LOTD: The Reason Michael J. Fox Agreed to Star in “Teen Wolf”

LOTD: The Reason Michael J. Fox Agreed to Star in “Teen Wolf” May 15, 2012

Michael J. Fox, Air Guitarring Under the Influence

Matt Drudge has made me (through his frequent links) a regular reader of the Daily Mail, from whence comes this story about a truly disturbing Colombian drug nicknamed “Devil’s Breath.”  Apparently Scopolamine keeps you conscious but effectively renders your inhibitions mute:

Demencia Black, a drug dealer in the capital of Bogota, said the drug is frightening for the simplicity in which it can be administered.

He told Vice that Scopolamine can be blown in the face of a passer-by on the street, and within minutes, that person is under the drug’s effect – scopolamine is odourless and tasteless.

‘You can guide them wherever you want,’ he explained. ‘It’s like they’re a child.’

Black said that one gram of Scopolamine is similar to a gram of cocaine, but later called it ‘worse than anthrax.’

In high doses, it is lethal.

Visit your LINK OF THE DAY for more.  This may seem like a lowbrow link, and perhaps it is, but it raises interesting questions regarding free will and the ability to manipulate it chemically.  Is this a case of eliminating free will, or simply eliminating the obstacles and inhibitions that would normally preclude you from (freely) choosing certain actions?  If I were still teaching philosophy classes, I would bring up Scopolamine and see what the college kids think.  Because they, of course, know everything.

Now, though, we have convenient explanations for many things, including Angelina Jolie’s marriage to Billy Bob Thornton and my decision to crimp my hair in junior high school.  I swear, the Devil’s Breath made me do it.


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