From: lewis@aera8700.mitre.org (Keith Lewis)
Subject: Re: 48 Hours... let the cascade begin
Supersedes: <1993Jan7.122954.9012@linus.mitre.org>
Organization: The MITRE Corporation
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 12:34:15 GMT

In article <1993Jan07.085546.183690@zeus.calpoly.edu>, rfritz@zeus.calpoly.edu (Ryan E. Fritz) writes:
>In alt.drugs, mtymp15@staff.tc.umn.edu (David Hutton) spewed:
>
>>Well, the show is finishing up right now and I must say that it has been 
>>interesting.  One thing that I realize is that alt.drugs gives people the
>>pure "pro drugs" attitute whereas the media gives the pure "anti drugs"
>>attitude to the public.  Somewhere inbetween lies the truth.
>
>Well, you can only expect an all anti-drug attitude from 48 Hours.  After
>all, it is illegal.

I tuned in to CBS a couple of hours before the show, and from the low-budget
sci-fi crap they had on, in which the "Space Rangers" had nothing better to
do than to bust people for space drugs, I was expecting a 100% anti-drug
show from 48 Hours.  

Actually I thought they showed a reasonably balanced picture.  There has
been a lot of anti-LSD hysteria during the past 30 years, and a good
journalist can't just ignore it.  I thought they did some good research into
the drug and the hysteria.

They talked about LSD's growing popularity among young people, with some
cursory coverage of raves.  They interviewed a recovered alcoholic who had
been cured by an experimental single-session LSD therapy 30+ years ago. 
They talked to a guy who had given LSD to hundreds of volunteers, including
Cary Grant and Jack Nicholson.  

On the anti-LSD side, they talked to some housewives in San Francisco who
had used LSD themselves when they were young, but thought it was way too
dangerous for their daughters to use.  Of the two daughters interviewed, one
sounded (to me) like she had tried LSD but would never ever admit it in
front of her mother.  The other reminded me of myself when I was that age --
all full of indoctrinated prejudice.  She'll grow out of it.

They interviewed Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey.  One thing that bugged me was
that on the advertising sound-bite, they quoted Leary out of context "LSD
will take your chromosomes and snap them in half."  He was talking about the
chromosome damage scare, which turned out to be false.  They didn't go past
that, though.  I would have loved to get confirmation of the net.rumor that
the Jacobsen responsible for the original (flawed) chromosome damage study
was the same Jacobsen who is now in jail for sperm fraud.  Leary also talked
about the media and LSD hysteria --

    Teenage son beats up mother -- LSD blamed.  Man kills wife -- LSD
    blamed.

One college girl they interviewed talked about having a bad trip.  She
seemed to think it was caused by "bad acid".  It's too bad they didn't
correct her, or talk about set and setting.

>>The story's showing people who actually are still tripping after 15 years were
>>accurate.  These people are* heavy users, but friends of mine report the same
>>effects after only 100 doses (so far).
>
>I couldn't believe the one guy who said he had done 500 hits between 14 and
>18.  That's sounds like a whole hell of a lot!!  500 of _anything_ sounds
>dangerous.

That would be twice a week, on the average.  Definitely not the normal LSD
use pattern.  But I don't think these people were "still tripping".  They
seem to have broken something in their vision system.  It might be as simple
as permanent retina damage from pupils that are letting too much light in.

>more details on the trips some of the people had.  I found it rather
>disgusting that the kid being charged with drug dealing was going to be
>facing so much time... and then they let others with more serious crimes get
>less time than that.  I guess it just shows once again that there are still
>quite a few problems with our justice system.

Yeah, that's the standard "mandatory minimums" spiel.  They confronted the
DA with the heavy paper/light paper inconsistency, and he just sidestepped
the issue.  The crying kid didn't impress me much, though.  "I made a
mistake, waah!"  

I liked the guy who was being interrogated about where he got his acid.  "I
found it on the ground; the LSD fairy left it for me."

One psychiatrist they interviewed stated that 3% of all users suffer a
"psychotic break."  I seriously doubt this.  How many people in the US have
tried LSD?  10%?  That would mean at least 0.3% of the population has gone
nuts at one time or another.   I think LSD use is much more likely to be
reported if it causes something notable like this, so the stats are off.

Keith Lewis             klewis@mitre.org          "Mr. Cheap"
I don't dance to music; music dances to me.  Email me for my PGP key.
The above may not (yet) represent the opinions of my employer.
Newsgroups: alt.drugs