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Thoughts for a toxicological manifesto:

1. Drugs are normal. Read the statistics or just open a newspaper, go to the movies or to a club on Saturday night: the use of drugs, even illicit drugs, has become a social norm. Taking them is no longer associated with avant-garde thought and rebellion. In the 70s drugs, along with terrorism, were still regarded as a last resort in social protest. Today the willingness to sacrifice one's life for drugs seems passé. The last major pop star in a long line of age 27 drug deaths was Kurt Cobain in 1994, effectively marking the end of romantic drug addict era. Today's drug abuse does nothing but add some spice to a celebritiy's CV (as long as they show up at the set in time) and the marijuana industry in California is flourishing.

2. Drugs are fast. Be it Novalis, Lord Byron or Thomas De Quincey - it wasn't redemption in the hereafter they wanted, they wanted it now in the form of a high. Baudelaire spoke of it in terms of the "artificial paradises," for which opium and hashish were particularly well-suited - mood-elevating drugs that soothe at the same time. The discovery of the stimulant cocaine was the beginning of a high for the here and now. One forerunner for this new drug practice was Sigmund Freud. Taking cocaine spurred the Viennese doctor's exceptional sexual and intellectual performance, culminating in his theory of psychoanalysis. And even this is related to the cocaine high: the need to dig around in your own past, the belief that the solution is talking things over, the indefatigability. A three-hour conversation in a nightclub bathroom stall, pausing only to "blow" again and again in shorter and shorter intervals feels like a quickie analysis.

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Beth Ann Ditkoff is our guest blogger during the week of October 6th. If you have any questions for Beth Ann Ditkoff, add a comment to any of her posts. Here is some more information about Why Don't Your Eyelashes Grow?: Curious Questions Kids Ask About the Human Body:

Ever wondered what that small dewdrop thing is in the back of your throat? Or why you hiccup? Why Don’t Your Eyelashes Grow? addresses every weird question about your body that you could think of—or didn’t even think to ask. Prompted by the brain stumpers her own children and patients have asked her over the years, Dr. Beth Ann Ditkoff compiled a list of curious medical questions. In this book, she reveals the mysteries of the human body (gross, funny, or ugly!) to children and adults.

With eye-opening questions, like “Why do toenails grow slower than fingernails?” and “Why do you have earwax?” to weird oddities, like “Why do some people have dimples?” and “Why do you get a headache when you eat ice cream too quickly?” Ditkoff also explains hilarious and bizarre anatomy “situations” that every curious kid wonders, from “If you put a pea up your nose, will it go into your brain?” to “If you eat Pop Rocks candy and drink soda at the same time, will your stomach explode?” With expert explanations throughout, Why Don’t Your Eyelashes Grow? is an entertaining potpourri of fun factoids packed with real information.