Chemical Shaman

http://www.theage.com.au/world/believers-see-the-light-deep-in-the-peruvian-jungle-20100821-139ti.html Believers see the light deep in the Peruvian jungle KEVIN Simmons, a 28-year-old American, says he was stuck - depressed, locked away in his home and taking months to answer an email. He found the road to recovery deep in the Peruvian jungle, in the form of a sludge-like concoction the Indians call ''the sacred vine of the soul''. The potion is ayahuasca, and increasingly it is becoming an elixir for foreigners grappling with everything from depression to childhood trauma. Visitors arrive in a jungle city of faded glory to participate in ayahuasca rituals offered by a range of healing centres. Ayahuasca may taste like ground-up earth, but many leave praising the brew for having purged them of demons and given them an unprecedented clarity about life. ''It's provided a sense of OK-ness, this maternal reassurance that everything is all right,'' Mr Simmons said. ''It made me feel like trying again, reminding me of this beautiful internal world that we have.'' This city, on the murky Amazon in north-eastern Peru, has always lured outsiders seeking adventure, riches or redemption. Its heyday a century ago attracted rubber barons, but the end of the rubber boom brought decay to Iquitos. Now the ayahuasca devotees are flowing in, searching for insight from a growing flock of shamans, or medicine men. Tour operators say the potion and the ceremonies in which it is consumed have become a cornerstone of the local industry. American William Grimes, a former farmer who has spent much of the past 12 years here, said some of those who first came for the ayahuasca were drug users looking for an LSD-like high. But that quickly ended, and most now come seeking ayahuasca's medicinal properties and the experience of indigenous rituals. ''We're seeing people coming for three or four weeks at a time, going on special diets, staying in nice hotels, eating in nice restaurants and contributing to the economy,'' Mr Grimes said. ''I think it's good.'' Many visit the Blue Morpho ayahuasca centre, founded by Hamilton Souther. Mr Souther said he was fresh out of university, with an anthropology degree but feeling lost, when he had a spontaneous mystical experience. The message he received: go to Peru. He left California in 2001 and trained for nearly two years to be a master shaman. He now holds forth at the retreat, on 70 lush hectares an hour from Iquitos. He mixes the brew and then officiates at night ceremonies, where he makes connections with spirits through his icaros, or chants, and the shaking of leaf rattles. ''Some people come to rid themselves of problems,'' Mr Souther, 32, explained. ''Other people come to transcend their past, other people come to release very strongly held identities about themselves to … reinvent themselves.'' But some people ''receive absolutely no benefit from drinking ayahuasca'', he said. The plant is technically a hallucinogen - it contains a hallucinogenic alkaloid that is illegal in the US - and is not addictive. Rather, it has been shown to help overcome addictions, said Charles Grob, a professor of psychiatry and paediatrics at UCLA who oversaw an ayahuasca study in the 1990s. Professor Grob said that there are no clinical studies to show ayahuasca alleviates depression but that the anecdotal evidence is tantalising. ''I believe, and my colleagues believe, that it holds great potential for helping us further understand the mind, the realm of internal experience, psycho-spiritual experience,'' he said. ''And it may have a very powerful potential on improving mental health.'' Those who run Blue Morpho say some users are taken on a terrifying journey replete with nightmarish visions. Ayahuasca also induces a severe gastro-intestinal reaction, leaving users retching and discharging from both ends. ''There is no way somebody would take ayahuasca as a recreational drug and then go out and party,'' said Malcolm Rossiter, an Australian who works at Blue Morpho. Fellow Australian Danny Vulic, 36, who has come to Peru twice for ayahuasca, said the brew has helped guide him in life. ''You know, it is just really nurturing, caring, it is an amazing thing,'' he said. ''I am always quite willing to surrender to the medicine completely. I want the work to be done. I have full trust in it.''

Sad news. I suppose for a lot of reasons. She was one of the biggest loves of my life, still is. I got online because I wanted to go over old emails that we exchanged years and years ago when we were falling in love, amazing emails Then I remembered that somebody hacked my email account when I was travelling and deleted 8 years worth of email/memories. That makes me sad, to know that I don't have those anymore. But when I get back to Melbourne I have a huge amount of video footage and photographs to look over, and that makes me happy I'd like to post some of her artwork up here once i'm back in Melbourne, for those that knew her well over the years. Such a beautiful, special girl. When she started to decline a few years ago and she was telling me that she was transforming into a new being I didn't really know what to make of it. It didn't seem like a particularly positive transformation. I only hope the reality she was experiencing wasn't merely subjective delusion or some kind of interdimensional tom-foolery, because she definitely seemed ready to leave for a long time, maybe it all happened like it was supposed to. I don't know. I'll miss her a lot. Denis How about we stop talking about cactus in this thread.

Prague - The Czech government today approved the list of hallucinogenic plants and mushrooms, including hemp, coca, mescaline cactus and magic mushrooms, and decided that people would be allowed to grow up to five pieces of such plants and keep 40 magic mushrooms at home, a CTK source said. The cabinet was today also expected to discuss artificial drugs and a permitted amount of these drugs in people's possession. However, it postponed the debate for two weeks, the source said. The new Penal Code, which will take effect on January 1, is designed to specify the government's directive. It contains a special provision on the growth of hemp and magic mushrooms. The government today also approved a directive on the use of anabolics and the list of diseases that will be considered congenial, according to the criminal law. The law distinguishes between the possession of marijuana and hashish for people's personal needs, for which they will face up to one year in prison, from the possession of other drugs for which they can receive up to two years in prison. According to the Justice Ministry's proposal that the government did not approve today, the possession of over 15 grammes of dried marijuana or over two grammes of methamphetamine (pervitine), cocaine and heroin will be punishable. The tolerated amount of drugs in people's possession is at present defined by police internal directives. No one thus knows precisely what amount is considered an amount "larger than a small amount of drug," the possession of which is punishable by the law. If the government approves the ministry's proposal without changes in two weeks, people will be able to have four pills of ecstasy in their possession and up to five grammes of hashish. http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/zpravy/czech-govt-defines-rules-of-hallucinogenic-plants-growing/411010

p.m's please

That's hillarious Ronny. So you're the idiot that forced Harold into an early retirement http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainmen...5561092148.html The man had so much left to give!!!!!

So i'm scrolling down the front page of The Age today and guess who I see smoking a bong in a picture for an article about cannabis coffee shops. See if you can recognise him

* John Silvester * September 22, 2008 THE Victorian Ombudsman is investigating claims that seized drugs worth millions of dollars are missing from the police forensic science laboratory. An internal police audit has found drugs listed as destroyed years ago have been kept, and chemicals that should have been stored are missing. The failure to maintain stringent chain of evidence standards has the potential to have an impact on several coming trials. Potentially volatile chemicals, seized from drug raids over several years, are stored in a separate brick building at the rear of the Macleod laboratory and have not been subjected to the usual exhibit management standards. Senior police have admitted privately they are unable to say whether the missing drugs have been destroyed, are lost or were stolen. A full audit would require checking thousands of computer page entries against lists of drugs and chemicals meant to have been destroyed. "The truth is we will never know. Many cases go back years and it is impossible to find out what really happened in each case," one senior policeman said. The now disbanded Ceja corruption taskforce investigated claims that seized drugs were recycled by the former drug squad and either sold or given to informers as a reward for information. One former Ceja investigator said there were suspicions at the time that some seized drugs were not destroyed as required by law. Two previous police audits of the forensic unit have left the problem unresolved. The Ombudsman - rather than the Office of Police Integrity - is overseeing the investigation because it involves unsworn scientific and administrative staff rather than sworn police. Police sources said that despite several warnings in recent years that the audit, storage and maintenance of seized drugs was inadequate, there have been no substantial improvements. The Ombudsman's investigation began after it received information from within the police force that there was a serious problem with the handling and storage of drugs in the Macleod facility. Ombudsman investigators have taken the allegations seriously enough to register a person within the police department with vital information as a protected internal source. Police have twice received information relating to plans by organised crime figures and corrupt police to infiltrate the secure forensic science drugs unit. In 1991 police discovered that 10 kilograms of an amphetamine chemical had been switched with red tile grout after it had been seized by police. Later police found that drug squad detective Kevin Hicks organised several burglaries on the Attwood police storage area to allow criminals to steal back seized chemicals. Hicks was later sentenced to a minimum of five years' jail after pleading guilty to theft, bribery and burglary charges. A spokeswoman for the Ombudsman's Office refused to comment. "We cannot provide any information at all," she said. Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon's spokesman said: "As this is a whistleblower matter we will not be making any further comment." Judges and magistrates have repeatedly criticised the delays in obtaining drug analysis reports, but police say this is due to chronic understaffing in the specialist scientific unit. Police are conducting a separate inquiry into DNA procedures after a murder case collapsed last month. Deputy Commissioner Simon Overland said the inquiry would review 7000 DNA cases after a sample resulting in a man being charged over the murders of mother and daughter Margaret and Seana Tapp in 1984, was found to be tainted. The charges against the man were dropped when it was discovered the DNA evidence was worthless. The unit also came under fire from police, lawyers and the judiciary at the height of the Purana gangland prosecutions because of delays of up to 12 months in obtaining drug test results. http://www.theage.com.au/national/drugs-wo...0d.html?page=-1

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/melbourneozfreecycle/

Drugs seized during police blitz * July 19, 2008 - 8:51AM Sixteen people have allegedly been caught carrying drugs in the first night of a police crackdown on anti-social behaviour in Melbourne. Police say they discovered heroin, cannabis and ecstasy in an operation that concentrated on Flinders Street train station and the surrounding area. Dogs were used to detect drugs as part of the joint operation between the Safe Streets Taskforce and transit police. Transit police also patrolled rail stations from early in the evening to deal with drunkenness, assaults and other public order offences. Another person was arrested on weapons charges and 16 people were given penalty notices for various infringements. Police were not able to confirm how many drug-related charges had been laid. The operation will continue tonight. AAP http://www.theage.com.au/national/drugs-se...80719-3hot.html

Drugs cost nation an arm and leg: $56bn a year Nick Miller April 9, 2008 SOCIAL and health problems caused by tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs cost Australia more than $56 billion dollars a year, according to a report to be released today. The alarming new figures come as leading health experts call for radical reform, and a massive boost in funding, in the fight against smoking, alcohol abuse and obesity. The real costs of drugs include ill health, premature death, reduced productivity, crime and accidents, say report authors Professor David Collins of Macquarie University and Professor Helen Lapsley of the University of New South Wales. Tobacco was by far the most painful to the country's hip pocket — a $31.5-billion bill. In one year (2004-05), there was $9.2 billion lost in workplace productivity due to tobacco or alcohol, $4 billion in crime due to illicit drugs and $3.1 billion in road accidents caused by alcohol. The report, commissioned by the Federal Government, is the sequel to a 2002 report that put the social cost of licit and illicit drugs at $34.5 billion — though this figure cannot be directly compared with the new amount because of a change in the method of calculation. "This ($56 billion) is an incredibly important figure," said Jon Currie, professor of addiction medicine at St Vincent's hospital. "It shows that we have got to do something, and we are not being clever enough about what we are doing at the moment." He said many public health messages were based more on passion than evidence that they were effective. In a keynote speech today at the National Prevention Summit in Melbourne, federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon will reaffirm the Rudd Government's new focus on preventable health problems. "The rise of preventable chronic disease poses a front-line economic challenge," Ms Roxon says in an excerpt from the planned speech, seen by The Age. "A greater focus on prevention — not just in the health system but more broadly — would yield economic and other benefits." The report comes as some of the country's leading public health experts have called for a National Public Health Institute, which will dole out cash and shape messages for programs across the country, with a massive funding boost of up to 20% of the national health budget. Preventive health is now around 5% of expenditure. Modelled on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, it would turn the long, fragmented list of local health promotion schemes into proven national programs. The plan is to be discussed at today's summit in Melbourne, convened by VicHealth and the Australian Institute of Health Policy Studies. Experts speaking at the summit will warn that chronic problems such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease are rife, increasing and often preventable — but too much focus is on treating them after the fact, in an expensive health system. "We are really at a fork in the road," VicHealth chief executive Todd Harper said. "We can either get things right in terms of prevention, or if we miss that fork we could see life expectancy levels in this country decline for the first time." Brian Oldenburg, chair of the Australian Institute of Health Policy Studies, said: "Maybe 'dog's breakfast' is a bit strong, but at the moment we don't have a national, authoritative body that reviews the evidence as to what really works."

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=444159 Farmers to get go-ahead to grow hemp Wednesday Apr 9 10:24 AEST The NSW government says hemp growers will be on a drug-free high with plans to introduce a new licensing scheme to encourage local growers. Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald said a potentially lucrative industrial hemp industry was not far off, following changes which will be introduced by the Iemma government. "Industrial hemp fibre produced here in NSW could pave the way for the establishment of a new viable industry that creates and sells textiles, cloth and building products made from locally grown hemp," Mr Macdonald said. "There is growing support from the agricultural sector for the development of such a new industry. This is a direct result of the environmentally-friendly nature of industrial hemp and a perceived interest for hemp products in the market." Industrial hemp is a species of cannabis, but it has low tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) compared to other forms of cannabis plants and cannot be used as a drug. Mr Macdonald said the soft texture of hemp means it can be used for insulation or as an alternative to fibreglass, while hemp seed oil can be used as a base for skin care products and paints. The scheme will be administered by the minister and will operate within a strict legal framework. "The NSW government will amend existing criminal drug laws to ensure that existing drug law enforcement is not compromised - and this position is supported by the NSW Police," Mr Macdonald said in a statement. ©AAP 2008

I told you all along you had to install a special plug-in!! bah! Listen to me next time!