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Sunday, November 30, 2003 Events in the History of Drugs 1906 *Squibb's Materia Medical* lists heroin as "a remedy of much value . . . is is also used as a mild anodyne and as a substitute for morphine in combatting the morphine habit. [Quoted in Lennard et al., op. cit. p. 1079] 1909 The United States prohibits the importation of smoking opium. [Lawrence Kolb, *Drug Addiction*, pp. 145-146] 1910 Dr. Hamilton Wright, considered by some the father of U.S. anti-narcotics laws, reports that American contractors give cocaine to their Negro employees to get more work out of them. [Musto, op. cit. p. 180] 1912 A writer in *Century* magazine proclaims: "The relation of tobacco, especially in the form of cigarettes, and alcohol and opium is a very close one. . . . Morphine is the legitimate consequence of alcohol, and alcohol is the legitimate consequence of tobacco. Cigarettes, drink, opium, is the logical and regular series." And a physician warns: "[There is] no energy more destructive of soul, mind, and body, or more subversive of good morals than the cigarette. The fight against the cigarette is a fight for civilization." [Sinclar, op. cit., p. 180] posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/30/03 23:25 | link | comments Thursday, November 27, 2003
posted by howard, 11/27/03 08:53 | link | comments (1) Wednesday, November 26, 2003 Events in the History of Drugs 1903 The composition of Coca-Cola is changed, caffeine replacing the cocaine it contained until this time. {Musto, op. cit. p. 43] 1904 Charles Lyman, president of the International Reform Bureau, petitions the President of the United States "to induce Great Britain to release China from the enforced opium traffic. . . .We need not recall in detail that China prohibited the sale of opium except as a medicine, until the sale was forced upon that country by Great Britian in the opium war of 1840." [Quoted in Crafts et al., op. cit. p. 230] 1905 Senator Henry W. Blair, in a letter to Rev. Wilbur F. Crafts, Superintendent of the International Reform Bureau: "The temperance movement must include all poisonous substances which create unnatural appetite, and international prohibition is the goal." [Quoted in ibid.] 1906 The first Pure Food and Drug Act becomes law; until its enactment, it was possible to buy, in stores or by mail order medicines containing morphine, cocaine, or heroin, and without their being so labeled. posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/26/03 05:43 | link | comments “I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.” -Thomas Jefferson posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/26/03 04:36 | link | comments Don't Tell the Pope
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Pope John Paul II would be scandalized if he came to the Roman Catholic hospital here in the poor southwestern part of El Salvador. Thank God! posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/26/03 03:42 | link | comments Tuesday, November 25, 2003 Events in the History of Drugs 1901 The Senate adopts a resolution, introduced by Henry Cabot Lodge, to forbid the sale by American traders of opium and alcohol "to aboriginal tribes and uncivilized races." Theses provisions are later extended to include "uncivilized elements in America itself and in its territories, such as Indians, Alaskans, the inhabitants of Hawaii, railroad workers, and immigrants at ports of entry." [Sinclar, op. cit. p. 33] 1902 The Committee on the Acquirement of the Drug Habit of the American Pharmaceutical Association declares: "If the Chinaman cannot get along without his 'dope,' we can get along without him." [Quoted in ibid, p. 17] 1902 George E. Petty, writing in the *Alabama Medical Journal*, observes: "Many articles have appeared in the medical literature during the last two years lauding this new agent . . . . When we consider the fact that heroin is a morphine derivative . . . it does not seem reasonable that such a claim could be well founded. It is strange that such a claim should mislead anyone or that there should be found among the members of our profession those who would reiterate and accentuate it without first subjecting it to the most critical tests, but such is the fact." [Quoted in Lennard et. al., op. cit. p. 1079] posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/25/03 01:50 | link | comments Monday, November 24, 2003 Brave New World
2004 defense budget totals a record $401 billion, an increase of 12% over this year’s budget of $393 billion. The budget includes the acquisition, by the Air Force, of 100 Boeing refueling aircrafts and make provisions for renewed research on new types of nuclear weapons.
posted by durani, 11/24/03 22:47 | link | comments
posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/24/03 08:00 | link | comments posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/24/03 07:30 | link | comments Low-Yield Nukes A little-noted clause of the Fiscal Year 2004 defense bill, which both houses of Congress passed with barely a shrug last week, puts the United States back in the business—after a decadelong moratorium—of developing, testing, and eventually building a new generation of exotic nuclear weapons. In its budget proposal earlier this year, the Bush administration asked for four things along these lines: 1) The repeal of a 1992 law banning the research and development of "low-yield" nuclear weapons (i.e., nukes with an explosive power of less than 5 kilotons); 2) $15 million for work on an earth-penetrating nuclear weapon (popularly known as a "bunker-buster"); 3) $6 million for an "Advanced Concepts Initiative," in which the national weapons labs would once again explore special-effects nukes—for instance, nuclear weapons that, like the long-abandoned "neutron bomb," would enhance certain types of radiation; and 4) $25 million to gear up the weapons labs to the point where they could resume underground nuclear tests within 18 months after a presidential order to do so. (The United States unilaterally stopped nuclear testing in 1992, on orders of the first President Bush, then formalized the cessation in 1995 by signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.) [Read the full article]posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/24/03 03:54 | link | comments "I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: 'The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that's fair.' In these words he epitomized the history of the human race." -Bertrand Russell posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/24/03 01:57 | link | comments Sunday, November 23, 2003
posted by howard, 11/23/03 11:32 | link | comments (1) Friday, November 21, 2003
"What we see depends mainly on what we look for." - John Lubbock posted by durani, 11/21/03 11:44 | link | comments Mass Appeal Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter said he was involved with MI6 officers working on a secret operation codenamed Mass Appeal, designed to secure public support for action against Iraq by leaking dodgy intelligence to the media suggesting that Saddam Hussein continued to possess weapons of mass destruction. posted by durani, 11/21/03 11:37 | link | comments "What we see depends mainly on what we look for." - John Lubbock posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/21/03 07:54 | link | comments (1) Events in the History of Drugs 1898 Diacetylmorphine (heroin) is synthesized in Germany. It is widely lauded as a "safe preparation free from addiction-forming properties." [Montagu, op. cit. p. 68] 1900 In an address to the Ecumenical Missionary Conference, Rev. Wilbur F. Crafts declares: "No Christian celebration of the completion of nineteen Christian centuries has yet been arranged. Could there be a fitter one than the general adoption, by separate and joint action of the great nations of the world, of the new policy of civilization, in which Great Britian is leading, the policy of prohibition for the native races, in the interest of commerce as well as conscience, since the liquor traffic among child races, even more manifestly than in civilized lands, injures all other trades by producing poverty, disease, and death. Our object, more profoundly viewed, is to create a more favorable environment for the child races that civilized nations are essaying to civilize and Christianize." [Quoted in Crafts, et. al., op. cit., p. 14] 1900 James R. L. Daly, writing in the *Boston Medical and Surgical Journal*, declares: "It [heroin] possesses many advantages over morphine. . . . It is not hypnotic; and there is no danger of acquiring the habit. . . ." [Quoted in Henry H. Lennard et. al. Methadone treatment (letters),*Science*, 179:1078-1079 (March 16), 1973; p. 1079] posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/21/03 04:11 | link | comments Thursday, November 20, 2003 "A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself"
Abraham Maslow posted by durani, 11/20/03 22:46 | link | comments (4) Blood, Oil, Guns And BulletsBy Aziz Choudry Terror, invasion, occupation and militarization are hallmarks of the US-led corporate recolonisation of Iraq. But they have long been the hallmarks of colonialism and imperialism the world over. Neoliberal globalization and war are two sides of the same coin. So too are oil and imperialism. Former Shell scientist Claude Ake, described Shell’s activities in Nigeria, as a process of the “militarization of commerce and the privatization of the state”. In 2003, this process is sweeping across the world, perhaps most visibly in Iraq. posted by durani, 11/20/03 17:28 | link | comments "An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run." -Sydney J. Harris posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/20/03 07:49 | link | comments (1) For those of you not familiar with Calgal's blog, Just in from Cowtown...well, you should be! She just posted the image below on her site along with the following comments:
I created this button this evening after hearing a CNN interview in which some idiot said that the impending arrest and trial of Michael Jackson would be "a bigger story than the war in Iraq." Feel free to copy this image to your hard drive and then put it on your website or blog as a symbol that you too will refrain from writing about Michael Jackson. What fresh hell is this? Naked & Alive is proud to post this in support of worthy news! posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/20/03 04:32 | link | comments (1)
monomania on my part - appologies
posted by durani, 11/20/03 03:39 | link | comments A Common Missed Conception
posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/20/03 02:26 | link | comments Events in the History of Drugs 1894 The Report of the Indian Hemp Drug Commission, running to over three thousand pages in seven volumes, is published. This inquiry, commissioned by the British government, concluded: "There is no evidence of any weight regarding the mental and moral injuries from the moderate use of these drugs. .. . . Moderation does not lead to excess in hemp any more than it does in alcohol. Regular, moderate use of ganja or bhang produces the same effects as moderate and regular doses of whiskey." The commission's proposal to tax bhang is never put into effect, in part, perhaps, because one of the commissioners, an Indian, cautions that Moslem law and Hindu custom forbid "taxing anything that gives pleasure to the poor." [Quoted in Norman Taylor, The pleasant assassin: The story of marihuana, in David Solomon (Ed.) *The Marijuana Papers*, pp. 31-47, p. 41] 1894 Norman Kerr, and English physician and president of the British Society for the study of Inebriety, declares: "Drunkenness has generally been regarded as . . . a sin a vice, or a crime. . . [But] there is now a consensus of intelligent opinion that habitual and periodic drunkenness is often either a symptom or sequel of disease . . . . The victim can no more resist [alcohol] than an man with ague can resist shivering. [Quoted in Roueche, op. cit., pp. 107-108] posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/20/03 02:11 | link | comments Wednesday, November 19, 2003 Random Survey: In addition to your blog site(s), do you have a traditional, paper journal? If so, what are your reasons for keeping them separate? posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/19/03 07:43 | link | comments (2)
BP & Shell meet Exon Mobil and Cheveron Texaco - Welcome to London George! posted by durani, 11/19/03 04:44 | link | comments (1) Excerpts From the Massachusetts RulingPublished: November 19, 2003 The Massachusetts Constitution affirms the dignity and equality of all individuals. It forbids the creation of second-class citizens. In reaching our conclusion, we have given full deference to the arguments made by the Commonwealth. But it has failed to identify any constitutionally adequate reason for denying civil marriage to same-sex couples. We are mindful that our decision marks a change in the history of our marriage law. Many people hold deep-seated religious, moral and ethical convictions that marriage should be limited to the union of one man and one woman and that homosexual conduct is immoral. Many hold equally strong religious, moral and ethical convictions that same-sex couples are entitled to be married and that homosexual persons should be treated no differently than their heterosexual neighbors. Neither view answers the question before us. Our concern is with the Massachusetts Constitution as a charter of governance for every person properly within its reach. "Our obligation is to define the liberty of all, not to mandate our own moral code." . . . No one disputes that the plaintiff couples are families, that many are parents and that the children they are raising, like all children, need and should have the fullest opportunity to grow up in a secure, protected family unit. Similarly, no one disputes that, under the rubric of marriage, the state provides a cornucopia of substantial benefits to married parents and their children. The preferential treatment of civil marriage reflects the legislature's conclusion that marriage "is the foremost setting for the education and socialization of children" precisely because it "encourages parents to remain committed to each other and to their children as they grow." In this case, we are confronted with an entire sizable class of parents raising children who have absolutely no access to civil marriage and its protections because they are forbidden from procuring a marriage license. It cannot be rational under our laws, and indeed it is not permitted, to penalize children by depriving them of state benefits because the state disapproves of their parents' sexual orientation. . . . The plaintiffs seek only to be married, not to undermine the institution of civil marriage. They do not want marriage abolished. They do not attack the binary nature of marriage, the consanguinity provisions or any of the other gate-keeping provisions of the marriage licensing law. Recognizing the right of an individual to marry a person of the same sex will not diminish the validity or dignity of opposite-sex marriage, any more than recognizing the right of an individual to marry a person of a different race devalues the marriage of a person who marries someone of her own race. posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/19/03 03:30 | link | comments Events in the History of Drugs 1884 Laws are enacted to make anti-alcohol teaching compulsory in public schools in New York State. The following year similar laws are passed in Pennsylvania, with other states soon following suit. 1885 The Report of the Royal Commission on Opium concludes that opium is more like the Westerner's liquor than a substance to be feared and abhorred. [Quoted in Musto, op. cit. p. 29] 1889 The John Hopkins Hospital, in Baltimore, Maryland, is opened. One of its world-famous founders, Dr. William Stewart Halsted, is a morphine addict. He continues to use morphine in large doses throughout his phenomenally successful surgical career lasting until his death in 1922.posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/19/03 01:43 | link | comments Tuesday, November 18, 2003 Pope Quiz posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/18/03 06:03 | link | comments Events in the History of Drugs 1882 The law in the United States, and the world, making "temperance education" a part of the required course in public schools is enacted. In 1886, Congress makes such education mandatory in the District of Columbia, and in territorial, military, and naval schools. By 1900, all the states have similar laws. [Crafts et. al., op. cit. p. 72] 1882 The Personal Liberty League of the United States is founded to oppose the increasing momentum of movements for compulsory abstinence from alcohol. [Catlin, op. cit. p. 114] 1883 Dr. Theodor Aschenbrandt, a German army physician, secures a supply of pure cocaine from the pharmaceutical firm of Merck, issues it to Bavarian soldiers during their maneuvers, and reports on the beneficial effects of the drug in increasing the soldiers' ability to endure fatigue. [Brecher et. al. op. cit. p. 272] 1884 Sigmund Freud treats his depression with cocaine, and reports feeling "exhilaration and lasting euphoria, which is in no way differs from the normal euphoria of the healthy person. . . You perceive an increase in self-control and possess more vitality and capacity for work. . . . In other words, you are simply more normal, and it is soon hard to believe that you are under the influence of a drug." [Quoted in Ernest Jones, *The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, Vol. 1, p. 82] posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/18/03 02:39 | link | comments
It's a Gaz!
posted by durani, 11/18/03 01:38 | link | comments Monday, November 17, 2003
posted by howard, 11/17/03 04:58 | link | comments Events in the History of Drugs 1868 Dr. George Wood, a professor of the theory and practice of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, president of the American Philosophical Society, and the author of a leading American test, *Treatise on Therapeutics*, describes the pharmacological effects of opium as follows: "A sensation of fullness is felt in the head, soon to be followed by a universal feeling of delicious ease and comfort, with an elevation and expansion of the whole moral and intellectual nature, which is, I think, the most characteristic of its effects. . . . It seems to make the individual, for the time, a better and greater man. . . . The hallucinations, the delirious imaginations of alcoholic intoxication, are, in general, quite wanting. Along with this emotional and intellectual elevation, there is also increased muscular energy; and the capacity to act, and to bear fatigue, is greatly augmented. [Quoted in Musto, op. cit. pp. 71-72] 1869 The Prohibition Party is formed. Gerrit Smith, twice Abolitionist candidate for President, an associate of John Brown, and a crusading prohibitionist, declares: "Our involuntary slaves are set free, but our millions of voluntary slaves still clang their chains. The lot of the literal slave, of him whom others have enslaved, is indeed a hard one; nevertheless, it is a paradise compared with the lot of him who has enslaved himself to alcohol." [Quoted in Sinclar, op. cit. pp. 83-84] 1874 The Woman's Christian Temperance Union is founded in Cleveland. In 1883, Frances Willard a leader of the W.C.T.U. forms the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union. posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/17/03 03:32 | link | comments Sunday, November 16, 2003
Paradigm Shift?? posted by durani, 11/16/03 07:02 | link | comments Saturday, November 15, 2003 Comic Relief In Easton, Pa., in July, Robert M. Peters Sr., 47, became the latest man to be acquitted of indecent exposure by persuading a jury that his penis is too small to have been seen by the complaining witness. A woman testified that she had seen "3 inches" of erect penis beyond the bottom of his shorts while he was working in her home, but via photographs and a brief trouser-dropping in the courtroom, Peters convinced the jury that he is very modestly endowed and that she must have seen something else, such as a fold of fat on his 312-pound body. [Express-Times (Easton, Pa.), 7-16-03] posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/15/03 06:03 | link | comments A senior Vatican spokesman, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, told a BBC Radio audience in October that condoms are useless in preventing the spread of HIV (because the virus seeps through the porous latex) and therefore should not be used, even in AIDS-wracked Africa, where as much as 20 percent of the population is reportedly infected. The World Health Organization denounced Trujillo's claim but said it had heard similar Catholic Church messages in Asia and Latin America. [The Guardian, 10-9-03] From MSNBC News of the Weird. posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/15/03 05:58 | link | comments "There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word 'happy' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness." -Carl Jung posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/15/03 05:00 | link | comments
posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/15/03 03:09 | link | comments Events in the History of Drugs 1852 The American Pharmaceutical Association is founded. The Association's 1856 Constitution lists one of its goals as: "To as much as possible restrict the dispensing and sale of medicines to regularly educated druggests and apothecaries. [Quoted in David Musto, *The American Disease*, p. 258] 1856 The Second Opium War. The British, with help from the French, extend their powers to distribute opium in China. 1862 Internal Revenue Act enacted imposing a license fee of twenty dollars on retail liquor dealers, and a tax of one dollar a barrel on beer and twenty cents a gallon on spirits. [Sinclare, op. cit. p 152] 1864 Adolf von Baeyer, a twenty-nine-year-old assistant of Friedrich August Kekule (the discoverer of the molecular structure of benzene) in Ghent, synthesizes barbituric acid, the first barbiturate.posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/15/03 01:42 | link | comments Friday, November 14, 2003
posted by howard, 11/14/03 05:09 | link | comments (1) Thursday, November 13, 2003 The House of Bush and the Coming of the Anti-Christ The Bush family joined the Eastern Establishment comparatively recently, and only as servitors. Their wealth and influence resulted from their loyalty to other more powerful families, like the Harrimans, and their willingness to do anything to get ahead. posted by durani, 11/13/03 16:29 | link | comments "I appreciate that question because I, in the state of Texas, had heard a lot of discussion about a faith-based initiative eroding the important bridge between church and state." -George W. Bush posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/13/03 06:46 | link | comments I offer up this web find to all the Motimers out there who occasionally (or regularly) question the time they allocate to blogging. The Procrastinator's Creed: 1. I believe that if anything is worth doing, it would have been done already. 2. I shall never move quickly, except to avoid more work or find excuses. 3. I will never rush into a job without a lifetime of consideration. 4. I shall meet all of my deadlines directly in proportion to the amount of bodily injury I could expect to receive from missing them. 5. I firmly believe that tomorrow holds the possibility for new technologies, astounding discoveries, and a reprieve from my obligations. 6. I truly believe that all deadlines are unreasonable regardless of the amount of time given. 7. I shall never forget that the probability of a miracle, though infinitesmally small, is not exactly zero. 8. If at first I don't succeed, there is always next year. 9. I shall always decide not to decide, unless of course I decide to change my mind. 10. I shall always begin, start, initiate, take the first step, and/or write the first word, when I get around to it. 11. I obey the law of inverse excuses which demands that the greater the task to be done, the more insignificant the work that must be done prior to beginning the greater task. 12. I know that the work cycle is not plan/start/finish, but is wait/plan/plan. 13. I will never put off until tomorrow, what I can forget about forever. 14. I will become a member of the ancient Order of Two-Headed Turtles (the Procrastinator's Society) if they ever get it organized. posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/13/03 05:37 | link | comments Events in the History of Drugs 1841 Dr. Jacques Joseph Moreau uses hashish in treatment of mental patients at the Bicetre. 1842 Abraham Lincoln: "In my judgment, such of us as have never fallen victims, have been spared more from the absence of appetite, than from any mental or moral superiority over those who have. Indeed, I believe, if we take habitual drunkards as a class, their heads and their hearts will bear an advantageous comparison with those of any other class." [Abraham Lincoln, Temperance address, in Roy P. Basler Ed.), *The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 1, p. 258] 1844 Cocaine is isolated in its pure form. 1845 A law prohibiting the public sale of liquor is enacted in New York State. It is repealed in 1847. 1847 The American Medical Association is founded. 1852 Susan B. Anthony establishes the Women's State Temperance Society of New York, the first such society formed by and for women. Many of the early feminists, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Abby Kelly, are also ardent prohibitionists. [Andrew Sinclar, *Era of Excess*, p. 92] posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/13/03 03:46 | link | comments Wednesday, November 12, 2003 Military Industry Complex Dirty Dealing
BAE Systems has been accused of operating a $33.4 million slush fund to procure prostitutes, sports cars, and other enticements in connection with the biggest transaction in UK history.
The Al-Yamamah arms-for-oil deal with the Saudi royal family is just but one example of the weapons manufacturer's sordid activities. It sounds like the stuff of pulp fiction: BAE executives ran a Ï30 million slush fund to finance prostitutes, gambling trips, yachts, sports cars, and more for its most important clients the Saudi royal family and their intermediaries, greasing the wheels of the largest business deal in UK history. posted by durani, 11/12/03 20:45 | link | comments “…A stone, a leaf, an unfound door; of a stone, a leaf, a door. And of all the forgotten faces. Naked and alone we came into exile. In her dark womb we did not know our mother’s face; from the prison of her flesh have we come into the unspeakable and incommunicable prison of this earth. Which of us has known his brother? Which of us had looked into his father’s heart? Which of us has not remained forever prison-pent? Which of us is not forever a stranger and alone? O waste of loss, in the hot mazes, lost among bright stars on this most weary unbright cinder, lost! Remembering speechlessly we seek the great forgotten language, the lost lane-end into heaven, a stone, a leaf, an unfound door. Where? When? O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again.” Thomas Wolfe (Look Homeward, Angel)posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/12/03 03:38 | link | comments Events in the History of Drugs 1805 Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Serturner, a German chemist, isolates and describes morphine. 1822 Thomas De Quincey's *Confessions of an English Opium Eater* is published. He notes that the opium habit, like any other habit, must be learned: "Making allowance for constitutional differences, I should say that *in less that 120 days* no habit of opium-eating could be formed strong enough to call for any extraordinary self-conquest in renouncing it, even suddenly renouncing it. On Saturday you are an opium eater, on Sunday no longer such." [Thomas De Quincey, *Confessions of an English Opium Eater* (1822), p. 143] 1826 The American Society for the Promotion of Temperance is founded in Boston. By 1833, there are 6,000 local Temperance societies, with more than one million members. 1839-42 The first Opium War. The British force upon China the trade in opium, a trade the Chinese had declared illegal.. [Montagu, op. cit. p. 67] 1840 Benjamin Parsons, and English clergyman, declares: ". . . alcohol stands preeminent as a destroyer. . . . I never knew a person become insane who was not in the habit of taking a portion of alcohol every day." Parsons lists forty-two distinct diseases caused by alcohol, among them inflammation of the brain, scrofula, mania, dropsy, nephritis, and gout. [Quoted in Roueche, op. cit. pp. 87-88]posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/12/03 02:48 | link | comments Tuesday, November 11, 2003 "America, under Bush, is a danger to the world," George Soros Billionaire George Soros has pledged $15 million to efforts to unseat Bush in an election that he sees as a "life and death" struggle to defeat the administration's "supremacist ideology". "America, under Bush, is a danger to the world," the 74-year-old Soros is telling any one who cares to listen and he is comparing the president's ideology to what he witnessed in Nazi occupied Hungary. posted by durani, 11/11/03 17:35 | link | comments (1) Events in the History of Drugs 1792 The first prohibitory laws against opium in China are promulgated. The punishment decreed for keepers of opium shops is strangulation. 1792 The Whisky Rebellion, a protest by farmers in western Pennsylvania against a federal tax on liquor, breaks out and is put down by overwhelming force sent to the area by George Washington. Samuel Taylor Coleridge writes "Kubla Khan" while under the influence of opium. 1800 Napoleon's army, returning from Egypt, introduces cannibis (hashish, marijuana) into France. Avante-garde artists and writers in Paris develop their own cannabis ritual, leading, in 1844, to the establishment of *Le Club de Haschischins.* [William A. Emboden, Jr., Ritual Use of Cannabis Sativa L.: A historical-ethnographic survey, in Peter T. Furst (Ed.), *Flesh of the Gods*, pp. 214-236; pp. 227-228] 1801 On Jefferson's recommendation, the federal duty on liquor was abolished. [Catlin, op. cit., p. 113] 1804 Thomas Trotter, an Edinburgh physician, publishes *An Essay, Medical, Philosophical, and Chemical on Drunkenness and Its Effects on the Human Body*: "In medical language, I consider drunkenness, strictly speaking, to be a disease, produced by a remote cause, and giving birth to actions and movements in the living body that disorder the functions of health. . . The habit of drunkenness is a disease of the mind." [Quoted in Roueche, op. cit. pp. 87-88]posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/11/03 01:40 | link | comments Monday, November 10, 2003
posted by howard, 11/10/03 22:56 | link | comments (1)
Caption reads: I'm not saying I used cocaine. But if I did, it was merely a "youthful indiscretion". Today I'm clean. And I'm tough on crime. So if I catch you using coke, I don’t' want to hear any of that "youthful indiscretion" nonsense. I'm throwing your crack-addicted ass in prison. That's not hypocrisy. That's politics. posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/10/03 03:48 | link | comments (1) In August [2000], the U.S. Department of Justice revealed that the number of men and women behind bars in the U.S. at the end of 1999 exceeded two million and the rate of incarceration had reached 690 inmates per 100,000 residents — a rate Human Rights Watch believed to be the highest in the world (with the exception of Rwanda). ... The unrelenting war on drugs continued to pull hundreds of thousands of drug offenders into the criminal justice system: 1,559,100 people were arrested on drug charges in 1998; approximately 450,000 drug offenders were confined in jails and prisons. According to the Department of Justice, 107,000 people were sent to state prison on drug charges in 1998, representing 30.8 percent of all new state admissions. Drug offenders constituted 57.8 percent of all federal inmates. — Human Rights Watch World Report 2001: United States posted by NAKEDandALIVE, 11/10/03 03:43 | link | comments |
