Topic: DRUGS - on July 27, 2007 at 10:11:00 AM CEST
Cannabis use linked to 40% rise in risk of schizophrenia
Smoking cannabis increases the risk of schizophrenia by at least 40% according to research which indicates that there are at least 800 people suffering serious psychosis in the UK after smoking the drug.
Mental health groups called on the government last night to issue fresh health warnings and launch an education campaign to advise teenagers that even light consumption of the drug could trigger long-term mental health problems. The findings came after a rush of ministers declared their cannabis-smoking pasts and an order from the prime minister for officials to consider whether the drug should be reclassified amid fears about its more potent "skunk" form. Last night the Home Office said the research would be considered in that review.
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Topic: DRUGS - on July 27, 2007 at 10:09:00 AM CEST
REEFER MADNESS REDUX
Heard the latest buzz about cannabis? Word on the street is that today’s pot is exponentially more powerful, and thus more dangerous, than the marijuana available some 20, or even 10, years ago.
The nation’s drug czar says so. (“We’re no longer talking about the drug of the 1960s and 1970s,” John P. Walters recently warned Reuters; “this is Pot 2.0.”) Law enforcement says so. (Speaking to the Associated Press in June, United States Drug Enforcement Agency special agent Mark R. Trouville, who heads the agency’s Miami office, said, “This ain’t your grandfather’s or your father’s marijuana. This will hurt you. This will addict you. This will kill you.”) Pot dealers say so. (Advertising to your clientele that you sell only the most potent weed is an effective marketing tool.) Even most pot smokers say so. (Admit it. Who among you is going to tell your friends that you smoke schwag?)
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Topic: DRUGS - on July 23, 2007 at 10:55:00 AM CEST
Grass - The War On Drugs
An excellent look at the issues around cannabis prohibition.
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Topic: DRUGS - on July 23, 2007 at 10:54:00 AM CEST
Na aerodromu otkriveno 2,5 kilograma kokaina
Carinici i policija graničnog prelaza na Aerodromu "Nikola Tesla" otkrili su danas 2,5 kilograma kokaina u koferu putnika koji je doputovao iz Argentine, saopštila je Uprava carina.
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Topic: DRUGS - on July 23, 2007 at 10:52:00 AM CEST
Texas-Sized 7-Acre Pot Crop Amazes DEA
The Drug Enforcement Administration believes they have found the largest marijuana field in Dallas history.
On Friday, agents found 10,451 plants on seven acres on land near Camp Wisdom and Beltline roads.
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Topic: DRUGS - on July 22, 2007 at 12:25:00 AM CEST
Abductions and DMT
Analysis of the alien abduction story suggests that the sequence of events is comparable to some experiences of the shamanic spirit world as revealed by DMT, a hallucinogenic drug. In the trance state, some people see beings similar to those reported by abductees. Therefore, it is possible that abductees involuntarily manufacture excessive endogenous DMT, which then opens the door to the spirit world. Further, the physical evidence associated with some abductions suggests that happenings in the spirit world can manifest in the physical world. Finally, since the alien abductors appear in the DMT visions, they are inhabitants of the spirit world and likely are not directly responsible for the UFOs seen in the physical world.
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Topic: DRUGS - on July 21, 2007 at 2:18:00 PM CEST
Urban Drug Problem Solutions [Video]
Ethan Nadelmann addresses the third Hoover Institute conference on drug policy at Stanford University. On the panel, he is joined by the former U.S. Secretary of State and Treasury, George Shultz, and the late economist, Milton Friedman. Nadelmann proposes that politicians declare that "drugs are here to stay" and find ways of living with them by reducing their associated harms.
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Topic: DRUGS - on July 21, 2007 at 1:44:00 PM CEST
LSD assisted psychotherapy study to start in Switzerland
The Royal Society of Chemistry reports that a research project investigating the potential benefits of LSD assisted psychotherapy for people with terminal illnesses has been given the go-ahead by the Swiss authorities.
The Multidisciplanary Association for Psychedelic Studies, part funders of the study, have more about it on their website, including copies of the ethics application and research plan.
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Topic: DRUGS - on July 21, 2007 at 1:40:00 PM CEST
Peter Stafford Author and Psychedelic Investigator Dies
Peter Stafford (1941-2007) author of Psychedelics Encyclopedia, and LSD in Action died last night in Santa Cruz, California. Peter was a friend of mine since we met in Canada back in 1971 and I will miss him.
Update: As I started to write about Peter, I suddenly remember that I actually had not met Peter in 1971 but rather in 1973 (it was right around the time of the Watergate scandal). I had been invited to Regina, Canada for a presentation at the Northern Institute of Psychotronic Research by Professor Duncan Blewett, sometimes called the "Timothy Leary" of Canada for his transpersonal psychological perspective, which is described in his book, New Realms of Being. It was there that I met one of the heroes of his youth, a genuine East Village, acid-dropping, pot-smoking, book writing then youthful appearing psychedelic writer named Peter Stafford.
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Topic: DRUGS - on July 16, 2007 at 11:05:00 AM CEST
Drug czar gives warning
The nation's top anti-drug official said people need to overcome their "reefer blindness" and see that illicit marijuana gardens are a terrorist threat to the public's health and safety, as well as to the environment.
John P. Walters, President Bush's drug czar, said the people who plant and tend the gardens are terrorists who wouldn't hesitate to help other terrorists get into the country with the aim of causing mass casualties. Walters made the comments at a Thursday press conference that provided an update on the "Operation Alesia" marijuana-eradication effort.
"Don't buy drugs. They fund violence and terror," he said.
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Topic: DRUGS - on July 16, 2007 at 11:03:00 AM CEST
Pownce Party at Dennis Peron’s Cozy Castro Cottage
Last night Pownce had a launch party at the amazing Cozy Castro Cottage, home of notorious medical marijuana advocate Dennis Peron, founder of the Cannabis Buyers Club and co-author of California Proposition 215.
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Topic: DRUGS - on July 14, 2007 at 11:37:00 AM CEST
Pushing tourism in a drug stronghold
Sinaloa, the northern Mexican state that spawned the country's most fearsome drug cartel, hopes to lure tourists to rustic cabins in a rugged area infamous for opium fields and violent kingpins.
Generations of farmers have grown opium and marijuana in the hilly and remote Badiraguato region, a stronghold for powerful drug gangs and the birthplace of Mexico's top capo and most-wanted man, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
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