kagablog

Eish, what is the world coming to?/If Timothy Leary can, so can you ..
By Derek Davey

I was pleasantly surprised to see Albert Hofmann’s bicycle on, of all places, a Coke can. A little to the right, amidst dazzling psychedelic images spewing from a picture of a Coke bottle, with the logo “The Coke side of life”, was a smiley face, an image which is synonymous with the drug “e”, also known as MDMA or Ecstasy.
Hofmann was the man who invented LSD and his 1943 bicycle ride, under the influence of a powerful dose of LSD, has become the stuff of legend. Quite how these images, from a drug which was widely used in the 60s and Ecstasy, a drug associated with the rave scene of the 80s and 90s – which is a mood enhancer, not a psychedelic - came to be on the side of a Coke can, one can only guess.
It is more than urban legend that Coca-Cola itself, back in the 1890s, contained traces of cocaine. Extract of coca had to appear in Coca-Cola, in order for the trademark name to be retained. The amount of cocaine gradually became lessened, until in 1929 the tiny traces disappeared altogether. But the psychological link between Coca-Cola “giving life” and cocaine with its powerful kick, still remains.
Which advertising guru sold the idea of putting psychedelic images on cans to the Coke moguls? The same guy who put Aragorn there? Did they think it would increase sales, with images traditionally seen under the influence of powerful psychedelics?
So what is being said here? That drugs have become so assimilated by the dominant culture and so mainstream, along with the de rigeur tattoos and dreadlocks, that to NOT do them is hip?
There is a very clever double-play going on here. While street drugs are purported to be dangerous and self-destructive, images such as those on the Coke can give drugs a definite allure, which is compounded by the fact that they are illegal, and supposedly, unobtainable. But are they really?
Street drugs are easily obtainable and have been for decades. It suits the powers-that-be to have large numbers of people zoned on drugs, as there is money to be made via bribes to cops from dealers, fines from those caught buying or selling, and the huge industry of rehabilitating junkies. Plus, stoner junkies will never threaten the system.
It was no accident, for example, that Iboga research was halted in the US by the methadone mafia, as here was a means of actually, successfully, making junkies quit smack and crack. Who wants that? Certainly not those who sell methadone.
I discovered the whacky images on the Coke can while in a bar, ironically, while on a cleanout from alcohol. At the time, I was talking to a guy in his twenties, so I asked him if he and his mates still partook of drugs like LSD and Ecstasy when clubbing.
A little shocked, and looked at me like I was actively sprouting mould, so out of touch was I. It turned out that synthetic Mescalin and ‘shrooms are all the rage, not “chemicals”. He almost spat the word out. I asked the lad how he knew what he was swallowing when taking “liquid Mescalin”, if it was not in fact LSD or Ecstasy, or some other kind of chemical. He couldn’t answer me. In fact, he appeared a little stumped .
Well, at least we know what we are drinking when we buy soft drinks. It’s what’s behind their marketing that worries me …