Drug Policy and Law

Drug laws in most countries of the world follow the principle defined by the three international drug conventions (1961, 1971, 1988), that is, they prohibit the non-medical and non-scientific use of some mind altering drugs. This principle is not only outdated but it has become anachronistic: the reality is that millions of people use mind altering substances for recreational purposes and most of them do not experience significant harms from drug use. What is more, many harms people do experience are directly connected to the war on drugs, which created a lucrative black market that only benefits criminal organisations. A drug-free world is an illusion, drug policies should be aimed at reducing the harms of drug use and drug policies instead. We believe that drug use should not be punished and drugs should be regulated as legal products, adjusted to the specific characteristics and risks of those drugs.     

Dose Of Science: What Makes Psychedelics Different?

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Whilst experiences with psychedelic drugs share common elements, psychedelics are, chemically speaking, a broad class of drugs. In this Dose of Science, we take a look at a study that has measured the pharmacological properties of 35 psychedelic substances, shining some light on the similarities and differences between their biochemical profiles.

Orban’s Massive Orwellian Propaganda Campaign

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Last week the anti-NGO law came into effect in Hungary. From now on, NGOs receiving more than 26,000 USD per year from international donors have to register as “foreign-funded NGOs”, report donations, and attach a warning to every publication (read my earlier article here!). Although the government claims the law only aims to improve transparency, […]

Polish Parliament Says Yes To Medical Cannabis

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The Sejm has passed a law that is intended to allow patients to access cannabis preparations. These preparations will be available in pharmacies on a doctor’s prescription, and the raw substance shall be imported from abroad. 440 deputies voted yes, two were against, and one person abstained.

Dose of Science: marijuana as a substitute for opioid painkillers

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In case you haven’t heard, there is an opioid epidemic in the United States. The phenomenon is not driven by the use of illegal substances, rather it is caused in part by the overprescription of opioid based painkillers, such as Oxycontin. Exploratory studies have suggested that patients with access to medical cannabis reduce their intake […]

Music And Psychedelics – An Interview With Mendel Kaelen

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In this month’s Dose of Science, rather than focusing on a specific academic paper, we present an interview with Mendel Kaelen, a neuroscience researcher at Imperial College London, working in collaboration with Professor David Nutt and Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris. In this piece, we get an unprecedented window into the scientific conceptualization behind one of the […]

Dose of Science: What Is In Your Cocaine?

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Cocaine is a drug which has a certain ‘high life’ status attached to it, mainly because of its price. It is expensive. Conversely, amphetamines have a similar stimulant effect, yet their average street price is only a fraction of that of cocaine. The large profit margins make cutting cocaine with other substances a lucrative option […]

No-Alcohol Policy Means No Shelter For The Homeless

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“The local authorities in Bucharest, Romania, don’t have any official statistics on the city’s homeless population.” According to a local NGO, there were about 5,000 people in 2010. Read the story of Florian, by Vlad Odobescu, who cannot go to shelters because of his alcoholism.