In most of Western Europe, as across the world, drug users are still stigmatized, still criminalized, still marginalized, still considered second-class citizens. This will not change without user-led advocacy. “Harm reduction interventions in the main in Western Europe are delivered either by national health services or by non-governmental agencies that focus on health interventions,” said Niamh…
Dissecting the psychedelic experience could help policy makers, scientists, and journalists attempt to recreate the core feeling of relatedness that the drugs bring about: the sense that nature is a part of us, our bodies, our lives, and that we are a part of it. Capturing that might lead people to act to protect the planet, since…
“This wasn’t quite ready for prime time this year, but I do hope that the advocates continue to work on this issue,” said one Oregon Senator. Kratom can act as… [both a pain reliever and a] stimulant when ingested. It’s made from the leaves of a tree native to southeast Asia, and it’s become popular…
This anti-addictive effect lasted for a week after the CBD was administered. A study in rats published in the Journal of Neuroscience found that CBD decreased heroin cravings in rats that had previously been trained to self-administer heroin. And a small study conducted in humans, published in the journal Neurotherapeutics, showed that taking CBD seemed…
More than 60 people signed up to testify at the well-attended Oakland hearing. The City Council’s Public Safety Committee voted—with three ayes and one abstention—to advance to the full Council a measure that would declare enforcement of laws prohibiting the possession of “entheogenic plants” among adults the “lowest priority” for police … “These medicines are safe,” said…
Oakland, Calif., could become the second city in the U.S. to decriminalize certain natural hallucinogenics, including “magic mushrooms. The resolution applies only to psychedelics derived from plants or fungi, not synthetic drugs like LSD or MDMA. Original Article (The Hill):Oakland could become 2nd U.S. city to decriminalize hallucinogenic mushroomsArtwork Fair Use: Bob Embleton
Throughout history and to this day, treatment itself has often meant punishment. Without a careful interrogation of what we mean by “treatment” and the history of coercion, criminal justice reforms will be reforms in name only. Drug courts, which coerce people into treatment under threat of criminal punishment, continue to expand nationally. But three decades…
Now, several research groups… are trying to gather some… data on what, if anything, microdosing actually does. Up to now, however, most evidence for microdosing is purely anecdotal or based on surveys and self-reporting … as they wait to complete their data collection and analyses, the microdosing researchers currently running studies say they are not…
To be clear, shrooms will not be fully legal here. They will be treated the way marijuana was in Denver after decriminalization in 2005: city cops’ and the district attorney’s “lowest law enforcement priority.” The new ordnance specifies that no city funds are to be used to jail, arrest or even ticket someone for possession…
[In some parts of the world], psilocybin is not only decriminalized but fully legal, taxed by the government, and sold in dozens of retail stores across the country. Both [cannabis and psilocybin] have found a path to acceptance through the efforts of medicalization, as mainstream society has shown support for natural substances with demonstrable healing…
