Happy Birthday, Viagra!

As this Cincinnati Enquirer report notes, 'twas five years ago when Viagra, the first federally approved, purely recreational drug, hit the streets. It was in its way the perfect symbol of the Clinton years, aka The Decade of the Penis.

If Viagra hasn't quite ushered in the next stage of the sexual revolution dreamed of by Herbert Marcuse and Al Goldstein, it's left everyone who uses it (and their partners) a little bit better off. The one possible exception, of course, is Liddy Dole, wife to erectile-dysfunction pitchman and Britney Spears voyeur Bob; who doubts that one reason she was so desperate to run for Senate was to get away from a 900 year-old Pepsi-swilling, Viagra-gulping house husband?

The Viagra precedent, though, also raises this fundamental question regarding drugs: Why won't the government allow the sale of other, equally recreational drugs? Not all of us have trouble in the boudoir and, quite frankly, airplane glue and codeine-based cough syrup are no substitutes for currently illegal substances.

Comments

[Nick Gillespie]

What kind of sick world is it when VodkaPundit is recommending scotch?

[Stephen Green]

Vodka and codiene just don't go together. Believe me, I tried.

[Anonymous]

bob dole humped my leg 😀 then raped my puppy; he's the man!

http://economist.com/world/europe/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1168010
prohibition has failed

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0122/kick.php
world leaders (and milton friedman) on dope

[Grant Gould]

Recreationals-by-prescription is not a step toward decriminalization. Rather it is the final destination of the path of regulation.

We'll have drug "legalization" in another five years when "not-being-high-as-a-kite" syndrome (under a spiffy new name, endogenous dysphoria or something) is recognized by the medical establishment as a threat to life and health. By-prescription-only will be the name of the game.

No pleasure without regulation, control, and tracking, folks. Take a number, write down your social security number, take two pills, and don't call us, we'll call you in the morning.

The government today fears drugs because it thinks it can't control them. But the government tomorrow will love drugs because it can control them -- and will.
--G

[Stephen Green]

Nick,

As someone who just got over a nasty walking pneumonia, let me tell you: codiene cough syrup and a scotch or two is about the best thing going.