the Brink’s pill heist
Thieves in Connecticut cut a hole in a warehouse roof, rappelled inside, and made off with $75million in — antidepressants.
“This is like the Brink’s pill heist,” said Erik Gordon, a University of Michigan business professor who studies the health care industry. “This one will enter the folklore.”
I’m going back
to Texas tomorrow, y’all. For a week, anyways.
Big party on Dutton Drive. The last waltz. The final hurrah.
“Hey, my mom’s not at home. You wanna come over?”
Year 4~Day 82 +53/365 AND Day 1178: Necessity is the Mother of Invention
From a Flickr set by Old Shoe Woman.
I just used everything in the refrigerator to make a sandwich for brunch.
“That’s where it all began,” Ventola said.
The media reported that black-tar heroin was sweeping through town, killing users. That “made people want it more,” said Paul Hunter, a Huntington police narcotics officer. “Addicts are always looking for the best high.”
From a series of articles in the LA Times about Xalisco Mexico, middle-class America, black-tar heroin, decentralized business models, and addiction.
Redemption
Sorry I’ve been quiet of late. I have much to share that may or may not be of interest to ‘flockers, but this glimpse into the mind of my late Uncle Ray (through a letter to his friend Jim) may provoke:
The once “Bro. Jim”,
After prayer and meditation the Lord, in His wisdom and compassion, has led me to extend the hand of civility and forgiveness to you who have fallen so far from the fold. But I do not want to place undue emphasis on how far you have fallen or the depths of your depravity but rather on the Hope that shines eternal through His grace and redemptive power. It is truly grace because you, of all people, have through your sins, blasphemies and contemptuous behavior, earned an eternity in hell. If you escape your destiny only grace can account for it. It warms my heart to extend a gracious welcome back to the fraternity of the true believers, the promise keepers if you will. All you need to do is open your heart. It matters not that you reek of fish, gin, campsmoke and possibly loose women (could not tell from the fish odor) so long as you are sincere in your confession of sin.
Come as you are as we softly sing “Just As I Am”.
You cannot imagine how my heart swells to see a sinner return to the Truth as I see it. You should be aware that the Lord’s forgiveness is complete and total but mine is more exacting. Lacking the supernatural powers to see into your heart, I must judge by outward behavior. You would serve your rehabilitation well by inviting Joyce and me up to a Cardinal game before the season is over. That would be a splendid sign of an intent to climb out of the cesspool of degradation and self-elevation that you have inhabited.
You were once a good boy. I’ve been told that. By you, but it was convincing at the time. Open your heart. Accept this lifeline. Put on the raiments of salvation and join me when we celebrate for an eternity. Just put your hand on the computer and say “Bro. Ray intercede for me because I am lost and unworthy but I want to be found and redeemed.”
Jesus and I patiently wait,
Bro. Ray
Spiritual Warrior
These letters keep my dear Uncle alive for me. I hope you enjoy them too.
K2
No, not the mountain, but what the midwestern kids are smoking these days:
Erickson said the police purchased K2 in Lawrence and brought it back to Johnson County to test the chemical breakup of the product. He said the tests suggested that K2 contained a synthetic version of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.
“It’s definitely not a form of marijuana,” Erickson said, “but it mimics the effects on the body,”
A senior named John, who asked that his last name be withheld, said he was a regular marijuana smoker who decided to try K2 recently after hearing about it in the news.
John said he thought K2 produced a bodily effect similar to marijuana but only tasted “OK.” He said there were a number of other reasons why he wouldn’t make K2 his drug of choice.
“It’s a relaxing feeling, but it doesn’t have the head high of weed,” John said. “It’s nothing straight to the dome like weed.”
John said he thought those who did not smoke marijuana regularly would find K2 to be more potent than he did. However, because of the price and availability of marijuana in the area, John said he would stick with the illegal product.
“Great weed in this town is so readily available that I’d much rather just go to a dealer than some store,” John said.
Clever name, though, I’ll give them that.
Trailer for El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky. 1970)
The strangest movie I’d recommend?
Allen Klein presents an ABKCO Film.
quote out of context
I think Seattle’s dumbass dodgeball league on Capitol Hill is keeping more kids off drugs than all the efforts of all past Drug Czars combined.
from the comments
Josh:
I had a family member once go on to me about Ashley Smith, the woman who talked down the Atlanta Courthouse Shooter by reading him excerpts from The Purpose Driven Life, and how this was evidence of providence and the power of the holy spirit throughout the ordeal.
But, then we found out about all that meth they took together and how she made him waffles.
What is killing the octopuses of Vila Nova de Gaia?
Twelve hundred pounds is a lot of dead cephalopod, especially when no one seems to know for sure what killed them.
One possibility:
In December 2007, Portuguese police confiscated 9.4 tons of cocaine in a shipment of frozen octopus from Venezuela. “I suppose it’s possible that someone defrosted the animals, took out the cocaine, then threw their bodies overboard,” says Weber.
Dear Clusterflock: Do you keep drugs that you no longer have a use for?
I do.
I have no idea why. I have an extensive range of anti-depressants that I have no use for and a pot of Valium® that were prescribed to the dog when she had the canine version of alzheimer’s. I also have a box full of potions, creams and pills that have long lost their power to heal and always get in the way of current stuff when I need it and yet, I keep it!
How about you?
home coming
He prayed for a moment in the silent night, [...] and for Lewis, too. In another year he would be sailing for England. That would be a coming home, also. England and Oxford. And he and Lewis would talk deeply and drink some beer and perhaps, as Lewis had written, get high.
- Sheldon Vanauken on his friend C.S. Lewis, A Severe Mercy.
(via)
[Because of the Strength]
A Half would Have worked
empty doesn’t
Empty
Suck ASS
More than an inner ear problem
Why I Love Texas, No. 782
There were two guys in the closet. They appeared to be sleeping, one was snoring and the other was deceased,” said Assistant Chief Deputy Mark Herman. “It appeared that they were doing some sort of narcotics, at least the one that they woke up.
free bibles lead to drug use
According to the ACLU, students at Vines High School in Plano were given so many Bibles that they threw them at one another, sold them, tore them up and used the pages to roll a marijuana joint.
Plus bonus antisemitism.
“Boy always was a disappointment…”
Method Man has been arrested for tax evasion. From The A.V. Club:
[T]he rapper-actor has turned himself in on tax evasion charges after failing to pay four years worth of back taxes totaling almost thirty-three thousand dollars. [...] We hope Method and the IRS come to an agreement amenable to both parties and are cautiously optimistic that Method Man will be able stay out of the slammer.
Two points to whoever gets the reference.
Phone’s Ringing, Dude
This is showing at 8 pm on Friday, at the theater in our neighborhood.
I’m thinkin’….
Djarum
Djarum got his ass deported, but that other kid is still around:
And, another thing, the dude always smells like chocolate or fruit or like a campfire that’s been peed out. Seriously. Last summer, I was at Six Flags Fiesta Texas waiting to get on the Superman ride and all of a sudden I caught a whiff of what smelled like someone dousing strawberries in hair spray and then lighting them on fire. I looked behind me and there’s this Swisher guy, wearing a Latrell Sprewell novelty jersey and looking violent. Weird, right? It gets weirder. About two months later I was at Brunswick Bowl, working on a real solid game, when who should I see two lanes over but Swisher, smelling like he’s bathed in nothing but peaches for the last week. Peaches! You believe that? It was all very unsettling and I ended up with a less-than-stellar 221.
Dear Clusterflock: Have you embarrassed yourself in public?
I have done it many times, but the occasion that makes my skin crawl, I was totally unaware of at the time.
It was 1978, I was 20 and needed all four wisdom teeth extracted. This was to take place in hospital under a general anesthetic. It was normally a go in early leave afternoon procedure. The operation went well, I was returned to the ward and the nurses wanted to remove the operating gown and get me into pajamas.
Well, they got me into a top and apparently I then started to fight with them. So they gave me a jab to make me sleep and bundled me into bed bottomless! I woke some hours later. I thought it was the middle of the night, I had a mouth full of blood from the operation, all I wanted to do was get to the bathroom to deal with it. What I didn’t realise in my condition was, that it was evening visiting time and I was wandering the ward with only a top on. The nurses tried to return me to bed, but I was having none of it. I was wrestled unceremoniously to the ground, sedated and dragged back to bed – I woke the next day totally unaware of what had happened.
Until they told me!
Chuck Klosterman on the [remastered] Beatles
If you like harmonies or guitar overdubs or the sun or Norwegian lesbians or taking drugs during funerals, you will probably sleep with these records on the first date. Rubber Soul gets an A- because I don’t speak French. Revolver gets an A+, mostly because of “She Said She Said” and “For No One,” but partially because I hate filing my taxes.
The Pain Just Melts Away…
the placebo effect is getting stronger
It’s not that the old meds are getting weaker, drug developers say. It’s as if the placebo effect is somehow getting stronger.
But first, a little history.
The roots of the placebo problem can be traced to a lie told by an Army nurse during World War II as Allied forces stormed the beaches of southern Italy. The nurse was assisting an anesthetist named Henry Beecher, who was tending to US troops under heavy German bombardment. When the morphine supply ran low, the nurse assured a wounded soldier that he was getting a shot of potent painkiller, though her syringe contained only salt water. Amazingly, the bogus injection relieved the soldier’s agony and prevented the onset of shock.
A little context.
By attempting to dominate the central nervous system, Big Pharma gambled its future on treating ailments that have turned out to be particularly susceptible to the placebo effect.
Holy fuck:
Potter discovered, however, that geographic location alone could determine whether a drug bested placebo or crossed the futility boundary. By the late ’90s, for example, the classic antianxiety drug diazepam (also known as Valium) was still beating placebo in France and Belgium. But when the drug was tested in the US, it was likely to fail. Conversely, Prozac performed better in America than it did in western Europe and South Africa. It was an unsettling prospect: FDA approval could hinge on where the company chose to conduct a trial.
And much much more.
Quote out of context
That’d be like me taking chemotherapy because I’m tired of shaving my head.
Something unusual is happening in Kansas
I think the Guardian’s best work is done when they find people at the heart of raging issues, and let them tell their own stories. This article is about a highly unusual doctor in Kansas who has set up a clinic for people who are uninsured, people who can’t afford any healthcare. Dr. Sharon Lee treats them, free of charge. Dr. Lee’s clinic exists on the basis of donations and the fact that all staff – remarkably, including Dr. Lee herself – are paid a flat rate of $12 per hour. Just let that fact sink in for a while.
Featured in the article is the story of a porsche-driving gynaecologist who lost his practise when he developed symptoms of Huntingdon’s disease – it took a while for him to even get diagnosed – that made it impossible for him to work, and with it went his health insurance, and with the cost of his medication, very quickly went the snazzy house, the cars, and the rest of it. He now lives in a small flat in the suburbs and regularly has to choose between food and medication. The fickleness of American life never ceases to amaze me.
And while you’re at it, check out this five minute audio sample from Dr. Lee’s clinic. What a fucking hero.