MPPP; 1-methyl-4-phenyl-4-propionoxypiperidine, desmethylprodine Deutsch: 1-Methyl-4-phenyl-4-propion-oxy-piperidin; 3-Desmethylprodin or synthetic heroin -however one mistake in the lab and it becomes an injectable nightmare. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A nightmare of immense proportions for any opiate user watching this film. Watch the simply mindblowing film about a handful of opiate users in California in the early 1980′s who, after injecting what they thought was heroin, woke up completely frozen – in body and voice – but not mind. Locked into a prison of their own bodies, their stories confounded doctors until bit by bit they managed to unravel what had happened to them and so began the long, long road as they endeavored to cure them of their condition, despite at times creating other situations that were as bad if not worse than the original Parkinson-like condition they initially faced.
Crucially, I think it is worth mentioning that the underground chemist who was trying to manufactuer a synthetic form of heroin known as MPPP, rushed the process and came up with something called MPTP, a drug that destroyed peoples dopamine receptors, leaving them unable to produce dopamine and thus leaving them frozen in their bodies. See text below the video for link to information on MPTP and MPPP. This is yet another byproduct of prohibition, where the law allows underground labs to flourish and horrendous mistakes like this to occur. This is not to say mistakes don’t occur in big pharma although in general, research techniques ensure such enormous problems are found before such drugs find their way to market. You can also follow up the stories of these amazing individuals whom our hearts go out to, on google etc.
NOTE on MPPP and MTPT: While MPTP itself has no psychoactive effects, the compound may be accidentally produced during the manufacture ofMPPP, a synthetic opioid drug with effects similar to those of morphine and pethidine (meperidine). The Parkinson-inducing effects of MPTP were first discovered following accidental ingestion as a result of contaminated MPPP. For more info on MPTP and MPPP, click here.
This is another terrific Exchange Supplies production -a straight up talk from a wonderful woman called Magdalena Harris. Mags, a Kiwi now living in London talks straight to camera about her life as a committed career drug user and her journey telling how she managed to pull all her experiences together and marry up her knowledge of drugs with academia. A really empowering story, Mags eloquently and succinctly takes us through her life as a street drug user – New Zealand style -with all its pharmacological nuances, to treatment and methadone which left her even more despairing as she battled the punitive ‘clinic system’. Make no mistake, this is no self pity story. This is upfront and in your face -but more than that it is extremely perceptive and Mags is able to tell us just how valuable those years of using were to the work she does today.Many will empathise with her battle with hepatitis C and her dilemma over ‘to treat or not to treat’ – and at each turn of the story you will find something you can take from it to empower, inspire, laugh or get angry. For just 15 minutes, its well worth a look readers. Nice one Mags, thanks for being so honest but more than that even, thanks for the inspiration. And thanks to Exchange Supplies for bringing us another goodie! we love you guys!
Thomas de Quincey, after the publication of his book ‘Confessions of an English Opium Eater’ in 1821 emerged as, it is said, as the first modern drug taker of our times, but was he really? In an era when opium was consumed for everything from the mildest cough to childbirth was De Quincey’s literary confession of opium more about historical timing and familiar titillation of the middle classes, rather than any expose of a new or intrepid drug enthusiast?
De Quincey loudly declared himself the ‘only member’ of ‘the true church on the subject of opium’ and, as if to embrace the challenge, insisted that The English Opium Eater, was not the same as any other opium pursuant, but rather was of a superior type: ‘I question whether any Turk, of all that ever entered the Paradise of opium-eaters, can have had half the pleasure I had’.
Drug historian Mike Jay, in his excellent article on the subject called ‘The Pope of Opium‘ adds “Although De Quincey did eat his dose on occasions, sometimes carrying a snuff-box of small opium pills, he typically (like most English people) drank it; Interestingly Jay surmises “by identifying himself as an opium-eater, he was entwining something like our modern sense of ‘recreational user’ with the sneer of a cultural outlaw, appropriating a foreign habit and deliberately courting the reader’s disapproval, even disgust“.
A friend directed me to Mike Jays piece on De Quincey’s Confessions and I found it so interesting I had to relay it here -and just for an extra buzz I have added a few bits from the classic movie ‘ Confessions of an English Opium Eater’ with Vincent Price, sure to give you a smile.
Mike Jay tells us that De Quincey now survives as the first modern drug enthusiast, through “not so much breaking a taboo as deliberately creating one by recasting a familiar practice as transgressive and culturally threatening. It was a Byronic double game: baiting the moralists and middlebrow public opinion while delighting the elite with the invention of a new vice”.
De Quincey knew he was “in the crowd but not of it”, and appealing mix of “both aristocrat and outcast” he engineered his following reflecting his own youthful and perhaps voyeuristic fascination with Coleridge and Wordsworth, falling in with the cult of the first celebrity, and perhaps defining our first ‘cool celebrity drug user’.
Jay continues in conclusion to point out that De Quincey’s entire identity was existing through his Confession’s creation, which allowed him to indulge his vice till he died at a ripe age, and to continue to play out romantic dramatisations of the confessional throughout his long and pained existence, ultimately however, to find himself losing the spark of literary vision from the weight of such soporific dependence.
Yet Jay reminds us we should not forget that Quincey’s “harrowing portrait of the labyrinth of addiction, far in advance of the medical understanding of the day, remains unsurpassed.”
“He was, in modern parlance, a high-functioning addict: the drug enabled him to cope with the self-inflicted stresses of debt, illness and overwork, to persist in a hand-to-mouth existence, to play the victim and indulge an endless drama of persecution. His identity as the Opium Eater served as both cause and excuse for his miserable state. On the rare occasions he had money, he stopped writing and lived the life of leisure he believed to be his birthright; it was his expenditure on opium that forced him back to work, along with his need for fame. The life of the Opium Eater was a living death, but it was also immortality.”
For the entire article, well worth reading, click here. But here is a sample in brief;
Mike Jay’s discussion on De Quincey as the first real drug enthusiast, begins with an introduction to the classic film, Confessions of an Opium-Eater…
There is a little-known film entitled Confessions of an Opium-Eater, shot on a shoestring by Albert Zugsmith in 1962 and starring Vincent Price, an attempt to cash in on and extend his successful series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations. It opens with vaseline-fogged images of a Chinese junk and a delirious Price voice-over (‘I am De Quincey…I dream…and I create dreams…out of my opium pipe…’) before clarifying that his character is in fact Gilbert De Quincey, a presumed descendent who wanders the seas as a captain-for-hire searching for ‘…well, what every man searches for’. In the Chinatown of late nineteenth-century San Francisco he is drawn into an intrigue between Tong factions that cues a breathless farrago of opium dens, secret passages, caged Oriental women, masked thugs, rooftop chases and hatchet fights: a two-fisted De Quincey against the Yellow Peril.
Beyond the passing observation that Thomas De Quincey would have applauded its racial politics, the film demonstrates two points very clearly. The first is the remarkable persistence of De Quincey the Opium-Eater as the archetype of the modern drugtaker, recognisable enough even to hook teenage audiences in the drive-ins of the southern States (Poe might have been on their school syllabus, but De Quincey surely not). The second is that this recognition depends on no element of either his life or his work beyond his name and the title of his most celebrated book.
For the rest of Mike Jays excellent article on De Quincey, click here.
Here is a terrific trailer of the original film, which will lead you to the entire film as seen on You Tube grouped in about 10 parts. Brilliant stuff.
Oh Jeez, ok here is part 1 an’ all, which gives you a direct link at the end on You Tube to the other 9. Take a chill pill and watch good ol’ Vincent Price at his finest.
A must see and keep! A freakin classic! Written by Jack Nicholson, with Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. You have got to check this out, or even better, join in and partake of the fine stuff, whilst watching. Totally cool. Nice one el-Jacko!
Story: Peter Fonda decides to take a tab of acid under the supervision on a very young Bruce Dern, who says all the right things and prepares him nicely and then the film progresses throughout Peter’s whole trip delivering some excellent visuals and moments that only happen when trippin. He asks a lot of short questions, like ‘how did that happen?’ ….’ I dont know’…or ‘Where am I?’ …’Here man!’ as the answers that just hang in the air! Classic! I dont know the background to this film, but i wouldn’t be surprised if they were tripping in some parts of it..If anyone knows any more about it, we’d love to know. It really is an absolute classic and must see.
MDMA for psychotherapy? Listen to the latest views
An excellent video which captures, for the first time in the UK, a conference convened on MDMA looking at the research and the debate around it being used as a drug for psychotherapy etc. This hour long video brings together some really knowledgeable speakers who each present for 5-10 minutes, and cover a lot of interesting info about the various studies undertaken with MDMA so far. There are various aspects of the debate highlighted here by the different speakers, a specific overriding issue for concern however is about how the risks of MDMA have been overplayed -indeed much of it is plain incorrect. Until recently, there was only 1 paper on the therapeutic benefits of MDMA and thousands about the risks. Yet all of these papers have assessed risks in terms of whether MDMA was safe to use in a theraputic setting, based on research taken from street ecstasy used in a club setting, which they claim (and i agree also!) is vastly different to pharmaceutical MDMA used in a theraputic settings. For years researchers were unable to get funding for therapeutic based research of MDMA as it was consistently thwarted by the previous realms of more negative research on ecstasy which looked exclusively at street or black-market ecstasy (which may not have MDMA in it at all!), in hot, crowded athletic club settings -a million miles away from sterile MDMA in therapeutic settings. Rick Doblin took this even further and said he was deeply concerned about the egotism and careerism involved in much research publications etc, the sheer determinism to be published (and not challenged) all at the cost of the truth, another nail in the coffin of rational truthful drug research..Well worth listening to some of the worlds foremost researchers on MDMA, who happily seem to have also used it! Now thats the kind of researcher we like! Respect! thankks to MAPS for this (see more of their fascinating stuff -link on right hand side).
This is a video of the global protest that was held on World AIDS day 2011, in around 12 cities around the world, led by the drug using community and INPUD, the International Network of People who Use Drugs -protesting against to the Russian government’s shameful inaction regarding the drugs and HIV catastrophe unfolding in the region.
Blotting paper tabs of psychedelics (God, where do you get those these days??!)
A really interesting presentation on the untapped possibilities of using the misuse of drugs act 1971., focussing on the story of Casey Cardison, arrested for the production of psychedelic drugs in his home laboratory. In court, Casey stood up for ‘cognative liberty’ the right to alter ones mental functioning as one see fit – and tried to to hang a human rights based argument on this, based around Article 9 of the Human rights act which protects freedom of thought. Although the Judge would refuse to allow him to mount this type of defense, Casey proceeded to focus on what it means to be truely free in our society. And Although Casey received 20 years, he pursued his right to appeal framing a really interesting defence. However, his appeal was denied but he continued to delve then into the Misuse of Drugs Act’s ‘incorrect interpretation’ to fight for further justice.. Charlotte Walsh goes on to state that the home secretary‘s role continually misinterprets the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. She asks ‘Does the act Mandate prohibition? Or is the home secretary confusing control with prohibition? She believes so, citing the recent reclassifications of the harms drugs cause ( a paper in the Lancet by Professor Nutt and colleagues) which put alcohol and tobacco at the top of the list of harms caused by drugs used in society today..In this case, Alcohol and tobacco could be brought under the control of the misuse of drugs act, indeed it is within its jurisdiction. If so, Charlotte tells us that the Misuse of Drugs Act could act to regulate and control these substances, giving us real hope that regulation of less harmful drugs (as Professor Nutts reclassification states) is the next obvious move, and could be made possible by joining together to call for the correct interpretation of the Act -(in particular section 7, 22 and 31)which in effect allows the public to get an accurate idea of the harms caused by drugs, alcohol and tobacco whilst allowing for their continued use. If alcohol and tobacco were brought under the acts and subsequently ‘regulated’ then it would pave the way for other, less harmful drugs to be regulated also. A fascinating discussion and legal argument on the need for a closer look into what we have got as part of our legal system that could create adequate reform rather than wasting additional energy reinventing, or indeed hoping society will accept, a new regulatory system. Well worth a watch!
Many of us have been listening with trepidation as our favourite pot smoking friends on the continent -the Dutch – the ones who gave us sanctuary in the form of a safe place to buy dope when abroad, and a friendly environment to smoke it in, without the fear of getting busted, deported, imprisoned or ripped off are now slowly being forced to close their doors to us. Yes, that’s right- the foreigners who have appreciated being able to sample a well produced product, toked, eaten or vapourised in a chilled out, social environment – have always been grateful for the civilised and pragmatic way the Dutch have shared with us their wares. A welcome relief from the persecution and harassment many of us experience at home around ‘soft’ (and ‘hard’) drug use.
It never ceased to amaze me when visiting Holland that it was always the milder varieties of dope that were the biggest sellers to the Dutch people, they just didnt feel like they had to get smashed at every opportunity. They knew where the dope was, it wasn’t going anywhere, they could get the stronger stuff any time they wanted it in fact, which it turned out, was not that often.
A giggly smoke, some great conversation, a serious munch out on the way home and voila, gone is the image we have in the UK of smoking skunk that always too strong, sitting catatonic in front of the TV, curtains drawn, paranoia setting in indoors coz its illegal to go outside and just be social with a spliff…
However, due to surrounding countries still not budging with their own punitive cannabis laws, it is inevitable that many of us in neighbouring countries – or as far afield as Australia and the US, feel compelled at times to skippity hop across the border to stock up on some of the good stuff, in a relaxed and hassle free exchange. But those who’ve been keeping an eye on the Dutch developments around both the shrinking the availability of Coffee Shops, as well as the drive to freeze out the pot smoking foreigner, will know that the first door, in the first city of Maastricht, has been firmly slammed shut.
The city of Maastricht, which is about 130 miles south of Amsterdam (towards the German border) is the first place – (though unlikely to be the last) which has just begun to expell what it sees as the boisterous drug tourists who clog up the streets, engage in street dealing and petty crime, and regularly cause traffic jams. Determined to prevent them from accessing Maastricht’s coffee shops, hi-tech security scanners have been set up to check passports and ID cards, and police will carry out random checks.
In an effort to bring the coffee shop owners themselves on board with the governments cunning plan, only the Dutch, the Belgians and Germans will be permitted to cross the smokey threshold due to the fact that they make up the largest part of the 6000 customers who pop in to light up every day. The irony here is of course that if the vast majority of the 6000 smoking tourists visiting coffee shops in the Netherlands are indeed German and Belgian, how will this go any way to reduce the numbers of ‘drug tourists’ clogging up their streets? There is always more to these drug stories dear readers, so do check back to our earlier story on the Netherlands Coffee Shop ban to uncover a little more about the politics behind it.
However, what can be more easily deduced from this sinister exercise is that blackmarket sales of hash and grass will certainly increase, sold to the illegal alien up a back alley all because his passport won’t allow him to enter the smokey but safe environment of a Maastricht Coffee Shop. Let’s hope our British, Spanish or French friend doesn’t get ripped off, end up in a scuffle or get arrested – after all the cultivation and sale of ‘soft’ drugs is decriminalised – but not legal so one might well stilll end up in the boob.
With over 700 coffee shops across The Netherlands, correspondents say the Dutch justice ministry wants them to operate like members’ only clubs, serving only local residents. Yet despite previous difficulties when trying to enshrine such an exclusive ban in law, The European Court of Justice ruled last December that Dutch authorities could indeed bar foreigners from cannabis-selling coffee shops on the grounds that they were combating drug tourism.
Check out the video above – it’s the lead story -and follow the link to NORMLs website, which is full of video debates, vox pops and discussions on the world of cannabis.
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