Word: opium
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...eccentrics. Even so, the guest speaker at the club last week was something out of the ordinary. Introduced as a lecturer on sociology at the University of London, Dr. Mahesh Helai, a learned-looking Turk with a slight beard and sideburns, had chosen as his topic: "The Pleasure of Opium Eating...
Before an audience of 75 eager Heretics, he talked learnedly for about an hour, peering myopically at his notes as he discoursed on the advantages of eating opium. "I like it," said he, "and have done it quite often. One can consume it reasonably, with no ill effects, but ... it should not be given to children under five...
What About Hashish? When the lecture was over, Dr. Helai asked for questions. From both newsmen and Heretics came a barrage. What was the Buddhist attitude toward opium? What about hashish? Could the good Doctor provide a sample of opium? To the last question, Dr. Helai calmly replied that if the chairman of the meeting would examine the cigarette he had given him, he would find that it bore no manufacturer's mark. The dazed chairman took a nervous look at his cigarette and hastily scrunched...
Next day London newspapers were full of Dr. Helai. Not bothering to conceal their shock, they quoted him at length, and one carefully dusted its hands of his conclusions. Warned the News Chronicle, in an earnest footnote: "Doctors agree that opium eating or smoking is definitely harmful for Western people...
...later the truth about Dr. Helai came out: he was a phony, who had never touched opium in his life. If his lecture proved anything at all, it proved just how far Oxonians will go to perpetrate a hoax...