Up until now, I was not particularly surprised by anything I heard about Kavanaugh’s behavior. Yes, pulling out your dick at a party is totally weird, but not mind blowing. However, the new charge of spiking alcohol with Quaaludes is jaw dropping to me.
To appreciate why this is stunning, you have to understand what was happening with the drug scene in the early 80s. Different social groups often segmented out based on their drugs of choice. There wasn’t a lot of mixing.
Back then, Quaaludes (also marketed as Mandrax) were all the rage, especially among high school kids. They were easy to get, easy to hide, relatively cheap and they packed a punch. Pot was for Hippies. Acid was for tripping with Dead Heads. Valium was for housewives. Heroin was for junkies in the city. Glue sniffing was for idiots who couldn’t afford real drugs, and cocaine was the drug of choice for Eurotrash and jet setters in the New York and Miami club scene. Alcohol, of course, was ubiquitous. Ecstasy (as MDMA) was actually legal, but it hadn’t hit the party scene yet.
You can think of Quaaludes as effectively similar to Valium. Their general effect and risk profile is very similar. They are both centrally acting sedatives that dramatically impaired motor control in even moderate doses. More importantly, mixed with alcohol their effect is potentiated. That means mixing either one with alcohol can hit you like a ton of bricks. However, they are completely different chemically. Valium is a benzodiazepine, Qualuude is a quinazolinone
Why do I burden you with all this? Three words:
KAREN ANN QUINLAN
In the summer of 1975 a young woman in New Jersey, named Karen Ann Quinlan, took some Valium and alcohol. This led to her becoming comatose. It also meant she stopped breathing. By the time medical treatment was initiated, she had lost all cortical function and lapsed into a “persistent vegetative state.” Given the fact she was “brain dead,” the prognosis was she would never regain consciousness. A legal fight ensued about whether or not to remove her from life support. The family, with support of their Catholic church, argued for ending life support. The doctors were not willing to do it because they worried they would be found guilty of murder. That fight lasted for close to a year and ultimately wound up being decided by the Supreme Court. When they finally did take her off the respirator-- against all expectations — she continued to breathe on her own. However, she never regained consciousness and ultimately died about 10 years later.
The story had a huge impact across the country. I put the terms in the preceding paragraph in quotes because these were new terms to the average American. They entered our lexicon with this case. In fact, general acceptance for a new legal definition of death (PDF) was strongly influenced by this case. Beyond the obvious legal issues and the inevitable clash conflicting moral codes brought to the ethical problem of when withdrawing life support is acceptable, a completely different issue came in to focus in the minds of young people. After Karen Ann Quinlan, the idea of mixing drugs with alcohol took on a whole new meaning for kids in high school. Everyone knew if you mixed this stuff and died, you went out like a Rock Star. Now we knew there was something worse than death. If you screwed up and didn’t die, you could wind up the new state vegetable.
Yeah, kids have weird priorities. But I’m just reporting the general vibe of the time for those who weren’t there so you can appreciate the world Kavanaugh and Crew were operating in during the summer of ‘83. Karen Ann Quinlan was still alive and a very vivid cautionary tale every high school kid knew about when Kavanaugh and Crew were (allegedly) spiking their punch with grain alcohol and Qualuudes.
I was working as a bartender around that time. I can assure you, bar fights (which were a routine occurance) never worried me anywhere near as much as the possibility some girl was going to show up after dropping a Qualuude in the parking lot, walk in completely sober, order a Long Island Ice Tea and then go Karen Ann Quinlan on my shift. I was right to worry about it. One night, it happened. Scared the crap out of me. The good news (I learned later) was that the chemistry of Valium was different from Qualuudes. Mixing Qualuudes with alcohol had a much greater impact on motor function, but not as great an impact on respiration. In other words, when the girl fell off her stool, she crashed face first into the bar but she didn’t stop breathing. She was out like a light, but she didn’t go into a coma. Fortunately, she didn’t die that night. She died a couple years later, but that was because alcohol and driving never mixed well. Unfortunately, seat belt laws weren’t universal back then so she wasn’t wearing hers. If she had been wearing a seat belt, she might still be alive.
It may surprise you to learn that back in those days of wanton drug use date rape drugs weren’t anywhere near as common as they are now. Bill Cosby might have been spiking drinks with this drug, but he was the exception that proved the rule. Frankly, I’m still confused by him. The guy was a popular, wealthy, attractive Hollywood star. In those days, I would have thought getting laid was easier for him than hailing a cab. For the rest of us, we had to work at it. Plying girls with alcohol? That was standard fare. But slipping them a Mickey was generally considered the work of hooligans and scumbags. Add the cautionary tale of Karen Ann Quinlan to the mix and it’s no surprise I never heard of anyone actually doing that to a girl in those days. Besides, drugs cost money and what kid buys drugs they aren’t planning on consuming themselves?
It’s against this backdrop that the (alleged) spiking of alcohol with Qualuudes by Kavanaugh and Crew blows my mind. Based on the 1983 letter Kavanaugh wrote to his buddies about their planned arrangements at the shore, I am stunned they would even take the risk of having girls pass out on Qualuudes mixed with alcohol in a beach house far from home. On the other hand, warning neighbors to expect kids puking was high up on their list of concerns.
Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. Maybe this just shows how stupid these jokers really were. Anyone who has watched Jackass or Tosh.0 knows young guys acting stupid isn’t news, but if the allegations are true, these guys were operating in a world where the rules of gravity didn’t apply to them. That’s not youthful exuberance and hijinks. That’s straight up wanton disregard like you expect from a sociopath. There’s a real difference between those two. In my experience, the latter is an attitude you don’t outgrow.
If true, this new allegation throws a completely different light on Kavanaugh’s behavior in high school. In this new light, Kavanaugh’s behavior during the hearing is actually less surprising to me than it was last week. The textbook DARVO behavior he displayed is exactly what you would expect when dealing with someone who thinks the rules don’t apply to them. As far as they’re concerned, this is their world and we just live in it. We are no more consequential to them than a non player character (NPC) in a video game. That is precisely why those people are generally considered a threat to themselves and others. It’s also why you don’t want them sitting on the Supreme Court.