Blogs

I found a really interesting review article in the Hindawi Open Access Journal Database. The file was too large to upload as a study and my subsequent attempts at screenshotting the pages and inserting into a word document to be converted into a PDF were unsuccessful for upload. So I thought I'd self-compose a little article that draws on the abstract from the pertaining review, as well as explore Epigenetics for those unfamiliar with this biological field of study. Epigenetics refers to...

by Andreas Digens From [URL="http://www.Vice.com"]www.Vice.com[/URL] Oct 6 2014, 7:15am A Young Chemist Explains How Legal Highs Work Mathias develops and synthesizes potentially psychoactive chemicals for research purposes, but he says that you're better off taking mushrooms than anything he's cooked up. As long as there are governments that don't want young people to go around indiscriminately hoovering up drugs, there will be chemists tirelessly working to create new ones that haven't been declared illegal yet....

Insurers' Denials of Opioid Coverage Spurs CDC to Clarify Guidelines April 9, 2019, at 12:00 p.m. Insurers' Denials of Opioid Coverage Spurs CDC to Clarify Guidelines More By Amy Norton HealthDay Reporter TUESDAY, April 9, 2019 (HealthDay News) -- People with severe pain from cancer or sickle cell anemia should not be denied coverage for opioid painkillers, a new clarification on federal guidelines states. In the wake of the national opioid epidemic, various medical societies had...

Healthiest Communities Housing Program Unites Addicted Moms, Babies In a quiet San Antonio neighborhood, drug-addicted moms are working to get their lives – and the lives of their babies – back on track. By Gaby Galvin Staff WriterFeb. 14, 2019, at 5:00 a.m. Housing Program Unites Addicted Moms, Babies San Antonio, home to 1.5 million people and one of America's largest cities. Drug users have been living and dying in the area for generations, hooked on heroin that comes cheap and easy in...

The Evolving Nature of the U.S. Drug Epidemic A new CDC study underscores the fact that opioids aren't the only drug to blame for overdose deaths in America. By Katelyn Newman, Staff Writer May 2, 2019, at 1:03 p.m. The Evolving Nature of the U.S. Drug Crisis A new report provides more evidence of the evolving nature of the U.S. drug crisis, showing increases in overdose deaths among people who used either cocaine or a psychostimulant like methamphetamine, whether alongside an opioid or...

Scientists used a compound found in a shrub native to Africa to reveal the three major shapes of the serotonin transporter, a protein in the brain linked to anxiety and depression. Using cryo-electron microscopy, the scientists examined the protein binding to ibogaine, an alkaloid that alters brain function and occurs naturally in the shrub iboga. Using ibogaine, researchers reveal the structure of the serotonin transporter in its outward-open, closed and inward-open shapes. The discovery...

Faith Wanted to share some thoughts and ideas. ~ “Out beyond ideas of infidel and faith there is a field, I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase "each other" doesn't make any sense.” ~ - Our Master Mowlana (مولانا) Jallaludin Rumi. Later versions use the words wrongdoing and rightdoing instead of the words Rumi used. Faith means iman (ایمان) in Arabic and infidel kafr (كافر). . I believe that...

Dozens of Doctors in 7 States Charged in Opioid Fraud Bust By Gabriella Borter Published in Reuters April 17, 2019 (Reuters) - Dozens of medical professionals in Appalachia, a region hard-hit by the U.S. opioid crisis, have been charged with writing hundreds of thousands of illegal prescriptions and committing healthcare fraud, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday. Sixty people, including 31 doctors, were accused of illegally prescribing opioid drugs in exchange for cash and sexual favors...

I always thought cocaine was garbage anyways, yet it's something that is hard to turn down. I came across this article and thought it should be shared with the DF community. Hope it helps! I attached a PDF also of these findings. Approximately 1.5 million Americans use cocaine in a given year, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Many are repeat users. Unfortunately, there are currently no FDA approved medicinal treatments for cocaine addiction. Behavioral therapy is the...

LAW ENFORCEMENT SENSITIVE 400 SOUTH MAIN ST, 3 FLOOR | LONDON, KY 40741 ■ PHONE: 606.877.2133 RD January 2019 PINK – “An Imminent Hazard to Public Safety” In 2016 the DEA first encountered the synthetic opioid U-47700, street named “Pink” or “Pinky”, which was later determined to be a potent mixture of U-47700 and heroin. U-47700 is synthetic opioid approximately 7.5 times stronger than morphine which is now classified as a Schedule I by the Controlled Substances Act. The DEA’s 2017 National...

By Carmen Rodriguez January 14, 2019 In 2016, news reports warned the public of an opioid epidemic gripping the nation. But Madeline Vaughn, then a lead clinical intake coordinator at the Houston-based addiction treatment organization Council on Recovery, sensed something different was going on with the patients she checked in from the street. Their behavior, marked by twitchy suspicion, a poor memory, and the feeling that someone was following them, signaled that the people coming...

Well, it has been quite some time since I added anything to my blog. Actually, it has been quite some time since I wrote anything at all! Unless maybe you count my recovery journal, but that was only for a month or three. And the occasional post over in the Paganism group, I guess. But anyway, as this is my first attempt at writing something interesting in a while, I expect it to be all over the place and probably not as "tight" as some of my other essays and works of madness. But I will get...

Adapted From Chapter 19 of The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide by Jim Fadiman If you have any familiarity with LSD use, you’ve probably heard the expression “Set and Setting.” It was coined by Norman Zinberg to describe the context for psychedelic drug experience and has become widely accepted by researchers in psychedelic therapy. Unknown to most others, however, are four other S’s: substance, sitter, session, and situation. Although these four S’s do not play as primary a role as Set and...

Self Love: The Lesson Through Which All Other Lessons Are Realized Teal Swan [URL]https://tealswan.com/resources/articles/self-love-the-lesson-through-which-all-other-lessons-are-realized/[/URL] There is a wholeness that calls to all people, we are born with its song ringing in our ears, and yet we come to know it first by its absence. For most people, the time comes in adulthood when the emptiness within us grows so large it can not be filled externally. And running from fears becomes a fight that we...

Psychedelic drugs are in the vanguard of treatment for addiction, raising the paradoxical question of how one mind-altering substance can override dependence on another. By Jennifer Bleyer, published May 2, 2017 - last reviewed on May 9, 2017 Jason didn't fit the hackneyed stereotype of an alcoholic. A 39-year-old marketing executive with a master's degree, he never blacked out or erupted in a stormy rage. His family's home in Albuquerque wasn't strewn with empty liquor bottles. He had...