Low-Hanging Fruit
They're coming after the dopers again
If I was to design a drug for a totalitarian state that sought a facile means of incriminating people, it would have to be easily-produced, easily-detected, and innocuous by its effects—perhaps even beneficial.
It would be tobacco or cannabis.
Had cannabis been indigenous to the Americas and tobacco to central Asia, perhaps we would have seen a nicotine-legalization social movement arise in the U.S., as the state criminalized those who would produce, distribute, or possess tobacco. Tobacco criminalization, but not the social movement against it, happened in Turkey and elsewhere across the Atlantic, as various authorities sought to ban tobacco smoking—employing the death penalty at times.
History shows us that while Columbus was seeking gold in the New World, it was nicotine that helped fuel further excursions. While gold was scarce, the tobacco plant was plentiful and had been incorporated into Native life.
Nicotine in its organic form is easily transferred from the plant to the human body. While smoking became the most common route of administration, placing the leaf upon mucous membranes (chewing or snuff) or rubbing it upon bare skin is enough to allow nicotine to enter the body.
Tobacco field workers regularly suffer “green tobacco sickness,” when they overdose on nicotine through merely harvesting and handling the plant. These overdoses sometimes cause on-the-job fatalities.
Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), in any of its incarnations, cannot produce acute, fatal overdose. In fact, without preparation, cannabis is not psychoactive. Cannabis harvesting may coat the skin with plant resins, but these alone will do nothing.
Cannabinoids require oxidation to produce and release a CO2 molecule from the structure, to make them psychoactive. This process is called decarboxylation, and it is accelerated by heating the plant material.
There are several means by which this may be done. Most common is to burn a portion of the plant material and use the heat generated by combustion to decarboxylate and volatilize the cannabinols. Typically, this is either while the plant material has been placed in a pipe or rolled into a paper tube.
While smoking is the most common form of making cannabis psychoactive and consuming it, it also produces a large amount of Poly-cyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH), such as benzene, toluene, and naphthalene—carcinogens—and carbon monoxide. CO is not carcinogenic but occupies hemoglobin and temporarily reduces O2 to the brain—one reason why holding in “hits” (don’t bother) makes people feel ‘higher’ is reduced oxygen to their brains.
NORML Director Dale Gieringer (2001) studied THC and PAH concentrations found in cannabis vapors produced through a variety of decarboxylation methods. He found that the form of smoking that produced the greatest THC:PAH ratio was an unfiltered bowl, followed by a joint, followed by a water pipe.
Contrary to popular belief, water pipes filter volatilized cannabinols, despite their not being water-soluble, under most conditions. Cooling the volatilized cannabinols causes some to no longer be airborne; they coat the inside of the pipe or float as oil atop the water. The water does not filter the PAH’s in the same manner, making bong smoke the ‘worst’ way to smoke cannabis.
The healthiest means of decarboxylating cannabinoids for inhalation is via sub-combustion vaporization, which uses an element to heat the plant material to approximately 400 degrees Fahrenheit. The resulting vapor will have no detectable PAH. There are many types of floral vaporizers available.
The automated, bag-vaporizer, the Storz & Bickel Volcano (above) remains a favorite among patients and stoners. I favor the more affordable Vapor Brothers VB-1 (below), which is a passive, whip-style where the user inhales to provide the airflow.
Sub-combustion vaporizers also do not sully the flavor of the plant’s terpenoids with smoke; the flower tastes a lot more like it smells. The amount of particulate matter is also greatly reduced compared to smoking. The drawback to floral vaporization is it is generally less portable than a joint or a bowl.
The Reagan-Bush Drug War was characterized by those who fought against it as Fascist.
We saw the sponsors flex state power over the population through increased criminalization and surveillance, establishing legal precedents limiting citizens’ rights, and expanding state incursions on persons and property.
They recruited private corporations to their side, offering incentives for cooperation. The “Say NO to drugs!” message was found everywhere, from grocery store shopping bags to video games, and with zero irony, on caffeinated beverage packaging. There was a massive pro bono media campaign that told parents not to trust their children, employers not to trust their employees, and used an array of logical fallacies to convey the message “Drugs are bad.”
The U.S. military was used both internationally (Bolivia, Colombia, Panama) and domestically (National Guard flyovers) to enforce prohibition. In regard to marijuana, the expressed goal was a literal genocide of the cannabis plant within the nation’s borders.
Urinalysis was used to discipline the working class. To the state, proving one was “drug-free” was a demonstration of patriotism, to employers it meant lower insurance premiums. [I would like to see a meta-analysis of workplace safety in the 1980’s and 1990’s—did these drug-free workplaces actually have lower accident rates?]
The social class elements of “peeing for employment” were obvious to anyone working in a class-integrated industry, such as higher education. The food and janitorial service contractors would screen those who would feed and clean up after the professors, who would never be subjected to such surveillance. The NCAA drug tested student-athletes—long before they were legally recognized as laborers—but no other students were subjected to urinalysis as a condition for “extracurricular activities.” It would have depleted theater programs across the nation.
Millions of people were made into even greater enemies of the state, which is another element of Fascism: Fighting the Enemy Within.
"Deviant behavior is behavior that people so label."
-- Howard S. Becker.
All of the elements of the Reagan-Bush Drug War (Drug War II) are about to be re-invigorated by the Trump administration. All the warning shots have been fired. Trump has recognized medicinal value, and specified that he intends to ‘protect’ children. His flunkies are leaking plans to run military incursions in Mexico and South America, purportedly to fight drug cartels.
Meanwhile, data shows the cartels have suffered financially from marijuana legalization. The profitability of marijuana in many adult use states has plummeted, as evidenced by the licensed operators going out of business in the face of competition from other legal operators. We see from Portugal (and, briefly, Oregon) that de-penalizing personal drug possession improves public health.
Every lethal Fentanyl overdose we have witnessed in the United States—the ones the Trump administration will be using as justification for destroying what is left of our right to be left alone—is due to our prohibition policies. Every single one.
How do I know?
Because Fentanyl has been used, daily, in U.S. hospitals for decades. All sorts of other opioids are administered there, too. Yet we see no lethal opioid overdoses. Pharmaceutically-pure Fentanyl in known and controlled dosages is not lethal. It was not the Fentanyl that killed them; it was what the policy did to the Fentanyl and to its users.
But lethal overdose is not a concern with cannabis. They will not be running the New Bringdown on something as noble as trying to save lives—this will be about saving minds.
Fascism requires thought conformity as well.
Expect a rescheduling and a transition to a more pharmaceuticalized market in cannabinoids. While the value of retail cannabis flower and products is in the billions per year in taxation reimposing federal controls over those states that have legalized it (see how they voted for President in 2016 - 2024) will be considered more valuable.
I predict we will be seeing raids of large, state-licensed commercial grow sites in the near future. We are heading back into the shit. Overgrow the Government.