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By: Jay
Date: 6/8/98 11:06:56 PM
# Replies: 22
The Economist, 30 May 1998, p. 76.
Why Rhinos Recommend Viagra
For all the hype, you might think that Viagra is the first drug designed to help men achieve and sustain an erection. In fact there are many rival products. Traditional Chinese medicine, especially, claims numerous treatments for invigorating the organ in question.
Yu Han, a Chinese-medicine specialist based in London, notes that most such medicines are parts of plants--lotus stems, for example. Since plants have also yielded many drugs recognised as effective by western medicine (see main article), it is likely that some of these herbal cures would withstand scientific scrutiny. But the distinction between medicine and magic is often a fine one, and when "cures" are based not on the chemical diversity of plants but on the alleged attributes of wild animals, the success of any treatment is surely all in the mind. Which is not much comfort to the animals involved.
Take tiger-penis soup, for instance--and some apparently do. It is supposed to endow men who consume it with the prowess of that mighty beast. Tigers are not amused: only 5,500-7,500 are left in the wild, and dozens are poached and chopped up each year for use in traditional medicines. At the moment, according to Steve Trent of the Environmental Investigation Agency in London, which studies "crimes against nature", trade in tiger parts is killing more of the beasts than the destruction of their forest habitat. And tigers are not alone. Powdered rhinoceros horn is also a favoured treatment for impotence (fewer than 12,000 rhinos remain in the world), as are potions made with the remains of the masked palm-civet, an endangered mongoose-like animal.
Because they are endangered species, the trade in tigers, rhinos and civets involves poaching, smuggling and related treacheries. All of this drives up costs, making such potions luxuries. For the patient of ordinary means, therefore, something cheaper is required. And stags have just the right sort of image. Dried into a black and leathery state, stag penises are diced like carrots and then boiled to make soup. No, it doesn't taste just like chicken. It tastes "just like MSG," reports Hugh Baker, a professor of Chinese at the University of London.
Alcoholic infusions are also popular. Three-penis wine (made of the said parts of a dog, a stag and a seal) is a popular standby. Nine-penis wine (don't ask) is slightly more expensive. So is wine made with a special kind of gecko, a cheerful little lizard that is found throughout South-East Asia. Even snake penises are considered good. In Hong Kong, they are soaked in herbs and liquor, aged for a couple of years, and then sold for up to $200 a bottle.
On the face of it, then, Asia should be a fertile market for Viagra, and tigers, rhinos and civets might thus have some of the pressure lifted from them. But maybe not. Asians do not doubt the virtues of western medicine. Many, however, assume that traditional varieties are better for certain kinds of problems, "vigour" among them. Still, Viagra--unlike the folk remedies--has clinical trials to prove that it works. At a dose of 100mg, Pfizer reports that 82% of men had improved erectile performance. (It also notes, deadpan, that the drug is "not indicated for use in newborns, children or women.") Stag-penis soup, on the other hand "didn't do a thing for any of us who had it for dinner," says Dr Baker.
Response #1
By: Da Sissop
Date: 6/9/98 12:33:11 AM
"Welcome to Dick in the Box, my I take your order?"
"Umm, I'd kinda like something.. without so much penis in it."
"Certainly! Would you care to try our Short & Curly Fries?"
Response #2
By: Capt. Spastic
Date: 6/9/98 5:12:37 PM
Sorry, you just lent a visualization to Jack in the Box taco sauce I could have lived without!
Response #3
By: Jay
Date: 6/9/98 9:40:36 PM
*Sex in the Middle Ages. A Book of Essays*. Joyce E. Salisbury, ed. NY & London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1991, pp. xiv-xv, 232-8.
Just as unusually "licit" sexual expression could cause public veneration, unusually illicity activity could lead to public humiliation. I have reprinted two short articles under the title "Penis Captivus" to illustrate this point. The two articles cite medieval references that described couples who engaged in inappropriate sexual activity, then were unable to part until they received help from the community. All these anecdotes tell of a public humiliation that accompanied the embarrassing situation. These articles reveal a good deal about medieval fears of sexuality and the female body. In part I chose to reprint them because they also reveal that such fears have endured well into the twentieth century. Both articles were written in the 1930s and appeared in respectable medical journals. However, both treat the notion of couples being joined together as a real possibility, in spite of common sense experience and medical wisdom to the contrary. Old fears shape even science long after we should know better. [from Salisbury's Introduction.] ------------------------------------ Penis Captivus: A Historical Note
J.D. Rolleston, M.D.
[This article first appeared in *Janus*, vol. 39 (1936), 196-201. Reprinted courtesy of *Janus*. My thanks to Professor Michael Murphy of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay who translated the Middle English passages.]
DEFINITION. In the present paper the term "penis captivus" is applied to incarceration of the organ in the vagina due to psychogenic spasmodic contraction of the *levator ani*, and not to the condition resulting from insertion of the penis into rings and similar inanimate objects.
Although references to the condition are to be found in the works of Bloch, Huhner, Kisch, Moll and Stoeckel, and isolated cases have been recorded by Scanzoni, Hildebrandt, Piltz and others, the literature on the subject, as will be seen by consulting the three series of the Surgeon General's Catalogue under the heading of Penis and Vaginismus is remarkably scanty.[1] It was particularly surprising to find no mention of penis captivus in Gould and Pyle's well-known "Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine", especially as this work contains a remarkably well-documented chapter on surgical anomalies of the genito-urinary system. Moreover, personal inquiry of many eminent London gynaecologists, urologists, venereologists, sexologists, general surgeons and medical antiquarians revealed the fact that they had not only never seen any cases of the kind but knew little or nothing of the literature of the subject which most of them seemed to regard as unworthy of serious consideration.
My attention was first drawn to the subject during a recent search for references to venereal disease in mediaeval belletristic literature when I came across certain passages describing the condition in the Early English Text Society's publications, which have not hitherto, as far as I can ascertain, found any notice in medical literature. The first passage is in the poem of Robert of Brunne, alias Robert Mannyng (1264-1340) entitled "Handlyng Synne", which is a free translation made in 1303 of William of Wadington's "*Manuel des Pechiez*", the English and French texts being given in parallel columns in the E.E.T.S. publication edited by F.J. Furnival. "Handlyng Synne" is a series of metrical homilies dealing among other subjects with the Seven Deadly Sins illustrated by stories from various sources. The passage in question which exemplifies the evil results of lechery relates how a man named Rychere (Fr. Richer) with his wife sought refuge from his enemies in monastery where the abbot gave him a chamber close to the church with the following result:
O nyt thyr was, he knewe hys wyfe Of fleshely dede, as fyl here lyfe And God was nat payd, and wide hyt not, So ny be charche, swyche dede were wroght; *They myghte no more be broughte a-sondre *Than dog and byche that men on wondre. The monks were then summoned *To praye for hem yn orysun *That they myghte be undoun And God almyghty graunted hyt sone.
[One night it happened that he took his wife in carnal intercourse, like a concubine her lover, and God was not pleased, not at all pleased that such deeds be done so near the church; men wondered at the fact that they could no more be separated than a dog and a bitch. The monks were then summoned...to say prayers for them that they might be uncoupled, and God Almighty soon granted it.]
According to Furnivall, in the Harleian MS, the lines marked with an asterisk "were inked over and scraped out by some ancient jigleafite." The passage ends with the warning that:
moche more dampnacioun Wyl falle of fornycacyun And yet more for avowtrye (adultery) Of prestys or wyves lecherye, Whan God toke wreche that many of spake For a dede that was do yn ryt wedloke.
[much more hellish punishments will result from fornication--and even more so from the adultery of priests or of lecherous wives--considering the widely known penalty God imposed for an act done in lawful wedlock.]
How a more severe penalty (in the form of exposure to the public and self-castigation) than that inflicted on Richer and his wife did actually overtake unwedded couples guilty of a similar sacrilege is related as follows in two consecutive chapters of "The Book of the Knight of La Tour-Landry", a work written in French by Geoffrey de La Tour-Landry for the instruction of his daughters in 1372, of which an English translation printed by Caxton appeared in 1484,
Chap. 35:
Hit happed in a chirche on an even of oure lady, one that was called Pers Lenard, whiche was sergeaint of Candee on the night delt fleshely with a woman on an auter, and God of his gret might wolde shewe that they dide evelle, tyed hem faste togedre dat night and thee morw all day in the sight of the pepill that come thedir into the towne; and all the contre there about come downe and sawe hem. And thei might never parte, but were fast like a dogge and a biche togedre, that night and the morw all day until the tyme that the pepill yode a procession about for them to pray to God that that orrible sight might be ended and hidde and atte the last, whanne it was night thei departed. And after the chirche was halowed or ever there wee saide therein ani masse. And they that dede the dede were ioyned to penaince to go naked afore the procession thre sondayes beting hem self and recordyng her synne tofore the pepill. And therfor here is an ensaumplte that no body shudde do no suche filthe in the chirche, but kepe it clene and worshipe God there inne.
Chap. 30:
There was an abbey in Peytow called Chimfere, the whiche abbey was fortefyed for werres and the prioure of that abbey had a monke there, that was his nevew, that hight Pigreet, the whiche atte a tyme might not be founded: and he was lost and atte the laste thei fonde hym in a corner of a chirche behinde a wyche (hut) on a woman, and they might not parte that one from that other and than all folke came thedir to see hem; of the whiche sight the sely monke was sore ashamed of and full of sorw, and so was his uncle and all other monks and after, whaune it was the willo of god, thei parted, and the monke Pygreet went and fledde a-wey oute of the abbey for shame.
Commenting on this passage the editor Thomas Wright remarks that "a similar miracle is related in several of the mediaeval religious legends. In one a Welsh king and his queen are the offenders. Robert De Brunne dwells at length on the greatness of the offence in a manner that would lead us to suppose it is not uncommon."
Although the passages which I have quoted appear to be the fullest description of *penis captivus* in early literature, brief allusions to the condition are to be found in much older works.
Apart from the entanglement of Mars and Venus in the net prepared by Vulcan and their exposure to the "inextinguishable laughter" of the gods on Olympus, while the goddesses modestly held aloof (Homer, Odyssey VIII, 266 *et seq*.), which may be regarded as an allegory, there is the following passage in Lucretius (IV, 1195-1201) describing the adhesion during coitus which takes place in dogs preceded by two lines which may possibly refer to a similar process in mankind:
Nonne vides etiam quos mutua saepe voluptas Vinxit, ut in vinclis communibus excrucientur? In triviis no saepe canes disceders aventes, Divorsi cupide summis ex viribu' tendunt, Cum interea validis Veneris compagibus haerent? Quod facerent nunquam, nisi mutua gaudia nossent: Quae lacere fraudem possent vinctosque tenere.
[See you not too how those whom mutual pleasure has chained are often tortured in their mutual chains? How often in the highways do dogs desiring to separate eagerly pull different ways with all their might, while all the time they are held fast by the strong fetters of Venus. This they would never do unless they experienced mutual joys, strong enough to force them into the snare and hold them in its meshes.] (Munro's translation)
Another mediaeval writer who alludes to *penis captivus* is Saxo Grammaticus, the Danish historian who flourished in the second half of the twelfth century. This writer states that some of the inhabitants of Karenza (the modern Garz) in the island of Rugen were punished by the gods for their debauchery by inseparable cohesion in sexual congress after the manner of dogs and were exposed in this ridiculous position on poles to the gaze of the multitude. The occurrence according to Saxo was regarded as a miracle subsequently commemorated by the erection of obscene statues.
All the passages hitherto quoted are by lay writers, but Schurig (1656-1733) in that storehouse of sexological lore, entitled "Spermatologia" has collected the following cases reported by contemporary physicians as well as the passage in Saxo Grammaticus.
In a case reported by Borel the man's imprisonment is attributed either to excessive heat of the swollen genital organs or to the application of civet to the glans on the advice of a friend for the sake of increasing his pleasure. Borel remarks that separation in such cases can be effected by the frequent administration of clysters. Schurig also quotes a similar case due to the application of civet reported by C.F. Lange, Daniel Ludwig's case in which on the first night of marriage not only the glans but the whole of the penis was constricted and Paullini's case in a citizen of Jena, about which no details are given. Diemerbroeck, the well-known seventeenth century anatomist also gives the following account of a case:
When I was a Student at Leyden I remember there was a young Bridegroom in that Town that being overwanton with his Bride had so hamper'd himself in her Privities, that he could not draw his Yard forth, till Delmehorst the Physician unty'd the Knot by casting cold Water on the Part.
In some but by no means all of the recorded cases, as wrongly stated by Stoeckel, the spasm has occurred during illicit intercourse, but the cases reported by Diemerbroeck, Ludwig, Scanzoni and Hildebrandt as well as those already alluded to in mediaeval literature show that married couples are not exempt.
END OF PART ONE
Response #4
By: Jay
Date: 6/9/98 9:48:12 PM
Although since the days of Homer the condition of the imprisoned couple has appeared so supremely ridiculous as even to raise a doubt as to its actual occurrence, it is difficult to imagine not only the acute mental and physical suffering of the unfortunate victims during their conjunction but also their feeling of shame after release which in the following case reported by Piltz led to double suicide.
We remember a case of vaginismus with penis captivus which occurred in 1923 at Warsaw and ended by double suicide. It was in the spring, a couple of young students stayed behind in the garden after closing time. In the midst of their amorous sport a violent spasm occurred imprisoning the penis. The keeper alarmed by the desperate cries of the young man ran up. The doctor of the municipal ambulance after giving an anaesthetic to the woman separated the couple. The matter might have been forgotten, but the journalists in their greed for sensational facts did not fail to publish the adventure. The next day two revolver shots put an end to the mental sufferings of the two lovers.
Under the circumstances the question of treatment deserves some consideration. At the present-day administration of chloroform to the female partner is usually necessary to relax the vaginal spasm. In the pre-anaesthetic era the release of the imprisoned organ apart from aspersion of water in Diemerbroeck's case must have been spontaneous, as in the cases reported by the mediaeval and seventeenth-century writers, as well as in the following case reported in 1872 by Hildebrandt relating to a man married to a very excitable young woman:
How many minutes the imprisonment lasted he could not say, but its duration seemed to be interminably long, until finally the obstacle gave way by itself and he became free.
Henrichsen, who has recorded a case of vaginismus without any history of *penis captivus*, in which the spasm was relaxed by insertion of the finger through the anal sphincter, has suggested that this procedure should be employed in cases of penis captivus, but I have not found the report of any case where this suggestion was put into practice. According to Stoeckel even in the cases in which chloroform has been used, forcible introduction of the finger into the vagina is necessary to release the swollen and discoloured organ.
Notes
1. I have been unable to obtain Dr. Foucault's Paris thesis entitled "Note sur cinq cas de penis captivus," 1881, listed in the first series of the Surgeon General's Catalogue, s.v. Vaginismus.
References
Bloch, I. "The Sexual Life of Our Time." 1909, 433, footnote. Henrichsen, K., *Arch. F. Gyn*. 23 (1884), 59. Hildebrandt, *Arch. F. Gyn*. 3 (1872), 221. Huhner, M. *A Practical Treatise on Disorders of the Sexual Function in the Male and Female*. 3rd ed. 1929, 183. Kisch, E.H. The Sexual Life of Woman. Tr. M. Eden Paul. 1910, 340. La Tour-Landry. *The Book of the Knight of La Tour-Landry*. E.E.T.S., Orig. Ser. 33. 1906. 51-53. Moll, IA. *Handb. d. Sexualwissenschaften*. 1913. 722. Piltz, A. These de Paris, 1931, Mo. 376. Robert of Brunne. *Handlyng Synne*. E.E.T.S., Orig. Ser. 123. 1903. Pl. II, 281-82. Saxo Grammaticus. *Historiae Daniae*. 1644, Lib. XIV, 327-28. Scanzoni. *Beitr. z. Gebartsk. u. Gyn*. 7 (1873), 141. Schurgius, D.M. "Spermatologia"; 729, 314. Stoeckel, W. "Lehrb. Gyn" 4 Aufl. 1933, 162.
Postscript
I am indebted to Dr. J. Beattie, who has recently succeeded Sir Arthur Keith as conservator of the Royal College of Surgeons' Museum, for having drawn my attention to the passage in Harvey Cushing's *Life of Sir William Osler* (1926, i, 2450) alluding to a case described by "Egerton Y. Davis," a pseudonym mischievously adopted by Osler on various occasions. The case which was reported in *Medical News* 45 (1884), 673, though entirely fictitious, so closely resembles those desribed by previous writers that it has been quoted in some standard works on sexology such as those of Kisch and Huhner.
C. Grant Loomis
[This article first appeared in *Bulletin of the History of Medicine* 7 (1939), 97-93 [sic-brian]. Reprinted courtesy of BHM. My thanks to Professor Clifford Abbott of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay who translated the Latin passages.]
Hagiological records contain many a strange and unexpected item. An occurrence which is apparently miraculous is often a recognized phenomenon in more enlightened days. The three excerpts brought together here from different sources, which date roughly from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries, may be of interest to the student of medical history. The first two accounts seem to be sufficiently explicit to warrant a definite assumption about their real nature. The third derives credulity by analogy. We must premise, of course, that we are dealing with a real occurrence and not with a hagiologist's fiction. Since vaginism is a perfectly recognizable and not unusual phenomenon, we may presume that we are interpreting in these cases a real fact.
In the life of Saint Clitaucus we find the following:
Potens quidam die dominico cum uxore ad audiendum dei seruitium in ecclesia sancti Clitauci veniens, super ripam fluminis, non longe ab ecclesia positam, cum uxore sua concubuit, et peccato commiso, ab illa separari non potuit, immo iunctus uxori inseparabilis remansit. Et exclamans sodalibus voce magna dixit: "Ite ad sepulchrum martyris Clitauci, et pratum istud, a me vi et iniuste ablatum, sibi restitui pormittite, et pro me suppliciter queso intercedite." Quo facto, ab horribili ligamine statim liberatus est. [1]
[A certain man along with his wife were coming on Sunday to hear the servants of god in the church of Saint Clitaucus, and on the riverbank not far from the church, he had intercourse with his wife, and having committted this sin, he could not be separated from her, indeed remained inseparably joined to his wife. So calling out to his comrades, he said loudly: "Go to the grave of the martyr Clitaucus and promise to be returned to him that very site (meadow) I had taken forcibly and unjustly, and intercede, I beg you, humbly on my behalf." When this was done, he was immediately freed from this horrible bind.]
A similar happening is told in the life of Saint Guignerus. Here we have an interesting physical moral variant:
Super sarcophagum venerabilis cuiusdam Episcopi, qui contubernalibus fuerat Regis Clitonis, corruptor quidam gremia cuiusdam mulieris incestare praesumpsit; qui more canum in ipso opere turpitudinis inseparabiliter copulati, nulla poterant ratione ab inuicem separari. Adducuntur tandem ad memoriam martyris gloriosi Guigneri, ubi merito testis Christi & intercessione fidelium liberantur. [2]
[Over the coffin of a certain old bishop who had been the comrade of King Clitonus, a particular corruptor was eager to invade the lap of a certain woman. As they were inseparably coupled in the fashion of dogs in this dishonorable work, they could in no way be separated from each other. At last they were led to the memory of the renowned martyr Guignerus, where by the good work of Christ's witness and the intercession of the faithful, they were freed.]
A third brief statement suggests a similar situation:
Miraculum de quadam muliere quae viro conjugato adhaesit et eum non sinebat ad uxorem propriam remeare. [3]
[There's a miracle about a certain woman who stuck when joined with a man and did not let him return to his own wife.]
Notes
1. Horstmann, *Nova Legenda Anglie*, Oxford, 1901, vol. 1, 190. 2. *Acta Sanctorum*, Bollandist Society, Antwerp, 1643--, March, vol. III, 459, col. 2. Auctor se Anselmum nominat. Ex MS Parisiensi S. Victoris (early 12th century?). 3. *Analecta Bollandiana*, vol. VIII, 188 (Bibl. Civit. Carnot. Codex 212. Saec. XIII). This appears in a list of the miracles of the Virgin Mary.
Response #5
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 6/10/98 1:14:09 AM
CHORUS: Is it any wonder I've got too much time on my hands It's ticking away with my sanity I've got too much time on my hands It's hard to believe such a calamity I've got too much time on my hands and it's Ticking away, ticking away from me (Too much time on my hands) It's t-t-t-t-ticking away (Too much time on my hands) And I don't know what to do with myself
Response #6
By: rorschach
Date: 6/11/98 9:27:04 PM
well whatever you do, do it by yourself or you might get stuck... at least if you listen to any of the stuff jay has dug up.......
Response #7
By: sooz
Date: 6/16/98 1:04:12 PM
My neighbor's elderly husband got some Viagra, and began fooling around on her. For revenge, she flushed his prescription down the toilet.
But now she can't get the lid down.
(groan)
Response #8
By: Panther Modern
Date: 6/16/98 1:34:43 PM
you people scare me
Response #9
By: Zane T. Dark
Date: 6/16/98 7:21:58 PM
I hear that Viagra is illegal in Japan..so they have Viagra cruises now...with asbestos sheets, fire extinguishers, and Jiffy Lube (tm) style scented-lubricant dispensers next to every bed.
Response #10
By: Ralf
Date: 6/17/98 7:31:32 AM
The military oughta look into viagra as a biological agent.
Imagine 100,000 Iraqui troops stumbling around the desert with raging hardons, unable to operate their machinery, looking for something... ANYTHING... to impregnate.
Response #11
By: Zipperhead
Date: 6/17/98 10:57:39 AM
Im moving to Iraq.
Response #12
By: Da Sissop
Date: 6/17/98 5:27:01 PM
I guess what with all the media attention, the manufacturer doesn't *have* to do any, but I'd really LIKE to see some Clariton-style commercials for Viagra.
I'm not sure if it would be better with, I dunno, maybe some old peppy jazzy background music... Judy Garland singing "Shout hallelujah, come on, get happy!" as couples dance through a green sunlit field... or maybe some 70's wakka-wakka porno funk music, with a lot of moaning in the background, as couples dance through a green sunlit field.
Response #13
By: Capt. Spastic
Date: 6/17/98 6:07:48 PM
I hear Viagra has some stiff competition coming up in a few months.
Sorry, couldn't resist. It was too easy and sooz gave me hte inspiration to post it
Response #14
By: Ralf
Date: 6/17/98 9:50:14 PM
I'm just waiting for the first reported Viagra overdose.
Response #15
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 6/18/98 6:38:23 AM
It's a Mac thing, but Freeverse, maker of really silly software, have created Virtual Viagra.
Funfun.
Response #16
By: Capt. Spastic
Date: 6/20/98 2:17:37 AM
Have you guys ever been to the Zippy the PInhead HotMetaHtml site? It's cool!
Response #17
By: Jay
Date: 7/17/98 3:23:07 PM
The New Beasties CD rocks....sorry Iwasn't near a public mens room to write that on a stall
Response #18
By: Jay
Date: 7/25/98 2:27:51 PM
July 21, 1998 - Volume 2, Issue 22 Editor & Chief: Emile Zola ----- Heroin Cure
by Richard S. Ehrlich Asia Correspondent
THAM KRABOK MONASTERY, Thailand -- When foreign and Thai drug addicts, who want to be cured, arrive at this isolated Buddhist monastery, they are told to drink a dark, secret potion until they vomit. They must spew their bile, while kneeling alongside other regurgitating junkies, every morning at 7 a.m. And every evening at 7 p.m. Day after day, for five days in a row.
Many of the people who pilgrimage here are hooked on heroin. Others are speed freaks, emaciated and jittery from too many amphetamines. Some can't stop consuming cocaine, ecstasy, LSD or tranquilizers.
Marijuana and opium smokers, alcoholics and glue sniffers also gather at this site in a forest near Saraburi city, 130 kms north of Bangkok. Addicts who fail to kick their habit, can never return to the monastery for a second try.
Often called simply, "the vomit cure," this mix of gastric purging and spiritual redemption has made the monastery famous. It boasts a stunning success rate no matter what drug is involved and no matter what country the addict comes from.
Vomiting is one of the main activities at the monastery, and addicts line up along cement gutters until they convulse with powerful projectile spurts, which are cheered by others who have already passed that initial hurdle towards becoming drug-free.
Abbot Chamroon Panchand, wrapped in a chocolate-colored robe, runs the monastery. The 70-year-old, soft-spoken, stocky abbot was formerly a police officer in Bangkok's narcotics and crime suppression unit for eight years, grappling with the gritty problems of drug abuse in the slums and wealthy neighborhoods of the Thai capital.
His shaven head now sports hints of a gray stubble moustache and goatee, which peppers a face worn by the problems of his current mission. He is the only one who knows the secret formula's recipe, which is said to include 100 herbs to evacuate the system of toxins and help ease the wretchedness of withdrawal.
The abbot laments that some junkies are impossible to cure because they lack motivation, or have abused themselves for so long that their brains are permanently out of whack.
"It all depends on their brain," Chamroon told The City Times. "If they mix marijuana and heroin too much, then their brain will not work, and it is very difficult to interest such a person in a cure. If they use only marijuana, then it is not difficult to cure them.
"But marijuana does make the brain crazy. The nerves do not work correctly. And when they use heroin, their blood becomes spoiled, or the brain becomes spoiled."
Chamroon treats all addiction the same way, though he knows each drug has its own strange power. "Cocaine also controls the nerves, but cocaine and marijuana are not that strong.
"Heroin is stronger. So if somebody quits heroin, they often do not want to take heroin again. But because cocaine and marijuana are not so difficult to quit, it can be easy for them to try it again.
"We like to say all addictions are the same, not difficult to cure. Easy. Because if we say, 'Heroin is easy to cure, but marijuana is difficult to cure,' then some people might say, 'Hey, it is easier to quit heroin,' and then they will use heroin. I don't want people to love one drug over another drug."
Thailand is on the front lines of global heroin use because it forms part of the fabled Golden Triangle of opium production, which includes neighboring Burma and Laos.
The US State Department's International Narcotics Control Strategy Report recently declared, "Burma remains the world's largest producer of opium and heroin."
Those narcotics have caused havoc not only in the streets of America, Europe and elsewhere, but also within Thailand's own rapidly modernizing society, which is riddled with drug warlords, corrupt officials and ubiquitous pushers.
"Now they are trying to make the price of heroin go up because they want people to switch to amphetamines," said the abbot while digging through a sheaf of drug-related reports in his modest office.
"With amphetamines, a student will take it and not feel sleepy. When they stop taking it, they have no power, and nothing in the brain."
The Thai government recently expressed shock at the switch in drug use among its citizens, and demanded the death sentence for anyone who sells amphetamines in Thailand.
Chamroon is more lenient. "They should not kill the sellers, because some are just small boys, seven years old. The government only arrests and kill and kill and kill. But when we kill one, another comes again.
"Now 75 percent go out from our monastery cured. We are trying to make it 85 percent."
One addict undergoing the cure is 20-year-old Mam, from the northern town of Udon Thani near the Mekong River, which forms part of the border with Laos. "I've been addicted to amphetamines for seven months," she told The City Times, wiping her brow after undergoing a morning vomit session.
When Mam talks about amphetamines, she uses the Thai slang, "ya ma," which means "horse drug," -- an appellation inspired from early pharmaceutical packets of the drug which bore a label illustrated with a drawing of a horse.
Thai authorities complain many users are attracted by the name because it implies the drug will give them the strength of a horse. So the government recently demanded all Thai officials and local media refer to the drug as "ya ba," or "crazy drug" to emphasize its potential to derange.
Mam had just finished the cure's first five days, which are the most rigorous of the treatment's schedule. Now that the vomiting phase was completed, she said she would complete the one month required for all Thai patients.
Foreigners have an accelerated, 10-day schedule to ensure they don't overstay their arrival visas, which are issued for only 15 days. Patients are forbidden to leave the monastery during the treatment.
Monks organize each day's vomit session by ordering addicts to kneel in a row in front of a concrete gutter. Next to each patient is a large bucket, filled with drinking water. Behind them, other addicts begin pounding drums, clapping and singing anti-drug songs in Thai, to give strength to those who are soon to throw up.
As the music builds, a senior Thai monk displays an unlabeled bottle of evil-tasting brown fluid. He pours out a shot-glass for each person, which they obediently swallow, followed by facial grimaces and rapid gulps of water from the pails nearby.
The junkies quickly become nauseous and within minutes vomit bursts forth, followed by desperate gulps of water and more uncontrolled spewing, while the singers attempt to drown out their groans with faster and faster songs.
Patients are later led in spiritual ceremonies during which they vow each day to give up their addiction.
The abbot says the cure is actually "80 percent spiritual." with only 20 percent dependent on drinking the secret potion. All religions are respected, so addicts are instructed to pray to either Buddha, Jesus, Mohammad or any universal form they believe.
A daily, spiritual vow to stop drug-taking is the core of the rehab program. Thais, who are usually extremely superstitious, are told if an addict beaks the vow, "the spirits will punish him."
The monastery, meanwhile, has its own woes. The Thai government suspects the compound's 748 acres are a front for former CIA-backed, anti-communist Lao guerrillas. The abbot has denied the allegations.
But the presence at the monastery of thousands of undocumented, minority ethnic Hmong tribesmen from Laos -- including many who fought alongside the Americans during their failed war in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia during the 1960s and 1970s -- has kept the issue from being resolved.
One of their most vocal defenders is Gordon, an American former mercenary now in his late 40s, who became a Tham Krabok monk more than 15 years ago and has risen to be one of its senior leaders. The burly, black monk from Harlem, New York, also wears a brown robe with his head shaved.
Referring to the tribesmen from Laos, Gordon told The City Times, "We have a village of Hmong, 11,000 men, women and children. About 5,000 of them were addicts. These are ex-combat soldiers, ex-fighters, trackers, pilots.
"When the Americans left after the war, the Hmong leaders left too. These people had to stay behind and became the victims. Their main occupation became plant opium to survive. We took the whole work force. The opium financiers became so upset, a two million baht (50 thousand US dollars) bounty was placed on the heads of certain people here at Tham Krabok to get back their work force.
"When you dealing with drugs, you dealing with power. You take their workforce, they lose one million baht a day. These people also got the drug dealers' information. They needed workers they could trust."
After the war, many Hmong degenerated into junkies, Gordon added. "We brought them here for humane reasons, to get them off drugs."
Gordon projects himself as an example of how a former killer can become enlightened, thanks to the monastery's teachings.
"I was in Vietnam (during the war), then came to US and stayed there only one day," he said while cleaning a drainage ditch behind the monastery's herbal steam bath. "I got on a plane and went to Malaysia, was recruited, and I was then in South Africa, Lebanon, Haiti, and the Falklands" as a mercenary for about 10 years.
He described scenes from his past where a helicopter would drop him and other mercenaries somewhere, and order them to return for lift-off at a fixed time, after destroying their target.
"If you were one minute late, forget it," Gordon added. "They would shoot you from the helicopter and leave you behind."
The Thai government meanwhile has threatened the monastery with raids and dire consequences unless the Hmong are removed. But no one seems to be going anywhere.
Near the giant Buddha statues, a typical Hmong village has emerged, complete with its own market, electricity, water, and cemetery. Though much of the village is a dirt-pathed slum, its residents have been improving their plight by working at nearby construction sites. A few teenage Hmong have even started their own rock band, complete with electric guitars backed by drums made of wood and cardboard.
The monastery opened in 1953 and now runs on a budget of about 500,000 US dollars a year, said Chamroon. "We treat 5,000 to 6,000 people a year. About 95 percent of them are Thais, and five percent are foreigners." Thailand has more than 300,000 heroin addicts, 60,000 opium addicts, 260,000 amphetamine users, 330,000 pot smokers and 410,000 glue sniffers, officials said. The monastery claims it has already "rehabilitated about 70,000 clients."
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Response #19
By: Shadow Sprite
Date: 8/3/98 8:50:47 PM
I had buffalo wings with dinner tonight.
Response #20
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 8/3/98 11:28:20 PM
More to clitoris than meets the eye, surgeon says LONDON, July 29 (Reuters) - An Australian surgeon is hoping to do for women what the impotence drug Viagra does for men -- improve their sex lives and raise awareness about their sexualanatomy. Helen O'Connell, a urology surgeon at Australia's Royal Melbourne Hospital, has completed a new anatomical study that shows there is much more to the clitoris, the female sex organ, than previously thought, New Scientist magazine said onWednesday. It is twice as large as it is depicted in most medical textbooks and extends deep into the body. Even ``Gray's Anatomy,'' the surgeon's bible, has not done it justice and failed to detail the intricate nerves and blood vessels leadingto it. ``There is a lot of erectile tissue down there that is not drawn in any anatomy textbook, save perhaps a couple of really old dissections in the French and German literature,'' O'Connell told the magazine. ``Just because you can't see the rest does not mean it is not there.'' Aghast at how little was known about the clitoris and female sexual anatomy, O'Connell and John Hutson, an Australian expert in paediatric genital reconstruction, decided to find out more about the inner workings of the female organ. Their findings could improve female surgical procedures and increases knowledge about how women are sexually aroused andsatisfied. ``Understanding the clitoris's design could also help protect women's ability to have good sex,'' the magazine said. Micro-dissection techniques in the 1970s improved medical knowledge about how nerves and blood vessels worked in the penis, but similar studies were never done on the clitoris. After dissecting the bodies of 10 women and using 3D photography, O'Connell discovered that much of the female sexual anatomy, not just its fine tuning, was wrong in textbooks. They found that the clitoris is connected to a pyramid of interior erectile tissue and two ``bulbs'' on each side of the vaginal cavity. It may also be connected to the urethra, the tube that leads from the bladder to the exterior. ``Lots of operations involve dissections around the urethra. That could affect patients' sexual function,'' said Cindy Amundsen, an American gynaecologist from the University ofHouston. Victorian prudishness about examining female sex organs may have been partly responsible for the lack of knowledge about the female anatomy. Most of the anatomical studies of female organs had also been done on elderly women in their 80s and 90s when the erectile tissue may have withered with age. Amundsen suggested that the findings, published in the Journal of Urology, should open up new areas of research that could enhance women's sex lives. ``We have Viagra. We know anatomically what's going on (in the clitoris). We need some studies on erectile dysfunction in women,'' she added.
Response #21
By: Da Sissop
Date: 8/10/98 8:53:11 PM
----Gowan Sez----
``We have Viagra. We know anatomically what's going on (in
the clitoris). We need some studies on erectile dysfunction in
women,'' she added.
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I'd like to help.
Response #22
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 8/11/98 2:24:22 PM
I can only imagine... Viagrette-eating Hyena Women!