Good drugs/Bad drugs?

[LARSSON at vax1.mankato.msus.edu]

Lindsay comments:

>In fact Albert (who was a Swiss and worked for Sandoz) was cycling through a 
>variety of related compound syntheses, interested in their efficacy in 
>asthma treatment.  He described, in effect, the first acid trip.  (He 
>started to experience effects as he rode home on his bicycle.)  



The image of a bicyclist pops up several times in GR.  It has been linked
to the Tarot, but could there be a connection here?


>Generally speaking, LSD, whatever else it became, was also part of a long, 
>long tradition of psychotropic mysticism, extant across all major culturals 
>at many many points in human history.  It tends to be a secret tradition, 
>transmitted by secret sharing, and just the sort of history that appeals to 
>our hero.  The original German influence on modern chemistry and 
>pharmacology is overwhelming.  In a way, the seance ramblings on the 
>discovery of blue dye (the true beginning of modern industrial chemistry) 
>and related chemical engineering matter may point to a kind of mystical 
>induction via synthetic objects.  (The actual historical tradition from 
>which this resonates, I'm suggesting, is one of mystical ingestion of 
>organic matter.)


But, in GR at least, there does seem to be a hierarchy of drugs.  LSD is
associated through the rye-rot, ergot, with the death culture of Europe.
It is another processed manipulation of nature akin to the coal-tar 
derivatives that mark industrial modernism.  On the other hand, "natural"
drugs--marijuana, peyote, mushrooms (even nutmeg!) come off as better.
See Osbie Feel for more.

Any thoughts?

Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)