Medicine/Healing

Will new laws punish pain patients?

The American Kratom Association (AKA) sent an action alert to members warning that a bill introduced by Sen. Chuck Grassley and Sen. Dianne Feinstein could be a “backdoor way” of banning kratom — an herbal supplement that millions of people use as an alternative to opioid painkillers. ​ But reform advocates are worried that the…

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Medicine/Healing

A puke bucket and an ancient drug: is ayahuasca the future of PTSD treatment?

Combat-related PTSD is notoriously difficult to treat and in theory ayahuasca can work as a form of drug-assisted exposure therapy. When traumatised people repeatedly avoid fear-inducing situations this only serves to maintain and reinforce the deeply ingrained conditioning that underlies their illness. The idea is that by dredging up traumatic memories and exposing them to…

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Medicine/Healing

Survey of ER/trauma health care professionals finds no evidence of either kratom deaths or epidemic of abuse

“If the DEA is correct in suggesting that there is a kratom epidemic going on in America, then it is somehow happening without our nation’s front-line medical professionals knowing a thing about it. A random online survey of 115 emergency room (ER) and trauma health care professionals across the U.S. found zero reported cases of…

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