Illegal Drugs: Opium, Morphine, Heroin Pt. 1
The recent awarding of Heath Ledger a posthumous Oscar for The Dark Knight made me think about his accidental death from “acute intoxication by the combined effects of oxycodone, hydrocodone, diazepam, temazepam, alprazolam and doxylamine” as reported by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York. This made me think of how deeply the use, and abuse, of opiods have become a part of global and popular culture: in history, art, music.
This three part documentary (Part 2, Part 3), which first appeared on the History Channel as “Hooked: Illegal Drugs”, shows the history of Opium and how it evolved into Morphine and Heroin, from a completely legal substance to an illegal one.
Alexander, gladiators and WWI.. interesting =).
Part 3 is really the most insightful part: Nixon creates the DEA to combat heroin use in Vietnam. Amazing, did anyone else pick up on how the tone of these documentaries are always so negative towards the drugs, and positive towards the U.S. gov’t and it’s agents? Was the goal of this doc education, or indoctrination? Writers like Burroughs and Hunter S. Thompson had quite a differing opinion, as did Zappa in his song, “The Downtown Talent Scout”.
Been there, done that…
Live to tell about it.
Wisely realized very early that I would not live if continued…
[quote comment=”4398″]Been there, done that…
Live to tell about it.
Wisely realized very early that I would not live if continued…[/quote]
Indeed, Sofa. Heroin isn’t a substance to play around with, even just experimentally. Very soon you realize that it’s the drug using you than vice versa. Besides, the psychological effects alone are horrendous (at least by my personal experience).