Tag: the war on (some) drugs

A single psilocybin dose rapidly reverses chronic pain and depression in mice, study finds

In a stunning breakthrough that challenges the very foundations of chronic pain treatment, researchers have discovered that a single dose of a natural compound can rapidly reverse both physical suffering and the depression that accompanies it.

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania found that psilocybin, the active ingredient in so-called magic mushrooms, provided lasting relief from chronic pain and depression-like symptoms in mice by calming overactive brain circuits. This research, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, offers a radical new pathway for treating the millions who suffer from the intertwined conditions of chronic pain and mental anguish.

For the 50 million Americans living with chronic pain, this discovery represents a beacon of hope beyond the dangerous and often ineffective world of opioid pharmaceuticals. The study reveals that chronic pain does not merely hurt the body but actively rewires the brain, creating a cycle of psychological suffering that intensifies the original physical pain. This vicious cycle has long been exploited by pharmaceutical companies pushing addictive painkillers that fail to address the root cause of the problem.

The research team created two types of lasting pain in mice, some with nerve damage and others with severe inflammation. Both groups developed hypersensitivity to touch and displayed behaviors mirroring profound anxiety and depression in humans. Brain imaging identified the culprit: a region called the anterior cingulate cortex, which processes both the emotional experience of pain and regulates mood, had essentially malfunctioned. Nerve cells in this area were firing 40% more than normal and refused to calm down.

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The Monroe Doctrine is back – dressed up as a war on drugs

President Donald Trump has hinted that US forces could soon move from sea to land operations in Venezuela, expanding what he called “a war on terrorist drug cartels.”

Speaking at a Navy anniversary ceremony in Norfolk, Virginia, Trump said American forces had struck another vessel off Venezuela’s coast allegedly carrying narcotics.

“In recent weeks, the Navy has supported our mission to blow the cartel terrorists the hell out of the water … we did another one last night. Now we just can’t find any,” he said.

“They’re not coming in by sea anymore, so now we’ll have to start looking about the land because they’ll be forced to go by land.”

According to Washington, at least four such strikes have taken place in the Caribbean in recent weeks, leaving more than 20 people dead. Trump also declared members of drug cartels to be “unlawful combatants,” a label he said allows the US to use military force without congressional approval.

These remarks mark a sharp escalation in Washington’s so-called “anti-narcotics” campaign – the largest US military operation in the region since the 1989 invasion of Panama. Officially, it targets drug traffickers. In reality, it’s becoming something much larger: a test of American dominance in its old sphere of influence – and a direct challenge to Venezuela.

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Bringing a Howitzer to a Knife Fight: US Armada Off Venezuela

Donald Trump boasted striking small boats off Venezuela’s Caribbean coast to “blow the cartel terrorists the hell out of the water.”  Claiming destruction of enough drugs to kill 25,000, he called the extrajudicial murders “an act of kindness.” Then he ominously hinted at a US land invasion of Venezuela now that the marine route for drugs had been obliterated.

Mythical “Cartel de los Soles”

The Miami Herald described the “precision strike” as targeting the Tren de Aragua (TdA) criminal organization. Then, in the very next sentence, the newspaper lauded the strike at the “heart of Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles,” as if the two entities were one in the same. The rest of the article addressed the Cartel de los Soles, forgetting that it was TdA that had supposedly been blown out of the water.

The criminal network, we are told, had been “embedded within [Venezuelan President] Nicolás Maduro’s regime and accused of moving massive quantities of cocaine overseas.”

Trump sees no need to back his claims. His fourth estate stenographer based its investigative reporting on unidentified “sources with knowledge of the situation.” The Herald revealed that their three anonymous informants knew all about the “‘Caribbean Route’ — long one of the busiest corridors for speedboats ferrying cocaine to Europe and the United States.”

The Miami-based newspaper claimed, without presenting evidence, that “inside Venezuela, authorities have turned to…extortion of businesses.” But who needs evidence when the US Justice Department had indicted the Venezuelan political leadership as a “narco-terrorist enterprise” in 2020? Further, Washington placed a $50 million bounty on Maduro this August. If that is not proof of culpability, nothing is.

Regarding the Cartel de los Soles, the Herald allowed that “Maduro has denied the accusations.” And so has President Gustavo Petro in neighboring Colombia. He observed that it “does not exist; it is a fictitious excuse used by the extreme right to overthrow governments that do not obey them.”

Recently retired head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Pino Arlacchi, pronounced the cartel “a product of Trump’s imagination… useful for justifying sanctions, blockades and threats of military intervention against a country which, incidentally, sits on one of the planet’s largest oil reserves.” Venezuelan analyst Clodovaldo Hernández described the cartel and its alleged connection to Maduro as “nothing more than a reheated dish that was never edible.”

False narrative on drugs in the Caribbean 

Casting doubt on Trump’s avowal that the boats were carrying “fentanyl mostly,” a congressional CRS report reported that Mexico is the main source of illicit fentanyl entering the US. PolitiFact also found that most fentanyl comes from Mexico. And the State Department had hitherto mainly described land/over-the-border routes for fentanyl.

According to reports from the United Nations, the European Union, and the US Drug Enforcement Agency, Venezuela is essentially free of drug production and processing – no coca, no marijuana, and certainly no fentanyl. The authoritative UN 2025 World Drug Report identifies Colombia and secondarily Peru and Ecuador as the major coca growers and/or cocaine producers.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of the cocaine traffic is from the Pacific, not from Venezuela’s Caribbean coast, according to the US National Drug Threat Assessment. The world’s leading cocaine exporter is Ecuador, using banana boats owned by the family of Trump’s ally and right-wing president of the country, Daniel Naboa.

The war on “terrorism” 

The Herald marveled how Trump dispatched an armada of warships – destroyers and a nuclear submarine – plus F-35 stealth jets and 4,500 troops for drug interdiction. In contrast, the knowledgeable military press, such as the US Army-funded Stars and Stripes, skeptically described the deployment as “bringing a howitzer to a knife fight.”

In fact, drug interdiction is a ruse for Washington’s goal of regime-change in Venezuela, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

US administrations have steadily merged the war on drugs with the war on terror, framing Latin American drug trafficking as a national security threat to justify military operations. George W. Bush rebranded Plan Colombia as counter-terrorism, and Barack Obama increased the military buildup.

This laid the present groundwork for Trump, who tied migration to terrorism and cast Venezuelan refugees as a criminal invasion. The president labeled Venezuelan migrants as terrorists to expand executive authority to carry out naval deployments, extrajudicial strikes, and mass deportations. And he weaponized the human rights discourse to criminalize migrants.

Further, Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, designated drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and directed the Pentagon to prepare options for military force against cartels. However, conflating “organized crime/drug cartel” with “terrorism/wartime enemy” is legally and conceptually problematic.

Such measures not only violate international norms but also amplify a narco-terror narrative. They falsely link the Venezuelan government to major drug trafficking while promoting domestic support for intervention in Venezuela.

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Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage is Alleged to Have Coordinated CIA Drug Trafficking Network in Southeast Asia that Financed Black Operations

Richard Armitage, the number two official at the State Department from 2001 to 2005, died on April 13.

The New York Times and other obituaries emphasized that Armitage was a Naval Academy graduate and Bronze Star recipient in Vietnam who served senior roles in the State and Defense Departments starting in the 1980s; as an ambassador to Eastern European countries after the fall of the Soviet Union, and was part of a hawkish group of advisers to President George W. Bush who called themselves “the Vulcans.”

According to the Times, Armitage blackmailed Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf into supporting U.S. policy in the War on Terror by threatening to bomb Pakistan “back to the stone age” if he did not.

The Times obituary concluded by noting that, after his retirement from government, Armitage founded Armitage International, a company that helps multi-national corporations secure business deals primarily in Asia, and supported Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden’s presidential campaigns while signing a letter declaring Donald Trump “dangerously unfit” for public office.

The Times and other obituaries predictably left out that Armitage was involved, according to two former CIA operatives, in shady covert operations associated with a CIA cabal led by Theodore Shackley that was implicated in the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal.

This cabal, also known as the secret team, used drug profits to finance state terror operations.

The Iran-Contra scandal resulted from the discovery that the CIA was using profits from illegal weapons sales to Iran and other illicit activity to covertly fund right-wing counter-revolutionaries in Nicaragua to whom Congress had cut off aid .

In 1986, Armitage was named in an affidavit filed in a civil lawsuit by the Christic Institute as part of a conspiracy responsible for the La Penca bombing during the Contra War that killed seven people.

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Spain legalises medical cannabis in ‘historic’ move

Spain‘s government has today legalised medical cannabis in what has been described as a ‘historic’ move. 

The country’s Council of Ministers today approved cannabis to be prescribed to patients as an ailment to their illnesses. 

But prescriptions can only be handed out under strict conditions. 

Only specialists in hospitals may prescribe cannabis to patients. 

But the government has not set out what ailments the drug should be prescribed for, instead saying that a specialised government agency will set out the rules in the coming weeks. 

Carola Pérez, president of the Spanish Observatory of Medicinal Cannabis, described the decision as ‘historic’. 

She added: ‘All of us patients who were waiting for regulation are celebrating’.

She added that the move opens the door for cannabis to be prescribed for a wide range of illnesses. 

Studies have shown that it can help ease the pain of multiple sclerosis and certain forms epilepsy, and can limit nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy. 

But she added that she wants to make sure Spanish doctors correctly prescribe cannabis, especially in light of the high demand: ‘We’re afraid that doctors won’t know exactly when to prescribe it, because they’re generally untrained. 

‘And we’re also afraid that there will be a bottleneck in hospital laboratories due to the high demand for these compounds’.

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Tennessee Alcohol Wholesalers Are Grabbing Control of the State’s Hemp Market

Few things are more difficult to eradicate in our system of modern governance than a government-sanctioned monopoly or oligopoly. A recently passed bill in Tennessee, which will allow the state’s alcohol wholesalers to take over hemp distribution in the state, shows that these monopolies are not only difficult to eliminate but also often attempt to expand their reach.    

The new law sets up a distribution system for hemp—which was legalized at the federal level in the 2018 Farm Bill—that mirrors the notorious three-tier system for alcohol distribution, which requires producers, wholesalers, and retailers to be legally separate entities. The three-tier system restricts producers and suppliers from selling directly to their customers and mandates that they work through a wholesaler to reach the market. This allows wholesalers to operate as functional monopolies or oligopolies in certain parts of states where only one or two wholesalers operate.

The law, which takes effect on January 1, 2026, also requires all wholesalers and retailers of hemp products to maintain a physical presence within the state. Out-of-state hemp suppliers will be prohibited from engaging in direct-to-consumer shipping to customers in Tennessee, and instead will be forced to work through the state’s wholesaler and retailer tiers. While in-state Tennessee hemp suppliers cannot ship their products to Tennesseans either, they are able to sell on-site directly to their customers, providing a workaround to avoid the three-tier system.

Cornbread Hemp, a Kentucky hemp supplier that recorded $1 million in Tennessee-based sales last year, is challenging the new law in federal court. Cornbread Hemp argues that Tennessee’s law unconstitutionally discriminates against out-of-state competitors in favor of in-state businesses, which is a violation of the Constitution’s Dormant Commerce Clause.

Supreme Court observers will recognize how closely the case mirrors Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers Association v. Thomas (2019). In the case, the majority struck down Tennessee’s requirement that applicants for alcohol wholesaling or retailing licenses must have resided in the state for over two years, finding it to be unconstitutional discrimination against out-of-state economic interests.

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Trump Calls Off Diplomacy With Maduro As Secret DOJ-Approved Kill List Revealed

Several significant developments this week have paved the way for more likely US military escalation off the coast of and in Venezuela, at a moment of unprecedented numbers of Pentagon assets parked in the Caribbean.

First, President Trump has called off diplomatic efforts to reach an agreement with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, The New York Times reported Monday. The president called his special envoy, Richard Grenell, who had been leading the efforts to negotiate with Maduro, informing him the US halting all diplomatic outreach with the Venezuelan government.

As of about two weeks ago, Grenell confirmed that contacts with the Maduro government had been ongoing, however, this statement caught other top members of the administration – especially Secretary Marco Rubio – off guard.

Another big development, following the Pentagon’s at least four strikes thus far on boats believed involved in drug smuggling operations, is the revelation of a classified legal opinion from the DOJ providing cover to use military force against an expanding list of cartels and suspected drug traffickers.

“The opinion, which was produced by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel and has not been previously reported, argues that the president is allowed to authorize deadly force against a broad range of cartels because they pose an imminent threat to Americans,” CNN reports. “The list of cartels goes beyond those the administration has publicly designated as terrorist organizations, the people familiar with the opinion said.”

It essentially gives the US carte blanche for an open-ended war against these groups on the secret list, which hearkens back in parallel to the Obama years of secret drone wars in the Middle East, particularly Yemen.

Indeed analysts cited in the CNN report which broke the story compared the classified list to similar ones in the immediate yeas after 9/11.

“If the OLC opinion authorizing strikes on cartels is as broad as it seems, it would mean DOJ has interpreted the president to have such extraordinary powers that he alone can decide to prosecute a war far broader than what Congress authorized after the attacks on 9/11,” Sarah Harrison, a senior analyst at the Crisis Group, told the outlet.

“By this logic, any small, medium or big group that is trafficking drugs into the US – the administration could claim it amounts to an attack against the United States and respond with lethal force,” added Harrison. So far the US has been engaged in shoot to kill actions of the Venezuelan coast targeting ‘narco-terrorists’ and traffickers.

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Terminally Ill Patients Would Be Able To Use Medical Marijuana In Pennsylvania Hospitals Under New Bipartisan Bill

Bipartisan Pennsylvania senators have introduced a bill that would allow terminally ill patients to use of medical marijuana in hospitals.

Similar to a law previously enacted in California, the Pennsylvania legislation from Sen. John Kane (D) and 17 bipartisan cosponsors aims to ensure that cannabis patients with severe illnesses such as cancer retain access to regulated products as an alternative treatment option.

“Hospitals are incredible places where patients receive top notch care,” Kane wrote in a cosponsorship memo in August. “They need guidance and legal protections to provide terminally ill patients with options to manage pain, while providing settings that support family and friends who are saying goodbye to a loved one.”

The policy that’s being proposed in the bill filed on Friday is known as “Ryan’s law,” a reference to Ryan Bartell, a cancer patient who inspired the legislation.

“During his treatments in California the hospital provided him with opioid medications that caused him to be sedated and unable to interact with family and friends,” Kane said. “Ryan and his family wanted to ensure that his remaining days could be filled with visits from his loved ones. So, Ryan moved to a hospital in the State of Washington where he used medical marijuana to manage his pain effectively and allow him to stay awake and alert to spend time with family and friends during hospital visits.”

“Ryan’s law would allow terminally ill patients to use non-smoking forms of medical marijuana in Pennsylvania hospitals,” he said. “Right now, the use of medical marijuana in hospitals is a gray area due to marijuana being a Scheduled I Narcotic, while also being legal for medicinal purposes in Pennsylvania.”

The four-page bill would amend the state’s existing medical cannabis law to make it so terminally ill patients can use non-smokeable marijuana products at hospitals, create storage requirements for the medicine and require health facilities to develop guidelines about the regulated use of cannabis for qualifying patients.

It also stipulates that a “health care facility is not required to provide a patient with a recommendation to use medical marijuana in compliance with this act or include medical marijuana in a patient’s discharge plan.”

Additionally, the measure says that, if the federal government initiates enforcement actions against a hospital regarding the cannabis policy or issues rules expressly prohibiting the medical marijuana allowance, the health facility is empowered to suspend the practice.

However, the proposed law “shall not be construed to permit a health care facility to prohibit patient use of medical marijuana due solely to the fact that cannabis is a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act or other Federal constraints on the use of medical marijuana that were in existence prior to the effective date of this paragraph,” it says.

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Trump Says Another Drug Boat Hit by US Airstrikes Off Venezuelan Coast

U.S. forces carried out airstrikes on another vessel allegedly carrying illegal drugs off the coast of Venezuela on Saturday, President Donald Trump announced on Sunday.

“In recent weeks, the Navy has supported our mission to blow the cartel terrorists the hell out of the water. … We did another one last night. Now we just can’t find any,” Trump said during remarks at Naval Station Norfolk, flanked by two U.S. aircraft carriers.

The administration has carried out several strikes on vessels off the South American coast in recent weeks, including one strike carried out Friday that was referenced by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during his remarks.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Trump was referencing new strikes, but he later confirmed to reporters that the strikes were carried out Saturday.

When asked to provide additional details about those strikes, Trump told reporters, “My people will give you those.”

Information such as casualty counts, the specific reason for the airstrikes, and other details related to the most recent attack have not yet been released.

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Trump Fabricates a War to Cover Up Murder

The president made up some more lies about his murder spree in the Caribbean:

President Trump has decided that the United States is engaged in a formal “armed conflict” with drug cartels his team has labeled terrorist organizations and that suspected smugglers for such groups are “unlawful combatants,” the administration said in a confidential notice to Congress this week.

There is no such armed conflict. The president has dressed up his summary executions of alleged criminals by pretending that the U.S. is fighting a war with these groups, but these groups are not engaged in hostilities with our government. They aren’t carrying our armed attacks on our country or our military. Calling them terrorist organizations doesn’t authorize or legitimize the killing Trump has ordered. Branding noncombatants as combatants doesn’t make them lawful targets.

The administration has dubbed this a “non-international armed conflict” for the purposes of creating a fig leaf for the president’s murders. That is another lie. A non-international armed conflict is one where a state or a non-state group is fighting with an armed non-state group. To qualify as a non-international armed conflict, the non-state party or parties to the conflict must be organized and the violence between them and the state must be intense.

As we can see, there is no conflict of any kind happening. There is no one fighting back. Our military is simply blowing up boats full of civilians because the president feels like it.

Trump wants to use the language of the “war on terror” to excuse his serial murders of Venezuelan fishermen, but he doesn’t have a leg to stand on:

Noting that it is illegal for the military to deliberately target civilians who are not directly participating in hostilities — even suspected criminals — Mr. Corn called the president’s move an “abuse” that crossed a major legal line.

“This is not stretching the envelope,” he said. “This is shredding it. This is tearing it apart.”

Even if there were a conflict between the U.S. and an armed group taking place, the attacks on the boats would still be illegal.

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