I am an opioid user, or a former one anyhow. Contrary to the cliche, I’m not addicted. I never felt trapped or enslaved by my drug use. I never did anything I regretted to get high. I never shared needles – the sole time I shared a cooker due to interpersonal pressure, I promptly … Continued
In early January, as the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, announced a tentative degree of policy experimentation by piloting, in three boroughs, a diversion scheme whereby young people in possession of small amounts of cannabis would be offered counselling and support instead of arrest, the Metropolitan Police were out in Shoreditch conducting their own … Continued
The queer community and illicit drug users are inextricably linked: Both are subjected to similar politicisation of private practices, both are disproportionately aggravated by social harms, and are both fighting stigma and shame for the assurance of rights that should be fundamental. Drug use plays an outsized, if not wholly unsurprising part in the experience of … Continued
Like the thick smoky aftertaste that lingers after bonfire night merrymaking, memory hangs heavy in the air during the early weeks of November in the UK. As the oppressive darkness of the ironically named daylight-savings time settles in, we cast our collective memory back to the foiled attempt at Gunpowder Treason in 1605. More poignantly, … Continued
Pioneering psychedelic research, by Amanda Feilding We are living through a mental health crisis. Existing treatments barely scratch the surface of the problem, and have not translated into real world benefit for a huge number of people. An estimated 1 billion people worldwide now live with a mental disorder, with depression affecting an estimated … Continued
A recent literature review by PhytoSciences Ghana has provided a summary of the preclinical evidence for the medicinal use of cannabinoids as an alternative treatment for mental health disorders. In light of these conclusions we have interviewed a patient who uses medicinal cannabis to manage ADHD and OCD, to explore how the findings of … Continued