Comments on Drugs and Poisons: Heroin history: From cough medicine for kids to Tr...

Hmmm....very interesting, I myself did not know a ...

2009-03-24T11:04:00.000-04:00

Hmmm....very interesting, I myself did not know a whole lot about Heroin, but you have very interesting facts!

This was a good post. A couple comments: the "nee...

2008-06-27T19:57:00.000-04:00

This was a good post. A couple comments: the "needle scene” in Pulp Fiction is total fiction. To treat OD's a drug called narcan (naloxone) is inject intravenously or in some emergency cases intramuscular.

The Rat Park article was very interesting but had a major flaw. The results were not reproducible. (Caveat: I did not read the paper so I cannot comment on the methodology) You cannot draw any scientific conclusions from inconsistent results.

As for the McCoy work IMHO prohibition creates an illegal market that causes way more harm than the original stimulus. The problem being that vast sums of money on both sides of the legal fence make changing this reality difficult. With legalization and regulation, a major redistribution of wealth and power (namely from government agencies) would result.

Hey, for what it's worth, heroin is a hell of a co...

2007-12-26T23:11:00.000-05:00

Hey, for what it's worth, heroin is a hell of a cough medicine. All the really ass-kicking opiates are. Codeine is a pale imitation.

I've heard that Afghanistan opium poppy production...

2007-11-16T15:45:00.000-05:00

I've heard that Afghanistan opium poppy production is 'way up since the war started, but I don't know if that leads to lower heroin prices in practice...

I love the blog. I especially like the reference t...

2007-11-10T13:25:00.000-05:00

I love the blog. I especially like the reference to the new Coen bros movie. Obviously Cormac Mcarthy is obsessed with heroin - he seems to like to write about it. I have been wondering if the War in Afghanistan is hurting or helping the price of heroin?

Yeek! It wasn't meant to be an exhaustive disserta...

2007-11-09T07:49:00.000-05:00

Yeek! It wasn't meant to be an exhaustive dissertation on morphine and heroin.

I thought it was an interesting post.

Thanks.

'Controversial'. No, perhaps you were corr...

2007-11-09T03:30:00.000-05:00

'Controversial'. No, perhaps you were correct when you said, 'fringe'. If you were talking about what is reported in the main-stream-media then you were undoubtledly correct. Scientific research, if contrary to the current political 'truth' is reported as a 'fringe' viewpoint. However, if you were talking about science then neither 'fringe' nor 'controversial' is appropriate: it just, is. Like, you know, some people did some experiments and here are the results; or, (in the case of McCoy) someone went to Asia, studied the drug trade and reported what he found.

Anonymous,

Perhaps you would find 'controve...

2007-11-08T15:20:00.000-05:00

Anonymous,

Perhaps you would find 'controversial' to be a more appropriate descriptor of their theories?

Hi Chris

I'm pleased that you're interested...

2007-11-08T14:27:00.000-05:00

Hi Chris

I'm pleased that you're interested in the links I posted but disappointed that you have a low opinion of the research of academics at Simon Fraser and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

As a scientist, what's your basis for saying that the theories are "fringe"? Do you go on how they're reported by the mainstream media? I mean, how can you reach that conclusion before reading the scientists' papers and books? You did say, "ought to look into" which suggests you haven't read their work.

Dear anonymous,

While I appreciate your fee...

2007-11-08T13:14:00.000-05:00

Dear anonymous,

While I appreciate your feedback regarding some fringe theories that I ought to look into, the next time you leave a comment, try not to be such a dick about it.

Here's another link, this time to Alfred McCoy; after reading it consider revising your note. As it stands it reads as though it was written by someone who was suckled on the tit of the war on drugs fibs.

You seem to be ignorant of Rat Park; read it an revise your note.