Anne Case and Angus Deaton.

3,201 words

Part I

When Purdue Pharmaceutical introduced OxyContin, their marketing for the drug was aggressive, efficient, unscrupulous, and amoral. Resources were poured into advertising; the company spent $200 million on marketing in 2001. Sales grew from $48 million in 1996 to $1.1 billion in 2000, (more…)

2,670 words

During the 1970s and 1980s, when libertarian ideas were in the air, Ayn Rand a fashionable writer, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher had romped to power, and the Chicago Boys were invited to demonstrate the merits of free-market economics in South America, a lively debate was being pursued in libertarian circles on how far freedom can go.

Didn’t free individuals have the right to take their own lives, (more…)

1,507 words

Aleister Crowley’s essay “Cocaine” is not among his most-discussed works, being overshadowed by those more esoteric, salacious, or dense. Nonetheless, “Cocaine” is an entry worth noting in the Crowley catalog on account of its prophetic nature and as an insight into Crowley’s personal philosophy and mental state.

Crowley begins with a tantalizing weave spun about the seemingly supernatural powers of cocaine; referring to it as an “herb,” he describes its capacity to provide man with near-immediate self-satisfaction and thumos-imbued energy. (more…)

1,265 words

Methamphetamine is the drug for people in hardworking cultures. It was first synthesized in Japan in 1893. It was used by the German and American armies during the Second World War. Initially, meth was considered a miracle drug. It was a pick-me-up that also treated depression, obesity, and erectile dysfunction. Meth also helped a person work hard without breaks, food, or water. (more…)

2,891 words

Beth Macy
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America
New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2018

There is a heavy price to be paid for white dispossession. During the 1970s, white “ethnics” in the North indemnified dispossession when their schools and neighborhoods were destroyed by integration. (more…)