Reader Royce tipped us to this story about a young man who has such severe pain that he cannot function. His only hope? A radical ketamine treatment, in Germany.

The treatment is not allowed in this country, the parents say, because the FDA does not allow patients to be deliberately placed in comas for more than two days. The treatment in Saarbrueken, Germany, involves putting the patient in a coma for five to seven days, during which the body is filled with massive amount of ketamine in an attempt to “reboot” the body system.

Dr. Schwartzman has written that of the 41 patients he has sent to Germany, 14 came back pain free and have remained free for five years, while others have come back with their pain reduced.

Ketamine is a miracle. I think there's nothing a good ketamine coma can't cure...

OMG SOCIETY IS COLLAPSING

Italy's highest criminal court has ruled that the fact Rastafarians consider marijuana use a religious sacrament should be taken into account if they are tried on trafficking charges.

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The court threw out the drug trafficking conviction of a 44-year-old Italian Rastafarian.

It ruled the amount he possessed was in line with the heavy use that comes with his religious beliefs.
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The Italian Health Ministry described the ruling as "disturbing."

"These rulings represent an element of destabilization for the pillars of secularism," Undersecretary Francesca Martini said in a statement.

Hit the link for a nifty app that lets you see a breakdown of how many drugs we are taking each year by each drug type. Pretty cool! Thanks John!

Because James got me thinking about posting more music myself, here's a tasty cut from German IDM/techno/glitch outfit Modeselektor. Track #4 off their 2005 release on BPitch Control called "Hello Mom!", this one's called "The Rapanthem". It nicely reflects my mood this morning while I surf the ends of the Internet and wait for the bagels to arrive here at work.

The Rapanthem by Modeselektor

What ever would we do without science? Keep drinking!

Stopping drinking even at moderate levels has been linked to depression and a reduced capacity of the brain to produce new neurons, U.S. researchers said.

Researchers at the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said that their research in an animal model establishes a causal link between abstinence from alcohol drinking and depression.

Senior author Clyde W. Hodge said that in mice that voluntarily drank alcohol for 28 days, depression-like behavior was evident 14 days after termination of alcohol drinking.

Having been to a few psychedelic events in my day, the idea of movies or light shows produced for a dome theater is not new. However, a whole festival of dome movies? According to the news article, DomeFest is the only worldwide festival devoted to content produced for full-dome (curved overhead screen) theaters, and they receive entries from all over the world. Who knew? I guess it's a New Mexico thing. Peyote optional.

File Under: What is Trance?

Killer Dope, by Earthling vs. Phoenix Family, from "Geospirit 1 - Virtual Vortex", 2005. From Dr. Spook.

The Doors are a band that generally get no love from the modern psychedelic community because they are widely considered shallow pop tosh for the lowbrow hippie. However, new remix jams shed some light on how well their shallow pop jams translate to today's dance sound. Get this track while it is still available.

An enthusiastic note from Snow reads:

Mark this date in your calendar: On November 30th a referendum will be held among the people of Switzerland about whether to completely legalize possession, sale, and cultivation of cannabis. We're talking *legalization*, not grey area style toleration as in the Netherlands. Meaning, that if successful, pot would be sold in supermarkets just like alcohol, if you're an adult. (with the only ban left being advertising of cannabis, so it would be similar to tobacco ad bans)

The funny thing is the initiative is even supported by conservative politicians there, conceding that past drug policies have failed in reducing the number of cannabis users, thus they're now willing to try the legalization/regulation route. Talk about a progressive country!

Imagine something like that happening elsewhere in the world! Not going to happen anytime soon!!! Flocks of Republicans (Ron Paul doesn't count) jumping the bandwagons of legalization campaigns, yeah right!

Hooray to direct democracy!

Now playing at a theater near you...