THE FUTURE OF DRUGS
How the pandemic will change the post-COVID drug paradigm
Hey guys, just checking in. Everything is moving so fast as the world opens up that I haven’t had time to process what the fuck is happening before the discourse pivots to the next thing. So forgive me if I’m a little time-lagged, but like, I’m still processing the Atlanta spa shootings—mainly by thinking deeply about the plague of yellow fever (the sexual fetishization of Asian women), and researching how its rooted in the history of massage parlors. I’m working on an essay on this that I’ll drop as soon as I get a chance to sit down…
A cute moment at the livestream this AM with MikeQ
Ya’ll my schedule recently has been insane! Today, for example, I woke up and hosted a really cute Zoom on the vogue scene’s response to COVID with the legendary DJ MikeQ for Crack Magazine, then hopped in an Uber across town to tour LA’s most upscale ketamine clinic (it was mind-blowing tbh—ya’ll are definitely gonna get the full tea on that spectacle soon.)
Field Trip, the most bougie ketamine clinic in Los Angeles
Then I popped into a virtual cannabis drinks class hosted by the lovely Herb Somm (AKA Jamie Evans) in celebration of her new weed mixology book, and now I’m running down to Echo Park Lake where a massive protest is brewing. Context: An autonomous zone popped up by the hipster lake earlier in the pandemic which has become the fulcrum for LA’s growing housing crisis.
A wedding last weekend in Echo Park between a houseless couple <3
Last weekend, I went to a wedding in the park between two houseless people who were living there—a beautiful moment that turned out to be its last hurrah. Last night, police tried to sweep the space with teargas and batons, but were stopped by activists, so they’re returning again this evening. So hundreds of people are gathering there right now to stay through the night, and I’m rushing to join them.
So for now I just wanted to share an essay I wrote for NYMag/The Cut that dropped yesterday, where I did some speculation about what the future of drugs will look like in the post-pandemic world. I mention some futuristic things that I’ve experienced recently, like shroom parties in Echo Park, DMT vapes as status symbols, mail-order ayahuasca, and… hanging out with dudes who dab fentanyl in a strip club.
But the crux of the story actually goes a bit deeper, revolving around a central question that I’ve been wrestling with lately: as drug legalization sweeps the nation, we’re watching America get a whole lot trippier at the exact moment as skyrocketing rates of addiction and overdoses. New York is about to legalize weed any minute now, with Cuomo citing the economic boon that the cannaBIZ will bring to the state’s historic budget deficit. Yet, abject social conditions that often trigger drug abuse like homelessness and mental illness are just getting more extreme. So a paradox arises: Can drugs be both a symptom of, and solution to, our collective misery?
Check out the piece here, and I’ll be back with more soon!