Day 30: The last day

Followup to: Zinnia on drugs! A nootropics experiment

21-22 Sep 2010

I woke up around 4:00 PM, and took 1 piracetam and choline at 9:00 PM. That was the last one. I think I timed this pretty well - it seems the FDA actually decided to follow through on their warning about selling piracetam as a dietary supplement, and the major sellers appear to have discontinued it (although other racetams are still available). I have to wonder why they would identify piracetam as an item of concern, given that its effects seem to be (in my experience) mostly minor - far less noticeable than, say, a bottle of over-the-counter caffeine pills that anyone can purchase at Wal-Mart. For the same reason, it's not something I can't live without, but you'd still expect there to be a decent justification for them to decide that people can no longer sell it. According to the FDA, piracetam is considered a "new drug" and is "not generally recognized as safe and effective", and those selling it don't have an FDA-approved application to do so. However, this part interested me:

Piracetam is not a vitamin, mineral, amino acid, herb or other botanical, or dietary substance for use by man to supplement the diet by increasing the total dietary intake. Further, piracetam is not a concentrate, metabolite, constituent, extract or combination of any such dietary ingredient. Thus, because your "Smart Powders Piracetam" and "Primaforce Piracetam" products do not bear or contain any dietary ingredients as defined in section 201 (ff)(1) of the Act, these products do not qualify as dietary supplements under section 201(ff) of the Act.

Piracetam is actually a cyclic derivative of GABA, which is a naturally-occurring amino acid. By my completely uninformed reasoning, it's possible that piracetam could be considered a "dietary ingredient" by that definition. (Note that I failed 10th grade chemistry.)

Regardless, this is the reality of the situation, so it's just something we'll have to deal with for now. In honor of piracetam's newfound quasi-illegal status, I suggest we come up with some completely stupid street names for it so clueless parents can worry about this dangerous, addictive drug that all the kids are using. Think "meow meow". (Seriously, what kind of name is that for an illegal drug? They're illegal for a reason, so why not call them something awesome, like BLITZKRIEG?) My top contenders: "Brain juice", "gabber", "Accela" (from Lain), "crop circles", "file", "Quran", or "meth". Let's hear yours!

Meanwhile, I was going to do a video review of the Kindle today, but the lighting wasn't right - can you believe there's really not a single decent place here to just set something down and review it? But that's okay, since I have some more time to plan for it now. I'll certainly try to make it interesting!

Oh yeah, and there's that whole "taunting al-Qaeda" thing. It's funny, I get a little nervous now whenever there's a loud noise outside. At this point, it probably isn't reasonable, since it's only been up for a day and hasn't received widespread attention. I'll probably have more to worry about in the coming weeks. It did get some exposure on reddit, where someone had the gall to compare eating your own smiley-face drawing to punishing all Muslims, threatening them (because they think Muhammad is really important), and even sexually assaulting women. That kind of amazed me, because even if it were meant as an insult to all Muslims, there's absolutely nothing about it that punishes anyone, or makes any kind of actual threat - or rapes anyone, for that matter. It doesn't matter how important your beliefs are to you. They could be extremely important, as important as it's possible to be. A criticism of your beliefs, even very outspoken and forceful criticism, does not constitute an actual injury to your person. And the degree of importance a person ascribes to their beliefs does not define a limit on the level of criticism that the rest of us are permitted to heap upon them. You cannot immunize or shelter your beliefs from counterarguments just by clinging to them very strongly, as the extent of your devotion does not translate to increased validity.

Further, this completely fails to acknowledge how unreasonable it is to consider any person a "prophet", regardless of how intensely you believe this. There are no people with privileged access or greater insight into the divine or the supernatural, because there is no such thing. All such prophets are, by definition, false. (Keep digging, why don't you, Zinnia?) All things considered, this is a really bad reason to say someone shouldn't eat their own picture. Comparing me to rapists doesn't help, either. I did it because it was something that terrorists - violent, deluded, dangerous people - do not want us to do, and want to scare us out of doing. Just because Muslims may also incidentally not want us to do this does not mean that it was therefore directed at them or a criticism of them. If it weren't for the terrorist threats against the people who do this, I wouldn't have done it - there would have been no reason to. That alone should make it obvious that this is a criticism of terrorists, not Muslims.

Anyway, it's been a pretty interesting 30 days, and I would probably do it again, but now I have to see what happens when you stop. I'll keep you apprised.