The article says:

Add painkiller abuse to the list of vices for which the Web can potentially be blamed. A new study finds that admission to treatment facilities for prescription drugs has grown in step, roughly, with the spread of high-speed Internet. The association raises the possibility, the authors say, of whether the growth in online pharmacies is driving drug abuse.

Perhaps it is DoseNation, rather than web pharmacies, to blame...

Just stumbled across this webcomic that starts with a roll. I got as far as "I teach biochemistry and neurotheology at trinity... Not just religion generally, but peak experiences which are associated with practices like meditation or chanting or psychedelics or dancing" and figured it was worth a link here.

From Al Jazeera. According to the video, Oxi is cocaine mixed with gasoline and limestone powder to make a rock like crack cocaine, but more potent and lethal.

A new and deadly drug, called Oxi, has hit Brazil's Amazon region.

Highly addictive, its use is now spreading to other parts of the country, causing alarm among officials.

Gabriel Elizondo reports from the northwestern Barazilian state of Acre, which has the highest number of Oxi users per capita.

[Thanks Luke!]

It's presidential campaign season, and everybody's favorite wide-eyed libertarian is at it again. This clip is from the first republican debate of the primary. Ron Paul is so true he's funny. The guy should go into stand up comedy where his talents can be appreciated.

[Thanks Luke!]

The Guardian published two telling articles this week. The first was titled, Legal highs outstrip attempts at regulation and the second, Drug laws and bans on legal highs do more harm than good. Long story short, there have been at least 41 new legal highs introduced in the UK this year, including designer cannabinoids, stimulants, and dissociatives. Current laws cannot keep pace with this expanding market, nor can illegal drugs suppliers, such as cocaine dealers, who have seen a cut in their business thanks to booming mephedrone and 'ivory wave' sales.

With only more designer highs on the horizon, people are grasping for new solutions to regulation. From the most recent article:

A damning report carried out for the commission by thinktank Demos suggests that drug control legislation is no longer "fit for purpose" in the 21st century and should be replaced using consumer protection legislation.

In the longer term, the report suggests, the government should introduce a harmful substances control act that would change how all psychoactive substances, including alcohol and tobacco, are controlled.

Good luck with that!

You probably know about Krystle Cole. She was an erotic dancer who found herself at the center of the world's largest LSD bust in a nuclear missile silo in rural Kansas. She wrote a book about it. You may also know Cole as the spacey looking girl talking up the wonders of psychedelics in those weird Neurosoup videos. But leave it to Vice's Hamilton Morris to get Cole to give him an exclusive tour of the silo where she spent countless hours tripping on LSD, and an interview telling her side of the story.

Hamilton's interview covers most of the details we already know, the major players and the types of drugs involved, but what I found most interesting were the great photos of the silo interior. How Morris got Cole to model this apocalyptic cheesecake shot in her underwear I'll never know, but I'm guessing he didn't have to twist her arm too hard. Holy cow!

Apparently, eccentric genius filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky at one point set out to make a version of Dune for the screen that would simulate the effects of LSD, as he notes in the promo for an upcoming documentary about the failed project:

"I wanted to do a movie that would give the people who took LSD at that time the hallucinations that you get with that drug, but without hallucinating. I did not want LSD to be taken - I wanted to fabricate the drug's effects."

A true missed opportunity. As Slashfilm notes, "So he wanted to make a movie that replicated the effect of drug use? A lot of people have said and/or tried that, but Jodorowsky is one of the very few who seems likely to make it work."

I was having trouble concentrating on the news today, and this tip from Sam Hell was just the thing I needed. Gelatin cubes dropped onto solid surface High Speed Video at 6200 fps. Amazing jiggle.

Fines levied by the Mendocino D.A. keeps marijuana growers out of jail. Also, it saves court time and decreases paperwork. This is called win-win efficiency.

Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster has been busy since taking office in January, dealing with campaign promises and implementing new practices that are raising funds and eyebrows.

One of his most novel and controversial moves has been to allow people charged with felony marijuana cultivation to plead guilty to misdemeanor possession if they agree to pay a $50-per-plant eradication fee to law enforcement agencies. The defendants also are placed on probation for two years and sentenced to 100 to 200 hours of community service, depending on the number of plants they were growing.

The program is being hailed as progress by some and reviled as an extortion by others.

[Thanks Luke!]

Via MindHacks:

The history of ‘Taming the Ketamine Tiger’ is recounted by the doctor who has been most involved in researching and understanding the curious compound in an open-access article published in Anesthesiology.

The author is the wonderfully named Edward Domino who was one of the first people to study both the pain killing and mind bending effects of ketamine.

His article recounts the history of the compound from its discovery, to its use in surgery, to its deployment in the Vietnam war and its championing by the consciousness exploring counter-culture.

And here's the abstract from the article:

Pharmacologic actions of CI-581, a chemical derivative of phencyclidine, were determined in 20 volunteers from a prison population. The results indicate that this drug is an effective analgesic and anesthetic agent in doses of 1.0 to 2.0 mg per kilogram. With intravenous administration the onset of action is within 1 min and the effects last for about 5 to 10 min, depending on dosage level and individual variation. No tachyphylaxis was evident on repeat doses. Respiratory depression was slight and transient. Hypertension, tachycardia, and psychic changes are undesirable characteristics of the drug. Whether these can be modified by preanesthetic medication was not determined in this study. Recovery from analgesia and coma usually took place within 10 min, although from electroencephalographic evidence it may be assumed that subjects were not completely normal until after 1 to 2 h. No evidence of liver or kidney toxicity was obtained. CI-581 produces pharmacologic effects similar to those reported for phencyclidine, but of shorter duration. The drug deserves further pharmacologic and clinical trials. It is proposed that the words “dissociative anesthetic” be used to describe the mental state produced by this drug.

Sounds like fun! [Thanks Sam Hell!]