Your Great-Grandma Was Hopped Up on Stuff
June 12th, 2009 by Russ
For those of us caught up in the day to day world of drug politics, it can be easy to forget just how new the concept of ‘illegal drugs’ really is. Pharmacy blog, Pill Talk, provided a big dose of historical perspective this week in releasing a collection of old posters and billboards hocking all manner of substances that no upstanding company would affiliate itself with in today’s whitewashed corporate culture.
Most stemming from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the ads feature some truly amazing concoctions.
Miss Winslow’s Soothing Syrup was designed to quiet restless babies especially at the time of teething. Little did babies and their mothers know that the syrup’s secret ingredient was morphine. Those babies were soothed alright. There’s even a terrific vintage testimonial in the New York Times archive lauding the syrup’s ability to quiet entire households of screaming rugrats.
Bayer, the long-time drug manufacturer, experimented with several substances before focusing on wonder drug, aspirin. One such substance was heroin, which, not surprisingly, turned out to be a terrific cough suppressant. As it happens, it also tended to suppress just about everything else, except for the desire to buy more Bayer Heroin, of course.
And finally, there’s the soft drink of lore, Coca Cola. As urban legend (and PillTalk) tells us, the name came from the fact that the drink used to be a simple mix of wine and cocaine. I fail to see how corn syrup and phosphoric acid could ever hope to compete with their far more stimulating predecessors.
Drug-Running Grandma
December 2nd, 2006 by Alex
Note: This isn’t the busted granny.
There are plenty of habits that are bad for you and plenty of habits that can get you into trouble. Now we can add bingo to the list.
A 61 year old granny, Leticia Villareal, got busted with 214 pounds of marijuana in her trunk. State troopers confiscated the 10 hidden packages when she was pulled over in Bisbee, Arizona. Why did she have it on her in the first place? To pay for an extreme bingo addiction.
Prosecutor Doyle Johnstun said this:
People who play bingo almost every night of the week end up losing in the long run. The underlying issue is that she’s got a bingo problem, which explains why an otherwise nice person might get sucked into something like this.
I’m not sure about anyone else, but if it comes down to drug running or not playing bingo – I’m going to choose the latter. Now Leticia faces up to 12 years in federal prison.
Bingo is one hell of a drug…
[via CNN]
US Customs Bust 60 Year Old Lady
November 16th, 2006 by Alex
On Tuesday, damn early in the morning, Carmen Franco and her son Ramon Franco entered the Columbus, New Mexico entry port. Officers decided to give her car some face-to-face time and discovered a hidden compartment in the bumper. Ouch. Stuffed in the bumper was 198 pounds of weed. That’s a cool $200k in South-of-the-border cheeba. Someone back in Mexico is going to be really pissed off about that. They even found a small bonus bag filled with 83 grams of cocaine.
Customs agents showed up after the bust to arrest Carmen and her son. They were charged with, “importation of a controlled substance and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance.”
Another day, another failed attempt at getting drugs into the US.
