=================================================================
This file is a part of the 1999 Hyperreal Drug Archives Snapshot.  
This snapshot is hosted by Erowid and will not be updated after 
October 1999.  The information in these files may be out of date.  
See Erowid's Psychoactive Vaults for more current info.
=================================================================

"Choose Your Poison"
From Time magazine July 26, 1993 pages 56-57 by Jill Smolowe


	In New York City's Spanish Harlem, the highs come 
cheap. To create a "blunt," teenagers slice open a cigar and mix 
the tobacco with marijuana. To enhance the hit, they fashion "B-
40s" by dipping the cigar in malt liquor. In Atlanta, police 
observed 100 teenagers and young adults at a rave party in an 
abandoned house - the rage among middle-class youths 
everywhere with money to burn - and their rich assortment of 
hooch: pot, uppers, downers, heroin, cocaine and Ecstasy, a 
powerful amphetamine. In Los Angeles, Hispanic gangs chill out 
by dipping their cigarettes in PCP (phencyclidine, an animal 
tranquilizer), while black gangs still favor rock cocaine. Some of 
the city's Iranians go in for smoking heroin, known as "chasing 
the tiger," while Arabs settled in Detroit prefer khat, which gives 
an amphetamine-like high and is also the drug of choice in 
Somalia.
	The high times may be a changin', but America's drug 
scene is as frightening as ever. Last week the University of 
Michigan released a survey showing a rise in illicit drug use by 
American college students, with the most significant increase 
involving hallucinogens like LSD. Meanwhile a canvas of 
narcotics experts across the country indicated that while drug 
fashions vary from region to region and class to class, crack use is 
generally holding steady and heroin and marijuana are on the 
rise. Junior high and high school students surveyed by the 
government report a greater availability of most serious drugs. 
Law officials and treatment specialists on the front lines of the 
drug war report that the problem transcends both income and 
racial differences. "When it comes to drugs, there is a complete 
democracy," says Clark Carr, executive director of Narconon 
Professional Center in North Hollywood, California.
	The government paints a much brighter picture. 
According to the 1992 Household Survey on Drug Abuse, 
released last month by the Department of Health and Human 
Services, the nationwide pattern of drug abuse is in decline. The 
study shows an 11 percent dip in illicit drug use by Americans 12 
years or older, from 12.8 million in 1991 to 11.4 million in 1992. 
The drop is pronounced in all age groups except those 35 and 
over, who use drugs at a rate comparable to 1979 levels. Yet the 
number of hard-core abusers remains unchanged. And a 
smorgasbord of nouvelle intoxicants is being served up to a new 
generation of users.
	The frenetic '80s infatuation with stimulants has become 
the mellower '90s flirtation with depressants. Heroin, which has 
a calming effect, is gaining on crack, which produces high 
agitation. Some drug experts sense a sociological sea change. "It's 
really relevant that in the '80s the drug of choice was one that 
the second you did it, you wanted more," says Carlo McCormick, 
an editor at a culture and fashion monthly who was the host of 
LSD parties in New York City in the '80s. "At this point with the 
current crop of drugs, you're set for the night." Others have a 
wider perspective. "If you look historically at a large population 
that has been using a stimulant like cocaine," says James 
Nielsen, a 26-year veteran with the Drug Enforcement 
Administration, "they will then go on to depressant like 
heroin."
	Ironically, the heroin surge also reflects a new health 
consciousness on the part of drug abusers. Youthful offenders, 
scared off by the devastation of crack, are dabbling in heroin 
instead, while chronic crack addicts are changing over to heroin 
because of its mellower high and cheaper cost. Among both 
groups, fear of HIV transmission has made snorting, rather than 
injection, the preferred method of ingestion. "The needle is out, 
man," says Stephan ("Boobie") Gaston, 40, of East Harlem, a 26-
year abuser. "All they're doing is sniffing." Even so, the risks 
remain high. Heroin-related incidents jumped from 10,300 
during a three-month period in 1991 to 13,400 during a 
comparable period in 1992, according to a Federal Drug Abuse 
Warning Network survey of hospital emergency rooms. Heroin-
treatment admissions have also increased over the past year.
	The turn toward heroin is coupled with a sharp 
recognition among youthful abusers of the dangers of crack. 
Anthony M., 13, who is detoxifying from a marijuana habit at 
the Daytop Village Bronx Outreach Center in New York City, 
estimates that 20 or so of his 200 classmates use heroin or other 
drugs, but among them, only one goes in for crack. "That kid 
wanted others to do it too," he says, "but the other kids were like, 
'Nah,' because some of the kids, their parents had died because 
of crack."
	Other hard-learned lessons seem not to affect young 
people today. LSD use among high school seniors reached its 
highest level last year since 1983, according to an annual study by 
the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. In the 
rave clubs of Los Angeles, 2 to 5 dollars buys a teenager a 10-12-
hour LSD high. "LSD may be a prime example of generational 
forgetting," says Lloyd Johnston, principal investigator for the 
study. "Today's youngsters don't hear what an earlier generation 
heard - that LSD may cause bad trips, flashbacks, schizophrenia, 
brain damage, chromosomal damage and so on."
	Marijuana, usually the first illegal drug sampled by 
eventual hard-core abusers, is also back in vogue. Of the 11.4 
million Americans who admitted to using drugs within a 
month of the 1992 Household Survey, 55 percent referred solely 
to pot; an additional 19 percent abused marijuana in 
combination with other drugs. "Cannabis is the drug that teaches 
our kids what other drugs are all about," says Charlie Stowell, 
the DEA's cannabis coordinator in California. He says today's 
marijuana is considerably more potent and expensive than the 
pot of the '60s because the amount of THC - the ingredient that 
provides the high - has risen from 2 or 3 percent to 12 percent.
	The '90s also ushered in the drug novelties. Since the turn 
of the decade, gamma hydroxy butyrate, known as GHB, has been 
used illegally in the body-building community to reduce fat. 
Recently, however, youths have begun to abuse the drug to 
achieve a trancelike state. In New York City kids concoct a "Max" 
cocktail by dissolving GHB in water, then mixing 
amphetamines. A different mix resulted in several overdoses in 
the Atlanta area in the past few months. Manhattan's hard-core 
sex community has also turned on to "Special K," or Cat 
Valium, an anesthetic that numbs the body.
	The Administration appears to be pursuing several drug 
strategies simultaneously. The President has asked for a 7 
percent rise in the budget for law enforcement as well as 13 
billion dollars for drug-control program, an increase of 804 
million dollars over the current year. Last month Lee Brown, 
the Administration's drug czar, told a Senate subcommittee that 
the drug-control programs would now emphasize "demand-
reduction programs" would now emphasize young people." 
[that's how it's printed] Attorney General Janet Reno has also 
adopted a high profile on drugs, campaigning for a "national 
agenda for children" that would attack the root causes of drug 
abuse and violence.
	Meanwhile the daily challenge of containing the drug 
epidemic falls largely to local cops and DEA field offices. 
Ingenuity is the name of the game. In California, where 10 
percent of the state's marijuana is grown indoors to evade 
detection, the DEA tracks purchases of illicit equipment, such as 
high-pressure sodium lights, to pick of the trail of growers. 
Minneapolis police have grown more sophisticated in tracking 
crack dealers who no longer keep cars, residences or bank 
accounts in their own names. "We've begun using financial 
records and become more knowledgeable in accounting and the 
flow of money," says Lieut. Bernie Bottema, supervisor of the 
city's narcotics units. "We've had to rise to the level of our 
competition." It appears that level is not going to drop off 
anytime soon.

reported by Ann Blackman/Washington, Massimo 
Calabresi/New York and Jeanne McDowell/Los Angeles

=============================================================================

From: drumm@cnsvax.uwec.edu
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
Subject: Re: "Choose Your Poison" Lloyd Johnston replys!
Message-ID: <1993Jul29.140439.8778@cnsvax.uwec.edu>
Date: 29 Jul 93 14:04:39 -0600

In article <CAGyqo.KEM@world.std.com>, wdstarr@world.std.com (William December Starr) writes:
> 
> There's a two-page article at page 56 of the July 26, 1993 issue of Time
> magazine (cover story: The Flood of '93") entitled "Choose Your Poison,"
> with a sub-headline that reads "While the government boasts that drug
> use has fallen, the range of intoxicants has increased, snaring a new
> generation."  (That's right, folks: if you're under thirty or so and you
> enjoy using drugs, you're a victim of ensnarement! Congratulations!)
> 
> It's a nice article in that it lets most of the air out of the standard
> government claims that they are "winning" their putrid little war, but
> it doesn't exactly qualify as objective journalism.  I was especially
> impressed (not positively) by two quotes in the article:
> 
> (1) "LSD may be a prime example of generational forgetting.  Today's
> youngsters don't hear what an earlier generation heard -- that LSD may
> cause bad trips, flashbacks, schizophrenia, brain damage, chromosomal
> damage and so on."
> 
>   -- Lloyd Johnston, principal investigator for an annual study on drug
>      usage by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research.
> 


Since none of you bothered to call Lloyd Johnston, I did so myself.
('can't pawn work off on anyone anymore!)

Lloyd says that the press release was mis-quoted  (Only Time and News Week
could "mis-quote" a written press release!)

Here is an excerpt:

"... don't hear what an earlier generation heard -- that LSD may
 cause bad trips, flashbacks, schizophrenia, brain damage, chromosomal
 damage and so on.  Some of those early assertions never were 
 substantiated, some were, and young people today are not as likely to 
 know about the dangers of the drug."

I asked Lloyd Johnston if he was upset that Time misquoted him.  He said
"no, you have to expect that from the press."

I wonder why "young people today are not as likely to know about the 
dangers of the drug."  Could it be that no one gives a shit?   



> [...]
> 
> Quote #1 is more interesting... my intuitive response is that there's a
> _reason_ why today's LSD users aren't hearing all those bad things about
> the drug, namely, that for the most part they aren't true.  However, I'm
> not an expert on what is and isn't known (as opposed to what's widely
> believed and/or broadcast in war propaganda) about the effects and
> dangers of LSD... could somebody who does know the, ahem, Straight Dope
> :-) about this please post the data?  Thanks.


LSD may cause bad trips.        Marijuana _may_ cause bad trips.

LSD may cause Flashbacks        Police _may_ cause flashbacks.

LSD caused psychosis does not occur.  Is has been shown that
    LSD has been shown to bring out existing schizophrenic behavior in
    some subjects, but even this is under dispute.

    "Hensala et. al.... concluded that LSD was basically just
    another drug of abuse in a population of frequently hospitalized
    individuals in the San Francisco area, and that it was unlikely
    that psychedelic use could be deemed etiological in the development
    of their psychiatric disorders."  ("Adverse Reactions to
    Psychedelic Drugs: a Review of the Literature" in J. Nerv and
    Mental Disease 172(10))

LSD is not known to cause brain damage although there was some research
    a while back suggesting a link between LSD and night blindness.

LSD does not cause chromosome damage.  "From our own work and
    from a review of literature, we believe that pure LSD ingested in
    moderate doses does not damage chromosomes in vivo, does not cause
    detectable genetic damage, and is not a teratogen or carcinogen in
    man."  ("LSD and Genetic Damage" Norman I. Dishotsky et. al.
    Science, Apr 30, 1972.)  Studies that have shown damage were done
    on chromosomes removed from the protective membranes of the cell.
    In this environment virtually anything can damage them.

LSD may cause "and so on."  This has happened to me several times.
    Current research is investigating a link between this and what
    my girl friend calls "the circle thing."  :)



-- Danny