Capitalism has a deep-seated taboo against taking recreational drugs. So strong is the taboo they will ruin your life and exile you from mainstream society for doing something recreational.

This is changing a bit as the scientists tell them there is basically no reason for this. But the scientists meet with resistance from entrenched cops, judges, lawyers, who are very frothingfash about it.

What's the materialist explanation for this moralistic taboo?

  • came_apart_at_Kmart [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    1 month ago

    drugs are powerful. drugs are necessary for human health and comfort. period. the only thing more powerful is the ability to craft and enforce drug policy.

    drug policy lets those in power decide who is legitimate and who is not. drug policy elevates some, generally domestic, capital formations and lets them extract extremely high rents from the masses. the prohibition of drugs and the "war" that has wrought is about so much more than just the carceral state inside the US, though those are the gears with the sharpest, most visible teeth.

    https://academic.oup.com/california-scholarship-online/book/17990?login=false