The abstract from the study:

In recent years the availability of so called legal highs over the internet has hugely increased. Numerous online legal high retailers market a broad variety of products which are advertised as research chemicals, bath salts or plant food although clearly intended for human consumption as recreational drug replacements. No guidelines exist as to what is sold and in what purity. Consumers are led to believe that purchased goods are entirely legal.

In this study several legal high products were purchased and analysed for their content. The powdered products were screened with ATR-FTIR followed by GC-MS analysis of methanol extracts. Spectra were compared to reference standards and the NIST library.

Results showed that 6 out of 7 products did not contain the advertised active ingredient. Moreover, five samples contained the controlled substances benzylpiperazine and 1-[3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl]piperazine combined with caffeine.

[Thanks Sam Hell!]

Certain antibiotics, high blood pressure medicine and muscle relaxants are all among the commonly prescribed medications that are in short supply or no longer available.

The latest is a shortage of the generic form of Adderall XR, used for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and adults.

Even more worrisome are shortages of injected drugs used for cancer treatment, anesthesia during surgeries and other life-saving functions.

[Thanks Frank!]

[Thanks Mason!]

A feature documentary about a commodity that has tremendous power -- both to ease pain and to destroy lives.

Raw Opium is a journey around the world and through time, where conflicting forces do battle over the narcotic sap of the opium poppy. From an opium master in southeast Asia to a UN drug enforcement officer on the border of Afghanistan hunting down the smugglers of central Asia; from a former Indian government Drug Czar and opium farmer to a crusading Vancouver doctor and Portuguese street worker who daily confront the realities of drug addiction.

This film premiered in Toronto last night.

In days, we could finally see the beginning of the end of the ‘war on drugs’. This expensive war has completely failed to curb the plague of drug addiction, while costing countless lives, devastating communities, and funneling trillions of dollars into violent organized crime networks.

Experts all agree that the most sensible policy is to regulate, but politicians are afraid to touch the issue. In days, a global commission including former heads of state and foreign policy chiefs of the UN, EU, US, Brazil, Mexico and more will break the taboo and publicly call for new approaches including decriminalization and regulation of drugs.

This could be a once-in-a-generation tipping-point moment -- if enough of us call for an end to this madness. Politicians say they understand that the war on drugs has failed, but claim the public isn't ready for an alternative. Let's show them we not only accept a sane and humane policy -- we demand it. Sign the petition and share with everyone --if we reach 1 million voices, it will be personally delivered to world leaders by the global commission.

[Thanks Henry!]

One of my earliest postings here was some animations from Cyriak... he's still around. This small thing is rather unpleasant.

[Via MeFi, via HuffPo, and now, via DoNa - that's legit, right, DoNa is legit??]

Originally published in 2011 'The Shaman and Snow White -- Ayahuasca, San Pedro, Shamanic States of Consciousness and Certificate 18 Healing' by Simon Ralli Robinson is a very personal account of the psychedelic-shaman territory. Robinson, from Dumfries in Scotland, undertook shamanic initiation and apprenticeship in Iquitos, Peru and took part in numerous San Pedro ceremonies in Cusco. This book is based on his dissertation, written as part of his Holistic Science masters degree at the Schumacher College, in Devon.

The important and combining element of this book is Robinson's own life. In the late 1980s and early 1990s he was part of the British rave scene. During this period he had a child (Daisy) with a girl who chose to cut him off and who later told him that the child was not his. The question of her paternity is the central theme in driving the personal, psychological aspects of the book. Through bouts of depression, dabbling in party drugs -- "a little speed a few times but this could hardly be thought of as excessive, especially compared to what teenagers will consume nowadays" (Robinson 28) -- he began searching for meaning in the world, against the backdrop of a daughter he was not sure was his or not...

I can't say it better than this:

In 1964, Ken Kesey, the famed author of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," set off on a legendary, LSD-fuelled cross-country road trip to the New York World's Fair. He was joined by "The Merry Band of Pranksters," a renegade group of counterculture truth-seekers, including Neal Cassady, the American icon immortalized in Kerouac's "On the Road," and the driver and painter of the psychedelic Magic Bus. Kesey and the Pranksters intended to make a documentary about their trip, shooting footage on 16MM, but the film was never finished and the footage has remained virtually unseen. With MAGIC TRIP, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side) and co-director Alison Ellwood were given unprecedented access to this raw footage by the Kesey family. They worked with the Film Foundation, HISTORY and the UCLA Film Archives to restore over 100 hours of film and audiotape, and have shaped an invaluable document of this extraordinary piece of American history.

Sounds pretty damn cool, I can't wait to see it.