cubeananda wrote:Quote:Should we allow people to treat themselves with these drugs in a non-commercial and socially supportive setting? Absolutely that should be a human right.
source Yes, Bill Hicks said it best: "It's not a war on drugs, it's a war on personal freedom."
And Graham Hancock later echos: "It's not a war on drugs, its a war on consciousness."
Quote:If I, as an individual, am not sovereign over my consciousness, if I cannot decide what to do with my consciousness, which is the heart of my being, then I am not free, and I need not talk about freedom or living in a free society, or such issues as democracy, if my society will not allow me to explore my consciousness. If, in an altered state of consciousness, my behavior is disruptive in the public arena, then that behavior should rightly be controlled by society. But the personal and private exploration of our own consciousness is our own business, in my view, and is not the business of the State.
This is the fundamental definition of our sovereign rights and freedoms, which can be defined as 'negative rights', such as freedom of speech. Meaning we are free to do anything as long as it does not infringe on the rights of others. The limitation requires only inaction in the specific case where it infringes someone elses negative right. I am free to swing my fist as much as I like up until it reaches the face of another person.
These rights are the most just as they only require you only not to do something, vs a 'positive right' that requires that you MUST perform a specific action or be punished, which is infinitely more restricting of individual freedom and quickly can become tyrannical, which cannot happen with a negative right.
Drug laws, especially concerning personal use and possession, have always been in clear violation of the first amendment.
Expect nothing, Receive everything.
"Experiment and extrapolation is the only means the organic chemists (humans) currrently have - in contrast to "God" (and possibly R. B. Woodward). "
He alone sees truly who sees the Absolute the same in every creature...seeing the same Absolute everywhere, he does not harm himself or others. - The Bhagavad Gita
"The most beautiful thing we can experience, is the mysterious. The source of all true art and science."