This archive covers progress in drug policy reform, psychedelic-assisted therapy, harm reduction, and the science behind entheogenic substances. From clinical trials to legal milestones, these stories track how researchers, policymakers, and communities are rethinking humanity’s relationship with mind-altering compounds.
Federal prosecutors filed criminal charges relating to opioid distribution against one of the US’ 10 largest pharmaceutical distributors and two of its executives, both of whom could be sentenced to life in prison.
Research from Johns Hopkins University finds that MDMA seems to re-open a window of opportunity for social bonding and rewiring trauma-related faulty connections in the brain.
China announced it will ban all variants of a powerful opioid responsible for many of the deaths in America’s opioid crisis.
Esketamine is the first new drug treatment approved for depression in decades. Current drugs target the feel-good brain chemical serotonin, and can take weeks or months to kick in. Ketamine targets a chemical called glutamate that is thought to restore brain connections that help relieve depression.
Global health experts at the United Nations are recommending that marijuana and its key components be formally rescheduled under international drug treaties. WHO is also moving to make clear that CBD-focused preparations containing no more than 0.2 percent THC are “not under international control” at all.
Michigan is now the first Midwestern state to legally allow recreational cannabis. It’s the 10th state to legalize recreational pot.
According to reports from law enforcement agencies, drug traffickers on the dark web have voluntarily stopped trading a deadly opioid that can be up to 100 times stronger than heroin.
A small clinical trial published last week in the Journal of Psychopharmacology found that therapeutic doses of MDMA, in concert with psychotherapy, reduced the severity of most participants’ PTSD symptoms.
The US Food and Drug Administration has just granted a “Breakthrough Therapy” designation to a treatment that uses psychedelic mushrooms as a therapy for treatment-resistant depression.
In a randomized, placebo-controlled study, researchers from Israel have shown that cannabis can produce clinical remission in up to 65% of individuals after 8 weeks of treatment.
