Drugs Addicts

Report: Tobacco Use Kills 6M People a Year

2009-08-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

(CBS) Tobacco use causes 6 million deaths a year, a third of those deaths from cancer, according to a report released by the American Cancer Society and World Lung Foundation.

The tobacco industry is targeting countries with fewer tobacco controls and less effective public health campaigns, according to the American Cancer Society, which predicts that 72 percent of tobacco-related deaths will be in low- and middle-income countries by 2010. The report predicts that 2 million people will die each year from tobacco-related cancer by 2015.

Click here to read the full report

"The Tobacco Atlas presents compelling evidence that the health burden is shifting from richer countries to their lower-resource counterparts," said Peter Baldini, chief executive officer of the World Lung Foundation. "This evidence clearly articulates the breathtaking scope and dimensions of the problem. It calls out to be used actively in strengthening the case for policy change."

The American Cancer Society estimates that the tobacco industry has caused a $500 billion loss in the global economy, citing premature deaths of smokers in their most productive years and tobacco fields taking the place of agricultural fields on nearly 4 million hectares of land. Since 1960, tobacco production has increased by three times in low- and middle-income countries. But in richer countries, production has been cut in half.

The Tobacco Atlas is published by the two organizations to help develop public health strategies to reduce tobacco use worldwide.

Source:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/26/health/main5266774.shtml

New drug controls working well

2009-08-27T09:48:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

Drug controls introduced after the case of killer doctor Harold Shipman came to light are working well, an independent regulator says.

The Shipman inquiry found ineffective monitoring allowed the doctor, who ran a one-man practice in Hyde, Greater Manchester, to obtain large quantities of drugs which he used to kill at least 15 and possibly up to 200 patients.

Shipman, who took his own life aged 57 in prison in January 2004, stockpiled vast amounts of diamorphine - the clinical name for heroin - which he had either falsely prescribed or taken from cancer patients after their deaths.

The inquiry concluded there were serious shortcomings in the way controlled drugs were regulated and new rules were introduced in 2007.

The Care Quality Commission's (CQC) report into those regulations found healthcare workers were now better trained to deal with controlled drugs and to identify problems sooner.

Cynthia Bower, CQC's chief executive, said: "This is an example of how the healthcare system can learn from past events and make necessary changes to minimise risks to patients. There is no doubt that England's healthcare system is better equipped than ever to spot irregularities in the handling of controlled drugs early and to take action where problems arise.

"The important thing about these new systems is that they keep everyone talking to each other. Healthcare staff are better trained and more aware of issues relating to controlled drugs. We also have access to more information about prescribing patterns. Organisations should keep building on this good work and continue to reduce risks to patients as much as they possibly can."

Among recommendations made by CQC, which regulates healthcare in England, are that health organisations should make sure they have enough people qualified as "authorised witnesses" to be present when obsolete drugs are destroyed.

Source:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5hYewj8hm8goxiZnDElqjfTTURADA

Cobb gets 25 years in sex for drugs trial

2009-08-27T09:10:00.000-07:00

Image by [ r ♥ c e y t ♥ y ] {I br♥ke for bokeh} via Flickr

August 27, 2009 10:57 am

— By Carl Keith Greene/Staff Writer
Roy Lacy Cobb, 56, of Keavy, was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being tried on charges that he exchanged oxycontin for sexual favors.
U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove imposed the sentence in federal court in London Wednesday.
The sentencing came following a February trial in which he was found guilty on 10 counts.
Eight of the counts involved providing drugs for persons over 21 years of age and the other two involved providing drugs to persons under 21 years old.
Van Tatenhove ordered incarceration of 20 years on the counts involving those over 21 and 25 years on the counts involving those under 21. The two sentences will run concurrently. Cobb will be required to be under supervised release for six years when his sentence is served.
The sentencing process lasted more than two hours with several objections to points in the pre-sentencing report.
It all began with Cobb asking for a new attorney, rather than the one provided by the court.
After a discussion at the bench among Van Tatenhove, Cobb and his lawyer, lasting about 15 minutes, Cobb agreed to keep his lawyer Derek Gordon.
Van Tatenhove told Cobb that he has the right to a lawyer appointed by the court, “but not the lawyer of your choice.”
He told Cobb that sentencing is not the time to bring up issues seeking a new lawyer. “You have full appeal rights as to the work of your lawyer,” he added.
As Cobb spoke again to the judge, he said the jury wasn’t properly informed as to the number of oxycontin tablets he had for the women to whom he distributed them.
Van Tatenhove stopped Cobb and told him it was the judge’s job to “determine appropriate application of the law. That’s what I do! You may appeal after I decide and impose sentence.”
Prior to imposing the sentence, Van Tatenhove allowed Cobb’s daughter, Christina, to speak to the court.
Under oath, she said she had been threatened if she testified for her father. She admitted that she had been addicted to drugs and was on her 67th day of being clean. Christina said that “all the girls,” to whom her father distributed oxycodone were friends of hers.
“I beg you to give him some leniency. He’s why I’m clean today. He is my rock. I feel that I let my father down.”
Another daughter, Mary, had testified against Cobb at trial but was not present at the sentencing.
“This is one of the heartbreaking moments, when your daughter testifies against you,” Cobb said just before his sentence was imposed.
Mary, who was charged in the armed robbery with another person of the Rite-Aid pharmacy in Carnaby Square, admitted in a June 13, 2008 interview about her role in the robbery, that she had been using oxycodone for about nine months.
She said she had gotten the drugs from her father.
She added that her father got his oxycodone from a physician in Tennessee and gave the tablets to women in Laurel County in return for sexual favors.
A week after that, two women interviewed by Laurel sheriff’s deputies revealed that he had exchanged oxycodone for sexual activity with them.

Source: http://www.thetimestribune.com/local/local_story_239105829.html

Mexican Drug Informants Import Violence to US

2009-08-27T09:07:00.000-07:00

Image by Reinante El Pintor de Fuego via Flickr

(Newser Summary) – The Obama administration and state governments are spending billions to keep Mexico's escalating drug war from spilling over the border. But the feds fighting trafficking have also relied on Mexican cartel members for intelligence—and that, says the Washington Post, has unleashed gangland-style violence in American cities. Drug kingpins living in the US, often with connections to American law enforcement, are both victims of violence and killers themselves.

In one case, a trafficker from the deadly Juarez cartel was set up with a US visa and lived in a $365,000 house in El Paso with his wife and children before he was killed execution-style on his front lawn. Texas police spoke to a possible informer recommended by the feds—but he turned out to have ordered the killing, which was carried out by American teens. "So this is how these people end up in our country," says a detective. "We bring them here."

—Jason Farago
The source: http://www.newser.com/story/67891/mexican-drug-informants-import-violence-to-us.html

Drugs - Drug Testing FAQ

2008-11-08T15:30:00.000-08:00

Image via WikipediaDrugs - Drug Testing FAQ: "CONTENTS

DETECTION TIMES

* 1.1 Halflife of TetraHydroCannabinol
* 1.2 Detection times of several drugs
* 1.3 Positive (definition)
* 1.3.1 Second hand smoke and positives
* 1.4 Decreasing detection times

TEST METHODS

* 2.1 Substances that are detectable
* 2.2 DrugAlert
* 2.3 Gas Chromatography
* 2.4 Gas Chromatography / Mass Spectrometry
* 2.5 Hair testing
* 2.6 High Performance Liquid Chromatography
* 2.7 Immunoassay
* 2.7.1 Radio ImmunoAssay (aka Abuscreen)
* 2.7.2 Enzyme Multiplied Immunoassay Technique
* 2.7.3 Fluorescence Polarization ImmunoAssay
* 2.8 PharmChek
* 2.9 TestCup
* 2.10 Thin Layer Chromatography

TEST STANDARDS AND ACCURACY

* 3.1 Procedures used
* 3.2 False positives
* 3.2.1 Ibuprofen
* 3.2.2 Cold remedies, pain relievers, hay fever remedies, & diet pills
* 3.2.3 Antibiotics
* 3.2.4 Melanin (black skin)
* 3.2.5 DHEA
* 3.2.6 Dental treatment
* 3.3 True positives (legitimate)
* 3.3.1 Poppy seeds
* 3.3.2 Testosterone supplements

A NOTE ON COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS

THINGS TESTED TO DETECT COUNTER MEASURES

* 5."

Designer Drugs

2008-11-08T15:29:00.000-08:00

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeDesigner Drugs: "Index

* Introduction
* Hallucinogens
o Indoles
+ Ergot Alkaloids
+ Indolealkylamine
o Phenylalkylamines
o Phencyclidine
* Stimulants
* Sedatives-Depressants
* Analgesics
* Conclusion
* Definitions
* References"

LSD tested on British Army

2008-11-02T07:24:00.000-08:00

Sri Lanka government wants to grow its own marijuana

2008-10-24T17:04:00.000-07:00

Thu Sep 25, 2008 9:44am BST

By C. Bryson Hull

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's government wants to grow its own marijuana.

Facing a lack of the fresh weed for use in traditional Ayurvedic medical preparations, the government ministry responsible wants to be excepted from laws that have made marijuana illegal on the Indian Ocean island since the 1890s.

The Ministry of Indigenous Medicine this month broached a plan to grow 4,000 kg (8,818 lb) a year of marijuana, also known as cannabis, on a proposed 20 acre (8 hectares) farm.

"We are interested in getting some approval to grow some cannabis with government sponsorship, but there must be controls. It is under study," Asoka Malimage, secretary at the Ministry of Indigenous Medicine, told Reuters Thursday.

Ayurveda is a traditional medicine with roots in the early Hindu era which makes wide use of herbs and natural remedies with the goal of healing the body and mind. In Sri Lanka, ayurveda practitioners outnumber Western-trained doctors.

Fresh marijuana fried in ghee, a form of clarified butter, is used in about 18 different traditional medicines for treating a wide variety of ailments, Malimage said.

"At the moment they are getting some stocks from the courts of law, because there are people who grow this cannabis illegally and they have been raided by the police," Malimage said.

But the problem with that weed is that it is old and dried out, said Dr. Dayangani Senasekara, head of state-run Bandaranaike Memorial Ayurvedic Research Institute in Colombo.

"You can't get the fresh juice from old cannabis. What we get now is the powdered form and it's not effective," Senasekara said.

The institute is making preparations that use marijuana to treat high cholesterol, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and skin discolorations, and soon will formulate one for treating cataracts, Senasekara said.

The use of marijuana to treat glaucoma, nausea, pain and the loss of appetite from diseases like cancer and AIDS has been the subject of great medical debate in the west.

Some countries and parts of the United States have permitted its use to treat those conditions, after some medical studies showed it was effective.

(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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Vernon Coleman - The Drugs Myth

2008-10-24T14:17:00.000-07:00

Vernon Coleman - The Drugs Myth: "Contents

1 We are all addicts
2 Why prohibition fails
3 Toxic stress
4 Heroin, cocaine, cannabis and LSD
5 Legal drugs and their dangers
6 The drugs war
7 The only way ahead"

Complete Marijuana (Weed) Documentary

2008-10-24T06:13:00.000-07:00

Complete Marijuana (Weed) Documentary

Why marijuana improves the parenting experience

2008-10-24T06:07:00.000-07:00

Published on Jewcy.com (http://www.jewcy.com)

Reefer Dadness

Why marijuana improves the parenting experience

By Neal Pollack

Created 12/08/2006 - 04:01

When my son was 18 months old, my best friend from high school came through town on his way to California. He’s a respected physician and my most trusted medical counselor. We went back to my office and looked over my stash.

More Useful than a Bugaboo: The Silver Surfer“Dude,” he said. “You’ve got to stop smoking this shit.”

“I know,” I said. “With the kid around…”

“You need to buy a vaporizer.”

“Oh.”

“You get really high, and you don’t mess up your lungs. Also, there’s no odor. It’s awesome.”

My 35^th birthday was approaching, and I needed to get myself a present. So I went vaporizer shopping online. I found a website for a sleek, gorgeous ceramic contraption called The Silver Surfer. New terms entered my stoner lexicon: “heat source,” “mouthpiece,” “whip,” “wand.” It would be the greatest present I’d ever give myself. No more apple bongs for me. I had to consume my THC wisely. I was a dad now.

*****

I’m a man of few vices. Alcohol doesn’t appeal to me, except in very limited quantities. I don’t play a lot of cards or smoke cigars, and I’m really not that into porn. My naughtiness all goes into the herb, and it’s as low-level as naughtiness gets.

Before my son was born, my hobby went like this: When I had weed in the house, I’d do it a lot, and when I didn’t, I wouldn’t do it at all. I could go two months without it, or go two months with daily use. Usually, it moved in cycles. It never really occurred to me to give it up just because I’d become a parent. It didn’t even occur to me that anyone would expect me to give it up. If anything, parenthood meant that marijuana became a larger part of my life. Whereas before the boy’s arrival I’d often leave the house after 9 PM for a party, or a bar, or a movie, now my social life had contracted. By the kid’s bedtime, I’m often exhausted, and even if I’m not, babysitters run $10 an hour these days. A hit off the Silver Surfer and a night of Turner Classic Movies has become, for me, an acceptable middle ground.

Then the morning comes, and I have responsibilities. I don’t Silver Surf when I have to drive Elijah somewhere, I don’t do it when I’m going to be alone with him for any extended period of time, and I’m very rarely baked before sundown. Since all that put together comprises 97 percent of my parenting time, there’s very little crossover with the weed. Occasionally, I’ll be stoned at the wrong moment, which will lead me to misjudge children’s entertainment, like the time I told my wife, “Dude, 64 Zoo Lane is so trippy.” But as far as I’m concerned, weed, in very limited quantities, just improves the parenting experience. Everyone knows that TV is better when you’re high.

Anyone who says it’s impossible to be a stoner and a parent has either never been a stoner, or never been a parent. The dominant attitude among stoner dads—and moms—goes like this: Consuming pot is something, like watching college football or masturbating, that you used to do all the time, but now will do only if it’s convenient and appropriate to the moment. Still, there’s a kind of secret, unspoken society. I’ve been to many backyard family barbecues where another dad and I will discover that pot is a shared habit. The discussion will quickly veer into the familiar. We discuss our favorite varietals. We recount great pot-smoking moments of our past. Someone tells a story about a dude he knows who’s got a medical marijuana prescription. Then things invariably wind down the same way:

Newly Controversial: Time Magazine on pot-smoking parentsDad: So do you have any?

Me: No. Do you?

Dad: Nah. I had some a few weeks ago.

Me: So did I. Give me a call if you ever get some.

Dad: Cool.

Me: Cool.

Pot-smoking parents didn’t use to be controversial. My parents never consumed anything stronger than box wine; my dad was the only soldier in Vietnam, other than maybe John McCain, who didn’t do drugs. But even if my parents had stashed a half-ounce of Maui Wowie in the underwear drawer, I can’t imagine it would have been a big deal around the house. The country was loose about weed then. No one gave it much of a thought.

When I was a kid, a Time magazine cover like the one on Dec. 9, 1996, would never have been possible. An aging Michael Doonesbury sits on his daughter’s bed, while Garry Trudeau’s talking joint character stands in the background. The text reads, “You tried pot when you were young. Maybe you even inhaled. So now what do you say to your kids?”

Even though I wasn’t to be a dad for six years, and hadn’t even met my wife yet, I knew then that the culture had turned. Parenting, rather than just being a natural, if challenging, byproduct of biology, had somehow become a sacred act. And smoking pot was a violation of its sanctity. Well, I never bought into that, and I’m not alone. Society is right to demand that parents treat their kids with respect and love, and provide them with food, clothing and shelter. But sainthood shouldn’t be a requirement.

In a perfect world, or at least a better one, smoking pot would not carry any cultural meaning at all. My casual little habit doesn’t prevent me from fulfilling my parental duties, and no matter what DARE and the DEA might say, it has little or nothing to do with the crack epidemic or the spread of crystal meth. I think that weed should be legal, and I’m not going to lie about that to my kid if he asks me. Someday I’ll have an intelligent conversation with him about the pros and cons of legalization, and about the politics of prohibition. But he’s not ready for such a conversation yet.

In the meantime, I’m downplaying my marijuana use. There’s a little water closet off my office that I use as a peccadillo repository of sorts. The other day, Elijah used my bathroom because the other one was occupied. He spotted the Silver Surfer on the floor.

“What’s that, daddy?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I said. “Just something daddy uses to help him with his breath.”

“Good,” he said. “Your breath stinks sometimes.”

“Yeah, well, so does yours.”

Source URL (retrieved on 10/24/2008 - 09:08): http://www.jewcy.com/advice_and_reviews/12-08/reefer_dadness

Links:
[1] http://www.jewcy.com/user/neal_pollack
[2] http://www.silversurfervap.com/

Hemp: The outlawed plant (Drugs)

2008-10-16T19:51:00.000-07:00

On Being Stoned

2008-10-16T19:39:00.000-07:00

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeOn Being Stoned: "On Being Stoned
A Psychological Study of Marijuana Intoxication
Charles T. Tart, Ph. D."

LSD What is it ?

2008-10-10T20:24:00.000-07:00

Image via WikipediaWhat is it?

Mostly known as acid, LSD (d-lysergic acid diethylamide) is the most powerful mind-altering substance known to man. Normally only used for having fun, this psychedelic drug comes from a very bizarro fungus called ergot. Measured in micrograms (millionths of a gram), it would only take a half a kilo to send every single man, woman and child in the country off to the land of vibrating rainbows.

LSD is colourless, tasteless and odourless, that's why it comes soaked into little squares (tabs) of paper with with lame hippy designs like sunflowers, strawberries or rockets on them.

Street LSD varies massively in quality (anywhere between 40 and 150 micrograms). Heat, air and light all degrade the tiny amounts involved, so you can never be sure how much you are actually taking until it's too late, and like it or not, you're on your trip.

As you might expect, this powerful and often unpredictable drug is against the law in New Zealand. What you might not know is that it is a Class A. That means that if you are caught using, selling or giving it to friends you could end up in the big, bad High Court instead of the usual District Court.

How does it feel?

Taking acid is described as 'a trip' because it can last as long as 8 to 12 hours from start to finish. Kicking in anywhere between 20 minutes and two hours after taking, the first signs are a sense of euphoria and expectation, along with a tingling body. Once you start to feel these effects, you'll be peaking within half an hour to 45 minutes. At this stage it's pretty common to feel a bit sick.

The actual peak lasts anywhere from two to five hours. A lame tab might make you feel relaxed, laughing, a bit like being stoned but with super hero vision; colours may seem brighter, patterns on the surface of things more eye-grabbing. Take a better tab, and you'll have rich visual hallucinations; colours will seem more vibrant, flat surfaces may ripple and shimmer. You may notice tiny details on objects. Music sounds better and louder. At the same time, you might feel blissed out, have flashes of insight into yourself or the world, feel yourself dissolving, or see objects merging into one another.

LSD works by diddling with, or completely removing the normal filters your mind creates between it and the outside world. With these filters down, more information comes in: You sense more, think more, and feel more. At higher doses, the rush becomes a flood, and your senses actually begin to merge until you can see sounds or smell colours. The experts (a bunch of very experienced 'travellers') have recognised four levels of trip. The strength of the tab is the biggest factor, but how relaxed and comfortable you are also plays a big part.

+One: Strong visual hallucinations. Bright colours stand out, objects appear to ripple or breathe. Coloured patterns behind the eyes are vivid, more active. Moments of reflection and distractive thought patterns. Thoughts and thinking become enhanced. Creative urges. Euphoria. Connection with others, empathy. Sense of time distorted or lost.

+Two: Very obvious visual effects. Curved or warped patterns. Familiar objects appear strange as surface details distract the eye. Imagination and 'mind's eye' images become vivid and three dimensional. Some confusion of the senses. Some awareness of background mental processes such as balance systems or auditory visual perception. Old memories becomes accessible. Images or experiences may rise up. Music is powerful and can affect your mood. Sense of time lost.

+Three: Very strong hallucinations such as objects morphing into other objects. Intense depersonalisation - the barriers between you and the universe begin to break down. You feel you have connection with everything around you. You can experience contradictory feelings simultaneously. Some loss of reality. Time meaningless. Senses blend into one. Feeling of being born. Multiple splitting of the ego. Powerful awareness of your own mental processes and senses. Highly symbolic visions when eyes are closed.

+Four: A very rare experience. Total loss of visual connection with reality. The senses cease to function in the normal way. Total loss of self. Merging with space, other objects, or the universe. The loss of reality becomes so severe that it defies explanation. Pure white light.

Comedown

The trip wears off gradually after 8 to 12 hours, but you might continue to feel a bit messed up and weird until you get a full night's sleep. Physically, you can feel tired and drained right into the next day. Psychologically, any thoughts or feelings you had during your trip will stay with you. A positive experience can give you a kind of happiness lasting hours, days, or even weeks afterwards. A bad trip could freak you out for the same length of time.

Problems

As an actual drug, LSD is amazingly safe. It has no known physical side-effects, other than fatigue and a lingering sensation that your head has been messed with. However, as you will have guessed by now, acid is a powerful mental amplifier. That means that if you are feeling bummed or uptight, or deeply pissed off with commercial radio thrashing the same songs over and over, you should probably stay away from acid.

Most people who have a bad trip never touch the drug again. Experienced users and serious trippers accept that bad trips as part of the territory. Flashbacks can happen (where you temporarily feel like you're out of it again), days or even months afterwards, although this is not that common.

Addiction

LSD has zero physical addiction potential. It's not physically addictive and it's not a drug that you will want to do again right away. But, as with any substance, people can and do become psychologically addicted to LSD, and it can become very hard to function if you are taking acid on a regular basis. That, by the way, is the understatement of the fucking century.

Tolerance

This builds up rapidly with LSD, so that the same amount the next day will be noticeably less interesting. This wears off after three to four days, but to be honest, you're not going to be that keen on tripping so soon again anyway.

Mixing

LSD is powerful and unpredictable, so it's not such a good idea to use it with other mind-altering drugs, especially if you're a newb, or far from home. But hey, if you still want to know what might happen, visit our mixing section for more info.

Benefits

Apparently, LSD has been successfully used in some countries to treat serious drug addiction. Of course, the boffins don't just hand over a few tabs and say 'good luck'; like other experimental drug treatment programmes (including ecstasy), everything is strictly controlled and monitored with lots of counselling included.

Tips for using more safely

If you are new to LSD, or just want to be a bit sensible, check out these main points. They are just the basics though; you should fully read this whole article and visit our links page for all the info.

First timers - try taking a quarter or half a tab; as with all drugs, it's better to go easy than have a full on freak-out the first time you take it.
Because LSD makes you very, very sensitive to your environment, you should always be in a safe, comfortable space, preferably with a friend you trust. The higher you fly, the softer the landing pad should be.
Be in a nice place: No phone calls. No visitors. Sorry to sound like an old hippy, but see if you can be near nature, or surround yourself with nice plants, pictures, fruit etc.
Have a selection of nice, cruisy music within reach. This will help you relax and bring on a good trip.
Trip on an empty stomach. This will help you avoid feeling sick at the acid starts to take effect.
Don't do it alone: An experienced and trusted friend should either be your tripping partner, or stay sober to help you if you get into black spider land.
If you are taking with a group of friends, make sure you all take the same amount, at the same time, in full view of everyone else. This will decrease any chance of paranoia and ensure you are all on the same level.
Wait - always hang back at least two hours before deciding a tab is not working. The come-up period can sometimes take this long. Do not take another tab as you may well end up in the asteroid belt.
Remember, you really don't want to have a bad trip, so always try to follow this advice as much as possible.
from:
">>FAST-TIMES.CO.NZ: L.S.D." 11 Oct. 2008 .

How I make a spoon

2008-10-10T20:18:00.000-07:00

How I make a spoon

21st Century Highs The Future of Psychedelics

2008-10-10T20:14:00.000-07:00

Image via WikipediaAlexander Shulgin is the world's foremost developer and explorer of psychedelic drugs. Born in 1925, this self-described "manic libertarian psychedelic chemist", over the past 30 odd years or so, has been a prolific writer and his publications (150 scientific papers, 20 patents and a handful of books) provide a great introduction into the world of psychedelics and also he is the discover of DOM (at one time known as STP), MMDA and many other psychedelics and is generally regarded as the reinventor or stepfather of MDMA (Ecstasy - E).

With a PhD in Biochemistry from UC Berkeley, he has been a scientific consultant for such state-run organisations as The US National Institute on Drug Abuse, NASA, the US Drug Enforcement Organisation etc., but in private, has used his government licensed research lab, discreetly, but legally, designing hundreds of new psychoactive compounds, together with his wife Ann and a small, but dedicated research team, who sample each new drug as it's developed. Through cautious escalation of dosage, they discover and map out the range of each new drug's effects, experimenting with the various aspects of their psychological and/or spiritual potential.

In fact, one of the reasons he decided to write his autobiographical "chemical love story" Pihkal (Phenethylamines I Have Known and Loved) and its continuation, Tihkal (Tryptamines I Have Known and Loved), published late in 1997 and reviewed in Fringecore 2, was because he could see the need to get a lot of information published into a form that could not be destroyed. The books not only detail Sasha and Ann's remarkable adventures, but also set out recipes for recreating hundreds of Sasha's finely crafted magic molecules.

Sasha claims to be inspired partly by the history of Wilhelm Reich and considers Castanada to be his model and hero, not only seeing psychedelics as a potential enrichment to everyday life, but also as a means to increasing personal insight and expansion of one's mental and emotional horizons.

Psychedelics may be best defined as physically non-addictive compounds which temporarily alter the state of one's consciousness. Sasha believes that the use of psychedelic drugs, including the minor risks involved (an occasional difficult experience or perhaps some body malaise) are more than balanced by the potential for learning. He has a strong preference for psychedelics over heroin or cocaine (especially crack), both of which he has tried, because he feels both tend to allow the user to escape from who he or she really is, even to the point, from who you are not. Heroin, in particular, he feels, creates a loss of motivation and alertness and under its influence, nothing seems important to him. Cocaine, on the other hand stimulates a sense of power, but also the inescapable knowledge that it is not true power.

There is a healthy dose of humour in Sasha's writings and I was looking forward to talking with him about the future of psychedelics and the likely highs for the 21st C.

Dee: What effect will future users be looking for, particularly in terms of ASC (Altered State of Consciousness)?

Sasha Shulgin: The effects that will be sought by future users of psychedelic drugs will, I believe, depend on the circumstances of their use. In a public environment, the uses will certainly parallel those of today such as socializing and person-to-person interactions. The disinhibition with honesty that often accompanies the pursuit of the alteration of one's consciousness allows an intimacy of interaction, not necessarily in the sexual sense but rather in the trusting sense. In a clinical environment, such as in psychological counseling or psychotherapy, the search might be directed more to establishing access to one's unconscious, with the expectation of unearthing the sources of personal problems and addressing them. In a private environment, the user may venture an exploration along spiritual paths, or some similar interior search for answers to personal questions.

Explain the different forms of contact high and how is it, do you think that it creates unintentional participation?

S: A contact high is an often unintentional joining into the spirit of a group interaction without the use of any drug that might have been used by the others. This is the very nature of man as a social animal. When those about you laugh, you laugh even though you may be unaware of just what, if anything, is funny. When there is a sad feeling about you, you can truly feel sad. The spirit of people in a rave scene, for example, can be contagious and, if there may happen to be a general use of psychotropic drugs, you may find the feelings contagious. I have often seen, in small groups, the behavior of a pet cat who just seems to know that something unusual is going on. It is an amazing animal model of the "contact high."

Ketamine and scopolamine are delusional anaesthetic drugs which actually produce true hallucinations, whereas, most psychedelic drugs contrary to common belief only create visual distortions of the real surroundings. When do you think there will be hallucinogens available that have the effect of ketamine, but less of the side-effects?

S: The separation of mind from body with Ketamine and similar drugs is not a side-effect - it is the intended effect. These are anaesthetics that have been designed for medical use to achieve just this result. They keep the afferent signals from the body from ever reaching the brain, thus allowing the patient to remain conscious and to travel out there in the cosmos, without being bothered by the otherwise painful input from the resetting of a broken leg.

In your experience which drugs produce the most potent mind-body separation, often known as the "Ketamine State" and are there different types of states?

S: I have had very little experience with the Ketamine world of psychotropic drugs. My search has, as a rule, been for materials that would tend to bring body and mind together, rather than to separate them.

Have you ever reached or come close to a plus 4 (++++) (by means of a drug, of course), if so, was it truly bliss and what produced it?

S: The +4 state is not simply a more intense place - it is a unique mental state that is a phenomenon unto itself. As Ann and I noted in PIHKAL, it is a rare and precious transcendental state which has been called a "peak experience," a "divine transformation" or a "state of Samadhi." It has been known to come from a drug experience, and it has been known to occur to a person spontaneously with no drug having been involved. I have had two drug-related reactions that I have called "bliss" or "timeless" or "omnipotent" states where I can move things without touching them and make cloud patterns assume shapes of my own choosing. But as extraordinary as they are, they are also exhausting and an eventual return to a normal "stoned" condition is truly appreciated.

Have you found that recipes such as Aleph 2 from Pihkal or AL-LAD in Tihkal, which seem to give a more peaceful trip than LSD often does, are likely to become more popular?

S: Probably not. Both of these materials call upon rather sophisticated chemical skills, and I suspect that they would not be the choice of the inexperienced layman. I suspect that the peacefulness of a psychedelic experience would be more likely to come from a familiarity with the ups and downs that might be met, and with a careful titration of one's own personal dosage requirements.

Which new "target compounds" are you researching?

S: I am currently totally caught up with an earlier interest I had had with the relationship between the structures of the alkaloids of the cacti and the poppy world. Most of this I had never published, but now I am resynthesizing and getting spectroscopic definitions of many fascinating compounds. One hears about a psychoactive cactus, thinks of peyote and mescaline. One hears about a psychoactive poppy, one thinks of morphine. And then turns to another topic. But both families are treasure houses of some remarkable compounds called tetrahydroisoquinolines, and I hope to put these findings together into a new book in the near future.

In the chapter on designer drugs in Tihkal "Shura" mentions that the drugs could be accepted as being of great social value, in that they could contribute to a better standard of living. In which way do you seeing this value being best expressed other than in purely improved basic health reasons?

S: The positive social value of these materials is a direct consequence of the enhanced openness and trust that can follow their exploration. This can come from a better understanding of one's own nature, and from an increased acceptance of the ideas and motives of others. Anything that can contribute in any way to the structuring and reinforcement of a community has the potential of true social value.

You have always found ways of by-passing the barriers/obstacles placed in the way of your research, the various controlled substance laws, the schedules etc. These seem to be coming more rigorous as you will know a large number of the recipes/drugs covered in Pihkal were recently made illegal in the UK. As I understand your stance to be that you do nothing illegal, how do you balance these factors?

S: The writing of new law, or the amending of old law, is a two-edged sword. The increase of complexity or of fine detail makes a structure stronger but, at the same time, more rigid. And I believe that the ends intended are very rarely met. Some 130 of the compounds mentioned in Pihkal were not specifically named, as it was felt that the generalized structure definition in the "Analogue Amendment" to the MODA covered them already. A careful comparison between their chemical structures and the precise wording of this amendment gives official acknowledgment of some remarkable limitations. And the explicit naming of the some 40-odd compounds in Pihkal that were believed to lie outside the scope of this amendment gives unprecedented publicity to several interesting psychedelic compounds that would have otherwise faded into oblivion. I have completed a working draft for a Chapter in my new book, entitled, "Britain: A Class A Country."

What is your current stance on human experimentation?

S: It is an absolutely essential procedure in the development of any research tool or medicine that will have eventual application in the study of the function of the human mind, or in the medical treatment of the problems that are associated with it. Research with animals has great values in determining the duration of sedatives or the effectiveness of narcotics, but can play no role in the discovery and evaluation of potential drugs that might improve self-image or recapture lost memories. These are uniquely human mind needs and require the human animal as the test animal. In the United States, a law was passed in 1986 that effectively outlawed the giving of any analogue of a Controlled Drug to anyone with the intent of achieving the effects of a Controlled Drug. This effectively outlawed the giving of any stimulant, depressant or hallucinogenic drugs to man. This was put in place to prohibit exploration in these areas, but two areas remain totally open. No case can be made against the self-administration of a new chemical without an established effect. And, if no stimulant, or depressant, or hallucinogenic effect is intended but, rather, something in the area of an anti-depressant or a mood-enhancer, then the analogue law does not apply to the experiment.

Do you think we will see increasing interest in natural psychedelics, such as those containing psychedelic beta carbolines, such as peganum harmala; or ayahuasca, yage etc. What are the new base types evolving?

S: Very much so. Nature around us is an unbelievably rich, largely unknown, source of many plants and there are many quiet dedicated people exploring it. And some not so quiet! There are many herbs and potions being explored by an ever-increasing number of people. The ayahuasca concept is becoming widely known. This is the mixing of two plants, one of which contains a potentially active compound that is destroyed by the body's chemistry before the action can be realized, and the other containing a different compound that inhibits this destruction. And clues to certain botanical threads are being pursued with vigor. A recent addition to the psychedelic scene is the Mexican sacred mint plant which contains the very potent compound salvinorin-A. I have recently heard that as an outgrowth of this knowledge, several people are systematically eating or smoking other Salvia species to see if they too might contain active components. And so far, this search seems to be somewhat successful.

It seems that users will look for faster-acting psychedelics in the future, are there even newer forms of tryptamines being developed that are more effective than the derivatives and analogues of DMT, DET, DPT, DBT discussed in Tihkal etc?

S:I am not sure that speed of action and effectiveness are necessarily related. Rapid onset of a drug is as much a consequence of route of administration as it is an intrinsic property. Consider N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) or even better 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) as examples. When smoked, they are effective within seconds. But this very short onset period and the often correspondingly short duration is seen by some users as a negative property. You are hit quickly, you are pretty much on your back totally out of it, and then you recover and wonder just what that was all about! These materials, when taken orally with some metabolic poison such as an amine-oxidase inhibitor, can be much slower in onset and much longer lived. And in the eyes of many users, with an action that is much more acceptable.

Do you envisage that one of the pharmaceutical corporations will find a legal justification of bringing out a new line of psychoactive/psychedelic drugs within the next five years?

S: I would be most surprised if this were to happen. The ubiquitous anti-illegal drug propaganda all about us has been prompted primarily by the two most newsworthy entities cocaine and heroin. But the psychedelics have been caught up in this generality and the public has lumped them together as being similarly evil. And I cannot see any pharmaceutical house risking its reputation for health and goodness on the promotion of something that smells of evil. Look at the struggles that the advocates of medical marijuana are undergoing, all in the face of this relentless Government noise about drug abuse and related criminality. I am afraid that both the laws and public opinion will have to change before any responsible corporation offers a psychedelic drug commercially. And even then, its action will have to have a description identification without words such as psychedelic, or spiritual, or visionary, or God in it.

You invented MMDA, which despite popular confusion is a totally separate drug from MDMA. I believe you stated that it has many times the activity of mescaline. Do you feel that your original learnings on this drug and its analogues in terms of its effects have been verified? Will you find a way of producing MMDA-4 or 5 and what would you expect its power to be?

S: Yes, MMDA and MDMA are totally different materials. The first has initials that stand for Methoxy-Methylene-Dioxy-Amphetamine, and is structurally related to the essential oil myristicin. The second stand for Methylene-Dioxy-Meth-Amphetamine and is related to the essential oil safrole. I first discovered and published the nature of the activity of MMDA in 1962 and of the five theoretically possible positional isomers it is the second, MMDA-2, that is about ten times the potency of mescaline. I don't believe that anyone has ever succeeded in even making the isomer MMDA-4, let alone having evaluated it. I didn't publish the human activity on MDMA, however, until some fifteen years later, in 1978.

Phenethylamines and tryptamines are the two basic building blocks of psychedelics, by boosting their neurotransmitter counterparts in the brain. Are you researching any newly-found substances that can stimulate other, similar transmitters?

S: The brain neurotransmitters that are most closely related to phenethylamine and to tryptamine are dopamine and serotonin respectively. I am not sure that I would use the word "boosting" as a description however! These brain neurotransmitters are clearly involved in the action of the psychedelic drugs, but the interrelationships are not as simple nor as well understood and the neurologists would have you believe. There is a chemically related natural neurological agent that has the potential of parallel chemistry; this is the material histamine. With a black-board and a good supply of chalk, one could parallel the chemistry of both the phenethylamines and the tryptamines and draw a host of compounds that might possibly be psychoactive. But this is a theoretical world without any present known promise, and must wait for some future enthusiast to champion it.

Do you think that all of the states of consciousness which psychedelics induce are naturally present in the human or are they sometimes a unique reaction created by the interfacing of the chemicals with the endogenous neurotransmitters?

S: I am a strong advocate of the hypothesis that psychedelic drugs do not do things, but rather they allow things to happen. All the states of consciousness that can be revealed have always been present within that remarkable organ we call the brain, but we normally remain ignorant of our potentials. There is no way that a few micrograms or milligrams of a simple white solid could have the property of producing a religious experience or of seeing a divine image, all tucked away in its crystalline lattice. It is we, as curious and uninformed individuals, who bring these new states of consciousness into our awareness. The drug is merely the catalyst that lets this happen. All possible states are all with us all the time, and we were simply unaware of them.

Do you think that the use of psychedelics can lead to a completely new form of perception?

S: Not really. This is an extension of the question I just answered above. We have a handsome array of sensory skills normally at our disposal, and I believe that the psychedelics allow them to be more fully appreciated. In my first experiment with mescaline, almost 40 years ago, I saw colors that I had never seen before. But there was no way this could be argued as a new form of perception. They must have always been there, but I simply had never paid much attention before.

Are there long-term negative residues of psychedelics left in the body after a number of years of recreational use, if so is there any way of minimalising this in the future?

S: This is an ongoing concern of many people, and there is no direct way of answering it. There have been quite a few animal studies with various psychedelic drugs that have shown believable neurological change. Most of these have involved large and continuing dosages, but change is change and it simply cannot be said with any confidence that these results cannot apply to man. I don't want to attempt to make here a critical review of the mountain of medical literature that has appeared to attempt to tie MDMA to clinical problems. Most of the connections are weak, but some are real and demand that close and continuous attention be paid to the possibility of its being an instrument of causality. As to chronic use leading to long term damage, it is easy to say, "we have no way of knowing what might lie twenty years down the road," but the same can be said of any of the several new and well tested pharmaceutical agents that are introduced into medical practice every year. One must always remain cautious and observant.

Do you believe there will be an even more widespread use of psychedelics in the future?

S:This is hard to answer because it is impossible to say just how widespread the use of psychedelic drugs is today! There are many closet users who for some personal reasons choose not to reveal these interests. If the negative image that stains these drugs were to be removed and their use were to achieve social acceptability, there might be some rather remarkable public acknowledgments eventually made. And this could be interpreted as an increase in their use. I don't believe that the needed information is available to answer this.

What will be the next "Ecstasy", (not a psychedelic, of course) in terms of mass scene usage?

S: Oh there will surely be some event, some factor, some symbol of something that will define the "mass scene" but it need not be another "Ecstasy" and it need not even be another drug. As all of us get older, year by year, we tend to assume that the human animal, everywhere, is getting older and older. Not so! There has always been, and there will always be, a segment of the population that is at the rebellious age. They will search for, and discover a way of saying, "We are who we are. We are immortal. We will not march to our parent's drum." Time will move each individual towards old age and mortality. But at any given time, there is a real and exciting rebellious population who will use some prohibited drug, or explore some disallowed sexual things, or become devoted to some gung-ho musical phenomenon that the elders disapprove of. It is in the nature of youth to define itself in some new and preferably offensive way (at least as seen by the adults of the moment). It is an expression of defiance. I have been there and I have survived it. But I also remember it and very much respect it.

Although E is losing its popularity, it is still a regular at raves, which bearing in mind the fact that the magic and its "set" seem lost after the first few uses, presumably means that new users are coming into the fold all the time. By the way, do you consider yourself the "reinventor" of E (MDMA)?

S: The magic of the experience of MDMA ("E". Ecstasy) is sadly lost after the first few exposures to it, at least for most users. But it is keenly remembered, and the experienced user can recapture the memory of that magic by seeing a new person trying it for the first time. This is certainly one of the factors that has kept it alive and in demand over the years. Am I the "reinventor" of MDMA? I will settle for being called its step-father in that it was first invented many years before I was born. But as I was the first person to describe its remarkable properties in the scientific literature, maybe reinvention is an OK term.
"Alexander Shulgin on the future of psychedelics." 11 Oct. 2008 .

Rabbit Addcited

2008-10-10T20:11:00.000-07:00

Sasha Shulgin, Psychedelic Chemist

2008-09-20T09:50:00.000-07:00

By DENNIS ROMERO

LAFAYETTE, Calif. -- Perhaps it was a sign of things to come when a seven-story Monterrey Pine came crashing down on the property of old Alexander T. Shulgin--Sasha, they call him--missing his musty cobweb-entangled drug lab by inches.

It could have been a good sign because the cantankerous 70-year-old wasn't around the back-yard workshop conducting one of his legendary experiments, which have been known to involve him downing any number of the new psychedelic drugs he invents in the name of science. Imagine losing your mind on some unknown compound with unknown powers (some of this stuff makes LSD look like Vitamin D)--and a tree the length of three buses rocks your world to Richter proportions. The aliens have arrived!

Maybe, though, it was a sign of nefarious things to come. Like the DEA guys who came knocking only days later, sniffing around the lab in search of improprieties. Or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency people who checked out the lab that day last June, taking notes while nosing around the beakers. (They found everything in order, says a representative.) The feds have arrived!

To tell the truth, Sasha Shulgin doesn't much care anymore what the government thinks.

He's tippy-toed around the law and the lawmen for long enough--30 years now. Since the mid-'60s, the tall, lanky, silver-haired chemistry professor has quietly invented drugs under the cover of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration license that allows him to analyze contraband so he can give expert testimony in drug trials. It doesn't exactly allow him to invent the stuff, though, and Uncle Sam appears to be getting cold feet about Shulgin's exploits.

But Shulgin's life's work is practically complete and he's ready to shout it out. "I feel the need of a public voice with some level of academic background . . . " His message: "All drugs should be made legal."

With or without the DEA's approval, the public is now able to see pages and pages documenting all the world's known psychedelic drugs--many of them invented by The Man himself: the compound structures, the lab names, street names and, more importantly, what they do to people or, more precisely, what they've done to him and wife Ann, his 64-year-old partner-in-chem.

Part I, a book they call "Pihkal," was self-published in 1991. Part II, to be called "Tihkal," is due at the end of the year. The two books provide recipes for almost every mind-bending drug known to humankind. To Shulgin, the books provide scientific knowledge that proves drugs are a tool for the human mind. "The track record," he says, "is that there is great promise."

No one else on the planet has done more drugs, they say, than Sasha and Ann Shulgin. He is known for reviving the almost-century-old designer drug ecstasy, earning him the title "stepfather of MDMA."

"What he almost single-handedly attempted to do," says psychedelic supporter and Nobel Prize-winning chemist Kary Mullis, "was to chart out this whole area of compounds." Says psychedelic godfather Timothy Leary, "I consider Shulgin and his wife to be two of the most important scientists of the 20th Century."

The Shulgins are legends among some academics--LSD inventor Albert Hofmann, now retired in Switzerland, is a friend. But they are little known to the outside world--they were never a part of the counterculture.

Shulgin's work has put him in the odd position of being a source of information for both the Establishment (during his decade working for Dow Chemical and his two decades testifying for both the prosecution and the defense in drug cases) and psychedelic drug advocates (his science has been used to bolster the cause for legal psychedelic drug research on humans, which is now taking place after a 20-year hiatus).

"There's nothing wrong with making information available," he says, legs crossed and drinking iced tea on his patio.

The DEA, which repeatedly declined to comment on the Shulgin case, might disagree. The agency did confirm in a statement that it is attempting to strip Shulgin of his drug-handling license and that a hearing on the matter has been scheduled for Feb. 13. And the U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco is keeping a file on Shulgin, although no charges have been brought. No one from that office would comment either.

It's hard to find anyone with ill will toward Shulgin, although there are those opposed to the philosophy of his ilk. Psychedelic drugs are dangerous, opponents say--toxic to animals and dangerous to those who lose their minds and attempt crazy things like trying to fly. "One of the things psychedelic drug activists promote is that drugs are not a problem--that we haven't learned to use them properly," Wayne J. Roques, a retired Miami-based DEA agent and anti-drug activist, said in an interview last year.

"That's one of the nonsensical things that they say," Roques said. "They seem to think it's a human condition to use psychoactive drugs and that's simply not so."

"I first explored mescaline in the late '50s," Shulgin says. "Three-hundred-fifty to 400 milligrams. I learned there was a great deal inside me," he replies.

"That's a considerable experience," Ann says, puffing a cigarette and nodding.

Shulgin's romance with psychedelics started after the war. He served his time in the Navy and finished school at UC Berkeley, earning a Ph.D. in biochemistry. "There was no mention of rebellion at that point," Shulgin says. "I was all smiles, open."

In the '60s he did post-doctorate work in psychiatry and pharmacology at UC San Francisco and became a senior research chemist at Dow Chemical Co. He invented a profit-making insecticide, so Dow gave him a long leash. But while America's anti-drug fervor picked up, Dow found itself in the uncomfortable position of holding several patents on psychedelic drugs.

Shulgin left the company in 1965, built his lab and became, as he puts it, a "scientific consultant." That meant teaching public health at Berkeley and San Francisco General Hospital, among other jobs. It also eventually meant inventing more than 150 drugs in his lab. "To me," he says, "having your own lab is a very extreme pleasure."

Shulgin's spread sits atop a rolling, rural utopia east of Berkeley. The old brick lab lies down the path from his boxy white house, which sits on property that has been in the family for more than 50 years.

To this day his lab looks low-tech--lined with beakers, test-tubes, stills and pumps. It's funky but functional, like Shulgin. He wears handmade huaraches with his tuxedo at special events and drives a '73 bug.

Shulgin met Ann at Berkeley in 1979. Ann, became Shulgin's soul mate, a fellow psychedelic explorer with a penchant for Peyote. ("I've read all of Castaneda," she says.) They were married in Shulgin's back yard in 1981. The man who married them, they say, was a DEA agent.

As Ann put it, "Before 'Pihkal,' we had a real good relationship with the DEA. They have few people they can talk to who are on the other side of the fence who are honest." Says psychedelic drug activist Rick Doblin, "That was his Faustian bargain--in order to do his work, he had to be useful to the DEA."

"It was not a quid pro quo," Shulgin says. "I make my research available to the government as much as anyone else."

Shulgin wrote the book on the law and drugs--"Controlled Substances: Chemical & Legal Guide to Federal Drug Laws" (Ronin Publishing, 1988), a book that sits on the desk of many law enforcement officials to this day. "He's a reputable researcher," says Geraline Lin, a drug researcher at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

By the '80s, though, Shulgin wasn't famous for any books he wrote or any drugs he invented, but rather for a drug he didn't invent. In the '70s, a friend had suggested he check out a pill that was going around called MDMA, or "empathy." He tested it, tried it and wrote a lot about it in academic journals.

For better or for worse, Shulgin rescued the drug (known in the lab as methylenedioxy- methamphetamine) from obscurity. Invented around 1912, no one found much use for it until Shulgin came along. He suggested time and again that the stuff was good for therapy. The drug's effects are described as lying somewhere between those of LSD and speed. "I still haven't found anything like it to this day," Shulgin says.

But the drug found an empathetic audience in the nightclub crowd. Dealers renamed the drug "ecstasy" for better marketability. And the U.S. government outlawed MDMA in 1985.

A young group of scientists led by Doblin tried to preserve the drug's legality, arguing that the stuff was valuable for unearthing repressed thoughts and memories. Shulgin assisted the best he could, providing science from the shadows. But the government found that the drug caused brain damage in animals. "The one thing that is clear," says UCLA psychopharmacologist Ronald K. Siegel, "is that there is a lot of damage here with MDMA."

Shulgin says testing drugs on animals isn't worth dog doo. "There are real problems involved in testing a rat for empathy or changes in self-image," he told an English magazine last year.

"In a lot of ways, Sasha was demoralized after MDMA became illegal," says Doblin, president of the Charlotte, N.C.-based Multidisciplinary Assn. for Psychedelic Studies. "It was the best candidate for legal therapy out of all the drugs he helped create."

But there was always Shulgin's trusty lab, which provided fodder for intimate trips with Ann and friends. Those times, up at his hilltop home, amid the rosemary bushes and live oak, surrounded by the smells of fennel, rue and bay, were magical, they say. "Inventing new psychoactive drugs," Ann says, "is like composing new music."

Sometimes, the music could be maddening. One time a friend, testing out a new Shulgin creation he called 5-TOM, became temporarily paralyzed and completely zombie-fied. It terrified the Shulgins. "There's no experience of this complexity without instances of difficulty," Shulgin says.

A few drugs Shulgin invented, substances with names such as STP and 2CB, escaped to the streets of San Francisco. Amateur chemists read Shulgin's published research and made batches for sale. Like most of the drugs in his book, they were included on the federal government's outlaw list of drugs, called Schedule I.

"A lot of the materials in Schedule I are my invention," Shulgin says. "I'm not sure if it's a point of pride or a point of shame."

Shulgin's rebound came in 1991 when "Pihkal: A Chemical Love Story" (Transform Press) was published. For fans of psychedelia, it was an instant collector's item. "I think Pihkal," Leary says, "is right up there with Darwin's 'Origins . . . ' "

"The history of psychedelic drugs is still being written," says Siegel, who is respected both by the authorities and legalization activists. "Even though Shulgin's observations may not be entirely scientific, they are an important start since he's the only one who has made some of these observations and taken some of these drugs."

"Pihkal," which has sold more than 15,000 copies, covers about half the psychedelic drugs known to humankind--the "phenethylamines I have known and loved," as the book's title suggests. The phenethylamine group of compounds includes such substances as MDMA and mescaline. The other half--a group that includes everything from toad venom to magic mushrooms--will be included in the forthcoming "Tihkal"--for "tryptamines I have known and loved."

To understand the Shulgins is to understand their unwavering belief that these drugs have untold powers and that we, as a society, are ignorant of these powers--like early man who shied away from fire. Yet Shulgin's words are almost always sober: "I'm very confident that there will come a time when this work will be recognized for its medical value."

In 1992 he testified before NIDA that psychedelic drug research using humans should once again be made fully legal (it was all but outlawed in 1970). Shulgin invoked his own legally questionable research on humans.

At the meeting, says Doblin, who was there, "he describes the work that he's doing with human beings, in a way that its clear that it's illegal." Even so, Shulgin influenced NIDA's position that human studies should restart, which they did. "Shulgin put himself on the line," says Lin, who chaired the meeting.

"It was a scientific meeting, not a political one," says Shulgin, understated as usual. "I was explicit, but not provocative."

Later, Shulgin makes this much clear: "It's my stance that what I do is nothing illegal."

In 1986, the federal government outlawed research on humans using drugs that resemble banned drugs, called analogs. Before then, research using designer drugs that weren't expressly outlawed skirted the rules (using an MDEA compound instead of MDMA, for example).

"Since '86, I've stopped all research in this direction," he says, i.e., he doesn't test drugs on humans. He adds that he still invents drugs and feels it's still legal as long as he has his drug-handling license. "I synthesize materials for publication," he says.

This balancing act is in response to the pressure he's been feeling from the DEA. It's ironic, say Shulgin's supporters: He has provided science to the government (most often in cases involving methamphetamine) and all takers only to be taken to task in the end for that very science. "Shulgin's not a criminal," says Mullis, "he's a chemist."

So imagine Shulgin's consternation recently when he found himself playing a gig (he plays the viola with a local orchestra for kicks) at the nearby Bohemian Grove and club guest Newt Gingrich starts talking about . . . drugs.

Normally, this all-male club (the word exclusive is not exclusive enough to describe its clientele) is not so serious--the site of nude rampaging, mock-Druid fire rituals and all manner of back-to-roots male bonding. Snort-Snort. So when Gingrich started talking about a topic Shulgin has studied for 30 years, he kept his mouth shut and his ears open.

"He was very correct," Shulgin says.

"You have two alternatives: We either have to take Draconian means and break the back of the problem, or legalize drugs. I believe in the latter choice."

Source: Los Angeles Times
Date: 5 September 1995

Don't light up that grill, killer!

2008-09-12T11:20:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia According to a report from the BBC, a new study says that cranking up your backyard grill could kill you with cancer. Specifically, they say:

A study by the French environmental campaigning group Robin des Bois found that a typical two-hour barbecue can release the same level of dioxins as up to 220,000 cigarettes. Dioxins are a group of chemicals known to increase the likelihood of cancer.

That's pretty scary, isn't it? The equivalent of 220,000 cigarettes! For all of you readers who have believed that second-hand smoke is dangerous, think about the secondary meaning of the statement above. If you have trouble believing that a barbeque is dangerous, how can smoke from a few cigarettes be of any significance at all? There certainly is no location on earth that has ever had the smoke from 220,000 cigarettes.

If we're to take the report as scientific, then the danger from one cigarette's second-hand smoke must be 1/220,000th as dangerous as a single barbeque. Actually, the report doesn't say they're referring to second-hand smoke. They could be saying that all the smoke from 220,000 cigarettes is equal to one barbeque. That would be first-hand smoke, the kind I've gleefully filled my lungs with for 40-some years.

So... for all of you who are convinced that cigarette smoke causes cancer, kills tens of thousands of people every year, reduces birth weight, and all the other nonsense that has been pumped toward us... you should REALLY get up in arms about barbeques!

If cigarettes are so dangerous that they've been doubled (or more) in price with taxes, and outlawed in many places, what would be the appropriate reaction to a FAR GREATER risk?

Rest easy for a moment... the article goes on to say:

"I'm sure that just the odd barbecue during the summer is not going to have any effect. "But if you have a barbecue once or twice a week through the summer, and all crowd round it and inhale the fumes then over 10 or 20 years maybe that would do something."

Now that's more believable, isn't it? Nevertheless, the author recommends putting warnings on grills.

People have been barbequing for a long time, and some people do it almost daily. Barbeques have become standard operating procedure for home get-togethers, and are in the news frequently as the Presidential candidates travel around campaigning... at barbeques. John Kerry recently held a big barbeque at his home (well... his wife's home).

Unfortunately for you barbeque fans, the fumes aren't the only danger you're facing. The "carbonizing" result of barbequing (that dark crustiness that's the main appeal of barbequed food) possibly causes cancer too.

If we were to take this report seriously (and I doubt that you will), we'd be justified in taking the following actions:

Banning TV advertising of grills, briquets, barbeque tools, barbeque sauces, etc., so that our children don't get corrupted into thinking that such things are OK.

Bringing class action lawsuits against the manufacturers of all those products (especially Kingsford Charcoal) since they must have (or should have) known that they were pushing cancerous products off on an unsuspecting public. Undoubtedly a major charcoal "settlement" should be forthcoming, with huge payments extracted from the violators, with the proceeds to be distributed to offset the additional medical costs from all those extra cancer cases.

Restrictions on barbequing in locations where the fumes might drift toward other people. We could certainly set distance limits like no barbequing within 1,000 feet of a school, church, or other public meeting place. Certainly, grills would have to be removed from all public parks.

To further protect our children, there must be a minimum age requirement for purchase of barbequing "paraphenalia", with serious fines for any merchant selling to minors.

Naturally, special taxes will have to applied to all barbeque-related products, to encourage the poor hapless victims of addicting crispies to QUIT their smelly, dangerous habit.

C'mon folks... it's only fair... all those things have been done, and are continuing to be done, by the anti-smoking campaigns, and it's clear how much more destructive barbeques are. If we're concerned about our health, can we do less for a danger that's WAY worse?

I hope this nonsense is really beginning to soak in. Is the lightbulb over your head starting to flicker?

The second-hand smoke issue was CREATED, from scratch, for political purposes, because nobody could make a solid case against FIRST-HAND smoke. Smokers didn't buy it, and wouldn't quit, so they invented the second-hand smoke issue to try to "guilt" smokers into quitting for the sake of "others".

All of the numbers you've heard about deaths from second-hand smoke are projections, based on faulty assumptions. Never, ever, has there been a real death attributed to second-hand smoke, and there are massive studies over many years that show NO effect from second-hand smoke.

But... so many people believed the lies that it has now become "common knowledge". If you repeat a lie enough times, it becomes the truth.

Smokers have warned for many years that the people profiting from the anti-tobacco campaigns would eventually turn their greed toward other areas. Attacks on fast food, and more, are well underway. Thousands of organizations have received funds diverted from the tobacco settlement. Thousand of attorneys have received truly gross fees from tobacco trials, and many other organizations have suckered hundreds of thousands into volunteering their time and money for "the cause".

The tactics of unscrupulous scare-mongers are gradually taking choices away from us and, frankly, taking a lot of fun out of life. Worse, they're gradually corrupting scientists with funds paid for producing the "correct" results. The result is that the public doesn't know what to believe any longer. Media will always report anything that is scary, especially if it sounds even a little bit scientific. That's how the lies get repeated.

Barbequers of the world... I doubt that you have to worry. Grilling is an American institution. Millions of men now pride themselves on their grilling, and their women are more than glad to get rid of some cooking. Having a good grill, your own set of unique grilling tools, and your own special techniques is part of the American male role now. Political shindigs are not likely to switch to serving sushi. Barbeque will likely "get a free pass", like the most destructive of our bad habits... liquor... does.

I love barbequed food, and liquor, and I also enjoy smoking cigarettes. Too bad so many of you have copped out on my favored "bad habit". Don't expect any support from me when "they" come after yours.

from:

"." 12 Sep. 2008 .

Not Smoking Kills

2008-09-12T11:15:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia For decades, America has had a destructive war against tobacco products and those who use them. Tobacco as a crop was so important that it is quite possible that the British colonies that eventually became the United States would have failed, with settlers returning to England. Tobacco growing and product manufacturing was important enough to have received government subsidization until very recently. Historically, tobacco smoking was considered something of a miracle cure for many ailments.

About 50 years ago, a campaign began to blame smoking for cancer. Cancer had become such a terrifying disease that the word "cancer" was often alluded to rather than speaking the name aloud, even being referred to as the C disease. The American Cancer Society, having failed to produce significant results in fighting cancer, chose to erect smoking as a straw man to take heat off themselves. Since that beginning, one of the world's great frauds has proceeded, to demonize smoking to the point that most people believe there is unquestionable scientific evidence that smoking is a major killer. When even that level of fright didn't convince smokers to quit, the spectre of "secondhand" smoke was created out of thin air, to continue the campaign that was making so many organizations rich on donations and tax money in hopes of actually curing cancer. Deception, outright lies, and statistical trickery have been used to such a great and effective extent that "junk science" has spread to many other areas.

Even though over half of American smokers have long since quit, the health benefits are invisible. If anything, America is less healthy in significant ways. The health BENEFITS of smoking, even though scientifically obvious, have been blasted out of existence as more and more smokers have been forced to quit and as researchers with any positive results have been demonized and even physically threatened.

One thing is clear to me: If smoking had not been made the false demon causing many ailments, and the money and effort that went into the war on smoking had been spent on actually learning what causes cancer, heart disease, etc., we might actually have cures by now. Perhaps when all smoking has finally been eliminated, we will all realize that the War on Smoking has, like all wars, been pure destruction with no upside at all.
from:

"Writings about the War on Smoking." 12 Sep. 2008 .

Facebook | SAY NO TO DRUGS Before it's too late

2008-09-06T18:14:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia Facebook | SAY NO TO DRUGS Before it's too late: "Many teens try alcohol, tobacco, or drugs, but using these substances is not safe or legal. Some teens try these substances only a few times and stop. Others can't control their cravings for them. This is substance abuse.

Teens may try a number of substances, including cigarettes, alcohol, household chemicals (inhalants), prescription and over-the-counter medicines, and illegal drugs. Marijuana is the illegal drug that teens use most often.

Why do teens abuse drugs and alcohol?

Teens use alcohol and other drugs for many reasons. They may do it because they want to fit in with friends or certain groups. They may also take a drug or drink alcohol because they like the way it makes them feel. Or they may believe that it makes them more grown up. Teens tend to try new things and take risks, and they may take drugs or drink alcohol because it seems exciting.

Teens with family members who have problems with alcohol or other drugs are more likely to have serious substance abuse problems. Also, teens who feel that they are not connected to or valued by their parents are at greater risk. Teens with poor self-esteem or emotional or mental health problems, such as depression, also are at increased risk.

What problems can teen substance abuse cause?

Substance abuse can lead to"

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http://www.facebook.com/groups.php?ref=sb#/group.php?gid=24341912811

science: Study shows marijuana increases brain cell growth

2008-09-05T23:43:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

By Juanita King, The Muse (Memorial University of Newfoundland)

ST. JOHN’S, Nfld — Supporters of marijuana may finally have an excuse to smoke weed every day. A recent study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation suggests that smoking pot can make the brain grow.

Though most drugs inhibit the growth of new brain cells, injections of a synthetic cannibinoid have had the opposite effect in mice in a study performed at the University of Saskatchewan. Research on how drugs affect the brain has been critical to addiction treatment, particularly research on the hippocampus.

The hippocampus is an area of the brain essential to memory formation. It is unusual because it grows new neurons over a person’s lifetime. Researchers believe these new cells help to improve memory and fight depression and mood disorders.

Many drugs -— heroin, cocaine, and the more common alcohol and nicotine — inhibit the growth of these new cells. It was thought that marijuana did the same thing, but this new research suggests otherwise.

Neuropsychiatrist Xia Zhang and a team of researchers study how marijuana-like drugs — known collectively as cannabinoids — act on the brain.

The team tested the effects of HU-210, a potent synthetic cannabinoid similar to a group of compounds found in marijuana. The synthetic version is about 100 times as powerful as THC, the high-inducing compound loved by recreational users.

The researchers found that rats treated with HU-210 on a regular basis showed neurogenesis — the growth of new brain cells in the hippocampus. A current hypothesis suggests depression may be triggered when the hippocampus grows insufficient numbers of new brain cells. If true, HU-210 could offer a treatment for such mood disorders by stimulating this growth.

Whether this is true for all cannabinoids remains unclear, as HU-210 is only one of many and the HU-210 in the study is highly purified.

“That does not mean that general use in healthy people is beneficial,” said Memorial psychology professor William McKim. “We need to learn if this happens in humans, whether this is useful in healthy people, and whether THC causes it as well.”

McKim warns that marijuana disrupts memory and cognition. “These effects can be long-lasting after heavy use,” he said. “This makes it difficult to succeed academically if you use it excessively.”

“Occasional light use probably does not have very serious consequences. [But] there is some evidence that marijuana smoke might cause cancer.”

Still, the positive aspects of marijuana are becoming more plentiful as further research is done. McKim says it’s not surprising that THC and compounds like it could have medicinal effects.

“Many have been identified,” he said. “It stimulates appetite in people with AIDS, it is an analgesic, and blocks nausea in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. And it treats the symptoms of glaucoma.”

The research group’s next studies will examine the more unpleasant side of the drug.

"e.Peak (31/10/2005) news: science: Study shows marijuana increases brain cell growth." 6 Sep. 2008 .

It's the Recession, Didiot!: UFO Recession Tip 79 - Save Money: Stop Smoking

2008-09-05T22:45:00.000-07:00

It's the Recession, Didiot!: UFO Recession Tip 79 - Save Money: Stop Smoking

| Hookah / Sheesha (Shisha) Smoking: Safer than Cigarettes? Haram or Halal?

2008-09-05T22:44:00.000-07:00

| Hookah / Sheesha (Shisha) Smoking: Safer than Cigarettes? Haram or Halal?

Pipe Smoking

2008-09-05T22:43:00.000-07:00

Pipe Smoking