Interesting SLATE piece "Chief Justice Rehnquist's Drug Habi

[Antigen]

"And for the nine years between 1972 and the end of 1981, William Rehnquist consumed great quantities of the potent sedative-hypnotic Placidyl. So great was Rehnquist's Placidyl habit, dependency, or addiction?depending on how you regard long-term drug use?that by the last quarter of 1981 he began slurring his speech in public, became tongue-tied while pronouncing long words, and sometimes had trouble finishing his thoughts."

http://slate.msn.com/id/2125906/

When an innocent Californian millionaire gets killed by a drug squad
trying to seize his house with a bogus search warrant, people better ask themselves if they really want to turn their cops into money-makers.
--Vancouver Police Const. Gil Puder

[Anonymous]

Placidyl is a pretty good buzz.  They come in little liquid-filled gels, 500mg red ones, and the mena greens, which are 750mg.  You can pierce the gel with a pin or needle and drink the liquid inside, it will hit you faster that way.  A good, high-caliber downer, kind of a hypnotic sedative (like quaaludes or rohypnol) with some barbiturate qualities.  I used to take them before freebase sessions so it would hit me by the time I was done smoking coke, and the come-down wouldn't be so bad.

[Anonymous]

Hitler had a quack personal physician who would shoot him up on a daily basis.  Some days he got cocaine, some days morphine, some days barbituates, it all depended on his mood and his doctor's.

[Anonymous]

he began slurring his speech in public, became tongue-tied while pronouncing long words, and sometimes had trouble finishing his thoughts.

An ideal candidate for president then!  :wink:

[Truth Searcher]

Is he that much different than those who slam back scotch(es) at power lunches?  I think we would be surprised to learn of all those in positions of high authority who abuse substances.  Those lofty positions carry more than their fair share of stressors.  I don't condone it..... I'm just saying I'll bet its not all that uncommon.

[Antigen]

Oh, but I do condone it! Look, Rehnquist was certainly not the only, even an unusual, example of someone functioning extremely well, being extremely responsible and reliable while under the influence of mind altering drugs. The difference between his sleeping pill habit and someone else's illicit habit is only that he could go to his doctor and get professional help quitting w/o implicating himself in criminal activity.

What  about Rush Limbaugh and his elephant doses of opiates? While I disagree w/ his politics and hold him in much disdain for some of his tactics, I don't think you can make an argument that he was anything but extremely reliable and high functioning the entire time he was swollowing enough opiates every single day to put a football team on the nod.

Then there are great historical figures from Poe (mrphine and amethyst) Dr. Halstead, father of modern surgery (injected cocain/heroin). The list could go on and on and on.

Point is, there doesn't seem to be any real correlation between substance use and performance. I think it may seem that way only because when people fall apart, we then go looking for reasons. If they happen to be a substance user we think that explains it. But what about all the other people using the same substances, to varying degrees of benefit or detriment, w/o falling apart? We have no reason to look for substance use so we don't find it so we assume it doesn't exist. Even though we know better on an intellectual level.
 

The most important thing in the programming language is the name. A language will not succeed without a good name. I have recently invented a very good name and now I am looking for a suitable language.  
-- D. E. Knuth, 1967