OT: Here ya go...

I gather you weren't very nice as a child, either.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

I used to pull earwigs apart.

...Jim Thompson

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It's rather expensive version of another Great Experiment. Prohibition did fill the US with vice and crime, but it didn't kill all that many people - fewer than the current prohibition of other recreational drugs in the US is killing in Mexico now - but Americas do seem to be slow to appreciate what their experiments are telling them.

The rest of the world seems to be better at learning from your mistakes, pe rhaps because their political constitutions were written with an eye to avo iding the defects of the US constitution, which probably was as good as the Moderate Enlightenment could come up with in 1788, but really needed the R adical Enlightenment input that Ben Franklin and Tom Paine might have added , if they hadn't been shunted off to France.

The Romans took lead pollution a good deal further than just using lead pipes - they sweetened their wine with lead acetate - "sweet sugar of lead".

On Fri, 11 Dec 2015 18:02:02 -0800 (PST), Bill Sloman Gave us:

Go to Gaza, use a knife, and the Israelis will be happy to feed you a much needed and deserved lead lunch.

I think lead was also used to 'reclaim' wine and beer which had gone a bit vinegary. Metallic lead reacted with the acetic acid to give sugar of lead. It has been suggested that this practise was a possible source of the medieval 'village idiot'.

Cheers

And Caligula and Nero.

Apparently, a few years ago, wineries in Austria and Hungary were doing an equivalent "sweetening" with (IIRC) cyanide, but got caught. ...Jim Thompson

Now I remember, it was Arsenic :-( ...Jim Thompson

Nah, diethylene glycol aka antifreeze.

Cheers

There seems to be an emerging school of thought that we should just let the druggies get on with killing themselves.

Enforcing drug laws is very costly, as it pushes up prices - only the pushers benefit.

The problem seems to be with eliminating the need to mug innocent victims to feed their habit - without actually just handing them the means to kill themselves.

They also used pewter serving dishes - which AFAIK: is just a different ratio to solder. A relatively stable alloy - but many foods are acidic.

One of the polar explorers was supposedly done in by tinned food in soldered tins - the tin crystalises at extreme low temperatures and leaves granular lead particles.

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-Lasse

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like it has been like forever with alcohol and tobacco?

the pushers benefit, the police benefit, the police gadget industry benefit , the prison system benefit, the politicians benefit, pretty much everyone bu t the taxpayers benefit

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drugs are not hard to make, they would be dirt cheap if legal

-Lasse

Yep, you're right. It was some other country that was using Arsenic. ...Jim Thompson

It wasn't an accepted practice--it was crooks that did it, like the Austrians that dumped antifreeze into the white wine.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

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The Dutch solved that one years ago. Register as an addict and you get a ma intenance dose under your (compulsory) health insurance. You have to take t he dose under supervision at the dispensary (to prevent you taking it away and selling it). It hasn't eliminated drug trafficking and drug crime in th e Netherlands - though it's less profitable than it used to be - but it has pretty much eliminated drug addiction as a motivation for burglary (which did make a useful difference).

Glycol, not cyanide. It's not good for you, but it is rather less lethal than cyanide.

In Dutch, people like Bill Sloman are called a 'bedwetter'. ;)

ROFL

joe