Originally published in 2009 'From Acid to the Body of Christ' is an autobiography written by Daxx Danzig. Set largely in Biloxi, Mississippi, the narrative charts Danzig’s life from high-school athlete, through neurotic young adult, to his eventual salvation in middle-age. The story is full of fascinating episodic tales, which at times seem fantastical, however one is reassured by an inscription on the copyright page: "Majority of this story is true with some embellishments." This, to my mind, is the correct way to put a life into words and Danzig’s is nothing, if not entertaining.

“Contrary to general belief, there is no federal law against growing P. somniferum." Martha Stewart Living

Michal Pollan wrote a lengthy feature (“Opium, made easy”) about Jim Hogshire in Harpers Magazine, amazed that the Opium Poppy which grows wild, grows legal and is available at craft and hobby stores and nurseries, could also be made into a drinkable tea that acts in a way similar to codeine or vicodin. (I am searching for a copy of this!)

This is perhaps one of the most important books for the home herbalist; in it one finds the folklore, the formulations, and the functions of the Opium Poppy in all its applications. Because of the propaganda, bad press and general ignorance of the modern age many have suffered needlessly. I have seen many sides of P. somniferum and its various constituents since I was young; from codeine, to morphine, heroin, darvon, vicodin, etc. etc,. I have seen the use, and the misuse of this ancient companion plant.

The government's chief drugs adviser says the UK is "floundering" in its attempts to control the online mephedrone market.

A BBC investigation has found that the illegal drug is still widely sold through websites despite the ban.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs also said many new legal highs had flooded the market since mephedrone and naphyrone were banned this year.

Chairman Professor Les Iverson said it was difficult for these to be policed.

Naphyrone, which is sold as NRG1, was legal until being reclassified as a Class B drug after research from the ACMD showed it could be 10 times more potent than cocaine.

Responding to the BBC investigation into the online mephedrone trade, Professor Iverson said: "At the moment we're floundering. We haven't got adequate mechanisms to combat the internet crime. And it is internet crime if you're selling a banned substance."

[Thanks James!]

A taxi driver died after unwittingly drinking pure liquid cocaine from a rum bottle given to him as a gift, a court heard.

Lascell Malcolm, 63, was given the bottle of Bounty Rum by a friend, Antoinette Corlis, after declining payment for a lift home after her Caribbean holiday. She had been given the bottle by a friend, Michael Lawrence, who was carrying it to the UK from St Lucia for acquaintance Martin Newman, Croydon crown court heard.

Only Newman, 50, knew there was 246g (8.7oz) of pure cocaine dissolved into the alcohol, the court in south London was told. He allegedly had given two bottles to Lawrence before flying to Gatwick airport, claiming his baggage was overweight. He intended to retrieve the bottles upon arrival, but was detained by Customs officers, the court heard. Lawrence left for a connecting flight to his home in Switzerland, giving one of the bottles to Corlis.

Oliver Glasgow, prosecuting, told the court: "Corlis, unaware of the dangers posed by the defendant's bottle of rum, decided to give it to Lascell Malcolm as a thank you -- It was gratefully received.

"Corlis was only to realise the full import of what she had done when she tried to contact Lascell Malcolm over the following days."

Malcolm, a father-of-two from Haringey, north London, had drunk a shot of the rum with a pint of Guinness, hours after Corlis gave him the bottle on 25 May last year. At 4am the next day, he called emergency services telling them he could not walk and had a headache.

He was discharged from hospital but later collapsed and died after a heart attack brought on by cocaine poisoning.

Medical prescription model or supervised venues -- For highest risk drugs (injected drugs including heroin and more potent stimulants such as methamphetamine) and problematic users

Specialist pharmacist retail model -- combined with named/licensed user access and rationing of volume of sales for moderate risk drugs such as amphetamine, powder cocaine, and methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy)

Licensed retailing -- including tiers of regulation appropriate to product risk and local needs. Used for lower risk drugs and preparations such as lower strength stimulant based drinks

Licensed premises for sale and consumption -- similar to licensed alcohol venues and Dutch cannabis "coffee shops," potentially also for smoking opium or poppy tea

Unlicensed sales -- minimal regulation for the least risky products, such as caffeine drinks and coca tea.

"Matt Thomas" (a pseudonym) had only recently begun experimenting with marijuana when he got caught selling a few joints in the bathroom at his junior high school. It was no big deal, Thomas thought, especially considering that his parents -- an investment banker and a homemaker -- smoked pot too.

But Thomas' grades had already begun to slip, perhaps because of his increasing alcohol and marijuana use; that, coupled with his drug-dealing offense, was enough for the school to recommend that his parents place him in an inpatient drug-treatment program. Thomas, then 13, was sent to Parkview West, a residential rehab center located a few miles from his suburban Minneapolis home.

But rather than encouraging sobriety, Thomas says, his seven-week stint at Parkview West helped trigger a decades-long descent into severe addiction -- from regular marijuana user to daily drinker to cocaine and methamphetamine addict. "It was [in rehab] that they told me that I was a drug addict and an alcoholic," says Thomas. "There was no turning back. The whole event solidified and created this notion in my own mind and in my social status. Who I was, was an alcoholic and drug addict."

In treatment, Thomas met other addicts. He attended daily group therapy with older teens, who regaled him with glamorized war stories about drugs he'd never tried. In rehab, says Thomas, one's first question upon meeting a new person is, "What's your drug of choice?" And that's often followed by, "What's that like?" Thomas recalls hearing a description of an LSD high so seductive that he pledged he would try it if he got the chance. He did, not long after getting out of rehab.

[Thanks Luke!]

Kids around the country are getting high on the internet, thanks to MP3s that induce a state of ecstasy. And it could be a gateway drug leading teens to real-world narcotics.

At least, that’s what Kansas News 9 is reporting about a phenomenon called "i-dosing," which involves finding an online dealer who can hook you up with "digital drugs" that get you high through your headphones.

And officials are taking it seriously.

"Kids are going to flock to these sites just to see what it is about and it can lead them to other places," Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs spokesman Mark Woodward told News 9.

I-dosing involves donning headphones and listening to "music" -- largely a droning noise -- which the sites peddling the sounds promise will get you high. Teens are listening to such tracks as "Gates of Hades," which is available on YouTube gratis (yes, the first one is always free).

Those who want to get addicted to the "drugs" can purchase tracks that will purportedly bring about the same effects of marijuana, cocaine, opium and peyote. While street drugs rarely come with instruction manuals, potential digital drug users are advised to buy a 40-page guide so that they learn how to properly get high on MP3s.

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater is often described as being a minor character in English Romanticism and, in being understood as such, becomes almost a footnote to the likes of Wordsworth and Coleridge. However, as a work of Western drug-writing, it stands out as not only one of the earliest examples, but as also one of the finest of the genre. In his introduction Barry Milligan notes that De Quincey "almost singlehandedly changed opium’s popular status from the respectability of a useful medicine to the exoticism of a mind-altering drug." And it doesn’t take a huge leap of faith to recognise in De Quincey’s work many of the signifiers we find so prevalent in post-WW2 drug-writing i.e. psychedelic literature.

Alex Eylar's depiction of the Escher masterpiece in the LEGO Classic Space theme. Since there’s no gravity in space, there’s some paradoxical realism to this work. It's all too wonderful.

Also, Reefer Man.