From http://adventuresofkimi.blogspot.com Slim Novel 18, Chapter 15.
15. Seminar on Use of Opioids
Meanwhile, back in Tokyo, the gang gathers around the brown oval table at the International House conference room #1 for a Sunday Seminar.
The gang, today, starts with Eddie sitting at the head of the table in open-neck, pullover black shirt. Since Professor Edwardes's death, Eddie chairs the seminars. The white haired, diplomat, black-suited Kimura is on Eddie's right. On his left, in conservative suit is Professor Amano the noted eye surgeon. Across from him is the old painter Ivan who had been Eddie's pal in Occupied Japan and gone native. He is dressed in paint-stained pullover polo shirt and Levi Pants. Then around the opposite end of the table from Eddie are several new seminarans who had noted the seminar on the lobby board announcement.
1PM. Eddie stands. "Hello folks, Sunday Seminar. Today we discuss drugs and by drugs I mean recreational drugs that people make use of in order to relax, enjoy and avoid boredom.
Kimura interrupts as is usual in Seminar. "Sir, please name the drugs."
"Sure, Ken. Without naming every one, the categories are the Opioids, also known as opiates; then the stimulants like amphetamines include Ritalin, Cocaine and like drugs; and the psychedelics the most popular, Marijuana."
"What about prescription drugs?" a Seminaran asks.
"Most of those fall into the sedative-sleep pill category. But first I want to mention the problem of referring to everything as 'drugs' ".
"Why?" another Seminaran asks.
"There are huge differences in the effects and dangers. First, the stimulants do what their name says, a bit more than caffeine coffee, but at the price of constricting your arteries, worsening high blood pressure and causing younger age strokes due to hemorrhage. The stimulants have been romanticized by the popular use of cocaine and the amphetamines, but, really, one can get much of the effect albeit shorter term by caffeine coffee on an empty stomach, mornings. For an intelligent, informed person the price in risk of stimulants shortening life and damaging brain is not worth the "high" and all the legal and criminal and financial problems involved in getting a supply.
"What about young persons experimenting?" Eddie's younger wife, Yuko, asks.
"In the ideal society, in our, hopefully coming, science-civilization, young persons, meaning teenagers and early twenties, would have a guided tour of the scientific use of all the drugs in order to allay curiosity. The person who guides should be an experienced physician or nurse who would also incorporate discussion of the short and long term bad effects of each category of drugs." He pauses to let this sink in, then continues. "The purpose would be to remove the mystique of drug taking. At present young persons are taught by other young persons who have used the drugs but are basically ignorant of what the drugs do, and they create the mystique that makes the drug-taking very attractive to a young person who has never used a drug before. Being taught by a physician-mentor leads the young person into a good experience. He learns and thus becomes immune to the usual drug-taking propaganda."
"What exactly is a psychedelic drug?" asks a young Hindu Indian woman at seminar for a first time.
"It's a drug that takes you 'out of your mind'; its original model being LSD but its most popular usage, Marijuana." Eddie replies.
"But what does that mean?"
"It makes you feel you are not you, perhaps in another body. That is called depersonalization. You may have feelings of deja vu like you are in a place you know you have never been before but you feel sure you have been there or the opposite jamais vu, a feeling you are in a place you have been before but that you know for sure you have actually never been in."
"Wow! That's cool! " Quips a teenage American boy.
"Not so fast; You're getting into mystique and I want to stick to fact. In that condition you also start feeling like you are above the laws of nature - like gravity - you think you can step out of a 40th story window and walk on the air. And you try it and that's that."
Dr Amano interrupts. "And what about their psychoto-mimetic potential?"
"Wha?" Exclaims the teenager, having gotten completely lost by the jargon.
Eddie comes to his assistance; "The doctor means that the psychedelics have caused occasional users to go psychotic. And for persons at risk for schizophrenia, a psychotic break can happen after the use of a psychedelic."
"Oh!" The teenager exclaims. "Then count me out. But my friends say a joint is fun and safe?"
"Again, that is the mystique; the reality is that the psychotic-breaks, the disordered thinking, and, - keep in mind you are smoking a cigarette - lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulminary disease, aka COPD! Which are the guys you see being wheeled around with oxygen tanks, and tubes up their noses."
"Gee I never thought of that!"
Kimura interrupts; "But what about the medical use of marijuana?"
"You mean for patients with cancer to allay nausea and anxiety. Sure, no problem so long as it is physician supervised and not commercialized."
A Seminaran is waiting his turn to ask: "Now tell us about the Opioids."
Eddie had asked him to ask that. He starts "I myself began using morphine before I became a physician," Short, sharp intakes of breath are heard.
'When I was young, before becoming a doctor, I worked in a hospital and got to know an interesting psychiatrist who started me using opioids."
"Sounds very unprofessional," comments Kimura.
"Perhaps. I think he was caring a lot about my future and was worried that in this modern, permissive, politically correct milieu in which a young person today grows up, I might gravitate towards the usual, ignorant use of drugs, which means a blind experimentation guided by blindsided peers."As Eddie says this, he pointedly looks at the very young Seminaran down the table.
Eddie continues. "I'll say this for myself: I was open-minded, experimental and admired both science and the psychiatrist so when he handed me a bottle of 1 milligram morphine pills and instructed me how to use them I followed the idea."
"Sounds like a crazy kid experimenting with dope" says a middle-age Seminaran.
The very young Seminaran asks; "So how did you use it and what did you learn?"
"The one milligram pills are a minimum effective dose. This contrasts with the usual street experimentation where the capitalist profit motive dictates as high as possible dosage and as in capitalism - growth, growth, growth - in growth of dosage until overdose, or OD, is reached. But I got my pills from a world-beater expert who dispensed the pills not for profit but out of care."
"And what was it like, using?"
"I'll describe my virgin - I mean, after prior non use - experience with the first morphine pill under tongue. First, one should start such an experience in a relaxed state with mind free and, ideally, neither hungry nor having just eaten a meal. One either sits back in a comfortable chair or lies down, and the visual and aural environment should be quiet and mildly lighted. One's mind does not need to be free of worries; in fact, a reason to experiment with an opioid is to see its affect on a worried mind.
"For most persons a starting experiment is best with a pill rather than an injection. It could be morphine 1 to 3 mg, or a more easily obtained prescription opioid.
"It is best placed under the tongue and allowed to dissolve but expect the usual bitter taste. To swallow the pill is not ideal for several reasons: the stomach juices may dilute the drug and it also may be changed by food and other chemicals in the stomach; then, absorption into the system from stomach goes through the liver which "detoxifies" everything and that means a weaker effect. Absorption in the mouth is quicker and more direct and much of it goes into small arteries at base of tongue that go straight to brain where the main effect comes from."
"Wow!" Exclaims Brenda. "You really sound like you know the score!"
"Thanks." Eddie says and continues. "OK. Now for the effect. First, as implied, you should be alone in the quiet and not expecting anything in particular. With the right dose in a virgin user, you will note the effects within the first 5 minutes and then they will build for about 30 minutes, plateau for another 30 minutes and fade over the next hours."
"What effects?" asks Johnny, Brenda's boy, taking pencil notes.
“At 2 or 3 minutes, a transformation of your mental state. To explain: everyone not on an opioid, even the calmest, best psychoanalyzed, has what I call 'small paranoias'. Thoughts such as, 'What does the discomfort in my chest mean?' 'Will I discover I have a deadly cancer tomorrow?' 'Will I get a letter from IRS asking me to come for an audit?' Etcetra. Often it is just a vague uneasiness that stops one from feeling happy. Well, after a few minutes with the bitter taste of pill still in mouth, you have the thought: Hey, I'm not worried about anything anymore. Wow! I never had such clarity of thought before. And you realize, the reason we most of the time can't think clearly is our minds are cluttered with worries - free flowing angst - I call it. Well, that angst goes away and stays away for at least an hour.
"Then at around 5 minutes the pleasure points start getting noticed."
"Pleasure points?"
"Yes. I call it pleasure point-ing. They are felt most at certain body points - like knees and mid abdomen and bellybutton. Just a kind of vibration-pleasure feeling. But not only the points: your whole body tingles under the skin. And if you stretch out your arms, you feel the goodness in your muscles.
"And your mind works with crystal clarity because it is freed of anxieties and satisfied of physical needs."
"So that's it?" says another young Seminaran, disappointed at the seemingly simple description.
"Just about. Again, given the dose 1 - 3 mg, using a pill and depending on the actual opioid one is using, and also the state of one’s tolerance based on previous use, the effect lasts about 1 hour although it reverberates on the edge of consciousness for another hour or so."
"Don't you feel terrible after it wears off and don't you want another fix right away?'
"No, that is withdrawal, which happens only if you use the opioid regularly and suddenly stop. At the start you feel pretty good all through the day - that is what I call the reverberation. And the next day you just feel normal. Most new users do not right away use it regularly. Of course that depends on availability of knowledge of the effects."
"So what's so bad?"
"Opioids are a good drug that ought to be easily dispensed by physicians. Instead they have been criminalized or over-regulated and have a terrible reputation with the public." There is much more to say but Eddie, who worries about boredom setting in, has asked Kimura to call an end to it; in fact the hour is up. The purpose of seminar is not to answer all questions but to start Seminarans thinking about the difficult ones.
Yuko goes for the pizza, pasta, cokes, salads and coffee & cake in the next room.
Continuation in Private:
That evening after the seminar Eddie asks Yuko to take typing dictation because he has more thoughts he wants to get down in print.
"First, here is what I think about people in general using drugs. Again, I want to limit this to opioid type drugs because that is what I had experience with, and, also from my study, the other drugs, by which I mean stimulants and psychedelics, are intrinsically dangerous and I would not advise them for recreations. Now, among the opioids there is one particular drug, pentacozine - we say it "pen-tah-zoh-seen" which in common usage in Japan is called "pentagin" and commercially in United States is called "Talwin". This was a designer opioid made by chemists with the purpose of solving the problem of addiction. At low to moderate doses it gives all the very pleasant effects of morphine or heroin. But once you go above that, it becomes the anti drug and the effects become very, very unpleasant. In a practical sense this means it is harder to become addicted than to the usual opioid because what addiction means is that you are constantly raising the dose to get the wanted effect and finally you raise the dose so high that you go out and die on overdose, or OD. But with pentagin, way before you get into dangerous overdose the effects have become so unpleasant that you are forced to stop raising the dose.
"Having said that, I want also to say, it is still possible to become addicted to pentagin but never as seriously as to morphine and no one dies of pentagin overdose. The worst that can happen is that you need too much of it to support your habit and in the getting of the drug you may embarrass yourself professionally if you got it as a doctor or a nurse or, have to steal for it. But that only happens under the criminalization system that we presently have for recreational drugs which artificially hugely hikes the costs of the drugs. If the drugs were made available under doctor prescription only, with no other limitations, the price would drop dramatically and there would be no problem with maintaining a habit, but that is presently Utopian so anyone who is contemplating using these drugs should consider the economic system first."
Yuko interrupts. "So are you advocating that everybody should use recreational pentagin?"
He answers, "Perhaps in the ideal society, it would not make much of a difference who used it. But in our present society I would not advise it for persons who are basically happy and healthy. For them the drug-free state is best. Otherwise, this drug will be ideal for the older person. Especially as he or she approaches the inevitable dying process. The older person is saddled with worries, and also long, unpleasant boring periods." He pauses and then continues on a new tack
"Actually, the reason I am dictating all this is that, if I do say so myself, and I do, I am the world's expert on using opioids in particularly pentagin, which I have now used successfully for many years. I do not mean to be arrogant or grandiose about it but it really is true." Yuko interrupts "How come?"
"The fact is it's all because of the incredibly unintelligent system of using drugs that's been going on for over a hundred years; I mean by that the almost complete criminalization of the best recreational drugs or if not complete the doctors who prescribe it are so harassed by the government authorities that users of the drugs find it very hard to get hold of the drug especially at a reasonable price. The reason I am such an expert is, as I said, I used these drugs so successfully for a very long time and the reason I have used them so successfully is because of my close association with a friendly, cooperative psychiatrist who was a licensed physician and could prescribe it. And also he was able to teach me how to use the drug successfully. So what I have to say has value for the future use of opioids. And I am probably correct, that I am the only person in the world who over much of his life time has firstly experimented with using opioids and secondly successfully navigated a course of usefulness."
Yuko says "Gosh, I guess you're right, so tell!"
"First I have already described what it feels like as a virgin user of the opioid. Actually, I did become addicted to the drug in the beginning years. But the concept of the addiction is very connected with the way the drug is accepted in the society. Much of the addiction problem, which is scrambling around of one's life to get hold of the desired drug from the doctors, nurses, whatever, is artificially created by the system that made these drugs illegal or semi illegal. Take that system away and much of the addiction problem disappears. Having said that, there remains a true core of physical addiction. It depends on the phenomenon called 'tolerance' that means: at the start of the taking the drug you get the wonderful effect from the small dose but as you continue to take the drug you get less and less of the wonderful effect from the same dose so in response the average user will continually increase the dose to get the good effect he is seeking. So it becomes an important question which until I came along no one answered; that is, if one takes a minimal dose to get the maximal effect, and refuses to increase the dose, how long does it take for the person to become tolerant of the particular drug? In the case of pentagin, I started taking it in 1995, giving myself one injection a day several times a week. And I continued for several years until by the year 2000 I found that I was getting very minimal effect from the standard injection dose. Note here, in contrast to the typical ignorant street addict who will increase the dose of his drugs continuously in order to achieve his wanted effect, I, with the knowledge that I had about the drug, set a single standard dose - a 25 mg injection of pentagin in a 24 hour period several times in a week. And I never went above that dose. So what I noticed was the gradual decrease in the effect of the drugs giving me the feelings I wanted. But it took 5 years for me to lose my enjoyment in using the drug at that dose and with that frequency and for that purpose. This is an extremely important fact that no one had determined before and now can be used by the people who wish to use pentagin intelligently. First, it tells that with completely free use of this dose we have 5 years of a quite pleasurable effect, so that's good to know. Second, there is an experimental question this brings up: Could one possibly prolong the very enjoyable effect of using pentagin by reducing the frequency of the daily dosage from several times a week to 1 or 2 times a week? Many users might be willing to reduce the frequency of the dose in return of the lifetime of good pleasure. "
"So does that mean you no longer get any pleasure from the drug?"
"Au contraire, I no longer get the typical pleasure that I have described for my so-called 'virgin' on the drug. But I still get good use out of taking pentagin, no longer by injection but by oral under the tongue because it gives me an hour free of the minor paranoias of my life. "
"Okay" he says. "Now let me finish up by giving you my idea, based on many years of self-use about the usefulness of this particular drug. "
"One, I am certain that pentagin and possibly some of the other opioids will be a wonderful drug for the dealing with the problem of old age and the dying process. It is simply universal that every older person as each one ages into the 70s and the 80s becomes progressively depressed due to prospects of one's own future. And also one often gets very bored with one's life because less and less for one to do.
"The opioids are a wonderful way to pass a boring time. They greatly help sleep and repose - by repose I mean semi-sleep where you sit back and empty your mind. And if you arrange to take the opioid on the right schedule - not too frequently as I have done so that you become too tolerant of its pleasurable effects - you can probably enjoy those great pleasures that I got in the first 5 years of my use without developing the extreme tolerance that I developed."
"Two, although I have not tried it in that way, I think it would be a very good acute antidote to suicide because I cannot see wanting to commit suicide when you are feeling so good. So at the least, it would delay the act and give one time to maybe change one's mind or seek counseling.
"Three, and I got this from an actress friend of mine, it is a wonderful antidote to stage fright. "
"Okay, that's the end of that. At some point of the future, I would guess, we will live in the more sane society about the use of the recreational drugs and I hope my comments will help, and I expect that they will be more researched on large groups of people."
End of the Seminar Chapter; for next, click
18.x Seminar on Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Phenomenon
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