16.36 Eddie's Opioid Program

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36.  Eddie uses morphine under tongue for repose and good thinking. But he needs a new source and after getting a good relationship with his new friend and general physician, Dr Kuriyama he explains how he has been relying on the morphine to order his thought and life.
   "I cannot prescribe it for you here," Koori advises. "But in place we have pentacozine we call pentagin. I am allowed to give it for pain as much as two 25 mg tablets four times a day for two-week supply, 84 pills at a time." He adds. "You can get it on your Japanese national health insurance for discount; the equivalent of twenty US cents a pill."
   Eddie says OK, and Koori writes the order that allows Eddie to pick up the pills downstairs at the hospital pharmacy.
   Before trying out the pill, Eddie reads that pentacozine is what has been called designer drug.  Also known as Talwin in U.S.A., it was designed to be less addicting because it is a partial antagonist such that at low dose it has opium effect but at higher dose it makes one feel unpleasant.
   Over the next months, Eddie experiments. Quickly he discovers the 25 mg dose is too strong for his use, which is to give a quiet, good thinking repose of one hour but not put one to sleep or make drowsiness and not give a too strong pleasure effect that could become addicting. Even a half pill, 12.5 mg is too much. He settles on quartered pill, using his pill cutter to give four c. 6 mg doses. As he did with the morphine, he puts the quartered pill under tongue and sits or lies down to have a good 30-minute or 1-hour think.
   Here, several months into his use, is a typical pentagin repose.
   It is late night at the Shack that Eddie has modernized and lives in with Ryo and Yuko. Eddie sits in the front room, at the kotatsu on the good-touch tatami floor, his legs dangling, typing into his computer on the table over it.

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Eddie is working on a project: Improving and updating Physician's Notebooks.
 His Swiss wristwatch alarm goes bzzzzz. Twelve oh one, he notes - a new calendar day. Behaving in accord with the Notebooks 1 chapter on Managing Time's Passage starting one minute after the new hour, Eddie stops his chore. Time for me for a pentagin repose, he thinks, resetting his alarm to buzz at 12:31. 

  Reaching into his hapi jacket left pocket, he takes the quarter pill out, places it under tongue, lies back head down on the tatami and, using hand control, lowers the overhead light to minimal glow. It is the start of a pentagin repose. First he locates himself in time: Six June 1980, Sunday, the new calendar day twelve oh one AM in Tokyo or, in my old Bronx, eleven AM daylight-saving time, the previous day, Saturday.

Three minutes later, Eddie notes  going-gone his paranoias - Does the US tax authority have me on their list? Will others to whom I owe money find me? Will I suddenly get cancer? Will Ryo kick me out? and other worries -gone—-and with that, he finds his mind superbly sharp. In this state, he can figure out complex mathematical equations, can decide problematic questions and feels like he has all the time in the world and is getting pleasure from every moment. Various questions pass his mind one of which is sexual desire for the young Yuko. He cannot help noticing it because of the close living. And the tantalizing question Should I try? Now, under the clear light of a pentagin repose Eddie sees he should keep his hands off. The reason lies in his life with Ryo being so ideal that he can't believe his present happiness. But he also sees that as Yuko's mother, she views Eddie in a paternal position to her daughter and any sexual attempt on the young woman will destroy the family fabric. A No go, he thinks, and his mind moves on to other aspects of his life that he deals with just as constructively. Eddie now only rarely acts out decisions not made in pentagin repose.

   He considers progressing the efficient life - making every act with a minimal waste of energy and time. If I must change a metro train, change in direction of destination, do not detour or go backwards. Then a flitting thought: Hand and body orifice cleanliness, especially before kissing or intruding on another's! Therefore the routine antiseptic alcohol on hands before meeting someone, the mouthwash before kissing or oral sex, the anal orifice cleansing with alcohol after the WC.
  These  are just a few useful thinks (He likes to use thinks for bits of thinking or thoughts) that pass Eddie's mind in a pentagin repose.
     Bzzzzzz goes his alarm - 12:31. He sits up and attends to his information highway.

  Eddie has compiled a list of shortwave radio communicants - some like Dr Stan, Miss Prissy and Miss Ali & Guy in Winnepeg with attached computer; some like Olga & Boris in Russian Far East by shortwave spoken only. With them he conducts an interchange of information. Tonight, stimulated by Professor Edwardes's seminar he types out an emotional statement that asks all New People to pursue personal excellence to work toward a science civilization, to smash the old culture. That done, he goes into the rear room and lies down inside the futon next to Ryo. But he does not disturb her for sex; he has learned to respect the other person's personal space and comfort and to do so even if it means delaying his own.
    End of Section. To continue next, click 16.(37-38) Precepts from the Opioid Pentagin Repo...