Crocodile Bites, Jake Leg Blues and Man-Eating Cocaine

[happiestsadist]

Will Rogers once remarked "Governments used to murder by the bullet only. Now it's by the quart.", on the subject of Prohibition. Prohibition of alcohol was a costly, messy, awful mistake, and was responsible for thousands of deaths, as well as the rise of the Mafia in the US. I mean, none of this is controversial stuff, except possibly in parts of

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[happiestsadist]

I didn't know either until I read the book. I mean, I knew the sellers spiked it with whatever and about the wood alcohol, but holy shit. Reading about how the bootleggers' chemists were trying to remove the poisons in the stuff that the government ordered in.

It's such a worthwhile read. Really informative, and written so well, you can't put it down.

[ms_daisy_cutter]

I mean, none of this is controversial stuff, except possibly in parts of Utah. People acknowledge that it didn't work, in any way.

Actually, nearly a quarter-century ago now, there was this op-ed arguing that Prohibition was successful. Shockingly [/sarcasm], the writer is (or was) a professor of criminal justice at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard.

There are also a few other people out there with the same opinion, like this one. So... basically, elitists who want to control people, puritans, and a few assorted cranks.

[happiestsadist]

Gah! That's depressing. Well, I am reminded that there are people who will argue any awful idea was really totes brilliant.

[arthur_sc_king]

If you haven't yet, read In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts by Dr. Gabor Mate. He wrote an excellent and best-selling book about ADD a ways back (titled Scattered Minds in Canada and elsewhere, and just Scattered in the US), but this book is about his experiences working with addicts in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. An absolute must-read for anyone who cares at all about addiction, and especially for those who don't care.

Anyhow. Brava. Bang on.

[happiestsadist]

I've been meaning to pick that one up for a while now, thanks for reminding me.

And thank you.

[badong]

I hate hate HATE the "war on drugs." Years ago I had to take a piss test to get a job once and I consider it the lowest point in my working career; I felt like I was buying into our government's invasive, futile, expensive and life-ruining system of demonizing people who might -- *gasp!* -- want to kick back and have a toke or two at the end of the day instead of a Scotch & soda. I felt cheap for caving in, and I have since vowed never to do it again

[happiestsadist]

I've never been pee-tested, but I have worked for companies that did, and was disgusted with the matter.

AndI will never stop being utterly revolted by the extent to which people with addictions are dehumanized. I mean, that's how it's rendered acceptable/laudable to straight-up kill them, which is what the drug wars are doing.

And glad to provide info.

[ms_daisy_cutter]

I have been peeing in cups regularly over the last decade, because it's damned hard to get an office job anymore without doing so. It's invasive, degrading, and unconstitutional, but I don't have the luxury of declining.

It's lifestyle policing. The sales reps who get hammered every night or who abuse prescription drugs fit into corporate culture. Someone who takes a few tokes in the evening to relax? No matter how "respectable" they come off as and how competent they are at their jobs, they apparently must be weeded out (pun intended) so that they don't walk unnoticed amongst the Biffs and Bitsies.

[anunreallife]

You know why doctors have way more leeway to prescribe Tylenol With Codeine than straight-up codeine? Because you can fatally OD on Tylenol much easier than you can on codeine. The theory is that this will "stop addicts". The practice is that when my boyfriend had his jaw restructured he couldn't actually take enough pain meds to relieve his pain. (Turns out if they take half an inch out of the center of your lower jaw it really hurts. Who knew?)

[happiestsadist]

That sounds about on par with the rest of that BS. I'm waiting to hear back from a pain clinic because, well, I have serious chronic pain. And what did they give me for now? Aspirin/codeine. Taking it regularly enough has fucked up my stomach. Enough that a single half-dose months apart from the last time I took it made me think I was having a heart attack at 4.30 in the morning, and to still have a stomachache almost a week later.

Poor boyfriend!

When Eva Peron was dying of cervical cancer, they gave her a lobotomy instead of giving her painkillers. They didn't want the dying person to get addicted.

[ms_daisy_cutter]

That's so fucked up. But completely unsurprising.

On a par with an anecdote I heard about a nurse who refused to give adequate pain relief to a dying woman because the suffering would purify her soul for jeeeeeeezusssss. The patient's grown daughter responded by backhanding the nurse, hopefully across the fucking room.