June 1st, 2009 | Full text | published by BRAHA Editor in Drug Culture
In a report published in October 2008, the United Kingdom National Audit Office examined the National Health Service response to the rising levels of [...]
October 15th, 2008 | Full text | published by BRAHA Editor in Drug Culture, For Educators, For Parents
In 2006, the UK Times reported that 35,000 British children, under the age of 16, were second generation heroin users. Harm reduction, Safe Sites, free heroin for hard core intravenous [...]
October 15th, 2008 | Full text | published by BRAHA Editor in Drug Culture, For Health Professionals, Interesting Information
The number of people admitted to hospital in England with mental illnesses linked to use of illegal drugs has doubled in the past decade, official figures revealed yesterday. The NHS Information Centre said 38,170 adults and children were admitted with [...]
October 6th, 2008 | Full text | published by BRAHA Editor in Drug Culture
By Dan Reed
Marijuana can make you forgetful. Michael Krawitz wants to help you remember. Krawitz is a kind of curator of dope history. He’s the founder of the traveling Cannabis Museum, in San Francisco through today as part of the convention of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. It’s important for a [...]
October 6th, 2008 | Full text | published by BRAHA Editor in Drug Culture
By Bill O ‘Reilly
This month marks the 30th anniversary of the Rockefeller drug laws in New York State. The statutes’ most severe provision requires that a judge impose a prison term of no less than 15 years to life for someone convicted of selling two ounces or possessing four ounces of a narcotic substance. Now [...]
October 6th, 2008 | Full text | published by BRAHA Editor in Drug Culture
By Dan Levine
One Saturday last September, 50,000 people, most of them teenagers, crowded into the Boston Common for the eighth annual Freedom Rally. Its organizers billed it as the largest marijuana legalization event on the East Coast. Strolling through the crowd, holding a joint was a 17-year-old highschool senior who said his name was Bill. [...]
October 6th, 2008 | Full text | published by BRAHA Editor in Drug Culture
By Joe Eszterhas Cleveland
By JOE ESZTERHAS CLEVELAND — I’ve written 14 movies. My characters smoke in many of them, and they look cool and glamorous doing it. Smoking was an integral part of many of my screenplays because I was a militant smoker. It was part of a bad-boy image I’d cultivated for a long [...]
October 6th, 2008 | Full text | published by BRAHA Editor in Drug Culture
By Rick Doblin
Spring 1991: “The DEA is on the ropes and even their attorneys seem to have lost all moral fervor and to realize they are on the wrong side. One of the Judges in the case was the brother of William Buckley, the noted conservative voice in favor of drug legalization….If the court decides [...]
October 6th, 2008 | Full text | published by BRAHA Editor in Drug Culture
QUOTE: Larry King “You’re not suggesting they legalize LSD?” John Morgan: “I certainly am. I believe that the drug should be legalized.” (From 1992 interview on CNN by Larry King.)
QUOTE: “When do we see normal drug use, except in my apartment.” “There is no
such thing as treatment.” “Cocaine does not cause physical dependence.”
“When we know [...]
October 6th, 2008 | Full text | published by BRAHA Editor in Drug Culture
By Melanie Phillips
A silent coup has taken place in drugs policy. The legalisers have captured the Home Office. The government has quietly downgraded its attempt to reduce the number of people taking illegal drugs.
This astonishing development became clear last Friday, when the Home Office minister Bob Ainsworth told a conference that the government was going [...]
The world’s best business model has always been addiction. Tobacco and alcohol have been around for ages, but new temptations and spinoffs are being marketed all the time: meth, painkillers, energy drinks, you name it.
Importantly, the study also finds that the risk of violence from patients with psychoses who also have substance use disorder is no greater than those who have a substance use disorder but who do not have a psychotic illness – in other words, schizophrenia and other psychotic illnesses do not appear to be responsible for any additional risk of violence above the increased risk associated with substance abuse.
Smoking marijuana over an extended period of time appears to greatly boost a young man’s risk for developing a particularly aggressive form of testicular cancer, a new study reveals. [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
As California State Assembly member Tom Ammiano put it: “What if California could raise hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue to preserve vital state services without any tax increase?” [...]
“The fight against drugs is actually the fight for Afghanistan,” said Afghan President Hamid Karzai when he took office in 2002. Judging by the current situation, Afghanistan is losing. [...]
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 [...]