It's the grimmest example of a "bad trip" imaginable. According to a B.C. Coroner's report, Daniel Cho, a popular 17-year-old American music student who loved to make hip hop beats, jumped a protective railing and fell down a cliff at Capilano Suspension Bridge in June while in the throws of an LSD-induced delirium. Coroner Mark Coleman concluded there was no evidence that Cho intended to harm himself on June 6 when he stepped over a 1.2-metre-high protective railing at a viewing platform and plunged 30 metres to his death. [continues 132 words]
A 17-year-old American student who fell to his death from a viewing platform at the Capilano Suspension Bridge last June was high on LSD and had previously been caught by a school chaperone in an out-of-bounds area, says a BC Coroners Service report. Coroner Mark Coleman concluded that LSD was a contributing factor in the death of Daniel Cho, a student at Aragon high school in San Mateo, Calif. Cho was on a trip with his music class from the San Francisco area. It was part of an exchange program with a group of students from Killarney secondary school. [continues 429 words]
Gummi bears laced with LSD were found in a police drugs raid. Police found the bag of 44 candies when they raided a home in Cranbrook last March. This week the results of lab tests showed the gummi bears were laced with the drug, which causes hallucinations. 50-year-old Christianne Bateman and her 18-year-old son Benjamin have been charged with possessing illegal drugs with intent to traffic following the raid, which also turned up 1 lb of marijuana, and one third of a pound of hashish. [continues 225 words]
The discovery of LSD in a bag of gummi bears has prompted Cranbrook RCMP to warn parents in the Kootenay city. Police found the bag in a drug raid a few months ago, but recently got the test results back from the lab. "LSD is a psychedelic drug, that affects the brain, often causing psychological problems that alter the thinking process," Cpl. Chris Faulkner said in a release. "While it is not necessarily addictive, a person who is under the influence of LSD may become irrational and their behaviour can be bizarre. Obviously, if a young child were to consume such a gummi bear, the effects could be very dangerous." [end]
The RCMP in Cranbrook is alerting people about what they believe is a new method of disguising and trafficking drugs. While searching a local residence earlier this year, police located a bag of candy that seemed out of the ordinary and suspicious. They decided to investigate further and sent the gummi bears to the drug lab for analysis. When they received the results, if confirmed their suspicion. The lab results showed the gummi bears were laced with the drug LSD, also known as Acid. [continues 293 words]
The Active Ingredient in 'Magic Mushrooms' Eased Depression and Anxiety, a Study Says. The psychedelic drug psilocybin, the active ingredient in "magic mushrooms," can improve mood and reduce anxiety and depression in terminal cancer patients, Los Angeles researchers reported Monday. A single modest dose of the hallucinogen, whose reputation was severely tarnished by widespread nonmedical use in the psychedelic '60s and ethical lapses by researchers such as Timothy Leary, can improve patients' functioning for as long as six months, allowing them to spend their last days with more peace, researchers said. [continues 569 words]
SANTA CRUZ -- A new synthetic marijuana and the resurgence in popularity of a hallucinogenic drug have police and community leaders worried because both substances are legal and for sale in the Santa Cruz area. "I don't know enough about this stuff," Watsonville Police Chief Manny Solano said. "That's what concerns me." "Spice" is a relatively new herbal and chemical product that produces similar effects as marijuana. It does not show up on drug tests and is not regulated. Area smoking shops started carrying the substance about six months ago and Spice started gaining in popularity this summer. [continues 661 words]
Dear Straight Talk: Can you tell me if DMT is safe? Articles I've read in Spirituality & Health magazine seem to indicate it is probably OK to use for a mind-expanding, healing experience. But I'm wary. I've heard there are different types of DMT and that some are hard to recover from. I took sacred mushrooms in Mexico and it was an extremely healing and helpful experience, but the dose was small. I'm an elder. I know wisdom can be obtained from sacred plants with a qualified guide, but it's not worth having a bad reaction or messing up my mind. [continues 765 words]
It's Not a Hippie Fantasy; Drugs Like LSD Could Have Real Medical Benefits Patients and potheads alike rejoiced a few weeks ago when the District of Columbia Council voted to legalize medical marijuana use. The unanimous decision adds D.C. to the 13 states that have already circumvented national legislation in order to allow doctors to write prescriptions for the infamous herb. (Maryland does not sanction medical marijuana but allows drug defendants to cite medicinal need as a potential mitigating factor.) [continues 575 words]
Research on Psychedelic Drug Prescriptions Not Solution to Mental, Physical Problems Thank God for the '60s and all it brought to American history books: bell-bottoms, tie-dye, troll dolls, Chinese fire drills, Woodstock, Twister, lava lamps, free love and LSD; God Bless America. Though many of these fads have faded out - some that are not missed, i.e., the bouffant hairdo and platform shoes - hallucinogens are coming back for another trip ... no pun intended. Once taboo, hallucinogens are now being tested for medicinal purposes, as they are thought to cure the negative side effects of depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, life-threatening anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and addiction to illegal substances. Just a thought, but how are people suffering from cocaine addiction going to get better by replacing their kilos with shrooms or LSD? Kind of an oxymoron, don't you think? [continues 401 words]
As a retired clinical psychologist, Clark Martin was well acquainted with traditional treatments for depression, but his own case seemed untreatable as he struggled through chemotherapy and other grueling regimens for kidney cancer. Counseling seemed futile to him. So did the antidepressant pills he tried. Nothing had any lasting effect until, at the age of 65, he had his first psychedelic experience. He left his home in Vancouver, Wash., to take part in an experiment at Johns Hopkins medical school involving psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient found in certain mushrooms. [continues 1124 words]
LSD Is Fast Emerging As the Latest Drug of Choice in Geelong's Party Scene. Its re-emergence over the past two months has surprised police, with detectives fearing the region was spearheading a statewide trend towards the hallucinogenic drug. Police are also preparing to tackle the drug's popularity by targeting it during raids for other illicit substances. Regional crime adviser Acting Superintendent Gary Bruce said police had noticed that people selling LSD also had cannabis, cocaine and amphetamines but the acid was much cheaper. [continues 293 words]
The Government's leading drugs expert is listed as an adviser to a charitable foundation, headed by an aristocrat, which promotes medicinal use of LSD. Professor Les Iversen, the head of the official Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), is named on the website of the Beckley Foundation, run by drug liberalisation campaigner Lady Neidpath, who has admitted taking mind-altering substances and accepts hers sons my smoke cannabis. The ACMD is at the centre of a row over the regulation of 'legal high' drug mephedrone - known as Meow Meow - which the Government recently announced it would ban. [continues 439 words]
Among the movies released on video this week is The Men Who Stare at Goats, a dark satire on paranormal research by the U.S. military. The idea was that a soldier with psychic training could kill an enemy by fiercely staring at him and willing his heart to stop. To that end, a secret army research unit experimented by staring at goats that had been de-bleated "for security reasons." SPOILER ALERT: Except for the debleating, the goats came away unharmed. [continues 584 words]
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]
