CLICKHEREx

http://www.usatoday.com/story/information/n…ional/8463787/ USA Marijuana edibles pack a wallop DENVER — An off-the-cuff marijuana smoker, Kyle Naylor figured he’d give edible marijuana merchandise a attempt to see in the event that they’d curb his nervousness and insomnia. It did not go nicely. Eighty minutes into his experiment, Naylor obtained intensely sick and misplaced management of his physique. By ninety minutes, he was hyperventilating, freaking out and heading to the emergency room. “For me, the impact from smoking marijuana was utterly totally different than ingesting it,” says Naylor, 30. On Jan. 1, Colorado turned the primary state to legalize leisure use of marijuana — Washington state expects to start authorized retail gross sales this summer time — and commercially made edible merchandise have turn into a fashionable various to smoking pot. Although brownies laced with illegal marijuana have quietly made the rounds at events across the USA for many years, adults now can stroll into state-licensed shops right here and purchase professionally manufactured edibles, from sweet to soda and granola. However this isn’t simply a story about completely satisfied highs. Two deaths related with edible marijuana merchandise have Colorado lawmakers scrambling to toughen laws and specialists warning of weird conduct as shoppers eat highly effective pot-infused meals. Specialists say the quantity of marijuana in edibles can differ extensively, and in some instances, the degrees are so excessive individuals report excessive paranoia and nervousness bordering on psychotic conduct. “You possibly can really feel such as you’re dying,” says Genifer Murray of CannLabs, a Colorado-accredited marijuana efficiency testing lab. Murray says inexperienced customers simply can overdose on marijuana edibles as a result of the consequences take longer to kick in than smoking. The considerations comply with two nationally outstanding incidents. Within the first, a school scholar from Wyoming jumped to his dying March eleven from a Denver lodge balcony after consuming a marijuana cookie. Witnesses advised police that Levi Thamba Pongi, 19, was rambling incoherently after consuming a giant serving of the doped cookie. The Denver coroner dominated that “marijuana intoxication” was a vital think about his dying. And Richard Kirk of Denver faces first-diploma homicide fees stemming from the deadly capturing of his spouse inside their residence in April. Kirk’s spouse referred to as 911 to report he was hallucinating and rambling after consuming marijuana sweet and taking prescription medicine. Kristine Kirk died whereas on the telephone with a police dispatcher. “On the recorded name, Mrs. Kirk could be heard telling Richard to remain down and yelling for her youngsters to go downstairs,” based on a search warrant affidavit. “At one level, Mrs. Kirk tells the 911 operator ‘please hurry’ as a result of he was scaring the youngsters and he was ‘completely hallucinating.’ “ Edibles give customers a totally different type of excessive than the one they get from smoking marijuana, largely as a result of the pot is absorbed by way of the abdomen as an alternative of the lungs. The consequences are slower to reach, usually last more and might be extra intense as a result of individuals unwittingly eat greater than they intend to. Then again, individuals who smoke pot get excessive shortly, permitting them to raised regulate how stoned they’re getting. “Once you’re smoking, you attain a sure degree of highness … and overlook to maintain smoking,” says Denver forensic psychologist Max Wachtel, who counsels youth offenders. “It is in our nature to by accident overuse edibles.” Naylor says that is what occurred to him: He ate the advisable dose of ¼ of the cookie and waited an hour. When nothing occurred, he ate extra. “I did not understand it might be such an intense and totally different excessive after that lengthy,” he says. Beneath laws that took impact final week, edible marijuana merchandise can’t include greater than one hundred mg of THC, the compound in marijuana that will get customers excessive. However there is no commonplace for the dimensions of these merchandise. Meaning one sweet bar can include the identical quantity of THC as a whole bag of cookies. The laws apply solely to marijuana for leisure use; medical marijuana merchandise might be a lot stronger however can be found for authorized buy solely with a physician’s suggestion. Colorado lawmakers agreed this week to spend $10 million to review the consequences of marijuana use and to require higher labeling of edibles, whereas barring them from being made into merchandise “primarily marketed to youngsters.” Lawmakers additionally accredited a measure that may decrease the quantity of marijuana-infused oil or butter that may be bought to shoppers. Infused oils and butters include concentrated marijuana at ranges far larger than contained within the plant itself. State regulators are contemplating whether or not to mandate portion sizes, which might assist standardize the quantity of marijuana in a sweet bar or a soda. Legalization opponents resembling state Rep. Frank McNulty say the brightly packaged edibles attraction to youngsters who won’t cease to learn the tiny print warning that a Tootsie Roll-measurement sweet accommodates the equal of a number of joints. Opponents additionally fear concerning the straightforward availability of edibles. On April 22, a faculty in northern Colorado suspended a number of college students who introduced each marijuana and pot edibles into the constructing, which they stated they stole from their grandparents. “They should cease lacing youngsters’ snacks with THC … and standardize these servings,” says McNulty, a Republican who represents the Denver suburb of Highlands Ranch. McNulty sponsored two payments that may toughen marijuana laws this legislative session. “No matter is in that brownie, you are on it for the complete experience. There isn’t any capability to self-regulate with edibles.” Wachtel, the psychiatrist, says the distinction between smoking a joint and consuming an edible is very similar to that between consuming exhausting liquor and beer. You’ll be able to slam 5 photographs earlier than feeling the consequences however can inform you’re getting drunk after consuming 5 beers. “You are getting a ton extra THC” in edibles, Wachtel says. “There’s a actual potential for hazard.” Murray of CannLabs says Nayor’s expertise is pretty typical for first-time customers of edible merchandise. CannLabs is considered one of a handful of labs licensed by Colorado to check marijuana edibles for efficiency and contaminants. She says scientific testing is a vital safeguard for shoppers, particularly first-time customers. “It is advisable ensure you know what’s in it and the way it will have an effect on your physique,” Murray says. As a result of Colorado is the primary state to legalize leisure marijuana, regulators haven’t any greatest-apply guidelines to borrow from different states or the federal authorities, which considers marijuana an illegal drug, says Lewis Koski, director of Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division. “We have been actually ranging from scratch,” he says. Grocery store meals and meats, together with alcohol and tobacco, are regulated on the state and federal ranges. Prescribed drugs should bear in depth security checks and regulatory scrutiny earlier than being bought to the general public, and even then solely with a physician’s steerage. Producers of edible merchandise say it is easy to eat an excessive amount of, however they dismiss the concept somebody who will get excessive from consuming pot sweet would seize a gun or bounce off a balcony. “In case you eat an excessive amount of marijuana, you will have scorching flashes and chilly flashes and you then get beneath the covers and cross out. You do not begin waving a gun round,” says Steve Horwitz of Denver’s Ganja Gourmand. “”Any marijuana consumer who consumes edibles will, ultimately, by accident eat an excessive amount of. It is very disagreeable.” Beneath the laws that took impact final week, edible merchandise will probably be examined for power and the way properly the marijuana is dispersed inside a batch of brownies or sweet. Batches that include greater than one hundred mg of THC per package deal can’t be bought to leisure customers. Beginning June 1, smokable marijuana shall be power-examined and the outcomes made public. Trevor Hughes four:17 p.m. EDT Might eight, 2014 USA TODAY The Newhawks Crew

http://cannabisnowmagazine.com/cannabis/medical/marijuana-works-better-than-opiates-to-control-pain-heres-how May 2, 2014 By Kylie “Tee” Toponce One compelling argument for the legalization of medical marijuana is its ability to ameliorate intense pain. Currently available technologies have helped us gain understanding of cannabis, as well as its more-commonly-accepted opioid counterparts, and the affects they have on pain. In 2010, as an attempt to gain insight on pain’s function in the brain, Oxford University conducted a study using fMRI machines and the standard tricks of psychology. Volunteers were monitored during zaps of pain to their feet. Some areas, they were told, had the potential to be unsafe. In those spots, the volunteers reported their pain levels as being higher. In reality, all of it was safe. Interestingly, in the fMRI machines, the anterior insula lit up before they were ever zapped. Thinking about, anticipating and fearing pain caused their brains to assume—caused them to feel—the physical sensation of pain. It’s all in the way human brains are hardwired. The parts of the brain where emotions are processed (the limbic system) are directly connected to the parts where physical stimuli are detected (the somatosensory cortex). This wiring is what gives us the definition of pain, as according to The International Association for the Study of Pain: “An unpleasant and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage.” In essence, it is your brain telling you that somewhere in your body, something is wrong. Let’s first take a look at the federally recognized, legal remedy for pain: opiates. As it stands currently, opiates are one of the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States. This is regardless of the fact that they only have a 30-40 percent success rate for reducing pain. Moreover, 80 percent of the time, they are accompanied by horrible side effects—hormonal imbalance, constipation (often leading to fecal impaction), nausea, and intense drowsiness just to name a few. In order to combat these side effects, patients often have to “take drugs to offset the drugs.” Although it can be argued that these side effects are relatively small, potentially just inconveniences, the number of people who die from overdoses is not. That is, 125,000 lives in the last decade. The body will build up a tolerance and require higher doses over time, resulting in addiction, illegal drug use and possibly death. “It started with a snowboarding accident; my knee got really messed up. They had me on Morphine and OxyContin for a while, but eventually the prescriptions ran out. As soon as they stopped giving me a legitimate source, I got into the underground scene,” says Randall*. “I was pronounced legally dead once, but I still didn’t clean up. My eight-year addiction didn’t stop until it eventually landed me behind bars.” Cases like Randall’s are not uncommon; roughly 6 percent of people who take legitimately-prescribed opiates try heroine within ten years. In 2007, Purdue Pharma (producer of OxyContin) was sued in regards to the built-in time-release OxyContin, which opiate abusers ardently seek. Their marketing led doctors to believe that it had a lower risk of addiction. Abusers discovered they could crush or chew the drug and get the full dose (which is meant to last hours) all at once. Purdue’s defense? They hadn’t advertised to customers, only to doctors. They lost the case and paid $634 million in fines. Medical cannabis, unlike opiates, doesn’t alleviate pain; it alleviates your emotional response to pain. Upon observation, it is recognized that higher THC strains do this more effectively. THC is received in your emotional center (the limbic system), which is what causes the relaxation effect. Marijuana as pain relief? It’s all in the way our brains are hardwired. *indicates names have been changed to protect identities Have you used marijuana or opiates to treat pain? Which do you prefer? Tell us in the comments below! http://cannabisnowmagazine.com/cannabis/medical/marijuana-works-better-than-opiates-to-control-pain-heres-how --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- US CDC - Facts - Drug Overdose - Home and Recreational Safety www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/overdose/facts.html Jul 2, 2013 - Deaths from drug overdose have been rising steadily over the past two ... relating to prescription drug overdose in 2010, 16,651 (75%) involved opioid ... CDC Data & Statistics The CDC Data & Statistics web site features ... Aus Facts & Stats - International Overdose Awareness Day www.overdoseday.com/facts-stats/ According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics overdose deaths totalled 1,383, while road deaths, ... Deaths from opioid drugs in Australia are rising steadily. Preventing Opioid Overdose, Drug Accidental Death ... www.samhsa.gov/.../Volume.../preventing-opioid-overdose-death.aspx Opioid overdose and deaths have been on the rise. ... increasingly been prescribing opioids for the treatment of pain at an alarming rate – fourfold since 2001(2). ---------------------------------------------------- Medical cannabis deaths: zero - Google: "medical cannabis; deaths"

http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/722753-UNODC-Recommends-Treating-Addiction-as-Health-Not-Legal-Issue neversickanymore View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Add as Contact Senior Moderator Recovery Support Science & Technology -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date Jan 2013 Location babysitting the argument in my head Posts 9,012 Yesterday 15:29 UNODC Recommends Treating Addiction as Health, Not Legal, Issue Dr. Nora Volkow March 27, 2014 Earlier this month I went to Vienna for the 57th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), part of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). There I chaired a working group that presented a set of recommendations to the CND concerning the most appropriate, scientifically informed way to approach the problem of substance use disorders: as a medical, not a legal, issue. Commission on Narcotic Drugs 2014 It was a very productive and encouraging meeting. I and the other members of the Scientific Consultation Working Group on Drug Policy, Health and Human Rights were in complete agreement that substance use disorders are a disease—caused by developmental, biological, neuropsychological, and psychosocial factors—and thus should be addressed within a public health framework. We recommended to the CND that healthcare systems should take primary responsibility for addressing substance abuse and addiction through implementation of evidence-based treatment and prevention, as well as screening in primary care settings. We also recommended that health ministries of respective countries should support such an approach to dealing with substance use disorders by allocating sufficient funds to meet their countries’ prevention and treatment needs. No one would imagine that enforcing tough legal sanctions on people with a chronic condition such as heart disease could help address that illness or its causes, or help prevent it in others. Criminal justice is clearly not the way forward in dealing with substance use disorders either; putting people with addictions in prison and perpetuating various legal barriers to seeking or providing substance abuse treatment are only hindrances. Addiction is a medical issue, and the member countries of the United Nations will make progress in addressing it when it becomes the full responsibility of their healthcare systems. View an on site interview with Dr. Volkow at the Commission session In 2016 the UN General Assembly will hold a Special Session on the World Drug problem. Our committee recommended that, in preparation for this, the UNODC should support the CND to develop a global integrated strategy on prevention and treatment of substance use disorders in collaboration with the World Health Organization. We also recommended that the CND form a permanent council of scientific advisors on these issues. The recommendations of our committee crystalize a paradigm shift in how the problem of substance abuse and addiction are viewed by modern societies. Shifting the problem of drug abuse and addiction from the legal (or moral) sphere to that of science and medicine, where it properly belongs, is a crucial step toward successfully tackling the problem. http://www.drugabuse.gov/about-nida/...ot-legal-issue

http://www.webmd.com/smoking-cessation/news/20140507/e-cigarette-vapor-contains-potentially-harmful-particles-review By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter WEDNESDAY, May 7, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- E-cigarettes may not be as harmless as they initially seemed. New research suggests that e-cigarette vapor produces tiny particles that users suck deep into their lungs, potentially causing or worsening respiratory diseases. The particles are of comparable size to those contained in cigarette smoke, and as many as 40 percent of them reach the deepest part of the lungs when inhaled, said Jonathan Thornburg, lead investigator and a senior research engineer at RTI International, a North Carolina research institute. That means if the particles turn out to be harmful, they'll be causing damage throughout the lungs. "These small particles have a high surface area-to-volume ratio," Thornburg said. "When they deposit in your lungs, it makes it easy for whatever chemicals are in them to dissolve into your lung tissue." Those chemicals potentially could cause or worsen respiratory problems such as asthma or bronchitis. In its review of emissions from two types of e-cigarettes, Thornburg's team did not find any toxic substances in the vapor produced by the devices. "Everything we found was what the [u.S. Food and Drug Administration] and others generally regard as safe," he said, noting that the cancer-causing agents produced by burning tobacco are not present in e-cigarettes. But another new study raises the possibility that the liquids used to produce e-cigarette vapors could contain carcinogens or harmful ingredients, The New York Times reports. The study found formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, in overheated vapor produced by high-power e-cigarette devices known as tank systems, the newspaper reported. These systems are larger devices than typical e-cigarettes, and are designed to vaporize liquid nicotine quickly to give users a bigger nicotine kick. These studies provide even more impetus for the FDA's recent proposal to begin regulating e-cigarettes as tobacco products, said Dr. Norman Edelman, senior medical advisor for the American Lung Association. "We certainly don't believe e-cigarettes are a safe alternative," Edelman said. "The question is whether it's a safer alternative, and we believe those results aren't in yet. This is a tobacco product and should be regulated by the FDA as all tobacco products should." Thornburg and his colleagues tested the vapor from e-cigarettes using a new smoking machine built to replicate the physical experience of a 14-year-old boy using one of the devices. They first tested an e-cigarette liquid designed to create a tobacco flavor. That liquid produced particles about 184 nanometers in size. A second liquid -- this one with a fruit punch flavor -- produced particles about 270 nanometers in size. Those are within the same range as the particles in cigarette smoke, according to Thornburg. The researchers also found that 47 percent of the inhaled emissions deposited in the lungs, with nearly all of these particles reaching the deepest part of the lungs. The remaining 53 percent of the emissions, when exhaled, create a potential source of secondhand exposure to people nearby, the study authors said. The main ingredients found in the e-cigarette liquids are glycerin and glycol ethers, which are used as the liquid carrier into which all of the nicotine, flavorings and preservatives easily dissolve, Thornburg said. Those substances are not considered harmful. Other ingredients included nicotine, the preservatives BHA and BHT, and chemicals that create the taste of caramelized sugar and the scent of citrus. "It's unknown whether these chemicals are harmful if you inhale them," Thornburg said. "A lot of the chemicals are considered safe, but that's from an ingestion perspective, not inhalation," he noted. According to Thomas Kiklas, CFO of the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association, "All constituents [of e-cigarettes] have been in the U.S. food supply for generations and all are approved by the EPA/FDA for human inhalation and use dermally." Kiklas contends, "The e-cig has and is being used by millions of Americans. There have been billions and billions of uses without a single incidence of harm." Thornburg said nicotine researchers need to come together and agree on a set of standards for researching e-cigarettes, given that there are so many different liquids and devices available. "Each combination could create a unique exposure that could impact the user as well as bystanders," he said. "With so many different potential combinations, we really need standardized methods for conducting the research with the devices we use and some liquids we use, so all of the research will be comparable."

http://www.naturalnews.com/045074_sunshine_mortality_risk_vitamin_D.html Sunday, May 11, 2014 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer Tags: sunshine, mortality risk, vitamin D (NaturalNews) The merits of regular sun exposure for optimal health have been reiterated by one of the most comprehensive studies yet to look at the connection between vitamin D and early mortality. Researchers from Sweden, after compiling the results of a 20-year research project they started back in the early 1990s, found that avoiding natural sunlight, or slathering yourself with sunscreen every time you go outside, can actually double your risk of premature death. The study out of the Karolinska Institute in Solna evaluated nearly 30,000 women over the course of two decades, tracking their outdoor behaviors in conjunction with rates of cancer and early mortality. During this time, the women were asked to fill out questionnaires at certain intervals indicating how often they went to tanning salons or spent time outside in direct sunlight without sunscreen. At the end of the study period, a total of 2,545 women died, and many of these women had previously admitted to spending little or no time outdoors in the sun. On the flip side, women who regularly spent time in the sun, allowing their skin to absorb vitamin D from the sun's ultraviolet B (UVB) rays, had much lower rates of early death. Overall, women who avoided the sun were determined to have a doubled risk of dying early. "The results of this study clearly showed that mortality was about double in women who avoided sun exposure compared to the highest exposure group," stated lead study author Dr. Pelle Lindqvist about the findings. "Sun exposure advice which is very restrictive in countries with low solar intensity might in fact be harmful for women's health." Skin melanomas caused by too little sunlight, reveals study Though often blamed as the most prominent cause of skin cancer, sun exposure was also found in the study to have protective benefits. Fewer women in the sun-exposed group developed skin melanomas, according to the study, and these same women were also 10 percent less likely to die from skin cancer compared to women who avoided the sun. This flies in the face of government recommendations from both the U.S. and Canada that urge people to avoid the sun to protect against skin cancer. Not only does avoiding the sun actually increase skin cancer risk, but it also puts people at an increased risk of developing other conditions associated with vitamin D deficiency, including supposedly eradicated conditions like rickets. "As the authors comment, our bodies need sunlight to make essential vitamin D, which can help us resist some cancer types," said Professor Dorothy Bennett from St. George's University in London to The Telegraph. "Those who normally avoid the sun and/or cover most of their skin are advised to take vitamin D supplements." With more than half of the world's population now believed to be vitamin D deficient, the new recommendations could not be more timely. Every system of the body requires vitamin D at levels far higher than the average person likely receives on a daily basis, a message that groups like the Vitamin D Council are spreading far and wide in the interest of public health. "Vitamin D deficiency causes growth retardation and rickets in children and will precipitate and exacerbate osteopenia, osteoporosis and increase risk of fracture in adults," explains a 2008 study on vitamin D and health published in the journal Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology. "The vitamin D deficiency has been associated pandemic with other serious consequences including increased risk of common cancers, autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases and cardiovascular disease." Sources for this article include: http://www.telegraph.co.uk http://www.businessinsider.com http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov http://science.naturalnews.com Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/045074_sunshine_mortality_risk_vitamin_D.html#ixzz31Vop3xsP ------------------------------------------------------------------- It should be noted that Australia is much closer to the Equator than Sweden, and there is considerably more cloud, and air pollution there than here, so double the risk there wouldn't translate to double the risk here; perhaps 50% - 70% higher is my estimate of what the figure is likely to be, in Aus. There is an informative post about vitamin D, and its necessary co-factors, with a link to a 1hr video on it at http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/answer?qid=20110922214201AAVo5vI Sensible sun exposure is the key. In midwinter, I try to get 20 mns, between 11 am - 1 pm, wearing nothing more than brief underwear (at home) although in midsummer, I avoid exposure between 10 am - 3 pm, solar time, not daylight savings time, and only need 15 mns, but people with darker skin tones may need much more.

Shaman's Apprentice Members2 1,232 posts Gender:Male Location:Coastal Climate or location:NSW Posted Yesterday, 07:41 PM take a look at the vitamin D supplement sales figures And tell me again where this mis-information comes from. IF it were true, people in greenland, norway etc would have a much much higher mortality rate. Edit: you only need about 10 minutes a day. in greenland, their vitamin D levels last them all the way through winter! Its not something you need to to-pup ever day imo. Regular exercise is more important, and if thats outdoors all the time, you may just get cancer faster, and die quicker. This type of science is a crock. Edited by C_T, Yesterday, 07:44 PM. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It seems to me that you misinterpreted what the article stated; premature death in Swedish females who rarely receive exposure to sunlight, when compared to those females who do receive such exposure, cannot be meaningfully extrapolated to a comparison of mortality rates between the overall populations of both genders in different countries, and only a small proportion of vitamin D (actually vitamin D2) is converted in the body to the usable form; vitamin D3 / cholecalciferol. from: http://www.tripme.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?11825-What-Is-the-Role-of-Vitamin-D-in-Depression "It is impossible to obtain sufficient vitamin D from dietary sources; even cod liver oil would cause vitamin A toxicity, and vitamin A and vitamin D compete for absorption via the same biochemical process. A study has shown that people suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder may benefit from supplementation, but keep in mind that only a small fraction of vitamin D supplements is converted to vitamin D3, which is the form the body utilises in thousands of biochemical processes, so I supplement at the rate of 5000 IU, daily, if not receiving adequate exposure to sunlight, to maintain optimum vitamin D levels. From: http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/depressio... "In 1999, in an even more interesting study, vitamin D scientist, Bruce Hollis, teamed up with Michael Gloth and Wasif Alam to find that 100,000 IU of vitamin D given as a one time oral dose improved depression scales better than light therapy in a small group of patients with seasonal affective disorder". There is a post about S.A.D. at http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110822011918AANBAtt SAD and St. John's Wort. - Two groups diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder (SAD - depression peaking in fall/winter and declining during spring/summer) were treated with 900 mg of St. John's Wort plus 2 hours' exposure to bright light or 2 hours of dim light over 4 weeks. Both groups improved significantly, suggesting that St. John's wort may be an effective therapy in patients with SAD. J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol, Oct. 1994. http://www.personalhealthzone.com/stjohnswort2.html Address both aspects of S.A.D. - the reduced number of hours of daylight, and the corresponding reduction in the amount of vitamin D3 which your body is able to produce during the winter months (negligible, or zero, in many latitudes far from the Equator). Use recommended brands; Perika, Jarsin, or Kira; otherwise a standardised German variety. View the SJW and Hypericum websites, on page B, at Weebly [www.sjwinfo.org/ and www.hypericum.com/ ] . Check out: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2006/10/10/more-evidence-of-the-benefits-of-full-spectrum-lighting.aspx & http://tanningbeds.mercola.com/ WEBLINKS: http://nadir.nilu.no/~olaeng/fastrt/VitD-ez_quartMED.htmlSUNLIGHT EXPOSURE VITAMIN D3 - Dr. J. Cannell http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/ HOME TEST KITS http://www.zrtlab.com/vitamindcouncil/VITAMIN D3 - Dr. M.Holick http://www.vitamindhealth.org/http://blog.nutritiondata.com/ndblog/2009/08/how-much-sunshine-does-it-take-to-make-enough-vitamin-d.html?mbid=ndnl Dr. J. Mercola http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/12/16/my-one-hour-vitamin-d-lecture-to-clear-up-all-your-confusion-on-this-vital-nutrient.aspxhttp://www.mercola.com/article/vitamin-d-resources.htmhttp://sunlightandvitamind.com/http://www.krispin.com/www.grassrootshealth.net/daction offer cost price postal 25(OH)D testing ($40) http://www.westonaprice.org/basicnutrition/vitaminprimer.html Dr. J. Cannell, at http://vitaminDcouncil.org is now recommending 10,000 iu of vitamin D3, ( NOT VITAMIN D2! ) daily, for depressed people. The Vitamin D Newsletter: April 21, 2010: More letters: "Vitamin D deficiency is but one cause of major depression; there are lots of others. However, I now recommend that anyone struggling with depression should take at least 10,000 IU /day with frequent 25(OH)D blood tests to assure levels of at least 100 ng/ml and to monitor for toxicity". He advises that the cofactors required for optimal absorption and utilisation are good levels of magnesium, zinc, boron, and vitamin K2. 59% of Americans are deficient in vitamin D3. Those with the lowest levels are 11 times more likely to be depressed (www.mercola.com). A deficiency in calcium can also cause depression; vitamin D3 is needed so it is utilised, and good levels of magnesium ensures it is deposited on bones, (preferably with some weight bearing exercise) where it belongs, rather than in blood vessels". Anyone wanting to calculate how much exposure to sunlight they require should use http://nadir.nilu.no/~olaeng/fastrt/VitD-ez_quartMED.html but it needs to be read, and applied carefully. If interested, Google: "(your town or city); latitude; au"

6 May 2014 Source: Daily Telegraph (Australia) Website: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/113 Author: Geoff Chambers HIGH BECOMES LOW AS POLICE RAID FESTIVAL NIMBIN'S 22nd annual Mardi Grass - a festival supporting the legalisation of cannabis that includes a bong-throwing competition, joint rolling events and a hemp rope tug of war - has been blitzed by police. A total of 86 people were nabbed for driving under the influence of a prohibited drug and five people were caught drink driving The annual festival, which attracted up to 10,000 people over the weekend and offers visitors tips about what to do if you get pulled over by police, was closely watched by Richmond local area command police. As part of Operation Chisel, a drug bus, sniffer dogs, and increased street patrols were organised, netting the drug affected drivers. Detective Inspector Matt Kehoe said police were concerned by the large number of drivers testing positive to drugs. The operation will continue today. The sniffer dogs searched 38 cars and people on Friday, with eight drug detection cautions, five cannabis cautions, two traffic infringements and two people charged. Insp Kehoe said 74 people were searched over the three days with 31 drug detections, 24 charges for possess prohibited drug and five charges for supply prohibited drug. http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v14/n408/a04.html?1206

4 May 2014 Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA) Website: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/340 Author: Jan Hefler MEDICAL MARIJUANA SEEN TO HAVE DRAMATIC EFFECT ON SYMPTOM RELIEF EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J. - Before buying cannabis at South Jersey's only medical-marijuana dispensary, patients must circle one of six animated faces that stare out from a clipboard. The row of smiling, wincing, frowning, and sobbing cartoon faces is being used to rank the degree of pain that patients experience due to cancer, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, and several other conditions the state deems treatable by cannabis. When the patients return to the Compassionate Care Foundation dispensary in Egg Harbor Township for a refill, they again are handed the Wong-Baker FACES Pain Rating Scale so that the effect of the marijuana can be assessed. The results so far are "absolutely dramatic," said Suzanne Miller, a researcher with a Ph.D. who sits on the dispensary's board of trustees. Miller is also a professor and the director of behavioral medicine at Fox Chase Cancer Center/Temple Health in Philadelphia. About 80 percent of the 145 CCF patients who completed the rankings at least twice over the last two months have charted significant improvement, she said. Still being collected and analyzed, the data show that on average, most patients are reporting their pain levels decreased by 30 to 50 percent, Miller said. "You usually see smaller results, about 10 percent, or 20 percent," she said. An author of four books and a contributor to more than 100 academic articles, Miller will be the lead researcher on a report she plans to submit to medical journals for publication possibly this fall. The dispensary has 600 registered patients and expects to have more data by that time. On a gloomy, wet morning last week, several patients walked into the dispensary to purchase cannabis, which is packaged in plastic bottles and sold at $428 an ounce. Two patients who agreed to be interviewed afterward said the marijuana they bought had changed their lives. Three other patients who were reached by phone said it markedly eased their pain. 'Zero' pain "I was addicted to Vicodin," said Gary Carnevale Sr., a multiple sclerosis patient from Bayville, Ocean County, shortly after he picked up an ounce of "Red Cherry Berry" marijuana from an employee behind a glass window at the dispensary. Carnevale, 57, a former licensed practical nurse, said increasing amounts of prescribed Vicodin, OxyContin, Percocet, and other narcotics did not relieve the throbbing pain shooting up his back and legs, and he then had to be hospitalized for two weeks early last year. Carnevale was among the first patients to come to CCF, which opened six months ago inside a cavernous warehouse just outside Atlantic City. Marijuana plants are also grown at that location under special purple, red, blue, and yellow lights. "I took three or four hits. I laid in bed, and I could not believe the pain slipping away," Carnevale said, recalling the first day he smoked it using a vaporizer. "My pain was like ten. . . . But when I smoke marijuana, I swear it's zero," he said. While he previously spent most of his days in bed, he said he now is able to function and even took a recent vacation with his family, including his two grandchildren. Jacqueline Angotti, a nurse-practitioner from Robbinsville, began sobbing when asked the effect the marijuana had on her 9-year-old son, Miles, who had suffered multiple, daily seizures since he was 2. "He's been seizure-free; he's had none for the past 31 days and has had no side effects," she said. "And he's better cognitively." In the past, Miles was forced to wear a mask to protect his face and teeth from frequent falls caused by the violent seizures, she said. And, for the same reason, he had to eat meals from a tray while sitting on the floor. Angotti turned the marijuana buds into a tincture, which she gives to Miles in tiny doses three times a day, and he no longer needs his mask, she said. "He eats dinner at the table now," she added. Bill Thomas, the dispensary CEO, said the frequent hugs that grateful patients bestow on staff and the tears he has witnessed in the waiting room convince him of marijuana's medical worth. "To us, this is medicine. To everyone else, it's something else. It's pot. . . . But this is not Colorado," he said. His staff wear white medical jackets, and only patients who have a doctor's approval may buy the drug. Those afflicted with seizures, multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and glaucoma are reporting the greatest benefit, Thomas said. One patient who had Crohn's disease experienced a "total reversal" and was able to return to work, he said. Because there is a dearth of scientific studies, anecdotal evidence is practically the only proof available at this time, Thomas said. Marijuana's status as a federally prohibited Schedule I drug, ranking it more dangerous than opium, has blocked studies on its medicinal value, he said. Though the federal government still considers marijuana illegal, the Obama administration recently announced it will not enforce the ban in states that have legalized it for medical and for recreational use except in egregious trafficking cases and when it is being marketed to minors. New Jersey is one of 22 states that have legalized medical marijuana, and many others are weighing it. Its strictly regulated program calls for doctors to write "recommendations" - not prescriptions - authorizing patients to obtain cannabis. But they are not required to provide dosing information, leaving patients to use marijuana on a trial-and-error basis. Thomas said he looks forward to having an analysis of the patient surveys completed and having a more detailed questionnaire for patients developed so that CCF can determine what doses and strains are most helpful for its patients. "This is the drug that needs to be studied," he said. Adjusting doses One in five patients initially told staff that they did not get relief by taking the cannabis they had purchased, Thomas said. But when the strain and dose were modified, he said, half of those patients reported their pain had lessened. Marijuana contains 60 chemicals, he said, and the various strains have different ratios of the ingredients. CCF currently sells six strains and is planning an expansion next month. Back in the dispensary waiting room, a 60-year-old Brigantine woman who suffers from multiple sclerosis was busy gathering up her one-quarter ounce of marijuana and her umbrella as she prepared to head home. "I had pain every day in my feet and occasionally in my face," she said, declining to be named. "It's debilitating, and when it's in my face it's like lightning." After baking marijuana brownies with the cannabis, she said, her pain improved 80 percent. "It's a valid medicine," she said. "And it is time it's seen that way."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jag-davies/marijuana-media-coverage_b_5296751.html Jag Davies Become a fan Publications Manager, Drug Policy Alliance 5 Ways to Improve Media Coverage of Marijuana and Other Drug-Related Issues Posted: 05/09/2014 The ground has never been more fertile for a change to our nation's failed drug policies. We are seeing a broader questioning of America's drug policy that fills our prisons and empties our coffers, that severely punishes the use of certain drugs but tolerates, regulates, taxes and even subsidizes others. In the late 1980s, media hysteria about drugs played a large part in the passage of draconian laws that turned the U.S. into the world's leading jailer. In 1989, the proportion of Americans polled who saw drug abuse as the nation's "number one problem" reached a remarkable 64 percent -- one of the most intense fixations by the American public on any issue in polling history. Within less than a year, however, the figure plummeted to less than 10 percent, as the media lost interest. The draconian policies enacted 25 years ago remain, however, and continue to result in catastrophic levels of arrests and incarceration. Media coverage of drugs and drug policy has grown much more sophisticated in the past quarter-century. Yet many journalists -- even some of the most well-meaning ones -- still often use inaccurate, offensive, or just plain absurd language that would be considered unthinkable when covering any other issue. Last year, the Associated Press made waves when it announced that it would no longer use the term "illegal immigrant". This fits with the AP's and other outlets' efforts to cast aside labeling terms that define people by a single behavior or condition -- and to instead use terms that humanize the people they are writing about. In that spirit, here are five ideas for how members of the media can help improve the public's understanding of drugs, people who use drugs, and drug policy: 1. People Who Want to Reform Marijuana Laws Are Mostly Not "Pro-Marijuana" 55 percent of Americans want marijuana legalization -- and polls have recently found majority support in not just the places you'd expect but even in states like Florida, Texas, Indiana, Ohio and Louisiana. Yet the media still often refers to people who are in favor of marijuana law reform as "pro-marijuana". Just because someone supports reforming marijuana laws doesn't mean that they encourage its use or have even tried it themselves. Most people are primarily concerned about the tax dollars and human potential squandered by arresting 750,000 people in the U.S. every year for marijuana. And besides, contrary to conventional wisdom, reform would not necessarily lead to increased marijuana use. The U.S. has some of the highest rates of marijuana use, despite some of the harshest marijuana laws -- while the Netherlands, which effectively decriminalized marijuana decades ago, has consistently much lower rates. And study after study has found that marijuana use has not increased in U.S. states that legalized medical marijuana. 2. Not Funny: Predictable Puns and Cheesy Stoner Images I can't tell you how many hundreds of times I've come across an otherwise serious news article about, say, the 20 million Americans who have been arrested for marijuana possession -- only to feel sick to my stomach when I notice the frivolous pun-filled headline. What other serious human rights, public health, or racial justice issue do we treat this way? (The Washington Post's Jamie Fuller recently called out pun-addicted headline writers in her piece "Opinions on marijuana are evolving. Pot puns definitely aren't".) To make matters worse, news editors have yet to shake their reliance on absurd caricatures. Even though half of all American adults have used marijuana, it seems as if every article or TV news story about marijuana policy is overshadowed by over-the-top photos or B-roll of someone dressed up as a giant marijuana leaf. I know a lot of people who smoke marijuana -- and as far as I can tell they're not sporting the marijuana-themed tutus I'm seeing every day in the media. That's why the Drug Policy Alliance has endeavored to provide media outlets with ready-to-use stock photos of everyday people who use marijuana. These images are examples of the type of photos that media could be using when doing a story about marijuana legalization -- patients who use marijuana to relieve debilitating pain, or people losing their homes and their jobs because of a marijuana arrest. We are making these photos open license and free to use for non-commercial editorial purposes, and we hope they will help make the jobs of editors easier and the content more relevant. 3. Decriminalization and Legalization: They Mean Different Things Despite their vast differences, much of the media apparently thinks "decriminalization" and "legalization" are the same thing. Decriminalization eliminates criminal penalties for drug use or possession. Roughly two dozen countries, and dozens of U.S. cities and states, have taken steps toward decriminalization. Yet decriminalization alone does nothing to end the criminalization of people who grow, produce, distribute, sell or share drugs. Thus it does not address many of the greatest harms of prohibition -- massive illicit markets, high levels of crime, corruption and violence, and the harmful health consequences of drugs produced in the absence of regulatory oversight. Legalization could more accurately be called "legal regulation." Legalization includes decriminalization of drug use, but goes much further by legally regulating and taxing production, distribution and sale. In 2012, Colorado and Washington voters made their states the first political jurisdictions anywhere in the world to legally regulate marijuana, and in 2013 Uruguay became the first country to do so. Legal regulation is not a step into the unknown -- we have more than a century of experience in legally regulating thousands of different drugs. Most regulatory proposals -- and the laws in Colorado, Washington and Uruguay -- include age limits, licensing requirements, quality controls, and restrictions on advertising. Decriminalization does not include any of these controls, though it is a decent first step that would alleviate a significant portion of the harms associated with prohibition. And these harms are massive -- more than a million people get arrested in the U.S. every year for nothing more than low-level drug possession. 4. All Drug Use -- In Fact, Most Drug Use -- Is Not "Drug Abuse" According to the federal government's own annual data, the vast majority of people who try any drug -- even methamphetamine, crack, or heroin -- do not use them problematically and do not develop a physical dependence. Yet the media often parrots drug war bureaucrats who sweepingly use the term "drug abuse" to apply to any and all drug use. How absurd would it be if we called all beer drinking "alcohol abuse"? 5. People Who Use Drugs Are People Just as the media often conflates drug use and drug abuse, an even more common mistake is equating a person's drug use with the sum of their identity. It's long past time to stop using dehumanizing terms that objectify or reduce people who use drugs to a single characteristic or behavior. My colleague Meghan Ralston recently wrote in "The End of the Addict": "We just take for granted that it's totally okay to describe a human being with one word, 'addict' -- a word with overwhelmingly negative connotations to many people. We don't really do that for other challenging qualities that can have a serious impact on people's lives. We don't say, 'my mother the blind,' or 'my brother the bipolar.' We don't say, 'my best friend the epileptic,' or 'my nephew the leukemia.' We don't do that because we intuitively understand how odd it would sound, and how disrespectful and insensitive it would be. We don't ascribe a difficult state as the full sum of a person's identity and humanity." Instead of "drug users," try "people who use drugs." Instead of "addict," try "someone struggling with drug addiction." Instead of "convicted felon," try "formerly incarcerated person." It may take a few extra words, but can make a world of difference. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but hopefully it will help sharpen our understanding of these issues. The unprecedented momentum for drug policy reform is sure to keep them in the news for years to come. Jag Davies is publications manager for the Drug Policy Alliance. This piece first appeared on the Drug Policy Alliance Blog.

https://news.vice.com/article/only-in-the-netherlands-do-addicts-complain-about-free-government-heroin By Thijs Roes May 7, 2014 | 3:00 am It was in the 1990s when the Netherlands started a program that provides long-term addicts with free government heroin. In practice, this means that addicts are allowed to inject or smoke heroin three times a day in a solemn, no frills room in a building run by municipal health services. Combined with a specified care program, it has been responsible for almost the complete disappearance of heroin addicts from public view. In the United States, heroin is on the rise like it's 1983, while an ever-shrinking group of Dutch addicts is only getting smaller and older. In a 2002 study, there were an estimated 25,000 addicts in the Netherlands (out of a population of more than 10 million), but only about 2,000 were considered hardcore addicts, according to the Central Committee on the Treatment of Heroin Addicts. Heroin use under the age of 40 is practically non-existent, according to Amsterdam's health services. Seven important truths about how the world takes drugs in 2014. Read more here. Age development of all patients who are in the Amsterdam methadone program from 1985-2012. Yellow to orange is under 40. The blue age groups are over 40 and now comprise almost the entire patient population. Multiple health services tell VICE heroin use under 30 is virtually non-existent. But some addicts who are actively supplied with free heroin are now openly complaining about the program. Using free heroin has become so easy for them, they feel like society has given up on them. Far from public sight, they are supplied with lab-synthesized heroin, more pure than anything they’ve ever smoked or injected before. Criminal behavior among the group has plunged since the start of the program, but the addicts feel like they’ve been flushed down the toilet by the Dutch public — addicted forever, out of sight and out of mind. Heroin: The Most Feared Drug In the Netherlands, heroin is so thoroughly feared that it even scares people under 40, who weren't around to see the heroin epidemic of the 1980s and early 1990s with their own adult eyes. In those decades, heroin abuse and the crime that came with it was about the biggest city nuisance thinkable. Every large train station in the Netherlands was sprawling with junkies. But the Netherlands fought the problem head on. Needle exchange programs were set up. Addiction was being treated as health problem, not a criminal one. Methadone buses showed up in areas with high abuse. Slowly but surely the situation came under control. Legal experts are rebelling against German drug laws. Read more here. In 1992, more than one million needles were exchanged for clean ones in Amsterdam alone, according to the city's Department of Health. In 2013, it was less than 200,000. In 1985, nearly 100 percent of methadone patients were aged below 40. In 2014, almost all of them were older than 40. Aid programs are so abundant, it's now hard to find an addict who hasn't been in touch with one. It took the Swiss to come up with the idea of giving out free heroin — the real deal — to all addicts who could convince the program that they had tried kicking the habit but were unable to. The Netherlands perfected its pragmatic approach and adopted the program. Beating Heroin Addiction With Heroin Heroin users who want to participate in the free heroin program have to show that there's no clear indication that they are ever going to be clean if they kept on going down the same road. The men — nearly all of them are men — must be able to indicate that they’ve been addicts for a long time, and have attempted to quit their drug abuse numerous times. And they have to be over 30. If all those boxes are checked, then they can go to their local health service at strictly scheduled times to get high, and go on with their day. Karien de Ridder of the Netherlands' Municipal Health Services (GGD in Dutch) gave VICE News a tour in one of the three locations in Amsterdam, where 70 people are enrolled in its free heroin program. The waiting-room looks like any other waiting-room in the Netherlands. “We call this an integrated institution,” De Ridder said. The GGD is housed here, along other institutions that can be of help to heroin users, like a probation office and career center. Users are referred to as "patients." “We offer them a medical treatment here,” De Ridder told VICE News. “But you have to understand, we are very strict in our agreements with patients. It’s not like: 'yeah let's go smoke and get high.' Patients are expected at set times and we hold them to it.” The GGD keeps its doors wide open to any addict who needs help. Their main goal is to see how a patient can be helped — getting a roof over their head, getting them on welfare, and so on. This is not seen as government intrusion but as easing pain for incoming patients. “Sometimes they come in because cops get them. Not to throw them in jail, but to help them. Arresting somebody ten times for drug abuse is pointless,” De Ridder. “You’ve got to look at what a person really needs.” The using spaces can be viewed through several large glass windows. There is one small room for shooting heroin specifically, and one room that fits about seven people where the addicts can smoke the drug. Nutrical is provided, a small drink that contains most things a human body needs. There is a basket with condoms and clean needles. There are even pre-cut tin foils, perfectly shaped in the most popular measurements. “Some patients like small, square foils. Others prefer them in longer rectangles,” said De Ridder. All That's Left Is the Addiction Itself The program can be hailed as a great success. Crime has plunged in neighborhoods where heroin use was endemic. Users have less trouble with the law, and their lives have stabilized and improved. They get a roof over their head, they receive welfare, and according to De Ridder, 80 percent of them have some sort of job. The only problem they still have, of course, is their addiction. Take Ghalid for example, who is hanging out under a bridge right across the building where he's scheduled for his dose. Ghalid is smoking cocaine and is content with the program. “I don’t need to steal anymore. Back in the day I got caught several times for stealing a DVD player or a big stereo,” he said.“I only stole from big stores, otherwise I'd feel sorry for the owner, you know? It's alright now, my life is more balanced these days.” But Ghalid is not a success story. That much is clear from the fact that he is hanging out under a bridge and smoking coke, but besides that, he's also experiencing troubles with staying in the program. He has a hard time arriving on time and keeping up with the rules of his assisted housing. Ghalid has money problems too, like not being able to pay for its utility bills, and was forced to leave his apartment. But he is still excited about the free heroin. Johan (not his real name) is a lot less jubilant about the program. In contrast to Ghalid, Johan is a success story. “Of course, it provides stability, but you also grow dependent on it. Look, the only thing you do when you’re in that program is smoke heroin. You wake up. You go to the clinic,” Johan said. “You smoke. You go home, sit on your couch high as a kite. And when the high’s over, it's time to go back for a new hit. That’s how your life looks like when you're in the program.” Johan soon couldn’t stand his own life anymore. He quit the program and gave up heroin altogether. He still gets some methadone sometimes, which eases the urge to use, but it doesn't provide the high that heroin does. Johan is the perfect example of someone who got clean thanks to the program after years of addiction. But he sees the downsides of the initiative, and points to a younger guy (Rene, not his real name) who just returned from smoking around the corner. “Look at René’s eyes. He’s unbelievably high,” Johan said. René confirms Johan's assessment by nodding and mumbling in approval, as Johan goes on about him. “All he does is smoke heroin.” “Quitting is very hard,” Johan said. “Especially considering the stuff the clinic offers. Their heroin is so pure — everyone I know says it’s the best they’ve ever had. Nowhere in Europe you can find better stuff. The public may be content that al the junkies are gone, but over here, in these flats on the edge of the city, junkies still roam abundantly. What’s more, they feel like they're stuck to it for the rest of their life and will never be able to get out of it.” Johan's point is especially interesting since he is the prime example of how the project can eventually result in kicking the habit and getting a better life. The free heroin he's complaining about is also the thing that saved him. By the time he made his point, Ghalid has returned and is now agreeing with the others. “We’re all suckling from the GGD's tits? That’s what we’re doing,” Ghalid said. “They make it way too easy for us.” Dennis Lahey, who is the director of an organization that defends drug users rights, has seen countless people who have been in the program, and he understands the point they are making. “The program has a very medicalized approach. Anything that could make it somewhat fun is banned. They don't want people to have a good time in there. It's a medical treatment,” said Lahey. “Arrive too late and you get nothing. The government acts like they're handling plutonium, but it’s just heroin.” Lahey said without the program, the “whole city would be full of junkies.” “Now addicts can live more peacefully and start thinking about other things than just getting high. What remains after everything else has been taken care of, is their addiction,” he said. “If you get the dope for free, your only problem is that you’re addicted to the dope. It seems like a paradox, but it's true. All that's left when everything else is taken care of is the question: do I really want to keep on using this?”

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/philosophy-stirred-not-shaken/201405/the-concept-rock-bottom-may-perversely-keep-people-using Debilitating consequences or losses aren’t prereqs for recovery Published on May 9, 2014 by Peg O'Connor, Ph.D. in Philosophy Stirred, Not Shaken The expression, “hit rock bottom,” is one that has been popularized by Alcoholics Anonymous and has become part of our common language. Usually it means that a person loses everything or has such dire consequences from his use that he lands at a point where there is nothing else to lose. There is no lower place to fall; you’ve hit the rock bottom. The landing is painful and jarring and it just may be enough to motivate a person to change. Pain can be a powerful motivator. Clearly this is one trajectory that addiction to recovery may take. I worry about the way the expression makes it seem as if there is some objective standard for what counts as “hitting rock bottom.” Must it always involve the loss of everything? Family? Self-respect? Good regard of other people? Furthermore, I am worried that people assume that hitting this rock bottom is the only way that people will attempt to make significant changes by attempting to sober up. There’s a belief that hitting this bottom will necessarily prompt a change. This way of thinking may perversely and ironically keep a person from seeking help earlier when the problem may not be as serious. Too often I have heard people who are moving down the continuum of substance use disorders to say, “Well, I never got a DUI. I still have my family and friends. I haven’t lost all that, so therefore I am not an alcoholic or addicted to _____.” This person rationalizes his use by comparing himself to a standard of terribly debilitating or devastating losses that seems objective and factual. He might tell himself he can't sober up yet because he hasn't reached that bottom. Just as frequently, I’ve heard friends and families of these same people say, "Well, he’s not hit rock bottom yet. He needs to hit rock bottom before he’ll do anything.” These people are enabling in an indirect manner by excusing his continued use. Here, too, is a belief that losing everything will necessarily cause a person to become willing to attempt to change. If I had my way, I would replace the expression “rock bottom,” with the concept “misery threshold,” developed by philosopher/psychologist William James in The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902). A misery threshold is akin to a physical pain threshold. Each person has a threshold for physical pain; at the slightest pain some will pop painkillers while others seem to grit their teeth and refuse anything even when in excruciating pain. The same holds for misery. Each person has her own misery threshold, and will be able to tolerate only so much. Some people will always incline toward the sunnier side of that line. They can be unhappy and miserable at times but it will take a lot for them to cross over their misery lines and remain there. This is not to say that these people are living in some sort of willful ignorance or in a state of denial about realities about the world, but it is to acknowledge that their optimism is what provides the ballast in their lives. Their equilibrium is restored once they are back on the sunnier side of their line. A sunny sider might find herself drinking more than she intends or drinking more frequently. She begins to move down the continuum of social use to abuse and suffers some consequences that are too painful to her. She sees the connection between her use and her misery, and that prompts her to change her actions. William James was most interested in people who lived on the darker side of their misery thresholds. People who are most comfortable or familiar with the dark side of their misery thresholds suffer from what he calls “world sickness.” This world sickness is progressive, we would say now. People can move from experiencing just a little joy in some particular things, to no joy in those same things, to no joy about anything, to a growing angst, to abject fear and terror about the world. James understood himself as someone who suffered great despair and life-annihilating pathological melancholy when he was drained of hope, color, and life. Addicts can experience any or all of these degrees of world sicknesses. There are innumerable forms of suffering connected to addiction; no one stage is emblematic for all. There is no one way or one speed at which addictions and world sickness progress. Some people can tolerate more suffering for longer, and their world sickness may progress at a slow and steady rate or may have bursts of acceleration. The use of some drugs, for example, may lead more quickly to a sort of abject terror and paranoia that is the most devastating form of world sickness. The different ways and speeds at which addictions progress make the concept of misery threshold more appealing than rock bottom. In response to some loss of hope, some people cross their misery threshold. As a consequence, they may become willing to transform themselves. Others can suffer a significant loss of hope and color in their lives but still stay somewhere in the comfort zone of their misery threshold. Others will need to feel total and complete misery and only then will they consider a different course of action. Many of us stop our drug use well before we lose jobs, partners, families, and dreams. We crossed our misery thresholds too often or started to feel more comfortable there than we wanted. Instead of occasionally visiting the darker side of our misery thresholds, we started to dwell there. Not wanting to be miserable in the ways and degrees our use was creating prompts us to be willing to change. Does this mean we haven’t really hit rock bottom? Perhaps we are not really addicted? That’s a very, very dangerous way of thinking.

Check out http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en-AU&source=hp&q=cannabis+tincture+nimbin&gbv=2&oq=cannabis+tincture&gs_l=heirloom-hp.1.2.0l10.3281.13377.0.42705.19.15.0.4.4.0.1384.4338.4-2j1j2j1.6.0....0...1ac.1.34.heirloom-hp..9.10.4601.Pml8rz6Ntl8 such as: Links - Mullaways Medical Cannabis Pty. Ltd. www.mullawaysmedicalcannabis.com.au/links.html ‎ Cached Similar as 95% THCA Non-Psychotropic 5% THC Psychotropic Tincture Certificate of Analysis Analysis 1 ... Hemp Embassy - Nimbin NSW Australia. Nimbin MardiGrass. Medical cannabis dispensary | Nimbin - Sydney Morning Herald www.smh.com.au/.../oneman-cannabis-van-raises-queries-of-legality-20100125-mukq.html ‎ Similar 26 Jan 2010 ... Tony Bower supplies his medical cannabis tincture (left) from the back of his van to ... is operating from the back of a van in a car park at Nimbin. Lecithin is known to reduce the frequency of seizures in some epileptics, and is very safe, and not expensive, so worth trying. "Lecithin (phosphatidyl choline). A phospholipid found mostly in high-fat foods. It is said to have the ability to improve memory and brain processes. Lecithin is necessary for normal brain development. Capsules are available, but many people prefer the soft lecithin granules. These are a nice addition to fruit juice smoothies, adding a thicker texture. Lecithin is oil-based, and it gets rancid easily. It should be refrigerated (from health food stores)". Google: "mercola.com; seizures; vitamin D" and view the post about vitamin D at http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/answer?qid=20110922214201AAVo5vI If supplementing, (the non preferred method, according to http://vitaminDcouncil.org ) use only vitamin D3. Also very safe, and half of Australians in Southern states have levels that are depleted, or deficient. Cannabis banana pancakes may be made by drying in a double boiler (put water in a pot and boil, with another, larger pot on top containing shredded cannabis) until crisp. Crush to powder, sieve, and add required amount, saturated with olive or coconut oil, to a mixture of equal parts of mashed banana and self raising flour, and fry lightly on both sides. Dan Murphy's liquor stores have Polmos overproof vodka at about 95% alcohol for around $80 / 500 mls if you want to make your own tincture. Google the recipe, or try http://ozstoners.com/ https://www.danmurphys.com.au/product/DM_905095/pure-polish-spirit-95-500ml.jsp;jsessionid=356949791549F8005983C8DDE79BFECE.ncdlmorasp1306?bmUID=knt4oBe

The cops also wash off soil / growing medium from cannabis plants, and include roots, stem, and seeds, and charge people on that weight basis, so many growers will often dump excess leaf trimmings, and later, other unwanted parts.

https://news.vice.com/article/why-drugs-in-australia-are-shitty-and-expensive [many onsite links] By Julian Morgans May 8, 2014 | This article originally appeared on VICE Australia. Since 2003, the Australian Crime Commission has released an annual report on illicit drug trends from the previous year. The latest one has just come out, and it gives a pretty comprehensive snapshot of the what, where, and how of everything to do with drugs between July 1, 2012, and June 30, 2013, in Australia. For some people the report is cause for comfort it reveals a record 101,749 drug-related arrests over the 12-month period. But there are also some revelations for people who like drugs. Namely, why are they so expensive? And why are they so awful? And what happened to drug-policy reform? Drugs in Australia are expensive. The report doesn't actually acknowledge this, but the police do in the way that they price confiscations. You know when you hear about a $500 million drug haul and it seems a lot? Well, that's because you're not actually getting the "street price." What you're getting is the Australian value of that drug in its pure form. This is an economic theory called hedonic regression, and it's used to strip out variables such as region or the stinginess of a particular dealer. As Natalie Webster of the Victorian Police described it, a kilo of heroin from seller A might be valued at a dollar a kilo, because it's good quality. But a kilo from seller B is only valued at $0.10, because the quality isn't as good. Only in the Netherlands do addicts complain about free government heroin. Read more here. In this example, it's the diamorphine (heroin's active ingredient) that's given a set price. The police then measure how many grams of diamorphine are in each kilo, arriving at two different prices for the same drug. This way, police estimates exist in a nationally consistent market in real life, you pay local rates regardless of quality. All over Australia, that means you pay a lot. So why is this? And again without specifically explaining the ACCs report provides a few clues. Everything but weed is predominantly imported. The report shows that Colombia produced 70.8 percent of Australia's coke, with Peru at 25 percent, and "mixed" sources making up the last 4.2 percent. This was then smuggled overland to the US or Canada, or shipped to Europe, often by way of West Africa. This means that any coke reaching Australia was exported at least twice. According to the data on individual busts, most of it comes from the Netherlands, with 682 packages intercepted. All this double handling, combined with the fact that Australia is a tiny market (around 3 percent of global sales, according to UN estimates) is why Australia's coke is fiendishly expensive and mostly made of baking soda. Seven important truths about how the world takes drugs in 2014. Read more here. To get an idea of how Australia's gear ranks internationally, compare it against several overseas purity reports. Predictably, it's behind. In 2011 (which is the sample date on the 2013 UN World Drug Report), American street cocaine had a purity of 52 percent, while Australian coke ranged in purity from 9.5 percent, in the Australian Capital Territory, to 30.2 percent, in Victoria, giving it a mean purity of 19.85 percent. Ecstasy's purity is hard to gauge because it's such a chemical mix, but a 2005 report by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction suggested that pills in the UK were 66.3 percent MDMA (the most common active ingredient). Danish pills were at 59 percent, and the Dutch were at a impressively high 77.5. Meanwhile, in data found by the Australian government's forensic facility, ChemCenter, ecstasy was 32.7 percent pure in the 200506 period. Since then, it's fallen every year to an abysmal 18.9 percent at last count, in 201112. Again, its because Australia's far away. While a lot of ecstasy production is domestic, the bulk of it is made from imported chemical precursors such as ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, which come from India and China. This is compounded by a complete lack of land borders everything needs to come in by sea or by air, and that's why dealers can charge exorbitant prices for lousy stuff. It's likely that this monopoly also encouraged the growth of Silk Road, which is a trend the ACC also highlights. Legal experts are rebelling against German drug laws. Read more here. When Silk Road started up in February 2011, the ACC report from that period found that 77 percent of cocaine detections were in the mail. That seems high, considering that Silk Road had only been operating five months but sending drugs in the mail has always been popular, and stats from previous years were similar. The following year, the number jumped to 90.9 percent, which hadnt been seen before. In the latest report, 94.1 percent of all coke busts happen at the post office and its not just coke. More people are mailing each other heroin 50.4 percent busts in the mail prior to Silk Road, and 69.9 percent now. As an Australian Post employee said back in 2011 with 5 billion postal items traveling through Australia every year, theres not a lot they can do. All in all, the ACCs report is basically a progress report on the drug war. In the ten years between the first ACC report and the most recent, progress meant a 66.4 percent increase on the seizures reported in 200304. And the number of national illicit drug arrests increased 27.2 percent over the last decade, from 80,020 in 200304 to a record 101,749 in 201213. This means that there are now fewer drugs and dealers on the street or more, whichever way you want to cut it. But as long as Australia keeps trying. That's the main thing.

09/05/2014 , 12:55 PM by Sonya Feldhoff Marijuana The fight against drugs worldwide is ongoing. As the spotlight turns more strongly on harder drugs, the debate continues about whether Cannabis should be treated differently in Australia Two people with a great deal of experience in the drugs field joined Sonya to discuss the latest call to legalise the use of what figures show is one of Australia's most popular drugs. Listen below to President of the Australia Drug Law Reform Foundation Dr Alex Wodak and Geoff Munro from the Australian Drug Foundation. http://blogs.abc.net.au/sa/2014/05/re-thinking-the-cannabis-question.html

drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=244334#ixzz31CdfbXO6 9-05-2014, 03:10 Phungushead Twisted Depiction Super Moderator Join Date: 21-01-2005 Male from United States Posts: 3,358 Blog Entries: 3 Magic Mushroom Component Psilocybin Inhibits Negative Emotions Emotions like fear, anger, sadness, and joy are how we know people to adjust to their environment and react flexibly to stress and strain. They are the vital signs of cognitive processes, physiological reactions, and social behavior. How emotions are processed is linked to structures in the brain, i.e. to what is known as the limbic system. Within this system, researchers believe the amygdala plays a central role – above all it processes negative emotions like anxiety and fear. If the activity of the amygdala becomes unbalanced, depression and anxiety disorders may develop. Researchers at the Psychiatric University Hospital of Zurich have now shown that psilocybin, the bioactive component in the Mexican magic mushroom, influences the amygdala, thereby weakening the processing of negative stimuli. These findings could "point the way to novel approaches to treatment" comments Rainer Krähenmann, lead author of the paper in Biological Psychiatry. Psilocybin inhibits the processing of negative emotions in the amygdala The processing of emotions can be impaired by various causes and elicit mental disorders. Elevated activity of the amygdala in response to stimuli leads to the neurons strengthening negative signals and weakening the processing of positive ones. This mechanism plays an important role in the development of depression and anxiety disorders. Psilocybin intervenes specifically in this mechanism, says Dr. Rainer Krähenmann's research team, of the Neuropsychopharmacology and Brain Imaging Unit led by Prof. Dr. Franz Vollenweider. Psilocybin positively influences mood in healthy individuals. In the brain, this substance stimulates specific docking sites for the messenger serotonin. The scientists therefore assumed that psilocybin exerts its mood-brightening effect via a change in the serotonin system in the limbic brain regions. Well, that's what they conclude after looking at functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), so calibrate accordingly. "Even a moderate dose of psilocybin weakens the processing of negative stimuli by modifying amygdala activity in the limbic system as well as in other associated brain regions", continues Krähenmann, who believes the study clearly shows that the modulation of amygdala activity is directly linked to the experience of heightened mood. Next study with depressive patients According to Krähenmann, this observation is of major clinical importance. Depressive patients in particular react more to negative stimuli and their thoughts often revolve around negative contents. Hence, the neuropharmacologists now wish to elucidate in further studies whether psilocybin normalises the exaggerated processing of negative stimuli as seen in neuroimaging studies of depressedpatients - and may consequently lead to improved mood in these patients. . Rainer Krähenmann considers research into novel approaches to treatment very important, because current available drugs for the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders are not effective in all patients and are often associated with unwanted side effects. 07 May 2014 News Staff Science 2.0 Photo: Wikipedia http://www.science20.com/news_articl...motions-135840

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/high-and-low-points-of-the-illegal-drug-debate/story-fni0cwl5-1226910727399 ELLE HARDY From: The Daily Telegraph May 09, 2014 12:00AM AS a net importer of political debates, Australia has enthusiastically embraced the war on drugs since Richard Nixon declared it in 1971. Drugs have been back in the headlines of late with the release of the Australian Crime Commissions annual report on drug seizures and the news of former Olympic swimmer Geoff Huegill being charged with possession of a small amount of cocaine at the races. The arguments against the war on drugs remain as relevant as ever. We know prohibition doesnt work. We know policing drug policy is a tremendous waste of resources. We know the victimless crime of possession of drugs puts many people in jail and helps turn them into hardened criminals. Compounding the farce that is our drugs policy, Tony Abbott himself this week acknowledged: Its not a war we will ever finally win. While bouts of hedonism are illegal, it is rarely considered why they are viewed as immoral. What is immoral is others telling us what we may put in our bodies, or how we should chose to spend our time. The children are the standard invocation to end the argument, as though teenagers lack ingenuity or are deferential to authority. Its easier to induce moral panic and dispatch with personal choice and personal responsibility than it is to accept that we have the right to make our own decisions, with which others may disagree. Humans are fallible and mistakes can be made this is a fact of existence that is certainly not unique to the use of a select group of illegal substances. Conversely, advocates for ending the war on drugs so often tell us its not a law and order issue, its a health issue. It is a concession we have bloodlessly granted the wowser-class: many advocates for drug reform have accepted the prohibitionists rhetoric that drugs are, in and of themselves, bad. In the case of a minority of people who abuse or have debilitating addictions to drugs, harm minimisation is a worthwhile policy. But what on earth is wrong with getting high? Recreational drug use is stigmatised as a choice between abstinence and addiction. The silent majority of people who safely and occasionally use illicit substances are ordinary people, living balanced lives. This is part of a broader tendency we see to pathologise everything that is seen as wrong as evidenced in the release of the psychology diagnostic bible DSM-IV last year, where character traits such as nonconformity, arrogance, and above-average creativity are now classed as diseases which can successfully be treated. After the gay marriage debate is inevitably won, its conceivable that the next great social cause will be drug decriminalisation or legalisation. A good starting point would be subverting the self-censorship that goes with recreational drug use. It is up to those of us in favour of civil liberties to loudly refuse to have our choices dictated to us, and to disprove the unfair stigma that has been given to certain indulgences.

http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/722030-17-Year-Old-Boy-Died-in-Police-Custody-Sharp-Object-Shoved-Down-His-Throat?p=12327940#post12327940 LogicSoDeveloped View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Add as Contact Send Email Moderator Drugs In The Media -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date Oct 2010 Location Just another bastard savage underestimating his average. Posts 3,526 Today 01:45 In an effort to retrieve the alleged bag, the lawsuit claims police had to shove a sharp object into the teen’s throat. May 7, 2014 A 17 year old boy is dead after a confrontation with police. Nancy Smith, the mother of the teen, has filed a federal lawsuit in March Claiming assault and battery and wrongful death. Smith’s son was caught in an undercover sting operation buying drugs from an informant. When undercover police rushed in to make the arrest, they did not identify themselves and the 17 year old ran, according to the lawsuit. The boy was then thrown to the ground and pepper-sprayed. What happened next is what the lawsuit alleges led to the teen’s death. The officers thought that the teen had swallowed a bag of drugs so a “sharp object” was used to dislodge it. No bag of drugs was ever found according to the lawsuit. The teen also suffered broken ribs from the officers knees being shoved in his back while on the ground. It took months before Smith ever received a copy of the autopsy report. The autopsy says that the cause of death is ‘undetermined’ yet could have been due to asphyxiation. The report states, “Because of the circumstances of this event, it is difficult to discern if the decedent died from a drug overdose or an asphyxia event exacerbated by either the occlusion of the airway by the foreign object, a possible vascular occlusion associated with the neck restraint, or from a combination of all the events that transpired during this incident.” However, no one will know if drugs were involved as the blood samples were thrown out. A 17 year old boy is dead because the state claims the authority stop people from ingesting substances they deem unsafe. But the irony in this story is that had the state not tried to “protect this boy from himself” he’d still be alive. You can read the full lawsuit in PDF format here. Source: http://thefreethoughtproject.com/17-...RTK3dbVW0GT.99 _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 'medicine cabinet' View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Add as Contact Bluelighter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date Jun 2006 Location Baltimore Posts 6,304 Today 02:50 Beyond messed up. All this for a bag of drugs the size you can put in your mouth. It was probably a pen...roifging him up puttimg their fat lnees in his baxk amd on his neck and of coirse tjey all yell stop resistimg kinda like hunting an animal standing right tjere and yelling its comin right for us! The cops know how to pit on a show to rough ppl up. Fucking pigs....they knew they wouldn't get a confession so they needed that evidence at any cost, even this 17 years old life. Not old enough to join the military yet fighting in the war on drugs. Kinda cheesy bit true. So many ppl have died and had their lived ruined by the dea, local police prosecutors, judges mandatory minimums...if I win like the hundred million powerball I'd buy it and turn it into blue light island lol. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #3 neversickanymore View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Add as Contact Senior Moderator Recovery Support -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date Jan 2013 Location babysitting the argument in my head Posts 8,886 Today 03:44 buying drugs from an informant Why are informants allowed to sell drugs. I hope they loose big time. Why do we allow our law enforcement to act like animals all the time. Arresting someone should not entail beating them. Why are these cops not charged with murder, If I shoved a sharp object down some cops throat cause I was trying to dislodge a doughnut that was never there I would be up on charges. RECOVERY FORUMS ~~~ADDICTION GUIDE~~~ CONTACT ME -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #4 poledriver View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Add as Contact Bluelighter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date Jul 2005 Posts 7,962 Today 09:46 I can't believe cops keep getting away with being deadly bullies all so they can get very small end users on drug charges. Insane. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #5 ro4eva View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Add as Contact Send Email Bluelighter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date Nov 2004 Location Summer City, Antarctica Posts 2,491 Blog Entries4 Today 11:02 So sick and tired of these rotten narc pigs getting away with murder, manslaughter, etc. When is this shit gonna stop -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #6 CLICKHEREx View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Bluelighter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date Sep 2012 Posts 81 Today 22:08 So glad I'm not American.

There is a comprehensive post about effective natural stress treatments at http://your-mental-health.weebly.com/1.html which includes aromatherapy, supplements, Progressive Muscle Relaxation, meditation, EFT, and hypnosis. Some of it follows: Try placing your fingertips 2 cm, or 3/4 inch above both eyes, apply moderate pressure, and rub for a short time. Repeat as necessary. To relieve stress, and tension, allow your head to drop down slowly as far as it will go, then very slowly rotate it, (without turning your face to the left, or right) keeping at maximum extension all the way. Then go back the opposite way; TAKE YOUR TIME! Repeat as necessary.

http://pundit.co.nz/content/legal-highs-leave-mps-dazed-confused * April 28, 2014 Politics Legal highs leave MPs dazed & confusedby Tim Watkin A look at how we got into this legal highs muddle and how the government's knee-jerk reaction is all about the drug of power rather than any evidence on legal highs themselves We all know that drugs have mid-altering qualities and can do odd things to your brain, but who would have thought that legal highs were so powerful that they could alter the minds of nearly every MP in New Zealand so suddenly. Less than a year ago MPs voted 119-1 in favour of the Psychoactive Substances Act, creating a regulated market for approved synthetic drugs. (The only vote against was from John Banks, who didn't oppose a regulated market approach, but merely the fact the new drugs could be tested on animals). It was a controversial move for parliament to endorse a legal drug market in New Zealand; previously the drugs had been legal, but only because they were new creations that got around existing laws. For more than a century, our politicians have maintained a prohibition on mind-altering substances (alcohol being the obvious exception) as a way of expressing social disapproval and protecting people from themselves. New Zealanders have tended to respond by not taking those laws terribly seriously; a large proportion of New Zealanders have used marijuana, for example, by internaitonal standards. Yet at the same time there has been no public appetite for decriminalisation, so politicians have maintained the bans. Then, last year, they took a new approach. New chemical compounds not covered by any laws were being used widely and attempts to ban the products were not stopping their use. Every time the government added a product to the banned list, a new one was invented by the legal high chemists. What's more, the MPs accepted the argument that to ban legal highs was to simply drive customers from legal retailers to the black market. They decided to try something different. But they butchered the process along the way. The new law banned almost all the legal highs available, leaving for sale just the 41 considered to carry the lowest risk. The Ministry of Health was to devise a testing regime which determined an acceptable safety threshold for any new drugs created. That regime was slated to be introduced in early-mid 2015. Long story short, that was far too long to expect the public to wait and pressure has built to the point where the government was caught on the wrong side of strong public opinion. Just five months from an election, that couldn't stand. So Associate Health Minister – our own legal highs tsar – Peter Dunne acknowledged this weekend on The Nation that he'd got the law wrong. He said the new law should have pulled all the products and only allowed them back on when the testing regime was in place and they were shown to be low risk. He was going to bring the testing regime forward; rather than being introduced next year he wanted it done inside three months, he said. Yesterday, with Labour about to announce the same policy today, he declared all legal highs would be pulled from the shelves as soon as parliament could pass an amendment to his bill under urgency, in two weeks time. That's how we got here. But where in fact are we? In an utter muddle, frankly. This policy switch undermines every argument that's been made for the past year and shows a government now trying to do what it has previously said is impossible. The most generous interpretation is that at least politicians are listening to voters and responding to the popular will. Closer to the truth, however, is that public panic (based on dubious information) has forced politicians in an election year to buckle and a u-turn with no evidence to justify it. Let's look at the contradictions in all this. The principle in the law is that New Zealand is not banning legal highs because bans don't reduce demand or make people safer. Yet every decision since by the government has encouraged one sort of de facto ban or another. First, councils were empowered to say where legal high shops could open for business. Well, more than that – the government said there would be no more licences granted for new legal high shops. So only those retailers with a licence already could sell the products. Then, councils were told they could pull the licences of those shops too close to sensitive community spots. As public opposition to legal highs grew louder, councillors were the first ones to hear and understand the degree of public outrage. So naturally they looked to use those geographic restrictions as a de facto ban. Hastings had two legal high shops – one was decreed too close to a church (within 100 metres of a sensitive site), the other too close to the first one, as mayor Lawrence Yule explained on The Nation. Both were closed down and Napier (presumably not as good at finding places to label as "sensitive") was stuck with the only shops in the region. Cue the queues and anger in Napier. Hamilton also acted quickly, naming sensitive sites that included bus stops, public toilets and even the Waikato River. Coincidentally, all the city's legal high shops were within 100m of the named sensitive sites and all were forced to close. The legal highs lobbyist The Star Trust saw the writing on the wall. Calling it "old school prohibition" it took Hamilton City Council to court; the case is still pending, in July. So even before this weekend we had a law that rejected a ban, yet local councils doing all they could to enforce one. And the government backing them in their de facto bans. Yet Dunne still made the argument that bans don't work, for two reasons: First, that manufacturers could alter any substance by a molecule and get around any list of banned substances. Second, that it would drive buyers away from legal sellers to illegal ones. He even said on The Nation that he'd spoken to the Irish Health Minister in the past month, who had told him that the ban imposed there in 2010 had been a "disaster". The demand for the drugs was undiminished, but the sellers were now illegal blackmarketeers rather than licensed shops. Dunne said his Irish counterpart wished they'd never imposed the ban. Yet here we are – just a couple of days later – with licensed retailers in New Zealand now being stopped from selling the products. Ahem – a ban. Using Dunne's own logic, the demand for the drugs won't diminish and sales will simply be made by those willing to break the law. And probably charge a higher price in the process. The change in approach has everything to do with public opinion and nothing to do with evidence. Because here's the key question, the only question that really matters today: Has the use of legal highs changed since the law was passed last year? If it has, then there's every reason to say we should learn from experience and change the law. If harm is increasing, then maybe it's wise to try something different. So where's the evidence for that? As far as I know, there is none. The only point that you might make – and it's only anecdotal – is that some marijuana users seem to be moving to legal highs because they're easier to get, cheaper and you can't get drug-tested for them at work. So some existing drug-users may be switching products, and possibly to ones that are stronger and do more harm. Dunne has repeatedly said that to his surprise there "seems" to be more stories of harm coming to light, even though the 41 remaining products were meant to be the lowest risk available. But all of that is entirely anecdotal. Where's the empirical evidence? Here's what's most likely to have happened: The number of shops selling legal highs has reduced from over 3000 to just over 150. The number of sales has concentrated to just a few areas and therefore those sales have become much more visible. Hence the quees down the street in Palmerston North and elsewhere that have so shocked public sensibilities. But is that a sign that demand has grown? Or that addiction rates are higher? No, it's a sign that the law is doing exactly what it was meant to do – drive the sale of drugs out of the dark and into the light. A regulated market had been created at a few approved shops, police knew exactly where the sales were taking place and a small marketplace had been created, as per the will of parliament. Is there any evidence of increased sales? No. Of any greater harm? No. Perhaps the opposite in fact. Nicola Kean, a producer for The Nation, asked the Ministry of Health last week: "What’s the trend (if any) for people presenting at A+E for problems with psychoactive substances since the law was introduced?" A written reply on Thursday said: "While it is early days the Authority has received anecdotal reports demonstrating the number of severe presentations to emergency departments has reduced since the Act came in. The Authority monitors approved products received from the Centre for Adverse Reactions Monitoring (CARM), and calls from the public to the National Poisons Centre on a regular basis. These reports also show a reduction in the number of severe issues being reported. Where severe adverse reactions are reported the Authority has the power to act and has already removed products from the market where reports to CARM identified they posed more than a low risk of harm". So again the evidence is only anecdotal, but the official line was that if anything reports of severe harm caused by legal highs was DOWN since the law was introduced. Only it made for bad optics; the public didn't like what it saw. The political risk to the government became too high. Hence the de facto ban via councils becomes a temporary ban via a government-mandated product recall. Why? Because it has suddenly deemed the legal highs for sale present too a high risk – even though the regime for testing risk hasn't been designed yet. That's plain daft. So the move to take the remaining legal highs from the shelves is, in short, a knee-jerk amendment based on public outrage, political desperation and supposition. There is no evidence to support it and what anecdotal evidence exists with officials suggests that the bill is working. And in the end, all this amendment does it buy some time. Two problems remain for the government. First, the court case against Hamilton (and another against Hastings) has a decent chance of success. When you're naming bus stops and even the ever-present Waikato River as "sensitive sites" there's every reason for a judge to find the council has over-reached. If The Star Trust wins its case, the law is in limbo and politicians – central and local government alike – are back to square one. And that's the law itself. Which is also the second problem. The fact that no MP can avoid is that last year they voted to create a regulated but legal market for psychoactive substances. It's in the statutes. The judge hearing the case against Hamilton will look at the law, see that the will of parliament was not to ban but to create a legal market and be forced to follow that will. And whatever testing regime the government puts in place, the will remains, saying that it's OK to sell these substances if they can be proved low risk. As was always going to be case, the risk threshold the government settles on will define what this law really means. If it's set low, similar products to the ones now being removed from shelves will return and public concern will rise again. If it's set high (so it's almost impossible to prove a product 'low risk'), it will be another way of enforcing a de facto ban. That may well calm public jitters, but it achieves only half of what Dunne and others have said they were fighting for. A high threshold will stop manufacturers tweaking molecules to make their drugs legal. But the demand will remain, and so to the suppliers. They will simply sell the product illegally and the chance to regulate the use of such drugs – to encourage people to seek help when things go wrong, monitor trends and so on – will be gone. The gangs will have another form of income. That's exactly what the politicians said they didn't want. It's exactly what the law was designed to avoid. The truth is that MPs want a regulated market, but are now running scared from a public they failed to win over and take with them.They are doing their best to undermine the law they voted in – and in their heart of hearts most still support. But that's not the end of it. Whatever you see reported today, rest assured the battle over legal highs is far from over while we await the court case and the new regime. Of course there is one other possible outcome. One of the first manufacturers of legal highs – the King of Legal Highs as he was called – Matt Bowden last year vowed to create new drugs that would be low risk and which would meet any test the government introduced. Bowden made many millions from legal highs through the first decade of this century and is now living life as a rock star called Starboy. But he promised to return when the regime was finally established and to start selling 'low risk' legal highs. Indeed, he said he could make it one of New Zealand's leading export industries in a matter of years and that psychoactive substances could join the likes of dairy and tourism as a major economic earner for this country. Only time will tell if he's right, or even serious. Is a genuinely low risk drug – which still achieves the sought after high – possible? In the meantime, we are left with politicians who have had their minds altered by public opinion and an impending election. And that's proof once more that power is a very dangerous drug indeed. Comments (15) (onsite*)

http://www.itwire.com/science-news/health/64010-undesirable-behaviors-found-in-adolescents-drinking-sports-and-energy-drinks 7 May 2014 By William Atkins Published in Health Energy drinks and sports drinks Energy drinks and sports drinks Itsource.com: http://itsourice.com/sports-drinks-vs-energy-drinks/ American researchers found that the regular consumption of sports drinks and energy drinks by adolescents causes them to ingest more sugary drinks than other kids, along with smoking more cigarettes and watching more TV and other screen devices -- all are considered by health experts to be unhealthy behaviors in adolescents. The study -- published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior -- was authored by researchers from the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis) and Duke University (Durham). They collected data from 2,793 adolescents from 20 public middle schools and high schools in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota area from 2009 to 2010. The data included such items as their weight and height, along with the frequency of the consumption of sports and energy drinks. It also included how often they ate breakfast, how much physical activity they got each day, and how much time they spent playing video games. The researchers found a parallel between smoking cigarettes, consumption of other sugary drinks (such as soda), and playing video games. The researchers found the following: About 38 percent of the adolescents who were surveyed said they consumed sports drinks at least once a week. Fifteen percent said they consumed energy drinks at least once a week. Of the participants, the males who consumed energy drinks at least once a week spent about four more hours per week playing video games, compared to those who consumed energy drinks less often. About 20 percent of both males and females who frequently consumed energy drinks said they had smoked cigarettes, compared to about 8 percent of those adolescents who consumed energy drinks less often. Males who consumed sports drinks at least once a week also watched about an hour more television per week than boys who consumed sports drinks less often. Teenagers who consumed sports drinks and energy drinks at least once a week played more hours of video games than other teens who did not consume such drinks. Teens who consumed sports and energy drinks at least once a week also drank more servings of sugar-sweetened beverages and were more likely to have ever smoked cigarettes, compared to those teens who consumed sports and energy drinks less than once a week. From the Medical News Today (MNT) article Sports drinks and energy drinks linked to unhealthy behaviors in adolescents, the lead author of the study, Nicole Larson, from the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota, is quoted: “Among boys, weekly sports drink consumption was significantly associated with higher TV viewing; boys who regularly consumed sports drinks spent about 1 additional hour per week watching TV, compared with boys who consumed sports drinks less than once per week.” Larson added, “Boys who consumed energy drinks at least weekly spent approximately 4 additional hours per week playing video games, compared with those who consumed energy drinks less than once per week." Overall, the more these adolescents and teens consumed sports and energy drinks the more they smoked (dangerous) cigarettes, the more they consumed other (high caloric) sugary drinks, and the more they played (sedentary) video games. All three activities -- smoking tobacco products, drinking sugary drinks, and playing sedentary video games for long periods of time -- are considered undesirable activities among adolescents. According to the MNT article, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) contends that sports drinks “should only be consumed by adolescents after vigorous and prolonged physical activity.” And, the AAP contends that energy drinks “should not be consumed [at all by adolescents] as they offer no health benefits and increase risks for overstimulation of the nervous system.” The researchers wrote in the paper, which appears in the May/June edition of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, that the findings “are troubling because they may indicate a clustering of problem behaviors among some adolescents.” In the LiveScience.com article Sports & Energy Drink Consumption Linked to Unhealthy Teen Behaviors, Nicole Larson stated, “It is critical that adolescents and their parents are educated about the potential consequences associated with consuming sports and energy drinks, and that targeted advertising does not continue to encourage them to purchase these beverages.”

http://www.voxy.co.nz/health/synthetic-cannabis-addiction-and-withdrawal-treatment-guide/5/189629 Wednesday, 7 May, 2014 - 16:57 Canterbury experts have developed a guide to help health care professionals in the community treat a predicted increase in people withdrawing from synthetic cannabinoid addiction. The guide is a direct response to the Government’s amendment of the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013. From midnight tonight all interim approved psychoactive substances will be withdrawn from the market. It is now illegal to sell these substances and none can be sold until they have gone through an approval process, which includes thorough testing to prove low risk of harm. Dr Paul Gee, Christchurch Hospital emergency and toxicology expert, says he welcomes the changes to the Act but warns regular users of synthetic cannabis may experience some unpleasant side effects when they stop using these substances. "Common symptoms of withdrawal can include restlessness, irritability, agitation, headaches, mood swings, poor appetite, nausea, diarrhoea and vomiting," Dr Gee says. "Most users should be able to manage detox at home with advice from their family doctor. The Christchurch Hospital Emergency Department can assist with the emergency care of patients experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms. Requests for formal detox are coordinated through local Alcohol and Drug services." Dr Gee says people planning to stop regular cannabinoid use should seek advice from their General Practice team. Dr Alfred Dell’Ario, Canterbury and West Coast DHB Clinical Director of Specialist Mental Health Alcohol and Other Drug Services, says withdrawal symptoms can vary from mild to extreme and last from hours to weeks. "Most people can cope with mild withdrawal by knowing what to expect, taking extra care of themselves (such as resting and drinking water) and we can provide advice on ways to help people who are agitated and having problems sleeping," Dr Dell’Ario says. "However, people experiencing significant withdrawals including violence, psychosis, suicidal thoughts or anything suggesting significant mood or psychotic illness should be referred to the Psychiatric Emergency Service (PES)." The PES contact details are (03) 364 0482 or 0800 920 092. The Canterbury DHB guide is currently being distributed around the region and is available on the DHB website at - http://www.cdhb.health.nz/Hospitals-Services/Health-Professionals/Documents/Synthetic- Cannabinoid-Withdrawal-Guideline%202014-GP.pdf - Common synthetic cannabinoid withdrawal symptoms: Restlessness Irritability Agitation Sleep problems Low mood Heavy sweating Anxiety Headaches Low energy Poor concentration Mood swings Vomiting Diarrhoea Aches and pains Nausea Low appetite Craving drugs - More extreme symptoms: Depression Hallucinations Paranoia Racing heart Suicidal thoughts Anger Ongoing diarrhoea and vomiting Aggression and violence Confusion and memory problems

http://www.ganjanews.org/blogs/marijuana-and-voice-injury-vocal-damage-ent-doctors-of-ohni-los-angeles.html May 07, 2014 Marijuana and Voice Injury Vocal Damage ENT Doctors of OHNI Los Angeles Concerning the Writer Dr. Reena Gupta is the Director of the Voice and Swallowing Middle at OHNI. Dr. Gupta has devoted her follow to the care of sufferers with voice and swallowing issues. She is board licensed in otolaryngology and laryngology and fellowship educated in laryngology, specializing within the care of the skilled voice. Whereas marijuana use is sort of widespread within the common inhabitants, it’s probably much more regularly seen inside the leisure group. Some artists state that they depend on the enjoyable results to assist their songwriting, whereas others benefit from the social elements. Regardless of the rationale to be used, the potential for a damaging vocal impression is actual and one which have to be thought-about. It isn’t sensible or essential to recommend eliminating marijuana use. Nevertheless, it’s important to teach customers concerning the influence in order that the vocal results may be minimized. Marijuana and Voice Injury Vocal Damage ENT Doctors of OHNI Los Angeles How does Marijuana have an effect on the voice? There are lots of potential results of marijuana on the voice. The consequences are based mostly on how marijuana is consumed. The inhaled type (i.e., joint, volcano, vaporizer, and so forth), regardless of the tactic, leads to vocal swelling referred to as laryngitis. Some inhaled strategies, corresponding to a vaporizer, end in a lesser diploma of laryngitis than others reminiscent of unfiltered joints. A drained, tough, raspy, or hoarse voice are signs of laryngitis. Laryngitis is the gateway to extra critical, and typically everlasting, vocal damage. Can marijuana result in critical voice issues? Laryngitis happens regardless of the system used to inhale marijuana. The singer should then pressure to supply a traditional voice; greater notes are notably strenuous. This happens as a result of swollen vocal folds can’t vibrate freely to supply sound. Sometimes, a singer affected by inhalation laryngitis will produce little to no sound when making an attempt to sing quietly within the higher register as a result of greater notes require quicker vibration. Further effort will have to be exerted to supply any sound in any respect and quiet singing is usually not potential. This locations additional pressure on the swollen instrument, inflicting additional irritation. These occasions may end up in the event of nodules, a vocal hemorrhage (bruise), or vocal polyps. Scarring of the vocal folds, which is irreversible, may develop Marijuana and Voice Injury Vocal Damage ENT Doctors of OHNI Los Angeles Determine 1: Smoking any substance can result in a cycle of progressive vocal damage that begins with laryngitis. Does vocal injury happen after one use or a number of makes use of? Inhalation of marijuana, even on one event, can irritate the vocal folds and trigger laryngitis. If the voice consumer then makes an attempt to make use of his/her voice within the following days to sing or converse, additional injury can happen which may result in vocal nodules, hemorrhages, polyps, or vocal fold scarring. Can smoking marijuana result in everlasting voice injury? Sure, with out immediate analysis and remedy, marijuana use can probably result in irreversible vocal injury. Marijuana use causes laryngitis which makes the vocal cords vulnerable to vocal injury. Many performers who smoke will be unable to acquire look after signs of vocal damage (hoarseness, drained voice, and so forth). As a result of the artist’s way of life could be very busy and performances are usually not movable, care and voice rehabilitation are marginalized. Sadly, this conduct typically causes everlasting voice modifications. How do I do know if I’ve broken my voice by smoking marijuana? If in case you have a raspy, drained, or tough sounding voice after smoking marijuana, you probably have some vocal damage, even when momentary. As a result of the vocal cords will not be seen with out instrumentation, it isn’t potential for the singer to see the situation of their instrument. In all instances of suspected vocal damage, stroboscopy by a professional voice physician, a laryngologist, and a voice therapist is very beneficial. Laryngologists are specifically educated physicians that consider and deal with issues of the larynx (voice field). Who ought to consider and deal with my voice points? All instances of suspected vocal damage ought to be evaluated and handled by a professional laryngologist and voice therapist group. These physicians focus on issues of the voice field (larynx). A talented laryngologist works with a voice therapist to find out if there’s any damage and counsel you about safer marijuana use. To study extra about Dr. Reena Gupta or how marijuana impacts the voice, please go to www.voicedocotrla.com.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/04/saving-grace-a-junkie-s-trip-to-freedom-through-ibogaine.html 05.04.14 Hallucinating Away a Heroin Addiction PART I It’s been 56 hours since Grace Bergere’s last shot of heroin—too long. Curled into a fetal position on an outdoor, candle-lit matt in Costa Rica, the 18-year-old trembles in fear. A petrified grimace wrinkles the white clay adorning her face. Her rail thin body, wrapped in a ceremonial red sheet, looks paralyzed at points—then, without warning, her limbs thrash in revolt, as she tries to keep the demons haunting her at bay. But it’s too late. The demons are just getting started. Twenty people surround Grace, all of them intently studying her trance state. Neighbors, friends, and locals from San Jose: tonight, they’ve become a tribe. Clothed in animal skin, paint, and feathers, they move with rapid footsteps before twirling—their African skirts fluttering like laundry in the wind. The pulsing sound from their tsokais (African rattles) and bells join the African beat blasting from a nearby silver MacBook. The noise is so loud it nearly drowns out a horrified howl from Grace. It’s the leader of the ceremony, Dimitri Mugianis, who hears her struggle. He stops, bends down and leads her through the darkness. GALLERY: Escaping Heroin: Inside a 18-Year-Old Ibogaine Ceremony (PHOTOS) 140502-costa-rica14Jeffrey Arguedas and Gabriela Téllez “You’re okay, Grace—you’re safe, you’re loved,” Mugianis says, turning her lifeless face toward his. “You’re okay. You’re here.” Three days ago Grace entered this ceremony looking as sick as she felt—a junkie, hooked on heroin for the last two and a half years. Now she’s been given an arguably more potent drug—ibogaine. If successful, the three-day waking trance will eliminate her chemical dependence on heroin. In the meantime, there is excruciating, unspeakable pain. *** Named after the Latin word heros (allegedly for the hero-like feeling it inspires), heroin is a depressant with a withdrawal that, in extremely rare cases, can be fatal. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the morphine derivative is the most addictive drug in its class. Once in the system, it binds with opioid receptor cells that send endorphins shooting through the body. A lifetime of physical pain or severe anxiety vanishes in an instant. Heroin users describe the high as a feeling of all-encompassing well being. It’s a sensation that the 23 percent of those who become dependent after trying it know all too well. In the last decade, heroin abuse in the U.S. has soared. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the number of heroin users more than doubled from 2007 to 2012, to 669,000. In 2012, an estimated 467,000 people reported being dependent on the drug, a number on the rise after a crackdown on prescription drugs. Most of those using are trying to get help. In 2012, 450,000 people reported receiving treatment for heroin. But the typical plan, rehab and detox, rarely works. According to a 2010 study, over 90 percent of those with opioid addiction relapse in the first year. In 59 percent of those cases, the relapse occurred within the first week. Many blame this high recidivism rate on heroin’s infamous withdrawal. Diarrhea, vomiting, constipation, nausea, fever, severe muscle pain, chills, cramps, watery eyes, runny nose, and involuntary spasms are just some of the ailments that plague those detoxing. Going “cold turkey" is extremely difficult, but only life-threatening when previous medical conditions are present. Alternative options are not cures as much as management systems. An acyclic analog of morphine called methadone can prevent withdrawal symptoms. But many users get addicted to that, too, forcing them to take it daily for the rest of their lives. Suboxone, a prescription painkiller used to treat opiates, isn’t much better. With its high cost, low availability, and a long-lasting withdrawal, it’s considered by many to be trading one bad addiction for another (this one legal, and more expensive). *** Then there is ibogaine. Ibogaine comes from a naturally occurring psychoactive drug derived from the root bark of a Central West-African bush called iboga. For centuries, shamans have used iboga to rid people of evil spirits and heal the sick. In Gabon, West Africa, the drug is also central to Bwiti, a religious way of life for people who take it. For these forest dwellers (pygmies), it’s a rite of passage into adulthood. In the West, it’s been used as something quite different—an antidote to addiction. While the exact date that ibogaine (an alkaloid of iboga) entered the U.S. is debatable, many point to clandestine mind-control studies performed by the Central Intelligence Agency beginning in the ’50s. One such investigation, Project MK-ULTRA, centered on finding a substance capable of manipulating human behavior—mind control, in other words. As a part of its research, the CIA allegedly tested a new group of psychedelics, including ibogaine, on 10 African-American men in 1960. As the story goes, it cured all 10 morphine addicts of their chemical dependence. In 1962, the drug landed in the hands of a 19-year-old heroin addict and NYU student named Howard Lotsof. He knew only that the drug came from Africa and induced a 36-hour trip. After trying it with his friends—whom he marketed it to simply as a fun, long-lasting opiate—Lotsof awoke in shock, completely free from the desire to use drugs. He spent the rest of his life (he died in 2010 of liver cancer) convincing any drug researcher he could find to test the anti-addiction properties of ibogaine. He wrote letters, made phone calls, and beseeched every major pharmaceutical company—not a single one was interested. Lotsof eventually took the drug to the Netherlands, where some of the first ibogaine clinics were born. Many of the research results he was able to get, including those of one Dr. Stanley Glick, were promising. Some, such as the work of Dr. Deborah Mash, still are. But regulatory approval for the drug, made difficult by its dangerous and unpredictable effects, was never won. In 1967 ibogaine was placed under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 (DACA), making it illegal to possess, sell, or manufacture it, except for personal use. Less than one year later, ibogaine was officially banned as a Schedule I substance—a classification that rests on the concept that the drug in question has no accepted medical use. That, combined with big pharma’s reluctance to campaign for the regulatory approval of a drug that users only need once, has made ibogaine all but obsolete in the U.S. Americans who know of it today likely either used it themselves, while abroad, or know someone else who did. They’ve seen people transformed—withdrawal evaded, addiction conquered, clarity gained. For a precious few, the experience was remarkable enough to become their life’s work. Dimitri Mugianis is one of those converts. *** Mugianis’s story is a lot like those of the drug users he now treats. Raised in ’70s Detroit, the Greek American was first exposed to drugs at the age of 11. Exuberant and creative, he moved to New York City at 19 to become a poet and a musician. Aiming to follow the Beats and the punk rock stars he idolized, he imitated their lifestyles, first with cocaine, then with heroin. “Everyone I admired—from Keith Richards to the Sex Pistols—was doing dope,” he says. In no time, he was hooked. By the 2000s, Mugianis was 39 years old, living in his parents’ basement, and battling a severe heroin addiction that was slowly stealing his life, the way it had stolen the lives of most of his friends. But it was the death of his pregnant common law wife from endocarditis (a disease of the heart brought on by unclean needles) that sent him over the edge. “I wasn’t just dying,” he says. “I was ready to die.” On his last leg, Mugianis remembered a Lower East Side anarchist and musician talking about a drug he’d been introduced to in Holland that could cure heroin addiction—ibogaine. With nothing to lose, Mugianis decided to take it. When he arrived in the Netherlands for his treatment, he was raging drunk on free beers from the international flight. What he’d imagined would allow him to live for a few more months changed the course of his life forever. “I was in Amsterdam with a pocket full of money and I had no desire to use,” he says of the days after his 24-hour trip on ibogaine. “Do you know what that’s like? For a junkie?” Looking at Mugianis today, it’s hard to imagine that this man with the perpetual smile ever had a heroin habit (as hard as it is to imagine that he’s now leading what is arguably the only successful cure for heroin addiction in the world). Clean and sober for 12 years, he looks nowhere near 51, eats a healthy diet six days a week and “cheats” one, and stays as active as he can, taking time out of each day in Costa Rica to run the hills. A deep, raspy voice seems the only vestige of the three decades he spent pounding his body with poisons. After his revelatory visit to the Netherlands, Mugianis returned to New York City and began administering ibogaine in hotel rooms to select groups who passed his rigorous screening process. Heroin addicts, alcoholics, coke heads—all of whom he’d closely canvassed to ensure they were ready to get clean. “The first thing I try to do is talk somebody out of it, because it’s no joke,” he tells Michael Negroponte in I’m Dangerous With Love, a 2010 documentary about his path to Bwiti. A reminder of the gravity of ibogaine—and the necessity of having a medical professional attending at each session—came three years ago when a methadone user Mugianis was treating suffered a seizure. After intense training in Gabon following the incident, he dedicated himself to practicing ibogaine ceremonies like the Bwiti. For him, the drug is only as important as the ceremony that comes with it—a “breaking open of your soul,” as Bwitist view it, “in order to be reborn.” Since 2004, he’s performed 600 of them. As word spreads, his iPhone floods daily with texts and calls from prospective clients, collaborators, addicts, and apostles. But no one appreciates the sweetness of life quite like someone who never thought they would live long enough to get old. So when people like Grace Bergere appear on his doorstep, Mugianis can’t stop letting them in. His ceremonies, which incur a variety of expenses such as around-the-clock medical care, lodging, and food for the client, he offers on a sliding scale. Some pay as much as $5,500. Others, like Grace, pay less than half. In rare cases, Mugianis does it for free. No one leaves until they’re back up and running, and no one can say ahead of time whether that will be two days or two weeks. There are other ibogaine clinics. Several good ones, Mugianis says, in Mexico. But he is undoubtedly the kingpin. Those that get into IbogaLife are lucky. The weekend I spent there, the phone rang off the hook. *** The first time I met Grace, she was still a junkie. On an icy gray day in February, she invites me to her favorite restaurant—a New York City eatery with scarlet-colored walls and leopard print booths. We’re here to talk about her life, first and foremost, but Costa Rica, too. Mugianis says it’s up to Grace to decide if she wants me there. Sitting down at a table in the front, she mumbles about not being hungry because she’s sick—then orders chocolate milk. The oversized olive-green coat she’s wearing is weathered and deteriorating, making her look a bit like an orphan out of Oliver Twist. Her face is gaunt and pale. A silver eyebrow ring matches one at the center of her bottom lip; both adorned with silver balls the size of pen tips. Various scratches and cuts line her arms and face; a pus-filled abscess burns on her right arm. In nervous moments, her hand wanders to a small patch of acne on her forehead, a reminder of just how young she really is. She hasn’t been this way forever, she tells me—“dope sick.” She grew up in a typical, if bohemian, family. A happy kid with a love for music and a natural talent for guitar. That changed just past 10 p.m. on August 1, 2008, when she’d climbed to the roof of Westbeth, a New York City rent-stabilized artists’ refuge where her parents (both musicians) were raising their only daughter. “I remember climbing the ladder, and then trying to stand up there because I thought it was solid.” It wasn’t. She fell 14 flights, roughly 147 feet, down the chimney to the soot-filled basement below. “I remember spider webs on the way down. Lots. But then there was this force, I felt like it was holding me,” she says. “When I woke up I had all these ashes stuck in my throat.” After using her hands to clear her windpipe, she freed her eyes from the embers that were blinding her vision. Spotting a crack in the cement beside her, she remembers pounding it with her clenched hand, thinking this was her only escape to freedom. Her tiny fist was still punching concrete when the police rushed onto the scene a few minutes later. “I remember the firemen being like: ‘Holy shit, she’s alive!’” Despite eight broken bones in her back, a dislocated hip, and multiple fractures, Grace says she felt no pain. “One of the clearest memories I have is looking up at the breathing mask and seeing that it had blood on it,” she says. “Then I lost consciousness in the ambulance. That’s when they first gave me morphine.” She was released from the hospital with nothing more than a brace after two months. But the unrelenting back pain she’s endured every second since is surpassed only by the pressure that comes from cheating death. “I fell down a chimney and survived, so everyone’s like: ‘Now what?!’” Her face reddens as she says this, and all at once she’s nothing but an emotional teenage girl. “I’m like: ‘Nothing! Leave me alone.’” PART II For as long as Grace can remember, this has been her secret struggle: giving meaning to a life she never asked to keep. Dubbed “Amazing Grace” by the Daily News, her life was supposed to be a constant reminder of God’s grace—or at least that’s what she was told, over and over. “You have to do something meaningful, make it count!” strangers would say after hearing her story. She’d been saved with no explanation, and somewhere along the way, she got lost. School, which she’d already found difficult before the fall, became impossible. In three years she attended three different high schools. Angry and lost, she kept her spirits up with the dream of one day joining the circus. An internship in circus arts at her third high school provided a little bit of skill, and much needed confidence. So she began to perform on the street, making cards disappear with a brush of her scar-ridden hand, levitating a clear crystal ball—“contact juggling it’s called,” she says. The money was great, the company even better. “You love hanging out with seedy people who don’t want to hang out with anyone but you,” she confesses. “It feels good.” Homeless kids on the street had pain just like she did, but even more alluring: anger. “We had a lot of fun, we would just get drunk and shit, and fuck shit up. It was nice to have a bunch of angry people to yell at shit with.” It was a boy who initially led her to heroin—but her own pain that kept her coming back. “I never felt like anybody really genuinely liked me. I always felt like people were lying. But I met this guy who told me he did, and I believed him.” With a small allowance from her parents (who didn’t yet know she was getting into drugs), she played guitar and juggled her crystal ball for extra cash. With her sweet smile, rosy cheeks, and wavy white-blond hair, she found money was easy to come by. Soon she had enough to pay for her crush’s heroin habit—enough to pay for hers, too. Watching others thrust the needle into their arms night after night turned her on to the idea of trying it. “I remember having… You know when you get sort of horny? I remember looking at the needle like that… I was yearning for it—not in a sexual way at all—I just wanted it that bad.” So, just three years after her accident and barely 17, she gave in. Or at least, that’s her version of the story. (According to Mugianis, who began getting phone calls from Grace’s dad 2½ years ago, her habit began way earlier, when she was just 15. Junkies, as they are the first to admit, don’t sweat the facts). Grace claims she sniffed heroin the first time. The next night, she shot it up her veins. “I just remember feeling totally okay for the first time. All the pain was gone. My life was fine. I found a place that I could function in.” For many, it can take up to 10 uses to get addicted. Not for Grace. Just a week or two in, she was shooting up six to eight times daily. Until trying it, she hadn’t realized the amount of chronic pain her accident had left behind. “When you feel pain all the time, you don’t even realize it’s there,” she says. Heroin took it away like nothing had before. “I remember just relaxing, for once. I felt akin to Lou Reed and Elliot Smith—who I love desperately. I felt like we were all in the same boat,” she says. “And you know, it’s nice to feel like you have a team—whether that team is a bunch of fuck-up alcoholic drug addicts or not. It’s nice to feel like you’re on a team.” Even greater than the physical relief heroin gave her was the sense of satisfaction she got from doing it right. Head shaven and clothes dirtied, she camped out on benches, got a pet rat named Smiffy (in homage to Elliot Smith), and started sleeping with a dealer. She wore her wounds with pride, addicted to looking as sick as she felt—a warrior in an interminable battle against herself. “I was finally good at something,” she says. “You can’t be bad at being a junkie. You know what I mean? You can’t fuck that up.” But addiction is a master at killing the fun. Soon, the euphoria she’d first felt from dope disappeared. Shooting up became a chore, a necessity to her survival. “I found something that took away the pain and it was immediately my life. It’s been my life. Nothing else matters,” she says, as we part in time for her to shoot up. It’s a plight too many addicts in America face—one that most go alone. “The thought of suicide can get you through a pretty rough night,” she says. “You get addicted to misery.” At some point, one she can’t remember now, her parents got involved. They called a psychologist, a rehab clinic, a detox center. Grace tried to quit, failed, then tried again. Therapy she saw as a game, never a way to heal. What sort of person could she convince this shrink that she was? “I know exactly what they’re going to say and exactly what they’re thinking. So I monitor what I tell them, subconsciously,” she says. “I can make them think whatever I want about me. “They’re like, ‘OK, so, daddy issues.’” As her habit worsened, her street money began to run out. Her mother, now a swim teacher at the YMCA and her father, still a jazz guitarist, began pitching in. But between the needles she shoved into collapsing veins, Grace fought tenaciously for a way out. Her dad, who had heard of Mugianis through the New York independent music scene, kept calling to discuss the possibility of Grace taking ibogaine. For months Mugianis said no, certain that an 18-year-old was too young to make a commitment to getting clean. It was a phone call from Grace herself that changed his mind. “She’s gone through so much trauma,” he tells me. “But she’s special. This one is special.” So special that he invites me to Costa Rica, to the ibogaine ritual where he’ll try to interrupt her downward spiral. PART III Almost two months to the day after the first meeting with Grace, I arrive at Newark airport for our flight together to Costa Rica. When the stewardess gives a 15-minute warning—at which the doors will be closed—she’s nowhere to be seen. Surreally, a choir of high school students at the gate adjoining ours begins singing a hymnal. “Jesus Lord, take my hand,” they belt. “There’s a race to be run, there’s a victory to be won.” Five minutes later, Grace bounds down the stationary escalator, clutching a bacon cheeseburger and a Coke. Swimming in an oversized blue blazer and dirty black Uggs, she stops eating to wipe away the sweat on her forehead. “I had no idea you were going to be here. I’m so glad you are,” she says, looking surprised. In the three weeks leading up to the ceremony, she’d stopped responding to me. This is common behavior before such an event, according to Mugianis, part of an attempt to “self sabotage.” “Everyone is mad at me. Are you mad?” she asks, referencing the cocaine she did last night against Mugianis’ orders (stimulants, unlike heroin, can interact negatively with ibogaine). With less than five minutes until the gate closes, boarding seems to be the last thing on the 18-year-old’s mind. She’s purchased Sherlock Holmes for the plane ride, she tells me, but wishes she’d gone for chocolate instead. “Why am I sweating so much?” she asks nervously. Down to two minutes, I’m convinced she’s changed her mind. Later she’ll laugh at me saying this. Explaining that her stalling was simply a desperate attempt to spend the least amount of time possible on the aircraft that soon became her battlefield. I don’t know if that’s true—she probably doesn’t either. The thought of boarding alone is enough to send most addicts sprinting the other way. For a heroin addict in particular, six hours in flight is war. Sweat is the first sign of the body’s attack. Nausea is the next assault, a wave so powerful it threatens to rip out your insides. Dizziness follows. Sneezing. Yawning. Then, worst of all, there are the body aches. Hands and legs shaking, convulsing from the fingers to the feet: pleading, praying, for the drug that’s become its lifeline. “I’m sick,” Grace says. “My whole body is sick. Dope sick.” Before the flight, she’d been high enough on oxycontin to exhibit a fake calm. Reaching for her boarding pass, she’d almost dropped the wad of cash her father sent to pay Mugianis. “Maybe I’ll just take this $900 and go buy drugs,” she told me. “I’m kidding. Get it?!” she burst out seconds later, laughing at my gullibility. By the time the plane touches down, the oxy has worn off. Six hours without opioids, her body hurts down to the once-broken bones that cause her chronic pain. When on heroin, they’re numb. When in withdrawal, they feel like Styrofoam. “I’m terrified,” she whispers as we pass through San Jose Airport security after landing. The people surrounding us, the couple that rode next to her on the flight most of all, are terrified, too—of her. Both attractive brunettes straight from a Vineyard Vines ad, they all but uttered “ew” when Grace took the window seat on their row. After being forced to fly next to this leper, their disgust is palpable. Perhaps it’s the abscess on her arm, which has turned a fluorescent yellow by the time we deplane. Or the way her eyes seem to be glazed over. Maybe it’s the sweat, now covering her face and body, that has them appalled. Or the lip piercing she’s playing with while she asks how soon until she can have a cigarette. It’s painful watching them glare at her—a girl who’s nearly been swallowed whole by addiction. If Grace notices these dirty looks, she doesn’t show it. But later in the week, when Mugianis tells Grace she’ll need to start letting go of the shame that comes with addiction, tears well up in her eyes. So many that, for the first time since I’ve known her, she’s unable to speak. Suddenly, all at once, the Vineyard Vines couple is right in front of her face. Shooting disapproving glances like bullets. Even worse, I realize days later, they’ve been there all along. *** Sitting on the bumper of a maroon V6 Suzuki the next morning, our first in Costa Rica, is an athletic-looking stranger. “Hey, I’m Matt,” he says, standing up to shake my hand. Tan and well built, he easily navigates the uneven roads that lead to IbogaLife—the center where Grace is staying and where she’ll take ibogaine. A heroin addict for almost a decade, Matt Mormello underwent an ibogaine treatment in Mexico three years ago, alongside Vice editor Shane Smith. “I was going to kill myself slowly or do it fast, and I didn’t have the balls to do it fast,” he says. Since then he’s learned the hard way that ibogaine isn’t the cure-all for heroin addiction. “You have to change your entire life. Find a new place, new friends,” he says. “If I was still in Philly, I’d be doing dope for sure.” His statement is a glaring reminder of something that’s often lost in the lore of an ibogaine ceremony: chemical dependence, the part that ibogaine obliterates, is only half the battle. For most, a full recovery means changing everything about their lives—the place they live, the people they hang out with, the things they choose to do in their free time. For Mormello, admitting this was one of the hardest parts. Just a few months after his first ibogaine treatment, he relapsed. But after undergoing another ibogaine ceremony recently, he’s clean again and happy, working at IbogaLife full time. The clinic, a large house surrounded by single-family homes, is immaculate, smelling of fresh cilantro and coffee beans. Tiny purple flowers line the open windows, and a gentle breeze fills the room. A black-and-white cat named Chopper sleeps upside down on the porch, his open mouth revealing a row of impossibly tiny teeth. Black-and-tan African murals hang framed on the wall, tribal instruments lie scattered on the floor. Christine Fitzsimmons, the medical director at IbogaLife, works on a laptop at the long wooden kitchen table. Not long after Matt picks me up from my hotel nearby, Grace (who is staying at the clinic) wakes up. When Fitzsimmons tells her the time, 12:32 p.m., she’s surprised. It’s earlier than usual. “Junkies hate the morning,” Mormello says with a hint of pride. “Can I have a cigarette?” Grace says. She’s been off heroin for almost 24 hours now, and it shows. Her pale face is gray, her blue eyes bloodshot. “How are you feeling?” Fitzsimmons asks. “I’ll go get you some medicine.” As she disappears down the hill, Grace shoots Mormello a devilish grin: “What does she have?” Two baby aspirin and 40 mg of oxy are undoubtedly not what Grace was hoping for, but she takes a big gulp of the strawberry smoothie Fitzsimmons has made her to swallow it down anyway. An hour passes. Mugianis arrives. In a light-blue linen T-shirt and dark washed jeans, he gives quick bear hugs to each of his team before lighting up a celebratory cigar. Get ready, he tells them, we’re going to the trees. *** Gym shoes on, the six of us cram into the Suzuki for the five-minute ride to the woods. A loud grumbling of the engine cuts the silence. “That sound is a requirement for renting a car in Costa Rica,” Mugianis jokes to lighten the mood. “They must make that noise in order to be eligible.” A 10-minute walk down an unsteady dirt path brings us to the tree the Bwiti call “Mama" (the grandmother of the ancestors). Bobby Payne, the director of IbogaLife and a Bwiti music expert, sits down to play the mougongo—an African jaw harp that’s one of the religious practice’s sacred instruments. Michael McKenna, another Bwiti initiate and a facilitator at the clinic, hands out colorful African cloth for each of us to wrap around our waists. Fitzsimmons passes out rattles. This ceremony, “Introduction to the Forest,” is the first of five that Grace will go through in the next two days. Through offerings to the ancestors, the ceremony sets the stage for the healing process to begin. The point of the ritual is to announce to the ancestors (through “Mama,”) our intentions, and earn their consent to continue. Convincing them that Grace is worthy of being healed is Step One. To help our cause, we bring treats. One substance at a time we shower “Mama” in love. Orange Fanta (her favorite), silver coins, KitKats, a sourdough baguette, malt beer, and small sugar balls that look like mini doughnut holes. As we spread and spray the offerings around her dense trunk, we shake our rattles and hum—our faces covered in “semen and blood” facepaint (or, as I later learn, clay). Mugianis blows cigar smoke and shots of rum up a hole in the base of the tree. Encircling it as we sit on the ground, he begins a conversation with the Bwiti. Everyone in the circle offers an intention for the next few days. Grace’s matters most. “I want to be useful,” she says. “I’ve been putting negative things in my body and sending nothing but negative things out.” Mugianis is impressed by this statement, but doesn’t tell her just yet. Instead he puts his palm on her forehead and begins his sermon. His words, fired randomly and at varying volumes, thunder like a halftime speech. “We ask permission. We ask permission. We ask the first people of the land. In the spirit of Iboga we ask for permission. And we thank the Bwiti. We ask you to come into the circle for healing. We ask that this be a healing circle for our sister. We ask that you lessen her pain and therefore lessen the pain of all humanity. All species. We ask for a healing and cleansing of the ancestral pain. We ask that this young sister see that she is a part of this, she is a part of you. She is worth it, she is worthy,” Mugianis cries, his volume swelling with each phrase. “She is coming home, she is coming home.” When the prayer is finished, he lights a nzingu (the shell of an African tree nut) on fire. Blowing it out he puts it in his mouth and chews—the pain from the temperature written on his face. Less than a minute later, he spits the nzingu onto the forest floor. Whichever way the shell lands tells you if you can continue. “We’re good,” he says, looking up from it. “The elders have consented. Let's go." Watching a group of slightly deranged ex-junkies humbly ask a tree for permission to heal one of their “daughters” feels, admittedly, a little nuts. When Mugianis nearly screams: “SHE IS COMING HOME” my immediate thought is: Where? It’s not as if Mugianis didn’t prepare me. While his ibogaine ceremonies have come a long way from the dingy hotels where they used to be held, he’s no tribe leader and this is not West Africa. He’s the first to admit this. “I’m the media Bwiti,” he jokes. “The lowest kind.” Upon leaving, McKenna instructs us to keep looking forward—turning around means we’re not ready to proceed. Grace looks straight ahead as she climbs up the hill. She’s now a “Banzi,” the official term for a Bwiti initiate. “Good work, Banzi,” Mugianis says, patting the “sometimes” tattoo that adorns her upper back. “Sometimes…?” I wonder aloud, as we reach the car. “Everything,” she says. *** Back at the clinic after the ceremony, an eerie feeling of calm descends on the house. Grace goes for a swim, then tries (in vain) to take a nap. When she heads outside to meet us on the deck, McKenna and Payne have prepared a heaping pile of leaves on an African sheet near the yard. It’s the second ceremony, “Preparing of the Ritual Bath.” A silver bucket adorned with indecipherable white symbols sits amid candles and small wooden figures of African gods. Whole branches of pea green leaves and ruby red flowers sit waiting for Grace, ancestral and medicinal plants from the area. “You must break up these plants in tiny pieces,” Payne instructs her. “Each one is a prayer.” For the next several hours, each person spends time breaking up the leaves, putting them in the bucket, and praying for Grace. The ceremony is meant to represent the breaking of the old, and ushering in the new. There are dozens of branches; it’s no easy task. But when Grace has finished and the bucket is teaming with leaves, fresh spring water, rose oil, and two other mysterious liquids are poured all around it. The bucket of water-filled prayers she will use three times to “cleanse away her shame.” The first wash is the most important—and also the third ceremony—“The Ritual Bath.” Behind a wall, Grace strips naked and scrubs her body with the torn leaves, thus removing, the Bwiti believe, the self-hatred she carries. When the Banzi finishes, Fitzsimmons wraps her in a white sheet and headdress, then begins coating her lean limbs with white paint and small dots of red. Grace stands shyly to show off her look when it's complete, whispering to Fitzsimmons that she “doesn’t want the boys to see her.” Tomorrow comes the ibogaine. PART IV The next afternoon, the day before Easter Sunday, it’s time for the fourth ritual, “The Ibogaine Flood Dose.” This one, as the name implies, involves ingesting the long-lasting hallucinogen with the power to interrupt her addiction. To get there, she’ll have to spend anywhere from 15 to 72 hours hallucinating—or, in other words, tripping her brains out. When Grace wakes late that afternoon, she’s again scared and shaking. “I feel like I’ve done something really wrong,” she says, inexplicably. All that’s left to do is wait, and the stress that she’s feeling for the first time in years won’t be going away anytime soon. The ibogaine ceremony begins when her heroin withdrawal reaches a breaking point. There’s no way to tell when that will be. Mormello runs to get a deck of cards, which Grace promptly steals from him. Pulling one out, she tells him to remember it. Then, shuffling, she surreptitiously grabs the one he chose with her mouth while pretending to cut the deck. From there she freezes, the card in question dangling from her lips as she waits for him to catch on. The second he does, her giggle sends the Queen of Spades cascading to the brown tile floor below. That’s an old one, she tells us. There are many more she used on the street while earning money to pay for dope. “So, you were a magician?” I ask. “Still am,” she says with conviction. Minutes turn to hours and Grace’s condition worsens as the sun goes down. Mind racing and sweat staining the underarms of her long sleeve orange T-shirt, she’s on her 20th Lucky Strike when Mugianis makes the call. The last oxy she’d taken was at noon (seven hours ago), her last hit of heroin 48 hours earlier. It’s time for the flood dose of ibogaine. Gathering supplies, Fitzsimmons grabs me and the other women, people from the “village” who have come to help heal Grace. Before we head down to the fire for her last ritual bath, Fitzsimmons gives Grace her first bit of ibogaine—a tan-colored pill filled with powder that smells of sawdust. She swallows it down with a huge glass of water. This “test dose” is a common practice at IbogaLife. A precautionary move aimed at perfecting how much more the Banzi will need to take in order to reach an optimal high. In a half-circle around a blazing campfire, the women shake rattles in creepy unison. Slowly, Grace undresses. A gust of smoke dances around her naked frame as she bathes for one final time in the prayer leaves. When she’s finished, Fitzsimmons wraps her in a sheet, this one red, then once again coats her body in white. A wreath of green leaves is placed on her head where a red band stands out against her white-blond shaved head. Sitting tall on the bench, surrounded by smoke and the people of this “tribe,” the performer in Grace has never been more apparent. Mere minutes away from life-altering visions, she’s a statuesque picture. White hair, face, and chest, she looks almost angelic—until, suddenly nervous, she requests a cigarette. When the final bathing and dressing is complete, the men join the women—and Grace, now smoking—at the fire. As Mugianis, chanting again like a coach, explains the ibogaine ceremony over the rattles, he’s interrupted by the Banzi herself. “Can we, um, go up to the deck?” she says slightly falling toward the bench she’s sitting on. It’s suddenly silent, save for the last faint sound of the rattles. “I’m already tripping like, a lot.” Mugianis and the others rush to her side to help her, and direct the rest of us to go ahead up to the deck. At once it’s clear, her body is there, but she is not. She’s somewhere else—dropped into the middle of her pain by the only thing standing between her heroin addiction and death: ibogaine. McKenna and Payne carry Grace to the small mattress lying at the center of the majestic outdoor deck where the lights of faraway San Jose flicker like fireflies. It’s here on this bed where she’ll meet her visions, here where we will watch it happen. “You are the root, you are the plant,” Mugianis tells Grace. In a square red hat with a gray feather, covered in animal skin, white paint, and beads, he looks every bit the tribal leader he is tonight. “We are here for you. Here until the sun comes up,” he says, bending down to give Grace one more dose of ibogaine. The rest of the ceremony centers on watching her—sometimes sitting, sometimes standing, shaking instruments, dancing in circles, waiting anxiously for the spirits to come and go. As we wait, Payne plays the muongongo with his jaw, matching the beat of the African music he’s streaming from iTunes on his laptop. Soon it becomes clear that, although there are 20 people surrounding her, Grace will face this mountain alone. It’s for this reason, Mugianis believes, that taking the ibogaine itself is not enough. To break one drug ritual, you need another. This one involves walking through supernatural visions, and trying with every bone in your body to figure out what they mean. In the first stage of the ibogaine trip, which lasts four to eight hours, users experience fantasies like walking on water, through fire, or flying. In the next stage, which can last anywhere from eight to 48 hours, users contemplate—usually with images from childhood—the meaning of what they saw. It is during this time that many discover the underlying reasons for their addiction, and, ideally, work through them. So Grace trances, we watch, the Bwiti music plays. She howls afraid, we play instruments to keep her calm. For many minutes, she’s frozen and silent. The faces of the village soft and solemn around her. Then suddenly, without warning, terror invites itself. Her eyebrows furrow with pain, her mouth falls open in shock, her hand reaching out to be saved. For the next few days, this is her reality. “Imagine all the pain she’s been numbing, for all of these years,” Mugianis tells me as we sip hot chocolate during a break inside. “She’s feeling all of that pain now. Ibogaine puts you in the middle of your struggle, in the middle of your pain. You feel it. And you have to find your own way out.” In the fetal position, she begins shivering from the brisk wind. After 20 minutes of no movement, Fitzsimmons covers her in blankets and tucks her in on all sides. Over and over again she gasps, afraid of things no one else can see. The soft cry from her quivering lips meets the rhythmic beat of our rattles: the battle cry of her living nightmare. Jerking legs, quiet gasps, shaking arms, she’s convulsing in pain. Mugianis checks in frequently, trying to bring her back to this space and remind her she’s okay. “She’s in no withdrawal. Zero.” he tells me, after leaning down to speak with her. After this long without opiates, she’d be vomiting every other minute if she was. “She’s working a lot of stuff out right now, do you see her, she looks like an infant?” Mugianis says to me. He’s right. Intermittently sucking one finger, she’s begun cooing like a baby who’s yet to find words. The Bwiti believe the ceremony is a rebirth—at this moment, it’s easy to see why. The ceremony goes on this way until the sun comes up. In the meantime, the tribe intermittently dances around her—butts shaking and hands in the air, shimmying away the dark thoughts. At times she looks demonic—screaming and thrashing like an overacted Lady Macbeth. In other moments, she appears angelic, as candlelight dances on her cherubic cheeks. In these quiet moments, Grace looks up to make sure she’s not alone. Like clockwork, one of the tribe rushes to sit by her side. No talking is involved, no touching. Just sitting and being, so she knows someone is there. When her screams get louder, which happens at least once an hour, Mugianis covers her in the smoke of a sage leaf to “clear out the bad energy.” In moments of sheer desperation, when even the soft sounds and scents of the deck where she lies cannot calm her, he spews rose water into the air above her bed. When it falls to her body below, Grace cries out as if it’s lava. “OW!!!!” she howls. “That’s iboga. You’re awake in the dream,” Mugianis says. Silently, he moves to grab a kombo (a whisk broom instrument)—then, softly, he taps her shoulders and head. “You’re okay, Grace, you’re safe. You’re loved. You’re okay.” Her thrashing, her dark visions, her frightened gasps will continue for the next 36 hours. There was no way to know that then—and no point in telling her. So Mugianis continues: “You’re okay, you’re okay.” *** The unspoken confidence in that phrase—comforting at the time—haunted me afterwards. The truth, which I know as well as he does, is there’s no way to know if she will be okay. In three weeks, when she leaves to fly home to New York City, no one will be there to stop her from immediately calling her dealer for dope. The next part of her recovery, change, is a cross she’ll bear alone. Her chemical dependence on heroin, at least for now, will be gone. But the demons that drove her to it—and the ones that convinced her to stay—might not be. *** A week after the ceremony, I get a phone call from Grace, who’s still at the center in Costa Rica. Her voice sounds lighter, her thoughts noticeably more coherent than the first time we met. “I feel great. Life is beautiful,” she says serenely. Still in the midst of her trip when I left, she’s now lucid and nine days heroin free. “I was still really out of it until like two days ago,” she says. “I was like a vegetable.” Mugianis wasn’t clear whether she’d be up for the fifth ceremony; “Celebration and Reporting of Visions,” which is essentially what we’re doing now on the phone. She is. Without my having to ask, she launches into a long explanation of the things she saw: “It started out and I felt like I was deep, deep underground. But it wasn’t like I was underground, it’s like I was the ground. I remember next being a seed, and going through each stage of evolution. Basic plant matter to basic creatures until I was sitting on top of the earth. I kept seeing space and time in a weird way—things just snapping into existence. At one point it felt like I was in Africa, no, but actually, I was in Africa. I looked up at the sky and I found myself in different planets. Then I was in the desert and everything was moving fast. It wasn’t scary. It was like I already knew all of it, but I’d forgotten.” Those visions, from the first phase, were more uncomfortable than scary, she says. But the one that seems to have changed her—stuck with her—is the one of her fall down that chimney. The first time she told me about the incident two months ago, she seemed resentful and bored, reciting it like a pledge. This time, with her description, comes audible awe—and pride. “Now it’s something I can actually feel and relate to myself. I realized that the story of my fall was the story of a story I told people, because they asked,” she says. For so long, it had been their story—the firefighters who found her, the ambulance driver that rushed her to hospital, the Daily News reporter who wrote about it, her dad, her mom. Their story—a heroic one—now, finally, hers. “Someone gave me props for surviving, and I was like, ‘Holy shit, I did. How does that happen?’” Finding these things, seeing them, wasn’t easy. “My whole body was on fire. I was in so much pain,” she says. But living through them seems to have changed, at least for now, the way she sees the world. “What this did, it gave me a perspective. That was the whole point of my trip I think, perspective,” she says. “Decisions are not good or bad, but what you hold them up against. I have a choice if I want to keep using and that’s fine, but if I do, it’s going to suck. This is the only life I have, as far as I know, and I’d at least like to give it a shot.” Suffering impacted bowels (a delayed reaction to the ibogaine) and still figuring out a plan for her chronic pain, her life is by no means perfect. “I don’t know for sure if I’m going to stay sober, I want to, and that’s a big deal. A big fucking deal,” she says. “It’s so great to not be dependent. But I need to figure out how to manage my pain because I’m going to relapse if I don’t, I know it,” she confesses. So far, her plans only extend to moving to California shortly after she leaves Costa Rica. She’s not positive she’ll go through with it. As for the trip? “I wouldn’t recommend it to somebody who is trying to have fun,” she says dryly. “If you want your body to explode into 1,000 pieces and rebuild itself into something beautiful, then yeah—but don’t expect it to be pleasant.” Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly cited Greek as the origin of the word heroin. In reality, it's widely believed to be Latin. It also implied that heroin is the most abused drug in its class, which is no longer accurate. Going "cold turkey" off of heroin, while difficult, is not impossible—and very rarely fatal.

4 May 2014 Source: New Zealand Herald (New Zealand) Website: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/300 Author: Rodney Hide DRUG LAWS NOW IN DISARRAY It's possible our politicians haven't a clue what they're doing with drug policy. It's easy to see why. Drugs are outside their experience, highly emotive and dangerous politics. Politicians as far apart as Nandor Tanczos and Don Brash have come unstuck attempting a rational discussion. These two politicians constitute a grim warning across the political spectrum. The result is drug law that is incoherent and now in disarray. Within a year we have gone from prohibition to laissez faire to a regulated market and now back to prohibition. Nine months ago all political parties bar Act were hailing the new regulated market as world-leading and a new era in harm minimisation. All those same parties have now run a mile. The long and considered process that included a weighty Law Commission report has been abandoned in favour of legislation to be passed under urgency as soon as Parliament resumes. Previously "legal highs" such as BZP were banned under the Misuse of Drugs Act. That was the prohibition phase. But the problem was Walter White types racing ahead of the law with ever-new synthetic drugs. Out on that chemical frontier we had a wild, wild west. Politicians passing laws couldn't keep up. Last year's Psychoactive Substances Act was designed to end all that. It would make drug-taking safer, regulated to adults and taxed and controlled by government. We were told over and over that prohibition doesn't work. Better to have "legal highs" out in the open and properly regulated. Act's John Banks was the only dissenter but his opposition was because of the Government's lack of assurance that animals wouldn't be used for testing. Part of the problem with the new regime is Prime Minister John Key's reluctance to authorise testing on puppies and bunnies - but he's thinking that rats and mice might be okay. Mickey can get high but not Peter or Pluto. The approach we oh-so-briefly had was reasoned and rational and probably greatly reduced the damage people caused themselves through drugs. But nonetheless it proved flawed. Drugged youngsters outside "legal high" stores - and their desperate mums and dads - make great TV. And it's election year. The new regime never stood a chance. We don't want drug-taking out in the open. Better to drive drugs underground. It's better for politicians too: forcing drug-users underground means politicians are no longer held responsible for their plight and, better yet, hides them from Campbell Live. Drugs won't go away. And in all of the debate two words were always missed out: personal responsibility. I doubt it's ever wise to look to politicians for guidance on what we should and shouldn't be putting inside our bodies.