A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER: HOLLYWOOD AND GLAMORIZATION OF COCAINE.
CRACK THE
CIA, HOLLYWOOD AND GLOBALISATION.
THE DRUG INDUSTRY ITS ORIGINS AND THE CURRENT STATE
OF THE GLOBAL DRUG ECONOMY AND ITS MEDIA FUELED INFLUENCE: POP CULTURE AND THE
DRUG INDUSTRY IN POP CULTURE. SPIRITUALITY IN THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY ITS
GLOBALIST AGENDA AND THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL
COMPLEX.
History of cocaine
Through chemically synthesizing the
coca leaves the white crystal powder we have come to know as cocaine was
created. As time passed newer methods to magnify the euphoric effects of the
drug were invented which has led us to the most potent and addictive form of
the drug, crack cocaine.
Crack cocaine is the most popularly
used version of cocaine today. Smoking cocaine rocks began in the late 1970's.
Rocking-up cocaine powder and smoking it was originally the method developed so
distributors of cocaine could test the purity of the drug before it was
purchased from the manufacturers. Crack has destroyed millions of lives since
it was first introduced to the streets of America. Crack is a relatively new
drug on the scene compared to drugs like opium or heroin; nonetheless, it has
been part of our history and culture for nearly 150 years.
Cocaine's
Role in American History
Cocaine was first synthesized in
1855. It was not until 1880, however, that its effects were recognized by the
medical world.
Cocaine toothache drops advertisement, 1885
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The first recognized authority and
advocate for this drug was world famous psychologist, Sigmund Freud. Early in
his career, Freud broadly promoted cocaine as a safe and useful tonic that
could cure depression and sexual impotence. Cocaine got a further boost in
acceptability when in 1886 John Pemberton included cocaine as the main
ingredient in his new soft drink, Coca Cola. It was cocaine's euphoric and
energizing effects on the consumer that was mostly responsible for skyrocketing
Coca Cola into its place as the most popular soft drink in history.
From the 1850's to the early 1900's,
cocaine- and opium-laced elixirs, tonics and wines were broadly used by people
of all social classes. This is a fact that is for the most part hidden in
American history. The truth is that at this time there was a large drug culture
affecting a broad sector of American society. Other famous people that promoted
the "miraculous" effects of cocaine elixirs were Thomas Edison and
actress Sarah Bernhart. Because there were no restrictions placed on acquiring
these drugs in the early 1900's, narcotics were an acceptable way of life for a
large number of people, many of whom were people of stature. Cocaine was a
mainstay in the silent film industry. The pro-drug messages coming out of
Hollywood at this time were receiving international attention which influenced
the attitudes of millions of people about cocaine.
As a rule, famous people are role
models that can and do influence the masses. Star power has proven time and
again to be the most potent form of advertising. Think about it: The world's
most famous psychologist; the man that invented the light bulb; a stable of
Hollywood silent film stars; and the inventor of the most popular soft drink in
history - all on the pro-cocaine bandwagon. All promoting the drug's positive
effects. Some did it through personal testimonials that ran in printed pages
across the nation. Others (in particular the silent film stars) promoted
cocaine's acceptability through the examples they set by their well publicized
life styles.
In the same way as other narcotics
like opium and heroin during this time, cocaine also began to be used as an
active ingredient in a variety of "cure all" tonics and beverages. In
many of the tonics that drug companies were producing at this time, cocaine
would be mixed with opiates and administered freely to old and young alike. It
wasn't until some years later that the dangers of these drugs became apparent.
In fact, it was the negative side
effects of habitual cocaine use that was responsible for coining the phrase,
"dope fiend". This terminology came about because of the behavior of
a person abusing cocaine for prolonged periods of time. Because cocaine is such
a powerful stimulant, prolonged daily use of the drug creates severe sleep
deprivation and loss of appetite. A person might go days or sometimes weeks
without sleeping or eating properly. The user often experiences psychotic
behavior. Cocaine addicts
hallucinate and become delusional. Coming down from the drug causes a severe
state of depression for the person in withdrawal. This person can then become
so desperate for more of the drug that they will do just about anything to get
more of it, including murder. If the drug is not readily available, the
depression one experiences in withdrawal can become so great the user will
sometimes become suicidal. It is because of this heinous effect on the user
that the word "fiend" became associated with cocaine addiction.
Over the course of the next several
years the American majority became more and more aware of the dangers of
cocaine. As the severity of this problem became more and more apparent, concern
mounted to an eventual public outcry to ban the social use of cocaine. This
public pressure forced Pemberton to remove cocaine from Coca Cola in 1903.
Eventually the public pressure became so great as to place a national
prohibition on cocaine. The country's legislators took notice, and in 1920
cocaine was added to the list of narcotics to be outlawed by the passing of The
Dangerous Drug Act of 1920. Unfortunately, as with the opiates like heroin, the
dangers of cocaine abuse were recognized by law makers after the fact. The
market for cocaine had already been established and was deeply entrenched into
American history and culture and is with us today.
Crack Cocaine Information
What
is crack?
What's
new about crack?
Now, crack is being sold at prices
low enough that even adolescents can afford to buy it. But, this is misleading,
since once a person is addicted to cocaine, his "habit" often
increases, and so does his expense.
What
are crack's adverse effects?
As with any street drug, what is
sold may not be what it is claimed to be. Predicting side effects is difficult
when the actual contents are not known. Life-threatening reactions have been
reported whether it's the first, the 100th, or any other time crack is used.
You do not have to overdose on crack to die from it.
In addition, if the initial
experience leads to continued use, other adverse effects include the rapid
development of tolerance, addiction to cocaine, and all the social problems that can come from an
expensive drug habit.
Regardless of dosage, these
reactions may appear from crack use:
- Convulsions
- Increased heart rate
- Abnormal heartbeat
- Heart attack
- Sudden, sharp blood pressure increase
- Stroke
- Extreme depression
- Suicidal behavior
How
is crack used?
The vapors of the freebase are
absorbed through the lungs into the bloodstream and transported to the brain
within 10-15 seconds. One inhalation will produce a degree of intoxication
usually lasting 10-15 minutes.
COCAINE HISTORY
Cocaine was first
synthesized in 1858-1860, by the 1860s it was regarded as a wonder drug that
would cure many illnesses. Major dangers of cocaine were known almost from the
first uses of the purified drug. Its use in medicine, had been tempered by
experience, its use has been largely restricted to producing local anesthesia.
Even in this area, the dangers of cocaine led to the early development of safer
drugs. In the short time between the isolation of pure cocaine powder from the
coca leaf to the beginning of the awareness of it's dangers, cocaine was used
to try to cure almost all the illnesses and maladies that were known to man.
One of its first non medical uses was military. In
1883 Theodor Aschenbrandt administered cocaine to members of the Bavarian army.
It was found that the drug enhanced their endurance on manoeuvre. His positive
findings were published in a German medical journal, which brought the effects
of this wonder drug to a wider medical audience, including Sigmund Freud (see
below). Cocaine was sold over-the-counter, until 1916, one could buy it at
Harrods. It was widely used in tonics, toothache cures and patent medicines;
and in chocolate cocaine tablets. Prospective buyers were advised - in the
words of pharmaceutical firm Parke-Davis - that cocaine "could make the coward
brave, the silent eloquent, and render the sufferer insensitive to pain".
When combined with alcohol, it yielded a further potently reinforcing compound,
now known to be cocaethylene. Thus cocaine was a popular ingredient in wines,
notably Vin Mariani. Coca wine received endorsement from prime-ministers,
royalty and even the Pope.
One medical use that was found early in the
history of cocaine, and which the drug is still used for today (rarely), is
that of a good surface anesthetic. Beginning in the late 1880s surgical
procedures using local anesthetics (numbing a specific area to pain) were
starting to be used instead of general anesthesia (rendering a person
unconscious). This was due to experiments, using cocaine, that were conducted
by William Halstead, one of the four founders of The Johns Hopkins Medical
School and often called the Father of American Surgery. Unfortunately William
experimented on himself by injecting cocaine, to see if surgery could be
performed using cocaine as a local anesthetic. After experimenting for a time,
he became addicted, the addiction grew so bad that it put his career on the
line. He overcame his addiction to shooting cocaine, but began taking morphine
instead, a habit that probably lasted the rest of his life.
Most of us have heard the story of how Coca_Cola
at one time contained cocaine, hence the Name "Coca" Cola. Coca-Cola
was introduced in 1886 as a valuable brain-tonic and cure for all nervous
afflictions. It was promoted as a temperance drink offering the virtues of coca
without the vices of alcohol. The new beverage was invigorating and popular.
Until 1903, a typical serving contained around 60mg of cocaine. Sold today, it
still contains an extract of coca-leaves. Coca Cola imports eight tons from
South America each year. Nowadays the leaves are used only for flavoring since
the drug has been removed. A coca leaf typically contains between 0.1 and 0.9
percent cocaine. If chewed in such form, it rarely presents the user with any
social or medical problems. When the leaves are soaked and mashed, however,
cocaine is extracted as a coca-paste. The paste is 60 to 80 per cent pure. It
is usually exported in the form of the salt, cocaine hydrochloride. This is the
powdered cocaine most common, until recently, in the West. Drug testing for
cocaine aims to detect the presence of its major metabolite, the inactive
benzoylecgonine. Benzoylecgonine can be detected for up to five days in casual
users. In chronic users, urinary detection is possible for as long as three
weeks.
Sigmund Freud the father of psychoanalysis, in the
early 1880s began to experiment with cocaine. At a time when he was undergoing
a low period in his life, he reported that cocaine lifted his spirit, and took
his mind off his professional and financial difficulties. He sent cocaine to
his fiancee, telling her it would make her strong and give her cheeks a red
color. Freud was to play a significant role in the development of the Western
cocaine-industry. I take very small doses of it regularly and against depression
and against indigestion, and with the most brilliant success, he observed. Drug
giants Merck and Parke Davies both paid Freud to endorse their rival brands. He
wrote several enthusiastic papers on cocaine, notably Uber coca (1884).
Taken from "On Cocaine" by Sigmund
Freud
A few minutes after
taking cocaine, one experiences a certain exhilaration and feeling of
lightness. One feels a certain furriness on the lips and palate, followed by a
feeling of warmth in the same areas; if one now drinks cold water, it feels
warm on the lips and cold in the throat. One other occasions the predominant
feeling is a rather pleasant coolness in the mouth and throat. During this
first trial I experienced a short period of toxic effects, which did not recur
in subsequent experiments. Breathing became slower and deeper and I felt tired
and sleepy; I yawned frequently and felt somewhat dull. After a few minutes the
actual cocaine euphoria began, introduced by repeated cooling eructation.
Immediately after taking the cocaine I noticed a slight slackening of the pulse
and later a moderate increase. I have observed the same physical signs of the
effect of cocaine in others, mostly people my own age. The most constant
symptom proved to be the repeated cooling eructation. This is often accompanied
by a rumbling which must originate from high up in the intestine; two of the
people I observed, who said they were able to recognize movements in their
stomachs, declared emphatically that they had repeatedly detected such movements.
Often, at the outset of the cocaine effect, the
subjects alleged that they experienced an intense feeling of heat in the head.
I noticed this in myself as well in the course of some later experiments, but
on other occasions it was absent. In only two cases did coca give rise to
dizziness. On the whole the toxic effects of coca are of short duration, and
much less intense than those produced by effective doses of quinine or
salicylate of soda; they seem to become even weaker after repeated use of cocaine.
"CRACK" cocaine
Cocaine is a powerfully addictive drug of abuse.
Once having tried cocaine, an individual cannot predict or control the extent
to which he or she will continue to use the drug.
The major routes of administration of cocaine are
sniffing or snorting, injecting, and smoking (including free-base and crack
cocaine). Snorting is the process of inhaling cocaine powder through the nose
where it is absorbed into the bloodstream through the nasal tissues. Injecting
is the act of using a needle to release the drug directly into the bloodstream.
Smoking involves inhaling cocaine vapor or smoke into the lungs where
absorption into the bloodstream is as rapid as by injection.
"Crack" is the street name given to
cocaine that has been processed from cocaine hydrochloride to a free base for
smoking. Rather than requiring the more volatile method of processing cocaine
using ether, crack cocaine is processed with ammonia or sodium bicarbonate
(baking soda) and water and heated to remove the hydrochloride, thus producing
a form of cocaine that can be smoked. The term "crack" refers to the
crackling sound heard when the mixture is smoked (heated), presumably from the
sodium bicarbonate.
There is great risk whether cocaine is ingested by
inhalation (snorting), injection, or smoking. It appears that compulsive
cocaine use may develop even more rapidly if the substance is smoked rather
than snorted. Smoking allows extremely high doses of cocaine to reach the brain
very quickly and brings an intense and immediate high.
Blow : (is street slang for Cocaine), the 1990’s
film starring Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz, made Cocaine seem cool and
artsy.The inculcation of specifically Cocaine into Hollywood culture was no
coincidence, it was a methodical planned occurrence. By giving drug use mass
appeal Hollywood began conditioning generations for permanent drug addiction,
it was all about the bottom line money and control. (Authors note Curtis Blow
of Rappers Delight fame, took his pseudonym from the slang term for Cocaine).
“I was destined to meet George Jung. I was destined
to direct Blow,” Ted Demme said. He hooked up with George when he was
at FCI Otisville in New York and they got the script and movie together, which
starred Johnny Depp as a young George Jung. “To me he is not a number, he’s not
a convict, and he’s not a criminal,” Depp said. “He’s a great man whose wisdom
and knowledge unfortunately was greatly overshadowed by the choices and
mistakes he made all those years ago when he hadn’t even had time to brush
himself off from the conditioning wrought upon him by his parents.”
Boston George
George Jung and Johnny Depp.
George Jung transported tons of cocaine from Colombia to the United States
for Pablo Escobar and the Medellin Cartel. His story was featured and
dramatized in the movie Blow that starred Johnny Depp and the
investigative book Kings of Cocaine. He has also been profiled in
various magazines and was interviewed for a F.E.D.S. magazine cover story. 
With all the hype and fanfare he has been celebrated as an outlaw celebrity and Hollywood has romanticized and glorified his story giving him icon status. But the truth is much deeper. The man they call Boston George, George Jung, federal prison number 19225-004 is currently in the Bureau of Prisons at FCI La Tuna in Texas. The big screen told his story, he has told his story and other writers have told his story, now I will tell his story.
Boston George was the product of an upper-middle-class family in Weymouth, Massachusetts, who attended the University of Tennessee on a football scholarship. He became a hippie in the 1960s counterculture and marched for peace in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston. He was a child of the Woodstock nation who in 1967 devised a plan to buy the best weed in California and take it back east to sell in the Boston College area. “I became the Pot Man,” George said. He started making 200 grand a year flying pot back east using the contacts he cultivated in the counterculture movements in Los Angeles and San Francisco to score the kind bud. Through those people he also met a bunch of entertainment type, Hollywood people and became a distributor and retailer of high grade marijuana. His clientele included celebrities, outlaws and rock stars. “Even the stars knew me as Pot Man,” George said.
Eventually George started flying to Mexico to buy weed in larger and cheaper quantities. He was doing 600 to 900 pound loads and making 50 to 100 grand a month. “The first flight, me and another gentleman did it ourselves, it was long and scary. Because of my lack of experience I hired another pilot after that,” George said. Three years later he got busted. His mother found out what he was dong and turned him in. He was arrested and sentenced to serve time in federal prison and sent to FCI Danbury, a federal prison in Massachusetts. “Danbury was a prison that you could learn from other inmates,” George said. And he put his criminal environment to good use.
George met Carlos Lehder, a Colombian with ties to Pablo Escobar. “Carlos was a guy who loved Adolph Hitler and John Lennon,” George said. George and Lehder hit it off. Carlos spoke perfect English. George, who was seven years older, shared with Carlos how he had moved tons of pot and found out that Carlos struggled to unload a few hundred. But Carlos had dreams of smuggling cocaine. He was hooked up with Griselda Blanco, the Godmother of cocaine, who was running and trying to establish the trade in New York for the Medellin Cartel. They traded notes and Lehder was impressed with Jung’s transport methods. “Until I met Carlos, Colombians never knew how to transport cocaine into the Untied States in large quantities. Only small suitcases carried by women,” George said. “Carlos was my bunkmate in the Federal penitentiary in Danbury. He was Colombian. He taught me everything I needed to know about cocaine and I taught him everything about smuggling drugs into America.”
Lehder wanted to set up a transportation ring and with Jung’s insights and experience in the smuggling game he was able to do this. George showed the Colombian how to transport tons of cocaine by plane. “A kilo was between 1 and 2 grand American in Colombia and it sold for about 60 grand here in the U.S.” George said. Jung knew he could market the cocaine through his entertainment and counterculture contacts in L.A. and in San Francisco through the people he knew in the Haight-Ashbury section. “I figured that if the record industry and movie industry were interested, they could promote the product through the greatest advertising medium there was.” George said meaning film and the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Among the music, movie and film, Hollywood-type people George knew, the high grade Colombian cocaine would be an instant hit and jumpstart the cocaine powder market in the United States.
Lehder served as the cultural bridge between the Colombian cocaine producers and the pilots and distributors in the U.S. but it was George Jung who made it all happen with his contacts on the sales tip, at least according to him. “Carlos knew Pablo Escobar. Our first trips were done with two females carrying suitcases, two a piece on the airplane. The suitcases were lined with fiberglass cells and basically undetectable. Once we made enough money, we sent a plane down to load up with cocaine,” George said. George and Carlos’s cocaine dreams from Danbury would become reality. But Pablo and the other Colombians didn’t like Carlos Lehder. He pitched his idea to them, outlining George’s tactics but they still wanted to do a run using their tried and tested methods. They started with 15 kilos, then smuggled 50 in the suitcases, giving them the capital to set up with the airplane. Jung got the 50 kilos sold in Hollywood for 2.2 million in two weeks, this made Carlos an important person in the eyes of Pablo Escobar and showed him that he needed Carlos.
“That was the start or beginning of the Medellin Cartel. We showed the Colombians that you could ship large quantities of coke to the U.S. via airplane and that there was a demand for the drug in America. Millions of dollars were generated in days.” George said. “The Colombians loved me. What Carlos, the Colombian powder and myself formed was the beginning of the Medellin Cartel. There was Carlos, Pablo Escobar, the Ochoas and myself. Carlos and I were responsible for transporting and distributing, the Ochoas handled the political and the police side and Pablo supplied all the drugs. Pablo was a visionary. He had a code of honor and those who violated it were terminated. Carlos and I made over 100 million.
I had so much money I would buy houses just to store it. I had to smuggle my money back out of the U.S. to Colombia and Panama. I had so much money it began to mean nothing to me. We started the influx of cocaine to the U.S. By 1977 George Jung was burning out. He was spending 15 hours a week in the air smuggling money. To Lehder he became untrustworthy. Jung started using too much coke and the hippie and Hitler advocate grew apart. Jung was carrying $1 million a trip, but it was all sent back to Medellin. George kept $100 grand a trip, he basically became a mule. Lehder had convinced the Colombians that Jung was too burnt out to do anything else. But George has a different opinion. “Carlos got greedy and wanted it all for himslef,” George said. By 1977 Lehder had set up the Bahamas pipeline. He bought a Piper Navajo for 125k cash and an island called Norman’s Cay. Lehder was sending 250 kilos at a time on a plane out of Nassau to the U.S. and it was all Pablo’s coke. He made Jung obsolete.
“Pablo and I had a good relationship. He continued to be my connection. I
don’t think he really cared for Carlos but Carlos was bringing in too much
money for him,” George said. By 1980, at the age of 25, Carlos had completely
discarded George Jung. He didn’t need him. He was running the whole
transportation ring himself. “Carlos Lehder and Henry Ford had a 1ot in common.
Henry Ford perfected the mass transportation of automobiles for the American
consumer and Carlos Lehder perfected the mass transportation of cocaine for the
American consumer.” A law enforcement official said. His transportation ring,
which George Jung showed him how to set up and operate, turned Pablo Escobar
and the Medellin Cartel into world powers and Colombia into a narco state. The
rest is history. But back to George Jung.When the U.S. government turned all their might and resources against the Medellin Cartel it was lights out for them. The Colombian government turned Carlos Lehder over to the DEA and extradited him to the U.S. in 1987. He was convicted and sentenced to 135 years in federal prison. He cooperated with the U.S government investigation of Panama dictator Manuel Noriega and received a reduced sentence in return for his testimony. The Adolph Hitler loving drug lord is now in the Bureau of Prisons federal Witsec program. It is said that he is an open homosexual in prison and has been involved in numerous knock down fights with his lovers. But the federal government covers it all up since at one time he was their prize snitch. George Jung snitched also, he testified against Carlos Lehder. “While considering your options, remember this and remember it well, choice with out consequence is no choice at all,” George said.
George Jung was in prison when Ted Demme, the director came calling. “I was destined to meet George Jung. I was destined to direct Blow,” Ted Demme said. He hooked up with George when he was at FCI Otisville in New York and they got the script and movie together, which starred Johnny Depp as a young George Jung.
“To me he is not a number, he’s not a convict, and he’s not a criminal,” Depp said. “He’s a great man whose wisdom and knowledge unfortunately was greatly overshadowed by the choices and mistakes he made all those years ago when he hadn’t even had time to brush himself off from the conditioning wrought upon him by his parents.”
The movie was a big success and made Boston George a celebrity in prison and out, a man who Hollywood stars wanted to fraternize with and who magazines wanted to interview and profile. “I lived the life of the biggest rock stars or film stars. There was nothing I couldn’t do. But I didn’t have many friends,” George said. “Life was my gamble, luck was my art form. I’ve lived ten lives in one and now I’m the trend where illusion meets reality. All that I know finally comes to meaning, all the deserted lands, sandy beaches I ever walked in ribbons of desperado moonlight, all the secret cargos carried on pirate winds, all the curtained faces that watched me pass through like a great hunter who now sees a light of his campfire realizing at long last after having come so far exactly why I’m here on this planet at this time.
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