Smoking grass with picasso

[Freethinker]

While I can not find anything connecting Piccaso with pot, there is very definate connections between many artists of the time and Absinthe, the "Green Faeirie".

 

Absinth is a now illegal (in all but one or two countries). But is was very popular amoungst the Bohemian crowd. Ernest Hemingway, Edouard Manet, Vincent van Gogh, Edgar Degas and of course Pablo Picasso. In fact it is said that he was on Absinthe when he cut his ear off. Absinthe is basically grain alcohol with a variety of herbs in it. The main herbal of note is wormwood. In fact "Absinthe" comes from the latin name for wormwood "Artemisia absinthium". Amoungst other properties (insect repellent) it is a hallucinogenic. Far more potent than pot.

 

Some specific art by these artists RE Absinthe

 

Edouard Manet-

The Absinthe Drinker

 

Degas, Edgar -

L'absinthe

 

Pablo Picasso -

Glass of Absinthe

Bottle of Pernod and Glass (Pernod was the most popular brand of Absinthe)

The Absinthe Drinker

Woman Drinking Absinthe

 

Charles Foley -

Absinthe (A one-act play)

 

While you can not legally buy Absinthe in most of the world, you can make your own.

[Fishteacher73]

Nitous Oxide was also very popular in the late 19th century. A number of prominent scientists died from asphyxiation durring the sudden popularity of the drug (There were nitous rooms, and theaters that were just pumped full and you paid to go hang out in them). Off the top of my head I can not recall, specifics on whom did die (I have it in a book at home).

[alexander]

The active ingredient of wormwood is thujone, and thujone has been proven identical to tanecetone in the herb tansy and salvanol in sage. Thujone has also been shown to have a very similiar molecular structure to THC. And thus the effects and wide use of Absinthe by many major artists at the time...

[motherengine]

Ernest Hemingway, Edouard Manet, Vincent van Gogh, Edgar Degas and of course Pablo Picasso. In fact it is said that he was on Absinthe when he cut his ear off.

 

yes the green fairy. love to try it sometime. i am not sure if you are saying that picasso cut his ear off but that was vincent van gogh. there is evidence that van gogh had severe mental illness (possibly schizophrenia and or bipolarism) and one night he cut the lower part of his ear off and presented it as a gift to a prostitute. i don't think illicit drugs were involved but he may have been drunk.

[Queso]

from experience and observation, cutting off your own ear sounds like something you would do extremely drunk, rather than extremely stoned.

[Fishteacher73]

It was my understanding that wormwood had a psychoactive agent much like mescaline, it is said to have the symptoms of : "bizarre and psychotic behavior, hallucinations, sudden delirium, convulsions, and even suicide and death". :)

 

This much more than a THC analog and I feel it would be irresposible to imply as much.(The Drug Awareness Warning Network Annual Report, published by the US federal government contains a statistical compilation of all drug deaths which occur in the United States. According to this report, there has never been a death recorded from the use of marijuana by natural causes. Unlike opiates, barbiturates or amphetamines, there seems to be little risk from the use of large amounts of marijuana. When a person smokes too much they feel very tired and lie down. When people swallow large amounts of hashish, occasionally they get sick to their stomach.)

[Queso]

in the UK a couple months or so back, i read an article that somebody had actually died from smoking so much weed.

i was astonished! i couldn't believe it. i think it was some kind of anti-drug publicity stunt.

it was said he had a headache, then a half hour later he died.

they said it was because of marijuana, but how? that doesn't make sense.

it takes an extreme amount of thc, an almost impossible amount to enduce, to kill a human.

did anybody else hear of that?

[Fishteacher73]

I think it is virtually impossible to OD on THC through smoking pot (Distilled THC as in Merinol, it is at least plausable). Doing the math:

 

The LD50 (Leathal dose that cause 50% mortality in test subject) is 730 mg/kg. This is for female rats, male is almost double this at 1270 mg/kg. I will use the lower LD50 in the calculation.

 

The average person weighs about 70 kg (about 150 lbs).

 

This would mean that a lethal dose would be about 51.1 grams of THC (70kg X 730 mg/kg).

 

This translates to almost 2 ounces of THC (1.8 oz).

 

This is just pure THC. The average sensemilla conatian about 15% THC by weight. This means that to consume 1.8 oz of THC one would have to smoke 21.6 oz of pot (Assuming all THC was consumed from burning that ammount).

 

That is almost a pound and a half of pot....I really do not know anyone that could smoke that much in a single sitting. Again, this is usuing the LOW estimate of a LD50.

[alexander]

actually, when you smoke pot, you blow out a big percentage of what you take in, aside from the fact that you will probably pass out from smoking that much pot, you would actually need to eat it in order for it to have lethal effects that were described earlier...

[Queso]

yeah, i read somewhere the average person gets around 20% of the actual thc they intake when they smoke. but it all depends on how you smoke, and what you smoke with. yeah, i knew that article was absurd, i'm going to go see if i can find it....

[sanctus]

Have you actually tried absinthe? A frind of mine comes from a valley which dürrematt described as the "valley of the fools", they brew still absinthe there, the traditional one and I was so deceiced when I got a chance to try it: it's just like Pastis....

 

By the way, in Switzerland there is now a legal version of the absinthe...it just makes you drunk, but you don't risk go into psychiatry anymore if you drink to much (that is not the one I tried..... :cup: )

[Fishteacher73]

Modern absinthe only has about 10% of the wormwood as it did in the early th century. At this level the alcohol content is more of a factor than anything else.

[masonswanson]

g`yeah picasso used to be my homie till that mo cut off his ear then i told him that he had issues and he smacked me.........i havent seen him since.but i still love him we used to hang out with Dracula believe it or not he never did anything to us cuz i could grow some monster chronic and i had leverage over him cuz i was bangin his sister too well my mom just saw what i wrote so i better get off before she comes back!

[Queso]

g`yeah picasso used to be my homie till that mo cut off his ear then i told him that he had issues and he smacked me.........i havent seen him since.but i still love him we used to hang out with Dracula believe it or not he never did anything to us cuz i could grow some monster chronic and i had leverage over him cuz i was bangin his sister too well my mom just saw what i wrote so i better get off before she comes back!

 

there is a lot i could say to this, but for the least...

picasso did not cut off his ear, it was van gogh.

aye i i... :cup:

[Fishteacher73]

I seem confused, at times he asks reasonable questions...Then at other times it just looks like he is typing while trying to think of something....

 

Masonswanson, please try to be more logical in your posts, and again read the FAQ...

 

This is a place for scientific discussion and thought, please remember this..Not a site to rant on in such a unsavory manner.

[Tormod]

mansonswanson is here no more.

[Queso]

Interesting fellow I must say...