#substances cw

[silverpolish]

my mom gave me a little monkey (?) finger puppet & his whole head fits in my bong

[not-terezi-pyrope]

Philosophical survey/poll of the day: Disregarding the morality of usage, what is the morality of *buying* black market drugs?

I've been thinking about this again in light of recent consumer boycotts. First let me state upfront that I am not soliciting advice for me personally, this is a hypothetical. Neither am I advocating that people buy or use drugs, nor am I condemning people who do. I am generally very pro-autonomy for questions of drug use, and think that a person using drugs has, in and of itself, no moral weight.

I am interested in what people think about the moral weight of buying drugs off the black market, however. Elaboration below, followed by a poll:

My question is about the morality of accessing the drugs trade as an end consumer, given that, according to popular conception at least, a lot of substances are supplied by "criminal gangs" who might also participate in more violent crime? Like, obviously this isn't so much a deal for weed because that's probably just some dudes growing it in their attic, but consider for example when people buy harder drugs, like cocaine, for example.

You can't trace the supply chain, but even the end point of purchase is some small-time dealer who sells drugs and isn't involved in anything else, at some point it will have been smuggled into your country, which might involve larger gangs, or like, organized crime operations who also are involved with violent crime. You likely don't know that for sure, but the point is you can't know, so my question is, does the spectre of potential violent crime in the process of producing and transporting an illegal drug make the purchase of the drug immoral, in the same way that some people say it is immoral not to boycott legal companies that are complicit in atrocities?

Alternatively, there are also these factors that may or may not excuse this:

One might argue that if you aren't aware of any specific harms in the production of a product, then you as the consumer shouldn't be obligated to suspect them, even if the context is the sale of black market goods.

One might argue that the harms perpetrated by the black market drugs trade, insofar one would contribute to them as an end-buyer, have their moral weight placed upon the legal system for outlawing the drug in question and therefore not allowing a verifiably ethical vendor to exist.

One might argue that the demand for illegal drugs is so ubiquitous and constant that whether you personally "boycott" the industry or not makes no difference, so you shouldn't feel bad for skimming off the top of what's already there, you're only contributing a very small percentage and the core audience for drugs isn't going to go anywhere no matter what you do, as the last centuries of prohibitions has proven

One might argue that the scope of criminal violence involved in drugs supply is overstated/sensationalized, and that any specific source of drugs probably isn't going to involve cartels assassinating people like in breaking bad or whatever, if the drug is produced by countries with low economic development then you might actually be doing good by providing income for people who have no alternatives

One might argue that the harms caused by the production and smuggling of black market goods are in no way worse than the harms perpetrated by the legal economy, which also has its fingers in many violent or exploitative acts and provably so, so it's not meaningfully any different to ordering from McDonald's or whatever.

I had a conversation with friends about this several years ago and I think that most people who were already okay with drug use in a personal capacity thought that the purchase of drugs is probably fine, but I'm interested to see what people think these days, and now tumblr has polls, so share your thoughts:

[mysapphicmercy]

This thing is 350mg of weed and tastes delicious

[costis]

big weed needs to consider that if a container is childproof it is also kenproof

[incognitopolls]

This poll is asking about recreational use only (not medicinal or traditional/religious use). This is asking about psychedelic drugs specifically, not the larger category of hallucinogenic drugs - do not count MDMA, ketamine, PCP, other deliriants or dissociatives, etc.)

–

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[trek-tracks]

Episodes of TOS where the solution is to get the crew drunk or high: The Tholian Web, Wolf in the Fold

Episodes of TOS where the solution is to get the crew to stop being drunk or high: The Naked Time, This Side of Paradise

[defenselesswriter]

why does it only take me one glass of anything to get drunk. at least it’s cheaper for meeeee

[electricb00]

mister bad habits

[catzalvarez]

So y'all know how in the beginning of tsc Wymack offers Jean scotch, and he says Ravens don't drink (well, specifically, aren't allowed to drink)? And Kevin famously overdoes it with the drinking? And Wymack's mother, at least, had an issue with substance abuse? So do we think Wymack was the first one to offer Kevin alcohol, and how do we think he felt about Kevin's obvious issues with alcohol when he found out that Kevin is his son, knowing that addiction can be hereditary 🤥🤥🤥

[seventeendeer]

this isn't at all meant to be condescending or finger-waggy because 100% we all have blind spots like this, but I'm really, really hoping that the people who never found Gaiman's approach to his own fandom concerning in any way will take this all as a learning moment.

he was an older, hyper-famous author engaging directly and frequently with an online audience of largely vulnerable young marginalized people. he presented himself as cultured and worldly, and made himself approachable as someone to go to for advice, encouragement and "wisdom." his manner of speech was extremely pathos-heavy and clearly intended to be comforting and encouraging in exactly the way his target demographic needed it to be to swallow every word. the way he spoke about stories and creativity was designed to make young creative hopefuls feel special and important, while sweeping real analytical techniques under the rug - in hindsight, likely so no one would think too critically about the disturbing amount of patriarchal abuse played for cheap shock value and voyerism in his own body of works.

Gaiman saw a target demographic that was desperate for an older creative role model to tell them they were worth something, and he exploited that pain to twist a narrative around himself where he was king and any critique leveled at him or his works were the enemy.

to be clear, he could have been innocent. he could totally have been just an out-of-touch old man saying nice things to people because he wanted to be kind and he thought he was a lot smarter than he really was. red flags are warning signs, not a surefire way to tell if someone is actually "secretly shitty."

but if you used to look up to him, PLEASE take this moment to revisit the ideas you absorbed from him. did you take his words to heart because they seemed to have objective merit? or did you take them to heart because it felt good to believe what he said? do you still hold these values? does knowing he was intentionally manipulating his online audience make you less certain? do you need more information from a different source before deciding one way or another?

again, I'm just really, really hoping people on here will take a moment to reevaluate the ideas and opinions he's injected into tumblr fandom culture, because his reach is immense and he has absolutely been manipulating popular perception of relevant topics to gain further influence and control the narrative around both his own and Pratchett's legacy. please, please take this moment to notice what he's been doing - and next time someone tries to pull the same shit, hopefully we'll be able to apply what we've learned from experience.

[dragonymango]

this was brought upon me seeing like 5 posts about them smoking today

[falconearring]

Digs these out of my pockets. I dont think I've shared these because they are each somewhat of a nothing burger.

[natypinkns]

ok ill post it. came out of my tempest tattoo sketching session with this doodle whoops

[jennilah]

Amanda Young & Mark Hoffman parallels

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[anonymocha]

Do NOT try this at home, you may not blink or sleep for the next 48 hours and found unconscious frothing in the mouth on a sidewalk after that