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11/11/2003 Archived Entry: "Just say 'no' to drugs."
Just say 'no' to drugs.
Interesting little exchange involving Colin Powell here (scroll down).
Powell described his killer schedule in an interview Thursday with Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, a reporter for a London-based Saudi newspaper. "So do you use sleeping tablets to organize yourself?" Al-Rashed asked.
"Yes. Well, I wouldn't call them that," Powell said. "They're a wonderful medication -- not medication. How would you call it? They're called Ambien, which is very good. You don't use Ambien? Everybody here uses Ambien."
Everybody where, Colin? Everybody in the White House?
Interesting. Here's what could happen if you rely upon Ambien.
Ambien may cause special type of memory loss known as amnesia. When this occurs, a person may not remember what has happened for several hours after taking the medicine. In addition, addiction, or dependence, can be caused by Ambien, especially when used regularly for longer than a few weeks or at high doses. People who have been dependent on alcohol or other drugs in the past may have a greater chance of becoming addicted to Ambien. Some people using Ambien have experienced unusual changes in their thinking and/or behavior.
That could explain a lot.
Replies: 16 people speak up
Remember Soma?
Posted by Aristopahanes @ 11/11/2003 04:04 PM NY
...er ...I would ...except my memory seems to be impaired.....
Posted by Aristopahanes @ 11/11/2003 04:05 PM NY
Did he inhale the stuff? Can Ambien be free-based?
Posted by Metropolitan99 @ 11/11/2003 04:43 PM NY
Lots of people use Ambien. It is a safe sleeping aid and is very helpful for someone with jet lag.
Now if he was using Oxycontin.......
Posted by GP @ 11/11/2003 07:07 PM NY
Damn, GP, you really know how to kill a party. I'm crossing you off my X'mas list.
Posted by Metropolitan99 @ 11/11/2003 10:53 PM NY
Ambien is the shit...I got a couple from my roommate last year and they flat knocked me out. Too bad I can't fall asleep that easily all the time.
Posted by Skip Perry @ 11/12/2003 03:11 AM NY
It explains why they were napping that month up to 9/11...
Posted by TechnoPeasant @ 11/12/2003 11:07 AM NY
If my lying and obfuscation had gotten my country into a bloody quagmire which may ruin the Armed Forces I had once led - I'd have trouble sleeping too.
Posted by Night Owl @ 11/12/2003 01:28 PM NY
im an insomniac, and i use melatonin, its safe, natural, and its actually one of the strongest anti oxidents known to medical science. great stuff. then again, i have a clean conscience, maybe melatonin wont help you sleep when the ghosts of murdered iraqi children are wailing through your thoughts all night, on the other hand, i think that most neo cons are probobly sociopaths, so remorse probobly isnt why they cant sleep. my guess is that its all the cocain that is keeping them up at night.
by the way, is ambien something you can overdose on? well lets hope for the best
Posted by justin @ 11/12/2003 01:40 PM NY
having used Ambien in the past, I can attest to the amnesia bit. you're supposed to take it right before you go to bed. if you stay up instead, which you can because it won't knock you out, weird shit happens the next day when you go looking for something that's not where you left it the night before, or you get replies to emails that you have no memory of writing. I didn't experience "unusual changes in thinking or behavior" other than freaking out about the amnesia, though.
it's a decent sleep aid, but it'll fuck with your head, and once you're dependent on it to sleep, breaking that dependence takes 2-3 brutal sleepless nights of thrashing around and waking up about 87 times a night. ugh. never again.
Posted by tunguskan @ 11/12/2003 02:45 PM NY
"Everybody where, Colin? Everybody in the White House?"
Actually, Powell's office in the State Department is at Foggy Bottom, which is under constant threat of nuclear annihilation by Pat Robertson. So yeah--everyone in that building probably needs 3 or 4 just to function normally, much less sleep.
Hee hee...soma. Wish I'd thought of that.
Posted by Matt @ 11/13/2003 08:32 PM NY
and the next few lines from the interview indicate Powell was using it for jet lag...
QUESTION: So do you use sleeping tablets to organize yourself?
SECRETARY POWELL: Yes. Well, I wouldn't call them that. They're a wonderful medication -- not medication. How would you call it? They're called ambien, which is very good. You don't use ambien? Everybody here uses ambien.
QUESTION: I use it when I go on trip and long distance travel.
SECRETARY POWELL: Yeah. I didn't need it this time because I was in the same time zone.
QUESTION: I see.
SECRETARY POWELL: It's when I go to your part of the world. I need to get my rest.
Posted by John @ 11/14/2003 01:00 PM NY
ambien is very addictive in the sense that once you use it every night for a while, you won't be able to sleep without it. you dont get high, but it certainly is a drug, a medication, a sleeping pill, mr. powell.
Posted by sonny @ 11/16/2003 10:28 PM NY
justin, you crack me up.
I remember reading in "Mother Night" by Kurt Vonnegut that, according to his Israeli jailers, Eichmann slept like a baby in prison awaiting trial.
It's the INNOCENT who get no sleep. Supposedly.
Later,
Posted by Daddy-O @ 11/16/2003 10:51 PM NY
Sounds like a good fit for Rush.
Posted by beerzie boy @ 11/17/2003 03:25 PM NY
major premise:
Everybody here uses ambien.
minor premise:
People who have been dependent on alcohol or other drugs in the past may have a greater chance of becoming addicted to Ambien. Some people using Ambien have experienced unusual changes in their thinking and/or behavior.
conclusion:
"Ambien" is Secret Service code word for pretzels.
Posted by phill @ 11/18/2003 04:59 PM NY
