- The first casualty of war is truth
and that applies to the war on drugs.
The problem when a war is being waged is that propaganda is
in the air, myths flow, truth is censored.
With drugs there's an inherent danger of using a drug
and that can be mitigated with information,
with facts, education.
People have been denied what they actually do need
to keep themselves safe.
- [Presenter] This is Dominic Milton Trott.
Over the course of 10 years he self-administered
over 157 different psychoactive drugs
and documented the safety information of each
for his book "The Drug Users Bible."
It may sound like an extreme exercise,
but Trott saw a dangerous lack of guidance
on how to use drugs safely
and he says it all started with the war on drugs.
- My view is that this is a war on people.
The war on drugs has to come to an end.
(upbeat music)
- America's public enemy number one
in the United States is drug abuse.
In order to fight and defeat this enemy,
it is necessary to wage a new, all-out offensive.
- [Presenter] It's been nearly 50 years since the start
of the war on the drugs and the costs,
human and otherwise, have been well-documented.
Since 1980, the number of Americans arrested
for drug possession has tripled
and the US has spent an estimated one trillion dollars
to incarcerate people with drug-related offenses,
but Trott and those advocating for harm reduction
believe there's another cost that we've incurred
that may not be as explicit, but is just as dangerous
and that's access to accurate safety information
about drugs and drug use.
- [Announcer] Marijuana, the burning weed
with its roots in hell.
- When the war on drugs was in its infancy,
yeah there was bombardment of propaganda.
- This is your brain, this is drugs.
(egg sizzling)
- [Presenter] Trott believes that the war on drugs
has focused too much on abstinence
and not enough on important safety information.
With that knowledge gap in mind,
Trott set out on his journey of writing his book.
- The problem is that people are dying of ignorance.
They're dying because they're making fundamental mistakes,
which in itself is actually created by the war on drugs.
Harm reduction and safety were of paramount importance,
so I was driven to produce the book largely
on the basis that it would save lives.
- More Americans now die every year
from drug overdoses than they do from motor vehicle crashes.
- [Presenter] Trott's voice is part of a choir
that's advocating for a shift in how we view, regulate
and study drugs for both recreational and medical use.
Take cannabis for example,
for a long time the drug was outlawed in the US.
Research touting its medical capabilities
and its benign qualities had been ignored
by administrations for decades,
but as the culture has changed, so have the laws.
Cannabis is decriminalized or legalized in 27 states
and the changing legal landscape has also opened the window
for serious science to be done
around its potential medical benefits.
For instance,
clinical trials are underway to treat autism
with cannabis and there are similar strides being made
for drugs like psilocybin mushrooms and ketamine,
but the process has been more of chipping away
than a wave of acceptance.
Cannabis is still listed as a schedule one substance
and according to the DEA, schedule one substances
have no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.
In the case of cannabis,
numerous studies have indicated that to be mostly false.
- If the US or any other government was serious
about addressing a crisis like that
it would actually think outside its sort of little box
of prohibition and war and actually understand
that nobody there is killing themselves on purpose.
They're making mistakes and doing it
because they're ignorant of the facts, of the data.
"The Drug Users Bible" starts to raise the issues
that need to be raised.
I think it's got potential to save a lot more lives
if it's given a fair wind and it's actually available
on social media platforms for a start.
- [Presenter] "The Drug Users Bible's" run-ins
with social media platforms have been a case study
in why this continues to be such a thorny topic.
There are content guidelines and community standards
on these platforms for good reason.
Trott believes that to be true,
but his book has consistently been determined
to be drug paraphernalia under these content guidelines,
so it's been difficult for Trott to get more people aware
of his book and the safety information in it.
- Reddit, Instagram banned the account.
Facebook quarantined the book's account.
I cannot advertise it on Twitter.
This isn't drug paraphernalia, it's a book.
- [Presenter] And Trott's not the only
harm reduction advocate running into these issues.
An employee for a company that sells test kits
to help people avoid tainted drugs was banned on Facebook
for advertising one of these life-saving tests.
Overall, it's been a frustrating process for Trott,
but he remains cautiously optimistic.
- There is a light at the end of the tunnel, perhaps.
Obviously, cannabis is legal in a number of states.
The benefits of psychedelics are becoming more widely known,
but it's not fast enough.
(gentle, upbeat music)
Thanks for watching.
For more Dope Science content, check out our website
and subscribe to Freethink for more
videos every week.