drugs in Vineland---and drug laws

[Joseph Tracy]

I don't think Cocaine gets a very good rap in VL.   Doc Splanchniks  
house of nasal horrors may be funny but it sure isn't appealing and  
neither is Mucho's miserable condition when he gets there . I think  
there is a kind of line here that P touches on. The Vietnamese weed  
at College of the Surf  has a relaxing , liberating effect that is  
followed by a lesson in political repression. LSD has deeper effect  
similar to Pot, and for Zoyd anyway, it seems to be part of a world  
view that goes deeper than picket lines. He is trying to  live and  
let live. Unions were not immune from the Red scare or Reagan  
bullshit. I don't know anyone who makes hallucinogens a lifestyle.  
They seem to have a a natural limit. The heroin using sax players  
don't get a positive treatment in VL, and Pynchon never really gets  
into that whole realm of addictive drugs apart from money, power ,  
violence.  On a personal level I never liked marijuana, but it looks  
to me like Pynchon does. I guess only those who have passed the bong  
with OBA know for sure.