(Benjamin Martin – The Patriot Post) Recently, a colleague referred me to an article in The Hill concerning the Joe Biden administration’s request for drug companies to increase the manufacture of certain behavior-altering drugs. The report notes: “Drug manufacturers have agreed to increase their production of stimulant medications like Adderall to help address the ongoing shortage in the U.S., with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) making changes to its quota process. The U.S. is experiencing a shortage of several stimulant drugs, including Adderall, Ritalin and Vyvanse. The Adderall shortage has gone on for more than a year now, impacting the thousands who rely on it for school or work.”
It inspired a recollection of Aldous Huxley’s 1932 dystopian novel Brave New World, in which he described “Soma,” a drug that the government wants citizens to use in order to placate their discontent. A study on Huxley’s reference to the drug notes: “The government encourages its citizens to take soma to eliminate unhappiness because the government sees unhappiness as antithetical to social stability. It does not want its citizens to question the system or become disillusioned, and soma is just one of many means of social control that makes maintaining societal order easier. Soma is a form of escapism that is socially and politically sanctioned and strongly encouraged.”