Coilhouse recently posted some old-school anti-absinthe posters from early 20th century France. Click through to see the whole set. It brings a tear to my eye to see that poor Green Fairy burning at the stake, although maybe that other Green Fairy up in the sky is flying to the rescue - a boy can hope!

Slate is running a thought-provoking piece on the "other" form of drug legalization. Calling for the legalization of marijuana or heroin is likely going to be a political lightning rod for decades to come. But instead of trying to make illegal drugs legal, society is pushing to find nearly equally effective legal substitutes:

Over the last two decades, the FDA has become increasingly open to drugs designed for the treatment of depression, pain, and anxiety—drugs that are, by their nature, likely to mimic the banned Schedule I narcotics. Part of this is the product of a well-documented relaxation of FDA practice that began under Clinton and has increased under Bush. But another part is the widespread public acceptance of the idea that the effects drug users have always been seeking in their illicit drugs—calmness, lack of pain, and bliss—are now "treatments" as opposed to recreation. We have reached a point at which it's commonly understood that when people snort cocaine because they're depressed or want to function better at work, that's drug trafficking; but taking antidepressants for similar purposes is practicing medicine....

As many have pointed out, drugs like Ritalin and cocaine act in nearly the exact same manner: Both are dopamine enhancers that block the ability of neurons to reabsorb dopamine. As a 2001 paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded, Ritalin "acts much like cocaine."....Or as one satisfied user reports on Erowid, "this is the closest pharmaceutical *high* to street cocaine that I have experienced." In the words of another, "I felt very happy, and very energetic, and I had this feeling like everything was right with the world."

The Ritalin/cocaine intersection is but one example. Other substitutes are opium-based drugs available in somewhat legalized versions, with names like Vicodin and OxyContin, Clonazepam, and valium. These may not be exact substitutes for marijuana, but they all seem to attract users seeking the same mellowing effects and loss of some forms of anxiety. In short, the differences between pharmaceuticals and illegal drugs may ultimately be much more social than chemical.

The article is an interesting thought exercise, although the analogy breaks down a little when considering the rampant, shrill claims of prescription drug abuse that reverberate in the news. We may well be developing medical substitutes for our illicit pleasures, but it's a long way from there to any kind of true legalization, where these substitutes are regulated like alcohol in the context of pleasure-seeking. Still, there's no arguing that for some, access to these substitutes is a lot easier than access to street drugs. A friend of mind recently started on a low dose of Effexor and reported that she felt like she was on a mild amount of ecstasy all day. It certainly made me consider dreaming up some symptoms for my next visit to the doctor.

MSNBC reports on a recent independent study by a group called ConsumerLab that compared Wellbutrin with its generic alternative, after a range of complaints emerged that the generic wasn't as effective as the real thing.

For the testing, ConsumerLab.com purchased both the original Wellbutrin XL 300 mg sold by GlaxoSmithKline and the generic version sold by Teva, the same one that Douglas took and that many other readers complained about, and had six samples of each drug analyzed. While both drugs contained the stated amount of the active ingredient, bupropion, "dissolution testing" showed that the generic drug, which has a different time-release mechanism, released the active ingredient into a solution at a quicker rate.

"The Teva product released nearly half of its ingredients in the first four hours," says Cooperman. "The original Wellbutrin released 25 percent."

Within the first two hours, 8 percent of the original Wellbutrin had dissolved, compared with 34 percent of the Teva product, according to Cooperman. By 16 hours, both drugs had released all the medicine.

If the active ingredient is released more quickly into a patient's bloodstream, that could mean there is less medication available to the patient later, which may explain why people like Douglas experienced a return of their depression, Cooperman says. It also may explain why some readers who wrote in complained of more side effects, such as headache, irritability and nausea, given they may have received a higher dosage of the medicine upfront, he says. "Too much Wellbutrin can cause side effects, even the potential for seizure," he says.

How could this sort of thing happen? The FDA doesn't require generics to be tested quite as rigorously as the original versions:

The FDA does not require generic drugmakers seeking approval to do clinical trials of their drugs on hundreds or thousands of people as is required for brand drugs. Instead, the agency requires lab data and "bioequivalence" testing in about 24 to 36 healthy volunteers showing that the drug appears in the bloodstream in a similar manner to the brand, says Walsh.

The article goes on to speculate that this kind of discrepancy could theoretically pop up amongst anti-seizure meds or any of a range of other classes of drugs. Naturally generic manufacturers have the shield of "hey, we're FDA approved!" to stand behind in their defense, while the FDA has the shield of... uh... making the rules in the first place I guess, so it's not all cut and dried here. But the findings do "raise questions... on the reliability of FDA testing for these types of drugs." At least "these types of drugs" are cheap!

Omgoleus recently posted the Spanish-language version of this clip, but in case you might be curious about the original, here it is: the Family Guy, high on ecstasy.

Via MilkandCookies.

Starting this week, the TSA is implementing full body xrays at JFK. I guess this means everyone will have to leave their drugs in NYC. It kind of takes the fun out of wearing pretty underwear for TSA guards, though. Now they're going to know I wear a push up bra.

A millimeter wave image looks like a fuzzy photo negative of a person, and is created when electromagnetic waves are reflected from the body. X-ray backscatter technology uses a narrow, low intensity X-ray beam, scanned over the body's surface at high speed.

For both technologies, the image created shows concealed items including weapons, explosives and other metallic and non-metallic threat items. For privacy reasons, the officer attending the passenger will not view the image. Additionally, the officer viewing the image will be remotely located and unable to associate the image with the passenger being screened. Once viewed remotely, the image will not be stored, transmitted or printed.

Last Saturday I went to see a "best of" performance by surrealist modern dance troupe Momix. They describe themselves thusly: "MOMIX is a company of dancer-illusionists known internationally for presenting work of exceptional inventiveness and physical beauty. For 25 years, MOMIX has been celebrated for its ability to conjure up a world of surrealistic images using props, light, shadow, humor and the human body."

Now this probably sounds questionable; high-concept modern dance groups are a dime a dozen. But these guys are absolutely brilliant. Think psychedelic, Burning-Man-worthy freak art with all the membership-has-its-privileges production-value benefits of big-C Culture. Think black PVC, Shpongle, hula hoops, aerials, Peter Gabriel, UV lighting and skis animated by top-of-their-class-at-Juillard dancers. It's quite an experience.

I found a video of one of the more trippy of the pieces I saw. Bootleg, no doubt:

Unfortunately for the presumably significant number of DoseNationals who live in Seattle, you missed their show in October 2006. But I'm sure they'll be there at some point. Their calendar is here, but it only seems to run two months ahead. So keep your eyes open, and check them out when they come to your town.

The latest installment of my "it's funny because it's in Spanish for no particular reason" series.

And now, for your viewing convenience, please to enjoy this handy index of the entire drug comedy DVD, Tales From The Tripside. This includes a number of sketches that I did not turn into individual DoseNation posts, some because they just didn't stand alone too well, and several because they aren't specifically drug-related. But since the DVD itself is not available for purchase any more, every sketch has now been posted to YouTube. Enjoy (or don't, depending on your mood that day)!

• 1. Tripside Introduction
  
• 2. BTTBOTHIHKAL
  
• 3. Good Old-Fashioned LSD
  
• 4. I Learned It By Watching You
  
• 5. Drugged Thoughts 1
  
• 6. BedSafe
  
• 7. Good Old-Fashioned Magic Mushrooms
  
• 8. Drug Scouts Of America
  
• 9. The Unreal World
  
• 10. Inhalant Bar
  
• 11. Moulin Rouge 2
  
• 12. Betty Stoner's Pot Brownies
  
• 13. Drugged Thoughts 2
  
• 14. Multidisciplinary Association For Getting High
  
• 15. Good Old-Fashioned Ecstasy
  
• 16. The Sneeze
  
• 17. Kenny GHB
  
• 18. Thorazine The Clown
  
• 19. You're Soaking In It
  
• 20. Good Old-Fashioned Crystal Meth
  
• 21. The Drug Fairy
  
• 22. Maniacal Laughter
  
• 23. The Junkees
  
• 24. Drugged Thoughts 3
  
• 25. Good Old-Fashioned Ketamine
  
• 26. We Could Put On A Play
  
• 27. Weed - It's What's For Dinner
  
• 28. Entheoporn
  
• 29. Bobby Tortellini
  
• 30. The "X" Files
  
• 31. Good Old-Fashioned DMT
  
• 32. Honey, I Shot The Kids
  
• 33. Helpless Speed Addict
  
• 34. Acid Or Strychnine
  
• 35. Mathematician To The Stars
  
• 36. Okay...
  
• 37. Good Old-Fashioned Radioactive Waste
  
• 38. Drugged Thoughts 4
  
• 39. Special-G... Or Special-DEAD?
  
• 40. Partnership For A Free Drug America
  

Entheogenic Reformation hipped us to the trailer for an upcoming documentary called The Shulgin Project. The filmmakers seem quite experienced, with jury awards and big names and cable channels on their resumes. Indeed, at first glance, it seems clear that this is going to be an exciting topic. Here is how their web site describes the project:

The lifestyle drugs market is now estimated to be worth up to $25 billion annually, providing legal treatments for conditions ranging from depression to impotence. Why should man be prevented from using other drugs, which alter his mental and physical experiences? Many have been used for centuries and others continue to be applied in therapeutic, creative, religious, exploratory, recreational and military settings. Are these drugs so innately dangerous that people need to be protected from them? Or are there other reasons? Doctors prescribing MDMA for post traumatic stress disorder and terminal cancer, military psychiatrists testing LSD on troops, chemists developing new 'designer drugs,' shamans using psychedelics to heighten spiritual awareness, multiple sclerosis sufferers self-medicating with cannabis, artists using LSD as a creative tool. Such practices are at best restricted and at worst outlawed - but what are the motives behind the regulations?

That is a very interesting agenda, although the trailer for the film seems to reflect none of that - but trailers are clearly their own beast. Rather, the trailer seems to intimate that the film will be exploring the inherent mystery of Shulgin's quest for novelty in psychoactive substances - the strategizing, the apprehension of not knowing how this completely novel compound will affect a human being, the manner in which previous psychedelic experience informs jumping off future cliffs, so to speak. I'm absolutely summarizing. But to be clear, documentary filmmaking is no easy task, and if the purported goal is to document the inner experience of Shulgin's path, one wonders how successful they'll actually be. From the trailer, we're only really shown images of nature and images of Shulgin in his lab - what else are we to imagine lurks behind the narrative that the filmmakers are constructing for us?

Regardless, it's an eminently worthy topic, and I absolutely wish the project much success. Shulgin remains so articulate (and especially so in a context where he can be edited) about these topics that it's quite possible the weight of his personality alone will spark a following for this film.

I could not stop cackling with delight as I watched this parody of the energy drink craze. Oh sure, it's juvenile - but holy moly, is it gloriously on target!