248 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
248 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
From: bell@beethoven.cs.unc.edu (Andrew Bell)
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Date: 9 Mar 92 18:35:46 GMT
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Newsgroups: alt.drugs,misc.legal,talk.politics.drugs
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Subject: Re: Legal Cocaine? (WAS Re: Drug legalization)
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In article <1992Mar5.660665.6F0o5@infopls.chi.il.us> zane@infopls.chi.il.us (Sameer Parekh) writes:
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> I read in _Licit + Illicit Drugs_ that the people living in the
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>Andes who chewed coca leaves to deal with the thin air had no trouble
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>stopping use once they moved to a more airy clime.
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People interested in checking further into this might be interested in
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a couple of articles about coca leaf chewing:
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A. Barnett, R. Hawks, and R. Resnick. "Cocaine Pharmacokinetics in Humans."
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The Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 3 (1981) 353-366.
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"Therefore, on the basis of this new information that has come as a result
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of technological development we can conclude with a pratical observation.
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The size of the quid of coca leaves that can be comfortably accomodated by
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a person is such that it is unlikely that coca chewing, as practiced for
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centuries in places like Macchu Piccu, presents the dangers that may result
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from the modern forms of recreational use."
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Particularly interesting about this article is that the report came out of
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the Division of Research of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
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A. Weil. "The Therapeutic Value of Coca in Contemporary Medicine."
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The Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 3 (1981) 367-376.
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"I have lived among coca-using Indians of the Andes and the Amazon basin
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in Columbia and Peru and have not seen any signs of physical deterioration
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attributable to the leaf. I have never seen an instance of coca toxicity.
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Nor have I observed physiological or psychological dependence on coca.
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Even life-long chewers seem able to get the effect they want from the
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same dose over time; there is no development of tolerance and certainly
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no withdrawal syndrome upon sudden discontinuance of use."
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-------
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-Andrew Bell
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bell@cs.unc.edu
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=============================================================================
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From: cam@castle.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm)
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Newsgroups: uk.misc,soc.culture.british
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Subject: Re: Druggies - so they die, who cares (was: Must restaurants provide water?)
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Message-ID: <37266@castle.ed.ac.uk>
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Date: 14 Jun 93 21:38:49 GMT
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In article <1993Jun14.134030.385@sco.com> charless@sco.COM (charless) writes:
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>the interesting factoids about who the addicts were back in the
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>1920's, when heroin use for recreational purposes was still
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>legal.
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My grandfather, like many medical doctors of his time (and like Freud)
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was a cocaine addict. It caused him no problems at all as far as we
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could see, or he reported, and he always claimed that without the
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cocaine he would have been an alcoholic. He died at the age of 96,
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shortly after his third wife had died on him, and it would seem
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because he was fed up with living so long. In those days in Britain
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addicts could register with the NHS, and thus there were no black
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market profits to be made on illegal drugs, and no pushers. The drug
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problems all started when we became sanctimonious about these addicts
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on the NHS, kicked them off, and just like the US before us, created
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the whole apalling modern drug scene of criminality, pushers, and drug
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barons.
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--
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Chris Malcolm cam@uk.ac.ed.aifh +44 (0)31 650 3085
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Department of Artificial Intelligence, Edinburgh University
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5 Forrest Hill, Edinburgh, EH1 2QL, UK DoD #205
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=============================================================================
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From: dolphin@ziggys.cts.com (Rex Kahler) 619/262-6384
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Newsgroups: alt.drugs
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Subject: Winston Churchill and Cocaine Gum....
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Message-ID: <3VB6Lc7w165w@ziggys.cts.com>
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Date: Tue, 10 May 94 22:32:01 PDT
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(from the 8may94 san diego union-tribune)
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(xscribed wholly w/o permission)
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Experts push legalization of cocaine gum to wean addicts
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By DAN FREEDMAN
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Hearst News Service
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WASHINGTON -- Quenn Victoria did it. Winston Churchill in his
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youth did it, and millions of peasant farmers in South America
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do it. So why not allow it in America?
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Why not let people chew on low-potency cocaine lozenges or
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gum?
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"Millions have used these products, and we have no evidence
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of harm associated with it," says Ethan Nadelmann, a professor
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at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of International
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and Public Affairs.
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"It may be less addictive than coffee."
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Nadelmann and others who advocate changing the government's
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zero-tolerance approach to drugs want to create a weakened
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version of cocaine that could be sold over the counter as a
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substitute for the hard stuff.
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Then potential consumers would have an alternative to crack
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cocaine, which is smoked, and high-purity regular cocaine,
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which is snorted, the way beer and wine are alternatives to
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high-proof vodka.
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The idea of marketing cocaine-lite is not making much head-
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way at a time when the American public is fearful of crime and
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when the crime bill moving through Congress is promising more
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prisons and punishment for drug offenders.
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But raising the possibility of such a product goes to the
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core of the debate over the best way to undercut criminal drug
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enterprises.
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Nadelmann and others argue that low-potency cocaine might
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draw potential customers away from drug-trafficking organiza-
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tions smuggling tons of cocaine from South America and violent
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street gangs peddling crack.
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"If some people want to distill those products down to
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something more potent, let them," Nadelmann wrote in an edi-
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torial with _Rolling Stone_ Publisher Jann Wenner in the May 5
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issue of the magazine. "But most people won't want to buy it."
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However, Herbert Kleber, a psychiatrist and a White House
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anti-drug official in the Bush administration, says low-potency
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cocaine would not undercut criminal drug gangs because no one
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would use it as an alternative.
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Now a vice president of Columbia University's Center on
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Addiction and Substance Abuse, Kleber calls the idea of a
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cocaine substitute "scientifically naive," adding that it
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"totally misunderstands the reason why people use and misuse
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drugs."
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Kleber compares the temptation of low-potency cocaine for
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the uninitiated or the recovering addict with his experience
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in quitting smoking.
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"I smoked for 25 years and if i have just one, I'm back to
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two packs a day," he said. "It's the same with low-dose co-
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caine."
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Dr. Andrew Weil of the University of Arizona medical school
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disagrees.
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He says the widespread chewing of coca leaves among Andean
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peasants suggests that, in low dosages, cocaine is not addic-
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tive.
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Weil also says that the product is good for treating stomach
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ailments and motion sickness.
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"It's a shame that we've made disappear from our world a
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form of a drug that has a whole bunch of benefits," Weil says.
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Watered-down cocaine was common in turn-of-the-century Amer-
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ica and Europe. Recently uncovered records in Scotland suggest
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that Queen Victoria and her young house guest, Winston Churchill,
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consumed cocaine-filled lozenges for sore throats and other
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maladies contracted while staying at Balmoral Castle.
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At the same time, cocaine was an ingredient of Coca-Cola and
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several varieties of patent medicines sold in America. All that
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changed in 1914 with the Harrison Act, which banned cocaine
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without a prescription.
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Drug-law defenders say cocaine was banned because it is
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dangerously addictive.
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"There are some genies you can't let out of teh bottle,"
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Kleber says.
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Low-potency cocaine differs from regular cocaine powder and
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crack in terms of its purity level, and how fast and thoroughly
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it alters brain chemistry.
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According to Weil, the coca leaf chewed by peasant farmers
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in Bolivia and Peru is half of 1 percent pure cocaine. By con-
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trast, cocaine smuggled in by traffickers is 50 percent to 60
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percent pure.
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The effect of crack is even more intense because it is
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smoked and its chemicals reach the brain in seconds. Cocaine
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inhaled through the nose takes 30 minutes to be fully effec-
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tive. Orally ingested cocaine in lozenges or gum takes an hour,
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according to Kleber.
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John Gregich of the White House Office of National Drug
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Control Policy argues that "the notion you can create a safe
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stimulant out of something as addictive as cocaine doesn't
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match our experience."
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Still, the University of Arizona's Weil notes that decades
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of tough law enforcement measures against drug traffickers and
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dealers have "made worse what we want to make better, destroying
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the peasant society of South America and creating the crack
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culture in American cities."
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***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
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back beneath the waves
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D o l p h i n R e x
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/s\
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=============================================================================
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From: Anonymous <nobody@nowhere>
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Subject: Intranasal Cocaine Administration
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insofar as cocaine use is concerned, i have - after many years of
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foolishly self-destructive behavior - discovered a very nice way
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to do coke. take a nasal decongestant sprayer bottle, empty it.
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take a small amount of powdered cocaine - 1/4 to 1/2 a gram - and
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dissolve it in maybe a cubic inch of water. add a drop or two of
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vodka or other ethanol. stir it. the cocaine dissolves into the
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water, leaving the cut(s) on the bottom, a side benefit i didn't
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originally anticipate. pour the solution - a 7% solution, if i may
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offer a nickname - into yon vile vial, and apply to your nasal
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cavities, judiciously.
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if overfilled, you will get a jet of solution. otherwise, you get a
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nice mix of solution and air in a mist that dissolves easily into
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your nasal passages, with consequent bodily effects approximately
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equivalent to a cup of coffee. this is advantageous for many, many
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reasons ...
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(a) no waste. you get exactly what your body can absorb, and
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no crumbs clinging to your nasal passages and falling down
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your front. you don't get so much that the effect borders
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on toxicity, as you do when doing lines. and you can make
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a 1/2 gram last up to a week, in this fashion.
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(b) no paraphernalia. this fits nicely into a night bag with
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toothbrush or toothpaste, and is bust-free, in the car, on
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one's person, at one's desk, or crossing international
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borders. no razors, no straws, no mirrors, no 'bullets' or
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little brown vials waiting to fall out of your pocket.
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(c) no addictive sequence. it's much easier to forego tooting
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when using at this level, and put it aside for the night,
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instead of staying up 'til the wee hours. and it combines
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with being productive about the same way that coffee does.
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( i have also applied small amounts of methamphetamine in
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this fashion, with similar low-impact effects. )
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It's really a shame that the Establishment doesn't apply itself to teaching
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people how to use drugs intelligently and creatively, since, clearly, such
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paths to competence and maturity exist. If I had known ten years ago what I
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have learned through much reading and thinking, I would have saved myself a
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lot of money, and, more importantly, a lot of grief and self-destructive
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behavior which I have, fortunately, survived.
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Please perpetuate this information as widely as possible, the better to teach
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people how to avoid addictive behavioral sequences while continuing to explore
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the realms of awareness in a mature and thoughtful manner.
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