4 Comments
⭠ Return to thread

thank you, Richard. what you're saying needs to be repeated over and over again. if it's not, we're going to repeatedly find ourselves in what I like to call "Anslinger Territory."

I actually HAVE taken Ketamine a few times and it was not unpleasant (but not remotely as pleasant as other, similar drugs), but DID manage to give me vertigo when I tried to walk anywhere in the apartment. since my balance isn't starting at a great place, I decided to avoid it in the future. from what it sounds like (just to ME), it feels like Ketamine is hardly the worst problem we have with Musk, who's just a prick with money if we're talking about him on a personal basis. if the country is relying on his largesse for stuff THIS important, complaining about his drug use feels like we're putting the metaphorical cart before the metaphorical horse.

Expand full comment

Oh god, hopefully there's no current version of Harry J. Anslinger waiting in the wings, I just had a recollection of a Playboy Magazine interview with that S.O.B, in the mid to late 1960s I think, the interviewer let Anslinger talk himself into that authoritarian "Big Brother is Watching" frenzy of dogmatic certainty and just patiently cited contrary considerations, the way I remember it. Seems like there was a time when he was everywhere because of the sometimes serious, sometimes hyperbolic shouts of imminent disaster posed by, not just really dangerous street drugs (Speed Kills etc.) but any use of marijuana, a la "Reefer Madness" - wonder if you saw that film as so many college students did, in my case at a free showing in the Macalester Student Union? Fit right in with the other standards that were shown: all the earlier Marx Brothers films, from Coconuts, Duck Soup, through A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, At the Circus, and same thing with W.C. Fields films.

Wiki bio of Harry J. Anslinger, in case someone else wanders here unfamiliar with his reactionary schtick:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Harry J. Anslinger

1st Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics

In office

August 12, 1930 – August 17, 1962

President Herbert Hoover

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Harry S. Truman

Dwight D. Eisenhower

John F. Kennedy

Harry Jacob Anslinger (May 20, 1892 – November 14, 1975) was an American government official who served as the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics during the presidencies of Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy. He was a supporter of Prohibition, and of the criminalization of all drugs, and spearheaded anti-drug policy campaigns.[1][2]

Anslinger has been characterized as an early proponent of the war on drugs, as he zealously advocated for and pursued harsh drug penalties, in particular regarding marijuana.[3] As a propagandist for the war on drugs, he focused on demonizing racial and immigrant groups.[3] He targeted jazz musicians, including singer Billie Holiday.[4][5]

Anslinger held office as commissioner for an unprecedented 32 years, until 1962. He then held office for two years as U.S. Representative to the United Nations Narcotics Commission. The responsibilities once held by Anslinger are now largely under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy and the agency he ran was a predecessor of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). *****

Expand full comment

in a fairly recent book (I'm pretty sure it's "In the Realm of Shadows," the author (again, it'd Mate with an acute accent) discloses that Anslinger himself was a heroin addict. Joe McCarthy as well.

for some reason, I've always consigned the motherfucker to a period a long time back. and now I find out that he was giving Playboy interviews when I was graduating from high school, smoking pot whenever I had the chance.

ew.

Expand full comment

This makes complete sense, what "better cover" than to campaign as an absolutely driven crusader for good morals and sound values- in fact, "pure as the driven snow cut with Mannitol," simply so deeply concerned about Our American Youth that he can't help being a hardcore opponent of dope! - for Anslinger, and similar with McCarthy!

Those barstewards ruined, destroyed so many people's lives, so often for just smoking some weed, or "trafficking" a few ounces of not that great pot!

Incredibly costly overreaction.

Expand full comment