by robertdreed » Thu Oct 27, 2005 10:25 am
A couple of corrections, jenz...<br><br>LSD wasn't a product of LaRoche aka Hoffman LaRoche pharmaceuticals. <br><br>LSD was invented by a chemist who worked for the Swiss firm, Sandoz. His name was Albert Hofmann, and he' still alive, in fact- every year there's an international symposium on psychedelic drugs held in Switzerland in conjunction with celebrating his birthday. Hofmann is due to turn 100 next January. <br><br>Hofmann originally synthesized LSD in 1938, as part of his work with ergot alkaloids- he's also the inventor of the pharmaceutical drug Hydergine. LSDs mind-altering properties weren't discovered until 1943, when Hofmann thought to work with the chemical he had invented and set aside 5 years previously. In the course of working with it, he apparently absorbed some through his skin, or possibly by getting a minute quantity in his mouth. He found himself in a weird state of mind, including seeing patterned images in his visual field. Curious as to whether the effect was due to his formerly overlooked compound, Hofmann decided on a self-experiment. He took 1/4 of a milligram of LSD. <br><br>That's 250mcg. More than enough. Plenty. And Hofmann found that out for himself, on his bike ride home from work. He had a rough time, at first, but once the effect began to lessen and he realized that he hadn't poisoned his brain into a state of permanent madness, he found himself enjoying the experience...and then considering it transcendent, profound. <br><br>That's the official version of LSDs history, according to the firsthand testimony of Dr. Hofmann. It's been disputed by various sources- like Lyndon LaRouche and people with similar agendas- but to those of us with some perspective on the subject, Hofmann's story has the ring of truth. <br><br>Hoffman LaRoche is, in fact, the manufacturer of Valium, as you noted. <br><br>But as the difference in spellings indicates- two different Hof(f)man(n)s. <br><br>The rest of your pharma lore sounds accurate. Xanax, Valium, and Librium are all benzodiazepines. I didn't realize that Rohypnol was one also. I've heard of them, but I've never seen one. I did hear that they're a liquid. <br><br>In the old days, there was another drug used for date rape, rolling drunks, etc.- chloral hydate, which came in liquid form-"knockout drops." Also known as "Mickey Finn", as in the slang usage "someone slipped him a Mickey", i.e., put a few drops of chloral in a drink.<br><br>Another strong CNS depressant that came in liquid form, in football shaped capsules resembling lecithin caps- Placidyl. Except the caps were dark green...hmm, maybe that's where the name of the blog "little green footballs" comes from. Placidyls occasionally used to show up as a street drug, but they were never all that popular. The most famous Placidyl head ever was- drum roll- the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who at one point in the late 1980s had to recuse himself from his Supreme Court duties in order to detox from them. He had apparently been prescribed them in order to deal with chronic back pain and associated insomnia, and he evidently had quite habit there for a while- something like 8 a day. That's a lot of Placidyl. it's a strong downer. I took one once...I still remember how fast it hit me, literally like an elevator going down so fast that you feel it in the pit of your stomach. Stronger than methaqualone...numb from head to toe within about 30 minutes. Sea-sicky, too...no thanks. Never was much of a downer freak. <br><br>About 10 years after that little self-experiment, I remember hearing about Rehnquist having to go into detox, and being amazed at how much Placidyl he was downing...8 a day, how could anyone not be looped on that. But, apparently he was able to cut it loose...although if the back pain persisted, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Rehnquist's doctor eventually switched him over to a prescription opiate like Vicodin, Codeine, Percocet, or Darvon, any one of which seem to me to be a more logical choice for pain management. I mean, Placidyl...it's like being round-housed with a 2x4. The opiates I listed are milder drugs, physically speaking. Anyway, I've made my views clear elsewhere on RI; take what you think helps, I don't care. If the other judges on the bench, who interacted with Rehnquist on a daily basis, didn't notice anything untoward or unprofessional about his performance of his duties, I don't care whether he came back from his detox "clean and sober", or not. That said, I do believe that what prompted Rehnquist to kick his Placidyl habit was the fact that he wasn't maintaining very well there after a while. Dozing and drooling on the High Court bench, you know...infra-dig. I think someone eventually pulled his robe about that, so to speak. <br><br><br><br><br><br> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=robertdreed>robertdreed</A> at: 10/27/05 9:09 am<br></i>
