Drugs
Performance Enhancing Drugs
Very few great works of philosophy are also great works of art. However, Plato's Symposium is both. It is a vivid invocation of the Athenian polis and its leading characters, including Alcibiades, Aristophanes and Socrates. And it is without compare as a philosophical treatment of sexual desire - a topic that philosophers down the ages have largely avoided, with only Schopenhauer and Sartre venturing the kind of comprehensive account of it that we find in Plato.
Wine and wisdom
A picture from the photo story "Keg Stand Queens," which explores the gender dynamics of undergraduate binge drinking. Amanda Berg / The Alexia Foundation for NPR Binge drinking is something many people want to shrug off. But officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say it's a public health problem that deserves more attention. You might be tempted to think binge drinking is mainly an issue for men, but that's not the case. So the CDC is putting the spotlight on women's binge drinking, which it says is both dangerous and overlooked.
Binge Drinking Among Women Is Both Dangerous And Overlooked : Shots - Health News
The Conservative Case for Legalizing Pot
John Dennis, who is running for Nancy Pelosi's House seat, is one of few Republicans who support the future legalization of marijuana, and potentially harder drugs. Dennis says it's "high time"for the GOP to embrace a pro-pot platform , Click volume for sound Ann Lee, a Texas Republican and devout Catholic, thought marijuana was the “weed of the devil.” Like so many Americans, Lee believed pot was a dangerous “gateway” drug that tempted the unwary into a dissolute existence. But when Lee’s son, Richard, suffered a severe spinal injury two decades ago and became paralyzed from the waist down, she was given a crash course in the devil drug.
The Narco State - By Charles Kenny
America's longest running war -- the one against drugs -- came in for abuse this weekend at the Summit of the Americas. The abuse is deserved. Forty years of increasingly violent efforts to stamp out the drug trade haven't worked. And the blood and treasure lost is on a scale with America's more conventional wars. On the upside, we know that an approach based around treating drugs as a public health issue reaps benefits to both users and the rest of us.
Consider current policy concerning the only addictive intoxicant currently available as a consumer good — alcohol . America’s alcohol industry, which is as dependent on the 20 percent of heavy drinkers as they are on alcohol, markets its products aggressively and effectively. Because marketing can drive consumption, America’s distillers, brewers and vintners spend $6 billion on advertising and promoting their products. Americans’ experience with marketing’s power inclines them to favor prohibition and enforcement over legalization and marketing of drugs. But this choice has consequences: More Americans are imprisoned for drug offenses or drug-related probation and parole violations than for property crimes.
Should the U.S. legalize hard drugs?
The Drug Laws That Changed How We Punish
New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller had been a champion of drug rehabilitation, job training and housing. Then, he did a dramatic about-face and backed strict sentences for low-level criminals. Central Press / Getty ImagesNow 59, George Prendes works as a telemarketer in New York and struggles to make the rent on his small Bronx apartment. Natasha Haverty There are roughly half a million people behind bars for nonviolent drug crimes in America. But no one really knows how many people have been sentenced to long prison bids since the laws known as Rockefeller drug laws first passed 40 years ago. What's clear is that tough sentencing laws, even for low-level drug dealers and addicts, shaped a generation of young men, especially black and Hispanic men.
Decades On, Stiff Drug Sentence Leaves A Life 'Dismantled'
Before he got involved in the global war on drugs, João Goulão was a family physician with his own practice in Faro, on Portugal's Algarve coast. Arriving in his small office in Lisbon, the 58-year-old tosses his jacket aside, leaving his shirt collar crooked. He looks a little tired from the many trips he's taken lately -- the world wants to know exactly how the experiment in Portugal is going. Goulão is no longer able to accept all the invitations he receives. He adds his latest piece of mail to the mountain of papers on his desk. From this office, where the air conditioning stopped working this morning, Goulão keeps watch over one of the world's largest experiments in drug policy.
Evaluating Drug Decriminalization in Portugal 12 Years Later
Harvard Gazette: Study: Intelligence, cognition unaffected by heavy marijuana use
By William J. Cromie Gazette Staff The new study of cognitive changes caused by heavy marijuana use has found no lasting effects 28 days after quitting. Following a month of abstinence, men and women who smoked pot at least 5,000 times in their lives performed just as well on psychological tests as people who used pot sparingly or not at all, according to a report in the latest edition of the Archives of General Psychiatry. That's the good news.Sir Elton John speaks at an Elton John AIDS Foundation benefit in 2010. The organization, which John founded in 1992, provides grants to support HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment programs. Evan Agostini / AP Sir Elton John is constantly remembering his life as a drug addict, whether he wants to or not. "I still dream, twice a week at least, that I've taken cocaine and I have it up my nose," John tells NPR's Steve Inskeep. "And it's very vivid and it's very upsetting, but at least it's a wake-up call."
Addict To Activist: How Elton John Found His 'Cure'
Michael Israel (shown here, left, with his father, Avi, in 2006) killed himself after becoming addicted to prescription painkillers. Avi Israel A few years ago, a doctor started prescribing Michael Israel painkillers for bad cramps in his gut. Israel had been struggling with Crohn's disease , a chronic digestive disorder, since he was a teenager. "So he was prescribed, you know, Lortab, or Vicodin or whatever. You know, they would flip-flop it from one to another," says Avi Israel, Michael's father.
Painkiller Paradox: Feds Struggle To Control Drugs That Help And Harm : Shots - Health News
To Fight Addiction, FDA Advisers Endorse Limits On Vicodin : Shots - Health News
An FDA advisory panel voted to increase controls on painkillers containing hydrocodone, such as this generic version of Vicodin. Sue Ogrocki / Associated Press A key federal panel Friday recommended placing new restrictions on Vicodin and similar prescription painkillers. At the conclusion of an emotional two-day hearing, the Food and Drug Administration advisory committee voted 19-10 to recommend the agency change how drugs that contain the opioid hydrocodone are classified as controlled substances.The Doors of Perception is a 1954 book by Aldous Huxley detailing his experiences when taking mescaline . The book takes the form of Huxley's recollection of a mescaline trip that took place over the course of an afternoon, and takes its title from a phrase in William Blake 's poem The Marriage of Heaven and Hell . Huxley recalls the insights he experienced, which range from the "purely aesthetic" to "sacramental vision". [ 1 ] He also incorporates later reflections on the experience and its meaning for art and religion. [ edit ] Background
The Doors of Perception
In today's short, a man confronts a bully, and frees himself from a recurring nightmare that's terrorized him for more than 20 years. Matt Kielty introduces us to Steve Volk , a city reporter in Philadelphia who--for decades--was plagued by a recurring nightmare. It popped up whenever Steve was going through a stressful time, and it always played out exactly the same way.