edgarshade
Bluelighter
Havana Times
October 8, 2011
Erasmo Calzadilla
With reader comments
Part I
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http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=52557
Part II
December 3, 2011
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http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=56931
October 8, 2011
Erasmo Calzadilla
With reader comments
Part I
A few days ago a young relative of mine came up to me acting mysteriously. It seems he felt tempted to try drugs for the first time and was going around looking for advice. What was I supposed to do? …refuse to help? …tell him that drugs are bad?
To begin with, we can read the intention of the author in their own words:
“To create in students a culture that rejects these manifestations (drug consumption) that are not in accordance with the ethical and moral principles of society.
“To develop within them (the students) strong convictions and true feelings in keeping with the ethical standards promoted by our society.”
This is the line of a voluntarist, disrespectful, complacent elite whose preferred teaching method is instilling their own dogmas and prejudices (assumed to be high moral truths) in the minds of others.
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http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=52557
Part II
December 3, 2011
One of the most widely used devices for those who debate without solid arguments is lump all the varying cases into one category: those that excite as well as those that calm, the strong ones with the subtle, those that are dangerous to people’s health together with the relatively innocuous ones. This is precisely what was done by the author of the pamphlet and the specialists who advised him.
Specifically regarding LSD, the brochure reads: “It is a product highly toxic to human health, especially given the neurological impairment it produces…”
I have reviewed a large number of scientific and non-scientific articles that confirm the very low toxicity of LSD and other psychedelics in the short-term and long-term.
The “margin of safety” is a parameter used in pharmacology to assess the toxicity of a substance in the body. With aspirin, for example, it is low: 1/20. However, with LSD it is lower still: 1/600. In other words, LSD is hundreds of times less lethal than the most popular painkiller in the world.
In the case of “magic mushrooms” (entheogen carriers such as psilocybin mushrooms), a person would have to eat roughly their own weight in fresh mushrooms for these to kill them – meaning they would die of indigestion before they would of intoxication.
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http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=56931
