Julie Swetnick's description of Beach Wk '82 parties w- Quaalude-spiked alcohol finds corroboration

[kpete]

Julie Swetnick's description of Beach Week '82 parties with Quaalude-spiked alcohol finds corroboration in the Georgetown Prep '83 yearbook entries of Philip Merkle, Don Urgo, and J.C. del Real.

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[Eliot Rosewater]

1. I ALMOST said "ok, that was then, he was young, lots of em did this stuff, but now?"

Then i remembered when he REBUKED and ATTACKED and DEMEANED a woman senator about her drinking and he told us all he STILL Loves his beer.

I am not doing well, how can anyone - it is hard being a patriot these days

[byronius]

9. Rough day for me as well.

These people are orcs, and the numbers (though somewhat better) do not bode well for the fate of the nation. We may gain back the House and Senate, but these people will continue their blind destructive behavior for generations. It's almost as if they are expressing a genetic switch for destruction of the human species.

History's pretty damned clear about this -- nations that go down this road suffer horribly for it.

[DemocracyMouse]

13. Tell me more about this "genetic switch"

"expressing a genetic switch for destruction of the human species. "

Well put!

[byronius]

16. It comes from experiments with rats -- overpopulation in an enclosed space triggers gene expression.

Different methods, but primarily it makes babies smell 'wrong' to the mother, so she consumes them all.

I'm almost certain that there's a strong inverse correlation between the percentage of 'conservatives' in any given culture and that culture's ability to survive. It's not really a political thing, more an inability to recognize the destructive effects of one's own actions. Like not having nerves.

I'm reading Judt's 'Postwar' about Europe after WWII, and he details the incredibly disturbing Soviet show trials of the late 1940's and early 50's which seem absolutely relevant to this current crisis. The measure of willingness to defame, imprison and murder in the pursuit of one's 'certainly correct' beliefs, regardless of what those beliefs are -- seems to be directly related to a society's eventual inability to function.

We're just frightened primates acting out behavioral routines developed three million years ago. Imagine what happened to an early tribe in which 30 to 40 percent of the population was willing to ally itself with a different tribe to gain an ideological victory --

Destruction, and the absorption of the survivors into the other tribe. It's not just that we no longer trust or respect each other -- it's that a large chunk of our population is engaging in coordinated self-destructive behavior, and no amount of reason or fact can sway them from it.

That spells 'genetic'. There have been several studies on the genetic basis for political ideology -- conservative paralyze, liberals react, conservatives lose blood flow to the extremities under stress, liberals the opposite --

Laurie Garrett's 'The Coming Plague' details that bacterial populations genetically alter other life forms to serve their own ends, the example being malaria's altering of the mosquito to favor females, because females are the primary transmitters of the disease.

As harsh and scary as that prospect might be, I've wondered if bacterial populations do not surgically alter our DNA in attempts to increase male aggression that would then result in catastrophic loss of human life -- and thereby provide a multigenerational feast for the bacteria.

WWI, WWII -- the microcosm fed well. Did they help push the conflicts?

Speculating. Sometimes I wish I hadn't read Garrett's book. Pretty horrific science that few know or think about. Bacteria rule us, determine who lives and dies -- we are essentially walking apartment buildings for them. They outnumber the cells in our bodies, and we are definitely a food source for them. So --

I don't like thinking this way. But when I see Americans with the same education and cultural upbringing as mine pushing belief systems that historically end in mass slaughter -- I have to wonder.

[Moostache]

26. The single greatest destructive thing done by the GOP has been to cast doubt on science...

Not JUST climate science either...evolutionary science and the non-stop, nonsensical fight with young Earth creationist is just as harmful to the overall population and the popular acceptance of science - a topic sorely misunderstood by 90% of the population and 100% of our lawmakers.

We need to acknowledge terribly uncomfortable truths - 1) we are NOT the end result of a god's "plan", but rather the latest apex of the ever-evolving tree of life on planet Earth...2) there are probably many millions of different instances of life in the entirety of the universe, but A) they are very far away from us and B) that distance will likely forever make us an island unto ourselves...at least until we develop sentient machines with eternal life spans that will go on to explore the universe in ways our temporal limitations and frail bodies prevent...and 3) we are doing a very poor job of protecting ourselves from disease, poverty and each other.

We are absolutely nothing more than evolved primates, but even so called "lower primates" like monkeys or chimps have an innate sense of fairness and will react negatively to clan members who take or horde resources unjustly...we need to get back to being our natural monkey selves again, and working on a more egalitarian future for the species or we will suffer the results and they will not be pretty.

[Turbineguy]

29. I saw this sort of behavior in a company

that went bankrupt. After the filing: "Business as usual!" I was told. No, that's how we got into this mess. OK. As far as I know, one person committed suicide. No other deaths. People lost their jobs and homes. The company did not survive the reorganization.

I ended up in a hated competing company. Hated for their ability to run a good operation that was profitable.

[femmedem]

33. One of the most insightful and informative posts I've ever read on DU.

Thanks. Maybe it should be an OP, although I presume it's getting a lot of visibility here.

[pandr32]

24. "Orks" is perfect

[Merlot]

12. There are A LOT of supreme court candidates who did not engage in this behavior.

It's one thing to not like someones politics (gorsich, roberts, etc) but it's entirely enother thing to know someone did these things and is STILL beligerent about doing them.

Standards need to be high for someone to be on the supremen court. I think it's entirely fare to disqualify someone for bad behavior at a young age. Not for every job, just this one particular job which has influence on everyone elses life.

[Eliot Rosewater]

20. Just pretend he is a Democrat or the prez is. Disqualified day one, no questions.

[iluvtennis]

19. To be young and drink - no problem with that. But when you assault young women while drunk,

that crosses the line. That has nothing to do with being young and drinking.

[marylandblue]

2. Quaaludes were common and easy to get in those days

There were more illegal prescriptions than legal ones before they banned it.

And mixing them with alcohol is incredibly dangerous. I am surprised nobody died at one of those parties.

[2naSalit]

31. I wonder how many actually did

but were deemed drug overdoses... never checked for sexual abuse.

[moonscape]

32. They really were -

I was living in NYC and went to a long weekend party in the Poconos - early 70's. When we got there, there was a =bowl= of quaaludes on the living room table!

The party was at a family place on 100 acres, on a lake, and it was gorgeous. We (my bf at the time) spent most of the time outdoors, on the lake, and drinking and 420, but no other drugs.

One woman got so wasted and the guys were going in and out of a bedroom where she was. Became too much for us so we left the 2nd day.

[Leghorn21]

3. del Real was missing for a "Renate Alumni" photo:

[TheBlackAdder]

4. Is that Bart in the upper left? Jersey is 23. (23 x 3) equals 69. Just saying.

[Leghorn21]

5. That's him alright - never thought of the numerical connotations, though!

I sure wish the real Renate would get in front of a news camera and tell these punkass bullies what she really thinks of them now

[TheBlackAdder]

14. My kids clued me into a bunch of subliminal and hidden 69 and 420 references out there.

.

It's like being at Disney World and finding all of the Hidden Mickeys.

Anything that is inverse, a multiple, and addition of or a factor of those numbers--it's probably not by chance.


I wonder if he asked for 23.

.

[Achilleaze]

6. Not funny, you young, smirky, degenerate republican a-holes

Is this what your Catholic school was teaching you? Wrong.Totally wrong in every morally imaginable way.

Shame.

[appalachiablue]

8. That's Mark G. Judge, #42 beside Kav.

[BeyondGeography]

7. Significant...Four people who should be hearing from the FBI

if this is a real investigation.

[murielm99]

10. High school yearbook...

Now, they check Facebook when looking for bad behavior when hiring someone. I guess the yearbooks of the 1980's can be like today's Facebook.

[magicarpet]

11. The reference to "151" means...

Bacardi 151 is a discontinued brand of highly alcoholic rum made by Bacardi Limited of Hamilton, Bermuda. It is named for its alcohol ...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacardi_151

[YessirAtsaFact]

15. It was 151 proof - about 75% alcohol

I remember it was popular for punch, because it was so potent.

[llmart]

17. "Brett - just what does killer Q's mean in your yearbook?"

"Why, I believe it was a reference the the queen bees that my parents had in their hives on their farm."

[BeyondGeography]

28. Kav: The boys used to take Renate to the farm and admire the killer q bees together

It was just another Alumnius activity. Any other questions?

[hexola]

18. Wern't qualudes a 1970s Cheech & Chong-era thing...?

I dont think I've ever seen or been offered any...ever...

Did they still make them back then?

[osmium]

21. 'Ludes? You bet.

I was never a heavy advocate for Quaalude(methaqualone) use, but my brother was turned into a zombie for a few weeks during 1981 due to massive ingestion. It got so weird that our mutual purveyor for all things prohibited stopped selling to him.

There are still a few annual seizures of methaqualone in the US. Illicit methaqualone production seems confined to mostly India at present.

I admit to having used a few, but I used to drink quite a lot back then, and mixing the two was a sure way to a heavy blackout(does that sound familiar?). I have taken Klonopin(clonazepam) whilst drinking and that too interrupts memory function.

It seems all these GABA_a agonists can really wreak havoc with one's memory if used inJUDICIOUSly. See B. Kavanaugh for confirmation(I did it again!! )

[lisby]

22. Yes. Quaaludes were used a lot in this area.

I grew up not far away in Northern Virginia, just on the other side of the Potomac. I went to parties in both Virginia and Maryland in the late 1970s and early 1980s where Quaaludes were taken. They were also routinely chopped up and mixed with pot smoked via bong. They had a distancing, sedentary effect. They were a heavily used drug here at that time.

[JHB]

25. Overlaps the period in question

Film references to quaaludes from the wikipedia page on Methaqualone in popular culture:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methaqualone_in_popular_culture

In the Cheech and Chong movie Up In Smoke (1978), Quaaludes are mentioned in several places. While driving the "van made entirely out of marijuana", which the narcotic Sergeant Stadenko is pursuing, Cheech and Chong pick up two hitchhiking women. One of them, Jade East, offers Chong a 'lude. At The Roxy Theatre, she gives Chong pills she believes are uppers, but which are actually Quaaludes, before he attempts to perform. Chong's stage persona during his band's performance is "Captain Quaalude"; he is dressed in tights, a shirt emblazoned with a huge Quaalude, and a cape. Chong's apparent overdose on Quaaludes causes him to fall all over the stage and his drums, until he is revived by marijuana smoke being drawn into the Roxy's ventilation system from the van burning in front of the club.

In Cheech and Chong's Nice Dreams (1981), Cheech's ex-girlfriend Donna (Evelyn Guerrero) enters a Chinese restaurant to find Cheech and Chong seated together. Her speech is slurred from the Quaaludes that she acknowledges taking.

In Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn) states, "People on 'ludes should not drive", as he drives down the street in his friend's brother's car.

In Scarface (1983), Tony accuses his wife of abusing Quaaludes, and at one point says: "Another Quaalude and she's gonna love me again".

In The Hunger (1983), a young girl named Alice asks Miriam (Catherine Deneuve) if she can give John (David Bowie) some Quaaludes to help him sleep. Miriam is shocked to hear her even mention the drug, but Alice tells her that she steals the pills from her stepmother, who buys them by the gross.

In the film Dragnet (1987), Joe Friday (played by Dan Aykroyd)'s badge number (714) was conspicuously the last shot in the opening credits. This was ostensibly a tribute to the original Joe Friday (Jack Webb) from the eponymous 1951 TV series—who is the uncle of the film's Joe Friday—but actually is a reference to what had become an inside joke in popular culture, especially to users of "714's", the Methaqualone pill produced under the brand name of Quaalude." Friday's character inherited his namesake's badge number and the movie's main plot point is attempting to thwart the drug-dealing "P.A.G.A.N.S."

[KY_EnviroGuy]

30. Ludes were a big problem for some in the late 70s.

I worked field service on a construction job near Myrtle Beach back then for a spell and many of the construction workers had a big problem with qualudes, and they drank heavily while using. Some of those guys would disappear for a day or two after payday and bingeing at the beach. This brings back a lot of crazy memories.

I was drinking heavy in those days but thank goodness I had the good sense to not use drugs with booze....

[George II]

23. Everyone has been obsessing over "Paragraph 13", which doesn't accuse Kavanaugh, but....

....they ignore #10-12, which specifically mention Kavanaugh.

She's VERY credible, and hopefully Senators read and believe what she said.

[Scurrilous]

27. K&R

[enid602]

34. . . . and starring Brett Kavanaugh as the Boofer

Just another daily episode of the ‘Leave it to Boofer’ show.. . .