Has there ever been an era when there has not been cocaine in the West Wing?
Ike? Truman?
this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2023
0 points (NaN% liked)
politics
19072 readers
4158 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Well, Refined Cocaine didn't exist prior to 1860, and was mostly a sort of curiosity in the medical world for the next two or so decades. After that, it was marketed as an anesthetic for a few years.
Freud wrote a paper about the joys of recreational use of cocaine in 1884 (he was 24), and then struggled with addiction for the next 12 years.
Then Coca-Cola was created in 1886, and bottled for mass consumption shortly afterward. They removed the cocaine from the recipe in 1903...
Then the Harrison Narcotics act was passed in 1914, effectively banning cocaine and opium. Mostly based on racist fears that black people liked cocaine.
So, it's possible that some cocaine was in the White House as early as the 1880s, especially in some Coca-Cola, but the drink was considered low class, and cocaine was also a bit of a low class drug...
So yeah, It's very hard to say.
As to WW2 and beyond. Well, Meth was invented about that time frame. 1940s Germany, and the entire Nazi military were all addicted to meth in the form of Pervitin, the brand name that it was sold under. Pervitin was literally issued to infantry to let them march for days at a time, and was a huge part of the initial Blitz.
The Allied forces had their own versions of speed to issue to soldiers.
I kind of wandered into the weeds there...
Wandered into the weed there?
The gold is always in the comments.
Weed would be another digression entirely. As a plant, it has a much longer history. And as a plant, it never really became the drug of the rich and powerful. Maybe because smoking too much causes introspection, which the rich and powerful cannot abide.
There's a lot of armchair psychoanalysis here. The rich and powerful seem to like uppers, because those let them think they're getting more work done. And they like alcohol as the social lubricant and memory suppressor that it is. At least those are the socially acceptable drugs. Even Meth is acceptable to them if taken in pill for rather than being smoked.
The downers all seem to be demonized. The refrain is that they make you lazy or some such bullshit. As if some of the most (admittedly misguidedly) productive times of my life weren't fueled by pot.
I got really into carpentry and stone carving for a time back in high school, and if YouTube had existed I would likely have gotten into metal casting as well. All to make some okay pipes and bongs. I'm sure I could do better these days, but was proud at the time.