The Use of Psychoactive Plants - Essay Example

War on Drugs and Politics of Plants Psychoactive plants have a long history among human beings and it has been foundthat they have been in use in different human societies since prehistoric times. The use of these plants, while its origins are yet to be discovered, has been a part of basic human cultures and the widespread use of these plants was not frowned upon as it is today in most cases. The fact remains that they are a part of human society and they have been the cause of massive political, social, and economic developments that have spanned millennia (Kuddus, Ginawi & Al-Hazimi, 2013). These plants were originally used by medicine men and healers as a means of treating diseases as well as a means of ensuring that their patients were kept sedated while they performed operations on them. This use of psychoactive plants can be said to have been a massive breakthrough in the art of ancient medicine because it ensured that individuals did not suffer as much pain as they would have if their wounds or painful illnesses had been left alone. In addition, because of the medicinal value of some of the psychoactive plants (Herer, 2006), in some cases, diseases were able to be treated and it is partly through the use of these plants that medicine as a profession came to develop into what it is today. Moreover, these plants were used in religious ceremonies where, because of their effect on the mind, individuals who participated in these ceremonies and partook of them came to experience religious ecstasy. The use of these plants in religious ceremonies ensured that some of them came to be associated with religious rites and it is mainly because of this that they came to be widely accepted in numerous societies. Therefore, these plants came to have a central place in a large number of human societies and it is because of the widespread use of these plants that societies in were built or destroyed. The use of psychoactive plants such as opium among others is the reason why some states in the world were built while others came to be destroyed. The use of psychoactive plants was well known in the Roman Empire where it was not only used for religious rites by the oracles, but they were also used by the common people in abundance (Abel, 1980). One would speculate that because of the great extent of the Roman Empire, the people came to have access to a large number of psychoactive plants which were widely distributed throughout the state. It is possible that part of what is termed as the ‘decadence’ of the Roman Empire may have been partly because of the use of these plants, and this brought about massive political changes in the society. It was mainly because of the weakness of the Roman Empire due to the development of the luxurious life of its elite as well as the loss of its military might that eventually led to its fall to the barbarian tribes that overran it. The opium trade was one of the greatest mainstays of the Chinese Empire under the Ming dynasty and it is mainly because of this trade that states such as Britain and France were drawn into the Far East (Antony, 2003). The widespread use of opium in Europe meant that there was an increase in demand and when the Chinese government forbade trade in it, it resulted in the Opium Wars which exposed the weakness of the empire for the first time. It is mainly because of these wars that the ancient Chinese empire came to an end because they showed that the monarchy could no longer sustain itself both militarily and politically. However, while the trade in psychoactive plants led to the destruction of the Chinese empire, it also led to the growth of the British Empire (Wills, 2002). This was mainly because of the fact that the trade that led to the immense growth of this empire was mainly based on these plants. This trade led to the British taking territories and developing colonies along the major trade routes of the trade in these plants and it is for this reason that its influence came to spread all over the world. In the modern world, the use of psychoactive plants has, to a large degree, come to be tightly controlled by most of the governments in the globe. This is mainly because scientific analysis has shown that some of these plants are harmful to the mental and physical wellbeing of those who use them (Brown, Buher-Kane, Cundiff, Dre, Fledderjohann, Fuller, Smith, 2010). Most states in the world, led by the United States, have declared that some of these plants are illegal and those who are found using or trading in them have come to be given stiff prison sentences (Musto, 1999), and in some cases, such as in Saudi Arabia, the law prescribes that those found using or trading in drugs be put to death. However, there are some instances where some psychoactive plants such as tea and coffee have remained legal (Müller & Schumann, 2011) while others, such as marijuana, have either been declared illegal or completely banned. This is the paradox in modern legislation because it does not define where the legality of these plants begins or ends and it is most likely because of this reason that trade in these plants on the black market is still extremely prominent (Feeley, 2006). Despite the illegality of some of the psychoactive plants, the high demand for them in most societies in the world has ensured that the trade in them, albeit illegal, has continued unabated and it is likely that this trade will not come to an end any time soon. Scientists have declared that such drugs as heroin and cocaine, which derive from these plants, are not fit for human consumption, and it is on the basis of these scientific declarations that most of the laws that prohibit their use have been passed. The passing of laws banning the use of these substances has led to governments, such as that of the United States, to declare what has come to be known as the war on drugs, which seeks to destroy the trade in these illegal substances (Wood, Werb, Marshall, Montaner & Kerr, 2009). However, it has been found that this war, which largely target drug cartels and those individuals associated with them, is proving to be futile (Campos, 2010; Kan, 2010). This is mainly because of the fact that while a number of cartels have been destroyed; many others have risen to take their place. Since the war on drugs began, it has been found that instead of the drug trade decreasing, it has spread all over the world as more individuals become involved in the lucrative trade (Patrick, 2010). This has happened at the same time as a large number of people have become users of the drugs which are available in the black market, hence a soaring of demand that has enabled the strengthening of the drug trade. Moreover, because of law enforcement targeting the traditional means through which cartels carried out the drug trade, the latter have developed ingenious means to ensure that the drugs that they produce are distributed in a manner which is virtually undetectable (Schmidt, 2013), and this has created a situation where the war on drugs has become extremely difficult. It is mainly because of this difficulty as well as the large public demand for certain drugs that some countries, such as the Netherlands, have come to legalize some of them as a means of discouraging the illegal trade in them. Furthermore, these countries have come to realize that it would be easier to control the distribution of these drugs if they were legalized while at the same time benefiting from the taxes which derive from this controlled trade. Because of the legalization of some of the illegal drugs, drug cartels have come to lose some of the control that they had over the production and distribution of these drugs and this has proven to be more effective than the war on drugs, which over the decades has failed to accomplish its objectives (Youngers, 2012). As has been discussed above, the use of psychoactive drugs has been a part of many cultures since prehistoric times and continues to be so to the present world. These plants were mainly used for medicinal purposes and can be considered to have been a massive breakthrough in the art of ancient medicine because it ensured that individuals did not suffer as much pain as they would have if their wounds or painful illnesses had been left alone. The use of psychoactive plants such as opium among others is the reason why some states in the world were built while others came to be destroyed as exemplified by the Chinese and British Empires. In the modern world, the use of psychoactive plants has, to a large degree, come to be tightly controlled by most of the governments in the globe and this has been mainly because scientific analysis has shown that some of these plants are harmful to the mental and physical wellbeing of those who use them. Finally, the passing of laws banning the use of these substances has led to governments, such as that of the United States, to declare what has come to be known as the war on drugs, which seeks to destroy the trade in these illegal substances. References Abel, E.L. (1980). Marihuana: The First Twelve Thousand Years. New York: Springer. Antony, R. J. (2003). The opium wars: The addiction of one empire and the corruption of another. History, 31(2), 85. Brown, A., Buher-Kane, J., Cundiff, P., Dre, L., Fledderjohann, J., Fuller, S., Smith, E. (2010). The irish war on drugs: The seductive folly of prohibition. Contemporary Sociology, 39(3), 364. Campos, I. (2010). Degeneration and the origins of Mexico’s war on drugs. Mexican Studies, 26(2), 379-408. Feeley, M. M. (2006). Federal narcotics laws and the war on drugs: Money down a rat hole. Choice, 44(4), 720. Herer, J. (2006). The Emperor Wears No Clothes. Austin: Ah Ha Publishing Company. Kan, P. R. (2010). 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