Biography/Memoir

The drug war is such a violent failure, the Surgeon General is speaking up for the first time ever

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presented data on drug overdose death rates from 2001-2014, and it does not look good”. “Prescription drug overdose deaths have nearly tripled since 2001 Opioid overdose deaths have nearly quadrupled since 2001 Benzodiazepine overdose deaths have increased by more than 600% since 2001 Cocaine overdose deaths are up…

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Anthropology

The impact of drug policy on the environment

Forty years of dogged adherence to drug crop eradication and drug interdiction policies have been instrumental in hounding drug farmers and traffickers into increasingly fragile landscapes. New research—much of it using newly available real-time satellite imagery of forest loss—is bringing into sharp focus the devastating ecological costs of conventional drug policies, and how these can…

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Politics

Surgeon general announces review of federal drug policies

“I’m proud to announce that next year, I will be releasing the first-ever Surgeon General’s Report on substance use, addiction and health. We’re going to look at the best science on everything, from heroin and marijuana, to alcohol and prescription opioids.” ​ Under the Obama administration, federal drug agencies have made a point to talk…

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Anthropology

Finding a new perspective on psychedelics

The reputation of these compounds is undergoing rehabilitation, but we can’t know how long it will take to shrug off the weight of the mischaracterizations that have been heaped on them for years. While the full history of psychedelic research cannot be summarized concisely, it seems to have ended, at least for a time, with…

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Science

Rolling in the deep

“So far the studies indicate that MDMA assisted psychotherapy significantly reduces PTSD symptoms”. Although MDMA has been administered to more than 1,000 subjects with only one report of an unexpected serious adverse event (which ended when the drug wore off), the drug doesn’t come without risks. It can increase heart rate and blood pressure and…

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Science

Neuroimaging in moderate mdma use: A systemic Review

There is no convincing evidence that moderate MDMA use is associated with structural or functional brain alterations in neuroimaging measures. The lack of significant results was associated with high methodological heterogeneity in terms of dosages and co-consumption of other drugs, low quality of studies and small sample sizes. Original Article (Elsevier): Neuroimaging in moderate MDMA…

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