Writing's a fight and this boy needs a battle
How else can you discover a state of grace?
The Science Museum Group describes “Oblivon” as a “sedative to calm anxiety and fear”.
It was launched in 1953 by British Schering Ltd.”. Time described it as “taking the terror out of visits to the dentist”. The label advises adults to take “two capsules about 15 minutes before an ordeal”. The name “Oblivon” was a play on the word oblivion, “a state of complete forgetfulness” but “did not relieve pain”. In the UK it was only available “on prescription and was completely withdrawn in 1967”.
An answer prompted by Mike Power‘s article in Vice about the way drugs cause environmental damage, but mostly because of prohibition.
It is no surprise that illegal drug production causes environmental problems. Prohibition is an act of alienation, a policy that only makes sense when seen as justification for ever more intrusive policing strategy.
I would argue that prohibition has corrupted our relationship with drugs. Think about that for a moment. Every culture has a sacred substance, a drug that offers users a state of grace. How different is dropping a pill and dancing all night, from smoking peyote by the indigenous peoples of south America. I would say the only difference is location. When someone says they’re high, what do they mean? I’d say they’re referring to the heightened sate of being they’re experiencing. They’re seeing and feeling things at a heightened level. If you were being unkind, you’d call it escaping, otherwise you might think of it as seeking.
Prohibiting needs to be stopped because we need to reestablish a healthy, considered, relationship with drugs. One that sees drugs in context both socially and environmentally.
There’s something both very concerning and extremely funny in this story by Agence France-Presse in The Guardian.
Cocaine “in all shrimp” tells me those responsible for water purification are allowing contaminated water into the environment. I can’t imagine these cockroaches of the sea racking out lines, so there’s Charlie in the water.
There’s also a heavy dose of funny in the appalling lapse of public safety. The population of Suffolk must be partying hard to secrete that much marching powder into the water supply. I can see the internet going bonkers over the idea that people will be able to get high eating shrimp.
Daniel Boffey’s report for The Guardian exposes a couple of things. Not only are drugs being bought anonymously online, and shipped using the relative anonymity of the postal service, it also confirms what the authorities don’t want to admit, prohibition doesn’t work, never has, and most definitely never will!
“Dead Dog on the Left (2018) isn’t just a documentary about the use of ecstasy in treating PTSD, it’s a story of the lengths one former marine will go to for friendship.”
Interesting to see in Anthony Gunter’s article the argument that “serious violence is a public health issue”.
The same argument could be made against prohibition. The “war on drugs” should be seen not as a policing problem but instead framed as a public health issue. But harm reduction runs counter to the paternalistic tone that underscores the bias that blames degenerate youth.
Darrin // Nightingale 