Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are up to three times more likely than other kids to use, abuse or become dependent on substances such as nicotine, cocaine and marijuana in adolescence and as young adults, new research suggests.

Adolescents with ADHD also were more likely to experiment with nicotine and illegal substances at earlier ages than those without ADHD, according to an analysis of 27 long-term studies that followed 4,100 ADHD and 6,800 non-ADHD children into young adulthood - in some cases for 10 years or more.

The study, by psychologists at the University of California-Los Angeles and the University of South Carolina-Columbia, was funded by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. It was published online in the journal Clinical Psychology Review and will appear in the journal's print edition this summer.

Dale Pendell’s ‘Pharmako/Poeia – Power Plants, Poisons & Herbcraft’ was originally published in 1995. This review is written from the updated 2010 North Atlantic edition. Pendell is an author and poet whose written works include ‘Inspired Madness: The Gifts of Burning Man’ (2006) and ‘Living with Barbarians: A few Plant Poems’ (1999), as well as developing the political concept of ‘horizon anarchism’, which he first enunciated at Burning Man 2006. ‘Pharmako/Poeia’ is the first of a trilogy of books dealing with power plants.

Today’s world is highly specialised. In the academic universe there are thousands of bubbles floating about that contain the aspects of very small areas of study and research. This tends to fly in the face of history, when in the past it was more typical for the individual to be, if not skilled in, at least versed in many sciences and humanities. In Pharmako/Poeia however, Pendell demonstrates that the art of a cross-disciplined approach is not only still alive, but has the power to augment understandings above and beyond its parts. He reveals the depth to which scientific/poetic dichotomies are often no more than categorical fallacies, which have been wrongly extenuated in post-enlightenment thinking.

Washington is now added to a growing list of states now regulating designer stimulants called 'bath salts'. And now, in the attached video, a grizzly WA state murder-suicide is also linked to 'bath salts'. The rap is in on this experiment. Bath salts get a big thumbs down.

The state Board of Pharmacy is moving to crack down on so-called "bath salts" as substitutes for cocaine and methamphetamine.

The Board filed emergency rules on April 15 to classify the products as Schedule I drugs.

Bath salt products are sold widely in smoke shops, head shops, and online. Called "Ivory Wave," "Red Dove," "Zoom" and other names, the products contain stimulants called substituted cathinones that affect behavior and judgment. They're typically inhaled, similar to snorting cocaine.

The Board's action followed a report showing that the Washington State Poison Center is receiving a growing number of calls about people who've ingested the products. Half of the calls came from hospital emergency rooms. According to the Poison Center, there's been a three-fold increase (to 39) already this year over the total number of bath salt ingestion calls in 2010, the Poison Center said.

Ukiah police chief Christopher Dewey is not just ashamed his hometown is known for marijuana, he's concerned about the effect it may be having on the community's youth. A tall, clean-cut, forty-something-year-old man with a baby face and soft- spoken voice, Dewey says his community has been overtaken by pot, and young people are increasingly turning to an illegal business, in part, he believes, because they have no choice. Chief Dewey moonlights as the coach of the local youth football team, working with boys between the ages of thirteen and fifteen. He sees sports as a way to help keep kids out of trouble, but more often than not, in Mendocino County, he complains, the trouble finds them.

The Emerald Triangle is known for exceptional pot. The area, especially Mendocino County, has been honing its expertise since the sixties when the region first became a haven for people using marijuana. Driving into Ukiah, I was struck by the multitude of huge gardening store billboards scattered along the side of the road, advertising the best fertilizers, sophisticated irrigation systems, and pretty much anything else you can imagine to help your "plants" grow. County officials tell me, per capita, there are more gardening shops in the Emerald Triangle than in any other part of the country.

[Thanks Jim!]

Don Alejandro the shaman shakes a rattle stick, provoking a sensuous cascade of clicking sounds. He chants softly in the Peruvian night, invoking spirits to assist in healing and enlivening our small group. About 12 of us sit outside on the grass of my friend Sergio’s lawn. In the neighborhood roosters are crowing, and dogs bark next door for a time. Two blocks away, Pacific ocean surf is pounding the beach at Chorillos. Alejandro has a blanket spread out on the grass, festooned with crystals, holy statuary, swords, money, flowers, fruits, and an assortment of magical tools. This is his mesa, a sacred altar set up for ritual healing ceremonies.

After setting a mood for our gathering, don Alejandro picks up several bottles of clear, greenish liquid. The liquid inside the bottles glistens in the night. He hands full bottles to several of us, and advises us to drink. The beverage is San Pedro, Saint Peter’s cactus Tricocereus pachanoi. The name derives from the fact that in Christian mythology Saint Peter holds the keys to heaven, and in the shamanic traditions of the Peruvian Andes, San Pedro cactus is a key to heaven. This popular plant potion is rich in the psychoactive compound mescaline, and in about 40 minutes we will be journeying into the spirit world with don Alejandro as our guide.

[Thanks Sami!]

While sewage is not something you can set your watch by, it'll certainly tell you when the weekend has arrived.

Last year Yves Levi and colleagues at the University of Paris-South found that Parisian waste water was awash with cocaine and its metabolites on Friday and Saturday nights (Forensic Science International, DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2010.04.007). MDMA, the active compound in ecstasy pills, was also present, though at much lower levels.

But things are different down under. This week the same journal has published the results of a similar study by a team led by Chang Chen at the University of Adelaide. They report a quintupling of MDMA levels and a 30 per cent rise in methamphetamine use in Adelaide at the weekend compared with midweek levels (DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2011.01.037). Cocaine maintained third place all week.

Although local tastes change from continent to continent, everybody still loves coke.

Riki "Garfunkel" Lindhome and Kate "Oates" Micucci sing about the perils of obtaining medical marijuana in California. More at garfunkelandoates.com.

[Thanks Sam Hell!]

The goofy team at Hong Kong's Next Media Animation can't get enough of crazy marijuana news. They send us so many links to stories on pot, I think their entire animation team must be permanently stoned. Happy 4/20 NMA!

An unlikely brand is capitalizing on 4/20, the so-called pot smoker’s holiday. Nike is releasing a skateboarding sneaker commemorating marijuana folk heroes Cheech & Chong.

This isn’t Nike’s first 4/20 shoe. Last year it released the “Skunk,” an all-green shoe that closely resembles marijuana bud. The shoes are made in limited quantities, making them almost as harrowing to find as weed itself.

The biggest mystery however, is Nike’s continued fascination with 4/20 given that most pot-smoking hippies don’t wear shoes anyway.

Aw snap!