First sex and rock 'n' roll. Next up: drugs

We've seen the rise of DIY media in music (both on the consumption side, through the old Napster and BitTorrent, and more interestingly, on the production side, through cheap tools like GarageBand), and erotica and pornography (or so I've heard). Now, Peter Schwartz says in Foreign Policy, drugs are next:

The war on drugs will soon be over. It won’t have been won or lost, and we certainly won’t have wiped out illicit drug use. People will still pursue their personal pleasures and uncontrollable addictions. No, the war on drugs will end because drugs as we know them today will be gone.

The model drug of the future is already here in the form of crystal methamphetamine, a drug that is sweeping the United States and making inroads abroad. It’s cheap and easy to make—little more than Sudafed doctored up with plant fertilizer....

Thirty-five years from now, the illicit professionals who remain in the business will be custom drug designers catering to the wealthy. Their concoctions will be fine-tuned to one’s own body and neural chemistry. In time, the most destructive side effects will be designed out, perhaps even addiction itself. These custom drug dealers will design the perfect chemical experience for those who can afford it. The combination of cocaine with skiing, sex, or other intense physical activities is common today; likewise for pot and making music. In the future, there will be custom drugs for meals, golf, gardening, and more. Like crystal meth today, some drugs will reach the point of home manufacturing. And they will all be designed to make their use invisible to others—no red eyes, nervous tics, or lethargy.

What'll it mean to have a pharmacological DIY world, the drug equivalent of custom fab? The decline of international narcotraffic (to the U.S. and Europe, anyway), for one thing, and less drug dealing-related violence. At home,

The boundary between legal performance enhancement (Viagra) and the illegal drugs of pleasure and creativity will blur. The political and social pressure against drug use will remain, but it will increasingly resemble the campaigns against performance-enhancing drugs for athletes....

Just as the legal system is struggling with new realities of intellectual property in a digital age, it will struggle to control innovation in the chemistry of pleasure.

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