In the wake of the recent reclassification of mephedrone (4-methylmethcathinone) in Britain as a class B drug, new chemicals — many apparently manufactured in China — have rushed to fill the void. According to press reports, the most prevalent of these is naphyrone (nrg-1), which is sold over the internet where it is often labelled as…
The Memphis Jug Band recorded in the 1920s and 30s with an ever-changing line-up of musicians and instruments, usually including a liquor jug used as a wind instrument to supply the bass line. According to the Black Media Archive, the personnel on this track included Will Shade (harmonica), Tee Wee Blackman (guitar), Ben Ramey (kazoo), Ham Lewis (jug), and Hattie Hart (vocals). The lyrics use few words to limn an evocative portrait of the role of cocaine in certain communities in the early 20th century. Version of “Cocaine Habit Blues” were recorded by Leadbelly, The Byrds, Old Crow Medicine Show, and others.
In April,the Labour government banned mephedrone (4-methylmethcathinone) in part because the deaths of two British teenagers were associated with the drug. Yesterday, The Guardian (U.K.) reported on the results of post-mortem toxicology tests: no mephedrone was found in the teens’ bodies. The paper interviewed Professor Roumen Sedefov from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, who stated he was aware of only one death clearly linked to mephedrone — that of a woman in Sweden. It is not clear from the story whether methadone was also involved in that death.
The New Scientist also reports on this story, and provides a link to a compilation of mephedrone myths, including one headlined “Legal drug teen ripped his scrotum off“.
An article today in The Telegraph (U.K.) claims that Botticelli’s great painting “Venus and Mars” depicts not post coital bliss (or tristesse) but Jimson Weed (Datura stromonium) poisoning! A description from London’s National Gallery, which displays the painting, comments that: “The scene is of an adulterous liaison, as Venus was the wife of Vulcan,…
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