Politics

Toronto board of health votes to decriminalize possession of small amounts of illegal drugs

[Canadian] Municipalities cannot unilaterally decriminalize drug use as it’s the sole responsibility of the federal government, but [the 12/6/2021] vote authorizes de Villa to seek an exemption for the City of Toronto from Health Canada. Dr. Leslie Buckley, chief of the addictions division at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, said “Criminalization of substances has not been…

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Medicine/Healing

Jail not the answer for people caught dealing fentanyl to support their own drug addictions, Vancouver, B.C. judge says

Sarah Runyon, the defence lawyer who won the case, said the ruling has the potential to be groundbreaking. “It’s really just forcing the court to step back and say, ‘Wait a minute, are we really just playing whack-a-mole here?’ Taking one marginalized street person, throw them into custody [then] somebody else pops up, and what problem are…

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Science

New study suggests SSRI drugs can be used safely with psilocybin to treat depression

For the study, participants either received 10mg of escitalopram daily for seven days followed by 20mg daily for the next seven days, including the day of psilocybin administration, or 14 days of placebo pre-treatment before psilocybin administration.  The researchers found that pre-treatment with escitalopram did not alter the pharmacokinetics of psilocin — the active compound that the…

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Modern Culture

…drug policy priorities are a small step in the right direction, but old attitudes linger

Young drug reformers also had a few bones to pick with the administration’s priorities… applauded priorities like more access to treatment and more research on racial equity… complained that the administration priorities “fail to provide adequate support to Young People Who Use Drugs (YPWUD) in this country” – especially those who use drugs non-problematically. “[T]here…

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Spirituality

…make ‘bad trips’ good… psychedelics study shows

 …a 2021 study (published in the International Journal of Drug Policy) has found that using narrative work and storytelling… “These stories make it easier, or at least more likely, to continue the use of psychedelics. When even bad experiences become good, an important threshold against psychedelic drug use disappears.” …put simply, talking about the experience…

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Science

…microdosing trials show promise

…successfully obtained government approvals for a doctor to prescribe… to patients to take… unsupervised in the community… …data collected from 80 participants from over the course of 12 months and 1,102 microdoses. The daily questionnaire showed credible evidence of increased ratings from participants in energy, wellness, creativity, happiness and connectedness on the dose days… the…

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Biography/Memoir

Jury holds pharmacies responsible for role in opioid crisis

The committee of lawyers for the local governments suing the drug industry in federal courts called Tuesday’s verdict [11/23/21] “a milestone victory” and “overdue reckoning.” Not only were the drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.)… but the D.E.A. also set the annual limit on how many opioids could be produced in the…

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Biography/Memoir

…provide psychedelic… to marginalized communities

“It’s time for psychedelic medicine to climb down from the ivory tower and into the community,” said Dr Belser. A recent survey… of adults in Oregon – the first state in the United States to legalize the therapeutic use of psilocybin mushrooms – found that on average, people would be willing to pay $100 for a psilocybin therapy…

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Science

The most common pain relief drug in the world induces risky behavior, study finds

Despite the seriousness of those findings, acetaminophen nonetheless remains one of the most used medications in the world, considered an essential medicine by the World Health Organization, and recommended by the CDC for pain relief at home… the findings are reported in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. “Acetaminophen seems to make people feel less negative emotion when they…

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