This is the kind of necessary but infuriatingly obfuscating stuff that makes addressing the real drug problem more difficult, not less. There would not be a war on drugs, an incarceration crisis, nor a long litany of treatment issues except for the fact that there is a HUGE market in alternative consciousness that so many talented capitalists and entrepreneurs are ready and willing to tap. We will never solve the drugs crisis until about 10-20 years after successfully making inroads to the spiritual crisis of any nation or people. People are afraid, angry, hurt, alienated, etc., and there is an infinite selection of schemes that help us to not feel those things, or much of anything, for that matter: alcohol, tobacco, screens (television, computer, smart phones, game consoles), gambling, food, sex, opiates, religion–these are a sample of things abused in a constant quest to feel okay. Not feeling, not dealing with life on life’s terms is all too easy in our culture, and we do very little to dream up alternatives to escapism. What’s truly needed is validation of our human discomfort, pastoral address of the unpleasant parts of being alive, and orientation of our spiritual leaders toward a meaningful experience of naming, then exorcising the demons, the fears, that haunt our most private places.