Decrypting the cryptomarkets: Trends over a decade of the Dark Web drug trade

Authors Harjeev Kour Sudan, Andy Man Yeung Tai, Jane Kim and Reinhard Michael Krausz Published November 19, 2023 Introduction The Dark Web is a subsection of the Internet only accessible through specific search engines, making it impossible to trace users. Due to extensive anonymity, the drug trade on the Dark Web makes regulation complicated. We  …


Can ayahuasca reduce inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity? A pilot study

Authors WaiFung Tsang, Simon GD Ruffell, Nigel Netzband, Angelina Jong, James Rucker, Quinton Deeley and Jack Hollingdale Published November 16, 2023 Background The potential benefits of ayahuasca on mental health conditions are well documented. This pilot study is the first to explore whether there is an association with ayahuasca use and reductions in inattention, hyperactivity  …


The impact of over the counter and prescription medication misuse on friends and family

Authors Rosalind Gittins, Roya Vaziri, and Ian Maidment Published November 16, 2023 Introduction Over the counter and prescription-only medication misuse is of concern. Little is known about the impact on friends/family who provide individuals with support. It is important to increase understanding to identify how substance misuse services (SMS) and others can better meet their  …


From prohibited to prescribed: The rescheduling of MDMA and psilocybin in Australia

Authors Octavian Dixon Ritchie, Cameron N Donley and Gabrielle Dixon Ritchie Published September 6, 2023 Background On February 3, 2023, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care, announced that on July 1, 2023, the psychedelics 3′4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and psilocybin will be medically accessible and regulated for psychiatric use in  …


Racial and religious motives for drug criminalization

Authors Petter Grahl Johnstad Published September 6, 2023 Abstract The world has a long-standing system of drug control intended to suppress the use of a range of psychoactive drugs on the basis that such use is very harmful both to the users themselves and to their social surroundings. This perception of harmfulness has a long  …


MDMA-assisted psychotherapy with adolescents suffering from PTSD: Do or don’t? a qualitative study with youth, parents, and clinicians

Authors Anoek S Van Vugt, Josjan Zijlmans, Ramon Lindauer and Levi Van Dam Published September 1, 2023 Background PTSD in adolescence causes much suffering and has substantial health-care costs. Many patients with severe PTSD do not respond to psychotherapy or continue to have symptoms despite trauma-focused psychotherapies and psychopharmacological treatment. A recent alternative in the  …


Perceived barriers to access to hepatitis C for people who inject drugs in Morocco: A qualitative explorative study

Authors Zakaria Belrhiti and Fatima Zohra Serghini Published September 1, 2023 Background Worldwide, approximately there are 15.6 million people who inject drugs. Recently, a rising prevalence of hepatitis C virus among the people who inject drugs community (8.2 million, 40 to 80% of people who inject drugs) urged governments to implement targeted preventive and structural  …


Cannabis-based medicinal products for the treatment of Long COVID symptoms: current and potential applications

Authors Hannah Thurgur,  Anne Katrin Schlag,  Elizabeth Iveson,  Adele Hosseini,  Michael Lynskey,  David J. Nutt Published August 31, 2023 Abstract Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection can result in a range of persistent symptoms impacting everyday functioning for a considerable proportion of patients, a condition termed Long coronavirus disease (COVID) or post COVID-19 syndrome.  …


A drug harms ranking study for Aotearoa New Zealand

Dr Rose Crossin Department of Population Health – University of Otago, Christchurch Drug harm is a significant public health burden in Aotearoa New Zealand (1,2,3); though harms are not evenly distributed across the population. Māori are the indigenous population of Aotearoa New Zealand, making up approximately 17% of the total population, and have a notably  …


Could classic psychedelics influence immigrants’ acculturation process? A narrative review contemplating how

Authors Benjamin A. Korman Published July 31, 2023 Abstract Rising international migration, paired with increasing public support for far-right political parties, poses a growing challenge to the countries tasked with successfully integrating immigrants into their society. Further complicating this matter is the fact that the acculturation process which immigrants undergo to fully integrate into their  …


A phenomenological analysis of Fellini's films to understand the effect of LSD therapy on his creativity

Authors Antonio Metastasio, Silvio Mignogna, Riccardo Paci, Milena Mancini, Fabio Melelli, Enrico Lando, Ornella Corazza and Giovanni Stanghellini Published July 31, 2023 Abstract Since its discovery in 1943, LSD has been used by artists, scientists, and intellectuals, amongst others, to stimulate their creative insights. Federico Fellini, one of the most important film directors in the  …


The Drug Science Podcast and Medical Cannabis

By Mags Houston – Head of Projects and Communications at Drug Science  Even before I joined the Drug Science team, the Drug Science podcast has been a vital and inspiring source of information for me when it comes to UK drug policy. I recall listening to a couple of early episodes as I prepared for  …


Reagent Testing Information

Any type of recreational drug use is likely to carry a degree of risk, both long-term and short-term. This is true for legal recreational drug use like drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco, but is heightened for illicit drug use. One reason for this, among others, is that illicit drugs are, by nature, unregulated. It is  …


A call for cannabis research reform in New Zealand: Why real world evidence and patients’ voices matter

Dr Fiona HuttonAssociate Professor at the Institute of CriminologyDirector Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University, Wellington Dr Geoff NollerBioethics Department, Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin Alice McSherry Doctoral Candidate at the School of Environment, University of Auckland While cannabis based medicines hold out the promise of much needed relief, at the same  …


Bayesian analysis of real-world data as evidence for drug approval: Remembering Sir Michael Rawlins

Authors Balázs Szigeti, Lawrence D. Phillips and David Nutt Published July 17, 2023 Background The two pillars of modern medical research are where in most randomized controlled trials (RCTs), the active treatment is compared with placebo. A recent expert consensus survey endorsed the statement that ‘Results from placebo-controlled trials are more reliable than results from  …


Impact of the introduction of medical cannabis in the UK on risk perception and recreational use of cannabis: A longitudinal and cross-sectional analysis

Authors Jon Waldron, Meryem Grabski, Tom P Freeman, Margriet Van Laar and Valerie Curran Published July 4, 2023 Background Cannabis was rescheduled in the UK in November 2018 so that it can now be prescribed as a treatment for certain medical conditions. It is not yet known whether this has had an impact on peoples’  …


Minorities’ diminished psychedelic returns

Authors Sean M Viña and Amanda L Stephens Published June 23, 2023 Abstract Although there is a growing support for the use of psychedelics to improve the health of marginalized groups, there are some critical gaps. First, no empirical studies have examined the effects of psychedelics on Black Americans. Second, there is little research on  …


Drugs: What are they good for? - 5-MeO-DMT

Written by Sally Turner MSc  What is 5-MeO-DMT? 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine, or ‘toad venom’ as it’s better known, is a tryptamine psychedelic that occurs naturally in multiple species of plants and shrubs, is present endogenously in some humans (1, 2), and is excreted by the Colorado river toad (hence the nickname). 5-MeO-DMT has been consumed by indigenous  …


Psychedelic therapy in the treatment of addiction: the past, present and future

Authors Rayyan Zafar, Maxim Siegel, Rebecca Harding, Tommaso Barba, Claudio Agnorelli, Shayam Suseelan, Leor Roseman, Matthew Wall, David Nutt and David Erritzoe Published June 12, 2023 Abstract Psychedelic therapy has witnessed a resurgence in interest in the last decade from the scientific and medical communities with evidence now building for its safety and efficacy in  …


A roadmap for psychedelic pharmacy in Canada

Authors Jaden Brandt Published April 25th, 2023 Abstract The unprecedented progress in the science and clinical investigation of psychedelic medicine will require those in healthcare leadership and the legislative policy arena to conceptualize how future reforms, policy creation, and clinical practice should occur to broaden access to these agents while simultaneously maximizing effectiveness and mitigating  …


Drug Science submits evidence to the ACMD Nitrous Oxide Review

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) is collecting written evidence regarding the health and social harms of nitrous oxide. Background In 2015 the ACMD considered the emerging issue of nitrous oxide abuse. In 2021, the then Home Secretary commissioned the ACMD to conduct an updated health and social harms assessment and whether  …


Psychedelics for managing pain

Dr. Joanna Kempner Dr. Joanna Kempner is a professor of sociology at Rutgers University, where she studies the overlap of science, medicine, technology, and inequality. When institutionalized medicine has failed to provide adequate treatment options in the past, people tend to mobilise as a movement to develop their own options. In the past, this can  …


Response from Drug Science to the Australian Government consultation on potential reforms to the regulation of nicotine vaping products

Border controls No legislative changes ought to be made to Australia’s current border controls for nicotine products. The black market and mislabelling of nicotine e-liquids exists precisely because Nicotine Vaping Products (NVPs) are regulated as medicines and only available on prescription. Given the reluctance of many General Practitioners (GPs) to prescribe, the complicated policies and  …


Neuroplasticity in Mental Health Recovery: Prompting the Brain to Cure Itself

Written by Tiago Vasconcelos Psychiatric disorders can be considered to disturb the brain’s equilibria, emerging when different factors converge to push the brain towards inefficient states. Depression and anxiety are two of the most pervasive mental health conditions, and are challenging to treat; an estimated 30% of depression sufferers prove resistant to first-line treatment (Al-Harbi,  …


Busting the Myths Surrounding Psychedelics

Prof. Jo Neill The generalised public perception of psychedelic drugs is rooted in their legal categorisation as a Class A, Schedule 1 drug. Drugs in this category are considered to have the potential to harm an individual and society, and have ‘no medical use‘. The former point, regarding their safety, is one of the most  …


Three weeks down under: My Mind Medicine Australia Psychedelic Lecture Tour

Written by Professor David Nutt  I have just come back from a 3-week lecture tour of South-Eastern Australia supporting the cause of the charity Mind Medicine Australia (MMA) They have been raising money for psychedelic research for about 4 years with considerable success. Through their efforts, the Australian government last year put up $15million for  …


Response to Bertha Madras editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine

Response by: Prof David Nutt – FMedSci Imperial College London Prof Jo Neill – PhD University of Manchester On behalf of Drug Science We read with concern the editorial by Bertha Madras that accompanied the new COMPASS Pathways trial of psilocybin in treatment-resistant depression (TRD) due to several inaccuracies and negative bias. It displayed a  …


Would you let your teenager try psychedelics?

By Alice Lineham *Note that throughout this article the term ‘teenager’ is used to refer to individuals between the ages of 13-18. Since the turn of the century, an influx of psychedelic trials have taken place at renowned institutions across the globe. Weekly news stories are lauding these compounds for their benefits in treating adults  …


UK’s First Medical Cannabis Patient Conference

Event review written by Nikol Naydenova In the heart of London, on Great Portland Street, patients, prescribers, cannabis advocates, police officers, and journalists all met together to discuss and debate their shared belief that medical cannabis could revolutionise healthcare. In honour of Medical Cannabis Awareness Week, held at the International Students House, Drug Science and  …