High Accomplishments

Scientists have been taking cognitive-enhancing drugs for years. In face, a recent survey showed that 1 out of 5 scientists admitted to using cognitive-boosting drugs, including Ritalin and Provigil (Modafinil) to enable them to perform better, sleep more efficiently, or increase their concentration or memory.

Inventors, entrepreneurs and CEOs alike are recognizing the benefits as well. Several well-known brands, businesses and discoveries can be attributed to one great trip.

LSD: One of the Best Things Steve Jobs has Ever Done

Steve Jobs has never been shy to talk about his LSD habits. "One of the two or three most important things I have done in my life," Jobs is quoted in the book What the Dormouse Said, Written by New York Times reporter John Markoff.

And just before he died, LSD creator Albert Hoffman reached out to the Apple genius to help turn his "problem child" into a "wonderful child" (Hoffman often referred to LSD as his problem child).

According to the letter, Hoffman specifically asks Jobs to fund research being proposed by Peter Gasser, a Swiss psychiatrist, and he directs Jobs to Doblin's Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.

Hoffman, at 102, has since passed after writing to Jobs in 2007.

The Huffington Post reports that the letter led to roughly 30-minute conversation between Doblin and Jobs, says Doblin, but no contribution to the cause. "He was still thinking, 'Let's put it in the water supply and turn everybody on,'" recalls Doblin, who says he still hasn't given up hope that Jobs will come around.


DearSteve -

America's First President: Suspected Pothead

I know some of you new-age junkies are thinking: "Not as cool as Jobs." But to think that the man who ran our country first is a suspected pothead is pretty cool.

In a letter to Dr. James Addison in 1794, Washington writes "The artificial preparation of hemp, from Silesia, is really a curiosity." In the same letter, he went on into more detail about Indian hemp, saying he hoped to "have disseminated the seed to others."

August 7, 1765 diary entry, Washington "began to separate the male from the female (hemp) plants," describes a harvesting technique favored to enhance the potency of smoking cannabis, among other reasons.

Thomas Jefferson was a hemp farmer, Benjamin Franklin was a paper maker, Washington was clearly the chemist. It's no wonder they were able to construct the Declaration of Independence - they where high. All of these men had celebrity status and worldly travels. Some argue that their progressive attitudes and experiences afforded them ample opportunities to "try new things."

Drop Acid, Discover Life



Francis Crick dropped acid, discovered the meaning of life, and won a Nobel-Pice Prize for doing so. The legendary scientist is known as the father of genetics, and was also outspoken about using LSD while making the revolutionary double-helix discovery of DNA.

Crick was a believer in Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception. Huxley, who was never really appreciated, wrote that a sober mind had social restrictions that limited full creative thought. These social restrictions are the ones that jolt us out of a daydream before we walk into a wall. Huxley and Crick both thought that using drugs lifted these barriers.

So instead of dropping acid and staring at the table cloth for three hours, Crick discovered the meaning of life. Allegedly, Crick took some acid and ran over to his artist wife, Odile, and had her draw the image to the right which has since become one of the most replicated image in science. Then, Crick, his partner James Watson, and Odile, who had no idea what she had drawn at the time or why there was a need for celebration, went out and got drunk.

In the late Sixties, Crick founded Soma, a legalize-cannabis group named after the drug in Huxley's novel Brave New World. He even put his name to a letter to The Times in 1967 calling for a reform in the drugs laws.


Scientology on Drugs

The controversial religion that got Tom Cruise into some weird shit may have been founded while under the influence. L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the drug-hating religion Scientology, is rumored to have been a heavy drug-user.

The most ironic bit: according to humanitarians, drug rehabilitation methods of L. Ron Hubbard are presently employed in some seventy nations and credited with the salvation of a hundred thousand terminal addicts. L. Ron Hubbard methods have further meant a drug-free life for a million or more recreational users, and still more suffering ill effects of medicinal usage.

In 1983, three years before Hubbard’s death, Hubbard’s son, Ron Jr., told a Penthouse reporter he recalls his father as a “a hard-drinking, drug-abusing father who would mistreat his mother and other women, but who, when, under the influence, would delight in telling his son all of his exploits.” Ron Jr. also said that his father would use drugs as means to be closer to Satan.

Although Scientology can arguably be the world’s most useless discovery, speculators still cite its findings on hardcore drugs. It cannot be argued, however, that when Hubbard died, he was on psych-meds, a big no-no for avid Scientologist. The religion teaches that all drugs inhibit spiritual freedom.

Took a Rock to Create Rock

There's no denying that the King of Rock had a problem with drugs. Elvis is by the one of the leading entertainers ever, and used cocaine and other uppers and downers to maintain the glory.

People who knew him best said the last years were the worst, but that didn't stop his fans. According to The Rolling Stone, Elvis would come into the recording studio, clearly high, unprepared and slurring his words on disc, and the single would still hit the top of the charts.

Close to his death Elvis began pushing people away and giving more to strangers. He was known to buy expensive gifts and cars for people he hardly knew, but also pushed away and abused bodyguards and friends. Elvis was always pleasant with the media, responding with simple yes or no when clearly strung out.

On August 16th, Elvis was having trouble falling asleep in his Graceland home. His wife, Ginger, told The Rolling Stone that he took a book into the bathroom, after being up for hours reading it. It was no secret that Elvis had a massive supply in the bathroom, and the coroner's report states Elvis had at least 10 different drugs running in his system at the time of death. No one knows if Elvis took anything moments before his death, but as he fell to the floor, Ginger quickly realized what happened.


Coke for Brains

Sigmund Freud wanted to impress a girl, so he started to do cocaine. See, Mary, the girl of Freud's dreams, had up-tight parents who didn't think Freud's then fascination with sea creatures was a correct fit for their daughter (Freud actually was the first person to find the genitals of an eel, though he was doing research on its brain).

Freud found the new drug and began to rant to the science community. Not only did the drug cure hunger, thirst and melancholy, it made him feel fantastic. Freud published "On Coca," filled with errors, misspellings and inaccuracies, the text was supposed to spotlight the benefits of cocaine. Basic thesis: cocaine rocks.

Freud was so impressed by the drug, he wanted to share it. He sent some to Mary, along with the following note, obviously coked up:

"I will kiss you quite red and feed you till you are plump. And if you are forward you shall see who is the stronger, a little girl who doesn't eat enough or a big strong man with cocaine in his body. In my last serious depression I took cocaine again and a small dose lifted me to the heights in a wonderful fashion. I am just now collecting the literature for a song of praise to this magical substance."

Not only was the founder of psychoanalysis a coke head, he was a sex fiend.

Louise Berger of the California Institute of Technology has speculated that without coke, Freud would be another lab geek who would rather play with eel genitals than discuss people's daddy issues - not in so many words. Basically, being introduced to cocaine eased up a tense Freud.

Freud was less keen on cocaine once the scientist that directed him towards the discovery of psychoanalysis, Fleischel, died from cocaine usage.

DNA Science is Built on LSD

During Kary Mullis' interview for BBC's Psychedelic Science documentary, he states"What if I had not taken LSD ever; would I have still invented PCR?" He replied, "I don't know. I doubt it. I seriously doubt it."

Apparently to make any advancements in DNA, one must be tripping. Mullis, a Nobel Prize laureate, holds is award for the development of the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), a technique to amplify a single or few copies of a piece of DNA across several orders of magnitude, generating thousands to millions of copies of a particular DNA sequence.

Like our friend Krick, Mullis makes no secret when giving credit to LSD for his discovery. In the September, 1994, issue of California Monthly, Mullis said, "Back in the 1960s and early '70s I took plenty of LSD. A lot of people were doing that in Berkeley back then. And I found it to be a mind-opening experience. It was certainly much more important than any courses I ever took."

The Coke in Coke

Yup, it's true. Coca-Cola once contained cocaine. In the late 1800's, cocaine was a prime ingredient in many wines, but in 1885, Atlanta banned the sale of alcohol. John Styth Pemberton saw this as an opportunity, dropping the alcoholic ingredient out of his beverage, creating Coca-Cola. The drink was good, but not great, so Pemberton sold today's most valuable brand for a mere $2,300.

The name Coca-Cola came from its two supposedly medical ingredients: “Coca” came from the coca leaf which is used to create the cocaine also found in the drink, and “Cola” from the Kola nut, which provided the Coke's caffeine. The presence of cocaine in the popular drink was not a secret, as displayed in the ad to the right.

In 1903, the brand caught some heat from The New York Tribune in an article explaining the harmful effects of cocaine, the article cited Coke as having “similar effects to cocaine, morphine and such like.” The company then decided to drop cocaine out of the mix, but still leaving some remnants.

Still wanting to be Coca-Cola, the company decided to use unsynthesized coca leaves instead of full-blown cocaine.

And, today, Coke still contains coca leaves. Coca-Cola includes extracted coca leaves into their syrup; the leaves are provided by the only company in America that can legally import coca leaves, Stepan. The leaves come from Peru. After the leaves are handled by Stepan, they're passed to Mallinckrodt, the only US company legally allowed to use cocaine in medicine, and then the "spent" leaves are passed into your beverage.

Partying Makes Laughing Gas

Laughing gas, or nitrous oxide, was created in 1772, but it's surgical benefits were not noticed until 1884. Before that time, laughing gas was used recreationally. People realized that taking a little would make you laugh and be the life of the party, and taking a little more would knock you out. It never occurred to anyone that this could be used for another purpose until 1844.

Dentist Horace Wells was at a party watching a friend dance after a few gasps of laughing gas. When the friend fell causing a deep gash in his leg and continued to dance, Wells noticed that his friend was in no pain at all as a result of being on laughing gas.

Wells tried the experiment on himself. After knocking himself out with the laughing gas, he asked one of his colleges to remove a rotten tooth. When he came to, his rotten tooth was gone and he had no recollection.

In this not so happy ending, when Wells tried to show the medical world of his discovery, he didn't realize the time it took for the laughing gas to actually knock-out a patient. While showcasing his findings to medical professionals, Wells' patient woke up, screaming in pain. Wells left the profession, was arrested for being high on chloroform, and later killed himself. In 1864, the American Dental Association formally recognized him for his discovery.

Absinthe makes Art



After Toulouse Lautrec painted a portrait of Vincent van Gogh sitting with a glass of absinthe, speculation that the famed artist's drug use was cleared up. Today, many scientists have written about the effects of absinthe and other commonly abused drugs of the day might have shaped van Gogh's art, for instance by causing him to hallucinate the halos and aurorae that often surround light sources in his paintings.

Scientists such as Dr. Paul Wolf have gone as far to attribute van Gogh's liking of yellow to absinthe. Before he died, at his most vulnerable point, many of van Gogh's paintings were primarily yellow, his house was yellow and he wrote how How Beautiful Yellow Is. Dr. Wolf Explains "speculations exist that his yellow vision was caused by overmedication with digitalis or excessive ingestion of the liqueur absinthe." He goes on to explain that the "chemistry of the effect of digitalis and thujone (absinthe ingredients) resulting in yellow vision has been identified."

LSD for Everyone!

It's important to point out that even though there are a number of success stories of people dropping copious amounts of drugs and doing wondrous things, there are more people shaking in an alleyway with a needle in their arm. Most of our genius inventors were on the brink of finding something incredible and revolutionary and just need a little push (or snort, or drop, or puff... whatever).

Don't expect to drop some acid and become the next Steve Jobs, or even Washington - it's not happening. Unless, of course, you were on the edge of something revolutionary. Then, of course, cite this post as your reason for whatever you invent.

Getting off the Grid: Reducing is so 2009

Everyone knows that “going green” is the new business trend of the decade. And like any trend, companies are trying to be the most green and the friendliest to the environment. The cool part of it, though, is that many company are reaping many benefits from this process. By dropping off the grid, companies everywhere are benefitting, may it be from awesome press or actually cutting down the cost of their energy use.

Many believe that living off the grid means to live a minimalist life style; while others that live off the grid have found that you don't have to give up anything by just using solar, wind or micro-hydro.

Gus Hasn't Paid an Electric Bill in 7 Years

Gus Sansone has 35-mile-an-hour wind gusts to thank for his lack of electric bills. His San Bernardino County, California home is powered by 80-foot wind turbines. Gus told the New York Times in 2007 that his turbines generate enough energy not only for his swimming pool motor and hot tub, but also for the air-conditioning and other electricity in his 1,600-square-foot home.

Here's how it works: the wind blows and a spinning propeller creates power for the home. When the wind isn't blowing, the house takes energy from the power company. When the wind is blowing strong, a turbine can produce excess energy and, depending on the utility company, can result in energy credits for the owner to use later.

The article goes on to say that Mr. Sansone's $32,000 system qualified for a $16,000 rebate from the California Energy Commission as well as credits on his state income tax. Several other states, including Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, offer similar incentives for wind-power purchases. A state-by-state guide with rules and incentives for alternative energy is at dsireusa.org.

Eco and Stlye



The above home, purchased last year for £7.2 million, rests on a bank in Cotswold and is hoped it will produce more energy than it uses. The house plans to save energy with an underground pump and geothermal heating.

The buyer of the home is anonymous, but is rumored to be in the entertainment industry. The 'thoroughly modern manor house', modelled on a bee orchid found on the reserve, will be part of the Lower Mill Estate, built on a 550-acre privately-owned nature reserve near Cirencester, known as the 'Capital of the Cotswolds'.

Building work for the house, which is proving to be a complicated process, will take three years to complete.

Fiji Water

In 2008, Fiji Water announced that it would be the first company to completely eliminate their carbon footprint. And, according to their web site, this includes every step in getting the water to consumers, even if a particular step wasn’t company owned. “Had we only measured the steps we own,” the web site states, “we would have included the bottling plant and company-owned transportation — nothing else."



For the base year ending June 30, 2007, Fiji’s total annual carbon footprint from every stage of its production and distribution was 85,396 metric tons of CO2eq. As of November 2008, the company promised to bring their carbon footprint negative – not neutral – by 120 percent.

The plan, stretching across even what end-users do with the empty bottle, expects the following goals by the en of this year (compared to a July 2006 – June 2007 baseline):
25% reduction in CO2 emissions
50% of energy used in the production process to come from renewable sources
20% reduction in product packaging
33% reduction in waste from the production facility in Fiji
Fiji will work with ICF International to publicly report its progress against the above targets on an annual basis.

The company, headed by owners Stewart and Lynda Resnick, and in consultation with Conservation International, is vowing to reduce carbon emissions in the bottling and shipping process, minimize wasteful packaging, and protect Fiji’s largest lowland rainforest from logging.

Elgo Estate Wines

Wines that don't cost the Earth is the slogan of Australian winery, Elgo Estate Wines. About an hour and half down the Hume High from Melbourne, this company prides itself on it's negative carbon footprint.



Elgo Estate found the appropriate energy levels needed to sustain their wines, from production and refrigeration. Having found what would be needed, the wine makers decided to commit to that level.

The winery runs entirely on wind power. The 150kW wind turbine generates clean electricity and powers everything at the winery, saving about 1 tonne of greenhouse gas per day. The company has even gone far enough to reduce use of tractor trucks and replacing them with sheep, who eat away at the weeds just as effectively.

Elgo often generates more electricity than the property can use, so excess energy is diverted back to the main power grid, which can supply the energy needs of around 34 homes.

The First Carbon-Negative Community

"We pledge Mantria Place will be the first carbon negative community in the nation by 2011," states Troy Wragg, Mantria Corporation Chairman and CEO. "Carbon neutral is simply not good enough given today's environmental issues. At Mantria, we believe that we must go much further to truly help our planet. Our goal is to be carbon negative."

With plans to open in 2011, Mantria Communities will rest on 5,500 aches in Middle Tennessee (Sequatchie County). The community has several plans to stay carbon negative, to begin with, each resident will be required to pay a universal carbon tax. The carbon tax is fixed at $50 per ton, with an estimated 40 tons of carbon being emitted per household, for an annual tax of $2,000. Secondly, by focusing on more organic development products, such as organic concrete, faux rock and bio-diesel bulldozers, Mantria Place has pledged to reduce development emissions by 25%.


"At Mantria Place, our carbon footprint analysis accounts for everything from the actual development to the projected long-term water usage of our golf courses to the paper products that will be each of our restaurants," states Amanda Knorr, Mantria Corporation President and Chief Operating Officer.

Becoming Carbon Negative

Carbon Neutral, or having a net zero carbon footprint, refers to achieving net zero carbon emissions by balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequestered or offset. But to become Carbon Negative, one must offset their carbon emissions enough to surpass the amount they put out.

Environmental advocates argue that if the entire world became carbon-neutral immediately, it could not save the Greenland ice shelf from melting into the North Atlantic. A new push, becoming Carbon Negative, hopes to offset the carbon emissions enough to restore the planet's condition to an earlier state.

Anti-Drug Ads over the Ages

It seems like each year there is a new campaign to get you to stop messing up your brain with drugs. PSAs are shot out across the airwaves and papers beating up eggs and utilizing the glamour of celebrities. There are blogs popping up everywhere that poke fun at the sometimes humorous ads, but according to the CDC, drug use over the decades is down. In 1980, a group of high schoolers were asked if they used marijuana, cocaine or inhalants in the past month resulting in 33.7, 5.2 and 1.4 percents respectively; the same survey was conducted in 2007 resulting in a massive drop - 18.8, 2 and 1.2 percents respectively.

As drug usage drops, ads are becoming more direct, more violent, and more dramatic. In the advertiser's defense, they are catering to a less receptive audience as time goes on. Take a look at the evolution of these ads over the decades.

1970's: Everybody's Doing It


During the decade of the 1970s, ads were PSA-based and incorporated less pop-culture than the 80s. Advertisers believed they could focus their attention on the feel-good agenda drug users would experience. The image to the left is Ethan Persoff's scan of a weird anti-drug comic from 1970 called Users are Losers.

In the 70's, one-third of the population of the United States, or 11 states, decriminalized small-quantity marijuana possession. It was a time where more than half of the population admitted to using in the previous month and one out of 10 people admittedly used at least once a day. In a University of Nebraska report, only a third (35 percent) of American high school seniors believed that people who smoked marijuana regularly risked harming themselves.

The 1936 cult classic Refer Madness was the brunt of many jokes in the 70s. In 1971, the film was discovered by NORML founder Keith Stroup in the Library of Congress archives, and was purchased by Stroup for $297, then made it the gem of pot smokers and college campuses. Being that the film was originally funded by a church group with radical motives, the film quickly became ammo for drug users to discredit any anti-drug advertisements.


Today these ads would undoubtably be seen as government propaganda, depicting worse-case-scenarios and unbelievable side effects. They were focused on an emotional response, playing on the highs drug-users experienced and what they could expect their future.

Obviously targeting psychedelics to try to get people to avoid having a hallucinogenic experience doesn't make sense. Check out Hanna-Barbera's anti-drug PSA below, which I'm sure would be much more enjoyable high.






And to close, a magician who can actually bend reality.



1980's: Just Say No

Ah, how the era has changed. One president's wife spouts off about drugs and a whole country's attitude changes about MJ. In the mid-1980s, attitudes regarding drug use evolved from “acceptable and harmless” to “addictive and dangerous.” Celebs were popping up left and right with new ways to scare the public about using harmful drugs.



Right. Because we should trust the man who spends all day in a colorful playhouse with a talking armchair, now sitting in a smokey room, to discuss the harmfulness of crack. Something's not quite right that in the seriousness of the topic, Peewee still finds in necessary to slick his hair down and flaunt the red bow tie.


This is also the era of "This is Your Brain," the controversial anti-drug campaign that had egg enthusiasts in a tizzy. The campaign, lead by The Partnership for a Drug Free America, was coined "Fried Eggs" and ran well throughout the 80's.

The “Fried Egg” TV spot was so well-known that it was parodied on shirts, posters, and even on Saturday Night Live. A decade later in 1997, a new version (this one focusing on snorting heroin) was created with actress Rachel Leigh Cook. Here are both versions:







1990s: The Lost Generation

The early 1990s proved to us that fried eggs really make you not want to use drugs. In a joint study from Leading Business School Professors at Yale SOM, NYU Stern, London Business School, and Baruch had these findings in 2002:

"Anti-Drug Advertising Works... This study evaluated the effectiveness of drug-education messages from the PDFA from 1987 to 1990, measuring whether the advertising campaign was associated with a change in adolescents' drug use. The research findings suggest that by 1990 - after three years of anti-drug television advertisements - drug use was reduced by approximately 9%. Additionally, the team observed that the decrease in drug consumption came at a time when anti-drug ads had increasing levels of national media exposure and public visibility. During this timeframe, pro bono media support for anti-drug advertising increased from a low of $115 million in 1987 to a high of $365 million in 1991."

Unfortunately, the 90s didn't do such a good job keeping people off drugs after the 80s ushered in some sober individuals. In the early 1990s, research shows that the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign launched in order encourage young people to stay away from drugs "is unlikely to have had favorable effects on youths."

What's even better: skeptics claim the anti-drug ads, a $1 billion effort, may have had a reverse effect and actually caused more teenagers to use drugs. Robert Hornik, professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania, researched the campaign in 2004 and concluded the ads “either had no effects on kids or possibly had a boomerang effect.”

The failed campaign tried to compare users to non-users, suggesting that your friends that used sucked and you were right to not use; however non-users were more concerned that their peers were doing something they weren't. Another study on the same topic mentions that "in turn, those who came to believe that their peers were using marijuana were more likely to initiate use themselves."

It is what you'd expect, though, when running unlikely scenarios of minors facing intense situations from bullies in high-tops. There's more wrong in the video below than just cartoon turtles having a dialog with a kindergarten class, who would otherwise have no idea that drug use should be one of their concerns:



2000s: We'll Get it Right Next Time



If comparing them won't work, fear will. The Montana Meth project has been running a campaign for years linking meth to horrid scenarios. The ads are counting on viewer's shock-value and are causing quite the controversy.

The above ad, featuring a female meth user unaware of her decisions, in an implied sex position with a man who is almost completely out of frame. The billboard reads "15 bucks for sex isn't normal. But on meth it is."

In response from parents organizations, the Montana Meth Project has agreed to pull this particular billboard, but still has several others reliant on the same shock value.


Messages like these are awfully strong for an outdoor campaign, especially in a rural area. According to a local newspaper, however, some Montanans want the ads to continue, crude content and all. One comment on the story: "Meth is a terrible thing. Perhaps these parents can figure an appropriate explanation to their children. Some people need to be shocked."

Shocked seems to be the trends of this decade, even internationally. With an emerging global economy, we're exposed to all sorts of drugs drugs in all new ways. Estadao.com.br, a Brazilian publication, had this finding:

"Drug (cocaine) had been diagnosed in 80% of the nations of the world, indicating that the globalization of trade has become a problem. For years, consumers around the world [snort] 600 tons of cocaine, with a turnover of approximately R $ 80 billion. For Brazil, moving 80 tons a year, almost all produced in neighboring countries like Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. The drug trafficking brings in about $ 5 billion in Brazil."

Anti-Drug supporters are fighting back, with similar campaigns like the Montana Meth Project - shocking, graphic and vivid. Here's a translated version of a commercial that ran in New Zealand:



Turning the Light on Crack Heads

In order to be effective, drug advertising can't be related to people you really know. Telling teenagers that all their stupid friends are doing drugs only makes them want to shoot up. But research shows people don't actually want to be doped up and raped in a ditch. Why it took 4 decades for us to figure that out is beyond this blog.

With wider varieties of drugs, easier ways to get them, and far better trips than our ancestors could have dreamed of, anti-drug supporters are finding more clever ways to engage their hopefuls. Their messages are getting louder, and the numbers show that they are being heard.