I’ve been pointed to a pretty good article about Alexander (Sasha) Shulgin in the New York Times. It’s surprisingly sympathetic, given that Shulgin is directly responsible for most of the psychedelics that have fascinated so many curious souls lately.
Gratifying to me personally is the way that the D.E.A. is painted in the article: as people tasked with an impossible, misdirected war-on-drugs effort who have gradually bought it wholesale. People who raid homes and labs and clinics, at times doing good work but mostly employing scare tactics, propagating misinformation and hindering research. People who will destroy your property and arrest you if you give plant parts to terminally ill patients. People who help the federal government in its attempt to bully states that disagree with its stance on what’s dangerous and what isn’t.
But back to Shulgin. His contribution to the modern exploration of our own minds has been astounding. He is almost 80 years old now, and it’s unlikely that I will ever meet him; a pity, because like hundreds of thousands of people he’s affected I am deeply grateful for his insatiable curiosity and his celebration of humanity.
A few years back I borrowed PIHKAL from a friend, and it changed my life. Having never formally studied chemistry of any kind (stupid of me, but physics was more interesting and the school only required one), I began to gather an appreciation for the delicate chemical balance within which our perception of reality floats. To think that a few micrograms of a substance can make everything seem different!
Because of how little it evidently takes to alter one’s perception of reality, I became convinced (and still am) that reality has many faces, and that they’re worth exploring. Researchers claim that many of the chemicals people play with are modified versions of what’s already present in our brain; so it’s no surprise that meditation, breathing in patterns and persistent curious searching have revealed more to me about me and my world than my government’s educational curriculum can hope to.
It’s not all roses. Some substances are addictive; hell, I’ve had sleep and mental-acuity problems related to caffeine addiction, and that’s a forgiving drug. Others aren’t so forgiving. Research is needed, help is needed for people whose lives have been ruined… I always ask myself: what could possibly go wrong if we dedicated half of D.E.A.’s budget to humane rehab and to research? Instead of paying men and women with guns to go rid San Francisco of the “menace” of pot [which has been used for millennia, and look, we’re still here!], why can’t we pay researchers to find out what’s really going on?
Well, it’ll happen. We’ve already won a struggle with nicotine-distributing companies, so that at least they no longer actively make cigarette smoking look cool to teenagers. We’ve got a ways to go with alcohol, at least in this country, where making it taboo only contributes to the frat-party culture in which young people die from alcohol poisoning on a dare. There’s a longer journey for other drugs; I just hope I live to see a society where exploration of our chemical surroundings is done curiously, knowledgeably and responsibly. In other words, where humans are educated and then given some credit.
Isn’t it sad, how much we can’t blog? Freedom of speech, indeed.
