Drugs

The use or non-use of mind-altering substances are a matter of personal choice for individuals in HoloWorld. Just the same as what applies to any other private activity that is part of a person's life or that is taken part in with other consenting participants. The only reason it is specifically mentioned here is that it has been a very controversial and criminalized subject in other societies.

In most societies, what happens when a certain substance or service that some people desire is made illegal, is not that it won't be used, as there will always be people around who will exercise their inherent free will to make it available. Rather, what happens is that the substance or service will be delivered by underground criminal networks, who will have little social conscience or care for the quality of their product. These networks will furthermore profit enormously from delivering a scarce product that becomes even more sought after by being outlawed.

HoloWorld, on the other hand, had no interest in favorizing profitable criminal businesses delivering low quality services. So, the manufacture and distribution of any kind of substance is free to take place out in the open.

However, in that these activities take place out in the open, the public is also free to be informed about them. It must be very clear what one is getting, what its properties are, what its inherent health risks are, and so forth. As with any product in HoloWorld, it will be expected that one gets a clear specification of what one would be getting into. And other independent agencies are expected to collect information about the effects and experiences of people using the product.

When well informed, each individual is free to choose what to do with his or her own life.

A natural or artificial substance that would harm one person might save another person's life. A substance that would lead one person to spiritual enlightenment might drive another crazy.

There will be no public policy in HoloWorld for or against certain drugs, vices, nutritional supplements or anything of that nature. Rather there will be information banks providing balanced reports on research and personal experiences in that field.

Take cigarette smoking or alcohol or cholesterol rich foods for example. There will not just be a monopolistic public authority who will tell you that it is bad for you and you shouldn't consume it. There will be studies and advice from multiple sources on the pros and cons, and on what it has been found to do to your human organism and to the human psyche. For example, for a smoker there would be information available on what vitamins are typically depleted in the human body when smoking, and how one might make up for some of the negative effects.

Always it is recognized that humans are composites of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual elements. People might choose what to do for other reasons than what experts have found are physically beneficial for a stereotypical human.

People will generally choose to act in the way they do because it does something for them. Nobody chooses an option only from the criterion that it is bad for them. They might or might not be conscious about exactly why they choose a certain option, and they might indeed be lacking information or lacking more appropriate options. But always the path they do take is based on some kind of instinctual selection of the best option that they perceive being available to them at the time. If they later on become dissatisfied with the path they take, they might well need some help in clarifying what their options are, and what they really want, and how best to go about it.

Nobody has a right to forcefully impose on others what the right choice for them should be.

In other societies non-addictive psychedelic substances have been outlawed mostly for the reason that people might use them to expand their minds with and thereby become more difficult to keep within the boundaries assigned to them by society. HoloWorld as a whole has no such intentions. On the contrary, it can be considered quite beneficial for society as a whole that people explore or transcend the boundaries of their existence.