Junkie elephant gets clean

Nathan sez, "Story from Reuters explains how an elephant was controlled by poachers using heroin-laced bananas. Echoes the drug-controlled dolphin 'Jones' in William Gibson's Johnny Mnemonic."

After police arrested the traders and freed Xiguang a few months later, the elephant was confirmed to be suffering from withdrawal symptoms and sent to a wild animal protection center in Hainan for rehab, Xinhua news agency said on Thursday.

A year of methadone injections at five times the human dosage had helped wean Xiguang off his addiction.

Drug-addicted elephant kicks heroin habit (THanks, Nathan!)

[#1 posted by doublethink, September 4, 2008 10:18 PM]

I saw some strange Scandinavian CGI film about a quest to save a stolen junkie elephant from a circus, I can't remember the name, It was amazing.

Also Hooray for Pachyderm Rehab!

[#2 posted by gs, September 4, 2008 11:51 PM]

Ah, it's "Free Jimmy" - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0298337/

[#3 posted by JamesProvost, September 5, 2008 12:04 AM]

That really does Ecco The Dolphin

[#4 posted by semiotix, September 5, 2008 12:17 AM]

This will make for some interesting meetings at the Hainan NA chapter.

[#5 posted by Not a Doktor, September 5, 2008 12:55 AM]

"the pachyderm was believed to be on a Keith Richards sized dose"

[#6 posted by Secret_Life_of_Plants, September 5, 2008 1:17 AM]

Tusko, the LSD-dosed elephant was less lucky.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tusko

[#7 posted by insomma, September 5, 2008 3:05 AM]

Um, they article doesn't say WHY the poachers were doing this. The elephant was 4 years old- were they trying to raise it to maturity? Seems like a lot of heroin for two tusks... Any guesses?

[#8 posted by Randwulf, September 5, 2008 4:10 AM]

Headline should have been "Elephant gets monkey off his back!"

[#9 posted by nanuq, September 5, 2008 5:04 AM]

"Um, they article doesn't say WHY the poachers were doing this. The elephant was 4 years old- were they trying to raise it to maturity? Seems like a lot of heroin for two tusks... Any guesses?"

I'm assuming they were training it to be a performing animal of some kind. Operant conditioning was probably too much work for them.

[#10 posted by LordMarius, September 5, 2008 5:27 AM]

"Fr Jmmy" sn't Scndnvn, t's gd dngd Nrwgn, y gnrnt ynks :P

[#11 posted by Tommy, September 5, 2008 5:29 AM]

Dang. I thought this was a post about Cindy McCain. I've been reading too much political coverage lately.

[#12 posted by vamidus, September 5, 2008 6:25 AM]

Thank you, your honor. With God's help I'll conquer this terrible affliction.

[#13 posted by Halloween Jack, September 5, 2008 7:27 AM]

Did he listen to a lot of Velvet Underground while he was jonesing?

[#14 posted by Kieran O'Neill, September 5, 2008 7:43 AM]

Lol, #10: Last I checked, Norway was in Scandinavia. If he couldn't even remember the name of the film, I'd forgive him for only remembering it's provenance down to the sub-continent.

[#15 posted by Enochrewt, September 5, 2008 7:54 AM]

Is recieving massive doses of methadone really "clean"?

[#16 posted by Uncle_Max, September 5, 2008 1:43 PM]

#3: Bravo.

[#17 posted by jbang, September 6, 2008 11:04 PM]

Poor bastard. Giving Elephants amphetamines and heroin is way too common in some SE Asia countries, where they are working animals. Often with two owners working essentially 24 hour days - carting wood for half, then tourists the other half.

As for the Methadone.. that's cruel in itself. Should've just slowly reduced it's dose of actual heroin, would've much more humane.

And can we stop using the word Junkie? It's foul and discriminatory. Up there with Faggot, Slut and some others I won't actually type.