DEPRESSION IS DEPRESSING

I set out this morning to dash off a little entry on Prozac. In preparation I looked up the latest stats on usage in the US. The numbers are usually presented to stagger the audience, wow 21 million scrips written in the US in 2004, what is happening to our society? Etc. etc.

But keep this in perspective: 92 million scrips written for just ONE of the varieties of Viocdon (hydorcodone), 69 million for Lipitor (got to keep those lipids down), 29 million for Zoloft anti-anxiety medication.

That doesn’t even take into account the "pam’s" (Lorazepam, Clonazepam, Diazepam, Temazepam, etc.). Those would be your valiams, your xanax, your restoril’s. As a group, that would make 52 MILLION scrips!!!! My god man, CALM THOSE NERVES, reading about Prozac is giving me an ANXIETY ATTACK!

It isn’t hard to understand the 31 million Albuteral prescriptions for all that asthma, or the 18 million for Allegra, got to clear those nosies! Do I have to go on? OK, just one more, should I keep it up? 13 million….Viagra! (oh god, THAT was bad).

PROZAC MOVIES: YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST

PROZAC MOVIES: DRUG INFLUENCE ON THE ARTS It was inevitable…first psychedelic art, and then ecstasy art, movements (one over, the other in progress) art and street drugs have always been joined at the hip (Hemingway and Spanish Wine, The Beats and Mary Jane, etc.). And so… it was bound to happen, with well over 30 million anti-depressants being prescribed…I announce the onset of the Prozac Movie. The problem is, as with all drug influenced art forms, no one is going to admit it. But I would hold out two flicks as evidence of the first signs: 1) Lost in Translation and 2) Garden State.

Psychedelic Art

I can’t argue that all the drug fried brains caused by overuse of LSD 25 really outweigh the outpouring of art that emerged around the time of its street popularity, BUT no one can deny that the psychedelic art (lights, music, poetry) weren’t worth something.

Ecstasy Music

I have to admit I have my own form of “they just don’t make good music like they did when I was in highschool” disorder. I would think, for example, psychedelic drugs gave us the Beatles greatest work, but Ecstasy only gave us 110 beats per minute of mind-numbing bass.

But before I finished the thought, I see that LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art is offering an exhibit called “Ecstasy”. Maybe they know something I don’t. I will make it a point to visit this one. The MOCA exhibit called “Ecstasy: In and About Altered States” running through February 20th 2006.