How to Have Fun and Not Die

The Drug War

2010-11-09T17:34:00.002-05:00

The Drug War

“You have to face the fact that the whole problem is really
the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this all while not appearing to.”
- Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States. Statement recorded in 1969 in the diary of his Chief of Staff, H.R. Haldemann.

While my readers may find this chapter the least useful for their immediate future, it’s probably the most noteworthy for our long-term success with managing the many drug related dangers we face in America and nations under similar law. It was impossible for me to ingratiate myself into education and harm reduction at the level I now find myself without becoming fully engrossed in this industry’s policy reform movement.
I could start by paraphrasing from an article in the magazine, The Economist from early 2009. It discussed how our society’s leaders have not yet admitted defeat. How until the late 1990’s, it seems they actually believed it was possible to achieve a “drug-free world.” Now, they argue more that they have helped to stabilize the drug market, but often with such illegality, accurate statistics are hard to ascertain.
But this is a total farce…
The truth is that this so called “Drug War” has not been a war against drugs at all, but rather a war against people; specifically, a war against certain demographics in society, most often poor minorities. As in my opening quote, the war on drugs is the device the government used to mask its attack on primarily African Americans. The notion that this is the true agenda that initiated and propelled the longest running war in human history, is to me, more horrifying than all the adverse effects of the legal, medical and educational standards on drugs held by the U.S. today.
“If our own government was responsible for the deaths of almost 100,000 people… would you really want to know?” – Stephen Rea playing Inspector Finch in the film, V for Vendetta.
The following is a brief history review: compliments primarily of the Drug Policy Alliance Network, found at www.drugpolicy.org. If you are at all concerned about issues discussed in this chapter, this non-profit network is one to which I recommend you donate time, money or resources.
1870’s to 1920’s, in the United States, the typical Opiate or Cocaine addicts were middle aged, rural, middle-upper class, white women. Despite 250,000 addicts in a population of 76 million, society perceived the situation as simply a health problem.
Late 1800’s, Native American Indians in Mid-western U.S. organized a new religion revolving around the use of the Peyote Cactus. Churches and government agencies were against this psychedelic movement of course, and claimed that while on Peyote, men were killing people and women were ripping their clothes off. Not dissimilar to exaggerated myths today about users of PCP, heroin, LSD, weed, etc.
In 1909 the state of California prohibited the smoking of Opium to discourage Chinese immigration to the West. The Chinese were immigrating and providing competitive, cheap labor. This would make it harder for white people to find work.
“I don't see no Americans. I see trespassers, Irish harps. Do a job for a nickel what a nigger does for a dime and a white man used to get a quarter for.” - Bill the Butcher played by Daniel Day-Lewis in Martin Scorsese’s film, Gangs of New York.
A good example of natives fearing foreign influence and immigration. And a great actor and good movie. Do realize that America as we know it was founded and built by immigrants. Our government instilled fear in its people with stories of white women becoming stoned whores in Opium Dens.
In 1910 the Federal Government wanted to control drugs. They needed to lie to achieve this because very little crime was actually associated with drug users. To convince Southern members of Congress to support the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914, they were told myths about how the use of cocaine was causing African – American males to uncontrollably rape white women.
In the 1920’s and 30’s marijuana grew popular amidst the American Jazz scene, in which black and white people were happily smoking and getting high together. Again, feeding off of racism, the government propaganda suggested that this type of integration was an example of the degradation induced by weed.
The Marijuana Tax Act was passed in 1937 during the Great Depression. This was, in part, accomplished by convincing white people that the Mexicans who were taking their jobs were also violently attacking white people while high on weed.
In the early 1960’s, along with a flood of psychedelics, the popularity of marijuana returned amongst college students who questioned the government. Weed was also popular with urban blacks in this time period that were growing very upset about the slow implementation of the Civil Rights Legislation. Nixon later targeted both of these groups and successfully managed to create the stereotype of the poor youth and minorities as being dangerous drug users.
There are countless rumors regarding the CIA’s supplying the Bloods and Cripps of 1980’s Los Angeles with Cocaine and Guns in order to finance the Contras in Nicaragua. In this case not only is our government buying drugs to finance a war, but also using poor black kids to sell the drugs and kill each other off. But that’s a separate story.
The only way the war on drugs makes any sense is if you look at it with Nixon’s agenda in mind. In that capacity, and in that capacity only, this war has been an enormous success. The primary accomplishment of this endless struggle has been the creation of modern slavery in America. 72% of drug users and dealers in the U.S. are white. 13.5% of drug users and dealers are black. Police officers are assigned to patrol certain areas; typically poor, urban areas. Not rural areas in which odds are people have money and connections, making them more capable of getting police in trouble for illegal searches and methods. 37% of those arrested for drug violations are blacks. 60% of those in state prisons for drug felonies are blacks. 81% of those charged with federal drug violations are blacks. Whites serve an average of 2 years less than blacks for the same drug violations. The FBI reported that a black male born to a young couple in the U.S. today has a one in three chance of spending time in prison. During Apartheid in South Africa in 1993, 851 out of every 100,000 black people were incarcerated. During the War on Drugs in America in 2008, 6,667 out of every 100,000 black people were in prison.
And what has been the cost of this impressive implementation of racism? Vast monetary expense, organized crime, and death tolls greater than any war in human history. The U.S. spends $40 billion each year in an attempt to eliminate the supply of drugs. Our government spends more money on housing prisoners than it does on general education for the youth. It arrests 1.5 million of its citizens each year for drug offenses. One third of them actually spend time in jail. Over six thousand people in Mexico are killed each year as a result of the drug war. The estimation of the dollar value of the illegal drug trade business constantly changes depending on which agency you are asking. It is always in the hundreds of billions.
Prohibition created organized crime and helped it flourish. The only reason the drug trade is such a profitable business, in which the dealers control the market, is that it’s illegal, and thus, unregulated. It’s these profits that make drug lords able to afford to buy anything and anyone: cops, judges, politicians, governments. The Drug War makes criminals out of buyers, sellers, and users of these products, or even people like me, who just want to save lives through honest education. Locking up addicts accomplishes nothing. It only perpetuates the problem for them, their families and society as a whole. The U.S. has more people, per capita, in jail than any other country in the world. Our country’s fastest growing business is building prisons. Many of our kids are unable to get loans for school due to convictions of non-violent possession charges. Many of our citizens lose their right to vote, which of course can help sway elections in a direction that again, will only ensure the continuation of this war.
The lack of regulation, with no legal standards to be met, makes drugs more dangerous. Addicts are being forced to buy unreliable product and use in less than sanitary settings. That is how Heroin kills most of its victims. There are many reasons why users may receive the wrong dose. Can you think of a worse business in which buyers and sellers are to be held to moral standards? Prohibition has caused the purity of drugs to increase and makes them easier to access. A 12-year-old can purchase heroin with no problem whatsoever. All he or she needs is his allowance or something to barter. Yet the kid would have a very hard time buying cigarettes. Drug dealers do not ask kids for I.D. or proof of age. They don’t care, because they don’t have to be accountable. They cannot be held responsible. I’ve never heard of anyone ever suing a drug dealer. They resolve their issues violently, thus contributing to the casualties of this war. We have created a situation in which the ailments of drug addicts are being treated by dealers instead of doctors. Users are afraid to ask for help. One of the scariest notions is that the Drug War perpetuates itself. It feeds off itself, each side growing with every year it continues. There are now so many jobs that exist simply to fight this war. So much money is put into it. These cops, prison guards, DEA officers and others worry about losing their jobs if the war were to end. And drug lords get richer and richer… and terrorists profit off of all of this drug trade… and more and more of our own people die.
And what was the government’s excuse to do all this, to wreak all this havoc? Oh yes, to prevent addiction. Right? Wouldn’t it have been nice if that were actually true, and they were trying to help? If it had been true, this war would have ended years ago due to its obvious failure.
In 1914, drugs were legal and 1.3% of Americans were addicted. By 1970 the illegality of drugs made them far more potent and accessible, and still 1.3% of Americans were addicted to drugs. In 2008, drugs were still illegal and still only 1.3% of Americans were addicted.
Think it’s time we try something new?
I know most people are now warming up to the idea of legalizing marijuana on some level. But people think it sounds ridiculous when someone simply states that all drugs should be legal as well. But this is what does make the most sense if you really think about our goals.
Legalize all drugs so that they can be regulated and taxed. If drugs were legal, there would be no financial motivation for a black market and the Drug War would cease to exist. With no underground trade, “hot” doses made by lazy or deceptive dealers would no longer exist. That alone would prevent most of the deaths that result from overdose. If drugs are not illegal, buyers and sellers are not breaking the law. So right away, we save the tens of billions of dollars that we would have spent on fighting crime and housing criminals. There are many good examples we can look to for how well this strategy would work. For instance, we – the U.S. prior to 1914, the Netherlands and Switzerland in present day are doing very well – drug related death and crime are much lower in these places. Next the U.S. government could decide to produce all the drugs itself. This would ensure the quality of the drugs that the public would receive. Imagine the security of a world in which all your drugs had labels and listed ingredients, like your bottle of Advil or can of soup. When was the last time you bought a bottle of Jack Daniels from a liquor store only to find that the clerk had already opened the bottle and filled half of it with Diet Pepsi? Or to find a Marlboro Red cigarette laced with PCP? This would never happen because sellers of these products have licenses that can get revoked. Imagine how much safer it would be if your dealer didn’t have a gun and his cocaine had its purity levels and contents typed on a sticker placed on the side of the bag. And he’d be accountable if the sticker read the wrong information. McDonald’s makes damn well sure that there are no fingertips in the chicken nuggets because they know it will be a million dollar law suit. The more dangerous the substance, the more secure the transaction should be, not the other way around. And yes, maybe the harder drugs would have to be prescribed by medical doctors, who just have a more exclusive license. With the money saved by ending prohibition, and the surplus in taxes made on the sale of many of the drugs, (like the enormous tax the government puts on cigarettes, which actually has helped to lower the number of cigarette smokers in America), we could open free rehabilitation clinics. At these clinics we could provide addicts with free drugs under the supervision of health counselors, helping to ensure the safest possible use. These counselors could attempt to slowly wean the users off these drugs. This would prevent spread of disease and addicts wouldn’t be forced to perform criminal acts to obtain funds to purchase the drugs. At that same clinic they could offer drug education and general education. And how about having career counselors there as well? Does this sound like a safer environment to do Heroin in than a back alley? Does this sound like a more productive learning environment for a 15-year-old than a prison? We’d then have dealers and users off the streets, out of sight from children who are walking home from school. No more dealers to recruit new users until they get arrested and replaced 10 minutes later.
For the cops and others who are worried about losing their jobs upon repeal of prohibition - let them work on criminal cases in which people are actually harming others and not just themselves. Or how about these workers get trained to work in rehabilitation centers and drug education programs? We need to eliminate the criminal factor so that we can finally treat drug use medically instead of legally. To help deal with all the non-violent offenders who were wrongfully imprisoned and would be released, we could put a portion of the fortune we save by ending prohibition towards health care, housing, jobs with livable wages, and honest drug education programs in schools. What is wrong with politicians today? Is this not happening because they cannot admit that they’ve either been lying or incompetent up to this point? Or are there just too many people in power who are completely devoid of any moral values and reap the monetary benefits of this situation? The irrational drug laws run against most of the ideals this country claims it was founded on. And in the realm of this discussion, I often find myself ashamed to continue living here amidst the injustice. As long as I’m here, all I can do is fight for what I believe is right.
And this issue, along with my initial passion to prevent drug overdose, is what I feel most strongly about. I started writing this book half way through college, before I ever grew real interest in any studies, and this remained my favorite topic. I think it’s what also prevented me from finding contentment in performing arbitrary tasks in the 9 to 5 world of jobs and partying. When life got in the way of my working in this industry, I felt that life had become pointless, that I was wasting my time here. And this is what drives me to continue my work in this field, no matter how unorthodox a form it takes at any given stage. From writing, I gradually turned to lecturing and teaching, the first portion of which I lived on the road for 11 months and essentially went back to college living. Then, I rather quickly turned to music and art, and now film, and back to writing and everything together. I’ll use any medium through which I can reach the youth before they become prisoners of one form or another.
The war on drugs is an attack on our civil liberties. It is immoral to put a human in a cage because he put something in his own body. This is no longer a war.
“Girl, you can’t even call this shit a war… Wars end.” – Carver, in the pilot episode of the HBO television show, The Wire.
The humans lost. It now resembles genocide. We must show the government how many people are pro education and rational policy reform.

For far greater detail on this issue, and the primary source of research for this chapter, read End Prohibition Now!, an award winning essay by Jack Cole, Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). Jack gives an incredibly informative talk as well and he is a terrific guy. He is one of the more interesting people I met at a number of Drug Policy Conventions and Hemp Festivals across the U.S. in 2009.
While there may be more creative ways to help end the war on drugs, if you are looking to learn more and spread the word, you can refer others to sources on this topic in the “suggested works” chapter. And to directly contribute in some way, whether it’s volunteering, a donation, or anything else you can think of, the most impressive organizations I’ve had the honor to grow acquainted with are Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Drug Policy Alliance Network, International Harm Reduction Association, Students For Sensible Drug Policy and Flex Your Rights. I thank you in advance for your time.

Introduction to Drug Stories Chapter

2010-09-09T21:55:00.004-04:00

I thought it would be fun to have first hand sources of information here. Especially for some of the drugs that many people might not know so much about. Kind of a different perspective than you’ll find in other chapters. The writers range from a teenager in college to an 80-something-year-old woman who hangs out at a senior center a few days a week. They are just people who wanted to say something about a particular substance or about their experience in general. To read more stories like these that didn’t make it into the book, you can visit the blog connected to www.howtohavefunandnotdie.com.
P.S. A terrific writer was originally lined up to write a piece on Adderall, but he was constantly on and off his medication, completely disorganized and was never able to finish his story. I considered having someone else do it, but realized that the above fact is telling enough. Even more telling is that 37 months later, that same person has now failed to hand in his story for the 2nd Edition, even though we’ve spoken about it at least twice a year and once a week in these last two months. We even lived on the road together for 2 weeks along the west coast of the U.S. in May, 2009, a time frame in which it did not get written. For further details on that time period, refer to the “Escape from Moss Beach – Part 1” story in my future book, most likely titled, Stayin’ Alive: U.S. Drug Tour 2009.

Order of stories (as of now) is as follows…
- ACID
- BEER
- BIRTH CONTROL
- CIGARETTES
- DMT
- METH
- MUSHROOMS
- OXYCONTIN
- PCP / MARIJUANA

Sex Education

2010-09-08T00:25:00.003-04:00

Sex Education

“A huge study finds that people who promised to be abstinent do not wait longer to have sex and do not have fewer sex partners. What the abstinence pledge does result in is those people being less likely to practice safe sex. Why? Because they didn’t learn about safe sex because they planned on abstinence.”
- Laura Berman, L.C.S.W., Ph.D., Sex Educator and Therapist, on NBC morning news.
(This is a perfect example of unrealistic goals and uneducated youth resulting in disease, death and tragedy.)

Sexual Education is enormously important in and of itself. The statistics of the spreading of STD’s are absolutely overwhelming and today’s teenagers are often wishing themselves out of the social scene entirely. I was prompted to broach the subject in my lectures only after the onset of the Swine Flu epidemic in late April, 2009. So sad that it sometimes takes a far too serious problem to motivate people to hold a discussion that was always necessary. It’s the first time for our generation that the media is constantly reminding us that we can catch something potentially fatal by shaking hands, let alone making out with one another. For the time being, underlying concerns of Mono and Herpes were tossed aside for what many joke to be a national conspiracy strategized by the fine people at Purell.
Of course, my parents provided me with an arsenal of Tamiflu, the only known preventative measure and potential partial cure, and products of the aforementioned sanitization company. They were somewhat nervous that my newly created career as a lecturer, almost more than a writer, had me living and socializing with literally thousands of college students, the demographic hit hardest by the influenza virus. It’s what prevented me from traveling south to Tijuana after my California tour in early May. I began the Fall 2009 semester in the Northeastern United States. Despite the startlingly, sickly girl who sat drinking tea and smoking pot at the kitchen table in the Brown University off-campus house upon my arrival, the students there seemed peacefully unaffected by the Swine craze. Two days later I spoke at Franklin Pierce University, a small, private school in Rindge, New Hampshire. They had sent sixteen kids home with the Swine Flu in the previous week. The next day I drove west to Cornell to party and give an informal lecture at the Fiji fraternity house. Not only were over six hundred students at the school diagnosed with Swine, but one boy had died from it two weeks earlier. That news made it all the more alarming when one student walked into the lecture wearing a doctor’s mask, said he had swine flu, but that it was no longer contagious. It is said that people die from Swine flu only if they already have an existing medical problem, such as underlying heart conditions and other chronic issues that would make one more susceptible to any flu.
So the issue of preventing further spreading of the Swine Flu moved to the front of my mind. And the discussion of virus transmission processes led to talk of other viruses that are transmitted in similar, if not identical ways. It had come to my attention earlier in the year how many people were sharing equipment when doing drugs, not the far more stigmatized needle sharing, but the far more innocent passing of joints, bowls, bongs, bottles, funnels (which is the most disgusting because people are really wrapping their lips around that hose), snorting straws, bills and countless more items. I don’t want to come off as some germ freak. I assure you I’ve been careless at times. But that doesn’t mean one has to be careless all the time. Remember, every time you have safe sex or decide not to drive drunk, you are helping yourself, even if you went the other way the night before. I quite quickly became adept at pouring liquid from a bottle two inches above my lips into my mouth. Or creating a tunnel with my fingers curled up into a fist position to extend the reach of a pipe to my lips. Or placing my finger tips between a joint and my lips while inhaling. Though it’s hard to say how much any of this really helps. And as with everything, these tactics grow less manageable as one becomes more inebriated. And I know how lame, if noticed, the perception of these practices can be. Some of the strongest social and cultural bonds can be formed between strangers by simply sharing a substance at an event. The last thing you want to do is offend the person by not taking his joint and coming off as a total snob. But you know when it occurs to you? It hits you clear as day when the guy with the herpes sore on his lip asks if you want to blow lines in the bathroom. With this reminder, social etiquette tends to slip your mind. While this is important to discuss, I know how unrealistic it is. I think it’s analogous to the ideal notion that condoms are supposed to be used during oral sex. I have never heard of anyone in real life using a condom for oral sex. Or a dental dam for going down on a girl, for that matter. In fact, most people have never even heard of a dental dam. It seems that these are the widely understood social compromises we’ve made with ourselves. People decide for themselves on a case by case basis as to what constitutes a fair mix between fun and health. Each of us should understand what the trade offs are. Knowing that getting into further detail is pointless, I’d sum up that brief Swine Flu portion of the lecture by saying, “so don’t go make out with a person at a party unless you Really Feel the need to.” Laughter ensues. I think it made for a good reminder. No one wants the Swine Flu.
Paper money is the dirtiest and most commonly used material to snort drugs. It is safest to use a post-it note, not to share it, and to throw it away when done. You might think it would be best to snort something directly off a surface, but then think about how clean the surface is. Even if you’re using a snorting device, you should still use the cleanest surface possible.
I apologize if this brief discussion overlaps somewhat with the also new to this edition, “Safest Practice” chapter, but they are separate topics and slight redundancy on this issue couldn’t really hurt. Odd really that I left out Sex Ed. from a book called How To Have Fun And Not Die in the first place, but you know that in the first edition I tried to focus and stick to the initial point; one of my inherent problems is veering off topic. Before I ever printed books or started lecturing, one of the founders of the International Harm Reduction Association had asked me where all the sex and rock n’ roll was. I told him how important it was to me that this book be taken seriously as an educational piece. I guess on some level I was inhibited. I realize no readers ever think this. Now that it’s already been accepted by a number of respectable organizations in the community, it’s possible I feel more comfortable branching out. As long as we keep in mind that education is my goal here. Everything written here is still for educational purposes. There is no juicy, sex or drug story that is for fun only. Those will come in the near future with the completion of my personal journal from last year tentatively titled, Stayin’ Alive: U.S. Drug Tour 2009, which is an honest, entertaining piece written for fun and therapeutic purposes. And one that I’m sure will be as naturally educational as this has been naturally entertaining. Though odds are that book will never be printed. Sorry. The interruption just now was necessary to clarify my thinking after realizing the irony of not describing what a dental dam is after mentioning that most people have never heard of it, especially considering that this is an educational book. I’m saying that, by any moral standards, we have to now touch on some sex health basics.

“I have to cut myself. Do you want to cut me!? You can cut me if you want!? But either way, I’m getting cut before I go to sleep.” – Mad Mary, 4 December 2004, 1:30 A.M., sterilizing a razor blade with the flame from a lighter.

I initially included the above quote as the header quote for this chapter from Mary, with whom I had terrifically intense sex for about three weeks just before winter break, senior year of college. (Subsequently thinking it was too inappropriate and off point, I replaced it with the Forgetting Sarah Marshall quote that is still found later in this chapter, which I then replaced with the Laura Berman quote I randomly found in my notes from a year ago, which is far more appropriate). Now I’m asking myself, “when did I get so concerned about what’s appropriate?” No, but it’s far more fitting.
I think whether we’re talking about sex, drugs or behavior in general, there are situations that can be incredibly hard to stomach or understand. I’ve spoken with so many doctors who wish they could just lock a patient in a cage in order to ensure a healing process. Mary was an incredibly intelligent, 5 foot 6 inch tall, 110 pound, 22-year-old, blonde girl earning a Master’s Degree in Bio Engineering at Lehigh University. Throughout our brief relationship I did everything I could within reason to encourage her to get help for what I knew was a physically dangerous, psychological problem. It was more emotionally taxing than I’d like to remember. I do vividly recall her heating the blade though, before she’d sink it into her thigh, and droplets of dark red blood would appear. It was disturbing to comprehend how someone was taking such precautions in terms of safety measures in the midst of performing such an unhealthy act. I had already started writing this book, and have always personally been intrigued by the psychologically unstable. In retrospect from this point in time, having spent this past summer watching a 19-year-old girl inject heroin in the safest way possible as research for the educational drug documentary I’m making this year, those weeks of blood soaked sheets with Mary now seem more like objective research than personal trauma. Anyway, where was I? So glad I’m writing to you again by the way. I’m currently back in the office/kitchen from where I completed the first edition almost three years ago, circa late February 2007. The upcoming film, journal and this book have now been intertwined so much that I often get confused between the content of the works, but I believe they constructively influence one another.

Note: No prophylactic is 100% effective.

DENTAL DAM: A small piece of latex that one uses as a barrier between the vagina or anus and the mouth. If used properly, it will reduce the risk of HIV infection and many other sexually transmitted diseases. Use each dental dam only once. Make sure there are no holes in it. Do not use oil-based lubricants, as these can cause breakdown of the latex.

“CONDOM (FOR MEN): A flexible sheath, usually made of thin rubber or latex, designed to cover the penis during sexual intercourse for contraceptive purposes or as a means of preventing sexually transmitted diseases.

CONDOM (FOR WOMEN): A similar device, consisting of a loose-fitting polyurethane sheath closed at one end that is inserted intravaginally before sexual intercourse. Also called female condom.” - http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/condom. I had heard of “female condoms,” but have never seen one.

Notes:
- Leave ¾ of an inch of space at the tip of the condom – room for ejaculate.
- Make sure there is no spillage after use.
- Condoms made of a substance other than latex or polyurethane do not protect against HIV.
- Oil based lubricants (or anything with oil in it) can eat holes into Latex condoms.

STD: Sexually Transmitted Disease. Also known as: sexually transmitted infection (STI) or venereal disease (VD). Many of these have no cure and can be transmitted through anal sex, oral sex, vaginal sex, childbirth, breastfeeding, and kissing or getting someone’s blood mixed into yours. These infections or diseases have been around for hundreds of years. There are many of them, all with very specific causes. Look them up on the internet. Learn about prevention, safer practice, and cures.

MEDICAL EXAM GLOVES: While your finger is most likely not going to spread an STD, it can be dirty and lead to infection. It is also most healthy not to come in direct contact with feces. And it’s nice to have fingers that don’t smell. If you think about the “stinky palm” move that Brodie does in Kevin Smith’s film, Mallrats, this will make sense. The most famous mainstream cameos of rubber gloves being used in a sexual nature that come to mind are:
- The “milking the prostate” scene in Todd Phillips’ film, Road Trip.
- The only sex scene in David Fincher’s film, Fight Club, in which Brad Pitt is wearing yellow dish washing gloves (especially dirty).
- The half undressed nurse on blink 182’s Enema Of The State album cover.

LUBRICATION: lubrication is especially useful while we’re still on the Ass. It’s of the utmost importance. And I remember my Adulthood & Aging Psych Professor discussing its importance in long-term relationships as the vagina secretes less and less fluids as it ages.

PROPHYLACTIC: A device meant for preventing venereal infection (STD’s). Some Prophylactics are also useful forms of Contraception.

CONTRACEPTIVE: A device meant for preventing or reducing the probability of pregnancy without abstaining from sexual intercourse. You should do extensive research on different forms of contraceptives before beginning a sexual relationship.

MASTURBATION: The medically healthiest and sometimes most enjoyable sexual experience one can have. As with drugs and everything else, it is physically and psychologically healthy in moderation. Not only is it physically healthy to have orgasms on a regular basis, but it’s imperative to one’s psychological well being to be comfortable with one’s body, pleasure and natural processes. As in “Safest Practice” chapter, we discuss the import of doing something for a purpose, for satisfaction and not doing something because you’re bored or others are doing it or out of habit. It is safest to masturbate with moisturizing lotion or some sort of lubrication.

On the other side of Sex Ed we have your social and psychological health, as opposed to your physical health. And while these different sides can definitely affect one another, I’d like to focus on the dangers of irresponsible practice resulting in horrifying social situations. How do you treat people? How do you allow yourself to be treated? Possibly most important – how do you treat yourself? Are you thinking ahead or are you immaturely just trying to get what you want in the immediate future? The now impossible to live without efficiency that technology has brought about in the last 10, 5, even 2 years, has brought with it the potential for the most unfathomable social problems. Posting a picture or statement on the internet is analogous to injecting a drug into your vein. In that there is no turning back! You’ve done it – and you must now deal with the consequences, no matter what they may be. At most, maybe you have a ten second window to cut off your arm – but that’s still life changing.
To start, I’ll give you the most innocent, seemingly harmless incident that forced a family into exile, and I’d imagine a little girl into therapy. A few years back at a prestigious New York City private high school, which I’ll leave unnamed because it needs no help from me to attract bad publicity these days, an 8th grade girl had a crush on a 10th grade boy. He was cute and they’d spoken a few times. I’m not surprised that no one had yet instilled in this girl the socially appropriate techniques in which to interact with her peers. The problem is that we’ve armed immature people with the ability to instantly produce, direct and star in documentaries that can be viewed by hundreds of millions of people. Free of charge, no less! And instilling cultural norms has become harder since the same technology is the reason a 10 year old can watch xvideos.com more than cnn.com. A side note, and again to convey my point, on xvideos.com and countless similar sites, there are sections dedicated to amateur pornographic films of ex-girlfriends, who probably aren’t aware that they are now on a porn site and if they are, greatly regret ever allowing themselves to be recorded. That is, unless they’ve been convinced that trying to follow in Paris Hilton’s footsteps is their best option. So appropriately, this girl didn’t know how to get the attention she craved from this older boy. Quite naturally this girl was already comfortable with masturbation. But of course, this girl was also already comfortable using the video camera built into her cell phone. This girl proceeded to film herself imitating fellatio on a Strawberry flavored Popsicle, then using the Popsicle to stimulate her clitoris and act out vaginal intercourse. Moments later, she sent an email of this video to the older boy, probably with little prompting for discretion, not expecting the worse. Well, at this point you know what ends up happening one way or another. The boy forwarded it to his best friend in disbelief. The friend had to show his brother, who in turn emailed it to 10 people and before the week ended, the majority of the school had watched a Popsicle enter this girl’s vagina. Take a moment to attempt to comprehend the emotional trauma incurred from this experience – for everyone involved. While the community that is involved in this private school may be more prone than most to make too much out of public mishaps, it is none the less, where these people live and work. By the end of the debacle, which involved the head of school, some local authorities and a law suit, the girl’s entire family had moved to Florida and changed their last name. While I’d like to think that something was particularly off in this girl’s judgment, I hear more and more of these horror stories.

Notes:

Fellatio is oral sex performed upon the penis. (To give him a “blowjob.”)

Cunnilingus is oral sex performed upon the vagina and clitoris. (To “eat her out” or “go down on her.”)

Analingus is oral sex performed on the anal opening. (To “toss his or her salad.”) Or Tuchuslingus in Yiddish.

I was reminded of the above, local video masturbation story after reading the story found below from yesterday’s news. This one is far scarier due to the vindictive, abusive motives of the perpetrator. Or simply because a perpetrator exists in this case.
Remember when I told you to scare yourself about getting Roofies slipped into your drink by reading the details about the Jeffrey Dahmer murders? Well to scare yourself about making any potentially embarrassing photos public (even entrusting them to another) (even possessing them yourself – someone could steal them!), read about the crimes of 19-year-old Anthony Stancl, who on February 24th, 2010 was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the following: “posing as a girl on Facebook and tricking more than 30 male classmates into sending him naked photos of themselves, then using the photos to blackmail them for sex.” – Sarah Platt, FOX6 Reporter. Supposedly, he successfully blackmailed 7 male high school students into having sex with him. This took place in Waukesha County, Wisconsin.
Never document anything you’d be ashamed to show your superiors, whether that be a parent, teacher, boss, or police officer. And that goes the other way around as well. You remember how hurt and ashamed Eric Cartmen was to find that his mother was in fact in a German porn video.
I’ll leave you with a comedic line that I believe rings true.
“You need to penetrate deeply... and stimulate the clitoris simultaneously. That's what you gotta do. That's what it's about. If you can involve the anus in that, then that's absolute perfection.”
- Russell Brand playing Aldous Snow in the film, Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Another favorite sex quote that’s a bit vaguer is this one.
“One more thing. Making sex is like a Chinese dinner: It ain’t over ‘til you both get your cookies… Remember that I said that.”
- Alec Baldwin playing Old Man Dunphy in the film, Outside Providence.

Safest Practice

2010-08-31T06:19:00.004-04:00

Safest Practice
“The health department does have an interest in – if you’re going to do certain things – to get you to do it as healthily as you possibly can.” – New York City Mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg addressing controversy over the NYC Health Department’s Safer Heroin Practice Pamphlet on Monday, 4 January 2010.

Initial motivation for this chapter came from three places. The storyline for the documentary I’m filming, the ingenuity of my criminal lawyer Josh Seidman, and notes from Andrew Weil, M.D.’s best selling book, From Chocolate to Morphine, a must-read.

General Points -
• Take drugs in a way that gets you high slower, like eating instead of smoking, or snorting instead of injecting.
• Don’t drink and drive. And this essentially goes for everything. If you are on a drug, don’t do any activity that you wouldn’t want to be doing if you were suddenly to go unconscious. My babysitter from the mid-1980’s drunkenly drowned in her bathtub in the spring of 2009.
• Try to take only one drug at a time. Especially avoid mixing two or more downers.
• Know the drug and the source you are buying it from as well as possible. A lot of unreliable product is sold on the street. Try to have a relationship with your dealer/doctor and other customers. When there is no legal liability in a deal, it’s best if one is considered trustworthy.
• If it’s been a while since your last use or you’ve lost weight or have a cold, take less than you were or are accustomed to. Your tolerance may be lower.
• Use with friends who have more experience with the drug you are taking. If alone, inform someone before you use so they can check on you.
• If you are trying a new drug, do as little as possible to see what happens. It’s easy to take more drugs if you want. It’s much harder to take drugs out of your body. And try to be with experienced user.

ADDERALL: The least amount of amphetamine feasible should be prescribed or dispensed at one time in order to minimize the possibility of overdosage. It should be taken orally. Read about the dangers of snorting something meant to be swallowed in “How To Do Drugs.” Adderall should be used with caution in patients who use other sympathomimetic drugs. It would be good to get to the root of the student’s problem before turning to drugs for a quick solution.

ALCOHOL: Know your tolerance. Drink what you want with a purpose, what you want to achieve from the experience. Don’t drink out of peer pressure. If this is too hard, try to avoid those who would pressure you. Using different forms of discipline, one should try to control the rate of consumption. If you can’t drink slower, drink more dilute forms, such as mixers in your hard liquor. Drink water in between alcoholic beverages to prevent the following day’s hangover, which is caused by fluid loss.

“Did you know that having a hangover is not having enough water in your body to run your Krebs cycles? Which is exactly what happens to you when you’re dying of thirst. So, dying of thirst would probably feel pretty much like the hangover that finally bloody kills you.” – Paul Bettany in the film, A Beautiful Mind.

You can also drink more if you eat food before or during your drinking. If you are too drunk, vomit or go to the hospital. Place a drunken friend on his side so that he won’t choke if he pukes while passed out. If you don’t go to the hospital, try to pass out in a place where people can check on your breathing.

CRACK: “Using a glass or metal stem with a mouthpiece. Wipe mouthpiece with alcohol to prevent getting sick or infections. Use clean choy or copper wire. Pipe screens are best. If using a plastic bottle or pipe, remember to change the foil & use clean ashes. Sleep as much as possible. Let pipe cool down before taking next hit, to prevent cuts and burns. Use straight glass shooters, it will not cause burns as quickly. Wrap end of straight shooter with rubber band, thick rubber, piece of tape or paper (match book cover rolled) & clothespins so you’re less likely to hurt lips. Clean crack shooters often & carefully. File edges of broken glass shooters until it is smooth. Touch flame to shooter quickly instead of leaving it there, move fire along shooter to spread out heat.” - http://sfhiv.org/files/substance/Health%20&%20Safety%20Tips%20for%20Crack%20Smokers.pdf.
During periods of smoking crack, consume a lot of vitamin C and fluids. For more details on health and medical advice refer to the URL given above.

DELIRIANTS: Including but not limited to: Nutmeg, Mace, Amanita Mushrooms, Nightshades. User should be lying still in a safe place. In case user needs help, he should be accompanied by someone who is not on the drug. Nutmeg and Mace cause terrible hangover the next day. The mildest route of administration for Amanita Mushrooms is to smoke the dried colored peels.

DOWNERS: Barbiturates and Sleeping Pills.
Don’t use more than prescribed. Lower doses will often work. Don’t do activites that require normal judgment and coordination. If you take these and stimulants, they can work against each other. It is possible to achieve your goals without taking either. Don’t take downers if you are sick.

HEROIN: It is safer to snort than to inject.
The following is instructions for the safest possible injection process, basically for any drug that can be mixed with water.
1) Clean surface with BZK pad or use a sheet of fresh paper. BZK stands for Benzalkonium antiseptic towelettes. They are alcohol free towelettes so they will not sting.
2) Wash hands with soap or BZK pad.
3) Use new equipment every time you shoot. A new Bottle Cap. A new syringe. A new Bandage.
4) Rinse, using different water. Then mix.
5) Clean injection site with alcohol pad.
6) After injecting press gauze pad on injection site.
7) Use a band aid.
8) Return syringes to a needle exchange site.
9) Throw everything else away.
Equipment referenced above and other necessary items:
- Bleach: to disinfect used syringes when a clean one isn’t available.
- Clean Bottle: for mixing water and bleach.
- Alcohol Swabs: to clean the injection site before insertion.
- Bandages: to help avoid infection after injecting.
- Sterile Water: to mix the drug with.
- Tourniquet: to tie off above the injection site. This helps the veins surface for easier injection.
- Bottle Cap: for mixing water with the drug before it’s drawn up into the syringe. This is commonly called the “cooker.”
- Cotton Balls: to trap dirt and debris as the drug, mixed in water, is pulled into the syringe.
- Syringes: you should always get a clean new one. These are provided at distribution sites, and can be purchased at drugstores.

Always try to use with someone else. You both should be able to recognize symptoms of overdose: little or no breathing, face and lips turning blue. Ideally, you want someone else there who is sober.

INHALANTS and SOLVENTS: Keep away from fire or sparks. Don’t put your head completely in a bag. Breathe fresh air afterward. Don’t use them often. Keep out of eyes.

KETAMINE: The most common way this is administered is through injection, but this is not the safest. The liquid form of Ketamine can be evaporated down to solid crystals. You can crush these into powder, which can then be swallowed, smoked or snorted. Taken orally is, as usual, the safest route of administration. One receives a longer effect, with not as intense a peak.

MARIJUANA: You have the least risk of dependence if you eat it. Though, when taken orally the effects can be unpredictable. If you must smoke it, using a Vaporizer can decrease odds of Lung and Bronchial disease. If you smoke too often it can become more of a habit than a satisfying activity. If satisfaction levels do lower, take a break from smoking and it will be more fun the next time you try it. Especially during early use of marijuana, you should do it in peaceful surroundings. If you have a medical condition and you are smoking marijuana to treat it, get a letter from a doctor.

NARCOTICS: Opium and its derivatives.
Only real healthy use of it is to treat severe physical pain. One should never inject for recreational use. The more you enjoy this process, the more important it is that you not do it again. If you are injecting, do it in as sanitary a setting as possible. See “Heroin” in this chapter.

NITROUS OXIDE (WHIPPETS): Never breathe it directly from a pressurized tank. It’s easiest to breathe out of a balloon. You shouldn’t breathe it for more than a few minutes at a time or regularly over long periods of time.

PCP: The oral route is the safest. Trip will be less dramatic. But it’s more important to know what dose you are taking because it’s not going to hit you right away, and this can lead to taking too much. If on PCP, you should attempt to be in a peaceful setting in which practically no thought or movement is necessary.

PEYOTE: Don’t do it if you are pregnant or breast feeding. Don’t do it if you are scheduled for surgery within two weeks.

PSYCHEDELICS/HALLUCINOGENS: Know your sources. You should take them only if you are already happy in mind and body, and very comfortable with the setting and people. You should have nothing to do for the next 12 hours. (Far less time necessary for DMT, but you don’t want to plan anything too important anyway). Take them when you also do not have much to do the next day. You want to have an empty stomach. This makes nausea less likely. Take them orally. Best if saved for certain, special circumstances. Also, flashbacks are not a myth. They do occur, but very rarely. The truth is that the concern and anxiety about having a flashback are greater problems than the flashbacks themselves. So try not to worry about it.

STIMULANTS: Including but not limited to: Coffee, Tea, Caffeine-containing plants, Cola, Chocolate, Coca, Cocaine, Amphetamines, and Tobacco.
Try your hardest to let your body recharge itself after the high of a stimulant instead of just taking another stimulant to sustain the high. Ideally you want to have much more conservative limits on your frequency of use. Nutrition, rest and exercise are key forms of “recharging.” As always, better to use for a purpose, like a wrestling meet or studying for an exam, and not to rely on use for everyday activities. Take orally to prevent addiction and bodily harm.

Introduction: The Doctor's Note

2010-08-20T15:36:00.004-04:00

Introduction: The Doctor’s Note
“Education is a man’s going forward from cocksure ignorance to thoughtful uncertainty.” - Kenneth G. Johnson

Over the course of writing this book I interviewed and spoke extensively with many different people to get every perspective. This gamut of people ranged from leading doctors in New York City to heroin junkies in the streets of South Bethlehem. Many of these people proved to be both informative and supportive of the project, while others held a different point of view.

Dear Eddie,
I understand your motivation and what you are trying to accomplish. Please understand that I cannot, in good conscience, help you with your project. While I do have extensive experience with patients overdosing on a number of different combinations of both illegal and prescription drugs, I am morally unable to share any information with you. I cannot support your message if it is suggesting that doing certain drugs is okay. The fact of the matter is that there are no facts about drugs. The effect that a drug can have on one person can be completely different from the effect that it has on another person. You have to realize that, not only are there different drugs, but there are also different people. There’s no telling what one line of cocaine will do to any given person.
I admire what you are doing, but I strongly suggest that you re-examine the ideas that you are trying to convey to these people. I wish you the best in all of your endeavors.
Sincerely,
Dr. S.

A well-respected psychopharmacologist wrote this particular letter to me from a hospital that I will leave unnamed. My first thought in response was “what a wus!” I stuffed the letter into my desk drawer and went out to get drunk, something I often did when I felt that this book would be too hard a project for me to handle. A few weeks later, after tossing it around in my head, I realized that all he did was articulate a really simple point that I already knew. This book is not about telling people what is going to happen to them. There are no facts. It is imperative that people recognize that we each have a particular chemical makeup which uniquely reacts to outside events. Just as someone’s personality will determine how they react to a bad grade or a rejection, your physical body will determine how you react to a line of coke or a joint. In fact, your reaction to drugs will also depend a great deal on your personality and surroundings as well. How secure you are with yourself and your surroundings can mean the difference between an acid trip ending with feelings of getting through a great adventure or ending with suicide. I know some people who cannot smoke weed simply because they get too nervous when they’re high. It’s most likely their subconscious insecurities creeping up to the surface.
So I’d like to thank Dr. S., and the many others like him, who wanted no involvement in this book whatsoever, for in fact helping me express this simple, yet significant point. DON’T DO DRUGS.
“Umm, Drugs are bad, mmmkay.” - Mr. Macky, South Park.
I suppose that these authority figures would want some sort of liability clause in the beginning, as if this were a financial institution. Well, here is the statement that is typed on the bottom in small print of any prospectus. I’ve replaced the word “investment” with the word “drug.”
“Please be aware that there are risks involved with all drugs and drug strategies. Historical drug performance may not be indicative of future results.”
As I said, we’re not talking about what will definitely occur. Nothing will definitely occur. There is no 100%. On the 13th of September, 1848, an accidental explosion blew a railroad spike through Phineas Gage’s head, severing the connection between his limbic system and his prefrontal cortex. Even though he could no longer control his emotions and impulses, Phineas did continue to live. Dr. S was morally unable to help me accidentally guide people to their potential deaths. So as I stated earlier, we’re not talking about facts. Anything could kill anyone. I’m not a doctor. I’m stating my opinions, which were formed through extensive research, interviews, observation and admittedly, in the beginning, some experimentation. If you choose to listen, all the power to you, but you are responsible for your own life. Nothing is certain, except for eventual death of course, which is I suppose what we are talking about. How and when death will come to each of us. Each decision one makes about drugs could be a life or death decision and that is why we need to be informed.
What we are going to talk about, among other things, is what has happened to people in the past. For that is the best thing we can look to in order to learn about the future. I have a strong belief in odds. If a high percentage of people have died from drinking too much alcohol and taking Percocet, then I’m going to tell you about it. That way it will lower the odds of you choosing that random combination of drugs to use and maybe you won’t die when you might have. Okay? Beautiful.
What that “wus,” Dr. S, was talking about, and I don’t blame him personally, I mean he does have a career to worry about, and you know all medical doctors took an oath to “do no harm.” An argument that people might bring up after reading this book is the classic idea that if you tell people more about something, they’ll just want to try it more. I believe that this is an archaic way of looking at things.
And by archaic, I mean the perspective of most health teachers in high schools today, which of course directly represents that of our community at large. The vague manner in which they cover these topics in class provokes only curiosity. Their injunctions of “don’t do drugs” create temptation. Like a mom telling her kid not to eat a cookie before dinner. How this isn’t obvious is beyond me. While trying to frighten people doesn’t solve the problem either, it probably would have been a better goal to just scare us by showing us so much gory detail that we wouldn’t want to subject ourselves to this horrible world. The point would have been more obvious. Talking about scaring people out of doing things, my top 3 film picks to scare people about drugs and alcohol is as follows, in no particular order. These are all terrific movies.
1. Leaving Las Vegas, Mike Figgis.
2. Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronofsky.
3. Traffic, Steven Soderbergh.
Throw in one of these movies the next time you’re thinking about doing something dicey. You may realize that you might just be better off going to sleep. And if you happen to like books over movies I suggest you read, James Frey’s, A Million Little Pieces. It is an incredibly gripping story and will really make you think. Yes, it is true that the story was supposed to be based on real events and it ended up that James embellished the truth. True or not, it’s still a solid reading experience. I read it over spring break in Negril, Jamaica my senior year for health psychology and I think it kept my drug mentality in a better place amidst the partying that week. Speaking of James Frye, watch Oprah instead of Jerry Springer. That might sound a little weird, but just trust me. While I’m on the “just trust me” lines, let me also say the following. Do Not snort lines of Jello Shots! I was trashed at “slope day” at Cornell a few months ago and tried doing that with my friend Gooter. It was one of the more painful moments I can remember. It felt as though someone was tearing through my brain with an old pair of scissors. However, you should know the importance of snorting water in case you ever need to, as painful as that also is.
I had a horrible experience some time ago. I won a pool game against my friend J.D. The loser had to buy a shot for the winner. J.D. had told me he was going to get me back for biting his arm earlier in the evening. I had a few drinks since then and thought he might have gotten over it; either way, I should’ve been more cautious. I won the pool game. He came back with two shots that were red. I said, “What the fuck is this?” He responded, “it’s good shit.” I took it down, first thinking it was peppery liquor I had never tried, and then came the pain. I screamed. He laughed and said that his is cranberry juice and that mine is Tabasco sauce. I can’t handle “spicy” stuff to begin with. I ran over to the bartender who was aware of this ruse. He had lined up glasses of ice water. I chugged one of them. Helped the mouth, but my throat and stomach were still burning. Ran down the stairs and vomited immediately. I didn’t have to put my fingers down my throat or anything. Unable to focus on the puking process at all, the hot sauce induced vomit clogged up my nose far worse than usual. I couldn’t blow my nose or breathe out of it. I couldn’t really drink anything because I needed my mouth to breathe and started to get nervous about it in my drunken state. It was very uncomfortable. My friend Cosa then taught me that the best way to unclog one’s nose if one cannot blow out or breathe in is to snort or pour water up it. You inhale the water through your nose and cough it out of your mouth. It hurts but it unclogs the pathway. It was an interesting learning experience. Sitting in bed later that night it dawned on me that it was a good example of how anyone could put anything in my drink at any time. To do much worse things than make me take a shot of Tabasco sauce. This is a much more serious lesson than the snorting water. For the scariest example of why someone would give you a spiked drink, see the film, HOSTEL, but trust me, you really shouldn’t see that movie. It was truly disturbing and there was really no point. Actually, being disturbing might have been the point. And if you want the most horrible real life example I can think of, look up the details of the crimes committed by Jeffrey Dahmer.
As I was saying earlier about the health teachers today, it’s like these conservatives who feel that free condoms in the bathroom will promote sex to those who aren’t even thinking about sex yet. They believe that the cost of that potential problem, in addition to going against their own morals, would outweigh the benefit of upping the odds that those who were already having sex might now be more inclined to practice safe sex. Right, god-forbid we have a whole lot of people having safe, healthy sex. These old timers would rather that kids go into the sex scene not being exposed to anything. And let the ones who have the balls to get laid catch the HIV. And the truth of the matter is that studies now show that teaching abstinence is actually counterproductive. Kids subjected to teachings of abstinence are actually more likely to both have unsafe sex and have it at an earlier age than kids who receive sexual education. On October 29th, 2008 I attended the Random Student Drug Testing Summit in Albany, New York hosted by the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). The people behind this program want to be able to administer drug tests to any student at any time with no cause, thus instilling the fear of getting caught and facing expulsion. Their motivation is that this will make it nearly impossible for students to experiment, which will result in a higher percentage of students who graduate and with better grades. The only goal of the private institution is to raise its own statistics in order to look more impressive compared to other schools in the area. All of the research they presented to us at the summit showed only that there is a direct proportion between students unable to do drugs and students who do well in school. Often when these programs are put in to place, education in these topics goes by the wayside. A room full of Vice Principals sit calmly like sheep, following along this speaker’s presentation. I raise my hand furiously.
“Yes sir?” the lady says in my direction.
“What happens after the students graduate from your school? When they go to college?” I respond with a steady, but loud voice.
“What happens?” she asks.
“Well, have your people performed a longitudinal study that follows students who are subjected to this random drug testing and students who are not, to identify any clear differences in where they end up ten years down the line?”
“Our concern is how the children perform while attending our school.”
“But not as individuals performing in the world? Isn’t that what high school is preparing us for?” She’s seeing my point and getting annoyed with me now. “I think your concern is the performance of your school. Not the well being of the students in it. You say you are protecting these kids from drugs. In my experience, it’s the kids who don’t learn to make choices early on and are constrained by rules, who have the biggest problems with drugs and behavior as soon as those rules are gone.” Some of the sheep in the crowd have picked up their heads and are smiling now.
“I’m sorry sir. But this is not what we’re here to discuss.”
“Oh, sorry. I just wanted to make that point.” I sit back down.
She continues her discussion about different levels of punishments for offenses, such as losing rights to participate in extracurricular activities for first time offenders. Can you imagine their thinking? They want to take away the active, creative part of a child’s day, which I must say, would only lend itself to further drug use.
The best part of this story in Albany is that the speaker I’d spoken with found me in the hallway during a break. I reflexively flinched as she cornered me, but then she began to speak in a conspicuous whisper. “Mr. Einbinder, is it, Eddie? I’d like to share something with you.”
“Yes?” I ask, not knowing what to expect.
“I know now that my two sons tried pot when they were in high school, and I’m very happy they experimented with that and alcohol so they could learn to handle themselves before they went to college.”
“It’s necessary,” I concur.
“Well, between us, I needed you to know that of course I get where you’re coming from and I’m glad you are here.” She continues to gab with me like we’re old girlfriends for a minute before she heads back in.
I shake my head thinking sadly, so she’s just one of the countless adults who get paid to preach ideas that they don’t believe in. At least I got my point across to the crowd. The most important issue in all this is the lack of education offered once it’s deemed unnecessary.
Well I say screw this. If there’s a chance that a 13-year-old is going to run into marijuana, then that kid should be offered the correct education about marijuana. Otherwise he has no choice but to listen to the drug dealer who’s offering it to him, or of course, the constant bombardment of Ipod, T.V. and internet that we are subjected to today. And what do parents say? Go do your homework!
We have to recognize that we don’t know everything. We can’t know everything and neither can the grownups. Don’t ask how to draw the line between the two. If we realized that we didn’t know everything, we might start to think more about the risk involved in trying foreign substances. We would then get the opportunity to at least decide for ourselves whether we want to take that risk.
My only goal is to have as much fun as I can throughout my entire life. A key part of that statement is “my entire life.” Sure, I want to have fun, but if it were getting head for ten minutes and then dying right after, it wouldn’t exactly be worth it. The point is that you should want to be having a good time, but also be concerned with the fact that you will also want to be having fun later on in life; be it forty years from now or tomorrow morning. We’ve all been told about looking out for our future; trying to obtain that perfect equilibrium between work and play so that we can more steadily move along life’s path, consistently filled with underlying feelings of fulfillment and purpose. However, I’m speaking more about your day-to-day actions rather than your work ethic, which we can leave up to your parents to bother you about. Since it has practically no relationship to whether or not you’re going to get bombed tonight. Which, I’d like to add, will screw you up a lot quicker than having a bad study schedule. And frankly, that isn’t going to matter that much anyway because odds are you’re a bright kid in a so-so school in which case you’ll most likely cruise without a problem. I may have run off on a tangent just then but you should get used to it because that’s going to happen from time to time. Ironically, a simple example of what happens when you may have smoked a little too much weed in the past. Then again, it could be my slight Attention Deficit Disorder, the diagnosis of which I did not receive until after the publication of the 1st edition.
It’s been made perfectly clear that the problem I subtly referred to moments ago is not going to be your current study habits. The real problem for you is going to be drugs! All right, relax. I realize that last statement was a bit harsh. I’m not trying to scare you. I’m actually trying to help you. In order for you to enjoy this book, or maybe just for me to feel more comfortable writing it, I have to share a few thoughts.
I’m not some anti-drug activist who’s going to make you feel bad about yourself. I’ve done my fair share and possibly a bit more, depending on your perspective.
You could do anything and everything. Or you could be as sober as a 10-year-old kid who still actually appreciates the natural fun of videogames without the need for a bong being passed between him and his friends as they play. It really doesn’t concern me all that much. The thing that truly does concern me is the fact that you need to know what you’re getting into and what exactly it could do to you.
We all have free will. You could overdose or read a physics textbook. What worries me is that it might not be your decision. What if you make a mistake? Once you’ve tried drugs, you are no longer making the decisions that night. “You on drugs” is making the decisions. And who wants to trust “you on drugs?” Once you’re there, you don’t even get to choose whether you want to trust “you on drugs.” What if you just don’t realize the state of mind you are about to enter? What if you never wake up again? What if it were only up to your family and friends to wonder endlessly about your seemingly extreme actions and whether they were accidental or intentional?
Well nothing then! You’re dead and there’s nothing you can do about it. So what do you say we sit down and do something about it right now? Or maybe after you hit that bowl, if that’s what you were planning on doing before you started reading this. I had to throw that in, things were getting too serious. If you refer back to my title, “How To Have Fun And Not Die,” you can see that it sharply captures the gist of this book. I’m writing this to try to ensure that you get the opportunity to consciously choose whether to have fun, die, or to take part in one of the million different experiences that can also occur. Bottom line, we don’t want one of these things happening by accident.

Kids Spinning - end of spring break 2010 in NYC.

2010-04-15T09:48:00.003-04:00

Notes from my last day of 12 day writing break, in which I drank too much alcohol, smoked the right amount of Hash (which i hadn't smoked in years) and developed allergies... Ups and Downs.

At 11 am i make my familiar walk west, first on East 2nd street, then on bleecker after a brief detour on bowery. I get my free cup of tea at the Yippie Cafe and speak to Dana Beal, who tells me the cops say they are actually going to arrest us at this year's marijuana march on May 1. I tell him we should video tape it in effort to stop them, and even if it doesn't, it would be entertaining to have the entire episode on tape.

The scene in Washington Square Park extends my vacation. I thought for just a few hours, but it turned into 48.

Half naked NYU students are strewn over every patch of grass. I realize it's 80 degrees and sunny. I pickup an Italian Special Sub from Faicco's deli (a must try) and lay out all day, playing frisbee with kids and reading on and off, instead of going to the hudson library in the west village, one of my favorites. Right around the time I think i've had enough, some high school friends email that we're meeting up at Frying Pan right after "work." I go into a house on Cornelia street to which i have the keys, take a shower, and air-dry on the roof. the Frying Pan is a bar that is literally on a barge in the Hudson River on 26th street off of 12th avenue. The place is huge: sun deck, ping pong, foos ball, a stage, a hundred tables. They serve seafood, buckets of beer, and lots more... one of the best summer time hangouts in the city.

After making a scene in the river and the west village Citeralla, we BBQ on the roof deck back at Cornelia, this turns into late night beirut and I don't know what...

More drinks from there at a late night meeting with my graffiti artist, whose work you've seen on the this website. He's been working on a new logo for t-shirts, but is more likely to give up than accomplish this task. He has a slightly drug-induced attention problems.

Just a few blocks up from there is my good friend and writer who has great bed and DVD collection.

Men who stare at Goats - 2 stars

Law Abiding Citizen - 3 stars

It's now light out again... and I'm mailing books from Post Office on 52nd street and 8th avenue in Manhattan. As i wait in line, I watch as a kid spends minutes in a row spinning in circles. He spins, starts to laugh, falls down, and repeats. His mother yells at him every time he hits the ground. I smile. It's more entertaining than either of the aformentioned films that i watched the night before with the writer of the "Ecstasy" story in the "Drug Stories" chapter of HTHFAND. "Natural Highs" are referenced in many drug books that I read. Spinning is one of the easiest to perform. Far safer than the same seven-year-olds who are choking each other to feel a rush. That activity too often results in death.

An hour later, in the subway station on Fulton and Nassau streets, two teenagers makeout from either side of a turnstile. The crowd passing by them is half nauseated, half adoring...

Andaz Hotel on Water Street and Wall Street: concept of this hotel is that it feels like home. in the lobby bar, everyone leans on what look like personal kitchen counters. and the waitress serves you drinks and appetizers at your counter. I try a Sazerac whiskey drink for first time. It's good, but hard.

A girl i've known for 2 and half years and I take out first bus ride together uptown... I almost annoyingly point out when i'm experiencing a "first." Girls sometimes find this romantic. We make out on the bus amidst the bag-ladies. Doyers street in Chinatown catches my eye - a street with one low-key bar this girl had promised to take me to. We jump off bus inbetween stops and run into the alley.

You know those awesome bars you here about that are so cool they don't even need a sign? Not even a label on the door. Yet they're classy enough that they don't turn into a speakeasy of sorts... this is one of them. People refer to it as "Apotheke." Doyers is one of the smallest and dirtiest streets in the city... inside is an incredibly chill lounge scene with live music that goes back to the 1920's... and in early evenings when bartenders are available, they make those mixed drinks you've never heard of that remind you that alcoholic mixes can actually taste good. I had the "Hemingway Special" a rum based drink with mint-delicious, etc... well, maybe i had three of them...

We drunkenly ate Dimsum at Joe's Shanghai on Pell street around the corner... while i had a phone mtg with my lawyer in charge of criminal research projects. We discuss film and upcoming business.

On east broadway at 11:22 pm people poor out of the OTB. we take cab home and i sleep wonderfully... wake up to continue writing the sequel of HTHFAND, tentatively titled, "Stayin' Alive: U.S. Drug Tour 2009."

Drug Tour...

2009-09-26T21:08:00.003-04:00

How to Have Fun and Not Die: Route 36 in La Paz, Bolivia

2009-08-22T03:06:00.000-04:00

How to Have Fun and Not Die: Route 36 in La Paz, Bolivia

Route 36 in La Paz, Bolivia

2009-08-21T15:26:00.002-04:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/19/bolivia-cocaine-bar-route-36

- a good article on what is on some vague level of legitimacy, "the world's first cocaine bar." Touches on issues of addiction, cutting agents, social vs. legal climates and of course, the appropriately, never-ending questions of our failed drug war.

Oxycontin

2009-05-05T20:26:00.001-04:00

OXYCONTIN

Oxycontin doesn’t seem that bad. When I first started doing it, at 16, no one really knew much about it. It was just a pill, and it didn’t carry the negative connotation that came with crack or heroin. That’s why it is so easy to get caught up in it – you didn’t feel like you were doing anything wrong. Because it came in pill form, produced by a company, it couldn’t be like doing heroin, which we all grew up knowing was the worst thing you could do. I found out later, you could use oxy and heroin interchangeably. It didn’t matter which one you did because they felt exactly the same.The stories you hear aren’t true. You don’t become addicted the first time you try. You don’t wake up the day after the first time craving for it. It’s a slow, gradual process, which is worse because you don’t realize what the fuck is happening to you. For a while, you just do it when it’s around. Then you start asking friends for it when the topic is brought up. And then you start actively seeking it out. The time frame all depends on the person; mine took several years. Before you know it, you go from buying pills from a friend to driving 2 hours one-way to some city, buying them off a guy on the corner. Stuff you never could imagine yourself doing when you were younger.The worst part about the drug, no matter how horrible it makes you feel, no matter how much money you wasted on it, no matter how much family you let down by doing it, it keeps drawing you back in. It’s hard to describe the pain of withdrawal. I’ve never really been able to talk about it. I’ve felt the vomiting uncontrollably, the shakes, and still I wouldn’t be able to tell you truthfully that I will never do it again. That is the worst part about it, it never leaves you. You remember how good you felt when doing it and somehow that makes you forget about the bad.You know when you’re buying something from a store, first you stop and think if you really need it, then you think about the price. Not with a drug like this. There is nothing stopping you from spending every cent you ever had. Nothing will stop you from getting it. You wouldn’t go into a hotel room you knew the cops were watching unless you needed the drug. Your rationale and morality are all gone. You become a different horrible person you never imagined being. I had a few friends go to jail – normal, average kids you wouldn’t imagine going to jail. One went for 8 months. One day after he got out he was arrested after breaking into his next-door neighbors house. You would think he would have gotten over it after 8 months; but no, it was the first thing he was looking for when he got out. I got out better than most. But even after all this time, the nightmares still come. I don’t know how long they’ll last or if they’ll ever end. They are reminders of the utter torture I put on myself. But like I said, I don’t know if I could turn it down if it was put in front of my face. And that’s why there is no getting out once you start.

Angelo

2009-05-05T20:13:00.002-04:00

"If I had any coke, I wouldn't have any coke."
- Angelo

Beer

2009-05-05T20:09:00.000-04:00

BEER
“It’s all fun and games until somebody drinks 73 beers.” – Hopscotch
(Dress Battle)

This was one of the most intense drinking experiences of my life. I drank 73 nine-ounce cups of beer in 2 hours and 13 minutes. That is equivalent to 56 cans of beer. That’s an average of around 25 beers an hour. This is one of the more ridiculous drinking games you’ll find at a frat house. 2 people sit on opposite sides of a table. Each person has a counter and a pourer. You line up 9oz. cups filled to the top with beer in front of each person. Some one says, “go” and it begins. It is a race. The first person to be ahead by 6 full cups wins. So there is no finish line. It goes on as long as it has to. At first you chug 6 beers, but then you see that your opponent has also chugged about 6 and you think, what the fuck was the point of that. It’s all strategy and heart.
Anyway, had to put on extra layers of clothing after the first 20 minutes because my body temperature was dropping because of the beer intake. I began to shake involuntarily. I vomited literally over 35 times. No half ass spitting. My pourer made sure that my mouth was empty before I vomited, as to confirm that I wasn’t cheating. After about the 30th beer, I was vomiting after almost every cup. I had never experienced such pain in my throat. It felt like metal scraps ripping up my insides. I was weeping, on my hands and knees, holding on to the table with one hand and my cup with the other. I think the only reason I was able to continue is because I was already so drunk.
I pulled most of the muscles in my stomach and chest as a result of the severe vomiting. Was unable to take a shit for a week, I think due to the fact that there were no fluids left in my body. It hurt too even try to go to the bathroom. In the end I was throwing up hard brown chunks, which I only hoped were not actual parts of my stomach. Passed out at the end in my own urine and vomit for about 16 hours. Probably should have died. My friends, who it was often left up to, decided not to bring me to the hospital. Hey, I was fine in the end, so I guess it wasn’t the worst decision. However, that’s a bit one sided. Meaning that if I had died, I wouldn’t be here to bitch that they hadn’t taken me to the hospital. Every time they don’t take me and I live, it automatically seems like the right decision. You see how that’s just stupid thinking, yes? Be wary of one-sided arguments in general.
Point is, I won. 73 to 67! It’s called a dress battle because the loser of this race has to wear a dress at all times, until he wins a dress battle against someone else. The hippy, Sunshine, who had challenged me to the dress battle, had dropped out of school. So he just had to wear a dress, standing at the main intersection of campus for a few hours. This was outside the campus bookstore. Because he didn’t have to go to class, Sunshine was also forced to wear a poster board sign around his neck that read, “I STEAL BOOKS.” This was almost funny enough to make the drinking worth it. And yes, we did steal the idea of the sign from Larry David’s, Curb Your Enthusiasm.
It’s hard to explain, but in the midst of that race I don’t think I really cared about dying. It had previously crossed my mind that this game could be exceptionally dangerous due to the combination of there being no real finish line and my general determination in drinking games. I didn’t want to play before we started. That was peer pressure for the most part. I also wanted to put my challenger in his place. Although, that might fall under “peer pressure” as well. I didn’t want to play because I knew that I wouldn’t give up and I didn’t know what not giving up might entail. Once I started I only cared about winning, no matter what the cost. And I knew that would be the case. Like so many others who do ridiculously stupid things, I have no solid explanation for the logic behind my actions. All I have are a few photos of the event and my counter’s sheet on my wall that reads my cups one at a time and says winner at the top.
I waited a week to try alcohol again. I slowly sipped a Jack on the rocks. I gradually got back to enjoying it. But I know for a fact that the Dress Battle put an end to a certain stage of my drinking career. I never go as hard or as often as I did before that day. And I’m pretty sure it cut at least a few months off my life.

Meth

2009-05-05T19:58:00.001-04:00

METH
For years, I never, ever thought that the trajectory of my life would bring me anywhere near Methamphetamines. I was a casual marijuana smoker for many years, and often dabbled in slightly harder drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy, acid and mushrooms. But, these drugs always struck me as acceptable drugs. They were substances that one on a certain side of the socio-economic divide could do without producing too much guilt and could even produce a kind of honor; to have said, yes, I have been there. A badge of honor? Not so sure about that, but definitely a boundary. It was experimentation and for the most part, coke, x, LSD, and ‘shrooms, are expensive drugs that I had the opportunity to recreationally use.
Nevertheless, what follows is a detailed description of my one experience with methamphetamines. Meth, as it is commonly known, is a very strong, long lasting drug. It is similar to cocaine in effect and symptom. In fact, without knowing or caring about the chemical effects of methamphetamines, I can say that the two drugs, those are cocaine and methamphetamines, are basically the same drug.
Upon ingesting meth through the nasal passage, one notices a sour chemical taste in the mouth and a thick “drip” as it is known begins to cascade down the esophagus. The effects are instantaneous, seemingly even faster than coke, if possible. One’s visual sense is immediately impaired. The air around one literally crackles as if the user can now detect minute traces of electricity in the air. This is one of the most fascinating aspects of the meth experience. This electric air, this charged atmosphere that one senses, is particularly acute.
Visual hallucinations, of a moderate degree, are also prevalent. One’s sense of color, shape and depth is quickly distorted so that there is a movement or rhythm to basically the entire visual environment; everything from room interiors to the streets outside is now tinged with the drug. Coupled with the electrical current mentioned above that the user has now tapped into, the two affects can be quite disorienting as well as immensely pleasurable. If one is emotionally prepared to become hostage to a powerful drug, then the effects can be harnessed and enjoyed. To physically move around is akin to swimming in a warm pool. Every movement of the limbs is soft and graceful at first, but quickly degenerates into a jerky nervousness. This is also similar to the cocaine experience when the initial euphoria begins to lessen and gives way to a more manic existence. Like with any drug though, including alcohol, if one’s mental state is in disorder prior to ingestion, the probability and likelihood of a negative and even harmful experience increases dramatically.
Physically, one’s extremities begin to tingle with a nervous or manic energy. The user begins to feel quite able bodied, strong, loose-limbed etc…One can run with ease and for extended periods of time, can drink alcohol or smoke pot, to little or no effect, and mentally can concentrate quite intensely on internal or external minutiae. But again, after the initial burst, a jerkiness soon begins to take hold that then radiates throughout the duration of the experience.
The major difference between meth and coke then becomes their duration. When the meth experience is fully underway, one understands that the drug they have ingested is much more powerful than cocaine. Unlike cocaine, which is mostly a heady mental experience, methamphetamines affect the body much more powerfully than does coke. The entire body quivers as the drug takes hold and refuses to let the user go for many hours. This high degree of effect remains for several hours, refusing to wane in strength, or “the drugs grip on you” for at least four to five hours after ingestion.
Unfortunately, here is where all the positive aspects of a meth experience end, because after the initial hours, which can be quite enjoyable, a more sinister side of the drug begins to emerge. The picture of meth in the wider culture is not altogether incomplete or inaccurate. In fact, the last hours of a meth experience are very much similar to the horror stories one routinely hears about in the press. Desperation and nervousness settle in and refuse to abate. One begins to think about scoring more drugs to return to the initial state of pleasure. This feeling is so acute because the difference between the two extremes in the time immediately after ingestion and the period several hours later is so immense. When one begins to settle into the last vestiges of the experience, the feeling is so terrible and empty compared to the feelings of pleasure and invincibility one had grown so accustomed to just a few short hours (though seemingly minutes) ago. It is here that we have users needing to score more. And unlike cocaine, where a user wants to score more just to feel great again, a meth user wants to score more just so that he feels less miserable. In essence, meth is like coke on overdrive. It usually takes a concerted effort to become a cocaine addict, many months and many thousands of dollars. But meth is addictive in 8 short hours.
If one is lucky enough NOT to score more methamphetamines, the last four or five hours of a meth experience will be extremely unpleasant. Sweating, nervousness, paranoia, downright nastiness, and even violence are some reactions that I have observed in my experiences. Depression and intense mental strain from varied swings of a meth experience also begin to take hold. The most one can hope for at this stage is to quietly and quickly move passed the drug and be free of it. I am convinced that the worst aspect of the meth experience is how quickly the drug turns on you. We hear horror stories of acid trips that turn violent and disturbing in short time, and obviously, heroin and other of the hardest drugs can kill one in no time flat, but for a medium to hard drug that probably will not kill you, meth has a truly terrible turnaround basically built into the drug. Meth addicts are notorious for taking the drug and then staying on the drug for hours, days, even weeks. To come into contact with a person (or more disturbingly, a couple) that has been on a meth binge is one of the more absurd things one can ever witness. Their skin is yellow and gray, they are almost constantly perspiring, as if their very pores were punishing their own skin for the assault, and of course, the manic and downright idiotic behaviors of a meth user are all fantastic (in the negative sense) to witness. I have seen my share and I can say without qualification that it is one of the reasons I limited my meth experiences to one.
As the final phase of the meth experience settles in, one begins to literally feel the drug’s grip lessen and ease, but for some reason, one feels very little relief. This is odd, because it is clear that the drugs “come-down” is so very unpleasant that one imagines that anything that signals the end of the experience would be very much welcomed. This was not so with my meth experience, and I attribute it to the sheer audacity of the drug’s effect. One is so disappointed by the decision to experience methamptamines, knowing full well the drug’s nature and reputation, that the knowledge that the experience will soon end brings little to no relief.
One of the most banal effects of a meth experience is also very telling. When the meth has finally worn off, usually after a fitful night’s sleep, the user notices that one’s skin has broken out with acne. But this is not ordinary acne, this is “meth acne.” Literally, this is whiteheads of acne that when popped ooze not the traditional whitehead but a yellow-tinged gelatin-like liquid. The smell of the liquid is terrible and basically the same smell as the methamphetamines one ingested just sixteen or eighteen hours previously.

Bill Maher

2008-11-18T02:00:00.001-05:00

"If you're gonna burn something and you're gonna inhale it, you may as well be getting high."
- Bill Maher in the show, Real Time.

Ben Franklin

2008-11-04T02:15:00.001-05:00

"In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria."
- Ben Franklin

www.housingworks.org

2008-10-23T13:32:00.001-04:00

they have locations for safe drug administration and provide free help to those in need. it's a good organization to know about.

Bipolar Disorder & Recreational Drugs

2008-10-13T07:18:00.002-04:00

If you're Bi-polar avoid eating LSD or Mushrooms. It may be the wildest roller coaster of your life. MDMA Is alright aslong as you take vitamins that promote positive mood before you go to sleep.
- H. Rotker

mushrooms & cold medicine

2008-10-13T07:03:00.001-04:00

wat up druggies,here is my great drug experience. it was an unplanned mixture of two types of drugs. fan-fucking-tastic and harmless. i awoke in amsterdam, feeling a little sick and decided to take two sudafed. my crew and i decided to eat mushrooms and go to the van gogh museum. the players were me, my best friend since i was 15 (nate), a friend of his (fredo), and that dudes girlfriend (BOL=bitch on legs).we purchased one dose to split among the four of us. five complete, juicy, moist caps and stems. we tried to get some tea made but no one would do it for us. so we decided to eat them. we slowly walked over to van gogh and stared at some pictures for a while. the cold medicine had already kicked in. i was feeling drowsy and light headed. but anytime i stepped in front of a painting the scene would jump to life. waves around a boat would crash everywhere. trees and flowers were dancing. but everytime i stepped away from a painting the cold medicine would kick back in. i felt in total control of my trip; like i could turn it on and off at will. the museum was starting to get crowded and BOL started to bug out with all the people. (karma)nate took her outside to get fresh air and calm her down. fredo and i didn't want to leave yet but decided to take a break. a good 30 min passed in deep conversation about shapes and architecture. we spent another bit of time in front of our favorite paintings. i have never appreciated art so much. during this time, i decided that van gogh was painting specifically for people who are tripping to enjoy. i later learned that he was in fact tripping himself when he painted most of those paintings. the crowd didn't bother me because i still felt that i could control my trip.we left the museum and naturally BOL screamed at her boyfriend for not coming outside with her. we started to chill outside the rijks museum and i just couldnt take her shit. so i wandered over to a playground. there was a english man and his two sons playing catch. i asked if i could join up. the shrooms had kicked in full bore, and i felt like a kid again. we started throwin the ball, playing on our bikes, and then a make believe game of medieval knights and dragons. i of course was the dragon.i made my way back to the crew and BOL had calmed down a bit. she wanted to head inside and we found a pub to have a beer. we met an irish couple and i amazed them with my knowledge of english soccer. there was a game on and the green grass in high def looked amazing. it looked to me like they were playing on a table and that it fell off on all sides. im not really sure what happened after thet but it was the best trip i ever had. the combo of mushrooms and sudafed was unexpectedly perfect. i recommend it to everyone. just don't eat too many caps. especially if you don't feel anything. be patientall names were changed to protect the innocent (including mine)
- jenna jameson

Cheap College Beer

2008-10-13T06:47:00.001-04:00

we will be taking a survey on what the favorite college beer is. whichever is most popular will be the beer served at the first ever No Death Drug Network Beirut Tournament....thank you.
-JM

Fentanyl

2008-10-13T06:40:00.001-04:00

You definitely want to TAKE THE FENTANYL PATCH OFF before you go to sleep if it's making you feel like you can't stay awake. And if you're beginning the lose the ability to focus your eyes even at close range from painkillers alone... probably a bad thing, you've probably overdone it just a touch.
- Luke Riley

psychedelics & alcohol

2008-10-13T06:16:00.001-04:00

I was at a party this weekend at which I got a little too drunk for the venue (such that I almost got thrown out or worse, if I hadn't left of my own will). But about an hour into the party, already drunk, I took about 5g of the Amanitas Mushroom. I got very sick that night, vomiting frequently. Whether it was the mushrooms or the alcohol, I don't know, but when I explained the situation to a friend the next morning, he was appalled. I said I had done shrooms (for the sake of simplification, I didn't specifiy what type) and consumed alcohol. The friend said there was a high chance of my dying or ending up in an ER that night. I was just wondering if A) What I had done was really that dangerous andB) If I had done that same combination, but with psilocybin mushrooms, if the risk would be that great.
Thanks,
nick

patrol cops

2008-10-13T05:58:00.001-04:00

apparently there are cops on bicycles patrolling the train tracks between the west side highway and the hudson river near the GWB in Manhattan...thought certain people might find this info useful...
-JM

"No PC, god damn right..." - Benicio del Toro, Usual Suspects

2008-10-13T05:48:00.001-04:00

Great short story that ties in with the "not letting cops do shit they dont have a right to do" issue from the crime & punishment chapter in the book.about a week ago im walking for 3 blocks from one bar to the next in the east village. for the first time in a while, i'm holding about 2 grams of blow on my person, which is another rule i only broke because my coke-freak friend Rob insisted that we save it for the next bar. so im walking down this dark, quiet side street with David and Scott. Scott is also holding stuff. I first notice an unmarked van steadily driving behind us when i look back to respond to David, who is attempting to convince me to break out my blow for a bump... i laugh and tell him we'll be at the bar in two minutes.. my hand is in my jacket pocket holding my stuff. despite david's comments, i keep my hand in my pocket. the van now slows down even more about 10 feet behind us. keep in mind, im about 8 drinks deep at this point. we had been watching the NBA playoffs for a while at the last bar. i say to david and scott, "dude, shut the fuk up, thats a freakin narc right there." they laugh and tell me to shut up.. i make eye contact with the driver and shout, "Excuse me? no thank you! we're not buying your shit!!" essentially trying to tell them to get the fuck away from us, whether they were cops or not. one could already tell it was amatuer night and these potential cops were rookies at best. these two thugged out 20-something year old spanish girls jump out of the van in unison... as they speedwalk towards me and break out their badge necklaces, the driver shouts, "whats in your pocket, right now?!" the last thing i planned on doing that night, short of getting shot, was getting arrested for coke posession...Scott immediately heads in the opposite direction and into the shadows... but they arent moving for him... i say, "im sorry, what the fuk are you doing! why are you approaching us?" they dont answer. one is already holding out handcuffs and the other has a hand on her gun.. "show us what in your pocket!" the driver shouts again. "where'd you get those necklaces, a toy store?" i continued, "i swear to god, you fuking touch me and i'll call the real police." the driver grabs my wrist. i turn to my friend david in disbelief, "are you gonna let them grab me like this?". David was at a loss for words, though i think less stressed since he actually wasnt holding anything.... i rip my arm out from her grip as the other is looking to cuff me and i briskly start to walk away towards the avenue, sternly saying, "stay the fuck away from me." i only glance back as i turn the corner to see that david is allowing these people to search him... i continue to walk. i think to run, but i always picture that when one is running, it provokes the aggressor to come and tackle the runner's face into the concrete. i turn the corner and slide into the first bar i see. i go down the stairs and sit in the bathroom for about two minutes, hiding my stuff along the way... of course, i was right... they did prove to be narcs when they followed thru with scanning david's I.D. in the van. point is... WHY DID THEY NOT FOLLOW ME AROUND THE CORNER? THE ANSWER IN MY AMATEUR OPINION... they didnt have any probable cause to be searching us in the first place.. i just had to make enough of a fus to make it not worth it for them... too many people dont know their rights and get busted because they let a nosy cop do something that wasnt necessary... anyway, i love the story because of the close call and also the fact that i called out those fools for being narcs when my friends didnt believe me...- any possible opinions on this from lawyers, cops, or convicts would be appreciated..thanks.
-J.M.

West Side Pistol & Rifle Range, Manhattan

2008-10-13T05:39:00.002-04:00

The bizarre suicide of Patrick Karorero happened June 3, 2008 inside the West Side Pistol Range on West 20th Street, which caters to Wall Street types, law-enforcement officials and shooting hobbyists. It's where Robert De Niro, playing cabby Travis Bickle in the 1976 movie "Taxi Driver," was filmed staring down a barrel of a gun.This is neither a celeb nor an overdose, but it hits close to home. it's the place where i go shooting and the kid shot himself in the head with a rifle... pretty ridiculous ... anyway, if you've read the book, you know this chapter explores interesting suicides as well...
-eddie

Birth Control

2008-10-13T05:04:00.001-04:00

I've never been one to have health problems. In fact, I was always the healthy one in my family. No allergies, no history of significant illness; I'd never even been to a hospital before. That's why when I suffered a stroke on February 15, 2004 it both surprised and devastated me and my family. A freshman at college, I considered my life perfect. I spent every day, all day, with new friends who loved having just as much fun as I did. We began the pledging process for a sorority that I couldn't wait to join and we were constantly involved in bonding activities that allowed us to entertain our freshman fantasies of frat parties, no curfews and no-holds-barred parties. When I woke up from a nap on February 15, that all changed. It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and I was napping in my dorm room while my roommate was studying on her bed. I woke up and got out of bed to go use the communal restroom down the hall from our room. However, after a few steps I couldn't move any further. I felt as if a lightning bolt had directly struck my body. In my own confusion, I tried to tell my roommate that I couldn't feel my left arm. The words, though, came out repeating and garbled beyond comprehension. Although my arm was the most noticible numbed part of my body, I soon realized that I couldn't feel the entire left side of my body. I was still repeating that I couldn't feel my arm; it was as if someone else were saying the "words"; I had no control over them. Of course this episode felt like it went on for minutes, but in reality it was only about 30 seconds until I got my speech and feeling back. However, a pressure and a tingling in my left arm remained radiating from my shoulder to my fingertips. I sat on my bed and knew right away that something was wrong. My roommate came over and admitted that the left side of my face was sagging when I was trying to tell her about my arm. Immediately, I called my parents and told them what had happened. My dad's response was, "You probably slept on your arm wrong." After all, why would a completely healthy girl all of a sudden have something so seriously wrong with her? I knew he was wrong, so I went on the computer and googled my symptoms. The word "stroke" stared back at me from my screen. Luckily, at the same time, my rooommate was on the phone with her father - a doctor - explaining what just happened. He gave me the same conclusion my computer did - get to a hospital as soon as possible. Upon admittance, I was told that my symptoms were those of a stroke. My parents drove the two-and-a-half hours to pick me up and take me home. After a barrage of tests, it was concluded that I had a patent foramen ovale (PFO), a hole in my heart. Approximately 30% of the population is born with PFOs, which almost always go undetected unless a health problem arises from them. In my case, they determined that a blood clot had gone through the hole straight to my brain instead of getting routed through my body to dissolve, causing the stroke. Even with the PFO, I shouldn't have been getting bloodclots like that one. It was recommended that I go off my birth control, Ortho Evera, because of its risk of increased clot formation. Ortho Evera is birth control that you apply to your skin via a patch that you change weekly. It was convenient and it worked in regulating my body, something that previous birth controls had failed to do. However, it had been debated that the amount of estrogen in each patch varied much more than it did in pill form. This has caused a surge of strokes and deaths in the women who used the patch. I was more than lucky to come away from the episode without any lasting effects. Every year hundreds of thousands of people suffer strokes, many of whom die, but they're not supposed to be 21-years-old. It was a remarkable that I was not one of those statistics. However, the hole had to be closed to prevent another complication. On March 2, 2004 I underwent surgery to close the hole. I had a procedure done laparoscopically where they were able to use a catheter inserted into an artery in my thigh and snake it up to my heart to implant a device that would hold the hole closed. The surgery was successful and I was told that besides for no heavy lifting for three months, I would have no lifestyle restrictions. Even without lifestyle restrictions, the ordeal replays itself in my mind every day. My life and my family's lives stopped. I had to leave school and my new friends. I missed the end of the pledging process and many exams. Even though I could get some assignments at home, my grades suffered with my absence and my school refused to recognize the issue. My parents existed in a constant state of anxiety, perpetually wondering whether or not I would be ok. They chose to take legal action against Ortho Evera (owned by Johnson & Johnson) and participate in a class action lawsuit with families of other women who have suffered strokes and have died at the hands of the Patch. Although the case has yet to be settled, the verdict won't prevent me from fretting over every unexpected sensation in my body, nor will it ever bring back the time that passed while my life stopped.
Sincerely,
Brook Bergen

Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine

2008-09-24T17:24:00.001-04:00

"At your age you're crazy to do that shit! At my age, you're crazy not to! Are you kidding me!"

Brad Renfro (actor)

2008-09-24T16:42:00.001-04:00

died of accidental overdose on heroin.

Cocaine Cowboys

2008-09-24T16:17:00.002-04:00

good flick. on HBO right now... informative stuff.

American Drug War

2008-09-14T14:25:00.001-04:00

"American Drug War: The Last White Hope" written by Kevin Booth.

Playing right now... its on showtime. channel 223 in Manhattan.

Fun Facts: i got from this show...

- Amount of Deaths caused by different substances in the U.S. last year...
-100,000 - prescription medication.
-450,000 - tobacco products
-10,000 - cocaine and/or heroin
-150,000 - health/drinking related
-0 - marijuana

Looking at these numbers, it seems horribly ironic what is legal and what is not, don't you think?

- 50% of all prison inmates in the U.S. are non-violent drug offenders.

- and then of course it touched on the fact that the government continues to keep certain substances illegal so that consumers have to buy prescriptions.
(IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY...)

Gonzo

2008-09-14T14:23:00.001-04:00

Gonzo: the life and work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (2008) - film.

This movie was terrific and an incredible history lesson in politics, violence and drugs from the '60s to the '90s...
We saw it last night at the Angelika theatre (only location it is playing at in Manhattan)
ps.. susan sarandon and tim robbins also enjoyed the film.

pps. other books and films by/involving hunter thompson are referenced in the "suggested works" chapter of "how to have fun and not die."

The Wackness

2008-09-14T14:21:00.000-04:00

- film - the wackness, with ben kingsley

Molly

2008-09-14T14:19:00.001-04:00

Molly - only realized Molly was left out of this chapter when a friend returned from a semester in Barcelona and said he stopped doing blow by switching over to Molly... which he was told was much safer and not so similar to ecstasy... He was misinformed.

Molly - (Trifluoromethylphenyl Piperazine) - (TFMPP)
is most commonly a club drug. while it shares some of the stimulant effects as ecstasy, taken in larger doses it can produce hallucinogenic reactions.. the telling of this usually encourages more abuse, and thus the odds of accidental o.d. the drug is an off-white powder that is put into a capsule one could swallow... there is no accepted medical use for this drug. There is a high potential for abuse, according to the U.S. gov. and it is illegal.

Beer and Aspirin

2008-09-14T14:16:00.001-04:00

Beer and Aspirin can lead to stomach pains and gas. - from the film, The Last King of Scotland.

The Curious World of Drugs and Their Friends

2008-09-12T04:22:00.002-04:00

Good book, filled with lots of useful and some useless info. interesting stuff on celebrities and animals.

met with the Co-author, Adriano Sack, on the Joey Reynolds show.

The "Cheesing" South Park Episode

2008-09-11T17:38:00.005-04:00

The "Cheesing" South Park Episode - in which they trip as a result of being pissed on by Cats. Fuckng hysterical... and you learn a good lesson as always...

VIEW VIDEO CLIP