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drugs

Contributing Writers DRUGS - February 2018

Let’s Talk About Drugs

Written by Anonymous

Through my story, I want to share a different take on drug use.

I arrived in Amsterdam as part of my exchange year when I was 19-years-old. Beforehand, I had studied psychology for two years in France and was quite ignorant when it came to drugs. Years of watching South Park had taught me basically that, drugs were bad. My country lived in the hypocrisy that smoking a pack a day and drinking a bottle of wine a night was far better and more respectable than ever touching a joint.

My personal history with drugs is quite special. I don’t drink, and I’ve only barely tried cigarettes, I’ve been prescribed Ritalin and Xanax for my attention and anxiety disorders. Yet, I despised people who took drugs for ‘fun’. I remember rejecting advances from people high on ecstasy at parties on the belief that I thought I was better than them.

Arriving in Amsterdam, the smell of cannabis in the streets and the magic truffles on display quickly led me to rethink what I knew about drugs. Clearly, a country like the Netherlands couldn’t tolerate this if it threatened the security and well-being of its citizens.

In the first few months of my stay in Amsterdam, my life was becoming increasingly stressful. My big question was what am I going to do in life? I feared I had lost connection with myself and my anxiety was intensifying by the minute. I met a medical anthropologist specialized in psychedelics, and although our encounter was brief, I owe him a lot and will cherish those moments for a very long time. He promised me tripping on magic truffles would bring some clarity.

Photo by Amritanshu Sikdar

As an aspiring researcher, I seek truth and value empirical evidence. The Netherlands has softer regulations than other countries when it comes to drug trials and this allows progress. Whether or not you’re against drugs, we should all encourage research. Scientific research on all drugs is the best way to make them safe, and to protect all users (for example 2CB is widely used drug but is still unstudied). No matter where you stand, educating yourself on drugs serves your side.

After hours of conversation, and digging around on Erowid (the online Bible for substances), I thought, why not? It was a very spontaneous decision, but I’m a woman of science, and the evidence suggested it was the right thing to do. Researchers are aware of the healing potential of psilocybin (the molecule in magic trufflesand are coming to very promising conclusions.

It was by far the most meaningful and powerful experience of my life, changing me forever in a way I could never have imagined before. The experience is hard to describe with words, but I explored myself and the universe, and found peace. I came back to reality purged of all sense of worry, and for two months I walked the world with confidence and calmness.

A few months later, when the magic of my trip faded and anxiety crawled back in, I had exams coming up and little-to-no motivation or concentration whatsoever. I had read promising articles on microdosing psychedelics to study. Hofmann, the scientist who first synthesised LSD said micro-dosing could “have gone on to be used as Ritalin if it (LSD) hadn’t been so harshly scheduled (in the USA).”

I went and bought another box of magic truffles and divided them into ten portions. I took a portion every day or every two days after lunch and the results were convincing. The best way to describe it is increased stamina. You have increased sensory perception but not in a scary reality-distorting way, more in a sense that you progressively become more aware of your environment, like if you saw the world in high definition and had never realized that setting existed to begin with. Your attention becomes more narrow and sharp but not like with amphetamines when you think your heart is going to blow up. Your movements flow much softer and your head feels good without ever feeling high or like you’re tripping. I studied much better, became kinder to myself, and was relaxed and happy with myself throughout my entire break before finals.

From my experience with psychedelics I have become a much more open person. I doubt tripping every time you face difficulties in life is a good idea, and I doubt relying on substances to study thinking it’s going to save your grades is a good idea, either. But I do strongly believe there are good stories like mine out there that people should be willing to hear and share. Educate yourself on the chemistry, on your purchase, and on your body.

Be critical, because there is a difference between what’s legal, and what’s moral. Be careful about what you do as a person and what you inflict on your body. You’re not in a position to judge someone who does coke every Saturday night if you binge eat burgers and never work out. Drugs can be a blessing or a curse. Set limits for yourself (perhaps skip heroin), be aware of the dangers and possible drifts.

If nothing else get to know yourself and drugs better.

   
Chloe Gregg DRUGS - February 2018

Change the System, Not Your Brain

Written by Chloe Gregg, Staff Writer

Smart drugs, study aids, cognitive enhancers. They’ve taken over Madison Avenue and hacked the offices of Silicon Valley. If you’re studying at university or have a job in a competitive workplace, I bet that you’ve already heard of them. Maybe you’ve already tried them?

These little pills, also known as ‘nootropics’, are prescribed to treat neurological disorders such as sleep-deprivation, narcolepsy, Alzheimer’s, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). One of the most prominent nootropics, Modafinil, was introduced to me through a legitimate prescription.

I had to use Modafinil during my high school final exams to counter the sedative effects of the sleeping pills I had also been prescribed. All I knew about them was that they helped me snap back from the fog my brain was kept in by the sleeping pills. The only times I took Modafinil were on the mornings of an actual test.

I suffered less and less from insomnia during the first year of my bachelor’s degree, so I decided to drop the sleeping pills, and naturally forgot about Modafinil. Then the second year came. Spending entire days with my classmates at the library, we came to discuss ways of keeping up with the workload. Ignorant as I was to the other uses of Modafinil, some mentioned they were using the medication to help them study. They didn’t suffer from sleep-deprivation or any other medical condition that would have allowed for a prescription, rather this was self-medicated, brain-boosting doping.

Scanning through scientific journals and opinion articles, I found that there was an abundance of substances out there that qualified as nootropics. I discovered a multitude of cognitive enhancers ranging from special herbal supplements, ADHD medications such as Adderall and Ritalin, to even legally prescribed methamphetamines. While certain articles warned against the consumption of the most recently developed drugs, for lack of research, many more articles touted a number of benefits which would appeal to the young university student or start-up entrepreneur.

For my fog lifting drug, the effects on reducing fatigue, and enhancing cognition were most noticeable in studies involving sleep-deprived doctors and military personnel, while research conducted in 2012 showed an increase in motivation and performance in completing tasks amongst perfectly healthy individuals. A more consistent and significant result has been the improvement of working memory, which supports the use of Modafinil in preparation for exams. Fewer studies also support claims of an increased sense of well-being and increased attention.

Even with the short-term side effects of using nootropics, like headaches, loss of appetite and insomnia, the potential gains of their occasional use to manage intense periods of work and study can easily outweigh the costs. Especially since the average price of a Modafinil pill sold online is lower than your ordinary take-away coffee.

So why shouldn’t you take it? I’m not here to lecture you on the moral objections against taking cognitive enhancers. Neither am I going to convince you that you should hold off using them because of the gap in scientific knowledge regarding their long-term side effects. Rather, I’d like you to look at the bigger picture. Imagine the way society would look if everyone were to become accustomed to using nootropics.

On the individual level, a person would no longer be able to identify the fruits of his or her labor, and those of the drug. It’s not much of a stretch to imagine this may lower self-esteem, and create a detachment from the self that could eventually lead to much greater alienation. Such an estrangement would only deepen the anxieties that have propagated under the development of Western capitalism.

On the social level, the concentration of nootropics among the academic and professional elite would only deepen the current social inequalities that traverse the industrialized world. Today, the academically privileged often hold an advantage over those left within the traditional education system; even without cognitive enhancers. This is exacerbated by the way smart drugs have infiltrated the lives of healthy human beings – through society’s elite. Their most prominent use is amongst students from high-ranking universities and cutthroat businessmen or entrepreneurs. Spheres that are already ahead of the game. These drugs risk widening the socio-economic gap that persists in post-industrialized societies. Smart jobs draw smart drugs. Giving everyone access to Modafinil would bring all people to a higher cognitive capacity, yet the gap would remain.

As our society becomes increasingly narcotized, it seems that we’re losing touch with our fundamental human nature, which may be tied to consequences we cannot even conceive of yet. In one of his blog entries describing the effects of a variety of cognitive enhancers Dave Asprey, a US entrepreneur who boasts of successfully hacked his own biology, states that “When you first start taking nootropics, sometimes you’ll feel like nothing is happening. That’s what I experienced. Then, a week later, I quit taking them, and noticed their absence immediately”. This statement is a chilling reminder of how close we are to the dystopian novel Brave New World, where most people are numbed and controlled through drugs.

Whether you decide to take ‘noots’ or not, you’re playing a part in defining what our society should look like.

With the intensifying pressure created by competition, it is only natural to seek better ways to keep up the pace. However, self-medicating doesn’t seem to provide a definitive solution. Rather it is a symptom of the neoliberal machinery that has spun out of control, a new tool for perpetuating the system that is compelling us to alter our brain chemistry to better compete.

So let us slow down a moment and imagine where we’re heading. Let us evaluate the consequences of using nootropics and determine whether they promise enough to make it worth exploring their potential. We cannot blindly accept them as another quick fix.

Contributing Writers DRUGS - February 2018

Doping Music

Written by Jonny Walfisz

I think Lance Armstrong deserves to keep his trophies.  

As a self-aggrandizing non-sports guy, it’s possible that I just don’t get it. The only conceivable justification I find is that, perhaps, he had an unfair advantage on account of his testicles. Specifically, how the void in place of his testicles may have made the ride a little smoother, on account of the bicycle seat’s continual insistence on being unendurably uncomfortable.

Moving away, momentarily, from the subject matter of balls and bicycles, I really do believe that Lance Armstrong earned his Tour de France wins.

The competition is straightforward: We’ve got a really long road here, and we’d love to know who can do the spinny thing with their legs the quickest to get to the end first. I may not be a sportsman, but the simplicity is elegant, also in its conclusion. Lance is the one who did the spinny thing with his legs the best.

Yeah, sure, he took performance-enhancing drugs, but most of the other riders did too. This only speaks to how widespread the issue is. So let’s be real here. When should a person’s achievement be disregarded because they enhanced their performance in some way? We decided that the line should be drawn before steroids, but after protein shakes.

Lance took his drugs and that’s one reason he won the Tour de France. But the guy that came second couldn’t have done it without the bowl of muesli he had that morning. I fully expect his tearful apology on Oprah to follow shortly.

What if the same arbitrary rules, so casually demarcating what constitutes real human achievement, were applied beyond sports?

Photo by Ryan Loughlin

While researching this article I came across a rather incredible piece of journalism by one of Duke University’s music professors Carl Schimmel on doping in the music industry. The article contained outlandish claims about the use of a drug called ‘ÜBERnunu’ by famed musicians, a rank including Schoenberg and John Cage. These composers have been using ÜBERnunu to stimulate their orbitofrontal lobe, giving them an incredible advantage in their composition abilities. As societal pressures rose around these figures they were forced to drop the drug and it quickly disappeared from the medicine cabinets of talented musicians worldwide.

Now to clarify, the article is a satire. Nu-nu is a reasonably obscure drug from the Amazon and its relation to John Cage is one that can only be found in this lone article. What’s clearly the issue here is that this so-called professor-cum-journalist wrote without the necessary eye-winking candour that typically comes hand in hand with a satirical piece. The mini-bio at the bottom of the page boasting of Schimmel’s Yale-based education only serves to add gravitas to any wild statements he made previously. The tell, for those reading the article is one dime of a sentence, which I’ll quote:

“Authorities have discovered that some users have been unwittingly buying nunu that has been cut with dangerous fillers such as powdered bleach, rat poison, and French postmodernism.”

In a long article, this comes as a schism in the unique process of reading a piece of genuinely brilliant journalism. That nunu may be being cut with both rat poison and Derrida’s Writing and Difference, is both, (1) a dear worry to any frontal lobe’s health, and (2) effectively a train in wall scenario for the perception of the article as a great bit of journalism. Now it’s left in tatters as either eloquent satire or shoddy fiction at best.

But the experience of reading it was real. I had a great time finding out that Cage was an ÜBERnunu fiend and that this was the secret to his success. Cage wrote great music regardless of his drug habits. John Lennon created stunning art in the midst of a decade-long acid binge. Many great names produced brilliant work on drugs including Huxley, Bowie, Lou Reed and so on.

We value many artists for their ability to share an intimate part of their humanity with us. Yet much of the time they’re in an affected mental state.

Artists have always had their achievements credited to them regardless of their conscious cognizance, why not extend the same courtesy to those expressing themselves with their bodies and physical prowess?

This leads me to a few conclusions, truth is old-hat, participation is 80% of success, and Lance Armstrong deserves his medals back.

He lost his balls for Christ’s sake!

DRUGS - February 2018 Nike Vrettos

The Addictive Search For Permanent Happiness

Written by Nike Vrettos

I can see it in all of your faces, the questions you have about him…”, my guide said. In a whispering tone, so that only our small group of people could hear her, she added: “Pablo. Pablo Escobar.” Many of the people next to me glanced at her with barely hidden excitement. “I will tell you all you want to know about him. But please let us agree to not call him by his name when we refer to him.People on the street often take offense when hearing his name, especially in connection with a group of foreigners.” Some frowned at this statement, then shortly moved on asking whatever was on the tip of their tongues, probably since they got to Colombia. She continued, answering all the question the group had about Narcos, Agent Peña and Agent Murphy from the DEA, and the Medellin Cartel, owned by the infamous drug-lord and 7th richest individual in the world Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria.

Already some weeks into my Colombia trip, I imagined I knew a little more than the average tourist. I had talked to a decent amount of people and had read a book and some articles about the country and its political situation, and of course watched “Narcos”. However the more information I gathered, the more I was left wondering about the current situation.

Yet the scope of the terror during “la violencia and the subsequent drug wars is hard to fathom.  “Laviolencia”, a civil war between the liberals and conservative party lasted from 1948-1958, led to over 300.000 deaths and was soon after followed by staggering violence emerging from narcotrafico. For many people this overwhelming brutality is the dominating image of Colombia, their first thought: it’s a dangerous country, don’t go, you’ll be killed.

The war went beyond the drug cartels around Pablo Escobar, as is often thought, extending to an umpteenth level of complexity, including many more players in this cocaine-fuelled game of power. The impact on the local population during that time was grave. The country was smoldering in waves of murder, displacement and the kidnapping of Colombians, who, in most cases, were simply collateral damage. Statistics about kidnapping, displacements and homicide rates are harrowing: 220.000 are said to have been killed between 1958 and 2013, while over 5 million individuals were forcefully displaced between 1996 and 2012, the second largest group of internally displaced people in the world. Children forlornly searched for their dead parents in the ashes of exploded bombs and razed villages; whole towns left in agony for years.

Photo by Nike Vrettos

Generally, the name Pablo Escobar is something the majority of Colombians would prefer to erase from their brains. They despise foreigner’s interest in him, mostly because they see him as a demon, who haunts them even after his death. Most locals I talked to have been directly, or at least indirectly, impacted by his terror. Many are reluctant to speak about it, and don’t want to be reminded of those times. Yet, notwithstanding the discomfort of discussing the subject of drug dealing and terror, some share stories about heinous bloodshed in their villages, forced recruitment of young men, and kidnappings that made the entire country hold its breath. Narcotrafico is not a family dinner topic, it is a part of history one doesn’t talk about.

Over 90% of US cocaine comes from Colombia and creates billions of dollars revenue, so much so the story goes that Pablo Escobar once lit up dollar bills for his daughter when she mentioned she was feeling cold. In a country with 38% of the rural population living in poverty  (previously even exceeded 60%) this is a preposterous incident. Demand for cocaine from the US and also Europe fuels inconceivable suffering which continues to this day. Although when Pablo Escobar was killed and the two biggest cartels in Calí and Medellin diminished in importance, other players stepped into the power vacuum.

One of the biggest rebel groups in the past century were the FARC, a left-wing rebel group founded in 1964 after the agonizing civil war. They mainly consisted of small farmers and land workers who aimed at fighting the extensive rural inequality. The majority of farm land was and still is primarily controlled by a small elite, creating a pernicious situation for small farmers to exercise control over their own lands. The FARC remained mainly a rural, guerrilla organization funding their activities through cocaine production and ransom. After decades of fighting the government of Juan Santos reached a significant peace deal with the FARC in 2016.

Notwithstanding that deal, groups such as Urabeños are thriving in the business and filled the gap FARC left; producing cocaine in large quantities without a noble cause to fund. Their illicit production takes place in the parts of the country where government influence is infinitesimally low.

Colombia is now described by Western news outlets as the “Phoenix from the Flames” for its positive development in the early 2000s, shaking of the shackles of the reputation it had earned in previous decades . The government of Alvaro Uribe, called “Iron Fist” for his determined steps against the drug lords and the other rebel groups such as FARC, took measurements against drug trafficking in the 2000s. This includes the previously mentioned peace deal with FARC. Despite the government’s effort, a significant number of farmers still depend on the production of coca as their main source of income. Once forced into the production of coca, and even after the FARC peace treaty they continue to grow coca due to a lack of alternatives. The government has not succeeded in providing enough substitutes or lucrative incentives to change to other crops; when an alternative is provided there is often “no market for the new crops and no infrastructure to support them.”

Another issue lies in the fact that the farmers who grow coca illegally usually have no official title to their land. No official title to the land means no aid from the government. So they cannot claim any benefits or subsidy from the government even when they are available. Statistics show that Colombia remains very divided in terms of rural and urban poverty, leaving the rural population, which also includes vulnerable indigenous groups, in a structural disadvantage. Many times the farmers are reticent to report to the government their activities on unregistered land as they fear high punishment by the state in return.

In addition, limited geo-referencing of the vast rural areas and its owners creates space for bandits to rob or force the campesinos to grow lucrative coca instead of crops such as coffee or corn. Usually when found the coca plantations are burned down by police forces leaving the farmers with nothing and even less trust in the government and its ability to help them. If they are not severely punished for illegal cultivation then only one option remains: to grow coca plants again.

One of my mountain guides on a long hike in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, home to indigenous populations such as the Wiwa and the Kogi,  told us his father first grew marihuana at the time when it was still a good business. Then the government destroyed everything, the FARC settled in the area, and subsequently his family grew coca and produced cocaine as the only means to survive.

However, the area got lucky. A lost indigenous city was discovered in the mountains sparking tourism, which together with government subsidies, and an increased military presence in the area, moved the local economy away from coca. A region previously lacking government authority and the formal rule of law, managed to change. Where in 2000 the streets heading north from Bogota were closed after 18.00 pm, just years later, I, a white girl traveling alone could accommodate myself without fearing for my life.

It is still undeniable that coca farming is proceeding in other parts of the country. The UN suspects 866 hectare of coca plantations 2016 in Colombia.  Areas in which the long arm of the government doesn’t stretch. In a country three times bigger than Germany with vast tropical forests and humongous mountain ranges governmental oversight is not an easy task, especially considering the lacking infrastructure and contending with powerful criminal groups.

As the illegal cultivation continues, it seems that the “war against drugs” is doomed to fail. Colombians and middle men all over the world involved in the export of cocaine are still being killed and the drug business is still responsible for a continuation of a vicious circle which does not elevate the most vulnerable from their suffering. The farmers are left with scarce options to feed their families. The ludicrous sums of profit barely trickles down to the producers, they stay with the distributors. Perhaps the dealing is handled in a less publicly dramatic manner than during times of Pablo Escobar. Nonetheless that does not change the fact that it still exists; vividly in the semi-shadows of society as long cocaine remains demanded in the Western World, and increasingly in Brazil, due to a growing middle class.

A guide in Cartagena asked the group to name 10 great things Colombia is known for: Shakira, Salsa, women… He very much intended to lead the topic away from the rather gloomy past, elaborating on the optimistic attitude of Colombians. As mentioned antecedently, it seemed to me people are barely taking account of the past. The population tries to forget the horrendous era as good as they can. Pablo Escobar is to be erased out of public memory; the topic is not stressed in school, and people barely talk about it with their children. Locals get annoyed when foreigners ask, not wanting to be defined by it. I was walking around Medellin with a Colombian girl who looked at me incensed, repelled that I would be interested to see Escobar’s prison, “La Cathedral”, and asked me if I would not have the decency to honor the dead. Why I would want to waste a minute of interest to Escobar? I responded that my decency was to understand the past and what it contributed to forming contemporary Colombia. She could not comprehend and she left with her eyes filled with wrath.

Coming from Germany I was stunned that such a relevant piece of recent history was just swiped under the carpet as if it had not happened. A man told me, “You probably also never talk about Hitler, its an awful topic, no one wants to be reminded of that dreadful past”. I fervently explained the opposite was true. He looked at me, baffled. “Visiting a concentration camp voluntarily?”, “Children in highschool talk about the Holocaust? Why would I want to trouble their young minds?”. I tried to explain, but the more I said the more he had difficulties following. He seemed distant at times, his eyes gazing in the sunset above the city as if memories he tried to forget forcefully made their way up. I imagined him hearing wailing women grieving over their dead sons in the early mornings, the dew still gently shining on their faces. Some others laying on vast fields like sheaf. I shivered in the warm evening air.

My guide in Medellin elaborated that the government wanted to remove the remaining slivers of a Fernando Botero statue after a bomb blew half of it up and killed 30 people in 1995. The relatives of the victims protested fiercely, so eventually it remained to not erase the dead of the public memory.

Photo by Nike Vrettos

Pablo Escobar through growing international interest is sold as a trademark, and what is mostly visible is his enormous wealth and his excruciating impact on Colombia. Yet it is not difficult to find T-Shirts with his face in Medellin, worn by local juveniles.It is also sending quite a damaging message. It is saying: ‘Go and become a criminal, because that way you can make money fast and lift your family out of poverty,'” Mr. Arellano, who chairs a foundation for Escobar’s victims, argues. The new generation does not get an introduction to the darker history of the country they are living in. There is no awareness raised that narcotrafico is not a suitable alternative to regular work. Money, and sex, and fame, are powerful forces dragging young people in the vortex of crime.

Today, despite the disturbing impact of cocaine on the local population, Cocaine tourism is a booming trend, at least in backpacker circles. It was a frequent topic, “Ah, we’re going to get some coke, you wanna come? It is gonna be great fun”,  “I always get offered cigarettes or beer on the street, and then it turns out its coke, just a few dollars and so much better than at home!”, “Did I watch Narcos? Of course I did! Terrible, absolutely mortifying things that happened, can’t believe the misery… If I tried cocaine? Surely, you gotta do that when you are in Colombia, supposedly it is the purest you can get worldwide!”. After deep conversations with locals those comments gave me nausea, and I politely denied their offers.

Sometimes, however I asked whether the individual was aware of what their gram embodies: blood, suffering, misery and death. Blood on every gram. Not only in the 80s and 90s, but still to this very day. To this very second. Many shrugged. That one gram wouldn’t make the difference. It would just be a one time thing. Others were laying in their bed every morning, white powder still on their nose.

Cocaine has done much to shape Colombia, its people, and its international perception; and yet many people elsewhere are not aware of the scope it had and continues to have. The reason why this country was not accessible to tourism earlier, was the bloody fight for power around drug cartels and cocaine trafficking. Many people who now take the freedom to come to Colombia, ironically fuel the business that had deprived them from the ability to travel here just a few years ago.

I am not here to judge, I am only an observer, but it left me wondering. Can we all be oblivious, or do we choose to be ignorant and just don’t care?

We are all part of this debate. We, the public, users or non-users, are the ones steering the general perception of drugs as we reinforce certain norms and values that are related to that topic. Drug money runs in the economy regardless of the country, it saved many banks from collapsing in 2008. Though not everyone uses cocaine, the way we approach the subject plays integral part in its trade. Do we have an opinion? Do we engage in a public debate? It should be our concern regardless of whether we take it or not.

Every line of cocaine that drives the addictive search for permanent happiness, contains the blood of innocent and desperate people. For every exuberating joy there is excruciating pain. Cocaine tells the story of power struggle, of hope and unfulfilled dreams, of rags and riches, of death and endless joy. According to Roberto Saviano, who lives under police protection and investigates the global entanglements of the trade, everything starts and ends with people like us: “the place of origin, the drug’s route, the people who produce, transport, hide, and sell it. And then, the revenues: where they come from and, above all, where they end up. Everything that has to do with coke has to do with us, even those who don’t use it […].” We are all somehow part of this business, yet the relevant question is, how we deal with it. How much the users consider it relevant to minimize the harm done to the other humans we owe the splendid Friday night and wild memories; how much anguish we find acceptable in that little white line.

Look for Nike’s follow up article Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results in the next issue of Pandemic.

DRUGS - February 2018 Issues

February Issue: Drugs

Dear Infected,

We would like to thank you for joining us for the re-launch of Pandemic!

Along with changing our look, we are changing our approach to being a platform for spreading infectious ideas. We are staying in touch with our print roots by still having issues, but because we are predominately an online platform, each issue will be allowed to evolve and grow based on submissions from our readers on that month’s theme. Taking inspiration from being based in the famed city of Amsterdam, this first issue’s theme is Drugs.

Amsterdam has a reputation as a drug den thanks to the millions of tourists passing through the city’s coffeeshops and smartshops. The cursory experience of the tourist masks multifaceted existence of those that actually live in the city. In the same way, drugs and their users have a diversity that can’t be captured in political soundbites, or a black and white dichotomy.

A secondary inspiration for this month’s theme is the progress being made by US states to recognize that weed is nowhere near as detrimental to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as the War on Drugs has been. As of 2018, 8 US states have legalized marijuana, 13 have decriminalized possessing small amounts,  and 18 allow some form of medicinal marijuana. Yet, ad the federal level Attorney General Jeff Sessions is taking two steps back by undoing Obama-era protections for State laws. When asked about his approach to weed Sessions will just call it dangerous and leave it at that, because an honest answer would be that drug laws offer a legal way to control minorities and the poor.

Sessions is a lost cause because he already knows the truth and chooses to ignore it, we hope our readers are more open-minded. The articles starting this issue of Pandemic offer a broad perspective on the drug debate that we hope will help you decide where you should stand. The can be broadly categorized as two articles against drug use, and two articles in favor of a more open perspective.

Hopefully reading these articles inspires you to write your own, and join this issue’s debate. Go ahead and click on one of the article photos to start reading! 

We look forward to hearing from you.