In the comments, ashen man links to an argument I had come across long ago that the evolution of our ability to digest gluten and lactose was driven not by its nutritional value but by the shift from a free-roaming hunter-gatherer society to one of agricultural civilization that we are not cut out for and need to be drugged in order to fit in. Some of you may not feel like visiting a lycos page with its annoying ads, so by googling the authors I found this duplicate. The paper is entitled “The Origins of Agriculture: a biological perspective and a new hypothesis”, by Greg Wadley and Angus Martin from the June 1993 Australian Biologist.
As long as I’m talking about mind-altering chemicals, Robert Lindsay has a new post on marijuana and brain damage, though he also discusses shrooms and coke. Hopefully Anonymous points out an article on scientists using cognitive-enhancement drugs (or “nootropics”).
Entitled to an Opinion 
March 20, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Drugs are a blast; they are a barrel of ticks. I have hardly had any bad experiences with any drugs really. They just get me high and make me feel really good. I don’t see what the fuss is about drugs.
Around here, there are women in their 40’s and 50’s who smoke ice and crack. Ice (smoked speed) is everywhere. If you only smoke weed, you are considered a very minor sort of drug user. The cops don’t even care about pot, really. They probably would not even bother you if they caught you using it in your house. They have bigger fish to fry.
March 20, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Oh and nootropics are really cool man!
I have taken DMAE and choline before they both work great! Choline works best with Pantothenic acid – otherwise it will not even work at all. DMAE works good just alone, plus it has excellent psychiatric effects too in terms of improving mood, easing depression, improving confidence and lessening anxiety. The stuff is really neat, but it may raise your blood pressure a bit on the systolic side. It was originally given to older people with mild senility and it worked great.
I also found that Anafranil had great cognitive effects, but I guess that was due to its lessening of anxiety.
February 25, 2009 at 11:55 pm
[…] things a bit. Agnostic is lactose-intolerant as well (in addition to being gluten intolerant, perhaps reflecting or causing his non-docile nature), so I appreciate his tips. At any rate, despite what […]
May 19, 2009 at 1:05 am
[…] on arrested adaptation and “diseases of civilization” touches on a subject behind my digestion selected for docility post. […]
October 3, 2009 at 9:43 am
[…] I got* my first incoming link today from entitled to an opinion, a droll, well-written blog on contemporary social and political […]