
Mickey Mouse on Speed: 'Mickey Mouse and the Medicine Man' - ColinWright
http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/mickey_mouse_medicine_man/mickey_mouse_medicine_man.shtml
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archgoon
From the bottom of the page,

"During the 1950′s, a number of stimulant and sedative drugs were widely used
and were promoted in the mainstream media. At the time, many amphetamines were
available over the counter without a prescription, including Benzedrine."

I find this to be quite interesting, as this means that what are now illegal
drugs had been legal for about 20 years before the Controlled Substances Act
of 1970[1]. This means that there was a fairly established industry selling
what are now controlled drugs, a fact that I hadn't really thought through
before.

It makes me wonder whether if at the time if the Drug industry was simply not
that important, or if the 1970 law was similar to the Farm Bills, where by
accepting more regulation, the drug companies would receive less competition.
If that's the case, there might be an interesting story to be told (probably
mostly wrong) about how the Drug War brought about the current power of the
Pharmaceutical Companies, unrelated to the patent laws involved. In any case,
it looks like a part of history that I haven't paid too much attention to,
that I should look at. Fun times!

[1][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_Substances_Act](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_Substances_Act)

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pstuart
I am an unapologetic proponent of legalizing _all_ drugs, however, I'm not
sure what the best way is to sell them.

The freedom to conduct business runs into the moral responsibility of selling
compounds that can serious have potential for abuse. Should advertising be
allowed at all?

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epochwolf
Allow them to be sold but disallow advertising and discounting. This is
already done with tobacco.

~~~
DanBC
The UK has a pretty bad problem with alcohol. More people are dying of alcohol
related illnesses, especially young people. Liver disease which used to be
rare among young people is rising. Alcohol costs A&E units about £1bn per
year. (1 ambulance is called every 14 seconds to deal with an alcohol related
problem.) Alcohol costs hospitals about £2.3bn per year. We have 'drunk buses'
\- paramedic vehicles that only deal with alcohol related illnesses in city
centres at night times. Some hospitals have set up "drunk tanks" to ease the
pressure on A&E units by giving drunks a cot to sober up on, with mild
supervision, without taking up the resources of a real A&E bed.

We only have about 70m people in the country.

I strongly support legalising all drugs, but we failed pretty hard with
alcohol.

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Amadou
If we take the recently publicized Rat Park addiction study as a guide, the
problem isn't so much with the alcohol as with the social environment. If
these people are abusing alcohol to seek refuge from excessive stress in their
daily lives then it won't really matter all that much how the drugs are sold -
we'll need to address the root problem of so many people feeling like "rats in
a cage."

[http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130910-drug-addiction-
the-...](http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130910-drug-addiction-the-complex-
truth/all)

~~~
DanBC
The social environment in the UK has evolved to create "vertical drinking
environments".

You take tables and chairs out, so that you can get more people in. This also
means that people are holding their drinks, which makes them drink quicker.

You play loud music. It's hard to talk. So people drink quicker.

You offer drink promotions, and stay open for long hours. This means that
people drink more.

Sounds like hell, but people drink lots.

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roberte3
The old Floyd Gottfredson Mickey Mouse stories are quite amazing. I have a
volume of reprints where Mickey gets jealous of another dude going after
Minnie Mouse, and tries to kill himself with a gun, jumping off a bridge,
drowning and with gas.

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fsniper
Yes this is interesting but isn't it more of a reddit post than a HN post?

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seniortaco
Mickey Mouse -> Walter White, Goofy -> Jesse, Peppo -> Meth

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jlas
Did you create your account to make this silly comment?

