Stop the presses: another consenting adult celebrity kills self while doped to the gills on an insane combo of drugs & the law is coming down on his grieving loved ones for failing to stop it. As of this writing, an unnamed friend who "left him unattended" (which is by no means a crime!) is being detained, as is the person who allegedly sold him the drugs in his system when he leapt to his death--which, while illegal, did not directly cause his death via overdose or poisoning as was the case with Matthew Perry.
Like Perry, Liam Payne--ex-boyband member and known addict--made a conscious decision to ingest these drugs in an unfamiliar setting. He then allegedly fought staff & others to break loose and jump from his 3rd story window to his death in what was likely an "excited delirium" type psychotic state. Substances in his system at autopsy include "pink cocaine"--an incorrectly named drug containing a mixture of meth, ketamine, MDMA & others--as well as actual cocaine, benzodiazepine & crack. (That's according to the partial autopsy & toxicology report available as of October 21st, 2024).
Unless any of these drugs was sold to him as something it wasn't, i.e. fentanyl sold as heroin or tranq dope sold as OxyContin, or was slipped to him Quaalude-in-cocktail style a la Bill Cosby, the only person responsible for this tragedy was Liam Payne*. In no universe should additional people be held criminally responsible, especially in the case of the handler who "abandoned" him, i.e. failed to stop an addict from doing what addicts do: self-destructing. Anyone who's dealt with an addict knows it's impossible to keep them from using if they've got the financial means & the will. A celebrity of his stature certainly has the connections & the $$$ to afford some shitty "pink cocaine" and crack; expecting a secretary-type or manager to prevent the inevitable is unfair & unrealistic. It would be bad enough if the media were just laying the emotional blame on this person, but to criminally charge them is absurd.
And expecting anyone to stop a raging intoxicated adult male from hurling himself over the edge of a balcony while cracked out of his skull on this combination of drugs is offensively stupid. Dangerously stupid. Unless they're built like Swarzenegger, that just puts them at risk for being pushed to their deaths as well. Nobody's obligated to put their lives at risk to stop someone else from jumping to their deaths when they're not even rescue personnel.
"Pink cocaine" (also deceptively called "tuci" despite containing no 2C-B) may contain any combo of drugs including bath salts, meth and/or other powerful stimulants, which means that agitated "excited delirium" state I mentioned earlier is a real possibility. Payne likely wasn't even in his right mind when he made the jump--didn't know up from down & couldn't have been calmed or "talked down" with any amount of reasoning. What happened sounds like a bad reaction to a bad mixture of high-dose drugs and this is where I'm gonna go down a very predictable road so forgive me...
Drug warriors be like...
Drug combos like "Tuci"/pink cocaine that are so blatantly misnamed and carelessly concocted wouldn't even exist if not for the War on Drugs. In a world where drugs were legal, Liam Payne could've scored his (pure) cocaine and benzos at a safe use site & consumed them under the watch of trained medical professionals who could monitor him for bad reactions for as long as needed before releasing him. If he began showing dangerous side effects, they would be able to administer drugs to counteract the negative symptoms such as anti-psychotics or sedatives to bring down a stimulant high. No expensive adulterated drugs or drug combos; no leaving addicts to their own devices on 3rd-floor balconies, no running for cover and abandoning the addict if things went South for fear of arrest. Most importantly, no preventable death, disease or destruction caused by adulterated drugs or the ignorance of their use, and no unnecessary violence due to the drug trade as black market forces vye for drug turf or profits.
But we prefer to keep doing it the punitive & undignified way--to continue sacrificing our best and brightest while pointing the finger of blame in every direction but at our own deadly drug laws. (It's communist China! No, it's the Mexican cartels! No, that's racist, xenophobic propaganda--the same type the drug war was originally started under). And we'll keep losing one of a kind human beings we can never replace--unique shining souls--until enough people stand up every time a high-profile case like this happens and point the blame squarely where it belongs: on the toxic climate that enables "pink cocaine" and its dealers to exist in the first place--the climate of drug prohibition. Ditto bath salts, tranq dope, nitazenes, tianeptine & whatever Frankenstein chemicals come next.
*Liam Payne, Matthew Perry, John Belushi, Chris Farley, Anna Nicole Smith, Prince, Michael Jackson & all the rest weren't just addicts or throwaway junkies--they're casualties in America's longest, deadliest war. And aside from being someone's precious loved ones, they represent thousands more nameless, faceless addicts, recreational users, 1st-time drug users & non-consensual users poisoned by our deadly tainted drug supply--a problem that could be stopped tomorrow if drugs were legalized & regulated for purity the way beer and cigarettes are. And while this death happened in Argentina, America's deadly drug policies affect the entire planet, triggering a cascade of deadly cartel/gang violence in Mexico and South America, encouraging dealers to taint their supply with more potent/profitable adulterants & giving criminals the power to corrupt government & police forces around the world. Plus, Argentina has some pretty harsh drug laws of its own, as does most of Latin America, routinely handing out harsher sentences for drug trafficking than rape or murder. Just like us.
Stop With the Media Hysterics 🚫📺
Media sensationalism about drugs fuels support for the Drug War
There's nothing unique or special about these newfangled drugs, any of them. Everything happening now is entirely predictable under prohibition. It happened during alcohol prohibition and has been worsening ever since other drugs were added to the big list of forbidden substances. Banning drugs like bath salts & fentanyl analogues only enables more potent, less well-known substitutes to take their place in the drug supply. We must maintain our focus and not lose sight of that singular fact--that these deaths are preventable and caused by the drug WAR, not the drugs themselves. The drug war including our abysmal "drug education" that consists of little more than "Just Say No herp derp" + outright lies and scare stories that only make people distrust our government more. This in combination with the poisoned black market drug supply is too much for Americans to overcome. It could be your child next, and that's NOT hyperbole.
Don't let the media sidetrack you & suck you into every new drug panic, tossing immigrants, minorities, the poor, disabled, mentally ill & other oppressed peoples under the bus in the process. Every hateful headline, every fear-based story is made with profit in mind. Ratings, clicks, likes, shares. They did it with crack in the '80s ("crack babies") and cannabis ("Reefer Madness") even further back. The antidote is calling these publications out on their BS. I do my best but I'm only one person--I need your help. Please let authorities in the Liam Payne case as well as reporters know you do NOT support the prosecution of anyone & are offended at the mishandling of yet another high-profile celebrity drug death. If they want to blame somebody, let them start by looking in the mirror. You need not be a boy-band fan to care about this subject, btw.
Like Perry, Liam Payne--ex-boyband member and known addict--made a conscious decision to ingest these drugs in an unfamiliar setting. He then allegedly fought staff & others to break loose and jump from his 3rd story window to his death in what was likely an "excited delirium" type psychotic state. Substances in his system at autopsy include "pink cocaine"--an incorrectly named drug containing a mixture of meth, ketamine, MDMA & others--as well as actual cocaine, benzodiazepine & crack. (That's according to the partial autopsy & toxicology report available as of October 21st, 2024).
Unless any of these drugs was sold to him as something it wasn't, i.e. fentanyl sold as heroin or tranq dope sold as OxyContin, or was slipped to him Quaalude-in-cocktail style a la Bill Cosby, the only person responsible for this tragedy was Liam Payne*. In no universe should additional people be held criminally responsible, especially in the case of the handler who "abandoned" him, i.e. failed to stop an addict from doing what addicts do: self-destructing. Anyone who's dealt with an addict knows it's impossible to keep them from using if they've got the financial means & the will. A celebrity of his stature certainly has the connections & the $$$ to afford some shitty "pink cocaine" and crack; expecting a secretary-type or manager to prevent the inevitable is unfair & unrealistic. It would be bad enough if the media were just laying the emotional blame on this person, but to criminally charge them is absurd.
And expecting anyone to stop a raging intoxicated adult male from hurling himself over the edge of a balcony while cracked out of his skull on this combination of drugs is offensively stupid. Dangerously stupid. Unless they're built like Swarzenegger, that just puts them at risk for being pushed to their deaths as well. Nobody's obligated to put their lives at risk to stop someone else from jumping to their deaths when they're not even rescue personnel.
"Pink cocaine" (also deceptively called "tuci" despite containing no 2C-B) may contain any combo of drugs including bath salts, meth and/or other powerful stimulants, which means that agitated "excited delirium" state I mentioned earlier is a real possibility. Payne likely wasn't even in his right mind when he made the jump--didn't know up from down & couldn't have been calmed or "talked down" with any amount of reasoning. What happened sounds like a bad reaction to a bad mixture of high-dose drugs and this is where I'm gonna go down a very predictable road so forgive me...
Drug combos like "Tuci"/pink cocaine that are so blatantly misnamed and carelessly concocted wouldn't even exist if not for the War on Drugs. In a world where drugs were legal, Liam Payne could've scored his (pure) cocaine and benzos at a safe use site & consumed them under the watch of trained medical professionals who could monitor him for bad reactions for as long as needed before releasing him. If he began showing dangerous side effects, they would be able to administer drugs to counteract the negative symptoms such as anti-psychotics or sedatives to bring down a stimulant high. No expensive adulterated drugs or drug combos; no leaving addicts to their own devices on 3rd-floor balconies, no running for cover and abandoning the addict if things went South for fear of arrest. Most importantly, no preventable death, disease or destruction caused by adulterated drugs or the ignorance of their use, and no unnecessary violence due to the drug trade as black market forces vye for drug turf or profits.
But we prefer to keep doing it the punitive & undignified way--to continue sacrificing our best and brightest while pointing the finger of blame in every direction but at our own deadly drug laws. (It's communist China! No, it's the Mexican cartels! No, that's racist, xenophobic propaganda--the same type the drug war was originally started under). And we'll keep losing one of a kind human beings we can never replace--unique shining souls--until enough people stand up every time a high-profile case like this happens and point the blame squarely where it belongs: on the toxic climate that enables "pink cocaine" and its dealers to exist in the first place--the climate of drug prohibition. Ditto bath salts, tranq dope, nitazenes, tianeptine & whatever Frankenstein chemicals come next.
*Liam Payne, Matthew Perry, John Belushi, Chris Farley, Anna Nicole Smith, Prince, Michael Jackson & all the rest weren't just addicts or throwaway junkies--they're casualties in America's longest, deadliest war. And aside from being someone's precious loved ones, they represent thousands more nameless, faceless addicts, recreational users, 1st-time drug users & non-consensual users poisoned by our deadly tainted drug supply--a problem that could be stopped tomorrow if drugs were legalized & regulated for purity the way beer and cigarettes are. And while this death happened in Argentina, America's deadly drug policies affect the entire planet, triggering a cascade of deadly cartel/gang violence in Mexico and South America, encouraging dealers to taint their supply with more potent/profitable adulterants & giving criminals the power to corrupt government & police forces around the world. Plus, Argentina has some pretty harsh drug laws of its own, as does most of Latin America, routinely handing out harsher sentences for drug trafficking than rape or murder. Just like us.
Stop With the Media Hysterics 🚫📺
Media sensationalism about drugs fuels support for the Drug War
There's nothing unique or special about these newfangled drugs, any of them. Everything happening now is entirely predictable under prohibition. It happened during alcohol prohibition and has been worsening ever since other drugs were added to the big list of forbidden substances. Banning drugs like bath salts & fentanyl analogues only enables more potent, less well-known substitutes to take their place in the drug supply. We must maintain our focus and not lose sight of that singular fact--that these deaths are preventable and caused by the drug WAR, not the drugs themselves. The drug war including our abysmal "drug education" that consists of little more than "Just Say No herp derp" + outright lies and scare stories that only make people distrust our government more. This in combination with the poisoned black market drug supply is too much for Americans to overcome. It could be your child next, and that's NOT hyperbole.
Don't let the media sidetrack you & suck you into every new drug panic, tossing immigrants, minorities, the poor, disabled, mentally ill & other oppressed peoples under the bus in the process. Every hateful headline, every fear-based story is made with profit in mind. Ratings, clicks, likes, shares. They did it with crack in the '80s ("crack babies") and cannabis ("Reefer Madness") even further back. The antidote is calling these publications out on their BS. I do my best but I'm only one person--I need your help. Please let authorities in the Liam Payne case as well as reporters know you do NOT support the prosecution of anyone & are offended at the mishandling of yet another high-profile celebrity drug death. If they want to blame somebody, let them start by looking in the mirror. You need not be a boy-band fan to care about this subject, btw.
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