Psychoactive Substances

Meet the most potent natural hallucinogen — and it’s legal

October 6th, 2008  |  Full text  |  published by BRAHA Editor in Psychoactive Substances

By Margie Boule
Boule: Effects of drug can be all over the board
It was bad enough when Sharon’s 17-year-old son was arrested for possession of dexadrine. Sharon was devastated. “I have zero — zero — tolerance for drugs,” she says.
It was worse when she went on a drug hunt soon after and found a clear plastic [...]

Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine

October 6th, 2008  |  Full text  |  published by BRAHA Editor in Psychoactive Substances, Scientific News

By E. Patrick Curry
It is surprising that the article “Effects of Banisteriopsis caapi Extract on Parkinson’s Disease” was published in the Summer 2001 issue of SRAM. If the research truly had merit, why would it not have been published in a neurology journal? As it was, the authors seemed unduly enthusiastic about less than dramatic [...]

Why Cannabis Hemp is Illegal

October 6th, 2008  |  Full text  |  published by BRAHA Editor in Psychoactive Substances

I think the government’s position [on enforcing a ban on hemp in food products] has been less than convincing because it skirts the principal purpose for anti-hemp rules in the first place. If you ask any police officer or DEA agent what the main reason is for prohibiting hemp they will likely tell you it’s [...]

GBL… GHB - Drug Intelligence Brief An Overview of Club Drugs

October 6th, 2008  |  Full text  |  published by BRAHA Editor in Psychoactive Substances

Overview

“Club Drugs” is a general term for a number of illicit drugs, primarily synthetic, that are most commonlyencountered at nightclubs and “raves.” The drugs include MDMA, Ketamine, GHB, GBL, Rohypnol, LSD,PCP, methamphetamine, and, to a lesser extent, cocaine and psilocybin mushrooms. The drugs havegained popularity primarily due to the false perception that they are not [...]

Marijuana Chemical Reduces Multiple Sclerosis Pain

October 6th, 2008  |  Full text  |  published by BRAHA Editor in Medicine & Health, Psychoactive Substances

Treatment with Marinol, a synthetic version of cannabinoid chemicals found in marijuana, can reduce the pain often experienced by people with multiple sclerosis (MS) new research suggests.

The findings, which appear in the British Medical Journal, are based on a study of 24 MS patients with pain who were treated with Marinol or inactive “placebo” for [...]

More Evidence Ties Marijuana To Stroke Risk

October 6th, 2008  |  Full text  |  published by BRAHA Editor in Psychoactive Substances

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The case of a young man who suffered a stroke more than once after smoking marijuana adds to evidence that the drug can, in rare cases, have such serious consequences, according to researchers.
By Amy Norton
On three separate occasions, the 36-year-old man suffered a stroke shortly after smoking a large [...]

Methamphetamine National Survey

October 6th, 2008  |  Full text  |  published by BRAHA Editor in Psychoactive Substances

Highlights:

• Methamphetamine use as recorded by SAMHSA’s [U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration] National Survey on Drug Use and Health includes both prescription preparations (i.e., Desoxyn® and Methedrine) and non-prescription/illicit methamphetamine.

• In 2004, an estimated 1.4 million persons aged 12 or older (0.6% of the population) had used methamphetamine in the past year, [...]

Cannabis use and mental health in secondary school children

October 6th, 2008  |  Full text  |  published by BRAHA Editor in Psychoactive Substances

Findings from a Dutch survey

KARIN MONSHOUWER, MSc, SASKIA VAN DORSSELAER, MSc and JACQUELINE VERDURMEN, PhD
Trimbos Institute (Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction), Utrecht

TOM TER BOGT, PhD
Trimbos Institute and University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

RON DE GRAAF, PhD
Trimbos Institute and Department of Clinical Child and Adolescent Studies, University of Leiden, The [...]

History of Heroin

October 6th, 2008  |  Full text  |  published by BRAHA Editor in Psychoactive Substances

Heroin, which is a very popular drug of choice in the American drug culture today, is not a new drug that just showed up in the late 1960s. Its negative effects are not unique to modern times. Heroin is an opium derivative and, as with any of the opi
 
The Birth of the American Heroin Addict
            [...]

Medical Excuse Marijuana

October 6th, 2008  |  Full text  |  published by BRAHA Editor in Psychoactive Substances

 
What do supporters of drug legalization use as strategies in the effort toward outright legalization of marijuana, as well as legalization of other recreational drugs ?
 

To garner support, supporters of comprehensive drug legalization use state’s rights, marijuana as a medicine and people’s natural compassion for the sick as excuses for its value. Point for point:

federal [...]


Medicine & Health »

  • Can Taking Ecstasy Once Damage Your Memory?
    Oct 15, 2008 | Full text

    In the wake of a meeting of the UK government’s advisory body on drugs to discuss the harmful effects of ecstasy, Professor Keith Laws and Professor Fabrizio Schifano will reveal research findings about the drug at the university’s Health and Human Sciences Research Institute Showcase on October 21. [...]

  • Cocaine Use and Cardiovascular Complications
    Oct 7, 2008 | Full text

    Lester Grinspoon, MD, a psychiatrist and associate professor at Harvard, is frequently used as an “expert” in support of “medicalization of marijuana.” He has publicly attested to his personal use of illicit drugs and on several occasions has published statements in leading medical journals that cocaine is neither harmful [...]

  • Cocaine Accelerates HIV Infection
    Oct 7, 2008 | Full text

    It has been known for more than two decades that many illicit drugs inflict damage on the immune system leaving the body open to a host of opportunistic infections, not the least of which is the HIV virus. Other drugs accelerate the progression of HIV to full blown AIDS. In fact, a study [...]

Psychoactive Substances »

  • Prescription Pain Relievers
    Oct 22, 2008 | Full text

    Relief from pain. In some people, prescription pain relievers also cause euphoria or feelings of well being by affecting the brain regions that mediate pleasure. This is why they are abused. Other effects include drowsiness, constipation and slowed breathing. [...]

  • Study shows Ritalin may cause long-term changes in the brain
    Oct 21, 2008 | Full text

    On Sunday researchers at the University of Buffalo reported that Ritalin, used on children diagnosed with ADHD, may cause long-term changes in the brain. Many clinicians regard Ritalin as short-acting but the research with gene expression in an animal model suggests that it has the potential for causing long-lasting changes [...]

  • Brain Receptors for Marijuana/Cannabis
    Oct 20, 2008 | Full text

    The body produces many chemicals and hormones, i.e., histamines, steroids, thyroid hormone, digitalis-like substances, adrenalin, etc, all of which work by attaching to corresponding brain receptors. The key is that these natural substances produced by the body are present in nanogram amounts [...]

Cultural Environment »

  • Conventional wisdom strikes out
    Oct 6, 2008 | Full text

    Among the things everybody knows is that Democrats, being the party of the little people, raise money in small contributions, whereas Republicans, being the party of fat cats, raise funds in huge basketfuls from wealthy corporate types. At least, that’s the way the world is usually portrayed by the “Today Show,” The New York Times and the Democratic Party. So it’s of more than passing interest to see [...]

  • Movie and TV violence and obscenity
    Oct 6, 2008 | Full text

    A full page ad appeared Sunday, April 25, l999 in the Denver Rocky Mountain News. It had a picture of Steve Allen and an appeal to Parents. A partial quote from the ad read: Are you as disgusted as I am at the filfth, vulgarity, sex and violence TV is sending into our homes? are you fed up with steamy unmarried sex situations, filthy jokes, perversion, vulgarity, foul language, violence, killings, etc.? [...]

  • If you drive, dont groove
    Oct 6, 2008 | Full text

    A study from Israel’s Ben-Gurion University looked at driving under the influence of various types of music using a virtual Volkswagen New Beetle. The music used was Kenny G, “Stranger on the Shore” at 56 bpm, Spyro Gyra’s “Cashaca,” at 112 bpm, and DJ Jurgen, pop trance mix at 132 bpm. The study’s findings are just [...]