3 ms·
I had heard of his story in pop culture references (the van with enough acid to dose a major city) before, but did not know as much about him till I saw your co
by rudiv 7y ago
I had heard of his story in pop culture references (the van with enough acid to dose a major city) before, but did not know as much about him till I saw your comment and perused his Wikipedia page. This passage was particularly interesting to me:
> Pickard was the first American researcher to predict an epidemic of fentanyl and carfentanyl. At Harvard, he was appointed as a research associate in neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, where he was a drug policy fellow in the ad hoc Harvard Initiative on Drugs and Addictions, under the Program in Mind, Brain and Behavior.[6] In a presentation at the Harvard Faculty Club in 1996, Pickard proposed that fentanyl and carfentanyl use would become epidemic, and suggested specific policies for preventing wide-spread abuse. Pickard's prediction was 20 years in advance of the 2018 opioid crisis.[6]
> In federal court on March 12-13, 2003, Pickard testified in detail on this prediction, based upon his research among more than 200 addicts in Boston and Moscow and his study of rare fentanyl use. Original overheads from the Harvard Faculty Club presentation were seized by DEA in a Boston locker in November, 2000, and retained by the agency until trial in 2003, where they were entered as defense exhibits. This testimony, as a public record, was more than 15 years before the actual epidemic occurred.[7]
Given that the man is currently imprisoned because he manufactured substances that the government deemed the harmful to specify because of their potential for abuse, it's hard not to conclude that either he is a hypocrite or the people who imprisoned him are.
- modzu 7y agolsd is neither addictive nor toxic
- viktorvamos 7y agoaddictive is quite a loose term, things like weed and acid may not cause a chemical addiction - but they are extremely habit forming.
- jMyles 7y agoLSD is habit forming? ...and although many people (myself included) use cannabis in a habitual way, I don't think it's "extremely" habit forming. If cannabis represents the extreme in this metric, then it is a very flat extreme since it also has to include sugar, crack cocaine, nicotine, etc, users of which obviously develop much more dire habits much more quickly. I don't know that either of these are habit forming so much as that people realize their benefit and choose to use them in some sort of routine.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- viktorvamos 7y agosorry i was referring to microdosing lsd. everyone has their experiences, personally i know a few people whos smoking habits have been detrimental to themselves. i think theres this mantra of "its not addictive - legalise it!" when there are other qualities of these substances that may cause issues, however it's very hard to place weed on a scale of consumption benefit compared to other substances. For me, smoking a lot of weed deprecates my memory significantly, something which i value quite highly, things like sugar and nicotine to not do this. dire effects of these habits are also hard to quantify - i value mental health over physical health... i'd rather be addicted to cigs than be addicted [sic] to weed!
- XaoDaoCaoCao 7y agoNot in the same manner of alcoholism or stimulant/opioid addiction. Especially the psychedelic drugs. They punish harshly for trying to "trip" multiple times in a row. You'd have to take an absurd amount to abuse it in the same manner as the classical "hard" drugs. It's incredibly easy to restrain oneself to a 1xweek usage. It's like a incredibly cheap Friday night trip to the movies in that context. t. Someone who's tripped hundreds of times with no ill symptoms PS: Sunrises are so godamn beautiful on the comedown. If only one could bequeath the beauty of such moments as a shareable gift.
- viktorvamos 7y agoim referring to microdosing acid