Urban legends about drugs
By 1915, absinthe had been banned in the United States and in much of Europe, including France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and Austria-Hungary, yet it has not been demonstrated to be any more dangerous than ordinary spirits.
[1] South African legends, recorded as early as the 1830s by naturalist Adulphe Delegorgue, describe elephants seeking out the fermented fruit of the marula tree, and showing signs of intoxication, including increased aggression, after doing so.
[8] Another version of this myth states that chewing tobacco contains fiberglass, which allegedly creates small cuts in the mouth, enhancing nicotine absorption.
Some of the strangest urban legends told are those about lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), a potent psychedelic drug that gained popularity in several countries in the 1960s and 1970s, and experienced a resurgence in the mid-2010s to present.
In May 2009, partial ostension of this legend may have occurred when an Ohio man high on PCP allegedly tried to put his 28-day-old son into a conventional oven, only to be stopped in time by the child's mother.
[citation needed] The false claim states that it is possible to synthesize LSD or some similar hallucinogenic drug called "bananadine" from banana peels or other common household foods and chemicals.
The flyer lists an inaccurate description of the effects of LSD, some attribution (typically to a well-regarded hospital or a vaguely specified "adviser to the president"), and instructs parents to contact police if they come across the blue star tattoos.
An extension of this legend is that a person who does LSD more than "X number of times" is permanently disqualified from the military as a result of being "legally insane", a version which was likely inspired by wishful thinking of drug-using draft dodgers in the 1960s.
Interpretation of this data is generally complicated by factors such as the unknown chemical composition of street LSD, concurrent use of other psychoactive drugs, and diseases such as hepatitis in the sampled populations.
[29] A 2008 medical review concluded, "The available data suggest that pure LSD does not cause chromosomal abnormalities, spontaneous abortions, or congenital malformations.
Shortly afterward, the officer begins tripping very hard and stares into space, since the swig of "water" he took actually contained numerous "hits" of LSD.
[36] Those with a predisposition to psychological disorders who take LSD or other hallucinogens may trigger a psychotic episode that may produce hallucinations reminiscent of the drugs, enduring beyond the period of its active effects.
The legend is considered to be unfounded, since in 1968 the source of the hoax, Norman M. Yoder, commissioner of the Office of the Blind in the Pennsylvania State Welfare Department, admitted that he had completely made up the story because of his "concern over illegal LSD use by children".
[41] After the sun-gazing on LSD story was widely publicized, a small number of case reports were published in the medical literature which describe this phenomenon temporarily occurring.
Jimson weed is highly toxic and can cause delirium, confusion, hallucinations, blurred vision, photophobia, dry mouth, urinary retention, hyperthermia, incoordination, hypertension, and rapid heartbeat among other effects.
[citation needed] However the closest phrase to this in The Washington Papers is in a letter to William Pearce – "I am very glad to hear that the Gardener has saved so much of the St. foin seed, and that of the India Hemp.
[65][67] Teare, who had supervised nearly 100,000 autopsies and provided evidence for nearly 20,000 inquests in his 35 years of experience, was echoed by R. R. Lycette, the clinical pathologist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
"[67] Wu later said in a 1992 interview with Thomas: Professor Teare was a forensic scientist recommended by Scotland Yard; he was brought in as the expert, so we can't contradict his testimony.
There may be at least some truth to this legend, as a 2005 study found that a transdermal nicotine patch modestly enhanced the subjective "high" of cannabis relative to a placebo patch—but only in males.
"Cheese" or "Tylenol with Smack" is a heroin-based recreational drug that came to the attention of the media inside and outside the United States[87] after a string of deaths among adolescents in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, between 2005 and 2007.
It seems likely that the concept was originally created as a joke, and after seizures of low purity heroin cut with paracetamol (acetaminophen) "validated" the claims, the DEA issued a warning.
[89] In the South Park episode "Major Boobage", which aired for the first time on 28 March 2008, 'cheesing' referred to a moral panic about children using cat urine to get high.
Some people, believing this myth, have actually attempted to smoke cigarettes or cannabis dipped in real embalming fluid (i.e. formaldehyde), which is highly toxic.
Because King resisted arrest, with several officers needed to subdue him, he was assumed to be on PCP at the time due to its reputation for inciting violent and unpredictable behavior coupled with an inability to feel pain (often misinterpreted as "superhuman" strength).
Some reports cite a widely held belief that PCP can give its users "superhuman" strength for the duration of its effects,[96] and there are several anecdotes alleging this phenomenon.
[101] However, the most well-known cannibal attacker from Miami, Rudy Eugene, tested negative for all drugs known to be nicknamed "bath salts" and every other known psychoactive substance except traces of cannabis.
[103] Allegedly, tourists' babies are kidnapped, killed, cut open, filled with drugs, and sewn shut so the contraband can be more readily sneaked over the border.
[109][110] Another legend involves a group of teenagers who, while drunk and/or tripping on some sort of hallucinogen, find what they perceive to be a gnome (sometimes a dwarf, hobgoblin or smurf), capture it, and bring it home.
However, this does not stop users from getting creative in their attempts to somehow shorten the detection times and/or mask the contents of their fluid specimens, with varying degrees of success or lack thereof.
[116] This legend may have been (inadvertently) inspired by Narconon, a Scientology-based drug rehabilitation program that uses exercise, saunas, and dangerously high doses of niacin (and other vitamins) to detox.
