#National Institute on Drug Abuse

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

The Biden administration’s Department of Health and Human Services is recommending that the Drug Enforcement Administration significantly loosen federal restrictions on marijuana but stopped short of advising that it should be entirely removed from the Controlled Substances Act.

The health agency wants the drug moved from Schedule I to Schedule III under the CSA, potentially the biggest change in federal drug policy in decades.

HHS Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine wrote in a Tuesday letter to the DEA, first reported by Bloomberg News, that the recommendation was based on a review conducted by the Food and Drug Administration.

The DEA confirmed to POLITICO that it received the letter.

“As part of this process, HHS conducted a scientific and medical evaluation for consideration by DEA. DEA has the final authority to schedule or reschedule a drug under the Controlled Substances Act,” a spokesperson for the agency said in a statement. “DEA will now initiate its review.”

The HHS letter is part of the official review process initiated by President Joe Biden last October: The FDA conducts the review, which is then sent to the National Institute on Drug Abuse and HHS, after which HHS transmits a letter of recommendation to the DEA. The DEA is not required to follow HHS’s recommendation.

The White House on Wednesday refused to comment on the review process.

“The administration process is an independent process led by HHS, led by the Department of Justice, and guided by evidence,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. “We’re just not going to comment on that.”

Cannabis is currently a Schedule I substance on the CSA, which means it is deemed to have a high likelihood of abuse and no medical uses. Heroin and LSD are also Schedule I drugs. Schedule III drugs are categorized as having “moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.” The category includes ketamine and testosterone.

The HHS recommendation is the result of a nearly yearlong federal review of all available marijuana research. Biden’s executive action — which also included federal pardons for low-level marijuana convictions — was seen by many as a political move taken ahead of the midterm elections to incentivize turnout among younger and more progressive voters.

At the time, advocates and some lawmakers urged Biden to take clear steps to remove cannabis completely from the CSA — versus rescheduling it. Legalization advocates on Wednesday reiterated that rescheduling would not solve many of the problem they’ve been asking the Biden administration to correct.

“Rescheduling cannabis from 1 to 3 does not end criminalization, it just rebrands it. People will still be subject to criminal penalties for mere possession, regardless of their legal status in a state-level medical program,” cannabis advocate Justin Strekal told POLITICO on Wednesday.

FEDERAL-STATE CONFLICT

Federal law has failed to keep up with massive changes over the last decade in state cannabis policies. 23 states now allow anyone at least 21 years old to legally posses the drug, while 38 states have established medical marijuana programs.

But because cannabis businesses are not federally legal, they are subject to a federal tax code that prohibits narcotics traffickers from taking typical tax exemptions for business expenses like salaries and benefits. That code does not apply to Schedule III, so if the DEA approved HHS’ recommendation, cannabis businesses around the country would immediately be paying much less in federal taxes.

That would provide a big boost to the financially struggling industry.

“It’s giant,” said Charlie Bachtell, CEO of Cresco Labs, one of the country’s largest cannabis companies, in an interview. “I think you would see a healthier cannabis industry a year from now.”

Rescheduling could also mean legislative changes on Capitol Hill, where a bill to make it easier for banks to offer financial services to the cannabis industry — backed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sens. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) — has been slowly plodding toward the finish line.

Changing marijuana’s federal classification would almost certainly make it easier for cannabis businesses to access banking services and raise cash even without any legislative changes.

“I don’t see a need for the SAFE Banking Act if this in fact becomes the official position,” said Jonathan Havens, a cannabis attorney at Saul Ewing who previously worked for the FDA. “I’m not saying that all banks will want to jump into this space, but the need for safe harbors I don’t think exists like it does today.”

Schumer on Wednesday urged the DEA to “quickly follow through on this important step” but added he is “continuing to work in Congress to pass important marijuana legislation and criminal justice reform.”

The shift in federal cannabis policy would also make it easier to conduct research on the health effects of cannabis consumption and for pharmaceutical companies to bring cannabis-based drugs to market. Researchers have long chafed at restrictions that only allow them to procure cannabis from a single farm at the University of Mississippi that bears little resemblance to the high-potency products many consumers are purchasing in state-legal markets.

But if the FDA decides to fully enforce regulations on the cannabis industry as it does all other Schedule III drugs, that could mean major changes for state markets.

“The question that I have is whether or not the current industry will eventually be replaced by the pharmaceutical industry,” said Rachel Gillette, head of the cannabis practice at Holland & Hart, noting that ketamine and anabolic steroids are also Schedule III drugs. “I can’t go down to the corner store and buy those things.”

Some state regulators, however, don’t think that much will change.

“This adjusts the type of security and type of bureaucracy that exists around federal research into the substance [and] it would make it easier for companies to bring cannabis based pharmaceuticals into market,” said John Hudak, Director of Maine’s Office of Cannabis Policy, in an interview. “But in terms of administration of a state program, it has very little impact.”

MIXED RESPONSE

The cannabis industry on Wednesday was ebullient, while drug legalization advocates and some lawmakers had a more tepid — or downright condemnatory — response to the news.

“We believe that rescheduling to Schedule III will mark the most significant federal cannabis reform in modern history,” said Edward Conklin, executive director of the US Cannabis Council, an advocacy and trade group, in a statement. “President Biden is effectively declaring an end to Nixon’s failed war on cannabis and placing the nation on a trajectory to end prohibition.”

While the industry would see immediate financial benefits from a loosening of federal restrictions, however, criminal penalties on cannabis would not change dramatically. That prompted some advocates to criticize the HHS recommendation.

“This shift would fall woefully short of the promises made by President Biden during his 2020 presidential election campaign, especially promises made to Black and Brown communities,” said Cat Packer, director of drug markets and regulation at the Drug Policy Alliance, which advocates legalizing all drugs.

Anti-legalization advocates, meanwhile, blasted the move as potentially detrimental to public health.

“The addiction profiteers who have been exposed for lying about marijuana’s physical, mental and economic impacts, are desperately looking for legitimacy in the wake of mounting evidence their products are harming millions of Americans,” said Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, in a statement. “It is regrettable that the Department of Health and Human Services move now appears to be a nod to those monied interests.”

[cannabisbusinessexecutive]

Biden's directive on marijuana faces a Catch-22

Biden’s directive on marijuana faces a Catch-22

Marijuana research is restricted because it’s Schedule 1 – making it hard to consider reclassifying it President Biden tasked the federal health department with undertaking a major scientific and medical review that has the potential to upend more than a half-century of marijuana policy. Last week, Biden directed the Department of Health and Human Services and the attorney general to expedite a…

[anarchywoofwoof]

the funny thing is that i don't think younger people - and i mean those under the age of 40 - really have a grasp on how many of today's issues can be tied back to a disastrous reagan policy:

war on drugs: reagan's aggressive escalation of the war on drugs was a catastrophic policy, primarily targeting minority communities and fueling mass incarceration. the crusade against drugs was more about controlling the Black, Latino and Native communities than addressing the actual problems of drug abuse, leading to a legacy of broken families and systemic racism within the criminal justice system.

deregulation and economic policies: reaganomics was an absolute disaster for the working class. reagan's policies of aggressive tax cuts for the rich, deregulation, and slashing social programs were nothing less than class warfare, deepening income inequality and entrenching corporate greed. these types of policies were a clear message that reagan's america was only for the wealthy elite and a loud "fuck you" to working americans.

environmental policies: despite his reputation being whitewashed thanks to the recovery of the ozone layer, reagan's environmental record was an unmitigated disaster. his administration gutted critical environmental protections and institutions like the EPA, turning a blind eye to pollution and corporate exploitation of natural resources. this blatant disregard for the planet was a clear sign of prioritizing short-term corporate profits over the future of the environment.

AIDS crisis: reagan's gross neglect of the aids crisis was nothing short of criminal and this doesn't even begin to touch on his wife's involvement. his administration's indifference to the plight of the lgbtq+ community during this devastating epidemic revealed a deep-seated bigotry and a complete failure of moral leadership.

mental health: reagan's dismantling of mental health institutions under the guise of 'reform' led directly to a surge in homelessness and a lack of support for those with mental health issues. his policies were cruel and inhumane and showed a personality-defining callous disregard for the most vulnerable in society.

labor and unions: reagan's attack on labor unions, exemplified by his handling of the patco strike, was a blatant assault on workers' rights. his actions emboldened corporations to suppress union activities, leading to a significant erosion of workers' power and rights in the workplace. he was colloquially known as "Ronnie the Union Buster Reagan"

foreign policy and military interventions: reagan's foreign policy, particularly in latin america, was imperialist and ruthless. his administration's support for dictatorships and right-wing death squads under the guise of fighting "communism" showed a complete disregard for human rights and self-determination of other nations.

public health: yes, reagan's agricultural policies actually facilitated the rise of high fructose corn syrup, once again prioritizing corporate profits over public health. this shift in the food industry has had lasting negative impacts on health, contributing to the obesity epidemic and other health issues.

privatization: reagan's push for privatization was a systematic dismantling of public services, transferring wealth and power to private corporations and further eroding the public's access to essential services.

education policies: his approach to education was more of an attack on public education than anything else, gutting funding and promoting policies that undermined equal access to quality education. this was, again, part of a broader agenda to maintain a status quo where the privileged remain in power.

this is just what i could come up with in a relatively short time and i did not even live under this man's presidency. the level at which ronald reagan has broken the united states truly can't be overstated.

[reasonsforhope]

"For the first time in decades, public health data shows a sudden and hopeful drop in drug overdose deaths across the U.S.

"This is exciting," said Dr. Nora Volkow, head of the National Institute On Drug Abuse [NIDA], the federal laboratory charged with studying addiction. "This looks real. This looks very, very real."

National surveys compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention already show an unprecedented decline in drug deaths of roughly 10.6 percent. That's a huge reversal from recent years when fatal overdoses regularly increased by double-digit percentages.

Some researchers believe the data will show an even larger decline in drug deaths when federal surveys are updated to reflect improvements being seen at the state level, especially in the eastern U.S.

"In the states that have the most rapid data collection systems, we’re seeing declines of twenty percent, thirty percent," said Dr. Nabarun Dasgupta, an expert on street drugs at the University of North Carolina.

According to Dasgupta's analysis, which has sparked discussion among addiction and drug policy experts, the drop in state-level mortality numbers corresponds with similar steep declines in emergency room visits linked to overdoses.

Dasgupta was one of the first researchers to detect the trend. He believes the national decline in street drug deaths is now at least 15 percent and could mean as many as 20,000 fewer fatalities per year.

"Today, I have so much hope"

After years of wrenching drug deaths that seemed all but unstoppable, some researchers, front-line addiction workers, members of law enforcement, and people using street drugs voiced caution about the apparent trend.

Roughly 100,000 deaths are still occurring per year. Street drug cocktails including fentanyl, methamphetamines, xylazine and other synthetic chemicals are more poisonous than ever.

"I think we have to be careful when we get optimistic and see a slight drop in overdose deaths," said Dan Salter, who heads a federal drug interdiction program in the Atlanta-Carolinas region. "The last thing we want to do is spike the ball."

But most public health experts and some people living with addiction told NPR they believe catastrophic increases in drug deaths, which began in 2019, have ended, at least for now. Many said a widespread, meaningful shift appears underway.

"Some of us have learned to deal with the overdoses a lot better," said Kevin Donaldson, who uses fentanyl and xylazine on the street in Burlington, Vermont.

According to Donaldson, many people using fentanyl now carry naloxone, a medication that reverses most opioid overdoses. He said his friends also use street drugs with others nearby, ready to offer aid and support when overdoses occur.

He believes these changes - a response to the increasingly toxic street drug supply - mean more people like himself are surviving.

"For a while we were hearing about [drug deaths] every other day. When was the last one we heard about? Maybe two weeks ago? That's pretty few and far between," he said.

His experience is reflected in data from the Vermont Department of Health, which shows a 22 percent decline in drug deaths in 2024.

"The trends are definitely positive," said Dr. Keith Humphreys, a nationally respected drug policy researcher at Stanford University. "This is going to be the best year we've had since all of this started."

"A year ago when overdose deaths continued to rise, I was really struggling with hope," said Brad Finegood, who directs the overdose crisis response in Seattle.

Deaths in King County, Washington, linked to all drugs have dropped by 15 percent in the first half of 2024. Fatal overdoses caused by street fentanyl have dropped by 20 percent.

"Today, I have so much hope," Finegood said.

-via NPR, September 18, 2024. Article continues below with an exploration of the whys (mostly unknown) and some absolutely fucking incredible statistics.

Why the sudden and hopeful shift? Most experts say it's a mystery

While many people offered theories about why the drop in deaths is happening at unprecedented speed, most experts agreed that the data doesn't yet provide clear answers.

Some pointed to rapid improvements in the availability and affordability of medical treatments for fentanyl addiction. "Expansion of naloxone and medications for opioid use disorder — these strategies worked," said Dr. Volkow at NIDA.

"We've almost tripled the amount of naloxone out in the community," said Finegood. He noted that one survey in the Seattle area found 85 percent of high-risk drug users now carry the overdose-reversal medication.

Dr. Rahul Gupta, the White House drug czar, said the drop in drug deaths shows a path forward.

"This is the largest decrease on record and the fifth consecutive month of recorded decreases," he said.

Gupta called for more funding for addiction treatment and healthcare services, especially in Black and Native American communities where overdose deaths remain catastrophically high.

"There is no way we're going to beat this epidemic by not focusing on communities that are often marginalized, underserved and communities of color," Gupta said.

"Overdose deaths in Ohio are down 31 percent"

Indeed, in many states in the eastern and central U.S. where improvements are largest, the sudden drop in drug deaths stunned some observers who lived through the darkest days of the fentanyl overdose crisis.

"This year overdose deaths [in Ohio] are down 31 percent," said Dennis Couchon, a harm reduction activist. "The deaths were just plummeting. The data has never moved like this."

"While the mortality data for 2024 is incomplete and subject to change, Ohio is now in the ninth consecutive month of a historic and unexpected drop in overdose deaths," said the organization Harm Reduction Ohio in a statement.

Missouri is seeing a similar trend that appears to be accelerating. After dropping by 10 percent last year, preliminary data shows drug deaths in the state have now fallen roughly 34 percent in the second quarter of 2024.

"It absolutely seems things are going in the right direction, and it's something we should feel pleased about," said Dr. Rachel Winograd, director of addiction science at the University of Missouri St. Louis, who also noted that drug deaths remain too high.

"It feels wonderful and great," said Dr. Mark Levine, head of the Vermont Health Department. "We need encouraging data like this and it will help sustain all of us who are actively involved in trying to have an impact here."

Levine, too, said there's still "plenty of work left to do."" ...

Dasgupta, the researcher at the University of North Carolina, agreed more needs to be done to help people in addiction recover when they're ready.

But he said keeping more people alive is a crucial first step that seemed impossible only a year ago.

"A fifteen or twenty percent [drop in deaths] is a really big number, an enormous impact," he said, calling for more research to determine how to keep the trend going.

"If interventions are what's driving this decline, then let's double down on those interventions."

-article via NPR, September 18, 2024

[reality-detective]

Think Fauci torturing and killing dogs is bad? Wait till you learn what he did to orphaned kids in NYC for HIV "research".

In New York’s Washington Heights is a 4-story brick building called Incarnation Children’s Center (ICC). This former convent houses a revolving stable of children who’ve been removed from their own homes by the Agency for Child Services. These children are black, Hispanic and poor. Many of their mothers had a history of drug abuse and have died. Once taken into ICC, the children become subjects of drug trials sponsored by NIAID (National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Disease, a division of the NIH), NICHD (the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) in conjunction with some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies – GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Genentech, Chiron/Biocine and others.

I have seen and saved a couple of photos, but I can't post them here. It would be grounds for me to be instantly deactivated. What these soulless entities have done to children is beyond evil‼️ And that's putting it mildly 🤔

[shotofstress]

Sebastián Piñera, criminal internationally known for been the president of Chile two times as well for been a clown, is death and all over the world, but especially in Chile, his image is gonna be wash of all the blood. He not only robbed a bank and was a fugitive, he also was corrupt as fuck and did money laundry, scammed, trafficked babies, children and teens for upper class adoption from foreign europeans, gringos and other places, but also for sexual abuse as well for Organ Trafficking, he even had as his right hand an "ex" mossad agent, Hinzpeter who helped him to bring literal tons of cocaine to the country and then keep the traffic and micro traffic working and use south american emigrants that were in extreme poverty to traffic so then he could blame them of been the responsables of the huge drug addictions and narco violence here. He also allowed false flag terrorism to keep the occupation of Mapuche territory, their killings and stealing of lands and resources. Between his political assassinations we can count beloved upper class TV face and show host Felipe Camiroaga, who had said on TV during student protests movement (for food on schools and free education and stop the corruption at educational institutions) that if the youth was protesting, Piñera had the obligation to hear them bc the people was right and was his duty as president. Under Piñera's orders Hinzpeter killed Camiroaga with other 20 people on board of an helicopter, a C-212 Aviocar of the Chile's Air Force, that was heading to help people of the Robinson Crusoe Island in the Juan Fernández Archipelago because the destruction cause by the infamous 2010's massive earthquake that moved the Earth from her axis. Piñera even let Hinzpeter to inform the crime as an accident and this fucked even paraphrased in the live media TV and radio the words that Camiroaga said to Piñera on his program calling him to be a good president, putting together phrases to mock and refer to his death.

And if u think that he already was a monster for this, let me tell u that in Octuber 18th of 2019 and the next months se did a dictatorship in which he declared on national transmission that the state (he) was in war against the people (who were literally just people, civilians all with no weapons bc here we dont own weapons), and the military and police went to the street and houses to kill. The motive Piñera had to begin this? That school teens evaded the payment in the subway as a form of protest for the constant rise of the ticket price in a country in which most of us are poor and the using transportation for 1 month cost at least 1/3 of the minimum wage.

They police and the military murdered, wounded and did systematic mutilation and torture as psychological warfare learned by training with Israeli military and mossad. They practiced beforehand shooting to students in the university of professors here, they (as always) go inside with no order nor justification to shoot us with shotguns to the face with war weapons like teargas cans and special bullets. Piñera sent the police and military to pillaged the supermarkets and burn them and blame the people and the left, they even use the burning buildings to hide the corpses of people they killed, probably there were alive ppl too. They tortured, raped and mutilated people not just in their police and military quarters, they also used underground stations/subway stations as torture houses, something that they are familiar with bc Pinochet's dictatorship. The Piñera dictatorship had never been called dictatorship in anyplace, specially in the TV bc he and all his family and friends own the media (all the TV channels and 99% of news paper like El Mercurio, La Nación, Las últimas Noticias, The Clinic, etc etc). We still have Disappeared detainees and they are not recognised as such, and also not every torture survivors is recognised as such, we have tons of people that lost their ocular globes partially in sight, totally, or the globe was totally destroyed and they are not recognised as victims of the genocide attempt. Piñera wasn't destitute as president, he didn't even faced justice, nor the national justice nor the international one, even when there was hundreds of pictures, videos, audios and other evidences of his crimes, he wasn't even called criminal, dictator or anything. He was accused of Crimes against Humanity and yet national and international law did NOTHING. His crimes in Chile were so many that representative (diputado) Jaime Naranjo read 1300 pages of some of Piñera's crimes for 15 hours straight and had a full live streaming.

So when your media and journalist tell you that Piñera was a good president, please remember this post (that don't even have all his crimes nor in detail) and remember that he was a monster that die without a thing to worry about in his life that face zero justice and that all the world let him go out scot-free. Don't belive in news nor even in chileans or other south americans that tell you that Piñera was good and that "the left" were terrorists and shit like that bc we here barely have something like a left wing and even if we had, no one did a shit to stopped the massacre.

Don't believe that Chile and Piñera are lovely, here is just full of blood thanks to right wing and the stupidly of the left and the liberal bourgeoisie.

Likes don't help to spread this post, ppl. REBLOG IT FOR FUCK SAKE

And if u are a boot licker the the fuck out of my blog and if u comment some bullshit I'm gonna block u and report u. Fascists, specially chilean fascists DNI.

[lifewithchronicpain]

Toast and jam. Cake and coffee. Peanut butter and jelly. Pain patients and the opioid crisis.

One of these things is not like the others. But to most people, they all go together. Even when research shows little correlation between opioid prescriptions and overdose deaths.

We’ve been hearing that same old tired narrative for years, often from “experts” who speak with absolute certainty.

“Two major facts can no longer be questioned. First, opioid analgesics are widely diverted and improperly used, and the widespread use of the drugs has resulted in a national epidemic of opioid overdose deaths and addictions,” Nora Volkow, MD, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and Thomas McLellan, PhD, founder of the Treatment Research Institute and a scientific advisor to Shatterproof, wrote in a joint op/ed in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2016.

“Second, the major source of diverted opioids is physician prescriptions. For these reasons, physicians and medical associations have begun questioning prescribing practices for opioids, particularly as they relate to the management of chronic pain.”

We now know that prescription opioids play a minor role in the overdose crisis and that only about three-tenths of 1% are actually diverted. Illicit fentanyl and other street drugs are responsible for the vast majority of overdose deaths, not pain medication.

But the same tired and misinformed narrative continues, with patients who need opioids paying the price when their doses are reduced or taken away. (Read more at link)

[radfemverity]

Be very mindful of people who use unrelenting denialism to dismiss a very real pattern, cultural phenomena, or circumstance which you’re trying to point out to them. The chances are they just literally don’t want to know, because the truth of the matter either makes them feel uncomfortable, contradicts their flawed value system, or both.

The denier usually displays a sequence of behaviour that comes in four stages. When confronted with your observation, say, for example you are highlighting the risk that trans-identified men pose to women when placed in their prisons, they will respond in this order:

1. “Nope. That literally never happens. You’re a conspiracy nut/delusional/*insert buzzword here, most likely transphobia*.”

Then, when you present them with multiple clearcut examples, citing mainstream media sources that they cannot so easily discard they way they would with a smaller, alternative media source:

2. “But my point still stands, that this is uncommon. Why are you so focused in on this tiny thing? Your *insert buzzword here* is showing.”

Then, when the issue bubbles in prominence, leaves the niche corner of the internet from whence it came, and becomes more socially acceptable to publicly assert due to the overwhelming evidence:

3. “Okay but I don’t see why you have such a big issue with this? Why don’t you talk more about *insert totally separate issue here as a means to shift the goalpost*? Because by focusing so much on this specific thing, you’re just inciting hatred/promoting ignorance.”

This stage attempts to toe the line between not explicitly acknowledging the existence of the problem, but also not condoning it (because they quietly know that it does exist – that it is very real), instead choosing to insult the character and motivations of the claimant.

Many deniers will stop there, but the more spiteful and maliciously motivated among them will escalate to:

4. “Yeah well they brought it on themselves anyway. They fucking deserve it.”

I have noticed this across all sides of the political spectrum, both sexes, and all age groups, with so, so many different issues, including, but not limited to:

- TRAs denying TIMs’ abuse of women in women’s prisons, domestic abuse shelters and hospital wards

- TRAs denying how ‘gender identity’ has replaced biological sex in the practice of state institutions across the West (eg on passports)

- TRAs denying how self ID laws will be abused by ‘cis’men who do not sincerely consider themselves trans, but will claim to be to gain access to, and film women and girls in, changing rooms and toilets

- Catholics denying priests’ sexual abuse of children in the Church

- Conservative parents denying religiously influenced child abuse within their communities

- Healthcare practitioners and defenders of differing countries’ healthcare systems denying the prevalence of medical misogyny, the pathologising of women and girls, and the dismissal of their symptoms, which results in delayed diagnoses turning terminal and/or causing death

- The ‘progressive’ British left denying the targeted mass-grooming of working class white girls by Muslim, mostly Pakistani, men

- The ‘progressive’ British left denying that the government are buying out fancy private hotels to put up male illegal migrants in

- The political left across most of the Western world denying the recent demographic changes to its countries, and the cultural changes that come with that

- Men of all political orientations denying that women on porn sets are tricked with dodgy contracts, blackmailed, drugged, gangraped, and sex trafficked, and that this is the footage they see on PornHub and wank off to

- People across the world, of all nationalities, ages, sexes, socioeconomic statuses, and political orientations denying the larger-than-officially-acknowledged likelihood of suffering adverse side effects to the various Covid19 vaccinations, or the coercive policies of governments across the West to maximise the number of people who felt compelled to have it

The point of the diverse range of examples above is not to make a value judgement (you may not consider some of those things as ‘issues’, instead believing that they are good. That is your right), but rather 1. to point out just how bloody common this pattern of behaviour is, especially among those who consider themselves politically progressive, and 2. to potentially aid anyone who reads this in pointing it out in future discussions.

We do not live in a transparent political culture. People employ all sorts of backward mental gymnastics to justify their harmful beliefs, just because they make them feel better, and feel like they are supporting a good cause. That’s really all mainstream left wing progressivism is in the Global North: doing what feels good and makes you look good to your peers (this is why radical feminism is seen by the woke lot as right wing. We don’t operate off of that value system. We don’t do what feels nice in the moment, we want actual fucking results). So we need to be able to reply with: “If you are going to support [x] thing, bloody well be honest about the potential consequences that you have absolutely no problem with taking place.” We need to stop giving these people plausible deniability, and allowing them to fall back on “well I couldn’t have possibly known that [y] bad thing would happen if [x] thing was implemented.” Because yes you did.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Christopher F. Rufo

Published: Jun 18, 2024

The “gender-affirming care” business has always had an aura of madness around it. Wielding the authority of white coats and prestigious degrees, doctors have convinced large swaths of the public that some children are “born in the wrong body.” The solution? Stop puberty, prescribe cross-sex hormones, and then, with the stroke of a knife, remove body parts—most commonly breasts, less frequently genitalia.

These medical practices use scientific rhetoric to affirm what is, at bottom, an ideological program. And gender activists have been successful enough at capturing the legitimizing institutions—medical societies, regulatory bodies, and teaching hospitals—to repel most challenges to the burgeoning child sex-change industry.

Now, though, the consensus appears to be shifting. European governments have backed away from many of these dubious procedures. In England, the Cass Review has raised grave questions about the scientific evidence behind “gender-affirming care.” In the United States, the public has turned decisively against the use of puberty blockers and gender surgeries on minors, with some state legislatures banning the practice.

I have reported on one of these programs, the pediatric gender clinic at Texas Children’s Hospital. Last year, I published an investigation demonstrating that, though it had promised to shut down its program, Texas Children’s had continued to administer hormone drugs to children as young as 11. Following the story, the state attorney general launched an investigation, and state legislators passed a bill, SB 14, prohibiting all transgender medical interventions on minors.

While these scandals caught the headlines, another story involving the same institution was brewing in the background: medical fraud.

According to a new whistleblower, doctors at Texas Children’s Hospital were willing to falsify medical records and break the law to keep practicing “gender-affirming care.” Caught in the wave of ideological fervor, two of the hospital’s prominent physicians, Richard Ogden Roberts and David Paul, cut corners and, according to the whistleblower, committed Medicaid fraud to secure funds for the hospital’s child sex-change program.

(Texas Children’s Hospital, Roberts, and Paul did not respond to a request for comment.)

This is a story of fanaticism, hubris, and the murky business of transgender medicine. It would have remained hidden, except for the courage of two people inside the hospital, a surgeon named Eithan Haim and a nurse who has now decided to come forward. Both have risked much to alert the public to the barbarism that is occurring at the nation’s largest, and arguably most prestigious, children’s hospital.

Some years ago, Vanessa Sivadge thought she had it made, having just accepted a position as a registered nurse at Texas Children’s Hospital. She had wanted to be a nurse since high school and felt a sense of joy in helping children.

But her feelings toward Texas Children’s didn’t last. Beginning in 2021, Sivadge saw a dramatic rise in the number of “transgender children” treated at the hospital. These patients struggled with various problems: depression, anxiety, addiction, suicide attempts, physical abuse, and discomfort with puberty. But rather than deal with these underlying psychological conditions, Sivadge says, doctors at the hospital would diagnose them with “gender dysphoria” and assign them to a regimen of “gender-affirming care.”

The practice made Sivadge recoil. “In the cardiac clinic, we were taking sick kids and making them better,” she says. “In the transgender clinic, it was the opposite. We were harming these kids.”

Then, the following year, she breathed a sigh of relief. Under pressure from the state attorney general, Ken Paxton, Texas Children’s CEO Mark Wallace said that he was shutting down the child gender clinic. But it wasn’t true. Mere days later, it had secretly reopened for business.

And business was booming. Doctors, including Roberts, Paul, and Kristy Rialon, were managing dozens of pediatric sex-change cases, performing surgeries, blocking puberty, implanting hormone devices, and making specialty referrals. They were motivated not only by ideology, but by hope for prestige: they were saviors of the oppressed, the vanguard of gender medicine.

Sivadge soon had seen enough. She read my investigative report exposing Texas Children’s sex-change program, which relied on testimony from Haim, and reached out to share her own observations.

“I work very closely with this provider, Dr. Richard Roberts. I’ve been in the room with him when he speaks with these patients,” she told me in an interview. “Dr. Roberts is extremely encouraging of their transition and will essentially do whatever he can to make sure that they are happy, at least externally happy. Because I am absolutely certain that they are not internally happy. He is very accommodating. He does whatever they want. Essentially, there is no critical analysis of the process.”

In Sivadge’s view, Roberts and other providers were manipulating patients into accepting “gender-affirming care.” When parents objected, the doctors bulldozed them, she claims. Some families, she believed, feared that the hospital would call Child Protective Services if they dissented.

Then, two months after I spoke with her for that story, Sivadge called me in a panic. The FBI had sent two special agents, Paul Nixon and David McBride, to her home. The agents knocked on the door, asked her about “some of the things that have been going on at [her] work lately,” and then asked to enter her home. She was terrified. (The FBI declined to comment.)

The agents told Sivadge that she was a “person of interest” in an investigation targeting the whistleblower who had exposed the child sex-change program. They told her that the whistleblower had broken federal privacy laws. “They threatened me,” Sivadge said. “They promised they would make life difficult for me if I was trying to protect the leaker. They said I was ‘not safe’ at work and claimed that someone at my workplace had given my name to the FBI.”

The authorities—the FBI, the hospital, and, as Sivadge would later discover, federal prosecutors—were all circling the story. Both the Department of Justice and the hospital leadership were ideologically committed to “transgender medicine.” They had been embarrassed by the investigation that had exposed their actions, and they were looking for revenge.

Things went quiet for a while afterward. Sivadge resumed her work as a nurse, and the FBI did not reappear.

Texas Children’s Hospital continued its sex-change program but focused instead on patients who had reached the legal age of 18. Sivadge saw the same terrible medical regimen being prescribed for these young adults: testosterone for girls, estrogen for boys, and referrals for specialty services. While Roberts and Paul had stopped providing sex-change procedures for minors, the gender clinic still overflowed with “transgender” teens. 

Sivadge’s duties as a nurse included providing medication refills and working with doctors to provide parents with information about treatment plans, scheduling, and diagnostics. She worked with patients’ charts and saw their complex psychological diagnoses and the treatments administered by the doctors.

Then Sivadge noticed discrepancies in the paperwork. After the FBI visit, she followed some of the medical charts for these patients and came to believe that doctors might be violating the law.

As Sivadge learned, Texas law forbade hospitals from billing Medicaid for transgender procedures. The Texas Medicaid Provider Procedures Manual has long stated that “sex change operations” are “not benefits of Texas Medicaid.” In 2021, Texas Medicaid officials told the Kaiser Family Foundation that this prohibition was not limited to genital surgeries but “explicitly excludes coverage of all gender affirming health services.”

Transgender activist organizations and the popular media held this to be common knowledge. As the left-leaning Texas Tribune explained in 2023: “In Texas, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program already don’t cover transition-related surgeries and prescription drugs like hormone therapies and puberty blockers.”

When reached for comment, a spokesman for Texas Health and Human Services confirmed that the state Medicaid program has “never covered ‘gender-affirming’ surgery or prescription drugs for the purpose of ‘gender-affirming’ care.”

At Texas Children’s, as she was treating patients, Sivadge carefully scrutinized the treatments related to an alarming number of “transgender” teenagers under the care of Roberts and Paul, who, she came to believe, were unlawfully billing the state Medicaid program.

One patient, whom we’ll call Patient A, began treatment at Texas Children’s in 2022, at the age of 16. Patient A is a biological female who identified as “non-binary” and whose records claimed that she was “male.” This patient began treatment with Roberts, who approved a prescription for testosterone as part of the patient’s “gender-affirming” medical regimen.

During treatment, Roberts explained to Patient A the effects of testosterone, including masculinization and the suppression of fertility, and had her continue with testosterone injections. Roberts carefully monitored the progression of the desired characteristics for gender transition: voice deepening, facial hair, body hair. By the following year, Roberts increased the dosage of testosterone for Patient A, with the associated diagnosis of gender dysphoria.

Another patient, whom we’ll call Patient B, began care at Texas Children’s in 2022, also at the age of 16. Patient B is a biological male who identified as a female and whose records indicated the transgender identity, “female.” He arrived at the gender clinic under the care of Paul, already having begun a prescription of a testosterone blocker and estrogen, which served as a sex-change hormone.

Paul wanted to help Patient B feminize his body to conform to his desired gender identity. Patient B had increased the size of his breasts but was frustrated by the persistence of facial hair. Paul discussed changing the testosterone blocker and increasing the dose of estrogen in order to make progress with feminization. Patient B told Paul that he wanted his breasts to be larger, firmer, and more pressed together, with larger areolas. Paul adjusted Patient B’s estrogen prescription and discussed the possibility of breast implants.

Sivadge noticed another critical piece of information: Patient A and Patient B, like several other “transgender” patients, were enrolled in Texas Children’s Health Plan STAR, a “no-cost Medicaid managed care plan.”

Despite the law, which prohibited billing Medicaid for “gender-affirming care,” it appears that this was a standard practice at Texas Children’s Hospital. As Roberts himself admitted in a 2023 affidavit related to the lawsuit against SB 14, he had several patients in his transgender medicine program “who receive their health coverage through Medicaid.”

According to a legal expert with deep knowledge of Texas Medicaid law, the essential facts are as follows: Patients A and B had coverage through Texas Children’s Plan STAR; the doctors explicitly treated them for the purpose of “gender-affirming care”; and the standard practice would be for the hospital to submit this care for reimbursement through the state Medicaid program. It would be extremely unlikely, according to this expert, for the hospital to forgo this practice and, for example, cover the cost of its “gender-affirming care” program from its own budget.

“Based on the facts we have, the only reasonable conclusion is that Texas Children’s Hospital was using Texas Medicaid funds to pay for ‘gender-affirming care,’ contrary to Texas law,” said the legal expert.

For Sivadge, there was no doubt about what was happening. “The largest children’s hospital in the country is illegally billing Medicaid for transgender procedures,” she said. “It is evident that the hospital continues to believe it is above the law not just by concealing the existence of their transgender medicine program from the public, but by stealing from the federal government.”

During this period, the politics of gender procedures were changing behind the scenes. Federal investigators were busy assembling information. A federal prosecutor, Tina Ansari, threatened the original whistleblower, Haim, with prosecution. And the hospital continued to churn through transgender patients.

Then, earlier this month, the stakes intensified. Three heavily armed federal agents knocked on Haim’s door and gave him a summons. According to the documents, he had been indicted on four felony counts of violating medical privacy laws. If convicted, Haim faces the possibility of ten years in federal prison.

The Justice Department appears to be playing a cat-and-mouse game with those willing to challenge the legitimacy of transgender medicine. As public opinion shifts against “gender-affirming care,” Justice Department officials seem to be pursuing harder methods of ideological enforcement—investigating, threatening, and indicting whistleblowers. If you expose the barbarism that is happening in American gender clinics, the message seems to be, you risk imprisonment.

Sivadge, however, remains undeterred. “My faith and my gut, just knowing right from wrong, compels me,” she says. “I was born for this. I have no doubt this is what I am supposed to do.”

For her, it is personal. She witnessed and unwittingly participated in what she now believes to be, quoting a passage from the Bible, “deeds of evil and darkness.” She considers blowing the whistle a form of redemption, recalling a moment early on, in which Roberts asked her to teach a 16-year-old boy how to inject estrogen into his body to affirm a female identity. Later, Sivadge says, she realized what she had done: she had participated in a lie that would harm this boy.

“I was told to do something I knew was wrong,” she says. “It made me sick that the lie called ‘gender-affirming care’ was being sold to parents and children and creating hugely lucrative profits in secret—and I was part of it.”

Sivadge is not the only one feeling regret. Doctors, families, and political leaders are all starting to question the folly of child sex-change programs. The sense is growing that the public was sold a bill of goods—and that children are being put in grave danger. We have begun the painful process of recognition. The activist euphoria has worn off, the old rationalizations no longer suffice, and the bill has come due.

Texas Children’s Hospital is at the center of this national drama. Both sides—the “gender-affirming” doctors and the whistleblowers opposed to them—face enormous risk, including the loss of medical licenses and time in prison.

Some of those implicated in the scheme might escape with their reputations intact. Others might meet ruin. But a deeper lesson emerges, impervious to the ideological mania and the legal maneuvering that have precipitated this crisis: nature is not easily conquered, and its reckoning cannot be delayed forever.

[sparkiekong]

Ugh!! Elita back on the smokes again!! Major yuck!! Major turn off. Somebody needs to tell her that. Also she needs to try harder to stop. Chosen one myass!! I bet Lyra and Cat are to blame somehow!

Hi there nonny. Sorry this is gonna be long winded...again.

TLDR: Yeah, it seems she's slipped off the wagon. Addiction is not an easy wagon ride! I'm afraid for some people it's much harder than others. The gang will have relapses and struggles just like anyone else who has addictive tendances. It's not going to stop entirely anytime soon, I'm afraid.

We depict a lot of these types things. Much of mine and @helenofsimblr's writing is taken from real world examples. history, mythology and we do copious amounts of research and add about 300% creativity. Smoking (even the underage smoking) is probably the LEAST worrisome topic in this story and much worse is to come. I hope you're ready nonny... the roller coaster has just started and it's not a smooth ride... It's also completely ok to unfollow for that reason alone if smoking is your line. I promise you that we are definitely going to go beyond that, so stay safe friend! It's quite ok to stop reading. I promise we won't be offended. This story is not everyone's cup of tea and that's ok.

If you're still interested in reading and it's just that I missed adding a trigger or you'd like an additional trigger, please let me know and I will add it. Especially if it's one that you like to use... At the end of the day we're all responsible for our own mental safety on the internet... I can only provide the trigger words to block. You have to do your part. Thanks for the ask friend. I hope you have a lovely and wonderful day.

Rest is under cut with a bit more examples of differences of KSU and IRL world and informational links on medical information on addiction:

There is a key thing to remember about this story and that is that the universe (lovingly called the KSU) is a kind of alternate universe to our own, some scientific developments happened at very different times to our own and smoking science has not yet caught up to ours. In some ways, it's got sort of a sixties feel and in others, it seems like future-vision. It can be a bit confusing, so I'll provide some examples!

A big example is that the KSU recently just discovered ultrasound tech that can be used to check on fetus health and that smoking is generally bad for one's health, but the KSU has been in space for quite a long time, is well established in space and have computers and cell phones... While the real world (the one you and I live in), ultrasound has been around for a long time and is quite advanced, the anti-smoking campaign has been going on for many years with decent success. However, we in IRL we have not until recently (maybe the last 10-15 years) been able to reliably get into space and back safely in various different countries. Admittingly, I don't track all space travel, just the ones that hit the trending list of my news app.

The rest of this is for people who are struggling to understand addiction and/or are suffering or watching someone suffer with it and are looking for understanding. Please! Talk with your family doctors or google your country of origin + addiction help and you can find the help that you or a friend or family member may need.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are a few links that explain a bit about addiction and why it's not always just as easy as "just don't do that" or "Stop".

[ausetkmt]

DMT - THE GOD MOLECULE

Everything You Need to Know About The Hallucinogenic Drug, DMT

N, N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is a hallucinogenic tryptamine drug that naturally occurs in many plant species. It can also be made in a laboratory.

DMT produces effects similar to those of psychedelics, like LSD and magic mushrooms. Some people refer to the drug by other names including Dimitri and fantasia.

DMT is a Schedule I controlled substance in the United States, which means it’s illegal to make, buy, possess, or distribute it. Some cities have recently decriminalized it, but it’s still illegal under state and federal law.

Sometimes people use other names to refer to DMT. These street names include:

Dimitri

fantasia

businessman’s trip

businessman’s special

45-minute psychosis

spiritual molecule

DMT is the main active ingredient in ayahuasca.

Practitioners traditionally prepare ayahuasca using two plants called Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria viridis. The latter contains DMT while the former contains MAOIs, which prevent certain enzymes in your body from breaking down DMT. Many South American cultures use ayahuasca in religious and spiritual ceremonies and have done so for centuriesTrusted Source.

As with most drugs, DMT can affect people in very different waysTrusted Source. Some truly enjoy the experience. Others find it overwhelming or frightening. Some refer to this negative experience as a bad trip.

Regarding its psychoactive effects, people have described feeling like they’re traveling at speed through a tunnel of bright lights and shapes. Others describe having an out-of-body experience and feeling like they’ve changed into something else.

Other potential treatment applications

Despite its recreational use, there is interest in the potential therapeutic opportunities of DMT due to its effects on serotonin. Observational studies suggestTrusted Source it could have potential usage in depression, stress, and anxiety

Synthetic DMT usually comes in the form of a white, crystalline powder. Sometimes the drug can have a yellowish or pinkish color.

People can smoke, vaporize, or snort DMT. They can also inject the drug, but this method has additional risks.

When used in religious ceremonies, plants and vines are boiled to create a tea-like drink of varying strengths.

The onset of DMT when inhaling or injecting the drug is rapid. People may experience the drug’s effects within minutes of use.Trusted Source

The intensity and duration of a DMT trip depend on several things, including:

how much you use

how you use it

whether you’ve eaten

whether you’ve taken other drugs

Generally, the effects of inhaled, snorted, or injected DMT last for about 15 to 60 minutesTrusted Source. It typically takes longer to feel the effects of DMT is drinking it in a brew.

DMT carries potentially serious risks. The drug’s physical side effects of raising heart rate and blood can be problematic, especially if you have a heart condition or already have high blood pressure.

Using DMT may also cause:

seizures

loss of muscle coordination, which increases the risk of falls and injury

confusion

It also has associations with respiratory arrest (when someone stops breathing) and coma.

Long-term effects

Like other hallucinogenic drugs, DMT may cause persistent psychosis and hallucinogen-persisting perception disorder (HPPD). HPPD is more commonly known as “flashbacks.” Both are rare and may be more likely to occur in people with preexisting mental health conditions.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, it is unclear whether DMT is an addictive substance.

Small studies suggest that it is unlikely to lead to a substance use disorder, but people may develop a tolerance, leading to increased consumption in the future.

DMT is extremely powerful, even though it naturally occurs in several plant species. If you’re going to try it, there are a few steps you can take to reduce your risk for having a bad reaction.

Keep these tips in mind when using DMT:

Strength in numbers: Don’t use DMT alone. Do it in the company of people you trust.

Consider your surroundings: Be sure to use it in a safe and comfortable place.

Take a seat: Sit or lie down to reduce the risk of falling or injury.

Keep it simple: Don’t combine DMT with alcohol or other drugs.

Pick the right time: The effects of DMT can be pretty intense. As a result, it’s best to use it when you’re already in a positive state of mind.

Know when to skip it: Avoid using DMT if you:

are taking antidepressants or another medication associated with serotonin syndrome

are taking a medication that interacts with DMT

have a heart condition

have high blood pressure

Learn more about the safety and DMT consumption here.

DMT is a naturally occurring chemical that’s been used for centuries in religious ceremonies in several South American cultures. Today, its synthetic form is used for its powerful hallucinogenic effects.

If curious about trying DMT, it’s important to take certain steps to reduce your risk for serious effects. This includes making sure any prescription or over-the-counter medications you take won’t cause a bad reaction.

[darkmaga-retard]

Americans feel like their homeland is being transformed into a wasteland

Sep 04, 2024

NOTE TO READERS: The following article was found in this week’s issue of The Trends Journal. Consider subscribing here for in-depth, independent geopolitical and socioeconomic trends and trend forecasts that you won’t find anywhere else.

By Douglas Macgregor

The Republican and Democratic National Conventions, always heavy on glamor and light on substance, are over. It’s time to move beyond sloganeering and address reality.

In the United States, the price of food is up 21 percent in three years. Thirty-year mortgage rates were 3.7 percent; they are now 7 percent. Rents are skyrocketing, car loan delinquencies are rising and, last year, there were at least 150,000 reports of American children going missing in what is becoming a child-trafficking emergency.

Millions of Americans think that our society is experiencing a moral collapse. Divorce is widespread, single parents struggle to raise children, drug abuse is rampant, suicide rates are high, and the rule of law is collapsing across the country.

Is it really a surprise that Americans doubt their institutions, their courts, even the leadership of their own armed forces?

Americans feel disconnected from their collective, national identity. Shamed into isolation and self-hatred under the oppressive weight of mass media, pop-culture, and official deceit, Americans feel helpless to stop their freefall into nihilism—the belief in nothing, not justice or beauty, no divine influence, just nothing.  

Americans feel like their homeland is being transformed into a wasteland. More and more Americans think that taxation without representation is the norm in all 50 states, not just in DC. Voting for one or another of the major parties, Democrats or Republicans, does little to arrest the nation’s descent into chaos.

What does Washington’s ruling political class of so-called Democrats and Republicans, hereafter referred to as the Uniparty, think?

Frankly, the Uniparty does not care.

While American wages declined, and jobs dried up Washington’s ruling political class grew rich from insider deals and cronyism. Since January 2021, America’s 750 billionaires have increased their wealth by $1.5 trillion. Like the political figures the billionaires pick to run the government, including 5,000 political appointees, they have no “skin in the game.”

The Uniparty celebrates trashy, degenerate events like the opening ceremony for the Olympics in Paris. Americans who object to the degradation of Christianity and Western values and beliefs are dismissed as bigots, extremists, or White Christian Nationalists.

Americans want to know what is happening to their country. Americans want to know why they are living in a world where the ugly pretend to be beautiful and the beautiful are being brainwashed to think that they are ugly.

Part of the answer is that the politics of identity are no longer just a campaign strategy. They are now a reality, a permanent feature of America’s political landscape.

Why else would General C.Q. Brown, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, complain that the U.S. Armed Forces have too many white pilots? Anyone who thinks that the federal programs for diversity, inclusion, and equity are sincere and mean anything other than hatred for our country and the generations of Americans that fought and died for it is extremely naive. It’s like suggesting the Ku Klux Klan was pro-civil rights in the 1960s.

Thanks to open borders, a system of “one ballot, one vote” is replacing “one citizen, one vote.” Thanks to this system of institutionalized fraud, Americans can expect the Uniparty’s new crop of illegal foreign “voters,” a mix of future dependents, lawbreakers, low-skilled workers, to show up on November 5 and vote to decide America’s future. These are also the masses of foreigners, with no ties to our society, that the ruling class wants to staff our armed forces.

Why would the Uniparty inflict this damage on the American People?

[reasonsforhope]

Thanks to @gardening-tea-lesbian for posting about this and bringing it to my attention!

--

The Biden-Harris Administration wants to make substance abuse treatment more accessible for all prisoners in the U.S. Addiction is common among people in prison, and treatment helps fight recidivism and reduce overdose rates.

From Federal Prisons To State Prisons

By this summer, all federal prisons will offer addiction treatment, Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said last week.

Federal officials want states to follow suit. Starting this spring, Medicaid funds will be set aside for states to use in their own jails and prisons to provide mental health services, including SUD treatment.

Approximately 25% of all Americans received Medicaid benefits in 2022. For people with low incomes, Medicaid is the largest provider of funds for healthcare services.

The Biden-Harris Administration has shown a commitment to helping underserved communities receive addiction prevention, treatment, and recovery services.

This includes services for rural populations and Tribal populations along with people who are incarcerated.

Addiction In Our Prisons

It’s hard to know precisely how many incarcerated people have an SUD, but the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) estimates that about 65% of all inmates do.

NIDA estimates that another 20%, who didn’t meet the official criteria for an SUD, were under the influence of drugs or alcohol when they committed a crime.

Overall in America, about 40 million people ages 13 and over are living with addiction, or about 12% of the population, according to the 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

How Treatment Helps Prison Populations

Drug abuse treatment is effective. For people in prison, receiving treatment can mean the difference between staying out of jail once released or returning behind bars.

It can also provide them with the mental clarity and tools to meet the challenges of life, improve their mental health, and succeed in their relationships and work.

Aids Long-Term Recovery

The Biden-Harris Administration is focusing on evidence-based treatment methods to help people who are incarcerated get and stay on the path to addiction recovery.

This includes medication-assisted treatment (MAT), which combines the use of medications like buprenorphine with behavioral therapy to treat opioid abuse.

Buprenorphine, the first medication that could be prescribed by physicians to treat opioid use disorders, helps people overcome addiction in a few ways.

Using buprenorphine helps with recovery by:

reducing cravings

diminishing opioid withdrawal symptoms, which include flu-like symptoms and severe anxiety

improving safety, if overdose occurs

lessening the chance of misuse

One study in support of buprenorphine’s effectiveness showed that participants receiving the medication were almost twice as likely to remain in treatment and not relapse.

Prevents Overdose Deaths

According to U.S. News and World Report, the leading cause of death among people newly released from prison is drug overdose.

This is partly due to the fact that their tolerance levels decrease while incarcerated, so they aren’t able to tolerate the same amount of the drug as before they were in prison.

The buprenorphine study mentioned above also revealed that people not receiving the treatment had a 20% mortality rate."

-via Addiction Resources.net, 3/9/23

[unwelcome-ozian]

The Secret Black History of LSD

“Black Americans were uniquely exploited during this first wave of psychedelic research,” concluded the authors of a 2021 University of Ottawa study of abuses in the early trials of LSD. Overwhelmingly, the African American victims of MK-Ultra were drawn from prisons and hospital mental wards, including the National Institute of Mental Health’s Addiction Research Center (ARC), which tested LSD and some 800 other psychoactive drugs on an inmate population that was almost exclusively Black. In numerous other MK-Ultra experiments, according to the study, “participants were subject to differential and torturous treatment and dosing dependent on race.” In one 1960 study, “‘Negro’ men convicted on drug charges…were recruited from prison and given LSD in a research ward,” while a comparison group made up of “professional White people at Cold Spring Harbor, living freely,” took LSD in “the principal investigator’s home ‘under social conditions designed to reduce anxiety.’”

[crippleprophet]

totally understand if you don’t have anything on hand and i’m gonna do some research myself but i was wondering if you have any reading recommendations about anti-psychiatry? really interested in the whole idea but haven’t done a lot of reading about it or anything

hmm i link a few resources & blogs in this ask (link 1), i definitely recommend checking out Mad in America in particular; of course, as a platform for a wide range of psych survivors’ experiences & opinions, i don’t agree with everything presented (including within specific articles i’ll rec), but it’s a great starting place for challenging & developing your own views & learning about our community.

specifically, this article (link 2) is a good starting place on diagnostic violence, especially as it pertains to systemic racism, and this one (link 3) is an amazing example of community knowledges as it pertains to tapering medications without approval of the medical system.

& then i’ll just cite some articles i’ve read, most of which are available online & all of which i’m happy to send pdfs of if you can’t find something & dm me! some of these aren’t directly about Madness & antipsych but are good starting places for unpacking related forms of oppression such as institutionalization.

The ethics of survivor research: Guidelines for the ethical conduct of research carried out by mental health service users and survivors by Alison Faulkner

R. Whitaker, ‘The case against antipsychotics: a review of their long-term effects’ (Mad in America, July 2016)

A. J. Withers, “Disability Divisions, Definitions, and Disablism: When Resisting Psychiatry is Oppressive” in Bonnie Burstow, Brenda A. LeFrançois, and Shaindl Diamond (eds), Psychiatry Disrupted: Theorizing Resistance and Crafting the (R)evolution (McGill-Queens University Press 2014)

Gerard Quinn, “Reflecting Will and Preference in Decision Making” [17 October 2016] Australian Guardianship and Administration Council 2016 Conference

Laing, J. (2017). Preventing violence, exploitation and abuse of persons with mental disabilities: Exploring the monitoring implications of Article 16 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 53, 27-38.

Sixty Years in the Institution by Thomas F Allen

K. Stegmayer, S. Walther, and P. van Harten, “Tardive dyskinesia associated with atypical antipsychotics: prevalence, mechanisms and management strategies” [2018] 32 CNS Drugs

S. Kasper and E. Resinger, “Cognitive effects and antipsychotic treatment” [2003] 28 Psychoneuroendocrinology

[theculturedmarxist]

I can't reblog it for some reason, but regarding a thread about how awful Mao is and how his policies killed a hundred billion people, I think this is significant.

---

DETROIT — Another country that once had an addiction problem—one that lasted for almost 200 years and involved an incredible 25 per cent of its population—is China.

Today China is virtually drug‐free— and the methods the Chinese used to eradicate their addiction problem might well offer methods we could use to achieve the same results.

China was forced into addiction by the Opium Wars. Contrary to popular belief, these wars—from 1839 to 1842 —did not originate because China wanted to export opium. They began when China resisted England's demand to import opium in exchange for Chi nese products—mostly tea, silk, and porcelain. China lost these wars, and among other indignities was forced to exchange its goods for opium. As a result it became a highly narcoticized country, a victim of ruthless Western economic and political policy. By 1850 an entire fifth of the revenue of the British Government of India — the source of opium — came from Chinese consumption of this drug.

Obviously to enlarge the market for opium, China was forced to create a huge number of addicts. And it did.

In October of 1949 the People's Re public of China was proclaimed. With in a year the Communist Government instituted a comprehensive program designed to eliminate this threat to the nation. All evidence indicates that by 1953 the problem of narcotic drug abuse was practically eliminated.

One important factor was the changed ideology of the young people —no new supply of addicts was forth coming. The changes in outlook in cluded a redefinition of the nation and its youth, of their worth and role. In rural areas this new definition was based on land distribution; collective farming; new educational, social, and vocational opportunities; and the elec tion of local councils. In the cities it took the form of nationalization of commerce and industry, full employ ment, worker control, and the end of foreign domination.

This total ideological transformation of the younger generation was accom panied by the reintegration of Chinese society through small street commit tees that offered cultural leadership.

Equally significant in the Chinese drive to eliminate narcotic addiction were its methods of plugging the source, China is 80 per cent rural, and an unknown but significant part of the land had been turned into poppy cul tivation. The first major economic and political mass campaign of the Gov ernment was land reform, and this aim was coordinated with elimination of poppy growth. Distribution of land from large landholders to landless peasants was accompanied by the need to convert the opium cash crops to badly needed food crops. Today China produces enough opium to meet its medical needs, but no more.

Smuggled opium was still a source of the drug, and China acted to stop this supply with a policy of “carrot and stick.” Leniency was recom mended for employes and workers of opium traffickers; but heavy penalties existed for those controlling the traf fic, manufacture, or growth of opium.

China's attitude toward the individ ual reformed addict was one of good willed congratulations, and represents another important reason why the nar cotic problem was overcome. The re habilitation of opium addicts began with their registration. Arrangements by city‐wide antiopium committees for addict rehabilitation included treat ment to break the habit at home, in clinics and in hospitals.

At every stage of personal rehabili tation the ideological motivation was stressed. Given China's attitudes, this ideology was strong on political, so cial, and economic information. But the important thing is that the anti drug campaign recognized that the de sire and will of the addict is ultimately the controlling factor of addiction. China's policy was not simply to de prive a person of drugs, but to replace the need for narcotics with a forceful, national commitment. Equally signifi cant, the former addict was fully ac cepted back into Chinese life without official stigma or prejudice.

Naturally, many questions have to be answered about the total success of the Chinese experience. Is there an addict population living in labor camps or prisons because of failure to re habilitate? Do the rehabilitated addicts all function as useful members of Chi nese society? To what extent would addiction be a problem in China if its internal and border controls were less stringent? Does traditional Chinese medicine offer useful ideas about ad diction treatment?

---

Wikipedia puts the census count in 1950 at 546,815,000, and a quarter of that is 136,703,750. So about that many people saved from opium addiction by the Communists.

I wonder if that's the reason the West wants to focus so much on the famine.