Drugs (9)
"I've pretty much lost count of how many years I'd had been on opiates. Looking back, it was probably late 2003 that I started using daily. I was pretty much a full time druggie, mainly weed, booze, e's & psychedelics at the time, but I loved codeine when I could get a hold of it.
Someone had showed me how to make poppy seed tea but my first dose was big enough to make me very ill for many unpleasant hours, so I forgot about it for a year or so. At the time I was making a half arsed attempt at university and doing student job search work for extra drug money, pretty much living for the weekends. I am a raver from way back, and was pretty heavily into my pills. This was back in the day that you could pretty much guarantee that any picture stamped pill on the illicit market would be a good strong mix of mdma/mda/mdea, and maybe a dash of amphetamine.
(There's a few more if you click read more, may not be suitable for work :P)
I found a few tidbits this week, on Ketamine, which doesn’t get much press as a therapeutic psychedelic. Firstly it appears Ketamine treatment is very effective as a treatment for alcoholism (68% sobriety one year after treatment). Check it out here.
Ketamine has also show promise for treating other addictions, like Heroin.
Its also proven to be an effective instant acting treatment for depression.
And more generally in psychedelic therapy, anxiety is a major target for psychedelic treatments. Here is an article about anxiety and magic mushrooms.
The Chinese laboratories where scientists are already at work on the new 'meow meow'
Written by Neo
In a filthy Shanghai laboratory, chemists make batches of mephedrone - and a new incarnation of the 'plant food' linked to the deaths of British teenagers. Never heard of the drugs Eric-1 and Eric-2? That's the point. By Mike Power in London and Simon Parry in China
Young, rich and brimming with energy, Eric embodies the entrepreneurial spirit of modern China. He sits at his desk beneath a cabinet of spirits and cigars that he dispenses liberally to his overseas clients while secretaries totter in and out carrying samples and price lists.
Eric, 35, wears designer clothes, drives a Buick SUV and works such long hours his wife moans that he treats the luxury villa where they live like a hotel. But for all his infectious charm as he chats and jokes at his offi ce in an up-market Shanghai apartment block, there is a sinister side to the business that has made this chemistry graduate conspicuously wealthy.
The biggest MAPS conference since the return to proper research on psychedelics is on this weekend in the US, San Jose, California, so I’m writing about LSD research. From the crazy research in early days, and in the military, to the promising therapeutic side, its all pretty interesting stuff. In 1949, when LSD was introduced to the US, specialist scientists from the military to psychiatry leapt enthusiastically straight into research on the compound.
The hype is going mad now, so I thought I’d pitch in my thoughts on this whole Mephedrone thing. For those that don’t know about it, its a short acting stimulant drug chemically related to the alkaloids in the plant Khat. Its illegal here, class C, but legal in much of Europe. Some recent deaths in the UK have caused the usual hype and nonsense, leading to a new ban on a whole group of chemicals (Guilt by association, as we saw with BZP‘s chemical cousins).
The research over the last twenty years into the medical effects of cannabis, since research became more en-vogue again, mostly in the UK, have been more than promising, in fact quite astounding. 
The fatty coating THC creates around the neuron, it turns out doesn’t just impair short term memory, it acts as an anti-oxidant layer against cell degradation from free radicals. Think of it as a shield. This results in 30% more cell degradation with age, in rats who have their cannabiniod receptors removed. This research is stacking up with potential effects against age related diseases like Alzheimer’s, which are not just attributed to this effect, but also to reduction of brain swelling (a very useful, and well established marijuana effect), and the promotion by cannabis, of brand new brain cell growth, such as in the hippocampus.
“Could people smoke marijuana to prevent Alzheimer’s disease if the disease is in their family? We’re not saying that, but it might actually work.”
It seems marijuana releases massive amounts of the powerful anti-oxidant, melatonin (3000 times normal release levels). Well that explains why stoners often don’t dream, and feel sleepy, but it may also help explain, in part, the totally amazing anti-cancer and anti-age properties we see in cannabis.
On this line, marijuana has been shown to fight both brain cancer and lung cancer. Lung cancer, Brain Cancer. With lung cancer the tumor was reduced by half. With brain cancer, the life expectancy was doubled or tripled, something I’m sure the terminally ill would be very happy to hear.
On a less astounding note, and perhaps somewhat obvious: Studies Show Marijuana Has 'Therapeutic Value'
Of course we all know that cannabis helps epilepsy and MS, but seems the science is as always catching up.......Epilepsy
And it turns out nerve pain is better treated with cannabinoids than opiates...Nerve pain..
And it also protects heart cells...
Every time I review this material, I cant help but wonder why the hell this drug isn’t legal, its like having a ban on science and medicine.
Nutt’s research shows alcohol to be the fifth most dangerous drug
Written by Neo
When two teenage boys and a 24-year-old woman die and a new - and, at present, legal - drug called mephedrone is the prime suspect in their deaths, parents inevitably panic.
So the last thing they want to hear is that, in fact, alcohol is probably more dangerous than meow meow, as mephedrone is nicknamed, and is certainly more harmful than a host of other recreational drugs, such as LSD, magic mushrooms, cannabis and ecstasy.
But this is the grim warning from fellow parent Professor David Nutt, the former government drugs adviser.
"For me, as a father with four children, aged 18 to 26, the drug that I know could kill my kids is alcohol. It is the drug that has caused the most damage to my kids' generation and I think we have got to be honest about that," says Nutt, sitting in a modest meeting room at the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CCJS) - the independent charity, he jokes, "which is responsible for all this".
By "all this" he means his controversial sacking as chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) by Alan Johnson last October after the CCJS published his paper entitled Estimating Drug Harms: A Risky Business?
The most dangerous drug isn't meow meow. It isn't even alcohol ...
Written by Neo
"In its purest form, a newspaper consists of a collection of facts which, in controlled circumstances, can actively improve knowledge. Unfortunately, facts are expensive, so to save costs and drive up sales, unscrupulous dealers often "cut" the basic contents with cheaper material, such as wild opinion, bullshit, empty hysteria, reheated press releases, advertorial padding and photographs of Lady Gaga with her bum hanging out. The hapless user has little or no concept of the toxicity of the end product: they digest the contents in good faith, only to pay the price later when they find themselves raging incoherently in pubs, or – increasingly – on internet messageboards."
Read More from the Guardian
Central Otago-bound mephedrone seized
Customs officers have seized 13g of the party drug mephedrone destined for Central Otago. Read More
Mephedrone becoming popular party drug in NZ
Here in New Zealand it is illegal, but it's here - the first shipment was intercepted at Auckland airport in November. But plenty made its way into the country before then. Read More
Party drug import method scrutinised
Customs says it is reviewing the way it targets rising levels of imports of the party drug mephedrone, which has been linked to some deaths in Europe. Read More
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