An answer prompted by Mike Power‘s article in Vice about the way drugs cause environmental damage, but mostly because of prohibition.
It is no surprise that illegal drug production causes environmental problems. Prohibition is an act of alienation, a policy that only makes sense when seen as justification for ever more intrusive policing strategy.
I would argue that prohibition has corrupted our relationship with drugs. Think about that for a moment. Every culture has a sacred substance, a drug that offers users a state of grace. How different is dropping a pill and dancing all night, from smoking peyote by the indigenous peoples of south America. I would say the only difference is location. When someone says they’re high, what do they mean? I’d say they’re referring to the heightened sate of being they’re experiencing. They’re seeing and feeling things at a heightened level. If you were being unkind, you’d call it escaping, otherwise you might think of it as seeking.
Prohibiting needs to be stopped because we need to reestablish a healthy, considered, relationship with drugs. One that sees drugs in context both socially and environmentally.
Darrin // Nightingale 