Tag: the war on (some) drugs

Major VA study to examine effectiveness of psilocybin on depression, PTSD

The Department of Veterans Affairs is launching research to determine whether psilocybin — the psychoactive ingredient in “magic mushrooms” — can be used safely and effectively to address veterans’ treatment-resistant depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The trial, known as the Psilocybin Intervention for Veterans Overcoming Treatment-Resistant Depression,” or PIVOT, study aims to include at least 240 veterans, all of whom have difficult-to-treat major depressive disorder and some who also have PTSD.

The study will take place at five VA medical centers through June 2031 and will assess patients’ levels of depression before and after treatment, side effects and overall response among participants.

“Far too many veterans are living with mental health conditions that don’t respond to available treatments,” VA Secretary Doug Collinssaid in a statement. “Under President [Donald] Trump, VA is pursuing all avenues to evaluate new treatments and offer meaningful relief for those who have worn the uniform. This clinical trial reflects another step toward this goal.”

Last month, researchers with Ohio State University’s Center for Psychedelic Drug Research and Education published the findings of a small, 12-person study on the safety of using psilocybin to treat severe PTSD in veterans.

After receiving eight hours of psychotherapy and two doses of synthetic psilocybin and integrative therapy, nine participants, or 75%, no longer met the clinical criteria for having PTSD.

According to the research, published July 30 in Communications Medicine, participants showed no serious adverse effects, including suicidal ideation or behavior. Non-serious side effects included headache, anxiety and dizziness.

“For a population with severe treatment-resistant PTSD, these results are striking,” said Stacey Armstrong, associate director and senior researcher at the center.

The PIVOT study will involve veterans with major depressive disorder who have not responded to current treatments, including those with or without a diagnosis of PTSD. In the double-blind, randomized trial, veterans will receive one dose of psilocybin or a placebo, along with therapeutic support. They will receive a second dose one month later, also with support, and will be evaluated two to four weeks following each session.

They also will receive follow-up six months after their participation.

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Indian-origin Canadian trucker caught hiding millions in cocaine on cross-continent run

Bodycam footage from an Arizona state trooper on January 6, 2025, shows just how casually certain truck drivers engage in fraud and high-stakes smuggling.

It also shows how easily this kind of criminality rides alongside ordinary traffic on North American highways.

On Interstate 40 near Holbrook, a Volvo tractor-trailer drew a state trooper’s attention when its hazard lights began flashing, then leaving a turn signal flashing. When questioned, the Canadian driver claimed there was a switch problem and said he was heading to a Love’s mechanic — after already passing both a Love’s and a TA truck stop. The driver quickly pivoted his story, claiming he was heading to an “Indian mechanic,” when the trooper flagged his response as suspicious.

While examining the electronic logging device, the trooper quickly became aware of a concerning driving pattern.

There were multiple stretches of “unidentified drive time” appearing from Michigan through Ohio into New York, and again just before the stop.

The driver invented a co-driver named “Uncle” — someone who never logged in or out yet somehow erased hours when convenient. He claimed to be in the sleeper berth when the records showed he was driving. This is textbook hours-of-service fraud designed to push past the federal 11-hour driving limit.

What began as a traffic stop escalated when the trooper checked the sleeper berth. Tightly wrapped bricks of cocaine were found hidden underneath. More packages appeared on the opposite side. Officers then found kilo after kilo concealed throughout the produce load itself, turning out to be one of the larger commercial-truck seizures in recent memory.

The driver, 31-year-old Amarjeet Singh Matharu, had allegedly made the run multiple times before. For moving cocaine valued in the tens of millions of dollars range, he received just under three years in prison.

This bodycam footage finally offers a clear window into the kind of culture that has taken root in commercial trucking.

Ontario’s Auditor General reported in May that private career colleges routinely cut the required 103.5-hour Entry Level Training to as little as 59 or 81 hours, with some skipping emergency stops and left turns at major intersections altogether.

Unregistered schools were handing out certificates, dozens of colleges were never even inspected, and nearly 100 trucking companies with serious safety violations were still being approved to bring in temporary foreign workers; putting them behind the wheel of these increasingly deadly trucks.

“Driver Inc.” has become widely known as a model that misclassifies drivers as independent contractors, allowing companies to dodge overtime, proper wages, and hours-of-service rules. The result is financial pressure that keeps exhausted drivers on the road, compromising road safety at large.

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Crack Pipes, Get Yer’ Crack Pipes! Free Crack Pipes!: California Taxpayers Fund Drug Paraphernalia

As governor of California, Gavin Newsom has repeatedly supported “harm reduction” policies, which enable drug use in the name of making it “safer.” He created the state’s Harm Reduction Initiative, which funded “syringe services programs” for “people who inject and smoke fentanyl and/or methamphetamines.” His Department of Public Health has endorsed distributing syringes, glass pipes, and “[c]ontainers for mixing injectable drugs” to drug users. Newsom argued earlier this year that harm-reduction tactics “increase the likelihood of people entering substance use treatment.”

But do California’s harm-reduction programs encourage addicts to enter treatment? We visited the Skid Row Care Campus, a homeless-services site in Los Angeles County, to witness “harm reduction” in action. We discovered that, instead of directing addicts to get clean, the taxpayer-funded program doles out free paraphernalia, enabling addicts to get high – no questions asked.

We arrived at Skid Row in the morning. The campus, bounded by pastel-colored buildings and a metal gate, looked like an apocalyptic wasteland. Homeless people and addicts were splayed across the common areas, with some smoking what seemed to be hard drugs with impunity.

We stepped onto the courtyard connected to the street. No one stopped us, asked for identification, or searched us for weapons or drugs. This is apparently by design, judging by the Skid Row Action Plan and its implementation outline, which, singly or together, inspired the creation of the campus, denounced the “racist and classist war on drugs,” and called on local officials to create hubs “free from monitoring by law enforcement” and staffed by people with histories of “substance use and sex work.”

We entered campus and found a walk-up counter, where an attendant sat before shelves of drug paraphernalia. Users come to this counter to get free needles and crack pipes, with which they can inject or smoke hard drugs.

“What can I get you?” he asked. “We have oil burners, we have spray shooters, we have socks, we have petroleum jelly.”

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US and Ecuadorian militaries burn homes and torture workers in “Operation Total Extermination”

The US-Ecuadorian joint military operation launched March 3, ostensibly against drug cartels, has turned Ecuador into a proving ground for unleashing military violence upon every country in the hemisphere in furtherance of US hegemony.

Neither the Pentagon nor the Ecuadorian Ministry of Defense, which has dubbed the onslaught “Operation Total Extermination,” have reported casualty figures.

Subsequent reports, however, have made clear that the Pentagon and Ecuadorian forces are following a scorched-earth policy aimed not at cartels but civilians, akin to that employed by the military dictatorships in Central and South America over the last century.

Last Friday, the Ecuadorian Armed Forces boasted on social media that “Ecuador and the US destroyed” the training grounds and a vacation home of the Border Commands—a drug trafficking group formed by former Colombian FARC-EP guerrilla fighters along the Colombian-Ecuadorian border.

The announcement included aerial videos showing military helicopters bombing rural properties and rustic homes in the northeast town of Santa Rosa, Sucumbíos Province. “During the subsequent search, weapons and other evidence linked to illegal activities were found,” the publication claims.

The US Southern Command, the branch of the US armed forces that oversees forces in Latin America, issued an accompanying statement indicating the US and Ecuador had launched “lethal kinetic operations against Designated Terrorist Organizations.”

Sean Parnell, chief Pentagon spokesman, added: “At the request of Ecuador, the Department of War executed targeted action to advance our shared objective of dismantling narco-terrorist networks.”

The following day, Saturday, President Daniel Noboa shook hands with Donald Trump at the “Shield of the Americas Summit” in Miami, where the fascist American president announced a “brand new military coalition” against drug cartels. “The only way to defeat these enemies is by unleashing the power of our militaries,” he declared.

To capture drug traffickers, Trump might have simply called for the arrest of Noboa himself, whose billionaire family’s Noboa Trading Co. has been caught shipping cocaine to the Balkans in crates with bananas sold under the Bonita label.

Instead, in real time, the true character of this coalition was shown in Sucumbíos, where local news reporters were informing Saturday that the US and Ecuadorian militaries had bombed the homes of peasants and small farmers and tortured agricultural workers who deny any illegal activities.

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Covering Medical Marijuana Through Workers’ Compensation Can Improve Health And Reduce Opioid Use, Government Study Suggests

Covering the costs of medical marijuana through workers’ compensation could be a “viable” option that improves health outcomes and leads to voluntary reductions in opioid use, according to a study led by Colorado state officials.

The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment’s Division of Workers’ Compensation (DOWC) conducted the first-of-its-kind experiment as part of its Alternative Pain Management Program, following a rigorously screened chronic pain patient for a year to assess the potential impact of medical cannabis reimbursements.

The study, published in the Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, resulted in “meaningful life improvements,” no adverse events and voluntary reductions in opioid use.

The patient who received compensation for non-inhalable cannabis reported lower pain levels, as well as improved physical functioning, quality of life and psychosocial stability. The reduction in opioid use, which did not involve any tapering requirements, was initially “modest.”

“Due to improved symptom control under clinical supervision, the participant voluntarily reduced monthly opioid intake by 17%,” Colorado officials said. “Since the final compilation of the study’s data, the participant successfully transitioned off both opioids and THC completely, relying only on less psychoactive cannabinoids.”

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Setting Marijuana Taxes Too High Drives Consumers To The Illegal Market, Federally Funded Study Finds

States that impose high tax rates on regulated marijuana products are driving adult consumers to the illicit market, according to a new federally funded study.

The research, published in the journal Health Economics, looked at past-month cannabis purchasing behavior of 1,525 adults aged 21 and older.

Researchers with Ohio State University found that high cannabis taxes and prices are linked to “lower cannabis consumption and THC intake” from legal purchases, but that the majority of those reductions (89 percent) may be offset by consumers switching to unregulated products from the illegal market.

“If the illegal market is restricted, policymakers can expect increasing cannabis prices using excise taxes to reduce both unit and THC consumption, while generating tax revenues,” the study said. “However, given the sizable illegal market, a large portion of the consumption reduction due to taxes may be offset by switching to illegal products.”

States have worked to strike a balance between pricing marijuana low enough to transition adults to the regulated market but still high enough to generate revenue. The results so far have been mixed, with no firmly established universal price or tax rate.

States that impose high tax rates on regulated marijuana products are driving adult consumers to the illicit market, according to a new federally funded study.

The research, published in the journal Health Economics, looked at past-month cannabis purchasing behavior of 1,525 adults aged 21 and older.

Researchers with Ohio State University found that high cannabis taxes and prices are linked to “lower cannabis consumption and THC intake” from legal purchases, but that the majority of those reductions (89 percent) may be offset by consumers switching to unregulated products from the illegal market.

“If the illegal market is restricted, policymakers can expect increasing cannabis prices using excise taxes to reduce both unit and THC consumption, while generating tax revenues,” the study said. “However, given the sizable illegal market, a large portion of the consumption reduction due to taxes may be offset by switching to illegal products.”

States have worked to strike a balance between pricing marijuana low enough to transition adults to the regulated market but still high enough to generate revenue. The results so far have been mixed, with no firmly established universal price or tax rate.

The study, meanwhile, also demonstrated that legal and illicit cannabis flower are essentially “substitutes for each other.”

Raising the price of legal cannabis flower by 10 percent “results in a 0.9 percent-1 percent increase in illegal flower consumption (units and THC),” and the inverse follows a similar pattern, the researchers found.

“While the cross‐price elasticities for unit demand between legal and illegal flowers are symmetric (not statistically significant), the cross elasticities for THC demand suggest that the increase in THC from illegal flowers in response to higher legal flower prices exceeds the increase from legal flowers in response to higher illegal flower prices.”

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Pharma Looks to Cash in on Psychedelics as Patients Seek Alternatives to Psychotropic Drugs for Depression

Eli Lilly’s multibillion-dollar acquisition of AtaiBeckley marks the largest pharmaceutical investment yet in psychedelic medicine, signaling a new phase for an industry once relegated to the margins of scientific research.

The deal, valued at approximately $2.8 billion upfront with up to $1 billion in additional milestone payments, gives Lilly control of AtaiBeckley’s experimental psychedelic therapies, including BPL-003, a fast-acting nasal spray containing N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) being studied for treatment-resistant depression.

AtaiBeckley announced in October 2025 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted BPL-003 Breakthrough Therapy designation, a status intended to accelerate development of treatments for serious conditions when early evidence suggests substantial improvement over existing options.

“Millions of people are still searching for relief and desperately need a therapy that works,” said Dr. Carole Ho, president of Lilly Neuroscience. Advancing AtaiBeckley’s therapies, she said, gives Lilly “a real chance to change that.”

The company’s purchase comes as pharmaceutical companies increasingly move into a field that has attracted growing scientific interest but remains controversial because of questions surrounding commercialization, access, intellectual property — and whether corporate development will preserve the therapeutic models that shaped psychedelic research.

A turning point for psychedelic medicine

The Lilly-AtaiBeckley acquisition follows another major pharmaceutical investment in the sector. In 2025, AbbVie agreed to acquire Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals’ experimental depression treatment Bretisilocin (GM-2505) in a deal worth up to $1.2 billion.

Bretisilocin targets the brain’s 5-HT2A serotonin receptor, the same receptor involved in the effects of classic psychedelics such as psilocybin and LSD.

Together, the deals suggest that major drugmakers increasingly view psychedelic compounds as a potential new category of mental health treatments.

Rayyan Zafar, Ph.D., a neuropsychopharmacologist at Imperial College London and member of the Centre for Psychedelic Research and Neuropsychopharmacology group, said the Lilly acquisition could help move psychedelics closer to popular medical use by making them “de-risked” for mental health utilization.

Pharmaceutical investment could extend past drug development by encouraging dialogue about insurance coverage and healthcare infrastructure needed to deliver new treatments, Zafar said.

“Beyond psychedelic clinical trials, it could also help stimulate broader discussion around reimbursement pathways and stimulate other public healthcare systems to begin preparing for rollout,” he added.

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Adding Hemp To Dog Food Improves Digestive Health, New Study Shows

A new study found that adding hemp oil or hempseed byproduct to dog food can improve digestive health without negatively impacting the overall microbial system.

The study, published in the journal Veterinary Sciences, suggests that certain types of hemp derivatives could be safely incorporated into canine food as ingredients. However, the effects appear to be partly dependent on whether the cannabis is added as an oil or fiber supplement.

For the study, researchers at Kasetsart University in Thailand put 24 mixed-breed dogs into three groups: One had food containing an 11 percent concentration of a fiber-rich hempseed byproduct, another received food with 2 percent hempseed oil and a third got a control diet with no hemp.

The dogs were fed the diets for 90 days. Researchers compared fecal samples from before the experiment with those from after 30 and 90 days. Genetic sequencing was used to track changes in the composition and diversity of intestinal bacteria.

Dogs that were fed a diet with hempseed oil-infused food showed a larger increase in microbial species richness.

The diet was also associated with increased levels of “beneficial” bacteria from the Lactobacillaceae family, whereas the fiber-rich hempseed byproduct was linked with Actinobacteriota.

“Hempseed derivatives altered microbial composition by promoting certain beneficial bacteria, supporting canine gut health in a formulation-dependent manner,” the authors wrote, adding that the results “provide evidence for their safe inclusion as functional ingredients in dog food.”

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$139 Million Drug Bust Exposes Broker-Style Cross-Border Trucking Operation

Canadian and U.S. agencies uncovered a broker-style operation using commercial transportation connections to move illegal drugs.

Canadian authorities seized nearly 1.7 metric tons of illegal drugs during a cross-border investigation named Project Bay. The haul included suspected cocaine, methamphetamine and opium. Authorities estimated the products’ street value above $139 million. Investigators called it one of Ontario’s most significant seizures from a single case.

Traffickers used broker-style transportation model

Windsor Police launched the investigation in January 2025. The Canada Border Services Agency joined the effort the following month. Investigators worked to identify a trafficking network with connections to the international border. Ontario Provincial Police later supported the cross-border and interprovincial portions.

Investigators found a broker-style model operating within the commercial transportation sector. The organization used established connections to arrange cross-border drug movements. Drivers knowingly transported the illegal products within legitimate supply chains, according to the release. Authorities continue investigating the network’s source and full scope.

U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and the Drug Enforcement Administration assisted with international aspects. Toronto Police and Peel Regional Police also provided operational and investigative support. Several specialized Canadian units participated during the searches. Those agencies included local, provincial and federal law enforcement partners.

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Michigan City Council Member With Violent Past Charged With Election Fraud

Flint, Michigan, City Council Member Leon El-Alamin, seems to believe honesty is the best policy. 

“I deal with a lot of different types of people. I’m always me regardless of who they are. Whether it’s the governor or mayor, I’m still going to be honest and tell you the truth of what’s going on, and the things that you can do to help,” El-Alamin said in a profile produced by Muslims for American Progress (MAP) Project. 

But the community activist and face of Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s sweeping criminal record expungement program finds himself allegedly at odds with the truth, once again in trouble with the law — this time facing election fraud charges amid his re-election campaign. That may be the least of the former drug dealer’s problems in a swing state notorious for election integrity issues. 

‘Political Distraction’

El-Alamin is free on a $5,000 personal recognizance bond after his arraignment earlier this month, according to mlive.com. He was expected to appear in court for his preliminary hearing on Thursday. If convicted of the charges against him, Flint’s 1st Ward councilman could be sentenced to a maximum five years in prison, and he’d lose his place on the November ballot. 

El-Alamin, 45, stands accused of lying on his affidavit in April 2025, claiming he resided within Flint’s city limits to qualify for the council seat. He did not, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton told ABC 12 in Flint. Instead, El-Alamin was residing in nearby Mt. Morris Township, residents and others told police. A tenant at the Flint address listed on the councilman’s affidavit also told investigators that El-Alamin did not live there, but that he was the landlord of the property. 

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