Here’s an extract from “Notes on Democracy” by Henry Louis Mencken, written in 1926, during Federal Alcohol Prohibition (1919-1933)
The Prohibitionists, when they foisted their brummagem cure-all upon the country under cover of the war hysteria, gave out that their advocacy of it was based upon a Christian yearning to abate drunkenness, and so abolish crime, poverty and disease. They preached a [crime, poverty and disease free] millennium, and no doubt convinced hundreds of thousands of naive and sentimental persons, not themselves Puritans, nor even democrats.
That millennium, as everyone knows, has failed to come in. Not only are crime, poverty and disease undiminished, but drunkenness itself, if the police statistics are to be believed, has greatly increased. The land rocks with the scandal. Prohibition has made the use of alcohol devilish and even fashionable, and so vastly augmented the number of users. The young of both sexes, mainly innocent of the cup under license, now take to it almost unanimously.
In brief, Prohibition has not only failed to work the benefits that its proponents promised in 1917; it has brought in so many new evils that even the mob has turned against it. But do the Prohibitionists admit the fact frankly, and repudiate their original nonsense? They do not. On the contrary, they keep on demanding more and worse enforcement statutes — that is to say, more and worse devices for harassing and persecuting their opponents.
The more obvious the failure becomes, the more shamelessly they exhibit their genuine motives. In plain words, what moves them is the psychological aberration called sadism. They lust to inflict inconvenience, discomfort, and whenever possible, disgrace upon the persons they hate, which is to say: upon everyone who is free from their barbarous theological superstitions, and is having a better time in the world than they are.
I encourage the public sharing of an urban dictionary term: sadomoralist
http://www.urbandictionary.com…
One word instantly (so extremely powerfully) exposes these ironically selfish scammers — so instantly removes their disguise they don “to protect the children”.
Sadomoralists (and my proposed “sibling” term: sadoequalists) are the greatest enemy against the unalienable right to liberty (a logically critical right needed to prevent the horrors of law abuse), but hypocrisy in the form of ‘liberty for me, but not for thee’ still shamefully governs American society even after formally (and, via the ninth federal constitutional amendment, judicially) establishing that genuinely progressive and nationally obligatory right.
I agree with Christians regarding the terrible societal damage involving alcohol. Unhealthy stress causes alcohol abuse, which causes unhealthy stress, and the vicious circle repeats unfortunately too often as a feedback loop.
Where the religious right (and such) apparently still get it wrong is to blame drug availability and abuse, so not the societal pressures (e.g. coercively following a rigidly strict code of societal discipline to live a “proper” life that actually just tries to sustain the wealth and power of the oligarchically needy) initially forming that unhealthy stress that distinguishes abuse from use.
Alcohol is easy to abuse, because stupidity enhancement occurs with basically minimal consumption of that drug.
What way too many people fail to understand is cannabis does not affect the ‘wisdom’ part of the brain. If you are stupid while sober, then that stupidity remains during cannabis use — but so too does intelligence. Cannabis affects timing, and high intensity of effects can prevent the prompt expression of that intelligence, but a user can simply leverage that moment to intelligently remain seated until the effects wear off (as opposed to being drunk and deciding it would be a blast to drive a car around town — something that even the soberly wise person could do while drunk).
Cannabis can be abused, but unlike alcohol, this wonderful plant can be conveniently responsibly used in basically an oceanic set of (inclusively mild) ways to strengthen balance/composure — which means brutalized segments of society (upon cannabis legality) have a positive alternative to alcohol that will hopefully help alleviate that brutality to end (or at least greatly diminish) that vicious circle.
During that positivity, hopefully sadomoralism/sadoequalism will join the formal dictionary, as they certainly are brilliant terms logically necessary for humanity’s progress, and that includes the responsible flexibility necessary for a healthy societal adaptation — importantly noting that responsible flexibility (e.g. as needed for prime athletic performance) is basically synonymous with an unalienable right to liberty.
Adaptation is sensibly the only proper discipline when it comes to survival and “thrival” — regardless of age, gender, race, and so on, but a humanly healthy adaptation sometimes conflicts with the powerfully corrupt folks actually helping define our liberty to their selfishness.
The only group of people capable of putting a stop to that selfishness is the sufficiently organized and mature masses. The public cue is boldly present, but the “sheeple” remain sadly in charge to in effect condone that selfishness to reinforce that vicious circle apparently until societal collapse.
Spirit Wave Journal 
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