Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 1998 & Hunter S Thompson - Drugs Forum online - Narcos TV -
The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge, and I knew we’d get into that rotten stuff pretty soon. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 1998 starring Johnny Depp & Benicio del Toro & Tobey Maguire & Ellen Barkin & Gary Busey & Christina Ricci & Mark Harmon & Cameron Diaz & Katherine Helmond & Michael Jeter & Penn Jillette et al, director Terry Gilliam
Ah, devil ether. It makes you behave like the village drunkard in some early Irish novel. Total loss of all basic motor function. Blurred vision, no balance, numb tongue. The mind recoils in horror, unable to communicate with the spinal column. Which is interesting because you can actually watch yourself behaving in this terrible way, but you can’t control it. ibid.
Diethyl ether is an sweet smelling colourless gas, which has a long history of recreational and medicinal use. It was invented by a chemist in 1275 named Raymundus Lullius. He first called it sweet vitriol. Because one of the key elements to produce ether from ethanol is vitriol (an old name for H2SO4). It was renamed later to ether by W G Frobenius, which comes from Aether. Aether was the Greek God of the Atmosphere … It has been drunken and inhaled during the prohibition of alcohol in various countries as an alcohol replacement. Especially so in Ireland: from 1870 till 1927 ether is one of the most important drugs of abuse in Ireland. In 1927 its use was only permitted by medical personnel. Drugs Forum online
The Cali cartel came to New York for the cocaine market, the largest in the world. But they stayed for the ether. You can’t make coke without ether. Narcos s3e2: The Cali KGB, Netflix 2017