Posts Tagged ‘drugs’

How a big US bank laundered billions from Mexico’s murderous drug gangs

As the violence spread, billions of dollars of cartel cash began to seep into the global financial system. But a special investigation by the Observer reveals how the increasingly frantic warnings of one London whistleblower were ignored. A soldier guards marijuana that is being incinerated in Tijuana,...

April 11th, 2011 | Social Insight | Read More

Time for Change

In 1998 the UN declared: “a drug-free world, we can do it!” In reality, we cannot. The War on Drugs has failed. According to all available indices, it is no longer defendable. Vast expenditure on drug law enforcement has resulted in increasing levels of overall drug-use and lowered drug prices....

April 11th, 2011 | Drug Policy | Read More

Do You Want to Live Forever?

This show is all about the radical ideas of a Cambridge biomedical gerontologist called Aubrey de Grey who believes that, within the next 20-30 years, we could extend life indefinitely by addressing seven major factors in the aging process. He describes his work as Strategies for Engineered Negligible...

March 29th, 2011 | Big Ideas | Read More

Inside the Battle to Define Mental Illness

Every so often Al Frances says something that seems to surprise even him. Just now, for instance, in the predawn darkness of his comfortable, rambling home in Carmel, California, he has broken off his exercise routine to declare that “there is no definition of a mental disorder. It’s bullshit. I...

January 31st, 2011 | Science of the Mind | Read More

Deers of Perception

These reindeer have been fed a mushroom that makes their urine hallucinogenic. Or have they? Sam Williams visits Carsten Höller’s new ‘scientific experiment’ What could be more festive than spending a night locked in an art gallery with a dozen reindeer and a fridge full of psychedelic...

January 28th, 2011 | Health & Happiness | Read More

Can Dope give us Hope?

The ban on hallucinogens is holding back vital research into their medical benefits, says Jake Wallis Simons. Last week, the news took on a decidedly trippy tinge. First, Professor David Nutt, sacked as an adviser to the Labour government for criticising its policy on drugs, sparked controversy...

December 14th, 2010 | Drug Policy | Read More

Drugs: the highs and lows

Natural or synthetic, legal or illegal, people have been taking drugs for thousands of years. High Society, a new exhibition at the Wellcome Collection, explores the culture of getting out of it By the end of planning her new exhibition, Caroline Fisher had come to an interesting conclusion. “It’s...

December 14th, 2010 | Arts | Read More

Acoustic Archaeology Yielding Mind-Tripping Tricks

Recently uncovered sound effects include a clapping echo that sounds like a jungle bird. THE GIST Acoustic archaeology is an emerging field that melds acoustical analysis and old-fashioned bone-hunting. Ancient people created fun house-like temples that featured scary sound effects. Some of the sites...

December 14th, 2010 | Spirituality | Read More

Was the poisoning of a French town in 1951 an LSD trial?

On August 16th 1951 a number of people in the quiet southern French town of Pont St.Esprit began to fall ill. Stomach pains were soon followed by violent and often terrifying hallucinations. Local hospitals were soon overwhelmed and more than thirty people were taken to asylums in nearby towns. It was...

August 25th, 2010 | Social Insight | Read More

‘Tame’ bears guard Canadian marijuana farm

Police raiding a marijuana farm in western Canada were astonished to find black bears apparently guarding it. However initial alarm wore off when officers realised the 10 or so bears did not behave aggressively and were in fact docile and tame. Police believe dog food was used to attract the animals...

August 25th, 2010 | Drug Policy | Read More