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Green_T


Registered: 10/02/08
Posts: 4,042
Loc: UK
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The DEA Museum [DC]
#13282299 - 10/03/10 01:54 AM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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Drug Enforcement Administration Museum October 3, 2010 - Washington Post
How often can you get a look at bags of marijuana, a kilo of cocaine, opium residue, crack vials and a bowl of "trail mix" containing hundreds of prescription narcotic pills?
The Drug Enforcement Administration Museum, nearly hidden in the agency's headquarters across from Pentagon City Mall, is a 5,000-square-foot cautionary tale, one that chronicles the nation's history of addiction and the efforts to fight the black market. Displays include Coca-Cola's early use of cocaine in its secret formula a century ago and graphic images of a crack casualty in the District.
But perhaps most powerful is a small binder just inside the door of the special exhibit "Good Medicine, Bad Behavior: Drug Diversion in America." There are pages and pages of victims of prescription drug abuse, something the DEA considers the country's fastest-growing drug problem.
The faces are those of ordinary people you could know, nothing like the rest of the museum, which features Mafiosi and drug lords. "Stories of Lost Promise" aims to show the effect of abuse on real people. Projected images of the victims fade in and out on the wall above the binder, their haunting smiles and hopes belying their fate.
Amid a few names nearly everyone would recognize -- such as Jimi Hendrix and Judy Garland -- are people such as 21-year-old Shannon Hungerford, who died at 21 of a methadone and Zoloft overdose, and Daniel Katz, 25, who died after taking oxycodone pills and cocaine.
Their faces are joined by the anguished words of their loved ones.
"He wanted to get married, buy a home and have children. His future held great promise," wrote the parents of Austin Barthen, a 24-year-old New Jersey freight dispatcher who died in 2005. "My wonderful, smart, sweet, gentle, kind, handsome son left a huge void in this world when he took OxyContin, fell asleep and never woke up."
The DEA hopes it's a message parents and children will take with them as they walk through the exhibit, which also includes a realistic sheet-covered body on a gurney representing an overdose victim and that "trail mix" bowl of pills representing the risky drug parties that have increased in popularity.
"It is meant to ask the question: What could this person have contributed to society had they not been lost to prescription drugs?" said museum Director Sean Fearns.
"Good Medicine, Bad Behavior" is tentatively scheduled to close at year's end. The DEA next plans to unveil an exhibit about drug interdiction efforts in Afghanistan, where the booming opium trade funds terrorism.
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"I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man" - Thomas Jefferson Legalize Meth | Drug War Victims
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auronlives69
psychedelic monk



Registered: 04/19/09
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Re: The DEA Museum [DC] [Re: Green_T]
#13282598 - 10/03/10 05:23 AM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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~Good Medicine, Bad Behavior~ get the fuck out of here, if those "medicines" weren't so adictive there wouln't be so much "bad behavior"
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Beanhead
IS IRONIC PARADOX


Registered: 10/11/08
Posts: 17,257
Loc: Geospatial inversion.
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Edited by Beanhead (10/03/10 08:01 AM)
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EdgeChaos
Still a stranger

Registered: 08/04/06
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Quote:
auronlives69 said: ~Good Medicine, Bad Behavior~ get the fuck out of here, if those "people" weren't so stupid there wouln't be so much "bad behavior"
fixed
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SlightlyStoned
On a Mission From god



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Re: The DEA Museum [DC] [Re: EdgeChaos]
#13284892 - 10/03/10 03:48 PM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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i wonder is this museum is open to the public.
FINALLY...the history of something i actually care about
-------------------- I prefer dangerous freedom to peaceful slavery. ~ Thomas Jefferson Great minds discuss ideas, mediocre minds discuss events, small minds discuss people. The number of times I edit my post is directly related to the number of times I've hit the bong. "I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them.I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do." -Robert A. Heinlein "All mushrooms are edible; but some only once." Croatian proverb
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LongStrangeTrip
Deadhead


Registered: 09/19/09
Posts: 5,382
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Why not stories of "lost promise" of folk who get caught up in the judicial system for trying to expand their consciousness
-------------------- Nothing I say or do is factual; every single thing I write is a work of fiction. Got no idea what I'm talking about here~ "Once in awhile, you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right"~ (Grateful Dead) "o puer, qui omnia nomini debes"; "You, boy, who owe's everything to a name"~ Mark Anthony "Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum."; "Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system."~ Cicero
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2859558484
Growery is Better



Registered: 01/10/06
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or the people who had nothing to do with drugs and got killed or imprisoned.
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naum



Registered: 10/09/07
Posts: 4,069
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It is open to the public, free, and the permanent exhibits are surprisingly unbiased.
-------------------- Let's upgrade our security practices and move toward client-side PGP for encrypted PMs. My Public PGP Key: hxxps://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/24002249#24002249
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Rabid Jelly Bean
Stranger



Registered: 01/25/10
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Re: The DEA Museum [DC] [Re: naum]
#13286286 - 10/03/10 08:50 PM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
naum said: It is open to the public, free, and the permanent exhibits are surprisingly unbiased.
I was thinking I might puke if I had to set foot in there, but if they are unbiased for the most part, I might enjoy seeing various collections of drugs.
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EdgeChaos
Still a stranger

Registered: 08/04/06
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Quote:
Rabid Jelly Bean said:
Quote:
naum said: It is open to the public, free, and the permanent exhibits are surprisingly unbiased.
I was thinking I might puke if I had to set foot in there, but if they are unbiased for the most part, I might enjoy seeing various collections of drugs.
Regardless of bias it would be awesome to see.
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ShroomyJohn
Stranger
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Re: The DEA Museum [DC] [Re: EdgeChaos]
#13287239 - 10/04/10 01:34 AM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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I would go to that shit so baked.
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Green_T


Registered: 10/02/08
Posts: 4,042
Loc: UK
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^ I've been there.
It is a REALLY small museum, but I think by saying it is "unbiased" means it doesn't reek of propaganda, although it is still there.
For example, when they discuss MDMA, there is nothing to indicate that it was used for therapy for a few decades, and when it was pulled, therapists kept using it illegally because they believed it worked so well. They have a display which suggests drug treatment programs don't work, in case people get the idea that the DEA funding should go into those. No displays suggesting harm reduction works. The truth behind marijuana prohibition due to yellow journalism? Nope.
The museum isn't about drugs, but about justifying a war. The aim of the museum is to show you that drugs are harmful, need to be taken off the streets, and evil drug barons are getting cool toys. Maybe there is nothing wrong with that message, but accomplishing those goals shouldn't be done by waging a war on civilians.
The only museum I'd trust about drugs would be if erowid opened one.
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"I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man" - Thomas Jefferson Legalize Meth | Drug War Victims
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