What I thought was interesting other than the excessive use of drugs in the novel, was when Raul Duke aka Thompson was covering the National District Attorney's Convention on the drug issue. He couldn't help himself by being on drugs while attending the convention. He thought it would be necessary to represent the drug culture at the police convention. The drugs that he took were commonplace during the seventies. Contrastly, the cops that represented the major precincts in the country, were receiving various talks on drugs that were the rave back in the sixties. The cops were being told what drug users were using during the main stage of the Vietnam War (1961-1970) when the year is 1971 and the drugs on the street are much more stronger than the drugs used back in the sixties. The cops in this country knew nothing about the drug problem. They didn't know how to infiltrate the drug culture much less how to contain it.
I still percieve Las Vegas as the United States itself: money grubbing, wanting easy money, and Las Vegas is constantly tearing down its older what they deem obsolete, they rebuild a larger more expensive monstrosity on top of sand.
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I agree that the police in the book were behind by many years, it is still true in today's society. If you pay attention you still see the same things going on today, police are 2-6 years behind in knowledge of the drug culture. There are new and stronger drugs everyday and it takes forever for the law enforcement to catch up. I can only hope that one day we can get ahead of the drugs.
ReplyDeleteI also thought it was quite entertaining that Thompson and his attorney attended the drug convention while on drugs, all the while mocking what the speakers had to say about the nationwide problem. They clearly did not have a grasp on the issues they were addressing, and I think that has to do with the fact that there were not many (if any) undercover assignments and "narcs" as there are now.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree that one of my favorite parts was when they showed up to the convention with all the Police and were high on drugs them self. To be able to think of something so smart as that is amazing to me. I mean that is smart for them, because I don't think the cops would assume people attending that conference were all drugged up!
ReplyDeleteThe scene under discussion is an excellent example of situational irony. Thompson and his attorney are about as fucked up as they can be on drugs sitting right in the middle of the National District Attorney's Conference on Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs...and none of them even notices. In the film version, Thompson even snorts some cocaine right there in the middle of Dr. Bloomquist's lecture. This is exactly Thompson's point. We spend millions of dollars of taxpayer's money to accomplish jack shit. You wanna know the truth about drugs, read Thompson's book. He doesn't glorify it or make it out to be some exciting thrill. He presents it in all its ugliness for you to make up your own mind. You won't get that kind of information about drugs from government funded anti-drug campaigns...you won't get that kind of truth. And how can you? When the people paid to educate the public about drugs don't know a damn thing about them. Thompsons knows from first hand experience, and he does more than just tell you about them; he lets you watch the drugs in action.
ReplyDeleteThe drug convention was also one of my favorite parts of the book. I thought it was comical that the DA was presenting on "dangerous drugs" aka weed, while Duke and Gonzo were sitting in the audience, tripping on 10 different kinds of drugs and weed was the mildest drug they used on the whole trip.
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