II

“Insect Politics”

Wednesday, December 11 2008

1
“It’s a Kafka high.
It makes you feel like a bug.”

Now, now. You mustn't talk that way. That is "Spooky Language".
It is offensive-And we don't want to upset anyone. Okay?
Just relax. Breathe deeply. Here. Blow your nose [hands a tissue].

We'll be fine. But we do have to hurry along. We are late, for a very important date. We've no time for spooky
language, or quibbling or piddling around of any kind. But oh I could shake you! You really mustn't use such
language-

"Aliens." I will not even hear such a thing! Axiom No. 4.

• Look both ways

• Do not use spooky language without permission
• Ask the right questions
• Include <Data>

And just what sort of pea is in the pod? Here we go again- Inclusions of data. “Oh, I’m special!”
“Well then what is so special about you?” said the spider to the fly.
Fly: “Are we negotiating?”
Spider (sighs): “Politics.”

Democracy bears the arm of silent resistance. After all, it’s not like we can all just excuse ourselves. We should
be taking things point for point.

“No... Actually they did some biopsies on me and didn’t even want me to come back and get the stitches
out…It’s been a really confusing romp with the doctors…There have been times when I’ve been
paranoid enough to think that they knew what I had, and they had a mandate to treat it in a certain
way…”

Jan Smith
More than one excision of tissue for analysis, and no analysis. No politics.

Aside from infestation with these Filamentous Silicate Materials, there does not appear much else of interest
about Mrs. Smith to trouble ourselves bottling her bloods and tissues and fluids. She at least got a discount on
the sutures. Biopsies hurt like hell.

“Well then what is so special about you?” said the spider to the fly.

Something about the way she smiles.

And Mrs. Smith seems to be taking it on the chin rather well enough herself- not to make news of the egregious
medical negligence surrounding if not a plethora, at least this one instance thereof. I’ve been to the dentist, and I
know when to say “S T O P” when things start tingling too much. I wouldn’t rather her-or anyone else for that
matter –complain, though I’m grateful she has, does and is. After all, she is an American. You go girl. The poor
woman has enough gumption to persist with her testimony, as does every MORG sufferer, world wide
wanderers with wonder plugging in. Surrounded by vigils of common condition, alluring and alerting every lay
and educated ego to the phantom torment that lies no further than our data cables can pipe-these curious
complaints and reports from everywhere yonder-the mysterious MORG!

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There is not a part of naiveté or portioned laissez faire either way that does not fail to stir in us compassion for
those with whom stripes, mean kindness. Something about the way she smiles. If there is nothing else we can
learn from Jan Smith, at least how to get along without legal representation or social services, conscientious
health care or anything but a common condition. There is nothing remarkable about epidemics or testimony of
their stripes. There is something though, quite remarkable about kind stripes and un-remarkable epidemics. As if
anyone could imagine what these people are really experiencing, enough to be able to distinguish between an
itch and a “bitch” [a headache] and know that both the cluster-head and the morgi are suggesting something not
as negotiable as a common condition. There is comfort in the company of familiars, even if as little as 0.1% [In
the case of clusterheadahces] are available to persist. Allowed to persist indefinitely with the least intervention
on their behalf, plays advisory ethics.1

“However that is the fate of 99% of people afflicted with this creation. Not only do
they go to the doctor for help but… they get thrown out on their ear and get branded,
socially-a delusional nutcase.”
Cliff Mickelson
Self medicating dopers and self excoriating loonies. Indeed, an odd bunch.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/aug/02/health.drugsandalcohol/print

Headache sufferers flout new drug law

Calls for clinical trials and rethink of legislation as patients claim that magic
mushrooms can relieve excruciating condition

Mark Honigsbaum The Guardian, Tuesday August 2 2005

Patients who suffer from cluster headaches - a debilitating medical condition for which
there is no cure - are flouting the government's ban on magic mushrooms because they
say the psychedelic fungi are the only thing to relieve the pain of their attacks.

In the past two years scores of British cluster headache sufferers have turned to magic
mushrooms, prompted by reports from the US that suggest that LSD and psilocybin -
the active ingredient of magic mushrooms - may be able to control the intensity and
duration of their headaches.

Although some have experimented with psychedelics before, the majority have no
history of drug taking. But many say they would rather risk jail than forgo a substance
that lets them lead a normal life.

Richard Ayliffe, 39, a chronic sufferer from Dudley in the West Midlands, says he has
tried conventional treatments but the only thing to have brought him relief is magic
mushrooms. Without them he says he would not be able to hold down a job.

"People are quite sympathetic at first but once you've let them down for the third time
sympathy turns to exasperation," he says. "Magic mushrooms have enabled me to lead
a normal life."

1
Do not look for such a phrase anywhere. It is not likely to be found expressed as has been here, and roughly implies: “The
suspension of ethics inapplicable to any policy in affect of relief of cause or cure. “ If anyone understands an example of
this in American history at least [1876-1965] it is not remarkable, and imposes similarly detached consequences.

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Like other members of ClusterBusters - an online forum where cluster headache
sufferers swap notes and discuss alternative treatments - Ayliffe claims that taking
magic mushrooms not only interrupts his cycle of headaches, but buys him longer
remission periods between attacks. Some sufferers claim that since taking mushrooms
they have been pain-free for up to two years.

And, because an attack can come at any time many members stockpiled mushrooms
ahead of the government's ban this month.

Last week one member of the group, a 41-year-old father of two who asked to be
identified only as Lee, admitted he had already taken one dose in contravention of the
ban.

Under the Drugs Act 2005 possession of magic mushrooms is a class A offence
punishable by a seven-year prison sentence. Previously, only psilocybin and other
preparations of mushrooms, but not the fresh product itself, were controlled.

"The way I see it, either I break the law or forgo the most effective treatment I have
found in nearly six years," says Lee.

Since he began taking mushrooms a year ago, he says the intensity of his headaches
has shrunk by a third and the remissions between attacks have lengthened to 40 days.

"It's absolutely incredible," he says. "I can't tell you how much magic mushrooms have
changed my life."

Spurred by the cases, researchers at Harvard Medical School are hoping for permission
from the US food and drug administration to conduct a controlled trial.

John Halpern and his colleague Andrew Sewell have collected 60 case studies from
members of ClusterBusters. With the support of the Boston-based Multidisciplinary
Association for Psychedelic Studies (Maps), they plan to publish the cases in a leading
journal with a view to getting FDA approval for a clinical trial next year.

Maps is already sponsoring an FDA trial of psilocybin for the treatment of obsessive
compulsive disorder.

"At this stage we are not advocating anything - we're just trying to gather information
and see if we can get a sense of the appropriate dosage," says Rick Doblin, the
president of Maps. "Having said that, I find the anecdotal reports pretty convincing."

Cluster headaches come in cycles and are caused by a swelling of the blood vessels in
the brain. Sufferers say the pain exceeds that of passing a kidney stone or of childbirth
without anaesthetic. Some have found the pain, which typically extends over one side
of the head and face, so unbearable that they have committed suicide.

For episodic sufferers, the headaches typically last several weeks then disappear. But
in chronic sufferers - of whom there are an estimated 6,000 in Britain - attacks occur
daily, with no more than two weeks' remission in any 12-month period. They can
continue for years.

Conventional treatments include oxygen and Imitex (sumatriptan), an anti-migraine

medication that constricts the flow of blood in the brain. Since only two injections can
be taken in a 24-hour period, however, this is of little use for chronic sufferers.
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Verapamil, a calcium channel blocker, can also be used as a prophylactic against
attacks, - but to be effective it has to be taken in high doses, increasing the risk of
such side effects as cardiac arrest.

Peter Goadsby, professor of neurology at the Institute of Neurology, University College

London, and the world's leading expert on cluster headaches, is sceptical about the
mushroom therapy.

He argues that the relief reported by some patients may be a placebo effect or owing
to natural remission. But he does believe the cases warrant a proper clinical study,
particularly as ergotomine - which contains lysergic acid, a precursor of LSD - has been
used to treat migraines for years.

"It's possible that mushrooms have some useful effect but it's far from proven," Dr
Goadsby says. "Cluster headaches are such a devastating problem that people will turn
to anything that seems to work."

But one sufferer, John Hobson, 36, from Barnsley in Yorkshire, says since
experimenting with mushrooms last year his night-time attacks have ceased and he no
longer gets headaches early in the morning. But because of the change in the law Mr
Hobson says he has decided to discontinue the therapy.

"If I could have mushrooms growing in my garden for medical use and I knew I wasn't
going to get lifted by the vice squad I would most definitely do it," he says.

"I think the government should introduce an exemption for people in need."2

We may include any sort of chronic politics we want. Consultation is free as long as there is negotiation. If only
Jan Smith were lucky enough not have a lachrymal gland cut out just because it hurt like hell, there might not be
any story to tell at all. No testimony. No politics. So there is compassion due. But must we punch holes through
the flesh, to get up the nerve to complain? Who gives a damned about “fibrils”! This shit tingles, a bit too much.

In 1990 one was hard-pressed to find a neurologist who’d even heard of “CH”, or believed its patients
complaints of intelligent malady. The last time I checked into the emergency room (December 27 2007; the
morning after report of my sister’s death) a clusterheadache is treat with the urgency of cardiac arrest. Medical
royalty. And indeed while there is still more danger of wishful, rather than actual death, there is dignity in being
a self-medicating doper complaining of intelligent malady.

“Come, sit down. What about the whispering in your ear?”

Negotiation.

(Sigh) Politics.

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LEARN AND TEACH. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6D-bgfL4ns