Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power. P J O’Rourke
As well as cigarettes, drugs that you can buy over the counter became an obsession in Damien’s work. Noel Fielding, Damien Hirst: First Look
Narcotics: they can alter minds and ruin lives. Users are often stigmatised, even reviled. Many users end up in prison. Yet there are some people who have won the right to take illegal drugs. In California State law allows this woman to smoke marijuana as her medicine. Legal Drugs
Governments can and do make exceptions to the blanket ban on drugs when there is evidence they can help treat the sick, when they are used as a sacrament by the devout, or when it comes down to the issue of saving the lives of addicts. Some governments permit people to take illegal narcotics. But for many, drugs remain dangerous and taboo. ibid.
DMT is a hallucinogen that is considered a dangerous narcotic in many countries ... Yet this religious community is family-orientated, peaceful and deeply spiritual. There is no drug or alcohol abuse. But Ayahuasca is allowed. Followers of Santo Daime don’t consider it a drug at all. To them it is a holy sacrament. ibid.
The Church of Santo Daime was founded by Raimundo Irineu Serra in 1930. He was introduced to Ayahuasca by Amazonian shamans. He spent eight days in the jungle drinking Ayahuasca. He had a vision of the Virgin Mary who gave him instructions for a new religion. Today, Santo Daime – a mixture of Catholicism and Shamanism – has spread as far as the United States, Europe and beyond. ibid.
The ceremony is a mixture of Catholic tradition and Shamanic ritual. At its heart is the Amazonian hallucinogen Ayahuasca known to the congregation as Daime. They believe it is the blood of Christ. ibid.
In the United States the active ingredient Ayahuasca is classed as a Schedule 1 drug. But since March 2009 it can legally be taken in the US by Santo Daime followers because it is part of their religion. ibid.
UDV members participate in ritual consumption of ayahuasca at least twice monthly and often more frequently. The ritual ceremonies are less ‘active’ than those of the Santo Daime and are more like a Quaker meeting. Long periods of silence are included in the service, where members seek self-knowledge through mental concentration. The ‘vegetal’ (ayahuasca tea) facilitates this and is described as being the ‘key’ to the process. There is space for people to share the teaching they received from the Vegetal or to ask the ‘Mestre’ (who leads the ceremony) questions. The UDV emphasise the oral tradition in their doctrine and in the rituals the teachings of Mestre Gabriel are spoken, ‘chamadas’ (similar to mantras) are chanted and hymns are sung. They believe that this simplicity reflects the life of their founder and that one of their roles is to ‘worship and preserve his peasant roots, which translates the purity of his teachings; keeping alive the memory of the fact that one’s degree of spiritual evolution is not dependent upon erudition nor academic titles’.
The teachings of the UDV are Christian-based but they also emphasise the role of nature, describing themselves as ‘a religion based on the superior Christian values of love and fraternity among men, in full communion with Nature through the tea Hoasca, a vehicle synchronising it with the Divinity… ecology and spirituality are indivisible’. CSP online article
The UDV ... is a Christian church operating in many Brazilian cities. Its members drink the Ayahuasca tea every fortnight but in newly created rituals. Horizon: Psychedelic Science, BBC 1997
In the last five years in the UK alone eight drugs have been withdrawn from the market by the regulators. Horizon: Pill Poppers, BBC 2010
Jo is still battling her addiction. The drug she craves is the Codeine in extra-strength painkillers. ibid.
From amphetamines to alcohol, cannabis to crystal meth, ethanol to ecstasy – drugs, legal and illegal have never been so readily available ... What is Britain’s most dangerous drug? Horizon: Is Alcohol Worse Than Ecstasy? BBC 2008
‘They used three criterion ... What the drug does to the person who takes it ... How addictive ... [and] consequences to society.’ ibid.
20. Khat
19. Alkyl Nitrate (poppers)
18. Ecstasy
17. GHB
16. Anabolic steroids
15. Methylphenidrate (vitamin R)
14. LSD
13. 4MTA (alternative to Ecstasy)
12. Solvents
11. Cannabis
10. Buprenorphine
9. Tobacco
8. Amphetamine
7. Benzodiazepine
6. Ketamine
5. Alcohol
4. Street Methadone
3. Barbiturates
2. Cocaine
1. Heroin ibid.
As drugs flood the US the perfect agent is called in to take down the source. Undercover: Double Life: Operation Pizza Connection, Investigation Channel 2012
Being a drug kingpin, you’re on top of the world. Midget Molley, Atlantic City
In the late 1990s Carl Williams decides he wants a slice of the millions made from party drugs in Melbourne ... Carl’s new party drug generates enormous profits. Australian Families of Crime s1e1: Carl Williams: Baby Face Killer, Nine Network 2010
Their trial is delayed by a drugs squad corruption scandal. ibid.
Dublin was now facing up to a new unprecedented crisis: the city’s impoverished estates had become awash with drugs, in particular heroin. Britain’s Underworld: Dublin Gangland, National Geographic 2010
The is Liverpool gangsta Curtis ‘Cocky’ Warren. He is the first and only drug trafficker to appear on the list of Britain’s richest people. Some estimate his fortune as high as three hundred million pounds. And Warren isn’t the only Liverpool villain to have made millions from crime. Britain’s Underworld: Liverpool, National Geographic 2010
Yet the hard drugs revolution on Merseyside would not come from Toxteth but the other side of the Mersey. And it caught everyone by surprise ... Career villain Charlie Siega watched many of his peers dived headlong in the gold-rush. One man who seized the opportunity was Tommy Comerford. The so-called mastermind of the Water Street Bank Robbery. Comerford starting importing a whole range of drugs from heroin to LSD, and became the first British criminal to forge links with most of the world’s drugs regions. It made him a fortune, but Comerford still lived in a council flat. ibid.
Curtis Warren: Warren’s rise is one of the most remarkable in British criminal history. He first made the news aged 16 when he mugged a 78-year-old woman on the steps of Liverpool’s Metropolitan Cathedral. 8 years later he was arrested in Switzerland trying to rob a shoe shop. By the early ’90s he had progressed to mid-level drug dealing. Mysteriously though Warren made a huge leap forwards. ibid.
A ton is nothing. Michael Showers
I started to rob drug dealers. It’s called Taxation. Stephen French
The most infamous was Curtis Warren, known as Cocky, a leading figure in the Liverpool Mafia, and an international drug smuggling ring. Gangs of Britain II: Liverpool, CI 2013
The massive influx of hard drugs into Britain – heroin and cocaine. ibid.
Curtis Warren’s masterstroke was to cut out the middlemen and deal directly with the suppliers. ibid.
180 kilos of pure heroin ... at the time this was the largest shipment ever captured in Britain. ibid.
Curtis Warren – he was Interpol’s target number one. ibid.
[Dutch] police confiscated 400 kilograms of cocaine, 60 kilos of heroin, 1,500 kilos of cannabis and 50 kilos of ecstasy. ibid.
In 2009 Curtis Warren was jailed once more. ibid.
Los Zetas smuggle tons of narcotics across the US border. The drugs are worth billions. Gangland: To Torture or to Kill, History 2008
The most lucrative drugs corridor in the world. ibid.
The Corridor is so important to the drugs cartels because that is how they move their supply. Sara A Carter
He don’t do drugs any more; he just deals. The Sopranos s5e12: Long Term Parking starring James Gandolfini & Lorriane Bracco & Edie Falco & Michael Imperioli & Dominic Chianese & Steven van Zandt & Tony Sirico & Robert Iler et al, Adriana to rozzers