DPP #26: New Fun Drugs are Coming Soon!
Drug Positive
Are you ready for a new drug? In this episode I interview neuroscientist Matthew Baggott about his new company, Tactogen, which is synthesizing and bringing to market new MDMA-like substances. We also discuss the pros and cons of the new psychedelic renaissance, what the mainstreaming of psychedelics might look like in the near future and how it might affect the underground culture, especially with the entrance of big money capitalists like Peter Thiel and the dreaded Compass Pathways.
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DPP #25: When Will Festivals Happen Again?
Drug Positive
It's been almost a year since the pandemic ended mass gatherings. A year without live music and festivals has taken its toll on many of us. When will they start up again? In this episode I discuss the latest COVID science to try to find an answer to that question.
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DPP #24: Drugs, Dementia and a Little Bit of Dharma
Drug Positive
When Sasha Shulgin was at the end of his life, experiencing dementia, I had the privilege of interviewing with him. Then both my parents got dementia. These experiences taught me lessons in life I won't forget, and that I want to share with you.
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DPP #23: QAnon is a US Intel Psyop
Drug Positive
In this episode I break from the topic of drugs to discuss the most important issue of our times: QAnon and the rising tide of authoritarian fascism. I interview investigative journalist, filmmaker and podcaster, Robbie Martin. Robbie is an expert on QAnon, and he takes us through its history and origins inside US intelligence agencies as well as the Trump administration, warning us of the dire consequences that could result from the weaponization of conspiracy theory culture.
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DPP #22: Are You Addicted? Maia Szalavitz and the Unbroken Brain
Drug Positive
In this episode I interview Maia Szalavitz, author of Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction. In these pandemic times, problematic drug use is on the rise. Alcohol sales are skyrocketing, and more than ever we need to understand the root causes of addiction, and how to help those who are suffering.
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DPP #21: Straight Inc - A Survivor's Story
Drug Positive
In this episode I interview Frank Haines, who describes his experiences being held captive for more than a year in Florida's notorious anti-drug cult, Straight. Started by millionaire shopping mall developer and founder of the Partnership for a Drug Free America, Mel Sembler, in the 1980s, Straight was eventually shut down after numerous successful lawsuits exposed systemic violence, including physical abuse and torture.
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DPP #20: Lucy in the Sky with Nazis
Drug Positive
In this episode I interview Brian Pace, board member of Psymposia and co-host of the Plus Three Podcast, where we discuss the political right’s embracing and promotion of psychedelics. With fringe Nazi groups and corporate capitalists like Peter Thiel all getting involved in the new psychedelic renaissance, the mainstreaming of psychedelic drugs has opened up deeper questions into what we should value as a society and culture.
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Ack! There's Coronavirus in My Meth!
Drug Positive
In this episode of Drug Nonsense, Mason and I discuss lying cops, massive LSD overdoses, new psilocybin trademarks and other incidents of interest to druggies, reformers and those who love them. All new and now forever free, our Patreon podcast is open to the public.
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DPP #19: Heroin, Stigma and Psychedelic Chauvinism
Drug Positive
A live recording of Emanuel's talk at the Utah Psychedelic Society in Salt Lake City on February 22, 2020. Emanuel addresses the state of the drug policy reform movement, why the psychedelic community needs to embrace the decriminalization of all drugs, and why harm reduction is the argument that will build bridges with non-drug users and take us to the next level in the fight to end the drug war.
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DPP #18: Stop Vaping Until You Listen to This!
Drug Positive
In this episode I interview David Downs, Cannabis Editor at Leafly.com. We discuss the frightening truth about unregulated cannabis vape cartridges. VAPI, or Vaping Associated Pulmonary Injury, killed 52 people last year. It's real, and although the main cause, a thickening agents known as vitamin E acetate, appears to be on the decline, millions of contaminated vape carts are still out there.
info_outlineWe do not have an overdose crisis. We have a poisoned drug supply. Fentanyl and its analogs are killing tens of thousands of Americans every year. Alarmingly and with ominous future implications, fentanyl-laced cocaine fatalities in Ohio are now outstripping fentanyl-laced herion fatalities. This trend began in 2016 but the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI), who operates the three state crime labs that first learned about it, never made the data public.
In this episode we speak with Dennis Cauchon, founder of Harm Reduction Ohio, who just this summer used public records laws to obtain the data from BCI and publish it, warning people that this poisoning crisis had now spread far beyond just the heroin market.
Who is adding fentanyl and carfentanil to the cocaine supply? How many lives has Cauchon saved by spreading this information to the public? And why did BCI sit on the data for three years and not tell anyone? According to Cauchon, they simply didn't realize what they were looking at. Disconnected from the drug culture, they just assumed that mixing fentanyl with cocaine was a new drug trend. They had no idea that cocaine users were unaware that their cocaine contained fentanyl, and that they didn't want their drugs contaminated with it.
Cauchon was able to educate some of the folks in BCI. "After initially being reluctant to provide the information," he say, "BCI was remarkably helpful, which showed a real concern about drug overdose deaths, not just helping police convict people on drug charges."
This is the state of prohibition. This is drug war culture.
In this episode we also speak to Donna May, a mother who lost her daughter to heroin after her doctor cut her off from the prescription opiates that relieved her symptoms of anxiety. We hear from Dr. Torsten Passie, who helped spearhead heroin maintenance programs in Germany. And we talk to Dr. Gabor Maté, best-selling author and addiction treatment specialist from Vancouver, Canada, who explains why drug users are one of the most scapegoated groups in our culture.
This episode describes the problem as well as the solution. And the solution lies not just in changing drug laws, but also our own attitudes and false beliefs about drugs and the people who use them.
Edited by Emanuel Sferios
Sound engineered by Jimmy Martin
Opening music track by Frankum, creative commons.