Intoxication: The Universal Drive for Mind-Altering Substances

447 Pages·2005·1.91 MB·English

by  Ronald K. Siegel

Critical Acclaim for
INTOXICATION
“Siegel’s book will be controversial, but his perspective on
intoxication as a fact of nature and not just of culture cannot be
ignored. INTOXICATION should be required reading for the
nation’s drug czar.”
—LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK REVIEW
“Siegel’s book may draw spirited attacks . . . but his ideas are
respected by drug authorities.”
—TIME
“A rich feast of material . . . ”
—KIRKUS REVIEWS
“[Ronald K. Siegel] knows more about how drugs work than
anyone else alive. . . .
an intrepid researcher [and] cartographer of consciousness.”
—OMNI MAGAZINE

Acknowledgments
My thanks are first due to the late Ada E. Hirschman, my chief
research assistant, who helped organize the dozens of file
cabinets that filled with data over the twenty years of this
research. She retrieved many rare references, provided expert
translations, and managed the office during my many field
trips.
I was extremely fortunate in having several remarkable
students who assisted with observations in the laboratory and
field. For contributing their energy and talent to the research I
thank Mark Brodie, D.D.S.; Kirk J. Brower, M.D.; Laura A.
Freberg, M.A.;Jean Poole, B.A.; Pauline B. Popek, M.A.; and
Susan E. Valadez, M.A.
For their expert assistance in the field, and for helping with
everything from animal observations to translations with native
tribes, I am grateful to the following: James Amundson
(Mexico); William Bergin, D.V.M. (Hawaii); Lawrence Blair,
Ph.D. (Malaysia and Indonesia); Gary L. Bogue (California);
Enrico C. Chavez, M.D. (Mexico); Peter R. Collings (Mexico);
Steve Craig (California); José Luis Diaz, Ph.D. (Mexico); Donald
Dooley, D.V.M. (California); David Dorrance, M.D. (Mexico);
Robert Ellsworth, Ph.D. (Yemen); Howard Johnson (California);
Philip Lowenthal (Hawaii); Bruce Moffitt (Australia and New
Guinea); and the late Ivan Tors (Africa and Asia). Thanks are
also due to the following individuals for providing helpful
information on animal-plant interactions: T. F. Corfield (Kenya);
E. C. Goss (Kenya); W. Harding (Africa); P. Moulet (France); and
D. S. Sade (Cayo Santiago).
I wish to thank the following for logistical support and
assistance with the field research: Alexander Lindsay Junior
Museum, Walnut Creek, California; Centro Coordinator para el
Desarrollo de la Région Huichot, Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico; U.S.
Department of State, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration;
Instituto Ecuatoriano de Adiccionología y Psicoterapía,
Guayaquil, Ecuador; Ginseng Research Institute, Seoul, South
Korea; Lion Country Safari, Laguna Hills, California; Max
Planck Institut für Psychiatrie, Munich, West Germany;
Ministerio de Salud, División Salud Mental, Bogota, Colombia;
Pan American Health Organization; Peruvian Ministry of the
Interior; San Diego Zoo; San Jose Police Department; U.S.
Forest Service; Stanford Outdoor Primate Facility; and the
World Health Organization.
For assistance in library research and for access to rare
documents in their possession I am grateful to Michael Aldrich,
Ph.D., Michael Horowitz, and William Dailey of the Fitz Hugh
Ludlow Memorial Library, San Francisco. I thank the staff at
the following libraries and museums for generous help in
finding references: American Institute of the History of
Pharmacy; Harvard Botanical Museum; Historic New Orleans
Collection; Illinois State Historical Library; Library of
Congress; Lloyd Library; Mutter Museum of the College of
Physicians of Philadelphia; National Library of Medicine; La
Pharmacie Française; Historical Pharmacy Museum, New
Orleans; Pharmacy Museum, University of Minnesota; and the
UCLA Biomedical Library. I am particularly grateful to John V.
Dennis and Leonard A. Eiserer, Ph.D., for sharing references on
alcohol intoxication in birds; to James T. Hickey, curator of the
Lincoln Collection at the Illinois State Historical Library, for
helpful services; to John Mann for providing a collection of
contemporary folklore; and to my late mother, Frieda Siegel,
for her care and diligence in providing newspaper clippings. A
number of office assistants joined the task of collecting
research materials, and I am grateful to Stella Gardner, Debra
Hartley, Lori Hack, Beverly Lowe, and Erin McCormick.
Over the years I have worked with several colleagues in
laboratory studies that are referenced in this book. I am
indebted to the following for the opportunity to work and learn
with them: Werner A. Baumgartner, Ph.D.; Joan M. Brewster,
Ph.D.; Ellen R. Gritz, Ph.D.; Barbara E. Gusewelle, M.D., Ph.D.;
Werner K. Honig, Ph.D.; Murray E. Jarvik, M.D., Ph.D.; Cheryll
A. Johnson; Gerald D. Robinson, Ph.D.; and Ian P. Stolerman,
Ph.D. I also wish to thank the following for technical assistance
with the research: Tom Hesterberg, Virginia Hill, Monroe A.
Lee, and Charles Scott.
For helpful discussions along the way, I thank: Robert Byck,
M.D.; the late Sidney Cohen, M.D.; James A. Duke, Ph.D.;
William Emboden, Ph.D.; Lynn Fairbanks, Ph.D.; Dino Fulgoni,
J.D.; John Garcia, Ph.D.; William L. Hearn, Ph.D.; Jack Herer;
Oscar Janiger, M.D.; Reese Jones, M.D.; Weston La Barre,
Ph.D.; the late William H. McGlothlin, Ph.D.; the late Alan
Nodell; G. Reichel-Dolmatoff, Ph.D.; Marlene Dobkin de Rios,
Ph.D.; Shepard Siegel, Ph.D.; Neil B. Todd, Ph.D.; J. Thomas
Ungerleider, M.D.; Andrew Weil, M.D.; Louis Jolyon West, M.D.;
Johannes Wilbert, Ph.D.; and Roy A. Wise, Ph.D.
I also want to thank Reid Boates, my literary agent, and
Joyce Engelson, my editor, for their encouragement and advice
throughout the writing. I am equally grateful to Stephen Peters
for his friendship and help. I want to give special thanks to
Erica Blomquist, my project editor at Inner Traditions, for her
careful attention to editing details that have greatly improved
the quality of this edition.
Finally, I thank the many local people who joined our teams
in the field and helped cook, carry equipment, and care for the
animals and team members. Their support was greatly
appreciated. I also extend my appreciation to the nurses,
residents, and staff members at the UCLA Center for Health
Sciences who provided support services for the clinical studies.
And my thanks to the many informants, respondents, and
subjects, human and nonhuman, who helped in this pursuit.
I am particularly grateful to Claude, Alex, Lucy, Pupi, and all
the other nonhuman primates in my studies. They sensitized
me to the plight and rights of laboratory animals, propelling me
to shift my research out of the laboratory and into the field,
where intoxication is not only natural but right.
Contents
Preface
Prologue
Introduction
Part I: The Drugs
1 War in Eden
Origins of Plant Drugs
2 A Trip of Goats
Discovery of Poisons and Intoxicants
3 Falling Birds and Flying Cats
Accidents with Hallucinogens
4 A Shrewdness of Apes
Learning to Use Tobacco and Other Drugs
5 Ark on the Rocks
Alcohol as the Universal Intoxicant
6 Milk of Paradise
Romance and Addiction with Opium
7 Emerald Laughter
Hashish and Marijuana
8 Forced March
Coca and Cocaine
9 A Bevy of Beasts
Drugs in the Social Group
Part II: The Drive
10 The Fourth Drive
Motivation for Intoxication
11 Fire in the Brain
Mental Marvels, Murder, and Mechanisms of Control
12 Star-Spangled Powders
Drugs and the American Way
13 War on Drugs
Enduring Supplies and Demands
14 Waking Dreams
Drugs in the Future
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Index
Bibliography
About the Author
About Inner Traditions
Copyright
Preface
There is a silent spring of intoxicants that flows through our
lives and bodies. Whether we wake up with a sip of coffee or a
sniff of cocaine, take a break with a cigarette or a beer, relax
with a cocktail or marijuana, drift to sleep with a pill we
purchased at the pharmacy or from our neighborhood dealer,
we use drugs to change the way we feel. Nobody wants this to
be unhealthy or dangerous. Nobody wants people to live out
their lives inside crack houses, to die from tobacco cancer, or
to be killed by drunk drivers.
Over the years since I wrote the first edition of this book,
most governments of the world have continued to wage a war
on drugs. The strategy has been to reduce supply and demand,
a policy established by President Richard Nixon when he
declared the first war on drugs in 1971. His idea was hardly
original but reminiscent of every failed attempt to prohibit
intoxicating drugs throughout the history of civilization.
History shows that we have always used drugs. In every age,
in every part of this planet, people have pursued intoxication
with plant drugs, alcohol, and other mind-altering substances.
Surprisingly, we’re not the only ones to do this. As you will see
in the following pages, almost every species of animal has
engaged in the natural pursuit of intoxicants. This behavior has
so much force and persistence that it functions like a drive, just
like our drives of hunger, thirst, and sex. This “fourth drive” is
a natural part of our biology, creating the irrepressible demand
for drugs. In a sense, the war on drugs is a war against
ourselves, a denial of our very nature.
The inherent futility of this war is illustrated by the very
nature of the warfare itself. Our major drugs and medicines
were originally produced millions of years ago by plants as
chemical defenses against animals and pests that could browse
them. Our brains—three pound sacks of sophisticated
chemicals with molecular structures and pharmacological
actions similar to the substances found in the plants—gave us
an affinity for these plant compounds. As intelligent primates
we evolved the ability to extract the plant compounds,
synthesize their chemical relatives, and develop ways to
introduce highly concentrated forms directly into our bodies. It
is not surprising that we continue doing so for it is our nature
as chemical beings.
All of our wars against drugs, like all our wars against each
other, pit enemies using one set of drugs against those using
the same or different sets. German and Japanese soldiers used
amphetamines for energy and alertness during World War II
just as allied soldiers and pilots took them before battle. In
recent times pilots flying missions against illegal narcotic
operations in South America and Southeast Asia have used
amphetamines for staying awake and alert while the targets of
their operations fought back with “narcoterrorism” fueled by
their own drugs of choice: cocaine or opium. In Hawaii and
California marijuana growers high on their own harvest have
fought against coffee guzzling police. Chechen terrorists in the
Russian town of Beslan used heroin and morphine as they held
more than a thousand hostages in a school for three days while
fighting against Russian forces who took their own breaks with
tobacco, coffee, and, allegedly, vodka. U.S. jet fighter pilots
used amphetamine “go pills” in Operation Desert Storm to fly
longer hours as did those responsible for at least ten deadly
“friendly fire” accidents in the Afghanistan war. The pilots were
then given sedatives or “no-go pills” to help them sleep when
they returned to base. Yet invading armies have always been at
risk of returning home with local drug habits. American
veterans of the Vietnam conflict came back with opium and
heroin addictions so it was not surprising that soldiers
returning from the war in Afghanistan acquired similar
dependencies. And drug trafficking has been used for financial
benefit by both sides of armed conflicts in Cambodia, Colombia,