Drugged-Up America

by Robert Ingraham

[Print version of this article]

The mass drugging of the American people is a secret hidden in plain sight. Over a span of four decades, Americans have consented to a deluge of drug usage. The responsibility for this lies at the feet of the pro-drug Wall Street establishment, the pro-drug news media, pro-drug politicians, the pro-drug psychiatric profession, and drug-saturated Hollywood. An environment has been deliberately created in which everyday drug usage is seen as acceptable, if not normal or even desirable. This is the 21st Century fulfillment of the “soma” vision of British oligarch Aldous Huxley.

Estimates are that in 2017, more than 30.5 million Americans had used an illegal drug within the last 30 days. At least 47 million Americans had used an illegal drug within the last twelve months. That is 15% of the total population. Additionally, those figures do not include either the millions who legally consume a wide variety of mind-numbing prescription drugs, or the millions of alcohol addicts.

If one were to add in the number of people who legally use opioids (such as OxyContin), anti-depressants (such as Prozac, Zoloft, or Celexa), anti-anxiety drugs (such as Xanax), and ADHD drugs (such as Ritalin or Adderall), then the total figures for “drug usage” skyrocket. The numbers are staggering.

Let us be clear: This is the deliberate mass drug enslavement of the American people. Nothing like this has existed anywhere in the world, of this scope or magnitude, since the enforced opium addiction of tens of millions of Chinese by the British monarchy in the 19th and early 20th Centuries.

Much attention is given, and rightly so, to the crime and deaths which result from illegal drug trafficking. Yet, much more devastating damage is being done. A minimum of 25%—or perhaps a much, much higher number—of the American people are now being stupefied by drugs. Their minds are impaired. Their cognitive reasoning is damaged. Ask yourself, would we have a society today in which tens of millions oppose nuclear power and embrace the anti-scientific fraud of global warming were it not for the widespread drugging of the population? Would we have a culture dominated by Hollywood trash and mindless video games were it not for widespread drug usage? Or, more to the point, what percentage of the deluded demonstrators demanding that Donald Trump be removed from office have consumed a mind-altering drug within the last thirty days?

Reasoned discussion, which is only possible through higher cognitive functioning, a mandatory pre-requisite for the existence of a republic, is being erased from our society.

In This Case . . . Figures Don’t Lie

The consensus among government reports is that 25 million Americans have used marijuana within the last 30 days (including 35% of high school seniors) and 41 million within the last 12 months. Current figures show that, among “regular users”—i.e. those who have used the drug within the last thirty days—there are:

• 1.5 million cocaine users,

• at least 1 million heroin users (compared with 300,000 in 2003),

• 900,000 methamphetamine users,

• 3 million Ecstasy (MDMA) users,

• 2 million users of hallucinogens, and

• perhaps as many as 4 million users of illegal opioids.

If one were to expand this to include “casual users,” i.e., those who have used marijuana within the last year, the figures would double, or in some cases triple.

There is also the following to consider.

When the LaRouche political movement published the book, Dope, Inc.: Britain’s Opium War Against the U.S. in 1978, the explosion in use of legal psychiatric drugs was still two decades into the future. Today, the “legal” drugging of Americans is beyond epidemic proportions. The first anti-anxiety drug Valium was introduced in 1963, but the real revolution came with the introduction of the powerful anti-depressant Prozac in 1988, i.e., the acceptance of the idea that psychological and emotional “well-being” could be achieved through swallowing a pill. This re-definition of mind-altering drugs as “medicine”—which today includes marijuana—has been key to the mass drugging of the population.

According to figures supplied by IMS Health, a company that provides information, services and technology for the healthcare industry, 79 million Americans are now taking some form of drug for emotional or psychological relief. That’s 25% of the entire U.S. population. This includes

• 37 million taking anti-anxiety drugs,

• 41 million taking anti-depressants,

• 11 million taking drugs for attention deficit disorder, and

• 7 million taking anti-psychotic drugs.

One in eight Americans now takes an antidepressant medication; among women in their 40s and 50s, the figure is one in four. Many people have multiple prescriptions for a variety of these drugs. Additionally, in 2012, 259 million prescriptions were written for narcotic opioids (e.g., OxyContin), which is more than enough to give every American adult his or her own bottle of pills.

The powerful anti-anxiety and anti-panic drug Xanax today ranks #1 as the most prescribed psychiatric drug in America. As of 2015, doctors were writing nearly 50 million prescriptions for Xanax every year—that’s more than one Xanax prescription every second.

The drugging begins at an early age. In the age group 0-5 years, 200,000 are already on ADHD drugs, 110,000 are on anti-depressants, and 725,000 are on anti-anxiety drugs. Over one million children are on drugs by the time of their sixth birthday. An astounding 20% of high school-age boys—ages 14-17—in the United States have been diagnosed with ADHD, and 10% of high school-age girls have likewise been diagnosed.

These are powerful drugs. During the last thirty years, Dr. Peter Breggin has authored a series of books, including Toxic Psychiatry; Talking Back to Prozac; Talking Back to Ritalin; and Medication Madness. In his work, Dr. Breggin had documented a widespread deterioration of mental functioning in the users of these drugs. He has described a condition which he calls “medication spellbinding,” wherein severe mental impairment occurs without the drug user noticing it. The same could certainly be said for marijuana users.

Obama the Drug Pusher

In October 2009, Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden issued a memorandum to federal prosecutors, directing them that they should not enforce federal anti-drug laws (the Controlled Substances Act) against individuals or institutions which are in “clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.” Thus, Barack Obama became the first U.S. President to accept the definition of marijuana, a Schedule I controlled substance, as a “medicine.”

This federal endorsement of marijuana was taken a step further in 2013 when Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole issued a memo to federal prosecutors in all fifty states declaring that the Obama Administration would not challenge laws legalizing marijuana in Colorado, Washington, or any other state which chose to violate federal drug laws.

In March 2015, following the legalization of marijuana in Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Colorado, Barack Obama conducted an interview with Vice News. He stated that he was “encouraged” by recent actions at the state level to give greater access to marijuana. This Presidential endorsement, combined with federal non-enforcement of the nation’s anti-drug laws has resulted in seven additional states—California, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Vermont, Michigan, and Illinois—legalizing marijuana in the past two and a half years.

Barack Obama, together with his wife Michelle and his bizarre political bedfellow Valery Jarrett, have established a headquarters in Washington, D.C. from which to organize an effort to block and destroy President Donald Trump. This unholy trio are linked in their efforts with Nazi-sympathizer George Soros, the billionaire who is now personally bankrolling the attempt to create a “color revolution” in the United States by deploying thousands of deluded foot soldiers into the streets of American cities in violent anti-Trump demonstrations.

Since 1994, George Soros has spent more than $200 million of his own money to legalize drugs in the United States. During the last twenty years, almost every state ballot initiative for drug legalization or “decriminalization” has been financed by Soros, some almost entirely by him, and Soros has not limited his efforts to marijuana legalization. He has also spoken out—and financed ballot initiatives—for the decriminalization of all “hard drugs,” including heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamines.

In a December 2015 interview with the Russia-24 TV channel, Viktor Ivanov, the head of the Russian anti-drug agency FSKN, charged that Soros’ efforts for drug legalization in the United States, was developed for export to foreign countries, particularly intended to effect drug legalization in Mexico and other Latin American nations, where propaganda is being spread by Soros-controlled NGOs.

What Obama Has Wrought

Between 2009 and 2016, under Barack Obama:

• Marijuana use went up 100%.

• Methamphetamine use increased 62%.

• Heroin use increased 200%.

According to a report issued by the CDC, in 2012 the number of people using heroin for the first time was 156,000, nearly double the number of people in 2006. This increase has been driven largely by young adults aged 18-25.

On Feb. 23, 2017, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) released data showing that overdose-related deaths increased from 38,329 in 2010 to 52,404 by 2015, a 27% increase in five years. Over the same period, heroin-related deaths quadrupled, going from 3,036 in 2010 to 12,989 in 2015, all of this under the Obama regime.

Numerous studies have documented that this frightening explosion of drug usage correlates directly to states that have legalized the Obama-approved “medical” use of marijuana. A 2014 report published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, titled “The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on Marijuana, Alcohol, and Hard Drug Use,” documents a 27% increase for marijuana use in states that have legalized medical marijuana.

Since the 2012 outright legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington, attempts have been made to calculate the effects of legalization on drug usage (as well as in the additional states that subsequently enacted marijuana legalization). Initial studies have shown a sharp increase in drug usage among the population. Millions of youth are now being told that marijuana is a “medicine,”—like the pills that mother takes for her “well-being”—or at the very least it is acceptable to use, now that it has been legalized. The societal and cultural barriers to drug usage are being removed.

As for prescription drug use, under Obama, the overall use of psychiatric drugs to numb and pacify the population has increased dramatically. Since 2008, there has been an 87% increase in the use of anti-depressants, a 100% increase in children under age 10 taking anti-psychotic medications, and a 40% increase in the number of girls being prescribed ADHD medications. There has been an explosion in the use of prescription opioids, accompanied by the development and marketing of new opioids. The United States makes up only 4.6% of the world’s population, but consumes 80% of its opioids.

Start From the Top

So, what is to be done?

The first step must be to recognize the paramount role of the major British and American banking institutions in the global drug trade. This role is not merely one of avaricious “money laundering.” The London and Wall Street apparatus is the command center for the intended drugging of the population, and none of the major drug cartels could function without the protection and support of Wall Street and the City of London.

In 2009, Antonio Maria Costa, then the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), identified the fact that the international banks had become “drug dependent.” He said:

In many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital. In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system’s main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor. Inter-bank loans were funded by money that originated from the drugs trade and other illegal activities. . . There were signs that some banks were rescued that way.

Speaking in Washington, D.C. in 2011, Viktor Ivanov, the Director of the Russian Federal Narcotics Service, went even further:

Drug money and global drug trafficking are actually not just valuable elements of, but as donors of scarce liquidity, a vital and indispensable segment of the whole monetary system.

Ivanov went on to say that Russia and the United States must work in tandem to effect—

the drastic transformation of the international financial system. . . . To a certain extent, we are observing a revival of the logic of the Glass-Steagall Act, adopted in the U.S. in 1933 at the height of the Great Depression, which separated the deposit and investment functions of banks.

However, he added, “restrictions to prevent the attraction of criminal money are required even more. In other words, liquidation of the financial bubble alone will not be enough. … The key way to liquidate global drug trafficking is to reformat the existing economy and shift to an economy that excludes criminal money” and moves instead “to an economy of development, in which decisions are based on development projects and long-term targeted credits.”

The first action which must be undertaken to combat the drug scourge is to enact into law the restoration of Franklin Roosevelt’s Glass-Steagall legislation, along with accompanying actions which ruthlessly bring to an end the last two decades era of unregulated banking and financial speculation. The predatory practices of the “too-big-to-fail” banks in London and New York—the headquarters of Dope Inc.—have brought the trans-Atlantic financial system to ruin. The restoration of Glass-Steagall is essential for the creation of a Hamiltonian Credit System needed to finance a national economic recovery, but it will also have the salutary effect of destroying the financial operations and structures which control and bankroll the international drug trade.

The tens of millions of drug users in the United States are the victims of Britain’s modern Opium War against the United States. By adopting the measures which LaRouche enunciated in 1985, together with enactment of Glass-Steagall legislation as well as strict enforcement of federal drug laws, the amount of drug consumption can be drastically curtailed. The availability of drugs will be sharply reduced, and the message that has been sent out by Barack Obama for the last eight years that “Drugs are OK” will be reversed. A contrary social dynamic will be created. The question then becomes how to move forward, how to create a better culture and a better society than that which currently exists.

Even far greater challenges—and greater opportunities—could then be posed to young Americans. A true Hamiltonian economic policy will provide the means to take on stupendous projects, including a rapid return to space exploration, in partnership with other nations. An upward optimistic perspective can take hold. The potential for a profoundly positive change in culture would then become possible. Human minds begin to function again. Reason awakens. Cognition is improved.

Justice

There is no reason to incarcerate drug users. Again, they are the victims. Simply cut off their supply, and move as many of them as possible into an FDR economic recovery effort. This approach should also apply for many “lower level” individuals involved in the drug trade, if their crime is non-violent and their desire to escape the drug lifestyle is genuine. The only necessary caution is to avoid excessive leniency until the drug cartels are crushed. Forgiveness after a war is laudable; during the war it is suicidal.

For those with serious problems of addiction or severe psychological problems, rehabilitation clinics should be the first step. According to a report by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), almost 23 million Americans aged 12 and older need treatment for drug or alcohol use, but only 2.5 million have received treatment at a specialty facility.

For the controllers and the military command structure of Dope, Inc., no mercy must be permitted.

Leading bankers and financiers involved in drug money laundering or drug transactions, either directly or through connivance, should be stripped of their ill-gotten gains, prosecuted, and jailed. No one should be immune, including CEOs and others in executive positions. During their 2012 plea bargain, the top officials of HSBC openly admitted that they had knowingly laundered billions of dollars in drug money. Not one of them spent a day in jail.

All high level officials and major players in drug gangs and drug cartels should be similarly treated. This falls under the heading of “military procedures,” and it will necessitate cooperation with a variety of other nations.

Any state or local government official, elected official, or law enforcement official who defies federal law in regard to the War on Drugs, i.e., commits treason, should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The issue of “states’ rights” was settled on the bloody battlefields of Gettysburg and Shiloh. The same approach might be necessary for some within the nation’s major news media.

Responsible individuals, again including top corporate officers within the pharmaceutical industry, who have wittingly participated in the mass drugging of the American people, should be indicted and prosecuted. Procedures which govern the availability of powerful psychiatric drugs must be radically overhauled.

Such ruthless action will cripple the command structures of the enemy and destroy their ability to continue to operate. At the same time, it will accomplish a great shift in the morale of the American people. It is time to resurrect the methods of Ferdinand Pecora who jailed Wall Street bankers in the 1930s. If the CEOs of major financial institutions are marched in handcuffs off to prison, together with the leaders of the major drug cartels, everyone will know that this war is deadly serious.

In his 1985 Mexico City address, Lyndon LaRouche stated, “Special attention should be concentrated on those banks, insurance enterprises, and other business institutions which are in fact elements of an international financial cartel coordinating the flow of hundreds of billions annually of revenues from the international drug traffic. Such entities should be classed as outlaws according to the ‘crimes against humanity’ doctrine elaborated at the postwar Nuremberg Tribunal.”

What LaRouche said then was true, and it remains true today.

This section was adapted from an article by Robert Ingraham, “How to Win President Trump’s War on Drugs” published in the EIR of March 3, 2017. For further historical background and deeper discussion of how to solve the drug epidemic, see the full article.