VLVL2 (14) The Natch, 311-312

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Nightingale" <isread at btopenworld.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Monday, April 19, 2004 6:07 AM
Subject: VLVL2 (14) The Natch, 311-312
>
> Zoyd cites "Harry J Anslinger [and] ... the Marijuana Menace".
>
> Anslinger, in 1937: "This drug is as old as civilization itself. Homer
> wrote about, as a drug that made men forget their homes, and that turned
> them into swine. In Persia, a thousand years before Christ, there was a
> religious and military order founded which was called the Assassins and
> they derived their name from the drug called hashish which is now known
> in this country as marihuana. They were noted for their acts of cruelty,
> and the word "assassin" very aptly describes the drug."
>
> At:  http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/taxact/anslng1.htm
>
>

Zoyd points to the fact that there are no real reasons for prosecuting
Americans for smoking dope. As we can see in the above quote the kind of
"scientific evidence" Anslinger had provided was at least questionable.

"Marihuana is the Mexican term for cannabis indica. We seem to have adopted
the Mexican terminology, and we call it marihuana, which means good feeling.
In the underworld it is referred to by such colorful, colloquial names as
reefer, muggles, Indian hay, hot hay, and weed. It is known in various
countries by a variety of names."

I wonder which word describes the drug more aptly:
"assassin" or "good feeling"!

"From all this modern scholarship has emerged a picture of the Assassins
which, if it lacks some of the lurid qualities of the legend, has at least
the merit of credibility. Moreover, the truth turns out to be more
enthralling than the fiction. No longer can we believe in the Old Man of the
Mountain hatching his evil plots and sending forth his murderous emissaries
drugged with hashish. Such a state of mind hardly seems compatible with the
legendary accomplishments of the assassins -- their superlative cunning,
patience, knowledge of languages, and so forth -- and in any case our modern
experience of terrorism does not suggest that its perpetrators require any
narcotic stronger than fanaticism itself. Besides, if the claims of modern
users of hashish are to be believed, the effects of the drug tend more
towards pacificism than murderousness. But there is no real evidence that
the Assassins used hashish at all, at least for this purpose. (It is
possible that they used it as a psychedelic agent for religious reasons, but
that is another matter.) The term "hashishin", from which our word Assassin
very probably derives, was not used by members of the sect themselves but
was a nickname applied by their enemies; even so, it was not in common use.
The usual names for the Assassins were "esotericists" (batinis), Ismailis,
or Nizaris."
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/anthony.campbell1/assassins/prologue.html

The snitch culture is no invention of the novel:

Dividing Communities and Splitting Up Families

"Help a friend, send him to jail," says a billboard in Ventura, California.
This is an example of the "zero tolerance" campaign's
inform-on-your-neighbor tactics being used to enforce the laws against the
victimless crime of cannabis smoking.
Here's another example from TV: "If you have knowledge of a felony you can
earn up to one thousand dollars. Your name will not be used and you will not
be required to appear in court." * One man received a postcard in jail
saying, "Our informant received $600 for turning you in. Crimestoppers."
*(Crimestoppers, Ventura, California, October, 1989.)
Jack Herer: "The Emperor Wears No Clothes"

"Jack wants this information to be available to everyone, so he has
published the text of the book here on the internet for free."
http://www.jackherer.com/chapters.html

Otto