Transparency and choice in a post-totalitarian world.

The properties of different plants have probably been studied since the dawn of humanity. Many were found to be nourishing, other could heal, some were intoxicating and a few could kill. The transmission of all this empirical knowledge accumulated by hundreds of generations was oral and practical. It was part of a social and conceptual construction, of which a few scraps have survived in the most outlandish regions of the planet. Elsewhere, conquest, slavery and general mayhem interrupted the transmissions and the knowledge was lost. There followed a dark age of ignorance and superstition, a blank sheet for a new beginning. Biochemistry describes the molecular structures of living organisms. It can isolate and synthesise these molecules, and test their effects. So that the biosphere is made up of formulae and life is a continuous chemical reaction, a proliferation of molecules. A new world view has been created, by explaining all biological processes as chemistry. This began as a simplification. Vegetables needed nitrates, phosphates and light, while animals and humans could live off carbohydrates, proteins and vitamins. Active ingredients were extracted from plants and patented. The combination of chemistry and biology turned living matter into an industry based on profit. And legislation continually encouraged this ideology of omnipotent control. In agriculture and health, administrations decided what could and could not be consumed. This standardisation led to mass markets and to agro and pharmaceutical giants. Food and drugs became very big businesses. Drugs (and food) are an essential part of human existence. Health, well-being and life itself depend on them. For these reasons they are the focus of all social forces, and their legislation is influenced by powerful lobbies. Producing and selling drugs for general consumption can be very profitable. A profitability that increases considerably when a drug is patented, or when it is illegal. In both cases the provider is protected by law from a competing offer. Pharmaceutical companies and criminal organisations have monopolised the drugs trade at the expense of the consumer, who is obliged to pay an exorbitant price for his dose. And successive governments have been their accomplices in maintaining this hold. It seems reasonable that an administration should supervise the products that are being swallowed, inhaled and injected by the nation's citizens, to insure that these products are not adulterated. (Commercialised tobacco may contain as much as 15% of unnamed texture and conservation enhancers. This secrecy is allowed because, compared to tobacco, everything else is deemed harmless. Hence the bans on smoking, but not on exhaust fumes.) However, if controlling the composition of drugs seems amply justified, deciding which are legal and which are not is a far more complex enterprise. This is where scientific advice is confronted with public opinion and private corporations. Science, ideology and profit are in the balance, and science often loses out. Its professed objectiveness can so easily be corrupted by ideas and money. Two years ago, a virulent campaign was organised in France against hybrid varieties of hemp. Psychiatrists were claiming that the high tenures in THC of these plants were dangerous, that French youth was going crazy on skunk. This sudden uproar coincided with a sharp increase in home-grown weed, as more and more consumers rejected the low quality and often dubious products on offer. Last year, a drug called Mediator made by Servier laboratories was taken off the market, accused of having caused hundreds of deaths. This drug was supposed to have a beneficial effect on some diabetic patients, but had been very widely prescribed to people wishing to lose weight. It turned out that Mediator was simply a form of amphetamine and, as all should know, "speed kills"(1). Unfortunately, the patients did not realise they were speeding up, as there was no mention on the packet. Instead of criminalising gardeners and addicts, and encouraging pharmaceutical and mafia empires, administrations would do better to prevent fraud and adulteration, and let informed consumers choose for themselves. 1.Amphetamine Annie by Canned Heat.