Dear Sheaf, The article "Saskatchewan's psychedelic past" by Rory MacLean printed on March 4 reads like a eulogy to LSD. I wish to resurrect LSD to its rightful status as an agent of social change. The consciousness altering power of LSD is an absolute requirement for changes in the individual and in society. Poet William Blake said it best: "If the doors of perception were wiped clean, we would see the world as it really is." That we need an enhanced consciousness should be apparent as we view the present state of the world: clear-cut forests, decimated ocean fisheries, soil degradation, wars and rumours of wars, ravages of poverty, crime and, last but not least, climate change. [continues 187 words]
The first time I heard former Yippie activist Dana Beal mention ibogaine I couldn't have cared less what he was talking about. I had booked him to speak on political theater and creative resistance...you know, Yippie shit...as one of a dozen speakers featured at an all day Green Party rally we held in Washington Square Park during the 2004 Republican National Convention. Beal is a shady, self-promoting character. Instead of offering something useful to the crowd, he gave a rambling sermon on the miracles of this obscure drug that cured junkies of addiction. Holding up a collection of papers no doubt meant to imbue his message with gravitas he ranted through a byzantine cosmology of all the evil forces that were arrayed against this miracle substance becoming a mainstream treatment. [continues 9293 words]
It was only in the middle of raping Arcelie Laoagan, an act over which he says he felt powerless, that it suddenly occurred to Christopher Watcheston what he was doing. "I stopped because it was so wrong," Watcheston told Crown prosecutor Christine Rideout under cross-examination Thursday. "I got back control. That's why I stopped." Despite Watcheston's sudden realization of his obvious criminal transgression, minutes later, he nevertheless killed Laoagan by kicking her in the head about four times with the rubber sole of his steel-toed ironworker boots. [continues 445 words]
A MYSTERY illness that caused an entire French village to go temporarily mad 50-years ago has been blamed on secret CIA mind control experiments with LSD. Hundreds of residents in picturesque Pont-Saint-Esprit were suddenly struck down with mass insanity and hallucinations on August 16, 1951. At least five people in the southern French village died and dozens were locked up in asylums after witnessing terrifying hallucinations of dragons and fire. Poisoned In the horror scenes an 11-year-old tried to strangle his grandmother. Another man shouted: "I am a plane", before jumping out of a second-floor window, breaking his legs. [continues 230 words]
GLOUCESTER - To Mayor Carolyn Kirk and Police Chief Michael Lane, the revelation that a Gloucester High School sophomore ingested hallucinogenic mushrooms before his drug-related death last weekend seemed a rare and startling aberration. "I'm not alarmed right now," Lane said several days after Dylan Hill's body was found last Sunday on a beach here. "I'm concerned that this is an isolated incident among some young people." But to several youths and community workers interviewed in this city, the recreational use of reality-twisting mushrooms came as little or no surprise. [continues 1019 words]
Here's a sobering thought for the festive party season - alcohol is more dangerous than Ecstasy and LSD, and would be a class B drug if put forward for official approval today. That's the view of leading addiction specialist and University of Otago professor Doug Sellman who says that despite being scientifically determined "high risk", alcohol has become almost as easy to access as bread and milk. Writing in the New Zealand Medical Journal, Sellman said alcohol was closer in danger to heroin and GHB than ecstasy and LSD and, in comparison, cannabis was much safer. [continues 108 words]
In the murky depths of the Amazon, there is a rare combination of vine and plant geneses, when combined, they are among one of the most powerful hallucinogens known to man. Its many forms, which vary from brewer to brewer, are known as ayahuasca. The drug conjures up images of fantastical and illusionary worlds, gives the sensation of visiting magical cities and generally invokes a state of being which most of us will never know. Though similar to psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and LSD (acid), it has birthed some fantastical practices in the greater Amazonian area. [continues 426 words]
Alcohol and cigarettes are more dangerous than illegal drugs such as cannabis, LSD and ecstasy, the British government's top drugs adviser said Thursday. Professor David Nutt of Imperial College London called for a new system of classifying drugs to enable the public to better understand the relative harm of legal and illegal substances. Alcohol would rank as the fifth most harmful drug after heroin, cocaine, barbiturates and methadone, he said in a briefing paper for the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College London. [continues 285 words]
The British Government's chief drug adviser has sparked controversy by claiming ecstasy, LSD and cannabis are less dangerous than cigarettes and alcohol. Professor David Nutt, chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, attacked the decision to make cannabis a class B drug. He accused former home secretary Jacqui Smith, who reclassified the drug, of "distorting and devaluing" scientific research. Prof Nutt said smoking cannabis created only a "relatively small risk" of psychotic illness. And he claimed advocates of moving ecstasy into class B from class A had "won the intellectual argument". [continues 188 words]
The Government's chief drug adviser has sparked controversy by claiming ecstasy, LSD and cannabis are less dangerous than both alcohol and cigarettes. Professor David Nutt, chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, attacked the decision to make cannabis a class B drug. He accused former home secretary Jacqui Smith, who reclassified the drug, of "distorting and devaluing" scientific research. Prof Nutt said smoking cannabis created only a "relatively small risk" of psychotic illness. And he claimed advocates of moving ecstasy into class B from class A had "won the intellectual argument". [continues 188 words]
LSD, the drug that launched the psychedelic era and became one of the resounding symbols of the counterculture movement of the '60s, is back in the labs. Nearly 40 years after widespread fear over recreational abuse of LSD and other hallucinogens forced dozens of scientists to abandon their work, researchers at a handful of major institutions - including UCSF and Harvard University - are reigniting studies. Scientists started looking at less controversial drugs, like ecstasy and magic mushrooms, in the late 1990s, but LSD studies only began about a year ago and are still rare. [continues 859 words]
Santa Fe Residents Fight Church's Planned Site, Say Drink Endangers Public Safety SANTA FE, N.M. -- A secretive religious group that fought a long legal battle for the right to drink hallucinogenic tea in pursuit of spiritual growth now plans to build a temple and greenhouse in a wealthy community here -- to the dismay of local residents. The church was founded in Brazil in 1961 and remains most popular there, but about 150 people in the U.S., including about 60 in Santa Fe, practice the faith, which goes by the Portuguese name Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal or UDV. Members say the church is based on Christian theology but also borrows from other faiths and finds spirituality in nature. [continues 768 words]
The following is an excerpt from Ryan Grim's new book, "This Is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America (Wiley, 2009) This is the 2nd excerpt in a series from the book. Read the first excerpt here http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n682/a07.html The D.A.R.E. program is now in three-quarters of all school districts, reaching more than twenty-five million American kids. It also has branches in more than fifty nations worldwide. [continues 1609 words]
The following post is adapted from the new book "This Is Your Country On Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America." The letter is published with the permission of the estate of LSD-inventor Albert Hofmann. For more on events related to the book, see the Facebook page or follow Ryan Grim on Twitter. Steve Jobs has never been shy about his use of psychedelics, famously calling his LSD experience "one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life." So, toward the end of his life, LSD inventor Albert Hofmann decided to write to the iPhone creator to see if he'd be interested in putting some money where the tip of his tongue had been. [continues 1578 words]
As an Ashland native, poet and SOU alumnus, I'd like to address a controversial issue "| and one which symbolizes a cultural decline taking place in our community and in America at large. The use of psychedelics has been a key aspect of many historical renaissances as well as artistic innovations like the paintings of Van Gogh and the music of The Beatles (not to mention the almost-established use of a certain Shakespeare). For all this, the federal laws of the land of the free not only prohibit psychedelics but attach ruthless penalties to possession of small quantities. [continues 73 words]
Plant Hallucinogens Fill Niche Left By Lack Of Laws Against Them Don Ausman began 2009 focused on a bright future. The 22-year-old Michigan State University student from Northville planned to head to New Orleans for spring break to help build homes and serve residents. After earning his bachelor's degree in interdisciplinary studies this spring, he hoped to travel to Japan to teach English. "He was fired up. ... He was in a great mood," said his stepfather, Jim Wauldron. "He had so many plans." [continues 930 words]
Bill Cooper hardly expected to dial into a world of Mazatec Indian shamanism when his phone went dead and he reached to borrow his son's. Then he saw one of the text messages: "hey, when were you fixen to blaze the salvia." Cooper, a bill collector, suspected it was code lingo for marijuana. But under parental pressure his 15-year-old finally told him "something horrifying," Cooper said. He and other Brentwood teens smoked a little-known Mexican sage sold legally to adults in California, and apt to launch users into a strong, hallucinogenic and sometimes fearful mind trip. [continues 943 words]
Vancouver (CP) -- A survey of B.C. teens suggests fewer are using marijuana but more are abusing prescription and hallucinogenic drugs such as ecstasy. The study by the McCreary Centre Society suggests pot smoking among teens has fallen for the 10th year in a row - down to 30 per cent from 37 per cent in 2003. But according to the survey of 29,000 students, there's been a 6-per-cent jump in adolescents trying prescription drugs without a doctor's supervision and a 9-per-cent increase in use of hallucinogens since 2003. Executive director Annie Smith says the survey doesn't explain why more teens are abusing prescription drugs and hallucinogens. [end]
Ashland's Santo Daime Sect Says Sacramental Tea Is Part Of Ritual Members of a Brazilian-based Christian church in Ashland await a decision from U.S. District Court Judge Owen Panner over worshippers' right to drink hallucinogenic tea during services. The Church of the Holy Light of the Queen took the case to federal court under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act after federal agents in 1999 arrested Jonathan Goldman, head of the Ashland-based branch of the Santo Daime (pronounced Die-May) sect, searched his home and seized a shipment of the disputed tea leaves. [continues 362 words]
A recovering drug addict sits in a sunbathed office at a rehabilitation centre in Cornwall as a drug called Suboxone tricks his brain's opiate receptors into thinking he's high. But he's not. He's tranquil. And he's 39-year-old Jeff Thomas. It has been a nine-month dose of reality for Jeff since checking into the St. Denis Centre on Second Street, the site of his sixth attempt at recovery in an Ontario rehab centre. Jeff's drug of choice was OxyContin, a prescription pain medication known as "hillbilly heroin." [continues 1098 words]
