As of late, I've taken notice of an ever-growing expansion, or more like explosion, of ever-increasingly novel & ultra-potent RCs, such as the NBOMe derivatives of PEAs (amongst various others, albeit most others are still rather obscure). I don't oppose this, but I do wonder how long before these things are honed in to target very specific receptors in the brain & weighed out by the nanogram. It really isn't that far of a stretch to see such things come to fruition. Along the same train of thought, I've also wondered from time to time if Nichols & Shulgin were granted rights to carry out their research paid them specifically so that the government would eventually have all possible analogues manipulated from their parent molecules discovered & therefore secured; which leaves me questioning that if my postulations carry any weight or truth to them, then to what end or to what means to what end it could all be about. I suppose it's just food for thought, I really don't believe either Nichols or Shulgin to be in Uncle Sam's pocket per se, but their funding & the resulting splash of new drugs over the past two decades did come from somewhere. So what do you all think of the direction things are headed in & to what purposes do you all think this research was spurred on for and why? If you look at history, the growth in these fields of research had been fairly slow-going up until around the dawn of the 1990's (well I suppose technically it did get going in the 1980's, just not as fast as in the 1990's). Thoughts?
most of us have probably noticed the influx of potent PEA analogues. i'm sure i'm not the only one that wonders how long it is before these start being passed off as LSD... nanogram potency i suppose is not that far off. wonder what the RC scene will be like in 40 or 50 years, assuming we aren't all dead from long term complications i'm not sure how Nichols gets funded (NIH?) but Shulgin had to kinda fund his own research, no? i mean after he stopped working for the DEA, because they supposedly didn't want him working on the compounds that he was interested in. funding from the NIH comes from writing grants. if you can make your research sound like it is gonna cure a disease, you have a better chance of getting funded. but even more general science questions can get funded...such as "What is the structure of the 5-HT2C receptor?" you can use RC compounds as agonists to the receptor to help figure that out so i think shulgin explored this because it was his passion dave nichols i don't know much about, but i would guess that he enjoys his work too, and can get funded because serotonin signaling is not fully understood.
All of what you stated is true to the best of my knowledge from the research I've done on both of those man's achievements, perhaps I should have clarified & stated something with regard to that in my first post; you'll have to forgive me though as I was up most of the night with insomnia & not at my most articulate of moments. At any rate, you brought up one of the facts I was aiming at: Shulgin's initial involvement with the DEA. I believe he was hired (though I can't substantiate it with evidence) for the express purpose of rooting out all possible analogues, & when he left to later pick up his funding mainly from donation, I also think he exercised his first amendment right & published TiKHAL & PiKHAL as a big "fuck you" to his former employer by disseminating his research en mass. As for Nichols' work & funding, I too can only speculate that it's fueled by passion & likely funded similarly to that of Shulgin's. The fact remains, though, that there was an initial government agenda. I also wasn't aiming to point out the obvious flood of late of these RCs that keep hitting the market with extreme potency, though I'm sure some here are still newbies & maybe didn't or don't know about such. I was aiming at generating conversation about people's feelings toward the matter mainly (mine as noted are not in opposition to it, in fact it excites me). Also though, I was curious about people's speculations as to what's prompted this psychedelic explosion that seemed to be in a slumber for nearly half a century. I believe that it's a mass awakening broadly throughout worldwide societies to the enlightening & therapeutic values of psychedelics personally. I don't think anything however could ever pass off as LSD, seeing as how the incident with 'STP' aka DOM in the Bay during the sixties didn't fair so well & was so short-lived. LSD-25 is & always will be one of the most unique & quite distinguishable substances ever created with likely little to ever match the awesome power & mysterious, lovely effects of it. I believe the same of MDMA. Sure, people will try (& have already done so with stuff like bromodragonFLY) to pass shit off as acid, but nothing could ever take the place of acid. I too wonder what the future beholds with RCs, I hope I'm still around in 40 to 50 years to see!
For better or worse I find myself way less speculative and pondering potential conspiracy theories than I used to be. I have no comment in regards to Shulgin's and Nichols work but as far as the government possibly investigating or doing a sort of unofficial research of the all around effects of these chemicals is interesting. Perhaps that is the more subtle, underlying meaning of the term 'research chemicals.' After the shutdown of main vendors in 04 it is interesting to see the somewhat laxed stance they have taken, especially in terms of like spice and bath salts.
i wasn't trying to imply that these potent PEAs could actually substitute for LSD, just that they may be passed off as such. yeah, it'd probably be easy to tell the difference between LSD and 25c-nbome, but only after you eat the blotter. i'm not so sure that there had to be a government agenda. i believe that shulgin was working on something pretty unrelated when he worked for the DEA. might have to crack open my copy of PiHKAL
Regardless of what PiKHAL has to say, the gov't *always* has hidden motives & agendas, especially where war, dollars, & drugs come into the picture. Just because Shulgin may not have written about it doesn't rule out the possibility. Don't get me wrong, I admire him & his wife, but he undoubtedly had to sign a confidentiality statement & a nondisclosure agreement. It's only logical; plus, he probably didn't even have a very high level of security clearance & thus may not have even known the full intent of his own work (but if I'm right, I'm sure he had suspicions of his own). I realize this is all subjective speculation, but the gov't is after all a pack of jackyls one & all, even our dear Obama.
What's weird to me is why they didn't, upon obtaining copies of PiHKAL and TiHKAL, just make ALL compounds listed illegal by placing them in Schedule I. I'm ecstatic that they didn't, but somewhat surprised considering the draconian drug laws in this country. (I'm aware of the Analogue Act, but this still leaves room for a "grey area" interpretation and isn't very specific).
I completely agree with your questioning herein. After all, one need only look to the UK where that very thing happened when the Parliament did its blanket, across-the-board banning of the formulas/precusors/drugs after their publication, & they're a Socialist Democracy at that--not a Republic like the US. And they're not the only country in the EU to have followed similar recources (even liberal Holland is strickter than the US). I've got a feeling that it may have something to do with industrial prison complex system here. Prisons for the most part are the modern day slave trade & generate massive capitol. There need only be an illusion of freedom to passify the general public. Just think of all of the industry generated behind prison walls & for next to nothing at that. I firmly believe there's more than meets the eye to this (& many other matters too) where big gov't is involved. I don't even believe we're truly under the radar, & have some semblence of proof to my belief via Google. I guess I just don't give a fuck because I believe in justice, free will, liberty, & true democracy. Something surely is to come in due time & more & more we're repeating history only to become an amalgam of Ancient Rome. Perhaps though too like Rome we'll whither, perish, & burn once we've grown too big for our britches & enough dissent forms within our Republic...
I don't know about the Rome analogy... There are so many aspects of modern day industrialized society and we are more connected globally and reliant on other countries in many ways than ever before, its difficult for one country to really stand head and shoulders above the rest like Rome did, at least my perception of it. We have a pretty badass military... Are we at the top as far as technology is concerned? I know were not the leaders in education. Not sure about our health care system either.
See though, Rome didn't fall at the hands of just one enemy nation, so I think the analogy fits. We now have the biggest union of enemy nations, bigger than before in all of our nation's collective history: The entire Middle East (even rivaling Mid Eastern nations unite now for the common cause to bring us down), we have Korea, silently we have a begrudging Japan ever since WWII, we have multiple African nations, & we have China (not to even mention various occupied territories wanting sovereignty from us)... Oh, & lest I forget the former Soviet Union, also silently withholding ill will. And shit, even Mexico & several others south of the border like Panama & Nicaragua. And how could I forget Southeast Asia... We may have a strong military, but certainly not one strong enough to eclipse a worldwide union with chemical, biological, & nuclear weapons by the droves. Everyone for the most part wants to see us topple, WWIII is likely inevitable. And as for leaders in technology, China, Japan, much of Eastern Europe (and even parts of Western Europe) put us to shame. This is mainly because we still cling to fairly Puritanical beliefs where they all do not. And you're very correct with regard to our poor educational system--you ought to add to that our miserable healthcare system. We are already crumbling, the death blow IMO is not too far off; the US is too fucking cocky. I personally long to expatriate, I don't know about you. Cali seems to me to be one of the last bastions of free-living citizens in the US, & I've lived all across the states so I do have insight there. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not watching you!
Oh, I should mention I've studied history, sociology, & psychology academically, so I'm not just talking out my ass.
This is true, so I suppose the only way to settle out this philosophical debate is to agree upon seeing how things ultimately play out. In the meantime, though, closer to the home of this thread's initial discussion I'll quote the Beastie Boys: We've gotta fight for the right to paaarrrrrty!!!
