What’s Legal in America While Your Private Drug Use Isn’t
What’s Legal in America While Your Private Drug Use Isn’t
From: antiprohibit.org
America loves to say it’s protecting people. But the truth is embarrassingly simple:
We don’t criminalize destructive behavior — we criminalize unapproved behavior.
If a behavior is profitable, culturally familiar, or backed by lobbyists, it gets a free pass — no matter how many bodies it stacks. But if an adult chooses a forbidden substance in the privacy of their own home, suddenly we’re supposed to believe society is endangered.
Let’s take a tour of what’s perfectly legal while personal substance choice remains a crime.
You Can Consume Enough Alcohol to End Your Life — No Arrest Necessary
Alcohol use is responsible for 140,000+ American deaths per year and is one of the leading causes of violence, domestic assaults, and chaotic emergency-room Saturday nights.
And yet?
You can buy gallons of it today without raising an eyebrow.
But if you possess a forbidden substance that shows reduced harm profiles and well-documented therapeutic potential? That’s a criminal offense.
It’s not about safety – it’s about control.
You Can Consume Ultra-Processed Foods Known to Kill Hundreds of Thousands Every Year
Ultra-processed foods contribute to 678,000+ deaths annually, fueled by diabetes, heart disease, and metabolic collapse.
These products:
- are engineered for addiction-like reward cycles
- are pushed with billion-dollar advertising campaigns
- and are actually destroying the nation’s health
But if you privately ingest something the government has placed on an outdated forbidden list? Suddenly they’re concerned about your well-being.
We don’t criminalize destructive behavior — we criminalize unapproved behavior.
You Can Pump Out Air Pollution Linked to Cancer and Birth Defects
You can legally release carcinogens, particulates, neurotoxins, and endocrine disruptors straight into the air — the same air children breathe at bus stops and playgrounds.
These emissions contribute to over 200,000 early deaths annually in the U.S.
But someone quietly eating magic mushroomsin their living room? That’s treated as a threat to the public order.
We don’t criminalize dangerous behavior — we criminalize unsanctioned behavior.
You Can Legally Gamble Away Your Rent at 3 A.M.
Gambling addiction destroys relationships, finances, and mental health — yet the entire industry is fully legal, aggressively advertised, and frighteningly accessible.
Lose your savings? Totally allowed.
Spending $100 on some dope? Call the cops.
We don’t criminalize irresponsible behavior — we criminalize unapproved behavior.
You Can Keep Buying Nicotine Products Proven to Kill Nearly Half a Million Americans a Year
We sell cigarettes — responsible for 480,000 U.S. deaths annually — at every gas station, corner mart, and big-box store.
Vape juice? Available to teenagers.
Chewing tobacco? Enjoy that mouth cancer.
All of this is legal.
But snorting a drug that’scompletely reversible? Out of the question.
We don’t criminalize destructive behavior — we criminalize safer alternatives.
You Can Smash Your Brain in Competitive Sports or Jump Out of an Airplane
America law allows:
- Boxing
- MMA
- Football
- Skydiving
- Bungee jumping
- And other activities that can permanently alter your brain or kill you instantly
You can get knocked unconscious in front of a crowd. You can jump out of a plane at 15,000 feet.
But smoke the “wrong” stuff? Society freaks out.
We don’t criminalize destructive behavior — we criminalize behavior the nanny-state frowns upon.
You Can Drink Yourself Into Violent Coma — But Empathy-Enhancing Substances Are Outlawed
Alcohol use is strongly correlated with:
- violence
- aggression
- domestic conflict
- and the overwhelming majority of “crimes of passion.”
Meanwhile, many forbidden substances — including psychedelics and THC — consistently demonstrate:
- reduced aggression
- increased emotional regulation
- lower addiction potential
- and measurable therapeutic benefits.
Yet the violence-inducing one is legal. The empathy-increasing ones are criminal.
We don’t criminalize unsafe behavior — we criminalize behavior they can’t control.
You can Prostitute Yourself on OnlyFans
Okay, I know this one will catch me some flack inevitably, but I am a thorough, accurate thinker. As such, no list of “what’s allowed vs. what isn’t” would be complete without pointing out that in America, you can legally sell yourself online (and physically, in some jurisdictions). So, I’ll just say it:
You can sell pictures and videos of yourself doing all sorts of things to the highest bidder online, but you can’t micro-dose LSD. In some states and cities, you can charge people to actually do the things in those videos, but you can’t legally do a line of cocaine, even though stimulants are commonly used in the porn industry.
The Hypocrisy Is the Point
America doesn’t have a public-safety standard. It has a cultural-approval standard.
If a product or behavior generates revenue, political cover, or nostalgia? Green light.
If it threatens old laws, old donors, or old narratives? Red light — no matter how irrational.
Drug prohibition isn’t about safety. It’s about legacy, stigma, and lawmakers too proud to admit the failure of a century of bad policy.
What Needs to Change — And Why It Matters
Adults deserve bodily autonomy. Adults deserve accurate information. Adults deserve safe, legal access to the substances they choose — not a system that punishes them for private decisions., and turns relatively innocuous activities into a game of Russian roulette.
If you’re trusted with:
- chainsaws
- credit cards
- alcohol
- gambling apps
- cigarettes
- Consuming Pornography
- Being a porn star
- and dangerous sports
…you can be trusted with your own nervous system.
It’s time to end the hypocrisy. It’s time to end prohibition. It’s time for the law to catch up with science — and basic common sense.
Join Us
antiprohibit.org is building a movement rooted in compassion, clarity, and the radical idea that adults should control their own bodies — not bureaucracies.
Become a member today. Help fuel the research, advocacy, and reform needed to bring sanity back to drug policy.
