Pubdate: Thu, 12 Nov 2015
Source: Reno News & Review (NV)
Column: notes from the neon babylon
Copyright: 2015, Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.newsreview.com/issues/reno/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2524
Author: Bruce Van Dyke

I WANT A NEW DRUG

Well, it's almost over. My class at TMCC called "Welcome to 
Wonderland-The Golden Age of Psychedelia '65-'67," which wraps up on 
Wednesday the 18th. This is the second time I've conducted this 
nostalgic bus ride back to a time that was just a little more 
remarkable than most, and it leaves me with some unanswered questions.

In the class, we re-live the lysergically enhanced music of that rich 
era (Beach Boys, Stones, Beatles, Dylan, Pink Floyd, etc.) that's now 
50 years old. Fifty freakin' years!

Question 1: Will classes of 2065 do the same with the music of 2015? 
LSD was discovered 72 years ago, in 1943. As far as I know, it 
remains the most powerful drug known to man, where a dose of 200 
millionths of a gram can bring about a state of ecstatic 
astonishment. Or a terrifying discorporation. Or something completely 
elsewhere. 200 millionths!

Question 2: Why haven't we discovered or manufactured anything 
superior to acid since the '60s? Proponents of Ecstasy might say we 
have, and they have a point. Certainly, X is the one drug since LSD 
that's made any kind of impact at all, but it's undoubtedly milder 
than acid, which makes it the better party psychedelic, leading to 
enraptured states of dancing which occasionally burn people up.

But outside of X, what else has been happening, when it comes to 
dazzling new drugs that would be a step beyond LSD? Not a whole lot, 
at least on the psychedelic front (although modern shamans with their 
ayahuasca brew are beginning to get noticed). The crank mess is a new 
problem, yes, but not a new drug. In fact, one could make the case 
that the greatest and most significant new drug of pleasure in the 
last 20 years isn't a psychedelic at all, but a hydraulic booster. As 
in the Big V, baby, that oh, so nasty blue pill.

No wonder we're now a nation of sex maniacs. People don't want to 
achieve higher states of consciousness with their dope, they just 
wanna break the damned bed with a pounding priapic maypole of 
Schlong. As Prince once sang, it's a sign of the times.

Question 3: Are we ever gonna find some nice, socially acceptable 
function for acid? Imagine this. It's 2054, and you're 88 years old, 
and you've got some kind of toxic bug, and you're gonna die pretty 
soon, and you're feeling rather bummed about your inevitable demise. 
So you tell your doctor, and he writes a prescription for 100 
micrograms of LSD, and you go to the pharmacy and get it, and you 
have a wonderful trip that re-arranges your mind a little, and when 
you get done, you feel a lot better about heading off into the Void 
and the doc says, "Yeah, I thought that might help."

Question 4: Are we ever gonna figure out the true velocity of the 
speed of thought?
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom