Rick Strassman M.D. is the author of DMT: The Spirit Molecule, a modern psychedelic classic, which chronicles Rick’s experiences conducting a human research trial with DMT between 1990-1995. He’s been kind enough to lend PsypressUK his thoughts on psychedelic literature, writing and his latest projects.

The depth and breadth to which psychedelic literature reaches is increasingly vast. Rick mentioned a variety of works including LSD Psychotherapy by Stanislav Grof, Peter Stafford’s Psychedelic Encyclopaedia and My Problem Child by Albert Hofmann, when PsypressUK asked him to cite some works that have influenced him over the years. All of which have seemingly helped shape the man.

Born in Los Angeles, California in 1952, Rick Strassman went on to attend the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Yeshiva University in New York, where he obtained a medical degree with honours in 1977. With much of his working life dedicated to psychiatry, Rick also held strong Buddhist beliefs and it appears that this dichotomy has exerted a strong force on the paths of his life.

It seemed like the offer of a lifetime — earn $2,500 by flying to France aboard a private luxury jet.

But as the fine print made clear, there would be no Eiffel Tower or chateaux, no foie gras or Bordeaux. Travelers were confined to a laboratory in either Toulouse or Rouffach with electrodes attached to their heads, testing whether a drug could keep their jet-lagged bodies awake.

That drug, Nuvigil from Cephalon, could become the first medicine specifically approved by the Food and Drug Administration to combat jet lag.

'Albion Dreaming', written by Andy Roberts, was first published in 2008 by Marshall Cavendish. The book explores the history of LSD use in Britain, charting the military, scientific and cultural use of the psychedelic since its introduction in 1952. Joining an illustrious line of psychedelic drug histories, ‘Albion Dreaming’ is not only a fine addition to British psychedelic literature but to the whole genre worldwide.

The opening chapters explore the military and scientific use of LSD, two threads that entwine with one another and, interestingly, which throw up as many questions as Roberts answers...

The study, published in the January issue of the journal Science, shows how cocaine affects an epigenetic process (a process capable of influencing gene expression without changing a gene's sequence) called histone methylation. These epigenetic changes in the brain's pleasure circuits, which are also the first impacted by chronic cocaine exposure, likely contribute to an acquired preference for cocaine.

Read the full article for the shocking truth.

Five members of the Government's official drugs advisory panel are to join a new independent group set up by sacked drugs adviser, David Nutt.

Prof Nutt said the new group would be "very powerful" and would take over the role of the official Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD).

He said four of the five ex-ACMD members who resigned in protest at his sacking would also join the new body.

The Home Office said ACMD members were allowed to join another organisation.

BBC Home Affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said while it was theoretically possible for the drugs experts to be members of both groups, in practice it would make the framing of consistent drugs advice "rather tricky".

According to Nutt, his new group is taking over the role of the ACMD. I would list all the recent articles we've posted that can be traced back to Prof Nutt, but you can see for yourself, the man is a legend!

Among the professional creative classes who make up a sizable portion of West Coast seekers—for spirit and/or thrills—ayahuasca could almost be said to be mainstream. So it no longer matters whether Cameron or his animators have themselves drunk the tea; its active compounds are already swimming in the cultural water supply. Eco-futuristic dreams are now indistinguishable from the visionary potential of media technology itself. Indeed, whether you are talking form (ground-breaking 3D animation) or content (cyber-hippie wetdream decor), Cameron’s visual and technological rhetoric is impossible to disentangle from hallucinogenic experience.

A Tennessee judge who ordered a court spectator to submit to a drug test based "on a hunch" is being sued for infringing on the spectator's constitutional rights.

Benjamin Marchant's lawsuit (PDF) against Dickson County Judge Durwood Moore says Marchant was a spectator in the court in January of 2009, waiting to give a friend a ride home, when Moore ordered sheriff's deputies to administer a urinalysis on Marchant on nothing more than a "hunch."

Marchant says he was released when the drug test came back negative.

The Cannabis Cafe opened on Nov. 13 at 4:20 p.m., Oregon’s first marijuana cafe.

People must register with the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program with a doctor’s approval in order to receive a medical marijuana card, and they must also be members of the Oregon chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, to get into the cafe.

There is a $20 monthly fee and a $5 cover charge as well.

The cafe is located in a historical building, which used to be a speakeasy and a ballroom, in a neighborhood in northeast Portland on Dekum Street.

Monroe County deputies said a ransom note left in place of seized marijuana plants lured out a suspected grower.

According to a news release, detectives left a note with a phone number in place of the six large plants that read: "Thanks for the grow! You want them back? Call for the price."

This would not be news unless the man fell for the trap, which he did. This story is not so much funny to me, but more a prime example of how easy it is to be a dick when you are a cop.

When I hear people say that they only take "natural" drugs, I always wonder what they mean. It's usually said with a sort of holier-than-thou attitude; and at least when it's said to me, it's often loaded with subtle undertones of disapproval masked as concern for my well-being. The complexity of the topic may be obscured by prejudice, but nevertheless the natural versus synthetic discussion brings up a number of interesting issues surrounding drugs and drug culture, biology, technology, and the evolution of the species.

There's nothing wrong with choosing to take only natural drugs, obviously. There's nothing wrong with choosing not to take any drugs at all. I think that many people haven't thoroughly thought their own reasoning through, though, relying instead on knee-jerk biases to guide their decision-making and to rationalize their actions.