Tag: the war on (some) drugs

TBI survivors turn to psychedelics for symptom relief

A new study from the University of Victoria (UVic) has identified a segment of traumatic brain injury survivors who are using psychedelics to self-medicate for cognitive, mood and somatic symptoms such as headaches. In a first-of-its-kind study, clinical psychology researchers analyzed more than 6,100 responses collected from the global psychedelic survey. Researchers found that nearly 1,200 respondents reported using psychedelics to treat or manage a physical health condition.

Of these, some 208 participants, or 3.4% of the total sample, reported using psychedelics to manage brain injury-related symptoms.

The paper, Psychedelics for the management of symptoms of traumatic brain injury: Findings from the global psychedelic survey, was published in Progress in Neuropsychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry, co-authored by UVic clinical psychology professors Jill Robinson and Mauricio Garcia-Barrera.

Some 60 million people worldwide experience traumatic brain injuries (TBI) every year. Garcia-Barrera says there isn’t a one-size-fits-all treatment for TBI survivors, and he says some are looking for alternative support, including from psychedelics.

“Although research into using psychedelics to manage TBI symptoms remains quite limited, the field is gaining momentum as awareness grows around how widespread brain injury is globally and its impact on the quality of life of those who experience a TBI,” Garcia-Barrera says.

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Global Push to Ban Nicotine as Marijuana and Psychedelics Praised

Nicotine, an alkaloid that naturally occurs in nightshade plants, is the latest target in an ongoing legislative and regulatory battle, with leaders worldwide working toward an outright ban on the substance. Simultaneously, marijuana and psychedelic substances are being encouraged and deregulated at a rapid pace.

While research continues to come out, nicotine has been found to potentially aid in recovery from Covid-19, serve as an anti-inflammatory agent, boost cognition, and even prevent Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. So, why the crackdown?

Elites Suppressing Nicotine

In January 2025, in the 11th hour of Joe Biden’s presidency, his administration pushed hard to essentially begin the death of nicotine through FDA regulations. The Biden-era rule sought to establish a “maximum nicotine level” in tobacco products. In a press release accompanying the clampdown, the FDA revealed that they would “cap the nicotine level at 0.7 milligrams per gram of tobacco in cigarettes and certain other combusted tobacco products.”

While the FDA regulation would not touch on non-tobacco products containing nicotine, such as nicotine gum, patches, or pouches, Democrats have been pushing for years to restrain the sale of non-tobacco nicotine products, mainly nicotine pouches — a small pouch of flavored nicotine placed between the gums.

“It’s a pouch packed with problems — high levels of nicotine,” Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in January of 2024 at a press conference targeting the pouches and nicotine at large. Schumer called on the Federal Trade Commission and Food and Drug Administration to investigate nicotine companies for “for concerns relating to marketing and health effects.” They want to wage war on nicotine.

Democratic governors are hopping on the bandwagon, too. In New York, Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul recently unveiled her 2027 proposed budget, which included a 75-percent tax on non-tobacco nicotine products. “The Executive Budget defines alternative nicotine products and broadens the tobacco products definition to include them, bringing these products under the State’s existing 75 percent wholesale tax,” the budget proposal states.

The reason for the regulations is ostensibly to protect children. New York’s Department of Taxation and Finance Acting Commissioner Amanda Hiller stated, “We have high taxes to create a barrier to entry for children. That’s always been a core rationale for having some of the highest taxes on these products in the country.”

UK: Banning Tobacco for Everyone Born After 2008

But the war on nicotine and tobacco is not just happening in America. It is happening in England, too. This week, both houses of Parliament agreed to a final draft of legislation that would literally ban anyone born after January 1, 2009 from buying tobacco for the rest of their life. The U.K’.s health minister, Baroness Merron, commented that “It is, in fact, the biggest public health intervention in a generation and I can assure all noble Lords it will save lives.”

New Zealand also attempted a smoking ban in 2022, but quickly reversed it upon the election of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who cited concerns about the rise of black market sales and the impact on the economy. Australia has also tightened the bolts on nicotine use, requiring a prescription to use certain nicotine products.

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Timothy Leary—1960s Acid Guru—May Have Been Among the CIA’s Greatest Assets

uring the mid-1960s, as political activism against the Vietnam War and other social ills skyrocketed, Dr. Timothy Leary, a former University of California at Berkeley and Harvard professor, traveled the U.S. urging young people to “turn on” to lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), “tune in and drop out” of “high school, junior executives” and other societal institutions.

Leary had been fired after distributing LSD to students at Harvard in 1963 and subsequently moved to the Millbrook Estate in New York where he continued to carry on experiments with LSD through a foundation that he established.

At the time, Leary’s message seemed subversive.

Leary was touting LSD as a consciousness-expanding drug that could induce sexual euphoria among women and lead to the development of a more peaceful society.

However, in hindsight, Leary proved to be a false prophet who helped destroy the 1960s movements by pushing young people to take a drug that fried their brains and diverted their energy from political activism.

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The True Cost of Tree Paper vs Hemp Paper

The paper industry consumes over 4 billion trees annually. That number has been growing steadily as global packaging demand increases — driven by e-commerce, food delivery, and the ongoing shift away from single-use plastics. But there’s a fundamental question that rarely gets asked: is wood actually the best fiber for making paper?

The answer, based on material science, economics, and environmental impact, is no. Hemp is a superior paper fiber by virtually every measurable metric. Here’s a comprehensive comparison.

Growth Cycle: 120 Days vs 20–80 Years

This is the most dramatic difference between hemp and trees as paper feedstock. Hemp reaches full maturity and is ready for harvest in approximately 120 days from planting. Trees used for paper pulp — primarily softwoods like pine and spruce — take 20 to 80 years to reach harvestable size, depending on the species and growing conditions.

This means a single field of hemp can produce a paper fiber harvest three times per year in tropical climates, or once per year in temperate zones. A forest planted for paper production will produce one harvest per generation. The throughput difference is staggering.

Yield Per Acre: 4x More Fiber

One acre of hemp produces approximately 4 times more usable paper fiber than one acre of trees over a 20-year cycle. This is a combination of hemp’s faster growth, higher cellulose content (57% vs 40–50%), and denser planting capacity.

In practical terms, this means that replacing tree-based paper with hemp paper would require dramatically less agricultural land. Given that deforestation for paper production is a significant driver of habitat loss and biodiversity decline, this land efficiency has enormous environmental implications.

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Trump’s Embrace of Psychedelic Therapy Leaves Most Users on the Wrong Side of the Law

On Saturday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order aimed at “accelerating medical treatments for serious mental illness” by facilitating regulatory approval of ibogaine and other psychedelics that have shown promise as psychotherapeutic catalysts. Although the case for doing that is compelling, the medical model embraced by the president excludes most psychedelic use, which will remain illegal even if the “historic reforms” that Trump announced work as planned.

Trump takes it for granted that Americans should be allowed to use psychedelics only for reasons that the government recognizes as legitimate. Otherwise, they are criminals rather than patients, subject to arrest, prosecution, and potentially severe penalties for daring to assert sovereignty over their own bodies and minds.

The injustice of that policy is readily apparent when people use psychedelics in ways that manifestly improve their lives. Many combat veterans, for example, have found that ibogaine, which is derived from the root of an African shrub, provides dramatic relief from the constellation of problems known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“It absolutely changed my life for the better,” former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, whose Afghanistan memoir inspired the 2013 movie Lone Survivor, remarked as Trump signed his executive order. “I was reborn,” says Luttrell’s twin brother, Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R–Texas), also a former Navy SEAL. “It is one of the greatest things that ever happened to me.”

Because ibogaine is banned in the United States, the Luttrell brothers had those transformational experiences at a clinic in Mexico. So did the 30 subjects of a recent Nature Mental Health study, which found that ibogaine, combined with magnesium as a safeguard against the drug’s cardiac side effects, “safely and effectively reduces PTSD, anxiety and depression and improves functioning in veterans” with traumatic brain injuries.

Research on ibogaine, which also is reputed to be remarkably useful for people struggling with drug addiction, is relatively limited so far. But the evidence supporting the use of MDMA (for PTSD) and psilocybin (for depression), both of which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has designated as “breakthrough” therapies, is strong enough that they may soon be approved as prescription medications.

If that happens, some people who could benefit from these drugs will be able to use them legally, provided they can obtain a diagnosis and a prescription. But where does that leave all the psychedelic users who can’t meet those requirements?

In a 2023 survey of psilocybin users, the RAND Corporation found that the most common motivations included “fun” (59 percent), “improved mental health” (49 percent), “personal development” (45 percent), “curiosity” (43 percent), and “spiritual growth” (41 percent). Although very few of those people would qualify for the medical exception that Trump advocates, that does not mean their reasons for using psilocybin should be dismissed as frivolous, let alone that they should be treated as criminals.

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The Least Psychedelic President in History Supports Psychedelic Research More Than Any of His Predecessors

This is the way the drug war starts to end, not with a bang or a whimper, but with an executive order signed by a president who must surely be the least-psychedelic occupant ever of the Oval Office, even when you think about characters as glum and dour as Millard Fillmore and Calvin Coolidge. In recent weeks, Donald Trump has picked figurative and literal fights with everyone from the Pope to Iran’s ayatollah. Last year, he released an animated video of himself in a fighter plane dropping feces on “No Kings” protestors. If there is an American alive over the age of 30 who has never listened to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band all the way through, it’s Trump.

But there he was this past Saturday, flanked by, among others, a pumped-up podcast host known for smoking weed on the air (Joe Rogan), an ibogaine evangelist (Bryan Hubbard), and a Cabinet member who has bragged about snorting cocaine off toilet seats (Robert F. Kennedy Jr.). The president was eagerly putting his John Hancock on “Accelerating Medical Treatments for Serious Mental Illness,” an executive order that fast-tracks “innovative research models and…drug approvals to increase access to psychedelic drugs that could save lives and reverse the crisis of serious mental illness in America.” The order calls for expedited approval of “psychedelic drugs, including ibogaine compounds,” that “show potential in clinical studies to address serious mental illnesses for patients whose conditions persist after completing standard therapy.” A president who famously ingests nothing more psychoactive than Diet Coke is now pushing ibogaine—dubbed the “Mount Everest of psychedelics” because of the intensity of the trips it induces and its immense potential to reverse brain damage—into respectability. What’s next? Ayahuasca in juice boxes for K-12 cafeterias?

The people present at the signing show how drug policy reform springs from a mix of popular-culture discussion and hardcore, in-the-trenches policy work. Trump himself thanked Rogan for calling his attention to psychedelics and ibogaine, and RFK Jr. wrote on Instagram, “Thank you, [Joe Rogan] for helping bring national attention to these potentially life-saving treatments for veterans and others living with mental illness, and for pushing this conversation into the mainstream.” Rogan has used his immensely popular podcast for years to tout psychedelics and a wide array of conventional and unconventional therapies, supplements, and protocols (some more credible than others). Without him and his show, Saturday’s signing just doesn’t happen. Whatever else one might think of him, Rogan embodies better living through chemistry and self-directed experimentation with all sorts of drugs, exercise programs, and ways of creating a personalized life plan.

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The Top Ten Marijuana Myths That No One Should Believe

Even today, with 80% of states legalizing cannabis in some form, and half the country legalizing it for medical purposes, I have been called a lunatic for ever thinking that cannabis would be recognized for the miracle plant that it is. Shockingly enough many have yet to see through the mainstream media facade to the ruling puppeteers behind. 

Many still hold fast in their belief that cannabis is dangerous and not medically efficacious, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary backed by scientists and industry leaders alike. The only ones, it seems, that are not reconciling their incorrect beliefs, and intentionally so, are the politicians with their hands in Big Pharma’s back pocket, also known as, the American political elite. 

They continue to stand on their podium of lies broadcasting their misinformation, casting aside what little integrity they retain while making the conscious decision to sell out their constituents, their country, and themselves, all for a little extra paper, that they most likely did not truly need in the first place.

Despite the onslaught of ridiculous claims and outright lies reminiscent of the days of “Reefer Madness” that have been cast into minds of unsuspecting Americans, it would seem that We, as a nation, or rather as the people of a nation, have chosen to see past the obvious attempts by the government to misdirect our attention and feed us State-sponsored comforting lies, that only benefit an elite few, and perpetuate a Deep State agenda. 

We, as the American people, have shown this country’s ruling masters that we see though their half-hearted attempts to coral us into an aligned way of thinking and viewing the world, a way of thinking that primarily benefits those in control and casts what little remains down to those of us still scrabbling for the scraps from their table. We have shown them, that we will think for ourselves. 

As there are most definitely more pressing issues facing this nation, and the world for that matter, the topic of cannabis and its subsequent legalization is, in my opinion, one of the primary catalysts that began the awakening we are currently experiencing. It showed every American citizen that when the people stand together, truly unite, our voices are all that matter.

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56-Million-Year-Old Fossil Found in Germany May Be Oldest Known Cannabis Plant

A fossil discovered in Germany may be the oldest known cannabis-related plant ever identified, potentially pushing the timeline of the genus back by about 30 million years.

The fossilized leaf, dated to between 56 million and 48 million years ago, was found in the Saxony-Anhalt region of Germany and is now being highlighted as a possible early relative of modern marijuana. That would make it far older than previous estimates suggesting the Cannabis genus emerged around 20 million to 28 million years ago.

According to researchers, the fossil had actually been sitting in a museum collection for around 150 years after first being described in 1883. Only recently was it reexamined in detail, leading to renewed interest because of how closely it resembles today’s cannabis leaves. Researchers say the shape of the leaf and its vein pattern are both strikingly similar to modern marijuana plants.

Even so, the fossil is not believed to be the same as modern Cannabis sativa or Cannabis indica. Instead, it appears to represent an extinct relative from much earlier in the plant’s evolutionary history. Researchers note that today’s marijuana varieties have been heavily shaped by human cultivation and selective breeding, likely over thousands of years.

The discovery is notable not just because of its age, but because of where it was found. For years, cannabis was widely believed to have originated in the Tibetan Plateau region of Asia. This fossil suggests the genus may have a far older and broader history than previously thought, and that its origin may not be tied only to high-altitude regions in Asia.

Researchers say they can’t determine whether the ancient plant contained THC because the fossil does not preserve the tiny structures where cannabinoids are produced.

Still, the fossil is offering one of the strongest signs yet that the history of marijuana may stretch back much further than once believed, while also opening the door to new questions about where the plant first emerged.

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‘Gas station heroin.’ TN passes full kratom ban after weeks-long debate over effects

Tennessee lawmakers have passed a full ban on kratom, derived from a Southeast Asian plant, following a weeks-long debate over its safety and effects.

“Kratom contains compounds that activate opioid receptors in the brain- mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH)– and is often referred to as gas station heroin,” said Rep. Esther Helton-Haynes, R-East Brainerd during a committee hearing in March.

Kratom supporters say, in its natural form, the plant can help curb opioid addiction and manage pain.

But Tennessee legislators sided with caution this week, aligning with advocates who argue kratom in any form can ultimately lead to addiction and potentially deadly overdoses.

Tennessee now joins about eight other states in banning kratom entirely, including its natural form.

“This bill addresses the growing public health and safety concern surrounding kratom, often marketed as a natural supplement,” Helton-Haynes said. “But natural does not mean safe.”

The kratom plant has been used as an alternative to opioids, sometimes as people wean off heroin, and as a natural pain reliever.

In recent years, however, kratom has been modified into a stronger form known as 7-hydroxymitragynine, or “7-OH,” often sold at gas stations and vape shops as a supplement or extract. Some experts say it is 13 times more potent than morphine.

“I never heard of kratom until the day we lost him,” said Karen Davenport, a mother from Chattanooga who is advocating against the substance, working with lawmakers to get the bill passed. “Like many families, we didn’t realize the risk because kratom is often marketed as a safe, natural product.”

Davenport’s 27-year-old son, Matthew, died after taking kratom, which interacted with his prescription medication. The bill has since been named “Matthew’s Law.”

“What he didn’t know was there’s an exhaustive list of more than 250 drug interactions that can cause a lethal reaction with kratom,” she said.

There remains ongoing debate over whether natural kratom is safe or beneficial. Some states are potentially revising bans. A petition circulating online includes testimonials from some of the estimated hundreds of thousands of kratom users in Tennessee, who say they use it to help with issues like arthritis, back pain and Sciatica.

Both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have maintained a generally negative stance on kratom and have not approved it for any medical use.

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3 Disasters That Legal Weed Didn’t Unleash—Despite the Forecasts

Happy 4/20 to the millions of people across the country who celebrate, including much of the Reason staff. As someone who’s never been interested in pot—save for one summer in college—or drugs in general, I’ve always found the day a bit strange. But as I’ve grown older (and more libertarian), I’ve come to appreciate it as a celebration of personal freedom. 

I’m not the only one who has changed his mind. In 2025, 64 percent of Americans thought marijuana should be legal for both medical and recreational use (up from 31 percent in 2000), according to Gallup. Meanwhile, 40 states have legalized medical use of cannabis, including 24 that also allow recreational use. Late last year, President Donald Trump ordered that marijuana be reclassified from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act, putting it in the same category as prescription drugs such as “ketamine, anabolic steroids, and Tylenol with codeine,” explains Reason‘s Jacob Sullum.

Prohibitionists warned that legalization would have dire consequences. Here are some of their predictions that have yet to come true. 

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