Volteface News
New Initiative Aims To Improve The Medical Cannabis Industry By Putting Patients First
Volteface is today launching a new initiative that aims to improve the medical cannabis industry by giving patients a voice, and the chance to shape their future care. Partnering with Maple Tree Consultants, we have launched Patients First, a scheme which will pay medical cannabis patients for participating in professionally facilitated focus groups. Patients … Continued
New Head of Public Affairs Joins The Team
We are delighted to announce that Jay Jackson has joined Volteface as Head of Public Affairs. He will be leading on political engagement, bringing his intimate understanding of politics to the role, as well as contributing written content and ensuring that Volteface continues to be a hub of unique and engaging ideas and political strategy. … Continued
The New Leaf: Beyond Brexit, Countering Covid
The New Leaf Opportunities campaign has highlighted the economic benefits, innovations and investment opportunities that medical cannabis and CBD can bring to the UK. It has also focused on how celebrating this will lead to a more vibrant cannabis sector. This report has honed in on the opportunities that medical cannabis and CBD bring … Continued
Patient Access
Would You Trip With an AI?
As the benefits of psychedelic therapy are more widely recognised, so is the importance of set and setting in mental health treatment. Now emerging technologies from AI-powered soundscapes to immersive, digital experiences are seeking to improve them. While the psychedelic field awaits regulation and destigmatisation, do new technologies promote access and help develop the psychedelic … Continued
Are ‘Pseudodelics’ The Future For Mental Health?
Psychedelics, substances that produce non-ordinary states of consciousness, are currently being heralded as the therapeutic saviours for our long-standing mental health crisis, with preliminary studies showing promising results for psilocybin, MDMA and Ketamine-assisted therapy for depression, PTSD and addiction. However, whatever way you dress it up, the psychedelic trip and all it entails (insert … Continued
On the Road: The complex path to travelling as a medical cannabis patient.
“It’s putting patients into vulnerable situations through no fault of their own.” I became a medical cannabis patient for my attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) during lockdown. During the pandemic, I was separated from my family in Ireland and unable to travel. So, I hadn’t realised how difficult this … Continued
Long Reads
Inside Duterte’s Drug War
The drug war is a checklist of horrors. 27,000 dead. A bloodbath of genocidal proportions. In spite of it all, Duterte’s war remains popular.
‘To Heal and to Care for’: Protecting Iboga and Indigenous Voices in the Face of Corporatisation
Lack of involvement of Indigenous communities & leaders risks further colonial exploitation of their lands and cultural heritage. Almost a decade ago, Elizabeth’s husband Chor experienced what she now calls a “healing crisis”: an opiate relapse after a 13 year stretch of sobriety. Little did they know back then that soon their lives would be … Continued
Benzodiazepines and Post-War America
Minor tranquilisers are a class of medication known for their anti-anxiety effects. Miltown, the first of these prescription anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) drugs, quickly became a commercial success upon its debut in 1955. In an attempt to replicate Miltown’s success, Hoffman La-Roche developed the benzodiazepines; a class of compounds invented by chemist Leo Sternbach in the 1950s. … Continued
General Advocacy
The Psychoactive Substances Act on Trial
British drug policy fundamentally changed in 2016 with the Psychoactive Substances Act – what happened and why? Traditionally, restricting the production, supply, and possession of a drug involves specifically naming the substance in a piece of legislation. Sometimes lawmakers go a step further, even detailing which isomer of a molecule will land you in prison. … Continued
Club Quarantine: Rave Culture, Party Drugs and the Pandemic
“The police… are absolutely geared up now to implement fines of £10,000 for those individuals that are facilitating these illegal parties and raves.” So announced Home Secretary, Priti Patel, in the midst of the first COVID-19 lockdown. Clearly rave culture hasn’t ceased to exist in the new world in which we find ourselves. Instead, it … Continued
Everything You Need to Know About the Drugs White Paper
Controversial plans outlined this week to curb recreational drug use have caused confusion and consternation, as a classically ‘cakeist’ white paper full of contradictions and codswallop emerges from the dying days of the Johnson government. But cut through the noise, and might there be some light as well as heat? Under the cover of literally … Continued
Cannabis Content
Cannabis Patients Aren’t Addicts – It’s Time To Change The Narrative
If you cast your eyes back to articles published recently on the Volteface website, you’ll find one entitled ‘We need to talk about cannabis dependency’. The author is completely right of course – we do need to talk about it. Cannabis dependency and the potential to abuse cannabis is a very real problem for … Continued
High Pride: Cannabis Must Be Inclusive
“I don’t think there is proportional representation as far as the industry goes. When I go to conferences, I tend to be the only gay in the village.” As a queer journalist who has spent the last few years in the cannabis space, I have often written about the importance of LGBT+ inclusion in the … Continued
We Need To Talk About Cannabis Dependency
Between the narrative that nothing natural could ever do us any real harm, and scaremongering ideas that – even if it doesn’t act as a gateway to the use of stronger substances – smoking cannabis will turn you into a lazy, paranoid and ultimately useless member of society, the space for nuanced interpretations is … Continued