Biography/Memoir

He took opioids to manage his chronic pain. When his doctors took them away, he didn’t want to live anymore.

Just this year alone, more than a dozen states and 100 counties have sued drug companies for deceptive marketing of painkillers to pain patients, downplaying the risks … Some doctors are abruptly ending prescriptions [of opiates they previously prescribed] even when patients have been stable on high doses for years, throwing them into withdrawal —…

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Biography/Memoir

Why banning Kratom is not the answer

We should not be hoodwinked into mistaking a ban for actual beneficial policy, or conned into believing eliminating kratom would alleviate or even address drug-related issues so impactful to millions of American families. -Ryan F. Estevez* As psychiatrist and psychopharmacologist who has worked for years in emergency rooms, community health centers, and prisons, I am…

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Science

Kratom duration and half-life

Research into medical marijuana resulted in the discovery of the “entourage effect” which allows for the vast array of possible effects and length of effects experienced by medical marijuana patients using different strains. Kratom, like medical marijuana, has a great diversity of effects based on a multitude of variables. The most important of these being…

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Politics

It doesn’t take a genius to solve the opioid crisis

America’s current system of coercive, demanding and often demeaning care itself creates resistance to treatment. When people see getting help as well, helpful, they seek it, because—believe it or not—active addiction isn’t fun. Marijuana legalization can also help: Nearly a dozen studies now show that medical marijuana is associated with a reduction in use of…

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Science

Some use LSD as brain boost, but dangers remain

Also in 2016, researchers at Imperial College London released what they say is the first modern brain imaging of people taking LSD. Researchers gave 20 people the drug and scanned their brains. They found that during the psychedelic state, volunteers processed information from many parts of their brain, not just the visual cortex as normally…

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Politics

Legal pot? Doesn’t matter, colleges say

Members of the student government at Maryland passed a resolution calling for the university to end random drug testing, housing termination, suspension and expulsion as potential consequences for students over 21 found with weed or drug paraphernalia. At the University of Maryland, College Park, students have lobbied for reduced punishments for possessing marijuana, which they…

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Biography/Memoir

Random drug testing now in play for University of Oregon student-athletes

andom drug testing is now in play for University of Oregon student-athletes.​ (*note : article published in 2012, current policy can be found here) In the past, UO only tested student-athletes when there was “reasonable suspicion.”  Now, all student-athletes are subject to “unannounced random drug testing throughout the entire year, including summer sessions,” according to the proposed…

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