Tag: Drugs

I absolutely love this show. After watching the trailer, I expected it to be some basic Drug War propaganda about how good innocent people’s lives inevitably get destroyed & ended early whenever they get involved with drugs, but I decided to watch it anyways because it looked like potentially quality content (& I am a propaganda analyst, after all). The series opens with a cold-blooded murder, which seems to confirm my suspicion. But as the 8-episode first season unfolds, it becomes increasingly clear that the narcotics detective is the villain of the show, rather than the hero, and that the drug users and the gangsters who supply them are merely victims of a brutal inhuman system of tyranny called drug prohibition.
As with almost every brilliant radical film & TV show, the industry stooges who professionally write reviews all seem to have hated it. That’s how you know a piece of cinema is truly revolutionary & contrary to the official narrative of social control they want us to consume. Anti-War on Drugs propaganda is very rare in this country, so that’s all the reason we must cherish it when it does manage to get made. Please watch this show! You can get a free trial of STARZ through Amazon or Hulu. Don’t sleep on it!
Watch Hightown free with your STARZ subscription;
free trial available thru Amazon or Hulu;
or pay $2 for it on YouTube

“On this episode we talk with Douglas Rushkoff, author, teacher, and host of the Team Human podcast. Rushkoff’s work explores how different technological environments change our relationship to narrative, money, power, and each other. His latest book, also called Team Human, calls for the retrieval of human autonomy in a digital age. Rushkoff is also no stranger to the psychedelic scene having collaborated with Timothy Leary, Robert Anton Wilson, Terence McKenna, Ralph Metzner, Mark Pesce, and Erik Davis. We discuss some of the parallels between digital and psychedelic mainstreaming, the mental health epidemic as an externality of capitalism, and placing our trust capitalist cures. Will COVID-19 be to psychedelics as 9/11 was to surveillance capitalism? September 11th became the excuse to implement a surveillance state and surrender digital technologies to corporations. Will we see psychedelic medicines become the go-to recovery option for COVID-related mental health fallout? We also explore what a true psychedelic renaissance might look like.”

“Psychedelics are going mainstream. With landmark studies in the last decade showing their incredible potential in treating serious mental health conditions, 2020 saw a goldrush of investment. But what are the implications as psychedelics move from the counterculture to the boardroom? In this short documentary, Alexander Beiner speaks to leading experts in the field – from clinicians and CEO’s to shamans and philosophers – to ask what the rise of psychedelic capitalism means for the future of culture and medicine. Includes interviews with Dr. Rosalind Watts (clinical lead of Imperial College’s groundbreaking psilocybin for depression study), Erik Davis (author of Techgnosis and High Weirdness), Jamie Wheal (author of Stealing Fire), Kat Conour of the Auryn Project, Bill Linton (CEO of The Usona Institute) and Shipibo shaman Jose Lopez Sanchez among others.   Are we seeing the birth of a new era in mental health care, or late capitalism’s sneakiest cash grab yet? Turn on and tune in to find out.”

“Carl Hart, Ph.D., is the Chair of the Department of Psychology at Columbia University. His research focuses on the behavioral and neuropharmacological effects of psychoactive drugs. He is particularly interested in what social and psychological factors influence drug use and their effects, and using evidence-based research to formulate more humane drug policies.”

“Humans have consumed psychedelics for at least the last 10,000 years. The outlawing of psychedelics in most of the world in the 20th century didn’t stop that, but it did put an end to promising research into their psychotherapeutic applications to treat depression, addiction, PTSD, anxiety, and trauma. Today, we’re in the midst of a psychedelic renaissance, with some psychedelics fast on their way to becoming legal medicines. One of the key players behind this movement is Rick Doblin, Ph.D.. In 01986, he founded the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a non-profit research and educational organization that has developed the medical and legal framework for the use of psychedelics to treat mental health conditions. MAPS has distributed over $20 million to fund psychedelic research and education, and in 02017 won fast-tracked “Breakthrough Therapy” designation from the FDA for using MDMA-assisted psychotherapy to treat Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). With legalization now in sight, what is the future of psychedelic medicine?”

open the video on YouTube for timestamps on when he talks about each subject! so much material! and please don’t be turned off by the simulation shit in the first few minutes lol

“This video explores the role of psychedelic mushroom use and sun/star worship at the foundation of modern-day religion as well as our modern-day religious holidays. Written, narrated, and edited by Andrew Rutajit (Schuelein).”

(the following is an excerpt from my book)

There is an absolutely brilliant 92Y interview that Hamilton Morris, one of the most prominent psychedelic advocates in America, did of Michael Pollan, the mainstream journalist who recently wrote a book on the current renaissance called How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. I think the book will probably ultimately be positive for the movement to mainstream psychedelics simply because he is such a square type of mainstream media figure, normies will be far more inclined to read him less antagonistically than they would read someone like me.

But he does problematically talk mad shit on Dr. Leary and the counterculture in that book, which is why Hamilton’s interview was so great. He pushed back on Pollan’s central thesis, which is that psychedelics seem like they could be great psychiatric medicines, but there is not enough science yet to fully prove their efficacy and they need to be used in strictly controlled clinical settings with guides to help people through their trips. As somebody who has tripped hundreds of times and never had a “guide,” I really object to the assertion that everybody needs a professional tripsitter in order to do these things safely and get great benefits out of them. Surely, it would be great if guides were available to folks who wanted one, especially on their first psychonautical expedition, but most people can get on just fine without one.

My favorite part of the interview was when Hamilton makes a profound analogy between the Prohibition on psychedelics and a hypothetical Prohibition on music. It’s perfect because both of those cultural phenomena are quite similarly foundational to the human experience:

“And of course I agree with all this, you know, I’m a believer. I want all of this to be true. I want them to be legal. I want them to be medicines. I want all this research to have tremendously promising results, but I’m also extremely worried because I think if we look at them exclusively as medicines and don’t emphasize just cognitive liberty—the freedom to do things regardless of whether or not they’re medicinal—it’d be like if somebody made music illegal, and instead of saying, “Well it should just be legal because why not? Just make it legal; it doesn’t hurt anyone,” everyone said, “Oh, no, we can prove that it’s a medicine. And then, if it’s a medicine, then then it’s okay for everyone to use it. And look, it actually helps people with neurodegenerative diseases and certain people with PTSD if they listen to a certain type of music under very controlled circumstances, it can actually be tremendously therapeutic. We need to make this legal.” But then it would cost money and the whole thing would be a mess, and you would sort of neglect the overarching issue, which is: Why is this even controlled in the first place?”

“Could psychedelics help us heal from trauma and mental illnesses? Researcher Rick Doblin has spent the past three decades investigating this question, and the results are promising. In this fascinating dive into the science of psychedelics, he explains how drugs like LSD, psilocybin and MDMA affect your brain — and shows how, when paired with psychotherapy, they could change the way we treat PTSD, depression, substance abuse and more.”

“Bestselling author Tim Ferriss (Tools of Titans, The 4-Hour Workweek, etc.) probes the science, mysteries, and future of psychedelics with Dr. Roland R. Griffiths, a clinical pharmacologist at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Griffiths has been researching mood-altering compounds for more than 40 years, has published more than 370 scientific papers, and started the psilocybin (think “magic mushrooms”) research program at Johns Hopkins nearly 20 years ago. Dr. Griffiths and his colleagues have been leaders in the re-initiation of research with classic psychedelic drugs, which was blocked for a period of several decades. This session offers details and stories that can help both novices and experienced psychonauts get a better understanding of the applications of these incredible compounds.”

“A clinical psychologist from Imperial College describes how Magic Mushrooms (Psilocybin), when used in a therapeutic setting, have been found to be a very effective treatment for depression. In this talk she draws on her experiences as working as a therapist on the groundbreaking Psilocybin for Depression study, and introduces us to some of the patients and their stories of transformation. Dr Rosalind Watts completed her clinical psychology training at University College London. After six years of practicing psychotherapy in the NHS, she joined a clinical trial at Imperial College, investigating psilocybin (magic mushrooms) as a treatment for depression. Her research explores patients’ positive views of this intriguing therapy.”

“Research into psychedelic drugs was interrupted in the 1960’s due to regulatory changes. Recently, these compounds are once again studied both as therapeutic agents in psychiatry and as experimental tools to further our understanding of the human brain. David Nutt stands at the forefront of these developments as principal investigator of a team including Robin Carhart-Harris and other researchers at Imperial College, London. Together, they are running clinical trials of psychedelic substances including psilocybin in the treatment of depression. They are also using brain imaging to investigate the effects of psychedelic drugs on activity and connectivity within the brain. At this lecture, he will cover the latest research findings and share his vision of the future of psychedelic science.”

“Addiction treatment doesn’t cure addicts, it creates addicts. Our current approach fails by teaching helplessness. We can help by changing our attitudes, and treating problematic substance users as our capable equals rather than helpless addicts. Steven Slate is the Author of The Clean Slate Addiction Site. He is co-author of the Saint Jude Program 13th Edition taught at Saint Jude Retreats. He’s authored articles on addiction for textbooks. He continues to work in research and development at Baldwin Research Institute to create the best solution for problematic substance use. His writings are based on his own personal experiences with addiction. He is not a doctor or PHd, but rather an autodidact, studying for the past decade the principles around addiction. He is also a trained life coach through New York University.”

“Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris, the psychologist, neuroscientist and Head of the Psychedelic Research Centre at Imperial College London. Yours is the world’s first organisation dedicated to the research of mind-altering substances and focuses on three key areas of study: mental health, social science and neuroscience. He was the first in the world to investigate the effects of LSD using modern brain imaging, and the first to study psilocybin – the active compound in magic mushrooms – for treating severe depression.”

“Bestselling author Tim Ferriss (Tools of Titans, The 4-Hour Workweek, etc.) probes the science, mysteries, and future of psychedelics with Dr. Roland R. Griffiths, a clinical pharmacologist at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Griffiths has been researching mood-altering compounds for more than 40 years, has published more than 370 scientific papers, and started the psilocybin (think “magic mushrooms”) research program at Johns Hopkins nearly 20 years ago. Dr. Griffiths and his colleagues have been leaders in the re-initiation of research with classic psychedelic drugs, which was blocked for a period of several decades. This session offers details and stories that can help both novices and experienced psychonauts get a better understanding of the applications of these incredible compounds.”

“This TEDx talk explores the practice of MDMA Psychotherapy, illustrated with the life-story of a fictional typical patient. We owe it to this population of vulnerable, untreated patients with unremitting mental disorders due to psychological trauma, to explore MDMA Therapy as potential new treatment for the future of psychiatric medicine. Ben Sessa is a consultant psychiatrist in adult addictions, working part-time at Addaction in Weston-Super-Mare and is senior research fellow at Bristol, Cardiff and Imperial College London Universities, where he is currently taking part of his time away from clinical medical practice to study towards a PhD in MDMA Psychotherapy. He is the author of two books exploring psychedelic medicine; The Psychedelic Renaissance (2012) and To Fathom Hell or Soar Angelic (2015) and is currently conducting research with Imperial College London and Cardiff universities studying the potential role for MDMA-assisted therapy for the treatment of PTSD and alcohol dependence syndrome. Dr Sessa is outspoken on lobbying for change in the current system by which drugs are classified in the UK, believing a more progressive policy of regulation would reduce the harms of recreational drug use. He is a co-founder and director of the UK’s premier international psychedelic conference, Breaking Convention.”

“Retired Police Officer Jack Cole is the cofounder of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). His organization is dedicated to ending the massive failure known as the War on Drugs. In this riveting interview, Jack shares his personal history in undercover narcotics and talks about the many evils on the War on Drugs.”

“Peter Christ retired as a police captain after a 20-year career enforcing drug laws. From the beginning, Peter believed “the drug war can never be won and it is doing more harm than good.” After retiring in 1989, Peter began speaking out publicly against that War. In 1993, he became one of the first members of “ReconsiDer”, one of the original forums on drug policy, involving speakers from many diverse backgrounds. Peter quickly developed into the group’s leading spokesperson, appearing at hundreds of venues. Peter then originated the idea of creating LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition – http://www.leap.cc/), a drug policy reform group of current and former members of law enforcement modeled on “Vietnam Veterans Against the War”. In 2002, after four years of Peter’s preparation, LEAP finally emerged as a viable international nonprofit educational organization. Christ is one of the most experienced of the LEAP speakers, having performed before hundreds of civic, professional, educational, and religious organizations, plus conducting television and radio interviews in dozens of markets. Peter speaks of the Drug War’s impact on: police/community relations; the safety of law enforcement officers and suspects; police corruption and misconduct; and the financial and human costs associated with current drug policies. These issues include the effect of drug prohibition on the judiciary, sentencing issues, prison populations and minority communities, as well as the usefulness of drug education programs in reducing drug abuse.”

“What really causes addiction — to everything from cocaine to smart-phones? And how can we overcome it? Johann Hari has seen our current methods fail firsthand, as he has watched loved ones struggle to manage their addictions. He started to wonder why we treat addicts the way we do — and if there might be a better way. As he shares in this deeply personal talk, his questions took him around the world, and unearthed some surprising and hopeful ways of thinking about an age-old problem.”

❝ (Excerpt) In addition, there were the politics that plagued our ecstatic enterprises themselves, no matter how we twisted and squirmed to escape it. Many a commune, demonstration, or love-in wrecked on the twin shoals of property and control. Then, too, there were the political fires kindled by the friction of latter-day ecstasy cults rubbing up against the stiff hide of the old iguana-brained Establishment.

It is an understatement to write that Timothy Leary was privy to this stormy marriage of the mundane and the rapturous. Simultaneously observer and participant, Dr. Leary analyzed events around him even as he helped make them happen. Boundlessly energetic, keenly insightful, he was uniquely qualified to work both sides of Heisenberg Street. Imagine him studiously taking notes even as he skated on one foot along the vibrating rim of an indole ring. ❞