[IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

[PTTG]

Somewhere, a White Star executive's ears pricked up at the idea of being able to sell not only exotic, novel games, but also alternate-reality hardware too!

[Apollonian]

Originally Posted by PTTG

Somewhere, a White Star executives ears pricked up at the idea of being able to sell not only exotic, novel games, but also alternate-reality hardware too!

It occurs to me that somewhere in Homeline must be someone making a business out of building and/or selling adapters, convertors, and other similar technology to adapt Homeline tech to outtime tech and vice versa. I'll bet their researchers get in some trouble on occasion...

[Astromancer]

It occurs to me that a Homeline writter that got to visit a parallel substantially different from Homeline could get rich if he or she found a weak novel or film with a great plot twist. New plot twists and genuinely original tropes are profoundly rare. Give a good solid author a few original plot twists (or at least original to Homeline audiences) and you have untraceable gold.

[Astromancer]

Try this one..

W.S.Gilbert decides that The Grand Duke needs serious rewrites, Sullivan decided to be friendly and kind for once, offered the idea of a few more patter songs. The rewrites didn't save the show, but they did save a friendship. The duo wrote three more Opera including their last and greatest Opera The Genie of the Rose .

This operetta sparked off another huge burst of orientalist fantasies and art. This time hiring actual Asian and Near Eastern crafts people and artists to do the work. In this world the local year is 1930 and in spite of the depression the fusion of Asian and Western art is still wild and intense. Racial bigotry against Asians is far lower in this world than in most such parallels. Sadly, other kinds of bigotry seem unaffected. Still, Jazz is incorporating Eastern Sounds and the music is wild.

This world is popular for it's truly wonderful and bonkers art scene and the lavish productions thereof.

In this world it's the

[PTTG]

Due to differences in philosophy and trade restrictions, many notable people in the United States, including Jefferson and Washington, grew or otherwise manufactured a variety of psychoactive substances. Benjamin Franklin was noted for his work in cultivating Psilocybe mexicana. As a result, the bill of rights included the rigorous protection of the right to manufacture, distribute, and consume substances for the edification and enlightenment of the imbiber.

In its present-day 2002, the general tech level is early TL8, several decades behind homeline at the time, with the exception of some bioscience tech and pharmacology in general, which is about 10 years ahead of homeline's 2002.

The economy is about 20% less efficient, and most people have lower educational attainment than their homeline equivalent. The population is growing more slowly, as well, though inertia is keeping the same prominent people alive. This USA sees less than half as many people incarcerated overall (which is far greater than the proportion of drug related offences people are arrested for, suggesting knock-on causes are at play).

The treasure here is that there are far more diverse and exceptional drugs available, from exceptional cultivars of fairly ordinary plants to high-end psychoactive drugs from top-notch institutes. Most of these are highly, highly illegal on Homeline, with one exception: a drug manufactured from a local variant of a mushroom which provides a rapid "sobering" effect when taken following other drugs. In higher doses, it can even soften impulsive behavior, though it brings with it an "unpleasant clarity of thought" verging on Killjoy.

As a footnote, though locals very commonly believe in psionic phenomenon, outtime psis note that it's no more active here than on Homeline.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by PTTG

Due to differences in philosophy and trade restrictions, many notable people in the United States, including Jefferson and Washington, grew or otherwise manufactured a variety of psychoactive substances. Benjamin Franklin was noted for his work in cultivating Psilocybe mexicana. As a result, the bill of rights included the rigorous protection of the right to manufacture, distribute, and consume substances for the edification and enlightenment of the imbiber.

The basic idea (a world with a lot of varieties of recreational drugs) is sound enough, though its probably more likely that any given world will only have a high diversity in a few drug crops. But this particular divergence point is nonsense. Nobody is going to write that into the US Constitution in the 18th century for the simple reason that nobody would have considered it necessary. The first drug regulation laws in the US for anything other than alcohol date from the late 19th century (California cities attempting to regulate opium dens). The first Federal one (i.e. one that would have been restrained by something in the Constitution) from 1914.

Indeed most timelines will have few if any drug laws. There are some older Chinese and Islamic regulations and prohibitions of various sorts, and some places will have restrictions on the sale of actual poisons, but European laws are relatively scarce before the 19th century. It's actually a sort of odd gap - lot of religious codes deal with things like food or drug safety or appropriateness, but state regulation is rare until quite recently, and often sumptuary laws if anything.

[TGLS]

Well obviously in this timeline instead of having a Whiskey rebellion, they had a Hashish Rebellion, and stoned Thomas Jefferson decided to add constitutional protection of psychoactive drugs as their 12 amendment (between Sovereign Immunity and Electoral College reform). Or maybe the amendment was passed after Prohibition.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Well obviously in this timeline instead of having a Whiskey rebellion, they had a Hashish Rebellion, and stoned Thomas Jefferson decided to add constitutional protection of psychoactive drugs as their 12 amendment (between Sovereign Immunity and Electoral College reform). Or maybe the amendment was passed after Prohibition.

The whiskey rebellion is about taxes, not prohibition. I don't believe anybody in the 18th century taxed hashish.

My point is that until the 19th century, most governments don't regulate drugs at all, let alone ban recreational use of them. It's a weird aberration of the 20th century (much like prohibition I suppose). It doesn't take a constitutional amendment for it not to happen.

I suppose if you are determined to have one, rewording the repeal of prohibition to apply more broadly is about the best shot. Rewording it enough to actually ban anti-drug laws, which are after all state laws, not federal ones, might be a hard sell though. States retain the right to regulate, tax or prohibit alcohol sales even now, and an amendment worded so they don't very likely wouldn't pass the necessary number of state legislatures.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by malloyd

The whiskey rebellion is about taxes, not prohibition. I don't believe anybody in the 18th century taxed hashish.

And that's why Jefferson would be stoned when he comes up with an anti-Prohibition amendment. He tries to write an amendment prohibiting taxes on specific goods, and ends up writing an amendment that stops the federal government from interfering with commerce of specific goods. Then the 14th amendment rolls around and the constitutional rights affect the states. A pretty bonkers divergence.

On the other hand, if the founding fathers were all on drugs, it would probably be a big enough cultural shift to stop prohibition to begin with. Maybe opium gets banned, then unbanned.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by TGLS

And that's why Jefferson would be stoned when he comes up with an anti-Prohibition amendment. He tries to write an amendment prohibiting taxes on specific goods, and ends up writing an amendment that stops the federal government from interfering with commerce of specific goods. Then the 14th amendment rolls around and the constitutional rights affect the states. A pretty bonkers divergence.

Ah, I thought it might be an attempt at a serious timeline. In a silly timeline where everybody the early US government is routinely too stoned to think straight then yeah, you can justify anything. Nobody bothers to pay any attention to the Federal constitution anyway - not since Congress voted that anybody wearing a false mustache could vote in any Federal election, and decided to become a vassal state of the Barbary Pirates in exchange for a monthly supply of good Turkish hash.