Poppers King Controversial Even in Death

[Lucky]

The death of poppers king Joe Miller last week, apparently a suicide, has the media and politicians in Indiana struggling to determine how best to handle it.

Miller owned Great Lakes Products, producers of various brands of poppers, and reportedly made hundreds of millions in the process. He established a foundation that gave huge amounts of money to Democratic politicians, and purported to care about people with HIV and AIDS.

Yet poppers themselves may have had a great contribution to health problems and death rates, both from AIDS and the combination of Viagra type drugs. So was Miller a gay philanthropist, or a death monger?

His controversial personal life also made many skitterish of associating with Miller, who was once arrested on child molestation charges only to see them dropped when the victims refused to testify. Miller's strong personality and looseness with the truth aggravated others as well.

He began his poppers career by selling bottles of Rush at the gay night club in Indianapolis. The later in the evening, the higher the price, with a bottle going for $25 at 2 am. Soon after he was bottling nitrates in his bathtub with his partner, who also was a suicide years ago. Miller went on to enormous riches.

Read more:

http://advanceindiana.blogspot.com/

[BigK]

I've never tried poppers. What am I missing?

[TotallyOz]

I've never tried poppers. What am I missing?

A headache.

[MsGuy]

I've never tried poppers. What am I missing?

Headaches.

And possibly sudden death from catastrophic drop in blood pressure if you're also on E.D. meds. That warning on the insert is there for a good reason.

Others say there ain't nothing like sex w/poppers. I don't get it but different strokes, etc. Just don't use with Viagra, Cialis or the like.

PS, as for as I can determine all that stuff about poppers causing/contributing to AIDS is just straight people being stupid.

[TampaYankee]

I respect that this is a serious topic and in no way mean to make light of it.

This post is all about me, not the topic. I might get called upon to give up my Disney Gay Days membership card after this. So be it.

When I read the topic, I thought this must really be very controversial passing to come to attention here. You see my sheltered background caused me to wonder why the death of the King of deep-fried, breaded, cheese-stuffed jalapeno peppers was so controversial? Now it is not that I have not heard of the other poppers before, I have. Not everyday familiarity but a removed passing reference, just not in the forefront of my mindset. Probably good to have brought forward every now and then for my cultural awareness.

Now I am passing control of your monitor screen back to serious business.

[MsGuy]

A gay boomer who's never tried poppers? TY, you're a rara avis.

Have you considered willing your carcass to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History? They could put you on display next to the Ivory Billed Woodpecker exhibit.

[Lucky]

The issue of poppers and health is pretty important, and the controversy has been longstanding. Gay publications also made a fortune from popper advertising, so they wanted no criticism of it. How could so many gay men like something that was so bad for them? A new concept, eh?

Read this review of poppers in Drummer Magazine. The magazine was then sold, and a new article appeared, denying the validity of the poppers criticism. It all depended on who owned the magazine, not the facts. Bruce Voeller, who wrote the second, favorable, article, was a buddy of Joe Miller. Voeller died of AIDS.

http://paganpressbooks.com/jpl/DRUMMERH.HTM

(For me, the whole controversy has been fascinating as I knew some of the players on each side of the issue, and I also had liked poppers. I never thought that they caused AIDS, but can't say that they are good for you, either. It's the politics of it all that fascinates me, with so much money involved, and, of course, gay men and their pleasures.)

[Guest zipperzone]

Who would ever have thought that one man could make 100s of millions simply from poppers. It boggles the mind (at least MY mind)

[JKane]

Who would ever have thought that one man could make 100s of millions simply from poppers. It boggles the mind (at least MY mind)

I'm amazed to hear this too. Though I guess it explains why more was never done to make them illegal.

I've never tried directly, and dislike it when a bottom I'm with wants to use them. Hate the smell 'second hand', it seems like it would give me a blinding headache if I were to huff them.

And it sure seems to me it is huffing--just as stupid as huffing spray paint. Probably exactly as bad for you, back when there were VCRs I've used real 'head cleaner' chemicals and can't imagine intentionally snorting the fumes. How they keep of the pretense that it's for cleaning VCRs when none of the stores sell videotapes anymore (and extra pure isopropyl alcohol is all you really need to clean VCR heads...) had really caused me to wonder.

Lucky, or anybody else, can you describe exactly what they did/do for you?

[Lucky]

I'm amazed to hear this too. Though I guess it explains why more was never done to make them illegal.

I've never tried directly, and dislike it when a bottom I'm with wants to use them. Hate the smell 'second hand', it seems like it would give me a blinding headache if I were to huff them.

And it sure seems to me it is huffing--just as stupid as huffing spray paint. Probably exactly as bad for you, back when there were VCRs I've used real 'head cleaner' chemicals and can't imagine intentionally snorting the fumes. How they keep of the pretense that it's for cleaning VCRs when none of the stores sell videotapes anymore (and extra pure isopropyl alcohol is all you really need to clean VCR heads...) had really caused me to wonder.

Lucky, or anybody else, can you describe exactly what they did/do for you?

Inhaling, or, taking a hit of poppers brings a rush of blood to the head, which lends to a few moments of feeling high. If you do this while dancing, a speed effect takes place. Do it while getting fucked, and you ass opens just the way the dentist wants it to, and take a hit when coming and your world explodes.

[AdamSmith]

Do it while getting fucked, and you ass opens just the way the dentist wants it to

That is the point. First couple times I bottomed, it hurt like hell. Then an escort introduced me to poppers, and the substance helped me learn how to relax while bottoming, and thus to enjoy it.

Now, although I am still fairly tight at the start of a session, by the end an F-150 could drive through.

[Lucky]

That is the point. First couple times I bottomed, it hurt like hell. Then an escort introduced me to poppers, and the substance helped me learn how to relax while bottoming, and thus to enjoy it.

Now, although I am still fairly tight at the start of a session, by the end an F-150 could drive through.

Did I get the color right?

[Guest CharliePS]

My first experience with poppers came in 1964, the real stuff which was available only by prescription (still is, I think). I had never used any kind of drug before, and I was certain I was going to die when it hit me. I didn't, and soon I had come to enjoy the effect. Unlike some people who got a headache at the first whiff, I could take quite a lot of it, and it certainly made it easier to do things that otherwise made me squeamish. That was the real problem for most people: they did things impulsively that their rational judgment would have prevented them from doing. The effect was also addictive. I went through periods when I used them every time I had sex, because most sex seemed less satisfying without it. But the more one used, the less heightened the effect. I finally had to go cold turkey.

After AIDS panic led to making it hard to get the real stuff, people like Joe Miller began marketing the ersatz poppers, which I never found as potent as the originals, and which sometimes did give me headache. Now I almost never use them.

[TotallyOz]

Inhaling, or, taking a hit of poppers brings a rush of blood to the head, which lends to a few moments of feeling high. If you do this while dancing, a speed effect takes place. Do it while getting fucked, and you ass opens just the way the dentist wants it to, and take a hit when coming and your world explodes.

How is it possible to get your ass wider with doing this. I honestly don't get it.

[Lucky]

How is it possible to get your ass wider with doing this. I honestly don't get it.

Oz, the ass is built on stretchers,just like a vagina. You see those big babies coming out? Well, sometime the ass needs room for a wide-load as well. This is when the stretcher mechanism so wisely designed by Mother Nature comes into play. The sad fact is that most men, even gay men, do not know how to employ their body's own anal stretchers.

That's where poppers come in. Poppers help you relax at the moment of penetration, allowing the stretchers to do their job, move aside, open up,and swallow the engorged object seeking to penetrate you. It's as simple as that. With practice, men can expand on their own without poppers.

In a nutshell, forget the crap about stretchers. Poppers simply help you relax at a time when most men tighten up.

[Guest FourAces]

I think he obviously had many personal issues thus the suicide. However one needs to separate his personal problems from his business. As a businessman I applaud him. A true American success story. Basically had an idea started with nothing, hustled and made millions. Then used his good fortune to help support causes important to the gay community.

Just like any vice in life one must take personal responsibility if they are to use it. The FDA says Big Macs are safe to eat but should I have ten of them? Probably not the best idea. Same goes for any legal drug, drink or smoke.

Just my thoughts on this very interesting topic.

[lookin]

I've never tried poppers. What am I missing?

My first experiences were in the early seventies with the pure stuff, amyl nitrate, which originally came in glass capsules wrapped in a heavy cloth mesh.

The thin glass popped when you broke it, soaking the cloth, which was then held under the nose.

The capsules themselves were a rare treat courtesy of a nurse I dated briefly, but the brown bottles of the same era held the equivalent liquid.

The effect was immediate and lasted for several minutes. During those few minutes, any sexual activity I was involved in became the center of my universe. Orgasms were at least doubled in intensity and duration. I got topped for the first time ever, any discomfort trumped by a strong desire for the experience itself. And I believe I could have deep-throated Priapus himself, swallowing every drop and begging for more.

There was no headache during or after.

Sometime in the late seventies or early eighties, amyl nitrate (C5H11NO2) disappeared from the shelves and was replaced by butyl nitrate (C4H9NO3). For me anyway, the beneficial effects were reduced to a trickle, and were more than offset by a headache that began with the first whiff and intensified with each one thereafter. A sexual partner once rolled an open bottle off the bed, forcing us out of his apartment and heralding a month of celibacy.

To enjoy once again the pleasure of real amyl nitrate, one would probably have to develop a case of angina and find a sympathetic doctor. The experience of butyl nitrate, and its ensuing reformulations, can perhaps best be captured by spending an hour or so hunched over a mis-tuned power mower.