whose drug cartels currently exercise a combination of extreme violence, territorial control, corruption, and diversification into other criminal and legitimate economic activities in their home nations. Drug cartels exert a profound, direct, and increasingly violent influence on immigration into the United States by controlling, taxing, and facilitating the movement of people across the U.S.-Mexico border. They have transformed migrant smuggling into a multi-billion dollar business that often works in tandem with drug trafficking, turning the border into a “pay-to-pass” system.
But that is only part of the drug war benefit to cartels in the immigration arena. Violence, including that stemming from drug trafficking, gang activity (maras), and extortion, is a primary driver of emigration from Central America, with studies suggesting it acts as a, or the, main catalyst for 39% to over 60% of migrants, particularly from the “Northern Triangle” (El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala). The violence associated with the drug trade damages local economies, reduces investment, and destroys jobs. Research indicates that this “economic channel” is the dominant force behind migration, as people flee not just the immediate threat of violence, but the loss of livelihood. Gangs frequently target youth for forced recruitment, leading many families to send their children to the U.S. for safety, resulting in surges of unaccompanied minors.
The immigration problem for the U.S. is not limited to Central America. Even further south from our borders are people desperate to leave South America. The majority of South American immigrants to the southern border of the United States are from Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru.
As of early 2026, the political-economic situation regarding the drug war in Venezuela is defined by a deeply entrenched, state-involved narco-trafficking infrastructure that functions amid a severe economic, humanitarian crisis, and intense pressure from the United States. The government is largely seen as a “gangster state” where, under the Maduro regime, the military and security apparatus became reliant on illicit revenue streams to maintain power, particularly through the “Cartel of the Suns”. Roughly 49% to over 72% of Venezuelan migrants to the U.S. have cited insecurity and violence as a reason for leaving their country.
As of early 2025, over 400,000 Ecuadorians had left the country since 2021, with a significant and growing percentage driven by drug war violence and, in some cases, forced recruitment. The political and economic situation regarding the drug war in Ecuador is characterized by a “new phase” of intense, US-backed military operations against “narco-terrorist” gangs, which have largely taken over criminal control of the country’s Pacific ports. Despite President Daniel Noboa’s “iron fist” policies—declaring an internal armed conflict and deploying the military—homicides reached record-highs in 2025, with over 9,000 violent deaths, making it one of the most violent nations in the world.
The political and economic situation regarding the drug war in Colombia in early 2026 is characterized by heightened tensions with the United States, record-high cocaine production, and a contentious shift in strategy under President Gustavo Petro. Cocaine trafficking is a massive, parallel economy in Colombia, generating an estimated $15.3 billion annually, equivalent to roughly 4.2% of the country’s GDP. Petro has moved away from forced eradication toward voluntary substitution and “total peace” negotiations with armed groups, a policy that has struggled to show results and has antagonized the Trump administration.
In Brazil, the highest rates of homicide, often linked to drug trafficking disputes, are concentrated in the North and Northeast regions, prompting migration from these areas. Brazil struggles with high rates of homicide (roughly 23.8 per 100,000 residents), gang violence, and robbery, largely driven by the illegal drug trade.
In Peru’s rural, coca-growing regions like the VRAEM (Valley of the Apurímac, Ene, and Mantaro Rivers), violence, extortion, and illegal mining have forced many to leave. Drug traffickers have increased violence against indigenous communities, causing displacement. The reduction of USAID funding, particularly under the Trump administration, has created uncertainty regarding the continuation of alternative development programs that were designed to encourage farmers to switch from coca to legal crops.
Overall, immigration enforcement and border security costs have reached record highs in the U.S., with proposed and approved funding for FY2025–2026 exceeding $100 billion over four years, including a roughly $10 billion annual budget for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and nearly $20 billion for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in 2024. Recent legislation has significantly boosted these figures, allocating $45 billion for detention, $30 billion for removals, and $46 billion for border walls, creating a massive “deportation-industrial complex.”
Obviously, ending the drug war would destroy the cartels, thereby allowing for a return to normalcy in these Central and South American nations. Granted, this won’t occur overnight. The damage has occurred over decades. Still, if such an improvement came to pass, we could estimate at the very least a 50% reduction in this budget, from $100 billion to $50 billion, and probably significantly more.
Dispensing Drugs in a No-Prohibition Nation
Almost 300 million people are estimated to consume illicit drugs regularly, with the three most popular being cannabis (228 million users), opioids (60 million) and cocaine (23 million). But that is a drop in the bucket to the actual drug consumption. Nearly 260 million Americans use over-the-counter (OTC) medications, purchasing them an average of 26 times per year. In 2024, OTC medication sales in the U.S. were estimated at $44.3 billion. Studies show that 81% of U.S. adults used at least one OTC medication, prescription medication, or dietary supplement in the past week. Further, approximately 6.3 billion prescriptions were filled in the U.S. in 2020 alone. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults (about 64.8%) report taking at least one prescription medication annually, treating conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.
The mean cost of developing a new drug from 2000 to 2018 was $172.7 million (2018 dollars) but increased to $515.8 million when cost of failures was included and to $879.3 million when both drug development failure and capital costs were included. Clearly pharmaceutical companies are betting on a return, with profits. According to the healthcare intelligence company IQVIA, the U.S. alone accounted for nearly half of all worldwide prescription drug sales in 2024, generating almost $800 billion in revenue, within a global pharma market estimated at $1.7 trillion. Pharmaceutical companies spend over $10 billion annually on direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising in the U.S., with the top 10 drugs accounting for over one-third of that total. TV ads represent about half of this, totaling over $5 billion. Total marketing and sales spending for some major companies, such as AbbVie and Johnson & Johnson, frequently exceeds their research and development (R&D) budgets.[15]
Face it. Drugs are everywhere. Large signs declare “DRUGSTORE.” Television offers drug advertisements up to 16 hours of drug ads per year, with some studies suggesting even higher exposure of over 30 hours, exceeding the average time spent with a primary care physician. The pharmaceutical industry spends billions on direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising, with $6.58 billion spent in 2020 alone. The U.S. is one of only two countries—along with New Zealand—that allows direct-to-consumer drug advertising on TV. As the population ages and chronic disease rates rise, pharmaceutical companies have responded by increasing their ad spend to promote new and patented drugs directly to consumers.
According to the FDA’s Office of Prescription Drug Promotion, these are the most common issues found in today’s drug commercials: Omitting or downplaying of risk; Overstating the drug’s benefits; Failing to present a “fair balance” of risk and benefit information; Omitting material facts about the drug; Making claims that are not appropriately supported; Misrepresenting data from studies; Making misleading drug comparisons; and Misbranding an investigational drug.[16] Not mentioned is the unstated theme that every human problem can be solved with medication. Ads show the medicated person suddenly surrounded by happy dancing people reveling in sunny vistas of idyllic surroundings.
Direct-to-consumer advertising has contributed to a rise in overall prescription drug use among Americans, from 39% (1988-1994) to nearly 50% (2017-2020), fostering a culture that seeks pharmaceutical solutions for various conditions. The most direct parallel occurred in the late 1990s, when pharmaceutical companies aggressively marketed opioids (like OxyContin). The deluge of marketing fueled over-prescription, leading to widespread addiction, and as legal restrictions increased, many users shifted to cheaper illegal alternatives like heroin and fentanyl, according to experts.[17]
Drugs, like alcohol, are also useful for recreation, a way to quickly switch one’s mood and energy from the caffeine-fueled drive to complete tasks to the relaxed kick-back mode when enjoying music, movies, alone time, or other people. While a beer or mixed drink serves that role for many, many others may prefer marijuana which doesn’t leave a hangover or, for alcoholics, trigger a lapse.
Marijuana
Names include ‘hemp’ (for industrial, low-THC types, use is primarily of plant stalks) and cannabis strains such as Cannabis sativa, indica, and ruderalis. Active ingredients area found primarily in flower buds, isolated from male plants by growers who force females to keep producing flowers instead of seeds.
There are no recorded, verifiable cases of a fatal human overdose from marijuana alone. Cannabis (marijuana) produces various physical and mental effects by acting on brain receptors, commonly causing euphoria, relaxation, and heightened sensory awareness. Short-term, it can impair memory, motor skills, and judgment, with risks including anxiety, panic, or psychotic symptoms. Long-term effects may include respiratory issues, cardiovascular strain, and dependence.
Despite fluctuations, marijuana use rose from 10.17% in the 1990s to 17.81% from 2010-2017. A 2021 study using U.S. data found that in some states (e.g., Colorado), legal recreational cannabis was associated with a 13% average monthly decrease in the purchase of all alcohol products, with wine sales showing a 6% decrease. A 2024 survey indicated that 36% of U.S. cannabis users reported drinking less alcohol. Legalization, particularly of medical marijuana, has been linked to a 15% decrease in monthly alcohol sales, specifically beer and wine, in legalizing counties compared to control counties. Some studies show that legal cannabis access is associated with a decrease in alcohol-related traffic fatalities. Recent 2025 research indicates that following the opening of retail cannabis stores, alcohol use declined among young adults (18–29), and binge drinking frequency decreased among adults aged 50–59. Some studies suggest that since alcohol is a common factor in violent crime, the substitution of cannabis for alcohol may contribute to a reduction in violent crime rates.
Cannabis cannabinoids (like THC and CBD) bind to the same natural, endogenous cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 that exist naturally in the human body. There are natural cannabinoids our bodies naturally use to regulate functions like mood, memory, sleep, and pain. These receptors are part of the endocannabinoid system (ECS), which is widespread throughout the brain and body.
Coca
Erythroxylum coca var. coca
Coca leaves, traditionally used in the Andes to combat hunger, thirst, and fatigue, act as a mild stimulant similar to strong coffee. They are rich in nutrients, aid with altitude sickness, and are used for cultural/religious purposes. While generally safe in traditional, low-dose, unprocessed forms, they can still cause positive drug tests. There are no data on possible deaths due to coca leaf use. Although the leaves are used to treat common ailments and boost energy every single day, it has been found that regular use is nothing but a cultural habit, and is not addictive, harmful or mind-altering, unlike cocaine.
Indigenous peoples of South America have used coca leaves for at least 8,000 to 10,000 years. Archaeological evidence, including findings in Peru’s Nanchoc Valley, confirms that early Andean societies integrated coca into their cultures for medicinal, religious, nutritional, and social purposes long before the rise of the Inca Empire. Cocaine was first isolated from coca leaves in 1855 by German chemist Friedrich Gaedcke, who named it “erythroxyline.” It was later purified in 1859-1860 by Albert Niemann, who gave it the name “cocaine.”
Cocaine is a powerful, highly addictive stimulant drug that acts on the central nervous system to produce intense, short-lived feelings of euphoria, high energy, and mental alertness. It works by causing a massive buildup of dopamine in the brain’s reward circuits, while also constricting blood vessels and increasing heart rate. The effects are generally divided into immediate (short-term) and long-term consequences, both of which carry significant health risks. Before the widespread influx of illicitly manufactured fentanyl (roughly prior to 2013-2015), the cocaine-involved overdose death rate in the U.S. was significantly lower and relatively stable, often fluctuating between 1.3 and 2.5 deaths per 100,000 population. As fentanyl entered the market, the rate began rising by about 27% annually starting in 2013, surpassing the 2006 peak by 2016 and reaching 7.3 per 100,000 by 2021. Approximately 79% of cocaine-involved overdose deaths also involve opioids, mainly synthetic opioids like fentanyl, which is the primary driver of the increased death rate. Legalizing cocaine with requirements for product purity, the cocaine death rate would once again drop to its low baseline of pre-2013.
At the extreme end of the stimulants, methamphetamine (meth, also called crystal, chalk or ice) is an addictive stimulant that can be administered orally, smoked, snorted or injected. Smoking or intravenous injection delivers meth to the brain rapidly, resulting in immediate and intense euphoria. Meth use is associated with severe neurological and physical consequences (e.g. paranoia, violent behavior, psychosis, anxiety and depression) and has become a serious public health problem worldwide. The age-adjusted rate was 8.5 deaths per 100,000 population.[18]
In the family of synthetic stimulants:
Methamphetamine (Crystal Meth): Often considered more powerful and addictive than cocaine, methamphetamine releases significantly more dopamine in the brain and has a much longer-lasting high (12–14 hours compared to 1 hour for cocaine). It is generally considered the strongest stimulant available, providing a longer, more intense, and faster-acting addictive effect.
Desoxypipradrol: Research indicates this compound, found in some “legal highs” is more potent than cocaine in causing dopamine release and slowing dopamine re-uptake, with studies suggesting a sevenfold increase in dopamine levels compared to three times for cocaine.
MDPV (“Bath Salts”): MDPV acts similarly to cocaine by inhibiting dopamine re-uptake but is reported to be nearly 10 times more potent, providing a much stronger, uncontrollable high. “Bath salts” is a slang term for this dangerous, lab-made synthetic cathinone (a naturally-occurring stimulant monoamine alkaloid found in the khat shrub (Catha edulis), chemically similar to amphetamines and ephedrine) and are central nervous system stimulants designed to mimic the effects of illegal drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine.
Opiates
Opium poppy Papaver somniferum
The poppy’s offering for human use began as early as 5000 BCE in the Neolithic age, with the oldest archaeological evidence found in the Mediterranean region. Seeds from this era suggest it was used for food, rituals, and early medicinal purposes. It was later documented in ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman medical texts. The plant’s chemistry has moved from the most basic form of flower pod gum named opium (dried latex obtained from the seed pods of the opium poppy) to morphine, developed in 1804 through a process involving harvesting raw opium, followed by chemical extraction and purification to isolate morphine from other alkaloids like codeine, which was developed in 1832 and touted as a ‘cure’ for morphine addiction.
Heroin was first synthesized in 1874 by C. R. Alder Wright from morphine. It was later commercialized by the Bayer pharmaceutical company in 1898 as a cough suppressant and pain reliever, widely marketed as a non-addictive alternative to morphine before its addictive nature was fully understood, leading to its eventual strict regulation. Thereafter, numerous semi-synthetic and synthetic opioids were developed, largely in the 20th century, to provide pain relief with the hope of reducing addiction potential. Key opioids developed after heroin include:
Methadone (1930s-1940s): Developed in Germany, this synthetic opioid is used for pain management and to treat opioid use disorder.
Meperidine (Demerol) (1930s): The first synthetic opioid, designed to be a safer alternative to morphine.
Oxycodone (OxyContin/Percocet) (1916): While synthesized shortly after heroin, it gained widespread prominence in the late 20th century, particularly with the 1996 release of OxyContin.
Hydrocodone (Vicodin) (1920s): A semi-synthetic opioid created from codeine.
Buprenorphine (1960s): Developed as a partial agonist for pain and later approved in 2002 for the treatment of opioid addiction.
Fentanyl (1960): A highly potent synthetic opioid, roughly 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, developed for surgical anesthesia and pain management. Its extreme potency makes the risk of fatal overdose significantly higher than that of cocaine, especially since it is often found as a contaminant in other illicit substances. It is less expensive than natural opioids because it is made from synthetic substances whereas natural opioids depend on poppy production.
Opiates exert their main effects on the brain and spinal cord. Their principal action is to relieve or suppress pain. Like all opiates, opium causes a pleasant, drowsy state, in which all cares are forgotten and there is a decreased sense of pain (analgesia). Immediately after injection, the feelings are most intense. This feeling is described as similar to a sexual orgasm. The drugs also alleviate anxiety; induce relaxation, drowsiness, and sedation; and may impart a state of euphoria or other enhanced mood. In the body, opiates also have important physiological effects; they slow respiration and heartbeat, suppress the cough reflex, and relax the smooth muscles of the gastrointestinal tract. Opiates are addictive drugs–i.e., they produce a physical dependence (and withdrawal symptoms) that can only be assuaged by continued use of the drug.
Long-term opium use is associated with a significantly increased risk of death from nonmalignant respiratory diseases (such as COPD, asthma, and pneumonia) and cardiovascular disease. In one study, opium consumption was significantly associated with increased risks of deaths from several causes including circulatory diseases (hazard ratio 1.81) and cancer (1.61). The strongest associations were seen with deaths from asthma, tuberculosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (11.0, 6.22, and 5.44, respectively).[19]
The most powerful synthetic opiate invented so far is fentanyl. Similar to other opioid analgesics, fentanyl produces effects such as: relaxation, euphoria, pain relief, sedation, confusion, drowsiness, dizziness, nausea and vomiting, urinary retention, pupillary constriction, and respiratory depression. Death rates for fentanyl are 14.3 deaths per 100,000 standard population in 2024, marking a significant 35.6% decrease from the 2023 rate of 22.2. Despite this recent decline, fentanyl remains the dominant driver of fatal overdoses in the U.S., involved in roughly 60% to 70% of all drug overdose deaths.
Hallucinogens
The most potent species ofPsilocybe are members of genus Psilocybe, such as P. azurescens, P. semilanceata, and P. cyanescens. Above, Psilocybe semilanceata
Not mentioned so far are the hallucinogens, primarily LSD, peyote/mescaline, psilocybin, salvia, and DMT/Ayahuasca. Considered sacramental to many, use of these drugs can lead to spiritual insights, so-called “mystical” experiences such as the sense of “pure” being, the sense of unity with one’s surroundings, the sense that what one experienced was real, and the sense of sacredness. There are similarities between psychedelic experiences and non-ordinary forms of consciousness experienced in meditation and near-death experiences. The phenomenon of ego dissolution is often described as a key feature of the psychedelic experience.
Peyote cactus Lophophora williamsii
Ancient religions used various plant-based hallucinogens (entheogens) for rituals, including Soma in Vedic Hinduism circa 1500 BCE, psilocybin mushrooms and morning glory among the Maya/Aztecs circa 3000 BCE, Tabernanthe iboga in African Bwiti, and Datura by Mississippian cultures. These substances were used to achieve ecstatic states, connect with deities, and induce prophetic visions. Some scholars argue that early Christian, Roman-Egyptian, and Greek rites used psychoactive substances in their sacraments.[20]
Users typically reportseeing colors, patterns, and shapes that are not real, such as complex, moving geometric patterns (fractals), or trails/tracers behind moving objects. Other effects range from Sensory Confusion (Synesthesia),acommon experience where senses blend, such as “hearing colors” or “seeing sounds”; Time and Space Distortion: Perception of time can slow down significantly, speed up, or seem to stop; and Self-Identity Alteration: Users may experience “ego dissolution,” where the boundary between self and the external environment becomes blurred, sometimes leading to a feeling of becoming one with their surroundings.
Multiple studies suggest psilocybin can produce rapid, substantial, and long-lasting antidepressant effects, sometimes for as long as six months to a year after just one or two doses. The FDA has granted “breakthrough therapy” designation to psilocybin for both conditions to expedite research and development. Psilocybin has shown efficacy in reducing anxiety and distress in patients with life-threatening conditions, such as cancer, promoting improved quality of life and well-being. Pilot studies for alcohol use disorder and tobacco addiction have demonstrated promising success rates, with some participants achieving long-term abstinence. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is funding a multi-site study on its effectiveness for tobacco addiction. Research is also exploring its potential for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and cluster headaches, with encouraging initial results in small studies.
LSD molecule
First time users of hallucinogens are best served by exploring the experience in the company of an experienced user. Best results with hallucinogens would occur when the user is not under the influence of alcohol or any other drug. He/she should remain for the duration in a safe, comfortable space with no unexpected interruptions. Since the effects of LSD, for example, take at least 1-2 hours to gradually come into force, then continue to rise for 3-4 hours, then linger for up to another six hours, the user should pay attention to periodic refreshment with water. Generally the user will experience no appetite for food. The experience can be unsettling if the subject is trying to interact with the public or large crowds, or if the experience is initiated when the subject is already tired or not feeling well. These nuances of the psychedelic experience with any particular drug are why first time users benefit from being accompanied by a trusted, experienced user.
Tobacco and Alcohol
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus Nicotiana of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. Seventy-nine species of tobacco are known, but the chief commercial crop is N. tabacum. The more potent variant N. rustica is also used in some countries
Not mentioned in the discussion so far are tobacco products. Known to be carcinogenic, tobacco is credited with 490,000 deaths per year in the United States. This is more than all illegal drugs and alcohol combined at total of 278,000—80,000 to 100,000 per year from currently illegal drugs and 178,000 from legal alcohol use. However, there is evidence that pesticides and other chemicals contribute to tobacco-related deaths, both for smokers and for agricultural workers who are directly exposed during farming.[22] However, no research to date is found showing less harm from organic tobacco.
Different policy approaches to these various substances is a combination of tradition and risk of collateral damage in those who abuse the substance. For example, tobacco has been popular in its various forms of usage for over 600 years in Western cultures, although indigenous peoples have used it over 10,000 years. Aside from the real damage caused by second-hand smoke, there is no perceived risk to others from its use.
Nicotiana tabacum was used traditionally for wide range of disorders, it administered externally for bites of poisonous reptiles and insects, pain, neuralgia, gout, to enhance hair growth, in the treatment of ringworm, ulcers, wounds, and as respiratory stimulant. It is the nicotine that causes smokers to become addicted to tobacco, and the chemical itself is lethal in small doses. When tobacco smoke is inhaled, the nicotine passes quickly to every organ of the body. The brain and nervous system are stimulated by small doses and depressed by larger ones.
Alcohol use, on the other hand, with the earliest chemically confirmed, recorded use dating to approximately 7,000–6,600 BCE in Jiahu, a Neolithic village in China’s Yellow River Valley, has several legitimate, modern medical uses, primarily as a topical antiseptic-disinfectant (hand sanitizer, skin prep), an ingredient in pharmaceuticals, and an agent in specialized procedures like nerve ablation or cyst sclerotherapy. Historically used for pain and sedation, it is not recommended for systemic consumption and been linked to liver disease, heart problems, and certain cancers. Alcohol can cause brain damage, especially with chronic use.
Alcohol adversely affects behavior in some users, leading to problems like drunk driving and negative behavior including:
Intimate Partner and Family Violence: Alcohol is present in a significant percentage of domestic violence incidents, often increasing the severity of the abuse.
Assault and Battery: Impaired judgment and increased aggression frequently lead to physical altercations, including aggravated assault.
Sexual Assault: Alcohol use by both perpetrators and victims is frequently observed in sexual assault cases, where it can suppress inhibitions or affect risk perception.
Homicide: Alcohol is highly correlated with violent crimes, including homicides.
Property Crimes: Impulsive decision-making and reduced consequences-awareness can lead to crimes such as robbery, theft, and vandalism.
Alcohol is highly addictive because it acts on multiple neurotransmitters, slowing down the nervous system while releasing a surge of dopamine. Alcohol addiction withdrawal can be fatal, requiring professional, medical supervision. But modern medications like Xanax and Valium, designed to treat anxiety, also are highly addictive, causing severe physical dependence and dangerous withdrawal symptoms. Considered a behavioral “addiction,” gambling stimulates the same reward circuits in the brain as drugs, driven by the anticipation of reward and risk. Addictions to high-sugar or high-fat foods can trigger intense cravings similar to drug addictions. Most recently, technology (Internet/Social Media) has been determined to be addictive, characterized by compulsive use driven by dopamine hits from social interaction and instant gratification.
But What About the People?
In order to fulfill the promise offered by the end of prohibition, we as a society must accept that each individual is responsible for his/her own well-being. The state is not a parent who must watch over and discipline its children. By declaring drugs, drug dealers, or Satan, or any other phantom as the ‘reason’ someone uses drugs, we take away that individual’s agency as a human being while assigning responsibility to an invisible non-entity that no one controls. By taking away a person’s direct responsibility for his or her problems, we render them helpless. This is, sadly, a mantra for Alcoholics Anonymous, which states “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol — that our lives had become unmanageable.”
This mindset is criticized by many for the following reasons:
Undermining Self-Efficacy and Agency: Critics argue that constantly reminding individuals that they are fundamentally powerless can damage their belief in their own ability to change. This loss of self-efficacy—the belief in one’s capacity to succeed—can lead to a fear of attempting to change behaviors independently.
Encouraging a “Victim” Mindset: By emphasizing that the individual is powerless against a disease, it may become easier for them to deflect blame for their actions, leading to a mindset of helplessness.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Failure: The belief that “I am powerless” can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Critics contend that this mindset, combined with an “all-or-nothing” approach to sobriety, can cause individuals to abandon recovery entirely after a single relapse or slip-up.
Disempowerment vs. Empowerment: Instead of promoting empowerment, some argue that the focus on powerlessness can be psychologically damaging, negatively impacting self-esteem by forcing individuals to define themselves as broken or lacking control.
Discounting Personal Responsibility: A major criticism is that the focus on powerlessness can lessen the urgency to take personal responsibility for one’s actions, which many believe is a cornerstone of behavioral change.
Potential for Shame and Despair: The requirement to admit total defeat, or “hit rock bottom,” can plunge individuals into intense shame, guilt, and despair rather than providing an immediate sense of hope.
Other programs that adhere to this 12-step concept are Narcotics Anonymous (NA), Cocaine Anonymous (CA), Crystal Meth Anonymous (CMA), Marijuana Anonymous (MA), Gamblers Anonymous (GA), Overeaters Anonymous (OA), Sexaholics Anonymous (SA), plus Al-Anon and Nar-Anon, programs for families and friends. (Clearly addictive behavior is not limited to illegal drugs) Success data for these programs is not encouraging: Long-Term Abstinence: 5% to 10% of participants achieve long-term, sustained sobriety. Some studies have shown that 50% to 70% of those who attend weekly or near-weekly meetings maintain abstinence. AA’s own surveys have indicated that approximately 35% of members have been sober for more than five years. Evidence-based treatments like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and medication-assisted treatment (MAT) often yield higher success rates, with some studies showing 60% abstinence after one year of therapy.
In a 2011 study, the cumulative probability estimate of transition to dependence was 67.5% for nicotine users, 22.7% for alcohol users, 20.9% for cocaine users, and 8.9% for cannabis users. Half of the cases of dependence on nicotine, alcohol, cannabis and cocaine were observed approximately 27, 13, 5 and 4 years after use onset, respectively.[23] In comparison, approximately 14% to 20% of U.S. adults are estimated to have an addiction to highly processed foods. This condition, which involves compulsive eating behaviors similar to substance abuse, is higher in specific groups, including up to 28% of adults with obesity and roughly 13% of adults aged 50–80. Roughly 3% to 11% of the U.S. population may experience issues related to pornography addiction, with studies indicating a higher prevalence among men. Approximately 3% to 5% of Americans experience some form of gambling-related harm. Estimates suggest that approximately 3% to 6% of the U.S. population may suffer from sex addiction or compulsive sexual behavior, affecting roughly 10-20 million people. Some research indicates this figure may be as high as 8.6% to 10%, with men being more frequently affected than women.
Pricing Legalized Drugs
Upon purging U.S. policies of the drug war, prices for legalized natural intoxicants (marijuana, coca leaf, opium gum) should be substantially lower than for legalized refined products like cocaine or opium derivatives such as morphine and codeine. This type of pricing reflects the relatively less harmful effects of the naturally-occurring material. Currently, forty states (80%) have legalized marijuana for medical use and twenty four states (48%) have legalized for recreational use. As of early 2026, the price range for a gram of recreational marijuana typically falls between $3 and $20, with the national average often hovering around $10–$15. The price varies significantly based on state, quality (budget vs. premium), and market maturity. In states where marijuana remains illegal, the price per gram in early 2026 typically ranges from $10 to $20, with some premium or highly restricted areas seeing prices reach up to $50 per gram. In current commercial grades of marijuana, THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) can range from less than 10% up to 30%. One time dose for 20% THC content, with one puff delivered either from a “joint” or in a pipe and containing .32 gram, will be felt almost immediately and last 1-3 hours.[24]
Oregon (2020) and Colorado (2022) have legalized or decriminalized the supervised use of psilocybin. In those states, a 1-2 hour micro-dosing session may cost around $500. A complete psilocybin-assisted therapy session, which can last up to six hours and includes pre- and post-session consultations, typically costs between $1,000 and $3,000, and sometimes more. Multi-day, immersive experiences offered by some companies can cost between $4,000 and over $7,700. Street prices for psilocybin mushrooms range from one gram for $5 – $12, one-eight ounce (3.5 grams) $32 – $35, and half ounce (14 grams) for $100 – $120. Two to three grams is considered an average dose. Dried mushrooms taken at doses between 2.5 grams to 5 grams will induce classic psychedelic experiences with kaleidoscope visuals whether eyes are closed or open, sensory and perceptual changes, synesthesia (like hearing colors or tasting sounds), cognitive changes, and ego dissolution.
That pricing policy would put the least harmful drugs in the most available price range for persons self-medicating or for recreational use. A level higher in concentration and cost for opium derivatives would be one or more of hydrocodone, hydromorphone, oxycodone, oxymorphone, nalbuphine, naloxone, naltrexone, buprenorphine, and etorphine. Similarly, cocaine’s further refinement is crack cocaine. Pricing should reflect the risk.
By making currently illegal substances available in the same type of setting as alcohol or tobacco, each person is left to choose what/how much of a substance they will obtain, if any. That individual is then directly in charge of his/her life in the most meaningful way. Instead of being treated like a child with permanent governmental parents, he/she is treated as an autonomous adult who faces life with full awareness that choices made are his/her responsibility. With this level of autonomy, an individual must decide if he/she is ready to face death as a possible result of his/her choices. We as a society absolutely must grant each person this responsibility and accept that some will die.
But will 100,000 die from abuse of these substances, as are currently? Possibly. Possibly not. Since fentanyl is responsible for up to 80% of current overdose deaths, regulated drugs sales with product testing for purity would eliminate most of these deaths since it is the adulteration of popular drugs like cocaine and other drugs with cheap fentanyl that causes most overdoses. Illegal dealers add fentanyl because it is cheaper to produce and easier to smuggle than traditional drugs, allowing traffickers to significantly increase their profit margins. Because fentanyl is roughly 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine, small, easily hidden amounts can mimic the effects of larger quantities of other substances. Other potentially adulterated drugs are methamphetamine; pills sold illegally and made to look like legitimate medications (such as oxycodone, alprazolam, or amphetamine salts); and substances like MDMA and illicitly-obtained benzodiazepines.
All we can do in a just and empathetic nation is provide options. The choice must be made by each person. No one can claim that current policies are working. Clearly the drug war has failed. Illegal drug use has shifted from a primarily recreational, counterculture phenomenon in the 1970s to a more dangerous, high-potency, and widespread crisis today, characterized by a massive increase in synthetic drug prevalence and overdose deaths. While past-month illicit drug use among Americans age twelve or older increased from 25.4 million in 1979 to 47.7 million by 2023, the nature of these drugs also has changed, leading to a six-fold increase in drug-related deaths over the past two decades. Mortality from drug overdoses has grown exponentially since 1979. Between 1980 and 1995, adult drug arrests increased by 173% and juvenile arrests by 73%.
As to lethality of illegal drugs, keep in mind that deaths due to drugs bought and sold in high-risk environments without any assurance of dose strength or purity equal half the deaths from legal alcohol and a quarter of deaths from legal tobacco.
Moral Failing?
Instead of taking a punitive approach to potentially harmful behaviors, whether drug abuse, alcoholism or overeating, why shouldn’t we try a more loving approach? Centuries of religious judgment have deemed addictions a moral failing, yet modern research has shown that measurable physical, emotional, and mental elements drive addiction. Addiction in no longer considered a moral issue, but rather a medical ‘disorder’—specifically a chronic, relapsing brain disorder—because it involves functional, long-lasting changes to brain circuits responsible for reward, stress, and self-control. It is classified as a medical condition because, like heart disease or diabetes, it disrupts the normal, healthy functioning of an organ (the brain), has serious harmful effects, and is preventable and treatable.
Yes, persons under the influence of certain drugs, primarily alcohol and stimulants like meth, can exhibit disruptive behavior. For alcohol, such behaviors can include aggression and hostility where individuals may become argumentative, confrontational, and misinterpret social cues, perceiving innocent actions as provocations. Drunkenness can cause extreme mood swings, ranging from intense, irrational anger to profound sadness, depression, or loneliness. Impaired decision-making leads to dangerous actions, such as driving while intoxicated, risky sexual behavior, or initiating fights.
For persons using meth, users may display erratic, violent, or aggressive behavior, including rage and temper tantrums. Methamphetamine is strongly associated with a wide range of criminal behaviors, acting as a catalyst for violence, property crimes, and drug-related offenses. The drug’s effects—including intense paranoia, hallucinations, insomnia, and aggression—often lead users to commit crimes, while its high addiction potential drives theft and trafficking to fund the habit. The primary reason for meth use (or other stimulants) is the powerful, immediate rush of euphoria and sense of well-being that meth provides. Users may seek increased energy, alertness, concentration, and confidence to perform better at work, school, or in social situations. It is also sometimes used to enhance sexual performance and stamina during “sexual marathons.” Meth is relatively inexpensive and easy to produce (illicitly), making it readily available in many communities, particularly compared to other stimulants like cocaine.
Unlike stimulants, benzodiazepine drugs and opiates of all stripes create a sense of pleasure. This effect is largely due to these drugs trigger the brain’s powerful reward centers and release endorphins. As a powerful opioid, fentanyl can produce strong feelings of euphoria, happiness, and relaxation.
How We Got Here
The U. S. National Institute on Drug Abuse gave the following reasons for substance use: To Feel Good (Hedonism)—to produce intense feelings of pleasure, euphoria, relaxation, or to get ‘high’; To Feel Better (Self-Medication): Individuals may use substances to cope with stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, or emotional pain. It is a common, though temporary, way to manage mental health conditions or escape life’s problems; To Do Better (Performance Enhancement): Some use stimulants (like Adderall or cocaine) to improve focus in school or at work, increase alertness, boost energy, or enhance athletic performance; To Fit In (Social Pressure): Particularly common among teenagers, individuals may use substances to conform to a peer group, feel accepted, or out of curiosity; Because of Addiction (Compulsion): Individuals may continue to use drugs to manage dependence, avoid withdrawal symptoms, or “get through the day”; Specific Needs: Sleep: To help fall asleep or treat insomnia; Weight Loss: To reduce appetite; Pain Relief: To manage physical pain.
But is that all? Or even the real issue? Yes, some of these reasons seem valid. But all of the answers fail to mention a major underlying cause: the modern age. These substances have been around for thousands of years and were used by cultures as far-flung as India and the (now) American Southwest. Historically, cannabis was first cultivated around 12,000 years ago in East Asia during the early Neolithic period. While evidence of its use dates back to 8800–6500 BCE (Before Current Era), the oldest written record is from Greek historian Herodotus (c. 440 BCE), who described Scythians using cannabis in steam baths. A 3rd millennium BCE text mentions its use in China, and a 2459-2203 BCE grave in the Netherlands contained cannabis pollen, suggesting use as a painkiller. It was used in the Indian subcontinent since the Vedic period, roughly 1500–2500 BCE.
Or consider opium, potentially far more risky than cannabis. The earliest reference to opium growth and use is found on 8,000 year-old hardened Sumerian clay-tablets where prescriptions of opium are recorded. Records are found from 3,400 BCE when the opium poppy was cultivated in lower Mesopotamia. The Sumerians referred to it as Hul Gil, the “joy plant.” The Sumerians soon passed it on to the Assyrians, who in turn passed it on to the Egyptians. Ancient Greeks, Indians, Chinese, Egyptians, Romans, Arabs, people in middle ages, Europeans from Renaissance to now, knew opium as an ever-approved next-door medicine—a panacea for all maladies. References in the Odyssey and the Bible, and use by known leaders and minds like Homer, Franklin, Napoleon, Coleridge, Poe, Shelly, Quincy, Hitler and many more, have removed the label of immorality from its use.
Why, then, are these substances now considered a plague, with medical warnings that opiates cause fatal respiratory depression, have a high potential for addiction, and can lead to severe, long-term health complications? Why is the public advised cannabis is considered harmful due to risks of addiction, impaired brain function, and serious physical health issues? That regular use can lead to cardiovascular problems like heart attacks and strokes, respiratory issues, and mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and psychosis?
Clearly some recent development in human existence is involved. Yes, some of the problem can be laid at the feet of ‘modern science,’ who never met a natural substance that science couldn’t make stronger, purer, and more profitable. Most people could grow a few marijuana plants in their back yard, but the potent hybrids now widely marketed are proprietary. Plus over-the-counter sales of aspirin and other pain killers would be impacted by that free availability. Worse than the chemical manipulation of marijuana, however, scientists have, in the last century, given us opium clones up to 100 times stronger than opium, not even reliant on the poppy, with which to addict and kill thousands. In medical settings, fentanyl is often chosen over morphine for superior acute pain management due to its rapid onset of action (2–3 minutes vs. 15–30+ minutes for morphine). It is preferred for causing less hypotension (no histamine release) and having fewer side effects like constipation and nausea, making it ideal for rapid, severe pain relief in emergency settings.
But the more fundamental problem isn’t drug purity or strength increasing the risk for users. It’s modern culture itself.
The historical correlation between industrialization and drug abuse is rooted in the social, economic, and technological upheavals of the 18th to 20th centuries, which shifted substance use from traditional, localized consumption to mass-marketed, addictive, and often, harmful patterns. Industrialization created a high-stress environment that fostered addiction while simultaneously increasing the availability of substances like alcohol, opium, and later, pharmaceuticals. In the early 1800s, the push for a sober, efficient workforce drove the initial, often slow, regulation of alcohol. Increased grain production and industrial farming made distilled alcohol (especially whiskey) cheaper and more accessible. Urbanization and the grueling, rigid nature of factory work created intense stress. Alcohol became a common coping mechanism for the working class. Opium and its derivatives (morphine) were widely marketed as “miracle cures” for various ailments, leading to widespread, unintended addiction.
Technological advancements allowed for the refinement of stronger substances like cocaine, morphine, and heroin. The emerging pharmaceutical industry began mass-producing drugs by cloning the biochemistry of natural drugs, facilitating widespread, unregulated access to addictive substances. The industrial capacity to produce and market substances on a mass scale directly fueled addiction rates. Rapid urban migration and the loss of traditional community structures increased the reliance on pharmacological, rather than social, support. Industrialists in some contexts, such as in the U.S. South, supplied cocaine to Black laborers to boost productivity, a practice that later fueled “drug scare” propaganda when the drug was associated with minority populations. The social harms caused by increased alcohol and drug consumption during industrialization fueled major backlash, leading to the Temperance Movement and Prohibition in the U.S. (1920–1933) and similar actions in Russia, Norway, and Finland.
During World War II, governments and industries promoted amphetamines to enhance worker and military productivity. Increased global trade and transportation, essential to the industrial model, facilitated the growth of international drug trafficking. By the late 20th century, while early industrialization caused addiction through high-stress production, modern deindustrialization (the decline of manufacturing) has been linked to the recent opioid epidemic. Studies indicate that areas with high unemployment, poverty, and the loss of manufacturing jobs (“rust belts”) have experienced higher rates of addiction and overdose deaths. The erosion of middle-wage jobs has spurred economic anxiety, which is directly correlated with increased substance use disorders.
No matter what drug of abuse under discussion, the relatively recent rise in computer, internet, and smartphone use over the last two decades has occurred in tandem with increasing rates of both substance abuse and behavioral addictions (such as internet gaming or social media addiction). Research indicates that for every 10% increase in high-speed internet use, there was a corresponding 1% rise in treatment admissions for prescription drug abuse. The internet has served as a pipeline for narcotics, with increased online access correlating to higher rates of abuse for prescription opioids, sedatives, and stimulants. Digital addiction and substance addiction often activate the same brain reward pathways (nucleus accumbens/ventral striatum), with digital media providing “dopamine hits” similar to drugs. High levels of social media use (3+ hours per day) are associated with a 1.99 times higher risk of drinking and increased vaping/cannabis use among adolescents. The proliferation of screens (7+ hours daily for teens) has been linked to higher rates of anxiety, depression, and substance experimentation. There is a strong, positive correlation between the risk of internet addiction and substance use, with those using technology excessively being more likely to also engage in substance abuse.
Pre-industrial life, characterized by agrarian subsistence and localized, artisan-based economies, offered experiences now lost to modern industrialization. These pre-industrial lifestyles include extreme reliance on daylight hours, intense connection to seasonal cycles, close proximity to livestock, and deep, often isolating ties to a small, local community. Daily life was dictated by the sun and seasons, with work, food availability, and even safety, determined by nature. Most individuals lived in small, rural settlements, rarely traveling far from their birthplace, with communication limited to their immediate surroundings. For warmth and survival, people often shared living quarters or homes with farm animals, especially during cold winters. Families worked together as a unit on farms, and communities relied on localized barter systems for goods and services. Goods were hand-made by skilled craftspeople rather than mass-produced in factories, which enabled the worker to see a project through from start to finish. In most modern production, workers only see a small part of the process.
This cultural shift is the instinctive motivation behind efforts such as “Make America Great Again,” the idea that things were better “back then.” A driving force is the often mythical belief that America was superior in the past and has declined due to foreign influence and internal changes. Adherents to MAGA, as well as right-leaning conservatism around the world, point to changes such as advancements in women’s rights, immigration, increased acceptance of homosexuality, or people they see as unlike themselves (skin color, physical features) as the reasons for their outrage. But in looking back to, say, 1870, American life not only operated under white-male dominance, prison and/or death for outed homosexuals, and entrenched racism but also was a time when most families were working long hours every day to produce and preserve food for their tables and the greatest skills required were successful seed saving, animal husbandry, and fishing/hunting wildlife.
Before agriculture, the hunter-gatherer lifestyle was even less complicated as people wandered over their known habitat gathering lean meats, fish, wild fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and tubers. Slowly, as the idea of agriculture spread and people gained the advantage of permanent settlements, some may have felt a distant longing for roaming to find food instead of laboring to plant and harvest. There’s comfort found in a pastoral life pattern that has been practiced for 12,000 years. With agriculture, a person knew what to expect as seasons changed and dictated the week’s agenda. But by the late 19th century, only a few in mainstream societies followed the primeval lifestyle.
As formalized in the mid-20th century rise of a philosophy of existentialism, existential dread, or existential anxiety, has created a profound, overwhelming sense of fear, anxiety, or unease regarding the meaning, purpose, and value of human existence. Often triggered by contemplating death, isolation, freedom, or the apparent lack of inherent meaning in life, it manifests as deep anxiety about one’s place in the universe. Four alienations suffered by modern mankind are tenets of this philosophy:
Alienation from the Product of Labor: The worker creates products they do not own, which then exist as a hostile, independent power.
Alienation from the Act of Production: Work is not fulfilling or creative but coerced, monotonous, and merely a means of survival.
Alienation from Species-Being (Human Nature): Humans are separated from their intrinsic creative potential and consciousness, reduced to animal-like functions.
Alienation from Other Humans/Society: Social relations are reduced to competitive, transactional interactions, breaking down community and cooperation.
Similarly, Paul Tillich (German and American Christian existentialist philosopher, religious socialist, and Lutheran theologian) conceptualized these alienations as:
Separation of Man from the Ground of Being (Alienation from God): This is the fundamental, ontological, and religious alienation. It is the loss of the essential union between human existence and the “Ground of Being” (God), resulting in a loss of ultimate meaning.
Separation of Man from Himself (Self-Estrangement): This involves the loss of personal center and self-actualization. Humans are split within themselves, failing to become what they essentially are, leading to existential anxiety and despair.
Separation of Man from Others (Alienation in Social Relationships): A separation between individual lives, characterized by a lack of true community, high levels of distance or isolation, and conflicts that make mutual understanding impossible.
Separation of Man from the World of Nature: A further consequence of estrangement, where humanity is detached from the natural world, often resulting in a desire to exploit or dominate nature rather than participate in.
Tillich’s work, particularly in The Courage to Be, provides a framework for understanding addiction as an attempt to fill the “void” of meaninglessness.
Jean Paul Sartre, another mid-20th century existentialist, famously stated, “Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself”. An addict, in this view, is constantly choosing to be an addict through their actions. His work explores the anxiety (angst) of existence, with some interpreting the “bohemian” lifestyle of intense substance use (tobacco, alcohol, amphetamines) as a way to cope with this existential weight. To maintain a rigorous, high-speed, 10-hour-a-day writing schedule, Sartre heavily used Corydrane, a mixture of amphetamine and aspirin. He reportedly took up to 20 pills a day. According to Annie Cohen-Solal, who wrote a biography of Sartre, his daily drug consumption was thus: two packs of cigarettes, several tobacco pipes, over a quart of alcohol (wine, beer, vodka, whisky etc.), two hundred milligrams of amphetamines, fifteen grams of aspirin, a boat load of barbiturates, some coffee, tea, and a few “heavy” meals (whatever those might have been).
Other 20th century notables who abused substances include Hunter S. Thompson, who was famously known for a daily, high-octane consumption of drugs and alcohol that powered his “Gonzo” journalism. His routine notoriously included cocaine, marijuana, LSD, and large quantities of Chivas Regal, Heineken, and Dunhill cigarettes, often beginning in the afternoon and continuing through the night.
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963), author of fifty books including Brave New World, was a prominent proponent of using psychedelic drugs for consciousness expansion, most famously documenting his 1953 mescaline experience in The Doors of Perception. He believed these substances provided mystical experiences and enhanced creativity, later exploring LSD and advising early researchers like Timothy Leary.
Numerous popular artists of the mid-20th century were known for their abuse of drugs and alcohol, including Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, John Belushi, Billie Holiday, Truman Capote, Dylan Thomas, Philip K. Dick, Tennessee Williams, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Howard Hughes, Adolf Hitler, Jackson Pollock, Bill Wilson, and Timothy Leary.
Industrialization most severely impacted the U.S. population between 1880 and 1920, marked by rapid urbanization, massive immigration, and harsh factory conditions. During this “Second Industrial Revolution,” the population shifted from primarily rural to urban, with cities becoming overcrowded, leading to significant social and economic inequities. During that period, the United States experienced a significant, unregulated, and largely unrecognized drug epidemic, with addiction rates for opiates and cocaine comparable to, or in some estimates exceeding, modern levels. It is estimated that up to 5% of the U.S. population was dependent on drugs, with a high concentration of opiate addiction.
Fast forward to 2020 when the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), estimated that 13.5% of people aged 12 or older (37.3 million people) used an illicit drug in the past month. Not surprisingly, the digital age in the United States most severely impacted the population through a combination of rapid, transformative shifts between 1995 and 2010, with the most intense, widespread disruption occurring around the introduction of the smartphone (2007) and the subsequent rise of social media. This era shifted technology from a professional tool to an immersive, always-on part of daily life.
We all feel the weight now inherent upon us in the cultures of the modern day. In the United States, the greatest incidence of suicide in recent history occurred in 2022, with nearly 50,000 deaths, marking the highest rate since 1941. While suicide rates spiked in 2018, the 2021-2022 period (COVID epidemic) showed the largest increases, with the highest daily averages occurring during spring and summer. Drug overdoses have killed over 1 million people in the U.S. alone since 1999. The global mortality rate due to drug use increased by 31% between 1990 and 2021.
Today, the highest risk group for substance abuse is young men. Data shows that approximately 19.1% of males have used illegal drugs or misused prescription drugs in the past month, compared to 14.6% of females. They are facing a crisis of despair driven by a combination of economic insecurity, shrinking social connections, and a profound lack of purpose. Many are struggling with the transition to adulthood, often living with parents longer, delaying marriage, and facing higher rates of loneliness. This ‘depths of despair’ phenomenon is aggravated by declining academic/career prospects and a perceived lack of societal value. It would easy for blame this fall on women, who are slowly carving out a place for themselves in the world of business and politics, among others. But a powerful factor in the young male despair is the lack of new frontiers.
We have colonized the world—no more new continents, no more undiscovered caches of gold nuggets in rushing streams. As traditional markers of masculinity, such as being a primary provider or explorer, have faded or are criticized, many young men feel adrift, leading to, “depths of despair” (suicide and drug overdoses) and a retreat into the digital world. In the 21st century, new frontiers are considered to be redefining masculinity through emotional intelligence, mental health advocacy, and navigating digital economies, alongside pursuing high-demand, tech-forward skilled trades. These opportunities emphasize finding purpose through, rather than in opposition to, community, mentorship, and creative digital entrepreneurship. Missing from this scenario are ancient primitive motivations such as vistas of towering mountains and dense forests teeming with wildlife, the likelihood of finding treasure in the ground waiting for the taking, a world of possibilities to prove manhood. It is no longer possible to saddle a horse and ride off toward the horizon with every necessity packed in saddle bags and a bedroll and a plan to keep moving west where a homestead on a forty-acre claim of federal land awaits.
Women enjoy more freedom today to choose work outside the home, but may wish to find the right man and make babies. Many women expect some ideal of having both, which leads to the expectation that their man be a co-parent, helps with household duties, and otherwise provides support that was inconceivable even fifty years ago. Babies or not, women look for kindness, emotional safety, and consistent, clear communication, often valuing these traits over physical attraction. They desire a partner who is trustworthy, supportive of their personal growth, and who makes them feel cherished through both affection and active listening. These qualities are not traditional for men.
Circa 1900, women could largely expect men to be the primary financial providers, heads of households, and protectors. Men were expected to be hardworking, responsible, and capable of supporting a family, while acting as the public face of the domestic unit. They were also expected to show chivalry and respect towards women, despite the era’s patriarchal “separate spheres” social structure which divided social life into two distinct, gendered domains: the public ‘masculine’ sphere of work, politics, and commerce, and the private ‘feminine’ sphere of home, childcare, and morality.
These massive social changes have occurred over only four generations.
While we may reflect on the effects of these changes, short of a major cataclysm, there’s no going back. Few of us would wish to give up running water, telephones, antibiotics, or electricity, but as a society, we obviously have some problems adjusting to the new ways of things. Understanding this, we should stop punishing our struggling fellow man/woman for their efforts to accommodate difficult changes and embrace the best possible means of helping everyone evolve to the next level. Improved education plays an important role in this future, not the private/religious school agenda of clinging to outdated beliefs and behaviors. Most important will be programs that offer free post-secondary education either in academics or vocations like carpentry, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, dental assistant, nursing assistant, automotive repair, information technology support, culinary arts, or welding. The construction trades will always be needed despite any acceleration of AI. Further remaining viable careers will be professions involving complex problem-solving, high-level strategy, and creativity, such as managers, CEOs, artists, and writers, as well as teachers, instructors, and administrators.
It’s also instructive to consider the strong trend toward ‘simple’ lifestyles which hearken back to earlier times. About one million Americans engaged in the “back to the land” movement that peaked around 1970, of which about 70% were college educated. Key accomplishments of this movement were creating alternative, eco-friendly lifestyles, building community, reducing environmental impact, and fostering personal autonomy through skills like farming and building. Today, significant portions of the population likewise are shifting toward simpler, more intentional, or minimalist lifestyles, with surveys indicating that over 60% of Americans have changed their definition of a happy life to prioritize simplicity. While only about 10% to 11% of U.S. adults currently identify as strict minimalists, roughly 26% to 50% are actively seeking to adopt simpler, less consumer-driven lifestyles.
In all these arenas lie potential for an individual to face challenges that offer the same opportunity for growth and accomplishment as what was found in earlier times even if the noise and lure of bright shiny new things continue to expand. Adopting a simpler, more structured lifestyle significantly helps reduce and manage addiction by minimizing triggers, reducing stress, and fostering stability. Simplifying daily life through routine, healthy habits, and removing environmental cues for substance abuse allows addicts to regain control and focus on recovery. Or avoid addiction altogether while making use of what intoxicants have to offer.
[1] This and much of the following data gathered via Google AI
[5] The 1033 Program, managed by the Defense Logistics Agency’s Law Enforcement Support Office (LESO), transfers excess Department of Defense (DoD) equipment—including armored vehicles, aircraft, and weapons—to local law enforcement agencies (LEAs) for authorized, bona fide law enforcement purposes, particularly counter-drug and counter-terrorism. Since 1997, over eight billion in military-grade equipment has been transferred, aiding in SWAT operations and specialized, non-violent equipment needs, while sparking debate over police militarization.
[11] Starting in 1926, the U.S. government ordered the poisoning of industrial alcohol (used in paints and solvents) with methanol and other chemicals to prevent bootleggers from stealing and redistilling it into drinkable liquor. Despite knowing this, bootleggers sold it anyway, leading to thousands of deaths, blindness, and paralysis.
[14] U. S. Department of Justice, U.S Department of Justice with a Housing First program.
[15] The federal agency responsible for regulating human and veterinary drugs, vaccines, medical devices, the food supply, cosmetics, and tobacco, the FDA approves new medications, inspects manufacturing facilities, and manages product recalls. 47% of Food and Drug Administration funding comes from big pharmaceutical companies.
[24] Marijuana contains over 480 known distinct chemical compounds. Of these, more than 100 are cannabinoids (such as THC and CBD) that produce pharmacological effects, along with over 100 terpenes that contribute to aroma and flavor. THC has been cloned into “Marinol” prescribed for nausea but is considered more problematic than natural cannabis, perhaps due to the balancing effects of the other compounds. The human body contains natural
Regarding rampant sex crimes against children aka Epstein associates, arrest and prosecute every culpable molester/rapist no matter how rich or powerful they may be.
Ongoing genocide in Palestine and threat of war in Iran:
Stop all funding and other support to Israel.
Return Israel’s boundaries to the 56% of Palestine established in 1948
Ukraine. Give full-fledged U.S. military support to Ukraine. Impose additional restrictions on Russia including a full maritime services ban on oil, prohibiting LNG transshipments, banning additional IT/industrial software, targeting more financial institutions, and further restricting third-country intermediary trade. Expose and prosecute embedded Russian operatives in the U. S. government. Give currently impounded Russian funds of $300 billion to Ukraine for rebuilding.
Provide a public accounting of all U.S. military operations and presence around the world, with justification/purpose and cost. No more secret agendas.
Terminate the Mars Exploration Project until such time as our government is no longer in budget deficit. Cut back on other space exploration projects.
Take over any and all U.S. government projects that pay Elon Musk or his companies and make them nonprofit government programs, primarily SpaceX, for aerospace services, satellite communications, and electric vehicle incentives, totaling billions in contracts, loans, and tax credits over the past two decades. Major shifts include launch of military satellites, NASA missions, and purchasing Starlink services.
Restore U.S. partnerships with international agencies including 66 organizations, conventions, and treaties, including major entities like the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Also the World Health Organization (WHO), the Paris Agreement on climate change, and various arms control agreements.
Reverse all Trump actions exposing/selling national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, watersheds, national monuments, and other previously protected areas.
Restore water protection gutted by Trump including efforts to change the Clean Water Act, the 2020 Navigable Waters Protection Rule which stripped federal safeguards from over 50% of wetlands and 18% of streams. He also reduced protections for ephemeral streams, narrowing the definition of Waters of the United States (WOTUS), and rolling back regulations on toxic coal ash disposal.
Hazardous chemicals regulation must be restored immediately.
EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding
PFAS (“Forever Chemicals”): The Trump administration failed to designate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as hazardous substances, delayed setting drinking water standards for them, and allowed new, potentially toxic PFAS chemicals to enter the market with minimal review. In 2025, the EPA was reported to be weakening earlier, more stringent PFAS limits.
Air Toxics (Mercury, Benzene, Ethylene Oxide): In 2025, the administration invoked emergency provisions of the Clean Air Act to grant two-year exemptions to chemical manufacturers, medical sterilizers, and coal plants, allowing them to release toxic chemicals like mercury and ethylene oxide into the air. This included reversing a 2024 rule aimed at reducing ethylene oxide—a known carcinogen—by 90%.
Pesticides (Chlorpyrifos): Trump’s EPA reversed a proposed ban on chlorpyrifos, a neurotoxic pesticide linked to brain damage in children, allowing it to remain on the market.
Asbestos and Industrial Chemicals: The administration delayed or weakened proposed bans on trichloroethylene (TCE) and methylene chloride, which are known carcinogens and toxic to workers. They also initially moved to weaken regulations on asbestos, a mineral that causes mesothelioma.
Chemical Safety at Plants: Rules designed to prevent accidents and explosions at chemical manufacturing plants were delayed or weakened, even in the wake of chemical plant accidents, such as those that occurred after Hurricane Harvey.
“Corporate Self-Policing”: The EPA under Trump often shifted to relying on industry-provided data, and, as of 2025, removed requirements for scientific review of certain chemical risks.
Reverse/mitigate data removal by Trump and/or DOGE included topics related to DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), long COVID, HIV/AIDS, vaccines, transgender and gender identity-related topics, foreign aid, environmental justice, emergency management, employment, and the January 6 United States Capitol attack.
Trump’s unvetted DOGE coders put the personal info of millions of Americans in jeopardy. Serious reconstruction of privacy must be undertaken immediately.
Tariffs imposed by Trump must be eliminated immediately.
Remove Trump’s name on national monuments and organizations.
Restore effective manpower levels in all federal agencies.
IRS and other agencies must be realigned so that there is no influence of church/religion upon government functions. This is of special importance in education. Re-establish separation of church and state by eliminating federal and state tax dollars provided to private/religious schools. Nationwide educational standards must be restored and enforced even for homeschooled children. No exceptions.
Congress must immediately:
legalize abortion nationwide.
resurrect the 2024 Bipartisan Border Bill (S.4361) and pass it.
abolish the Electoral College
establish national referendums on issues of national importance/interest
remove unnecessary/partisan restrictions on voting
demand a thorough review/return of any illegally-taken persons kidnapped and deported and/or imprisoned under Trump’s immigration actions.
require the return of money Trump coerced from media, universities, and other entities.
reverse any government actions meant to implement Project 2025
develop legal means to require stiffer ethical standards for the president and vice president and SCOTUS members as currently required for elected officials (primary federal conflict-of-interest statute (18 U.S.C. § 208) including ban on stock trading for Congress and executive branch. Strengthen the Emoluments Clause with clearly defined penalties and methods of enforcement.
Please feel free to comment with your additions to this list, or edits you think are needed. It will take all of us. Step up.
Lately I’ve taken refuge from the 24-7 horror show originating in the White House. Facebook’s newsfeed is one refuge but even more enthralling are the “reels” Zuckerberg has allowed. Recently, the enjoyment of reels has been compromised by the addition of advertisements, but those are easily clicked through to the next short take on whatever video someone has to offer.
Among the widely varied subject matter are the law enforcement videos of arrests. These are fascinating for a variety of reasons, but for me the most fascinating (and disturbing) are arrests where women are pulled over for something minor like a missing tail light, or something major like weaving all over the road or driving the wrong way in a one-way lane. In any case, many of these woman are intoxicated to the point that they have no rational control over their circumstances.
The results are shocking. Instead of doing what the officer asks and providing driver’s license, registration, and proof of insurance, she immediately launches into a loud, high-pitched, whiny voice to berate the officer and/or deny she’s done anything wrong, or otherwise refuse to address the matter at hand. After repeating the request multiple times and failing to secure a rational response, the officer asks the driver to step out of the car. Which of course she refuses with an even louder, shriller, repetitious, one-note tirade.
Then the situation spirals even further into chaos as the door is pulled open and the woman dragged out, still screaming her one-note hysteria. Wrestling, kicking, biting, and again refusing to LISTEN to anything being said, the woman then utterly humiliates herself as her clothing becomes skewed exposing various parts of her body while writhing on the ground. Ultimately there are charges not only for the initial problem—which could have been solved by simply following the officer’s requests—but also for refusing to identify herself, resisting, and assaulting a police officer among them.
As an aside, traffic stop drama runs somewhat parallel to Karen episodes where a woman charges into a situation that is NONE OF HER BUSINESS in an effort to correct what she sees as a wrong. In the process, she manages to gain the enmity of whichever neighbor/relative/business person is also involved and most often, the police are called because she is OUT OF CONTROL. I understand that perceived malfeasance/wrong actions can be frustrating, and I also understand the urge to correct wrongs. BUT it is not Karen’s job to do this. There are legitimate processes for determining the correct position of a property line, for example, or outlets through which to gain satisfaction for poor service or bad food or whatever has her panties in a twist. Have some effing dignity, for godssake!
Sisters!! Grow up! Shut up and listen, do what you’re told when dealing with officers of the law and other legitimate authorities. It’s not a genius level skill to simply deal with the situation at hand.
Women invite shame, ridicule, and condescending attitudes in general because we ask for it with our behavior. When faced with a mouse running across the floor, women scream. Why? What possible good does it do to scream? Either find a way to catch the mouse and toss it outside, or set traps. [Please not glue traps, which rip flesh off their feet or keep them in place until they died of starvation and thirst.] Same applies for rats, snakes, frogs/toads, and bugs. Meanwhile, shut up with the hysterical screaming already.
So while I’m excoriating my fellow women about absurd excesses, I’ll go ahead and jump in with all four feet: woman’s fashions. Apparently women lose all common sense in order to fit into some perceived fashion standard, which is probably set by a gay man somewhere in New York or Paris. [Not casting aspersions on gay men, but please.] For example, the current ‘fashion’ in women’s hair styles is for strands of hair to dangle into the face, over the eyes, thereby creating, I suppose, a tousled look which (one theorizes) appeals to men. While this might be functional and reasonable in bar or party setting where a woman might wish to appear ‘flirty,’ it is entirely ridiculous in a workplace or business setting.
Alongside the hair-in-eyes fashion, there are additional fashions that serve to signal ‘compromised.’ For example, tight skirts, again fine on an age-appropriate female in a social setting, but ridiculous when a person needs to WALK or perhaps RUN, or is in a location/situation where walking/running might be called for. The tight skirts serves as a hobble, making it impossible for a woman to out maneuver anyone trying to grab her.
Then there are the shoes. As if high heels aren’t enough, we now have high heels on top of platforms of an inch, three inches—you name it, they’re up there. Like other fashions mentioned above, these are signals that the woman wearing them is not capable of running, can easily fall even when simply walking, and is therefore suitable prey. This is, one supposes, meant to heighten her feminine appeal.
None of this is really new. We know about Chinese foot binding, basically crippling women for over a thousand years. We know about corsets, pulled tight in order to provide an hourglass figure and press the breasts upward and to reduce the woman’s breath to a whispery gasp while rendering her prone to delicate fainting spells. Platform shoes have been around several times as have tight skirts. [See https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/these-chopines-werent-made-for-walking/ and https://www.edwardianpromenade.com/beauty/the-hobble-skirt/] I’m waiting for full length gowns to make a comeback with several layers of fabric underneath, which not only shield the world from any view of legs but also make drowning likely if she happened to fall into water, with the added benefit for religionists to disguise any possible outline of legs or hips.
Can we, as women, PLEASE step back from these ongoing absurdities and question why we choose to present ourselves as physically compromised? Can we please think about function in how we dress or style our hair, so that our appearance serves our intellectual purposes? [This assumes we have purposes beyond falling down at men’s feet.] We need to stop dressing as though we are desperate for male attention or for ‘fashion’ approval. We need instead to present ourselves physically as we want to be known professionally, functionally, and respectfully.
Finally, can we ditch the little breathy high-pitched squeaky voice affectation and speak with authority? Thank you.
In the pending Trump presidency, there will be no support for Ukraine or Palestinians, and it will be the desperate people of those countries who suffer. That suffering will spill over, from Ukraine into more of Europe, from Palestinian lands into Lebanon and the broader Middle East. Trump’s buddy Vladimir Putin is thrilled. The wealth of Ukraine in natural resources and rich cropland will strengthen the weaknesses of Russia and move Putin closer to seeing his lifelong dream realized, the re-creation of the Soviet empire.
If Trump et al succeed in tearing down the U.S. Constitution and all we stand for, pretty soon the war will be on our land, in our towns and farmland. Communist nations like Russia, Iran, and China will simply walk in through the doors Trump is leaving open.
There will be no acknowledgement of climate change or its inevitable, already-apparent crises as insurance rates skyrocket in a futile effort to mitigate losses from flooding, storms, and other weather extremes. If we’re troubled by immigration now, wait a few more years of uncontrolled climate change when entire nations are unable to house or feed their populations due to floods or lack of agriculture. Do we shoot them at the border? Let them starve?
What would Jesus do?
Most telling will be the nosedive of our economy, not just in the four years of Trump’s legal term of office, but thereafter as his exploitation of U.S. oil reserves undermines our future energy independence. Trump’s ‘drill baby drill’ cries ignore the wisdom of alternative energy. He is simply too stupid to understand why we should use anything but oil even though all known reserves will run out by 2070. Theoretically, we may never run out of oil because, given the depth of the Earth’s core, there will be new wells to discover. That said, it’s highly unlikely that the practice of mining such depths will become economically viable.
Trump’s second presidency will expand on his previous dismissal of health crises preparation which left us vulnerable to the COVID outbreak after he liquidated the pandemic preparedness established by previous presidents. What will happen with the next pandemic? Researchers say there’s as much as a 50 percent chance that we’ll see something like this again in the next twenty-five years. Trump’s lack of intellect leaves the entire nation unprepared.
Even more concerning is his ignorance of history, which allows him to pursue his fantasy of shifting civil service jobs to political appointments in direct violation of the United States Constitution. Traditionally, the civil service has been a sector of government that operates under a merit-based system to ensure that government jobs are filled by the most qualified individuals. This system protects civil servants from political influence and allows them to make independent decisions without fear of reprisal. The civil service is a key part of the constitutional framework because it helps to uphold the rule of law and ensure that the government is run by merit, not political affiliation. Trump’s affection for the idea of government work force composed of loyalists completely overturns this tradition.
Trump doesn’t care what happens in the future as long as he stays out of prison for his multitude of felonies. He doesn’t care about the lives of anyone besides himself. He’s eager to turn over the economy to people like Elon Musk, who acknowledges he is autistic, a condition marked by impaired social interactions, verbal and nonverbal communication deficits, and restricted, repetitive behavior patterns and associated with poor emotional control. To place the future of the U.S. economy in the hands of such a person means loss of critical social support for the weakest and neediest among us. Such suffering would not be a concern to Musk. Or Trump, who, when confronted with the disability of his nephew’s son, famously told his nephew ““Those people…” Donald said, trailing off. “The shape they’re in, all the expenses, maybe those kinds of people should just die.”
Similarly, Trump has nominated Robert Kennedy Jr. to head the U. S. departments in charge of public health including the Department of Health and Human Services, the Center for Disease Control, and the Food and Drug Administration. But Kennedy has no science or medical background, other than claiming to have had worms in his brain. He also reported that at one point, mercury poisoning in his body reached ten times safe levels. Studies show that high exposure to mercury induces changes in the central nervous system, potentially resulting in irritability, fatigue, behavioral changes, tremors, headaches, hearing and cognitive loss, and dysarthria (a speech disorder that makes it difficult to speak due to issues with the muscles, nerves, or brain that control speech). Kennedy’s negative attitude about vaccines no doubt attracted voters who were petulantly annoyed by public health measures enforced during COVID like wearing masks and being vaccinated to prevent spread of the virus.
Perhaps the most immediately dangerous is Pete Hegseth, a FOX News commentator and host of “Fox & Friends” now nominated to be Secretary of Defense. An Army veteran of eight years, he plans a “frontal assault” to reform the Department of Defense from the top down, including by purging “woke” generals, limiting women from some combat roles, eliminating diversity goals and utilizing the ‘real threat of violence’ to reassert the United States as a global power.” (ABC News) He has called the United Nations a ‘farce’ and “giant joke’ and believes military action is the best plan to solve world problems. Aside from his warmongering ideas, he has advocated for the pardon of war criminals. He holds no sympathy for Palestinians and embraces Israelis as “God’s chosen people” with “Zionism and Americanism at the front lines of Western civilization.” (Wikipedia) His concept of “civilization” apparently follows the same moral codes as Trump. “Hegseth and his first wife, Meredith Schwarz, divorced in 2009. He married his second wife, Samantha Deering, in 2010; they have three children. In August 2017, while still married to Deering, Hegseth had a daughter with Fox executive producer Jennifer Rauchet, with whom he was having an extramarital relationship. He and Deering divorced in August 2017. Hegseth and Rauchet, who has three young children from her first marriage, married in August 2019.” (Wiki)
Miller, left. Goebbels, right
Even if the new Republican majority in the Senate rejects one or more of these nominations, there’s little likelihood that Trump’s subsequent appointments would be any less unsuitable for government positions. He has already put extremist Stephen Miller in a position that will control immigration, our very own Joseph Goebbels, a German Nazi politician who was the chief propagandist for the Nazi Party and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945. He was one of Adolf Hitler’s closest and most devoted followers, known for his deeply virulent antisemitism which was evident in his publicly voiced views. He advocated progressively harsher discrimination, including the extermination of the Jews in the Holocaust.
Finally, there is the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard as the head of our national intelligence agencies. As noted by news media, Gabbard’s record “reflects an alarming pattern of siding with Russia and other authoritarian regimes, raising questions about whether she should serve as America’s top-ranking intelligence official. Her selection has alarmed lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, though most Republicans have refrained from public criticism. …[She] lacks deep intelligence experience and is seen as soft on Russia and Syria. …Among the risks, say current and former intelligence officials and independent experts, are that top advisers could feed the incoming Republican president a distorted view of global threats based on what they believe will please him and that foreign allies may be reluctant to share vital information.” (Reuters)
But Trump’s voters don’t care about such details. He was elected because he made promises to enact policies which reflect old prejudices and enshrine ignorance under an authoritarian ruler. Old habits don’t vanish simply because new opportunities are presented, not when those habits have been ingrained for tens of thousands of years. The brain wiring isn’t there. The ‘conservative’ clings to the past because it is familiar.
denelecampbell 