On May 27th in Miami, a naked 31-year-old Rudy Eugene tried to eat the face off of another man. Eugene was largely successful in his efforts, mauling off 80% of his victim’s face.
It was a gruesome spectacle that baffled police officers, ending with the attacker dead, and the victim virtually faceless.
For those who witnessed this disturbing and puzzling attack--which would surely have grossed out even Hannibal Lecter--it appeared as though the zombie apocalypse had begun.
When this incident originally appeared in the news, the words “bath salts” and “LSD” were almost always included in the headlines, suggesting that dangerous or hallucinogenic drugs were the real culprits behind the attack.
However, toxicology lab reports later indicated that the only drugs that Eugene had in his system at the time of the attack were traces of cannabis, and this may be from using the herb days or even weeks earlier.
Despite the fact that cannabis can increase hunger, it’s highly unlikely that the cannabis had even the slightest effect on Eugene’s strange feeding behavior that day.
Nonetheless, some misguided journalists have actually tried to blame cannabis for this tragic event, by suggesting an association between cannabis use and schizophrenia onset--which, according to scientific studies, is extremely weak, at best.
Why do so many people in the media try to find a drug to blame whenever someone acts bizarre and violent?
More importantly, why are psychedelic drugs so often demonized in the media, and why are they even illegal to begin with, when in reality, they generally cause very little harm or unruly behavior?
There are a number of important reasons why world governments are so genuinely frightened of psychedelic substances, and why there is a strong cultural taboo around them.
All of the scientific evidence supports the fact that the draconian prohibition currently being practiced is most definitely not because of the danger of physical or psychological harm, especially since they are known to be so physically safe, and so many medical benefits are now being discovered for them.
Not to mention the fact that, no where in the U.S. Constitution does it say that the federal government is allowed to “protect us” from the consequences of own free and informed choices that don’t harm others.
Hidden under the guise of protecting people from a nonexistent health menace, their true agenda--conscious or not--appears to be to suppress people from activating states of consciousness that allow them to transcend cultural value systems, to think for themselves, and to question the authority of their culture’s values.
Psychedelics dissolve personal and conceptual boundaries, and they put one in touch with something deeper than culture, a primordial genetic awareness, and the flaws of an antiquated culture, and the ways that it can be improved become obvious.
It’s very hard for someone who has tasted the cultural transcendence that psychedelics offer to ever fall for the deceptive manipulations of the corporate-controlled media, and there are unquestionably government officials who are aware of this.
Psychedelics often motivate people to examine unquestioned beliefs, and to view cultural assumptions with a more skeptical eye.
This is precisely the opposite of what organized religions--one of the strongest cultural trances--encourage us to do, as, by their very nature, they require us to have blind faith in their remarkable claims.
Doing psychedelic drugs or plants can be dangerous--no one will argue with that. They can overpower an unprepared mind, and sometimes cause lasting psychological harm.
However, this is rare, and not doing psychedelic drugs or plants can also be dangerous, as psychedelic virginity tends to make one more vulnerable to accepting unexamined cultural assumptions as fact.
Eugene reportedly traveled around with a Bible close at hand, and he attended church services with his mother.
His girlfriend, Yovonka Bryant, said that she and Eugene often read from the Bible and the Qur’an together, and that they regularly watched a religious television program in the mornings.
Is it possible that the Bible is really more to blame for Eugene’s strange behavior than any drug? Perhaps Eugene was actually suffering from a psychedelic drug deficiency?
With its attempt to manipulate human behavior, by blending spiritual teachings with the agendas of the ruling class, one could reasonably argue that many organized religions are at the heart of much of the bizarre and violent behavior that we regularly witness in the world today.
Regardless, when it comes to reporting on psychedelic drugs, here’s my plea to fellow writers and journalists the world over--let’s stick to the scientific facts, please!
And let’s also hope that Eugene’s faceless victim doesn’t transform a face-eating zombie now himself!
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