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By Melissa Franqui

Your Dose of Pop is DPA’s contribution to a balanced media diet. We generally disseminate serious news about the serious disaster that is the drug war. However, a good deal of public opinion is shaped by the happenings in entertainment and culture, which makes them worth commenting on. Story ideas are always welcome. You can submit them mfranqui [at] drugpolicy [dot] org (subject: Your%20Dose%20of%20Pop) (here).

Here’s the latest skinny.

Spoiler Alert: Mad Men Series Finale Ends on Coke

Love it or hate it, you have to admit that the Mad Men series finale was brilliant. We finally see advertising executive Don Draper experience an awakening of sorts and make human connections throughout his odyssey that concluded at a spiritual retreat. But did Yogi Draper really delve deep into his soul, or was that bell and smirk in the final moments Don’s implicit insight on how to reel in his white whale client, Coca Cola?

Drugs, alcohol and tobacco in particular, played a critical role in the Mad Men world. So it was no surprise that the Coca Cola benchmark ad was foreshadowed by the first-time introduction of cocaine, through a quietly hilarious scene between Joan and her hapless beau earlier in the episode.

(Bonus Mad Men moments where other drugs are weaved throughout include Roger Sterling’s acid trip and the seminal episode “The Crash” – when the entire office was injected with amphetamine.)

Did Don finally find a sense of purpose and harmony or did he just Forrest Gump his way into creating the most recognizable commercial for caffeinated sugar water (more drugs!) in advertising history?

We’ll never know, but we are going to miss you Donald Draper. Cheers!

New VEEP Wants to Legalize All Drugs

Emmy award-winning Julia Louis-Dreyfus expertly and sidesplittingly drives HBO’s comedy, Veep. Until now, Louis-Dreyfus’ character Selina Meyer, has had no real decision making power and little impact on policy, that is, until she is called up to serve as POTUS. While Selina and her team are laughable, the wheels truly come off the clown car once the Madame President is inaugurated into the spotlight.

In last week’s episode, “Mommy Meyer,” her chosen running mate, played by House‘s Hugh Laurie, proves himself to be a valuable asset to the Meyer team. In fact, he is infallible, until he reveals a potentially politically controversial belief: he wants to legalize drugs. While the room full of political advisors staggers at the disclosure, the sense of irony is revved up by having all of them scoff at the idea whilst drinking bourbon. We are visually reminded that prohibition doesn’t work.

I can’t wait to see how Selina “manages” this!

Dr. Julie Holland’s New Book is a Girlfriend’s Guide to Sex, Drugs & Less Drugs?

Holland’s Moody Bitches: The Truth about the Drugs You’re Taking, The Sleep You’re Missing, The Sex You’re Not Having, and What’s Really Making You Crazy rings the alarm on the overprescribing of psychiatric mediation to women and pushes for a natural “course correction.”

Washington Post book review notes, “Hysteria has given way in recent years to an explosion of diagnoses of depression and anxiety. One in four women in the United States is now taking some kind of psychiatric medication to even out her emotional volatility.”

Although the famed author of the hugely popular Weekends at Bellevue and The Pot Book: A Complete Guide to Cannabis has been criticized for the contentious title and sections in the book that are I-know-this-already guidelines on healthy living, Holland delivers a potent message: there’s power and self-knowledge in women’s emotionality and we should not be medicating it all away.

Add to that a glorious and straight-forward section on the pharmacology of drugs, legal and otherwise, by one of the most brilliant minds in the field, and you have a must-read for any woman, and man, trying to understand the hyper-fluctuation of chemicals in our bodies and their impact on our well-being. Read it!

Melissa Franqui is the communications coordinator at the Drug Policy Alliance.

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Author: Melissa Franqui
Date Published: May 28, 2015
Published by Drug Policy Alliance

Via:: Ddrug Policy Alliance