1561 Drug In

Two drug related things today.
The first? Doppio. When I first heard the word doppio I thought it was a drug, or maybe the sidekick of Topo Gigio, the old rat puppet from Ed Sullivan.
Eddieeeeeeee.
Topo always seemed a little tired or stoned, like he needed a doppio. Doppio is the word for a double espresso shot. A single shot is a solo. The solo was what could be produced from one pull of an old-fashioned espresso machine handle.
Now they use doppio in espresso competitions, it's called a standard double, and has just become the standard. You have to do something special to the machine or the pour to get a solo.
It's too much of a hassle, and therefore uneconomical employee-wise, to change the machine back to squeezing off a single. As Marx once pointed out, economic realities drive everything.
Economics affects more drugs than espresso.
Proof, the drug of choice on today's market has changed. Back in the old days, the terminal street drug was heroin. First invented by the Bayer Aspirin company and actually brand-named by them "Heroin" it was for years the symbol of drug depravity.
But riding the horse with no name got expensive. So cocaine soared to realms of hyperpopularity. From nose candy to crack, people were riding that train with cocaine.
Then it was flying with crystal meth—until most of the proletarian meth cookers exploded their points of production.
Then oxycontin. Prescription drugs gone wild. Our "med" oriented society spawned a scientifically manufactured rocket ship to oblivion.
But the economy's hit hard everywhere. Oxycontin costs $80 a pill on the street. So the new drug of choice? Heroin.
Back to riding the horse with no name.
This depression is really getting people down.
Espresso anyone?
America, ya gotta love it.