While citizens experiment with illegal drugs, their governments experiment with regulations to prohibit drugs. Scholars, analysts, and policy makers who know what legal prohibitions other countries have tried and found successful will have a better chance of crafting effective drug policy for their countries. This special issue of "The Annals" describes the experiences of eleven countries: Australia, Canada, Columbia, Denmark, France, Iran, Jamaica, Mexico, Portugal, Russia, and Sweden. Articles are grouped by geography and wealth: the wealthy West, the western hemisphere, and the transition countries.

The drug problems of wealthy Western nations have generally worsened since the 1960s. Some have no clearly articulated vision behind their drug policy (e.g. Denmark); others have tough policies (e.g. Sweden). France and Portugal both recently instituted sharp changes in drug policy. While no outcome results are yet available from Portugal, France has experience a huge increase in the number of users in treatment. Australia s strong harm-reduction policy remains in place despite increasing heroin deaths and other drug-related problems.

U.S. consumption and U.S. international drug policies affect western hemisphere countries policy as well as generate problems for them. Although Mexican drug use remains at modest levels, the country faces violent and powerful criminal groups. The groups creation is related to Mexico s role as the principal source and primary transshipment route for drugs bound for the U.S. IN Jamaica, another route for cocaine shipped to the U.S. and another focus of U.S. international drug policy, drug trafficking has exacerbated the long-standing problem of politically related gang violence by increasing the moneys and weapons involved. Drug use is a relatively minor concern of Columbian policy, also under U.S. pressure; instead, it focuses on trafficking and related corruption and violence.

Iran and Russia are countries in transition. Contending with fundamental economic and social change following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has had little political debate regarding its highly intolerant drug policy. Iran s drug policies have frequently shifted during its long history of dealing with opiate abuse, from harsh punishment to regulation of use and back again. Most recently, more therapeutically oriented approaches have been tried.

Two articles address geographically broader issues. One shows how U.S. politicians distorted results from a study of needle exchange in Vancouver. The other discusses creation of a new regulatory regime for governing developed nations banking systems, in the belief that illegal drugs account for a substantial fraction of suspicious financial transactions, particularly across national borders. "

The place of drugs in American society is a problem more apt to evoke diatribe than dialog. With the support of the Na tional Science Foundation's program on Ethics and Values in Science and Technology, and the National Endowment for the Humanities' program on Science, Technology, and Human Values, * The Hastings Center was able to sponsor such dialog as part of a major research into the ethics of drug use that spanned two years. We assembled a Research Group from leaders in the scientific, medical, legal, and policy com munities, leavened with experts in applied ethics, and brought them together several times a year to discuss the moral, legal and social issues posed by nontherapeutic drug use. At times we also called on other experts when we needed certain issues clarified. We did not try to reach a consensus, yet several broad areas of agreement emerged: That our society's response to nontherapeutic drug use has been irrational and inconsistent; that our attempts at control have been clumsy and ill-informed; that many complex moral values are entwined in the debate and cannot be reduced to a simple conflict between individual liberty and state paternalism. Of course each paper should be read as the statement of that particular author or authors. The views expressed in this book do not necessarily represent the views of The Hastings Center, the National Science Foundation, or the National En dowment for the Humanities."

Electronic dance music was once the utopian frontier of pop culture. But three decades after the acid house 'summer of love', it has gone from subculture to the global mainstream. Does it still have the same power to inspire?

From the pleasure palaces of Ibiza and Las Vegas to 'new frontiers' like Shanghai and Dubai, raving is now a multi-million-dollar business. But there are still hardcore believers upholding its DIY ethos - the techno idealists of Berlin and Detroit and the queer subcults of New York, the post-apartheid party people of South Africa and the outlaw techno travellers of France.

In Rave On, Matthew Collin travels the world to experience these unique scenes first-hand, talk to the key players and hear the story of how dance culture went global - and find out if its maverick spirit can survive its own success.

A gripping investigation that opens fresh perspectives on biology and anthropology 'At the cutting edge of contemporary thought' GUARDIAN 'A thoroughly enjoyable read' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH While living among Peruvian Indians, anthropologist Jeremy Narby became intrigued by their claim that their phenomenal knowledge of plants and biochemistry was communicated to them directly while under the influence of hallucinogens. Despite his initial scepticism, Narby found himself engaged in an increasingly obsessive personal quest. The evidence he collected - on subjects as diverse as molecular biology, shamanism, neurology and ancient mythology - led inexorably to the conclusion that the Indians' claims were literally true: to a consciousness prepared with drugs, specific biochemical knowledge could indeed be directly transmitted through DNA itself. A gripping investigation that opens fresh perspectives on biology, anthropology and the limits of rationalism, The Cosmic Serpent is new science of the most exhilarating kind.

The practice of yoga, hypnosis, and the use of psychedelic drugs to alter psychological and physiological states is not unknown to the study of psychology. They have been called "soft" studies and labeled unimportant. This is mostly because they are difficult to study and understand, often focusing on unobservable internal states such as altered states of consciousness, Samadhi, or hypnotic states. This book, in its approach to thinking about this topic and method for analysis, focuses only on phenomena that can be observed, such as behavioral changes.

By centering on only those aspects of the psychological and physiological effects of yoga, hypnosis, and psychedelic drugs which can be measured and analyzed using this new method, Barber distinguishes this book from others in the field. He asks what overt behaviors and verbal reports are clearly observable when psychedelic drugs are taken, yoga is practiced, or hypnotic-induction procedures are administered. Instead of treating the phenomena traditionally associated with psychedelic drugs, yoga, or hypnosis as undifferentiated conglomerates, an attempt will be made to set apart and treat separately each of the many phenomena associated with each of these areas of inquiry.

This book does not set out to simply demonstrate the importance of psychedelics, yoga, and hypnosis, or to present substantive material pertaining to these topics. It also treats each topic as continuous with other known psychological phenomena and as an important piece to the puzzle of social psychology. It differs from most previous treatises in that it does not assume that psychedelics, yoga, and hypnosis can bring out unused mental or physical capacities in man, heighten awareness or give rise to enhanced creativity, or produce altered states of consciousness, suspension of conventional reality-orientation, changes in body-image, or changes in perception.

A definitive history of mescaline that explores its mind-altering effects across cultures, from ancient America to Western modernity Mescaline became a popular sensation in the mid-twentieth century through Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception, after which the word "psychedelic" was coined to describe it. Its story, however, extends deep into prehistory: the earliest Andean cultures depicted mescaline-containing cacti in their temples. Mescaline was isolated in 1897 from the peyote cactus, first encountered by Europeans during the Spanish conquest of Mexico. During the twentieth century it was used by psychologists investigating the secrets of consciousness, spiritual seekers from Aleister Crowley to the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, artists exploring the creative process, and psychiatrists looking to cure schizophrenia. Meanwhile peyote played a vital role in preserving and shaping Native American identity. Drawing on botany, pharmacology, ethnography, and the mind sciences and examining the mescaline experiences of figures from William James to Walter Benjamin to Hunter S. Thompson, this is an enthralling narrative of mescaline's many lives.

This collection traces the intersection between writing and intoxication, from the literary to the theoretical, exploring a diversity of experiences of excess. Comprising a variety of perspectives, this book offers unique insights into how politics and literature have been shaped by states of intoxication.

Originally published in 1980, this book presents a detailed account of a series of investigations that examined the patterns of resort to drugs and alcohol use in college youth, and how such substance uses are linked to personality characteristics and daydreaming patterns. The Editors chose to emphasize the more "private" features of the personality, because these had often been ignored in earlier research, despite popular assumptions that there are close ties between fantasy, inwardness, "spacey" qualities (all suggesting permanent changes in mental organization), and substance use in youth. This volume will be of interest to a wider audience than just drug and alcohol researchers, because of the effort to go beyond normative patterns of substance use toward explorations of personality and consciousness.

The central problem in the study of addiction is to explain why people repeatedly behave in ways they know are bad for them. For much of the previous century and until the present day, the majority of scientific and medical attempts to solve this problem were couched in terms of involuntary behavior; if people behave in ways they do not want, then this must be because the behavior is beyond their control and outside the realm of choice. An opposing tradition, which finds current support among scientists and scholars as well as members of the general public, is that so-called addictive behavior reflects an ordinary choice just like any other and that the concept of addiction is a myth. The editors and authors of this book tend to take neither view. There has been an increasing recognition in recent literature on addiction that restricting possible conceptions of it to either of these extreme positions is unhelpful and is retarding progress on understanding the nature of addiction and what could be done about it. This book contains a range of views from philosophy, neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology and the law on what exactly this middle ground between free choice and no choice consists of and what its implications are for theory, practice and policy on addiction. The result amounts to a profound change in our thinking on addiction and how its devastating consequences can be ameliorated. Addiction and Choice is a thought provoking new volume for all those with an interest in this global issue.

Back in print after 20 years, this text from the earliest days of psychedelia chronicles the experiences on 16 acid trips taken before LSD was illegal. The trip guides or "high priests" included Aldous Huxley, Ram Dass, Ralph Meltzner, Huston Smith and a junkie from New York City named Willy. It tells of the goings-on and freaking out at the Millbrook mansion in New York State that became the Mecca of psychedelia during the 1960s, and of the many luminaries who made their pilgrimage there to trip with Leary and his group. Chapters include an I Ching reading and a chronicle of what happened during those "spacewalks" of the mind.

Often, people use nicotine, caffeine, and some level of alcohol in varying combinations at different times of the day in order to optimize their functioning and feelings of well-being, whether at work, in leisure time, or in a social context. However, until now, studies on the effects of this everyday practice have been diverse, widespread, and insufficiently summarized. Recently developed methods to study the effects in more detail have received little attention, especially among a nonscientific readership. Nicotine, Caffeine and Social Drinking focuses readers' attention on the effects of normal, socially accepted psychoactive substances on cognitive performance and on the brain. Divided into three sections, this book studies each substance individually before examining the effects of their combined usage.

Hallucinogenic and Poisonous Mushrooms Field Guide tells how to find wild mushrooms in America. It is a hip-pocket field guide that presents 24 hallucinogenic mushrooms that grow in the United States and eight poisonous species that they are confused with. A reliable reference for beginners, the Field Guide opens up the world of mycology in a clear and precise way. A compact course in mycology as well as a handy tool for the professional. Features: How to collect, identify and dry, useful keys and charts, Chemical qualities, genus and species information, over 30 color photos and 50 line drawings, taxonomy, and glossaries: Latin terms, macroscopic and microscopic characteristics.

This volume is devoted to descriptions of non medical as well as medical uses for some drugs that have typically, or not so typically, been associated with drug abuse. One major objective of this book is to identify costs and benefits of drug abuse. The book highlights drugs including 3,4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), cannabinoids, opioids and methylphenidate because of their well-documented potential for abuse and provides new and emerging evidence of their potential to treat some chronic disease states alongside the potential consequences of exposure.

The practice of yoga, hypnosis, and the use of psychedelic drugs to alter psychological and physiological states is not unknown to the study of psychology. They have been called "soft" studies and labeled unimportant. This is mostly because they are difficult to study and understand, often focusing on unobservable internal states such as altered states of consciousness, Samadhi, or hypnotic states. This book, in its approach to thinking about this topic and method for analysis, focuses only on phenomena that can be observed, such as behavioral changes.

By centering on only those aspects of the psychological and physiological effects of yoga, hypnosis, and psychedelic drugs which can be measured and analyzed using this new method, Barber distinguishes this book from others in the field. He asks what overt behaviors and verbal reports are clearly observable when psychedelic drugs are taken, yoga is practiced, or hypnotic-induction procedures are administered. Instead of treating the phenomena traditionally associated with psychedelic drugs, yoga, or hypnosis as undifferentiated conglomerates, an attempt will be made to set apart and treat separately each of the many phenomena associated with each of these areas of inquiry.

This book does not set out to simply demonstrate the importance of psychedelics, yoga, and hypnosis, or to present substantive material pertaining to these topics. It also treats each topic as continuous with other known psychological phenomena and as an important piece to the puzzle of social psychology. It differs from most previous treatises in that it does not assume that psychedelics, yoga, and hypnosis can bring out unused mental or physical capacities in man, heighten awareness or give rise to enhanced creativity, or produce altered states of consciousness, suspension of conventional reality-orientation, changes in body-image, or changes in perception.

Often, people use nicotine, caffeine, and some level of alcohol in varying combinations at different times of the day in order to optimize their functioning and feelings of well-being, whether at work, in leisure time, or in a social context. However, until now, studies on the effects of this everyday practice have been diverse, widespread, and insufficiently summarized. Recently developed methods to study the effects in more detail have received little attention, especially among a nonscientific readership.
Nicotine, Caffeine and Social Drinking focuses readers' attention on the effects of normal, socially accepted psychoactive substances on cognitive performance and on the brain. Divided into three sections, this book studies each substance individually before examining the effects of their combined usage.

Originally published in 1980, this book presents a detailed account of a series of investigations that examined the patterns of resort to drugs and alcohol use in college youth, and how such substance uses are linked to personality characteristics and daydreaming patterns. The Editors chose to emphasize the more "private" features of the personality, because these had often been ignored in earlier research, despite popular assumptions that there are close ties between fantasy, inwardness, "spacey" qualities (all suggesting permanent changes in mental organization), and substance use in youth. This volume will be of interest to a wider audience than just drug and alcohol researchers, because of the effort to go beyond normative patterns of substance use toward explorations of personality and consciousness.

Recent clinical trials show that psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin can be given safely in controlled conditions, and can cause lasting psychological benefits with one or two administrations. Supervised psychedelic sessions can reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, and addiction, and improve well-being in healthy volunteers, for months or even years. But these benefits seem to be mediated by "mystical" experiences of cosmic consciousness, which prompts a philosophical concern: do psychedelics cause psychological benefits by inducing false or implausible beliefs about the metaphysical nature of reality? This book is the first scholarly monograph in English devoted to the philosophical analysis of psychedelic drugs. Its central focus is the apparent conflict between the growing use of psychedelics in psychiatry and the philosophical worldview of naturalism. Within the book, Letheby integrates empirical evidence and philosophical considerations in the service of a simple conclusion: this "Comforting Delusion Objection" to psychedelic therapy fails. While exotic metaphysical ideas do sometimes come up, they are not, on closer inspection, the central driver of change in psychedelic therapy. Psychedelics lead to lasting benefits by altering the sense of self, and changing how people relate to their own minds and lives-not by changing their beliefs about the ultimate nature of reality. The upshot is that a traditional conception of psychedelics as agents of insight and spirituality can be reconciled with naturalism (the philosophical position that the natural world is all there is). Controlled psychedelic use can lead to genuine forms of knowledge gain and spiritual growth-even if no Cosmic Consciousness or transcendent divine Reality exists. Philosophy of Psychedelics is an indispensable guide to the literature for researchers already engaged in the field of psychedelic psychiatry, and for researchers-especially philosophers-who want to become acquainted with this increasingly topical field.

This book depicts how Freud's cocaine and Benjamin's hashish illustrate two critiques of modernity and two messianic emancipations through the pleasures of intoxicating discourse. Freud discovered the "libido" and "unconscious" in the industrial mimetic scheme of cocaine, whereas Benjamin found an inspiration for his critique of phantasmagoria and its variant psychoanalysis in hashish's mimesis. In addition, as part of the history of colonialism, both drugs generated two distinct colonial discourses and, consequently, two different understandings of the emancipatory powers of pleasure, the unconscious, and dreams. After all, great ideas don't liberate; they intoxicate.

THE NO. 1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, NOW A MAJOR NEW NETFLIX SERIES 'Reminds us that the mind is the greatest mystery in the universe' Yuval Noah Harari, Guardian, Books of the Year Could psychedelic drugs change our worldview? Join Michael Pollan on a journey to the frontiers of the human mind. Diving deep into an extraordinary world - from shamans and magic mushroom hunts to the pioneering labs mapping our brains - and putting himself forward as a guinea-pig, Michael Pollan has written a remarkable history of psychedelics and a compelling portrait of the new generation of scientists fascinated by the implications of these drugs. How to Change Your Mind is a report from what could very well be the future of consciousness. 'A sweeping and often thrilling chronicle of the history of psychedelics, all interwoven with Pollan's adventures as a psychedelic novice. This is a serious work of history and science, but also one in which the author, under the influence of toad venom, becomes convinced he's giving birth to himself' Oliver Burkeman, Guardian 'A mind-altering book ... full of transformations' Richard Godwin, Evening Standard 'An irresistible blend of history, research and personal experience. In terms of the psychedelic wave, the book is the big kahuna, the Big Bang moment for a movement that is gathering force' John McKenna, Irish Times 'Entertaining and engrossing' Paul Laity, Financial Times 'Deeply absorbing, wise and beautifully written' Mick Brown, Literary Review 'An astounding book' Andrew Sullivan, New York Magazine

Is Santa Claus really a magic mushroom in disguise? Was Alice in Wonderland a thinly veiled psychedelic mushroom odyssey? Did mushroom tea kick-start ancient Greek philosophy? The 'magic mushroom' was only rediscovered fifty years ago, but has accumulated all sorts of folktales and urban legends along the way. In this timely and definitive study, Andy Letcher strips away the myths to get at the true story of how hallucinogenic mushrooms, once shunned in the West as the most pernicious of poisons, came to be the illicit drug of choice.

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE MAJOR NEW NETFLIX SERIES, HOW TO CHANGE YOUR MIND 'It's a trip - engrossing, eye-opening, mind altering' New Statesman 'Fascinating. Pollan is the perfect guide ... curious, careful, open minded' The Guardian Of all the many things humans rely on plants for, surely the most curious is our use of them to change consciousness: to stimulate, calm, or completely alter the qualities of our mental experience. In This Is Your Mind On Plants, Michael Pollan explores three very different drugs - opium, caffeine and mescaline - and throws the fundamental strangeness of our thinking about them into sharp relief. Exploring and participating in the cultures that have grown up around these drugs, while consuming (or in the case of caffeine, trying not to consume) them, Pollan reckons with the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants, and the equally powerful taboos. In a unique blend of history, science, memoir and reportage, Pollan shines a fresh light on a subject that is all too often treated reductively. In doing so, he proves that there is much more to say about these plants than simply debating their regulation, for when we take them into our bodies and let them change our minds, we are engaging with nature in one of the most profound ways we can. This ground-breaking and singular book holds up a mirror to our fundamental human needs and aspirations, the operations of our minds and our entanglement with the natural world.

A collection of quirky, entertaining, and reader-friendly short pieces on philosophical topics that range from a theory of jerks to the ethics of ethicists. Have you ever wondered about why some people are jerks? Asked whether your driverless car should kill you so that others may live? Found a robot adorable? Considered the ethics of professional ethicists? Reflected on the philosophy of hair? In this engaging, entertaining, and enlightening book, Eric Schwitzgebel turns a philosopher's eye on these and other burning questions. In a series of quirky and accessible short pieces that cover a mind-boggling variety of philosophical topics, Schwitzgebel offers incisive takes on matters both small (the consciousness of garden snails) and large (time, space, and causation). A common theme might be the ragged edge of the human intellect, where moral or philosophical reflection begins to turn against itself, lost among doubts and improbable conclusions. The history of philosophy is humbling when we see how badly wrong previous thinkers have been, despite their intellectual skills and confidence. (See, for example, "Kant on Killing Bastards, Masturbation, Organ Donation, Homosexuality, Tyrants, Wives, and Servants.") Some of the texts resist thematic categorization-thoughts on the philosophical implications of dreidels, the diminishing offensiveness of the most profane profanity, and fatherly optimism-but are no less interesting. Schwitzgebel has selected these pieces from the more than one thousand that have appeared since 2006 in various publications and on his popular blog, The Splintered Mind, revising and updating them for this book. Philosophy has never been this much fun.

Can psychedelic drugs help us tackle the biggest problems we face globally? Can they heal the cultural, spiritual, and political wounds we’re wrestling with? Psychedelics have hit the mainstream as powerful new mental health treatments. But as clinicians explore what these molecules can do for our individual minds, The Bigger Picture goes further to illuminate how psychedelics can help us find new ways to make sense of and come through the crises we face around the world. Drawing on the latest research, as well as his unique experience as a participant in a ground-breaking clinical trial investigating the potent psychedelic DMT, Alexander Beiner reveals: - the role of psychedelics in addressing global issues such as global warming, geopolitical instability, and political polarization - the dark side of the ‘psychedelic renaissance’ and ‘psychedelic capitalism’ - what it takes to elicit huge personal and cultural transformation through psychedelics Embark on a journey into The Bigger Picture – a new era of science and spirituality with the potential to radically transform our perceptions of ourselves, one another, and our life on this planet.