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Sound As the New Illegal Narcotic?

ehrichweiss writes "The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics is warning parents and teachers of a new threat to our children: sounds. Apparently kids are now discovering binaural beats and using them to get 'physiological effects.' The report goes on with everyone suggesting that such aural experiences will act as a gateway to drug usage and even has one student claiming there are 'demons' involved. Anyone who has used one of those light/sound machines knows all about the effects that these sounds will give and to state that they will lead kids to do drugs is nonsense at best. It seems the trend in scaring the citizens with a made-up problem has gone to the next level."

17 of 561 comments (clear)

  1. Do it! by gandhi_2 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I sing because I live with Satan.

  2. Jenkem by DIplomatic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This reminds me of that story from a couple years ago where news media reported that kids were getting high on human feces. Jenkem

  3. Ummm.... by al0ha · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "It seems the trend in scaring the citizens with a made-up problem has gone to the next level."

    Yeah no kidding, and you know why? People on Madison Ave. make huge money figuring out ways to sell more useless products to the populace. It has been proven that fear and uncertainty can significantly drive sales. Don't believe me? Google "fear drives sales"

    --
    Did you ever wake up in the morning, with a Zombie Woof behind your eyes? -- FZ
  4. Anything that alters consciousness is a narcotic? by killdashnine · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This kind of insanity is just plain stupid. Binaural beats have a documented psycho-dynamic effect ... programs like Hemi-Sync are intriguing. I don't think people are going to get "high" off of them though. But what if they do? If binaural beats are made illegal and deemed "narcotic", then the "drug war" is more about denying people access to their own minds.

  5. April Fools? by arbiterveritas · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I can't stop laughing. This is hysterically stupid and, well, I had to check the calendar to make sure I wasn't three months ahead...

    Nope! Not April 1st... Okay, that makes them taking this seriously a little more scary...

  6. Re:Anything that alters consciousness is a narcoti by Jaysyn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If binaural beats are made illegal and deemed "narcotic", then the "drug war" is more about denying people access to their own minds.

    This is what the drug war has *always* been about. The rest of you are just now starting to figure it out.

    "It's not a war on drugs, it's a war on personal freedom. Keep that in mind at all times." - Bill Hicks

    --
    There is a war going on for your mind.
  7. Re:Troll by MozeeToby · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I know it's bullshit. You know it's bullshit. Probably the vast majority of people on Slashdot know it's bullshit. But I'm not completely convinced that the people in charge of regulating drugs know that it's bullshit; and that's a bit scary (and incidentally the point of posting it here).

  8. Re:Seriously? by Pojut · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Agreed.

    Listen, parents. Don't worry about drug use with your kids...altering consciousness is something that humans have taken part in for literally thousands of years.

    Drug use is no cause for concern, and in the case of some kids, it can open their minds and expand their horizons. No, what you need to be worried about is drug abuse.

    There is a very distinct difference.

  9. Re:Seriously? by beanluc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    altering consciousness is something that humans have taken part in for literally thousands of years.

    If Oklahoma is going to regulate activities which entrain brainwaves, they need to target the pushers purveying prayer and even training young kids and defenseless elders in its practice.

    That's right, Oklahoma, go after the churches.

    --
    Say it right: "Nuc-le-ah Powah".
  10. uranium, anthrax, cyanide, ricin, arsenic... by circletimessquare · · Score: 3, Insightful

    why the hell do you think "natural" has or should have anything to do with legality?

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  11. Re:good for portugal by Schemat1c · · Score: 4, Insightful

    so yes: the notion of a "war" on drugs is stupid, but whatever you call it ("the cleanup on drugs", "the trash collection on drugs"?) you must realize something absolutely true: the reduction of drug use is an effort that will never end, whatever the tactics, forever

    and if you don't know why drug use has to be constantly cleaned up, you don't know much about your world and human nature

    You are sadly misinformed. Prohibition of any substance increases it's use, just look at your history books. The drug war, or whatever you choose to call it, has done nothing but increase dangerous drug use, criminalize otherwise law-abiding citizens, enabled a lucrative black market and seriously eroded civil rights.

    Put down the kool-aid and do a google search or two.

    --

    "Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better." - Unknown
  12. Re:Seriously? by cayenne8 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Geez..what happened to the good old days in the late 70's, when people would just light up a doobie and listen to Pink Floyd on the headphones...?

    :)

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  13. Re:Seriously? by Critical+Facilities · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You say that like having a full time job, financial success, and parental status has anything to do with whether or not one has a dependency issue. See here for what I mean. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying your friends are addicts or have problems, just that the points you're making do not demonstrate that they aren't.

  14. Re:because drug addiction destroys freedom by dave562 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Society has mechanisms in place to deal with addicts. Criminalizing the possession of a substance only serves to make an already bad situation worse. People who are drug addicts eventually lose their jobs, friends, etc. That is enough of a punishment. A person can't be saved from themselves. They need to learn their own lessons.

  15. Agree... by deesine · · Score: 3, Insightful

    and disagree. Education: yes. Using erowid as a single source: definitely not.

    My nephew found an old tank of freon from an A/C service cart at a diesel repair shop. After reading the info and reports at erowid he believed he was perfectly safe to inhale from the tank. Apparently none of the reports and info on erowid mentions the dangers of inhaling freon from an A/C service machine: which is full of oil and contaminates from all the service discharges performed.

    My nephew got more than he bargained for. Fortunately the I'm-sure-I'm-dying spell only lasted a couple days and only required one trip to the ER.

    I would have told him, had he simply asked. However, not so sure he would have listened seeing as how brilliant the internet has turned him.

    --
    damaged by dogma
  16. Re:because drug addiction destroys freedom by Grishnakh · · Score: 3, Insightful

    the worst jail in the most orwellian government authoritarian nightmare you can imagine, doesn't begin to compare to the bars drug addiction places in the mind.

    where before a mind might contemplate philosophy, literature, art, now you have an interrupt cycle which turns this person into a drug seeking zombie

    So what? There's millions of people who do nothing but sit in front of the TV watching reality shows and collecting welfare checks. They certainly aren't contemplating philosophy. Are you going to ban stupidity too?

    You can't force people to be free. You can only provide them freedom to make their own choices, for better or for worse. If they choose to create a prison for themselves, whether it's a drug-induced haze or a mind-numbing existence of watching The Hills, trying to force people to live the way you want will only cause problems.

  17. Re:Seriously? by MancunianMaskMan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ..., if we suddenly found ourselves low on money, she isn't going to sell our DVD player just so she can go to Starbucks.

    that just proves that TV addiction is worse than the coffee addiction