The Ph.D. Candidate Who Said Too Much: A Drug History Whitewash

The chapter rejected by Dr. David Hillman’s doctoral committee eventually became the basis of his book, The Chemical Muse (2008).

As he writes in its introduction:

I wanted the modern West to see that its founding fathers were drug users, plain and simple; they grew the stuff, they sold the stuff, and, most important, they used the stuff. The modern antidrug campaign is not a democratic movement at all; the ancient world didn’t have a Nancy Reagan, it didn’t wage a billion-dollar drug war, it didn’t imprison people who used drugs, and it didn’t embrace sobriety as a virtue. It indulged … and from this world in which drugs were a universally accepted part of life sprang art, literature, science, and philosophy. (Hillman, p. 3)

On his doctoral experience:

Unfortunately, the moral bent that so characterizes contemporary Classicists forces them to write histories that best promote the cultural agendas of our times, rather than the actual facts of the past …. Blacklisting is not a cruelty of the distant, uninformed past; it’s a very real phenomenon that flourishes within academic circles today, whether in the humanities or the sciences. (Hillman, p. 222)

Hillman is not alone. The classicist, Dr. Carl A.P. Ruck, contributed to the book, The Road to Eleusis (1978), that explored the Athenians use of a natural version of LSD in a sacred ceremony. (A co-contributor was Albert Hofmann.) Ruck’s scholarship in this area, which has been published in a peer reviewed journal, is not challenged but simply ignored. Ruck has said about the stigma of his work:

One anonymous reader, before the book finally found a publisher complained that “the author had had a good education at the best schools,” but that somehow I’d gone wrong …. Students who work with me have been warned that they will be blacklisted. My textbooks in grammar, as well, as if by contagion, are viewed by some as suspect and a threat to normalcy. (Hillman, p. 209)

Link of Note: A 2008 article on Hillman in the Madison, Wisconsin weekly, Isthmus, that includes his doctoral committee’s response. LINK

Next Post: A peek at some of the evidence of classical drug use found in Hillman’s book. LINK

Sources:

1. D.C.A. Hillman, The Chemical Muse: Drug Use and the Roots of Western Civilization (2008). LINK
2. Kevin Revolinski, “Everybody Musta Got Stoned,” Isthmus, 31 Oct. 2008. LINK

The Narc Who Got High: What In The Heck Is The Big Deal?

Richard Mack’s story is taken from his chapter, “Prohibition: The Enemy of Freedom,” in the book, The New Prohibition: Voices of Dissent Challenge the Drug War (2004). Other highlights include the following.

Marijuana made him happy:

The marijuana made me somewhat dizzy, and I do mean somewhat; it was certainly minimal, and it made me a little happy and I got the “munchies.” (p. 16)

Alcohol made him gag (literally) although he reports Hamm’s beer “went down the easiest” (p. 16):

I saw people who smoked pot all day and others who drank all day. The pot smokers were much more in control of their physical and mental faculties than the drinkers were. In all my twenty years of law enforcement I have never seen a person who has smoked marijuana to be in a condition of staggering, slobbering, and throwing up. Too many times, however, I have seen booze drinkers in such a condition, and much worse. (p. 16)

Debating arresting his friend, Ted, whom he met as an undercover:

Ted and I were different. He smoked, he drank, at times he used marijuana, and his morals were not in line with my Mormon background. But he was a good man. He cared about his children, and he was a hard worker. He was loyal and understanding, and he had a great sense of humor …. Why were we arresting people, some really decent people, for smoking marijuana? Should we arrest all the “Teds” in the country? Take his sports car, ruin his career, give him an arrest record and some jail time, and maybe overall just teach him a lesson? (pp. 13-14)

As a Utah police officer Mack rose to the level of sergeant. He was later elected sheriff of Graham County, Arizona.

Richard Mack’s website: SheriffMack.com

Pink Nipples: Meet a Hooker Who Enjoys Her Job

According to sex-negative feminists no women choose sex work. (See the following post, “The $1,000/hr Victim.”). Therefore all sex workers and their customers should be criminals.

It was difficult for sex workers to attack this flapdoodle previously because it would require revealing their identities. Thanks to the Internet, sex workers can now take on the righteous prudes without fearing the vice police.

I have not seen anyone do this online as colorfully as the Modern Hooker (“MH”). MH makes an “ass ton of money” as a prostitute and began cartooning about her experiences in April of 2009. MH started prostituting on the streets of Hollywood when she was 19. She comes from a family of university professors and actually researched prostitution at the library as a newbie.

Her initial foray lasted less than a year and she went on to have a career and a family. When her kids were older she entered the business again as a “cougar” because she was “bored in [her] career, wanted to make more money, have easier hours and get laid without having to deal with relationships.” (dreidel_hustler)

You can learn more about her in this interview where she reveals how much it costs to have a sex worker take a dump on you ($400), what the latest rage is (prostate massage), and how to find a good escort (The Escort Ratings Report).

All of her cartoons can be found in a higher resolution at Carnal Nation. Her personal site is ModernHooker.com.

To preempt those like Diane Sawyer who say proud sex workers are extremely rare and that desperate street prostitutes are the norm, street-based prostitution only accounts for roughly 15% of prostitution in America. (Murphy)

Sources:

1. Alexandra Murphy & Sudhir Venkatesh, “Vice Careers,” Qualitative Sociology, June 2006.
2. dreidel_hustler, “Modern Hooker: The Heeb Interview,” Heeb, 12 May 2009. LINK