From this article in The Age, we learn that the Australian public has an “insatiable appetite for narcotics”.

Of course we do. Humans have been using mind-altering drugs since pre-historic times. A significant factor in our rapid evolution as a species has been our willingness to experiment with substances we find that have an affect on us – this is how we found both medicines (like aspirin) and hallucinogens (like psilocybin mushrooms).

Increasingly, as human consciousness has evolved we have become more complex, to the degree that we now have entire branches of science dedicated to improving our understanding of our minds. Is it any surprise that these days we need the occasional escape from ourselves (or change of perspective) that drugs can bring?

Prior to the early 1900s drugs such as cocaine, opium and marijuana were legal. Making them illegal has created a huge black market and been the cause of countless deaths and crimes against property.

This “war on drugs” is one the authorities will never win, because humans will always want to use drugs. We always have and we always will, and arguably it’s better for us to continue to do so, if the past is any guide. Governments should not be attempting to control our use of drugs any more than they should be legislating what we do in the bedroom.

A great book to read on the subject of drugs and human society is Dreamtime: Concerning the Boundary between Wilderness and Civilization by Hans Peter Duerr. It’s a great read, and will make you think.

Follow up: the Age has a page about the war on drugs that’s interesting – it has a timeline showing when laws changed.