The “Trust Me” Spray
Story and Art by Thuy Ngo

Love and trust is something I've always wanted and searched for, but now it's a pill! No, correction, it's a nasal spray. Recently, scientists have created a nasal spray that induces trust among people. The nasal spray is made from the Oxytocin, which is a hormone created in the brain and hypothalumus. It is known to induce mother's milk, contractions during child bearing. This is a hormone secreted when people fall in love . Scientists hope to use this discovery in treating social anxiety and autism. The spray is still under development and has not been out on the market yet.

The intent of the product is good, but it still strikes me as odd, how can you trust someone after using a nasal spray? Is trust so technical that it is meant to skip your gut feelings, your natural reaction, that feeling you get when you like a person, and all that jazz about earning someone's trust? Isn't that all supposed to be sacred and made from the soul? It seems all so un-natural that a nasal spray can resolve all of that.   Is that how far technology and science has come? To trust someone, is a spray away.

There seems to be a spray, a pill, or some type of device for everything now-a-days.   Most of the stuff you hear on television has to do with mood stabilizers to dieting supplements to sexual enhancers to things that would enlarge your bra size.   There seems to be a cure for any type of problem or insecurity there is to man or woman when it comes to needs. This is though with the exception of things that would actually save us from cancer or some fatal disease.

For example, say a young man is sad. Give some Prozac to that lad. And say that he suffers from a tubby belly, give some Trim Spa to that fellow. How realistic are these promises, and how long will it last, when they do work? How safe are they? Not very much indeed.

Even when the pills do work, there are limitations to how they work, and there are side effects, which we call “compliance issues”, whether they be headaches or hyper-tension. These pills are meant to resolve or give coping devices towards a goal, a dream of being something that we might never otherwise become: what is wanted is a lean, hard, healthy body, beautiful golden skin and a happy, healthy mind set. I suppose all of this is too much to ask for. Instead we have something unwanted: high strung, with weight gain, spazzed, dry mouthed, and fatigued.

Just Let me See the Doctor
Running Through the Maze of Medi-Cal in Fresno
Story by Alexander Gutierrez