Medicine/Healing

‘MDMA’ study results promising for PTSD

…many officials and researchers now believe the mental health field is facing “a moment of great need” that’s prompted some rethinking. [MDMA now has been given FDA-approved “break-through” status] The shift in thinking is significant as not only did the federal government classify these drugs as having no acceptable medical uses and a high potential…

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Medicine/Healing

How… iboga can resolve and heal childhood trauma

On the cutting edge of human health and mental wellness is the exploration of the effects of childhood trauma on the long-term health of human beings. Dr. Robert Block, former President of the American Academy of pediatrics remarked, “adverse childhood experiences are the single greatest unaddressed public health threat facing our nation today.” …looks at how…

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Politics

No, the DEA did not reschedule the CBD compound

There is a certain level of confusion reverberating throughout the cannabis community right now over the DEA’s recent decision to make Epidiolex, the cannabis-based epilepsy drug created by GW Pharmaceuticals, a Schedule V controlled substance. Some folks are convinced that since this FDA-approved medication is pure cannabidiol (CBD) that all CBD products fall into the same category. Sadly, this…

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Science

FDA recognizes psilocybin as ‘breakthrough therapy’ for depression

The only reference to psilocybin on the Food and Drug Administration’s website appears in the agency’s Bad Bug Book: Handbook of Foodborne Pathogenic Microorganisms and Natural Toxins, where the psychedelic compound is described as a “neurotoxin” found in mushrooms.  The FDA’s dueling portrayals of psilocybin as a scary fungal neurotoxin and a promising treatment for depression…

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Modern Culture

Taking stock : A decade of drug policy [a civic society… report]

The report highlights the urgent need to conduct more thorough and regular research on the broader range of impacts of drug policies at local, national, regional and international level … Global drug policy debates going forward should reflect the realities of drug policies on the ground, both positive and negative, and discuss constructively the resulting tensions…

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Politics

How [some State’s] cruel meth laws are putting women behind bars in record numbers

[Some US State’s have] not moved toward the defelonization of drug possession, as at least 16… have. Instead, [some have] moved in the opposite direction.​​Criminalizing addiction, especially among women who are mothers, Kraemingk said, creates a situation where the children are more likely to end up in prison themselves. He pointed to national studies showing that…

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Politics

‘War on drugs’ has been a spectacular failure, leading to thousands of murders and human rights abuse, report say…

Released on Monday, October 22nd, 2018, the report from the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC), a global coalition of 170 nongovernmental organizations working on drug policy issues, overviewed the failure of the 10-year global strategy from the United Nations, which intended to eradicate the illicit drug market by next year. ​Instead of curbing the problem,…

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Modern Culture

Rethinking the global war on drugs

Since 2014… governments and like-minded allies have sought to lay the groundwork for changes to the current approach, which is grounded in three international drug accords adopted between the early 1960s and 1988.  Those treaties, which required that signatories outlaw the trade and possession of controlled substances — including marijuana — were conceived at a time when…

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Medicine/Healing

Is psychedelic drug therapy on track to become as ubiquitous as meditation?

To date, much of the clinical research on psychedelics has focused on their potential to treat acute mental health conditions, such as treatment-resistant depression. But scientists are also examining the drugs’ effects on so-called “healthy normal” populations — in other words, people who haven’t been diagnosed with an addiction or mental illness. In one 2018…

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