Let’s face it: life in Bush’s America is depressing. It’s frustrating, maddening, sickening, and can drive reasonable people to all kinds of unhealthy distractions. I am the first person to use terms like ‘oppressive’ and ‘cabal’ and ‘fascist’ when describing the regime. But I will also admit that while Bush really, really, really sucks, he’s no Stalin. America doesn’t (yet) have death squads roaming our streets, or domestic gulags filled with people committed for protesting or speaking out. Most of us have a roof over our heads; eat a decent quantity of food, and money enough to afford luxuries like Internet service or cable TV. As oppressive regimes go, Bush’s America is perhaps a 4 or 5 on a scale of 1-10.

History offers us many examples from which we who seek social change can learn. Early Christians suffered hundreds of years of state oppression, often bloody and sadistic, as they earned the right to practice and proselytize their faith openly. The history of Russia is enough to justify the existence of strong alcohol for no other reason than the relief of that long-suffering nation. Chile, China, about every nation in Africa- all are different narratives about how a people accept, reject or modify oppressive regimes. In America, we look to our own proud history and our Founding Fathers (and Mothers) and take heart. When the British tried to reduce us to right less, overtaxed tenant farmers, we took up arms and won our freedom. The British learned a different yet equally powerful lesson in modern India, a lesson Black America taught White America a generation later.

Today’s Evil Overlords have new weapons in the fight against freedom. In addition to a very scary list of unconventional arms and star wars type weapons, they have two that I will argue have been more effective than any kind of gun or tank. The first is TV, and we’ll get to that another time. The second is drugs. Highly derived, very specific, often out of control and literally permanent aspects of our social and natural environment, drugs have become the premiere weapon with which today’s ruling elite maintains control.

I’ve dealt with the world of illegal drugs in another post. I’d like to talk about the other kind here. I’d like to suggest that our first step in understanding them correctly is to completely drop the pretense that they are different. Your brain and body systems are complex, but science doesn’t change just because of social policy. Properly applied, science teaches anyone how to alter the mind and body unnaturally, how to create conditions of addiction and dependence, and how to do permanent, long-term damage to bodily systems. Chemicals in pill form can be just as effective as any found in plants or distilled liquids. It is a rhetorical and artificial separation we are taught to impose between legal and illegal drugs; this only serves those who would control us.

Scientists and physicians think about drugs in three categories: opioids, central nervous system (CNS) depressants, and stimulants. Opioids are pain relievers like Oxycontin, and are designed to treat conditions of great pain. CNS depressants include brand names like Xanax, Valium and Halcion, and are designed to treat anxiety disorders and nervous conditions. Stimulants like Dexedrine and Ritalin are used for conditions of hyper-activity, narcolepsy, attention-deficit disorders and persistent obesity. A tremendous amount of research and money has gone into the development of more specific and effective types of these drugs. A Victorian would be amazed at the degree to which medical science has developed so many exact remedies for so many disorders.

Let me state clearly: I have no issue with pain relief. No one should suffer intense physical pain for any amount of time; we are a modern, scientific civilization and effective pain relief is one of its primary benefits. Further, I agree with those who want to treat mental disorders with both “talk therapy” and chemicals. People who are genuinely depressed, hyperactive, or who have any other serious and permanent chemical imbalances of the brain deserve the fullest medical and psychiatric science can offer. However, I believe that taken as a whole, the portion of the human population that truly requires chemical therapy for mental disorders hovers around 10%. I also believe that the American definition of “intense” physical pain has become blurred, both by patients and by prescribing health care providers.

I think most of you will agree with me when I say our health care system is completely fucked up. The poor barely get treatment anymore, and increasingly rely on emergency and ‘urgent care’ rooms for their primary practitioners. HMOs and other for-profit health care providers have perversely reversed our health care priorities. Rich, older men with good coverage are the primary research targets for far too many pharmaceutical investigations; few Big Pharma companies care to develop drugs and treatments that would be low cost and effective in the short term. Why should they? They’re about making money, and a healthy population that takes drugs infrequently and for the short term doesn’t make for billion dollar quarterly profit statements. I’ve spoken with more than one health care professional and heard the argument that HMOs and Big Pharma are essentially in cahoots with each other. The goal is to circulate massive quantities of employer, discretionary and government (read: your) money between the two enterprises, by keeping people just “sick” enough to need a constant barrage of drugs, and just well enough to go to work and earn money to pay for them. Bill Frist is rich for a reason, and you can’t really argue that the people his companies have dealt with are better off for it.

Most physicians will agree: it was a mistake to allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise on TV and in print. Unless you’ve got a decade of medical or scientific education and training, you really don’t understand what any given drug can do, and not do. Furthermore, the very nature of advertising is reductive and misleading; just as ads for tires and detergent ridiculously promise you hot sex if you buy their products, so too do ads for drugs promise you eternal bliss if you get your doctor to prescribe them for you. I find it disconcerting and amusing to watch the smiling, perfect people in the HappyFunWorld of drug ads list, in soft tones, all the disorders and side effects associated with the drug. “If you experience rectal bleeding or hair loss, you should call your doctor.” It’s funny how you never see any rectal bleeding in the ads.

It’s more than just advertising which has contributed to our modern problems with understanding and using drugs. As a liberal, I’ll accept partial blame for the discourse that has “normalized” drug use over the last three or four decades. I don’t want to see people suffer, and I don’t want people to be ashamed or ostracized for seeking chemical treatment for mental or physical disorders. Illness is a medical and/or psychiatric condition, and should be treated with scientific methods used by caring professionals. Society as a whole should pay for treatment, and offer it to all our citizens equally. Yet somehow, this isn’t what’s happening in America today.

Instead of being America the Healthy, we have become America the Medicated. Where once an energetic, active, unruly child was a discipline issue, today’s she’s “hyperactive” and requires brain-altering medication. People who are awkward and shy now suffer from “social anxiety disorder” and should take a pill. Those who are under mild to strong amounts of stress are told to take Ambien (that isn’t habit forming…in the short term) instead of learning to live with their troubles or correct the area causing stress and become stronger mentally and spiritually. People who eat fatty and overly rich diets are given pills to treat “acid reflux disease” rather than told to eat a more balanced diet. People who don’t exercise and who eat too much are given metabolism-enhancing pills instead of comprehensive diet and exercise plans. People who are unhappy with their relationships or jobs are given drugs that permanently alter brain chemistry, rather than opportunities and methods for long-term personal change. Hell, I’ve seen ads for people who just need to bathe more often- don’t like the color of your toenails? Have some cream! In today’s Medicated America, there’s a pill, cream or liquid for anything and everything that bothers you…even for things you didn’t know should bother you. Lost in all this is the true concept of health and well-being. By definition, prolonged drug use of any kind does not indicate “health.”

I really don’t understand how we’ve come to the notion that the answer to a chemical addiction or imbalance is…another chemical. Once upon a time, if you were a drunk, you had two options: die early and badly, or quit. Today, science has taught us that some people are genetically predisposed to be at higher risk for alcoholism. The proper combination of talk therapy, balanced diet and nutritional therapy can help even the most dedicated alcoholic. In extreme cases, the short-term application of certain drugs may be helpful. But for too many, the “answer” to one addiction is another, and a lifetime of chemical treatment. Ditto with smokers- either you quit absorbing the addictive substance of nicotine, or you don’t. The body flushes it out of your system 24 hours after your last smoke or chew. What the hell makes sense in giving addicts the substance to which they’re addicted to help them “quit?”

Although the issue is more complicated, I believe the same idea applies to many people who suffer from mental problems. A significant part of many mental disorders relates to chemical imbalances in the brain. Proper nutrition, guided social interaction, talk therapy, and exercise can and do help many people who suffer from mild to strong depression and anxiety. Yet in our society, too many people are told to “fix” the problem with more chemicals and nothing else. I don’t understand how people are so quick to judge (rightly) a drunk or pothead for dealing with depression with those substances, and yet completely support the idea that a lifetime’s worth of anti-depressants is a good thing.

There are serious consequences for all us as we increase our reliance on drugs. The most obvious is cost: I’d like to see a study comparing what Americans spent in 1970 and today on prescription drugs. Are we happier as a nation today? There’s also the human cost- people are permanently damaged by any kind of long-term drug use. Just as a drunk or smoker have to deal with liver and lung problems as they age; so too will those who ingest large quantities of anti-depressants or stimulants over their lifetimes suffer from permanently altered brain chemistry or metabolism. Everyone’s heard of how drugs like Ecstasy and “G” can literally kill you if taken too often or in too large a quantity? Then it should be no surprise to hear that chemically, many of today’s popular anti-depressants are very similar, and have similar effects on the brain and body. Where the government and conservatives are willing to shout out from every rooftop about the damage caused by illegal drugs, they are remarkably silent about the true cost of overmedication and dependence on prescription drugs. Trust me when I say that studies demonstrating unacceptably high rates of side effects in popular drugs are suppressed; in our hyper pro-corporate age, it’s harder and harder to find out about the products that are killing us.

The political cost of drug use is also very significant. It’s much more easy to control a population that’s artificially happy all the time. “Oh, who cares about an illegal war based on lies? Hand me my Xanax, honey.” Conversely, people who are on the roller coaster of “finding the right mix” of “required” medication can’t really focus on the society around them; I’ve known people who have lost jobs and ruined relationships because they are “experimenting” with all the prescription medications they’re told they need. Drugs change you as a person, they strip you of your natural sources of resolve and energy and replace them with artificial ones. A social climate in which every problem has a chemical answer contributes to declining personal habits of discipline and dignity. Finally, the market for pills and chemicals isn’t only a legitimate one: meth addiction wouldn’t be the problem it is today if people weren’t so motivated to make money in the illegal trade and abuse of drugs that once required a prescription. Drugs should not be so common, so easy to obtain, and so completely funded by government or health care plans. They should be rarely used, only in the short term, and only as a last resort.

I’m going to piss off a lot of people saying this, but I want you to shift gears and think about some of the countries I mentioned in the top of this post. Think about a young rural woman enslaved in a Chinese manufacturing factory. Think about a Sudanese rape victim. Think about the people in Central America who’ve been oppressed and murdered by death squads or dictatorships that practice torture. Think about Iraqis today. How many of those groups are taking prescription drugs to deal with their problems? How many of them have the luxury of turning inward and forgetting the horror around them? Compare our “worries” here in soft, fat, lazy, self-absorbed America with theirs. Does it bother you that somehow those people go on and live, fight, and even throw off their oppressors, all without the benefit of drugs? Is it possible that part of the reason we don’t enact more social change here is because we’re too busy inventing new un-problems and buying too many chemical solutions for them?

I’m no puritan. I’ve used prescriptions drugs, been diagnosed as depressed, had weight issues and problems with legal substances like alcohol. I like to party as much as the next person, and if I had my way pot would be a regular part of many people’s lives. But I’ve also discovered that there are lots and lots of drug-free solutions to my problems, and when I tried them, I had as much or more success as when I tried a prescription chemical. The very simple answer to a great deal of many people’s problems: preventative care and an increased focus on personal discipline. I’m not advocating that no one use drugs ever, but I do think that far too many people take the easy way out. Things like good diet, regular exercise, proper nutrition, activity with support groups, getting out and being active in your community, talking through your worries with a professional or religious advisor and just bucking up and accepting that sometimes life is hard go a long, long way to helping a person feel good about life.

If I’ve pissed you off or you feel like I’m improperly emphasizing the serious nature of many medicated disorders, I apologize and don’t mean to trivialize any condition. But I sincerely believe that we are over-medicated as a society, and that it’s a big reason why we’re not out in the streets with pitchforks and torches right now. Our Founding Fathers were often drunks and potheads (and skirt-chasers and slave owners and misogynists…) but when it came time to deal with unacceptable oppression, they got off the farm and did what it took. When a nation can’t rise up and toss out the bunch that has lied them into an illegal war, tortured and gassed innocent people, committed treason and destroyed a previously robust economy- something isn’t right. The next time you’re told to take a pill, consider that there are some who want you to do so, and not because they give a damn about your health.