Wizardry and magical promises ...

FROM PAGE XIX

pounds culled from obscure research journals like A***. While some published steroids have a research trail, most psychoactives have never been tested on humans until, that is, they show up at clubs or parties. When these recipes hit the mainstream, they often go viral through websites where chemists and entrepreneurs of all stripes trade recipes. These drugs can end up being mass-produced by chemists-for-hire in China, who advertise “Custom organic synthesis” on the web, and take their orders from the emerging breed of transnational rogue chemists. “There are a lot of smart people out there who know how to read chemistry papers,” says Nathan Messer, president of the nonprofit organisation, DanceSafe, which provides drug testing at festivals and parties. “It usually starts off as some people making it themselves, and if it works out, they will contract it out to China, set up a distribution chain, buy it in bulk, and sell it,” Messer added.

So, it’s gone beyond just burning local ‘ganja’ farms, and as things get harder on any domestic platform, opportunities of dubious likeness that defy conscience will be embraced. It happened before, especially now, if there’s a possibility that these schemes can be camouflaged as pharmaceuticals or sports-health hype items. A lot of First World entertainment sports, like wrestling, have paid the price through the body count of the fallen. Also, actors, bodybuilders, etc, and the dependency on proposing super boasters are now part of the culture. The featured article is 12 years old. There was no summary at any point then of referring to the content as will be, in the near to be, as past tense. I can only hope that its report is in the ‘aware of, in the relevant protective fields locally.

I have had the unfortunate human experience of dealing with an offspring with a drug problem. Thanks to the DRUG COURT, their support systems, and a friend with a legal law firm, some progress has been achieved. Still, I can’t come to terms with any understanding of witnessing medications that layfolk describe as producing ‘robots’ out of addicted and mental health subjects, nor of medications that are prescribed to help that lead to relapse. I do realise that we are witnessing beyond Guyana that cough syrups bought from sources have killed children, only to be told that the producers had purchased some illicit component from an unusual source. Some errors cannot be rectified; we must transcend the parochial to contend with the world before us, what has already migrated here, and where it inhabits.