Everything seems to go better with Ketamine:

It sounds strange that a drug addiction could be successfully combated using another recreational drug, but it appears that certain psychedelic drugs can have a positive influence when combined with psychotherapy...

After a one year follow up, Krupitsky and his colleagues found that 50% of those who received multiple sessions of ketamine-assisted therapy remained abstinent compared to 22.2% of those who received only a single session. Traditional forms of heroin treatment, such as the use of naltrexone, typically have abstinence rates of about 20%.

SF blog io9 has an interesting post about a newly discovered drug brain chemical that, well, I'll let them explain:

When you're starving and tired, how does your brain decide whether you should sleep or keep hunting for food? This basic survival decision may be hardwired into two genes, and scientists have figured out to control them.

The brain systems that control sleep and eating are connected in most mammals, including humans. Scientists have long known what many of us have realized from pulling all-nighters: Sleep deprivation makes you hungry. But when you're starving, it's hard to sleep.

It turns out fruit flies have a similar response to starvation, and a group of researchers decided to study the food-or-sleep mechanism in these insects to shed light on human behavior. Now the researchers say that they'd isolated two genes, Clock and cycle, that regulate circadian rhythms.

Ever wanted to sleep away those depressing, depressing pounds? Soon, you can!

Of course it's The Onion, people. Sheesh. The tell the stories we should be reading, not the ones that actually happen:

"Harvard is proud to honor the tremendous merits of Adderall, without which many of you would not be sitting here today," Faust said in her opening address to the nearly 1,900 unblinking and intensely focused students receiving their diplomas. "I don't think I'm exaggerating matters when I say that Adderall has been an inspiration to us all."

The psychologically addictive drug then received resounding applause from the assembled graduates, with many jumping to their feet, clapping in near unison for 25 straight minutes, temporarily forgetting where they were, and then grinding their teeth in celebration of the well-deserved honor.

You're awfully hung up on 'truth', aren't you? Or as they say at fancy-pants Harvard, 'veritas'...

Teafaerie is at it again, with another brilliant essay about ego and the psychedelic experience:

Psychedelics have a way of making philosophers of us all. I just looked up philosophy, and Wikipedia says it's the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Even people who would never think of themselves as philosophical types occasionally grapple with these issues on psychedelic drugs, and those of us who like to over-think things can and often do ramble on about such nonsense late into the night, trying to convey or interpret our unique insights as well as throwing well-worn chestnuts onto the open fire and stirring them around until they pop. One thing that seems to come up again and again is the problem of ego. What the heck is this persistent sense of individual selfness, what does it mean, what is it for, and what (if anything) is to be done about it?

Make yourself a cuppa, sit down, and enjoy.

This very scary article has a reporter for the Times of London going undercover in Beverly Hills to get a fistful of scripts for some very, very strong pharmaceuticals. Then tries living on them. Hilarity ensues!

The next morning, I take a quarter of the prescribed dose of Adderall. I focus better, but I’m buzzing. I chain-smoke -- at 8am -- and I’ve lost my appetite. As highs go, it definitely isn’t fun, and the drug has made me feel anxious. I take another quarter after lunch.

Within a few hours, I decide to have half a dose of the Klonopin, to take the edge off my tooth-gnashing, rubbish-talking, Adderalled personality. Then I go for a drink, but after one glass of wine I’m grappling to control myself. Messy is the technical term. Yet I am still legal to drive. I go home and take a sleeping pill. I watch television and through the sludgy fog I get tunnel vision. Famished, I eat a big bag of crisps and pass out. In the morning, I feel thick-headed and slow. An Adderall will sort that out...

You want to know why all those celebrities are suffering a very millennial version of 'Adult Crib Death'? Read this article.

Slate is running a thought-provoking piece about the relative environmental impact of several popular (though illegal) mind-altering drugs:

Let's be frank: Most highs for you are kind of a downer for the planet. The conditions under which illegal drugs are produced make it impossible for the government to enforce any sort of clean manufacturing regulations, and the long-standing "War on Drugs" inflicts its own environmental damage. (Think of the RoundUp herbicide sprayed on 120,000 hectares of rural Colombia each year.) There are some ways to measure the eco-credentials of various narcotics, though. To understand how various drugs affect the environment, we need to take a close look at where each one comes from and compare the ways they're harvested or synthesized.

Have a read, find your favorite, and calculate the damage! (Myself, I'm hoping for huge crops of Roundup-resistant cannabis invading your favorite vacant lot...)

The Guardian UK reports about MDAI (5,6-Methylenedioxy-2-aminoindane for you chemistry geeks) and how it may be replacing mephedrone (criminalized in the UK this past week) as the legal high of choice:

The drug replicates many of the effects of MDMA, or ecstasy, and was developed as an antidepressant by a team at Purdue University in the US during the 1990s. Experts believe its chemical blueprint could soon be mass-produced by the Chinese manufacturers who flooded the UK with mephedrone. Last year mephedrone became the fourth-most popular drug in Britain behind cannabis, cocaine, and ecstasy.

The many websites selling mephedrone closed down last week with the final deadline for placing online orders 3pm on Wednesday. At the same time, sites began advertising or offering MDAI, most describing it as a "research chemical". One of the most popular mephedrone websites states: "New products for April – MDAI." Another announced the arrival of MDAI by declaring it was "proud to introduce a new compound to our product range". The cost of the chemical is about twice that of mephedrone, with a gram – which users say is enough for five hits – costing 25 pounds.

This drug is so new that there isn't even an Erowid vault for it. Interesting times.

The Guardian UK has an interesting article about the two big neuroenhancing drugs used widely today - ritalin and modafinil. And how today's overachieving and under-sleeping students are using them to get ahead:

All the students are clear on the drug's effects. "Modafinil increases my enthusiasm for studying," says Perera. "It makes me feel that lazing around is the last thing I want to do." Price agrees: "Modafinil gives me the motivation I would otherwise lack." Makepeace, who clearly doesn't lack motivation, instead takes modafinil to stay alert. "Once I've taken a pill I can stay up all night without stopping. It just works so well," she says. "I need it."

Do you really need it? I've noticed that modafinil is a fine high, but I wouldn't want to rely on it. Ritalin, on the other hand, is the study drug of the Gods...

Remember when you read Playboy for the articles?

For the first time in 40 years, the medical community is using psychedelic drugs such as LSD as therapeutic tools, dosing combat-addled Iraq vets and diseased patients coming to grips with their impending death. This is the story of medical adventurers and their high-flying patients.

Long article (in PDF format) about LSD, MDMA and medical research. If you already know what's going on in this space you may not learn too much that's new. But it's a great read.

Dimitri Orlov, who's written a lot about the collapse of the Soviet Union (and prophesies a similar collapse of the USA) published a list, one year ago, about signs that the Drug War had come to an end - and what that might mean. Here's a taste:

• The US has lost the "War on Drugs"


• The losing side is usually not the one to decide when a fight is over or how it ends


• Unlike other recent defeats, this lost war is a defeat followed by an invasion


• Mexico is the natural staging area for the invasion (inconvenient though it is for the Mexicans)

Much of what Orlov predicted is coming to pass. Have a read and ponder if the rest will.