Culture

Adult film producers and crew use actresses’ drug dependencies as a method of control and manipulation Every day there are 1.5 billion pornographic internet downloads and 68 million pornography-related internet search engine requests. With pornography in such a high demand, the revenue, time and resources for its production are at an all time high. In the United States, the pornography industry revenue is larger than the revenues of the top technology companies combined. To its audience,...

Millions of Australians use, or have used, illicit substances at some point in their life, while millions more are regular users of legal drugs such as alcohol, tobacco or sleeping pills.While some people become heavy users of alcohol or other drugs as a way of coping with past trauma or mental illness, this is not the story for millions of others. Young (and older) people use drugs and alcohol for fun, enjoyment and socialisation. NSW Greens MP Cate Faehrmann summed it up well when she...

Kratom stimulates the same brain receptors as morphine although it produces much milder effects Pontianak, Indonesia - The sweltering backwaters of Indonesian Borneo have become the unlikely ground zero for the global production and export of Kratom, a tree leaf hailed by some as a miracle cure for everything from opioid addiction to anxiety. Part of the coffee family, the leaf has been used for centuries in South-east Asia and Papua New Guinea for its pain-relieving and mildly stimulating...

When historians trace back the roots of today’s opioid epidemic, they often find themselves returning to the wave of addiction that swept the U.S. in the late 19th century. That was when physicians first got their hands on morphine: a truly effective treatment for pain, delivered first by tablet and then by the newly invented hypodermic syringe. With no criminal regulations on morphine, opium or heroin, many of these drugs became the "secret ingredient" in readily available, dubiously...

Three dozen drugmakers are raising prices on more than 250 prescription drugs, according to an analysis by RX Savings Solutions. The average price increase will be around 6.3%, although some drugs will see prices increase by 10% or more. By contrast, the inflation rate in the U.S. for the 12 months through November is 2.2%. The analysis, first reported by Reuters and the Wall Street Journal, also showed that the number of drugs seeing price increases as well as the average rate of increase...

Report proposes legalising billion-dollar cannabis industry to rescue ailing economy. The town of Brital, in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, is a jarring contrast of poverty and ostentatious wealth. Busted-up old vans drive on potholed roads next to gleaming Bentleys and Range Rovers with no number plates and blacked-out windows. Unemployment is rife, and yet the landscape is dotted by large gated mansions. The town is home to some of Lebanon’s most powerful cannabis-growing families, who...

Take part at the Global Drug Survey. Watch the video above with Prof. David Nutt.

'The old perception of students as hard-boozing party animals may now be a dated one' Students are worried that their peers might be alcoholics, survey finds ( Getty ) One in four students know someone at university who they believe is an alcoholic, according to a new poll. Despite concerns that their classmates are dependent on alcohol, the majority (52 per cent) of students said they did not get drunk on a typical week, according to the YouGov research. The survey, of more than 1,000...

Over the last year, at lunches with various Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, I have been offered: Several chances to microdose on LSD (pass!); at least four suggestions that magic mushrooms will help me become a better reporter (maybe); three declarations that Ecstasy will make me a nicer person (doubt it); and now that it is legal in California, weed, weed and more weed in every conceivable delivery method (yum, gummy bears!). And, of course, ayahuasca, a brew made from plants that includes...

America's drug problem may be even worse than officials realize. And illicit drugs are consumed at a higher rate during celebratory events. Those are just two of the conclusions scientists have drawn from recent studies of drug residues in sewage. America's drug problem may be even worse than officials realize. And illicit drugs are consumed at a higher rate during celebratory events. Those are just two of the conclusions scientists have drawn from recent studies of drug residues in sewage....

Class A drug use is rising among young middle-class professionals. Yes, we're hypocrites, they tell David Bates as British authorities blame them for fuelling gang wars. Among Britons aged 16 to 24, 4.1 per cent use drugs more than once a month, statistics say. But young Londoners reckon the figure is closer to 90 per cent. The evening had followed a familiar trajectory: a few beers, raucous laughter, the customary decompression after five days of work for four twenty-something men with...

The Home Office “would not stand in the way” of drug testing at clubs and festivals, it said. It follows calls from experts and campaigners for music events to provide the service after two people died and 13 others were hospitalised at Hampshire’s Mutiny festival. Eleven people have died at festivals in the last two years even though drug use is not increasing, suggesting that illegal substances now have higher levels of toxicity. Currently, drug testing facilities are offered at an...

J.G. is a lawyer in his early 30s. He’s a fast talker and has the lean, sinewy build of a distance runner. His choice of profession seems preordained, as he speaks in fully formed paragraphs, his thoughts organized by topic sentences. He’s also a worrier—a big one—who for years used alcohol to soothe his anxiety. J.G. started drinking at 15, when he and a friend experimented in his parents’ liquor cabinet. He favored gin and whiskey but drank whatever he thought his parents would miss the...

Opioid overdose deaths in the United States were five times higher in 2016 than in 2000. – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention In the winter of 2014, Chris Abert and a few friends began riding their bikes around Bloomington, Indiana, offering jackets, hot coffee and friendship to people who were homeless. Their outreach focused on building relationships and sought to give a voice to underserved members of the community. Almost immediately, people said they needed clean syringes and...

The US government secured a criminal conviction against Purdue Pharma in the mid-2000s but failed to curb sales of the drug after Giuliani reached a deal to avoid a bar on Purdue doing business Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma is facing a wave of civil lawsuits as New York, Texas and five other states have joined a growing number actions against the company. Photograph: Douglas Healey/AP The US government missed the opportunity to curb sales of the drug that kickstarted the opioid epidemic...

The first time I had a weed brownie, I ate way too much. Someone told me to just have half, and, like the idiot novice I was, I stuffed the entire thing in my mouth. It kicked in an hour or so later, when I found myself running through a Brooklyn park thinking I was being chased by evil fairies. Then, I went home, considered calling 911, made my roommate babysit me instead, spilled water in my bed and spent the whole night dreaming I was on a boat. I was fine in the morning. Weed is...

‘Crystal tourism’ is a boom industry thanks to markets run by Asian migrants in the Czech Republic that attract methamphetamine users from neighbouring Germany It seems to be a well-honed ritual: the fashionably dressed German woman in her mid-20s gets a manicure while her toddler keeps herself entertained with a tablet computer on the nail studio’s couch. Meanwhile, in a nearby storage room filled with gaudy goods of questionable origin — from counterfeit Barbie dolls and neo-Nazi T-shirts...

In terms of costs per capita the opioid epidemic sweeping across the United States of America has hit West Virginia, Washington D.C., and New Hampshire the hardest by far, according to a new analysis released on Tuesday (03/20/18) by the American Enterprise Institute. This study breaks down costs identified by the White House Council of Economic Advisors, which estimated that the epidemic cost the country $504 billion in the year 2015 alone in mortality costs, healthcare costs, productivity...

Charlize Theron got the full story of her mom's pot purchase at this week's premiere of "Gringo." (CNN) - Charlize Theron may have the coolest mother ever. The "Atomic Blonde" star appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on Wednesday to promote her new film, "Gringo." In the dark comedy, she and Joel Edgerton play a pair who run a company that makes medical marijuana pills. Theron told Kimmel she's had some experience with cannabis. "I'm always willing to try anything," she said. "I mean,...

(Full title: Spring breakers gone wild: College students’ annual rite of debauchery continues despite towns’ attempts to curb it) Spring break crackdown: New rules in Fort Lauderdale College students' annual rite of debauchery during spring break continues despite towns' attempts to curb it. Just when you thought spring break couldn’t get any weirder, this happened. College students from across the country gathered this week in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to take swigs out of a half-naked...