Politics

[Oregon] cosponsors bill to legalize marijuana across U.S.

The bill also would penalize states that haven’t legalized marijuana and have “disproportionate” rates of arrest and incarceration for marijuana-related offences by cutting federal funding in those states for new jails, prisons and staffing. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, is cosponsoring a bill to decriminalize marijuana across the nation and penalize states with high arrest…

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Jeff Sessions … [and] medical marijuana

Suffice to say this is an issue that unites most on the left and right, as well as those who advocate for combat veterans and individuals who use marijuana for medical needs … Now it is up to Congress in the year-end spending bill whether the will of [then] candidate Trump and an overwhelming majority…

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Science

…World’s first large-scale clinical trials in psilocybin therapy for treatment-resistant depression

The trial will begin in the first quarter of 2018 and is planned to include clinical sites in Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and the UK. COMPASS Pathways is a healthcare company, founded in 2015 to accelerate patient access to evidence-based innovation in mental health. We are developing psilocybin therapy through…

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Anthropology

Abuse and torture masquerading as drug treatment methods in Russia

Treatment methods reported include flogging, beatings, punishment by starvation, long-term handcuffing to bed frames, ‘coding’ (hypnotherapy aimed at persuading the patient that drug use leads to death), electric shock, burying patients in the ground and xenoimplantation of guinea pig brains. ​ “Such methods are not only cruel but ineffective. As the Russian Federal Drug Control…

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Medicine/Healing

Is kratom safe enough for the fight against opioids?

Swogger and Walsh reviewed the combined results of 13 studies conducted between January 1960 and July 2017, using data from 28,745 individuals. “There is a clear need for more rigorous, well-controlled, prospective studies to support a sophisticated, nuanced understanding of the plant,” says Swogger. “But data across cultures indicated that kratom has a legitimate role…

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Science

Kratom: An old plant sparks a new challenge

A new study from researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center and the University of British Columbia compiling 57 years of research into the drug and its effects on mental health found the substance “has harm reduction potential for substance users who want to quit opioids.” … The study also found that it can…

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