Thursday, March 26, 2009

Dr. David Hillman interview: Author of The Chemical Muse

David Hillman

 

From: gnostic media podcast #23

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Today’s guest is Dr. David Hillman the author of The Chemical Muse – Drug Use and the Roots of Western Civilization.

Is Western Civilization built on ancient Roman and Greek use drugs? How available were drugs in Classical times? Have the ancient texts been translated so that references to drugs and there recreational use have been intentionally omitted or obfuscated? The generally accepted theory by most Classical scholars is that drugs were not used at all, except maybe for medication. But is that the truth?

Dr. Hillman has spent several years studying the original texts to find out what they really say. And what do they say? It appears that the ancient philosophers, poets and thinkers did most of their thinking under the influence of many different types of psychotropic drugs – and combinations thereof.

D.C.A. Hillman earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in Classics and an M.S. in Bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin. "The Chemical Muse: Drug Use and the Roots of Western Civilization" is the result of his doctoral research on ancient pharmacy. He believes in using an interdisciplinary approach to history as well as the sciences. As a molecular biologist trained to read Greek and Latin, he favors a scientific approach to the examination of ancient primary sources. He also believes in looking at Classical texts without allowing post-Classical (Christian) linguistic and cultural influences to alter the sense of the original languages. He appeared in the March edition of Reason Magazine, in an interview with Mike Riggs (http://www.reason.com/news/show/131409.html). He lives in Madison, Wisconsin with his family, where he continues his research and writing.
http://www.chemicalmuse.com/

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Drugs can Kill!!

Drugs can Kill! or make that Cops looking for drugs can kill.

Sorry for the cheesy headline. But I thought that title may grasp a few readers attention given that most people visiting my blog will be against the war on drugs. This is a very disheartening story, however these incidents can not continue and public outrage will be the only path to putting an end to Police Raid violence.

Derek Copp Raid Shooting

from Drug War Chronicle, Issue #577, 3/20/09

Grand Valley State University film student Derek Copp is an avowed marijuana aficionado, reform activist, and a "a left-wing hippie peace-keeping liberal," according to his Facebook page. As of last week, he is also a victim of the drug war, or, more precisely, of police heavy-handedness in enforcing what appears to be a petty violation of the marijuana laws. Copp was shot and seriously wounded March 11 by a police officer who was part of a task force raiding his residence with a search warrant.

According to a compilation of local media accounts of the shooting, an Ottawa County deputy coming through the apartment's back door shined a flashlight in Copp's face, causing him to raise his right hand to cover his eyes. The officer then fired one round, striking the student in the chest. Copp said he had no idea the man who shot him was a law enforcement officer.

"He never even had a chance to even see who was coming at him, with a bright flashlight in his face," said his mother, Sheryl Copp. "He had no clue. He heard someone knock on his door, and he had no clue."

According to the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office, Copp was shot in the chest by a sheriff's deputy acting as a member of the West Michigan Enforcement Team, which consists of Ottawa County deputies and members of the Michigan State Police. Police have not identified the deputy, nor is it known whether he has been suspended. Investigators said Copp, 20, did not threaten or confront police when they entered his home. Nor have they revealed the search warrant, what they were looking for, or what they found.

But an attorney hired by Copp's family after the shooting said it was all over a very small amount of marijuana. In a Tuesday statement, attorney Frederick Dilley said: "I have been asked what drugs may have been seized by those executing the search warrant at Derek Copp's apartment. To my knowledge, the raid resulted in the seizure of a few tablespoonfuls of marijuana, and nothing more," Dilley continues, "The primary concern remains the manner in which this raid was carried out. And the apparent lack of any justification whatsoever for the use of force... much less deadly force in executing a search warrant."

Dilley is not alone in his concerns. The Grand Valley State University Student Senate issued a statement the same day wishing "Derek a full and complete recovery" and questioning police conduct. "Even though this incident took place off-campus," the statement said, "Student Senate is greatly concerned with the actions of the law enforcement team. Student Senate will await a full and complete explanation from the Michigan State Police. Like all students, we want to know why the West Michigan Drug Enforcement Team entered Derek Copp's apartment and why a firearm was used."

Even the university president demanded to know what had happened to one of his students. In a Monday e-mail to the university community, President Thomas Haas wrote: "The fact that this incident took place off-campus diminishes neither my interest nor my concern. The university's campus security staff was not involved. Like many of you, I await a full and complete explanation from law enforcement, and I have made a formal request for such information. I want to know what brought the Enforcement Team to Derek's apartment and why a firearm was discharged."

The shooting has also led to at least two protest demonstrations by students demanding answers. "Justify This Shooting!" demanded one sign held by a demonstrator. "We want answers!" read another. "Marijuana or not, unjust shot!" and "Our campus is not a war zone!", students chanted at a campus demo on Friday.

The Michigan State Patrol is investigating the shooting. That means the state police are investigating themselves, since the Western Michigan Enforcement Team consists of state police and Ottawa County sheriff's deputies.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Santo Daime can have their tea and drink it too

From: DoseNation

On Wednesday a federal judge in Oregon ruled that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) allows followers of the Brazil-based Santo Daime sect to consume ayahuasca, a psychedelic tea containing the ordinarily illegal drug dimethyltryptamine (DMT), as part of their rituals. Guided by the Supreme Court's unanimous 2006 ruling in "a very similar case" involving Uniao do Vegetal, another Brazilian religious group that also consumes ayahuasca, U.S. District Court Judge Owen Panner concluded that RFRA "requires that plaintiffs be allowed to import and drink Daime tea for their religious ceremonies, subject to reasonable restrictions." The church already had convinced the Oregon Board of Pharmacy to exempt it from state DMT restrictions.

You can read the full court decision here (pdf).

It is inspiring to read this good news! I hope that this legal victory will encourage the Santo Daime, as well as the UDV aka Uniao do Vegetal and other “permitted” religious groups who have been granted their constitutional right to use entheogen based sacraments will grow their presence to become more available to those who seek the vine legally here in the US. It is awesome to witness the legal progress being made on the religious freedom front and to see it catching up with the increasing legal tolerance for medical research. I think there is too much emphasis by various organizations pushing for legal exceptions for medical uses and not enough effort fighting for The People’s religious freedom rights.

The movement has come a long way and it is one of my greatest hopes that general decriminalization will come soon, so that all of humanity may benefit from these medicines / sacraments with out having to join a sanctioned church or be afflicted by illness or disease. Having US government agencies and high courts grant permission for certain people the right to use scheduled substances for either medical and spiritual purposes should constitute an admission that these substances are NOT a threat to public safety and do NOT meet the requirements set forth to be Schedule One:

1. The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.

2. The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.

3. There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.

Therefore laws that criminalize safe and natural psychoactives such as Marijuana, DMT, Mescaline, Psilocybin, etc should all be repealed and reasonable forms of regulation should be put in place to help ensure safe use by adults. The whole concept that humans believe they have the right to declare nature illegal is just lame in the first place.

Namaste,
EROCx1

santoDaime

Monday, March 16, 2009

DMT Trip

From "Other Worlds"
A journey into the heart of Shipibo shamanism

CGI sequences attempt to reproduce the power of Jan Kounen's recurring visions and the unfolding of the poetic story witnessed during an Ayahuasca ceremony.


Read more about the film: Greylodge
Free Download: Torrent
Format: avi | Size: 651mb

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Dr. Timothy Leary: The Intelligent Use of Drugs

Tim Leary with micFrom: The Psychedelic Salon Subscribe: FREE

Guest speaker: Dr. Timothy Leary

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PROGRAM NOTES:

[NOTE: All quotations below are by Timothy Leary.]

 "We represent the aristocratic, exploring elite of our species, and we always have."

"The purpose of human life is to go within and find out who you are. The purpose of human life is to grow."

"American history is filled with people who knew how to use drugs intelligently."

"He [William James] later wrote the book "Varieties of Religious Experience", in which he said over and over again, no attempt at the metaphysical quest, no attempt to probe the philosophic wonders of the cosmos can be undertaken by those who don’t have some experience with chemicals. In his case it was peyote and nitrous oxide."

"The ‘original’ sin was the intelligent use of drugs in the garden of Eden."

"The problem with drugs is that stupid people use drugs stupidly."

"As more and more people learn how to use drugs intelligently in the next twenty years, and get back to their microscopes and DNA mock-ups, we may have some more information on exactly how evolution got started."

"All of you in this room have experienced more realities, more crisis, more of life, you’ve seen more than the wisest sultans and philosophers in the past."

"The generation you belong to is of key importance."

"Nobody died for my sins, man. I did my time for ‘em."

"Let me give you an example of set and setting. If you take LSD under the following conditions: you’ve just escaped from prison where they want to put you in the gas chamber, and you find yourself in a hotel in Palm Springs where the FBI is having its local convention, that is bad set and bad setting."

Great Expectations: America and the Baby Boom Generation The Third Wave

The Psychedelic Salon

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Salvia's changing legal status in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Ohio

FROM THE SALVIA DIVINORUM OBSERVER
By Daniel Siebert

*******************************
Wednesday, March 11, 2009 / volume 7 number 1
*******************************
The Salvia divinorum Research and Information Center (SDRIC)
http://sagewisdom.org


SALVIA IS NOW ILLEGAL IN SOUTH DAKOTA
House Bill 1090 was signed into law by Governor Marion Michael Rounds (R) today, March 11, 2009, and became immediately effective. This legislation makes possession of 2 ounces of Salvia divinorum or less a Class 1 misdemeanor, carrying a maximum penalty of 1 year in jail and a $2000 fine; possession of more than 2 ounces would be a Class 6 felony, with a maximum penalty of 2 years in prison and a $4000 fine.


OHIO SALVIA BAN GOES INTO EFFECT NEXT MONTH
House Bill 215 was signed into law by Governor Strickland (D) on January 6, 2009. This bill adds Salvia divinorum to the State’s list of Schedule I controlled substances. It goes into effect 90 days later, which would be April 5th.


SALVIA SOON TO BE ILLEGAL IN NEBRASKA
Legislative Bill 123 was signed into law by Governor Dave Heineman (R) on February 26, 2009. This bill adds Salvia divinorum to the State’s list of Schedule I controlled substances. The new law will go into effect in September 2009.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Excellent News Article on Salvia divinorum

This is an outstanding news article about the current legal situation facing Salvia divinorum. I wish more members of the media actually reported on the facts like Christopher Patton has done instead of regurgitating fear based stereotypes that are most commonly conveyed in the news and pontificated by the authorities. The world would be a far better & more human place. Stop criminalizing nature and the prohibition of cognitive liberty. Stop incarcerating good people over victimless "crimes". Salvia divinorum should remain legal as there is NO scientific evidence that it poses any threat to public safety. The ancient and still practicing religion of Shamanism is a guaranteed right under the First Amendment to the US Constitution. Why is this unalienable right not honored by our current government? Thank you Christopher & The Daily Iowan for having the courage to not only speak, but to publish the truth.

Best regards to you,

EROCx1



The Daily Iowan: Keep Salvia legal
BY CHRISTOPHER PATTON MARCH 6, 2009

When smoked, Salvia divinorum can yank out the rational mind, throw it to the ground, stamp on it and finally rub one’s nose in the resulting mess.

I recommend giving it a try — especially because the experience only lasts a few minutes.

But adventurous Iowan psychonauts who are interested in exploring the mysterious realms that consuming this potent hallucinogenic plant can open up may want to do so soon. The Iowa Legislature is considering a bill criminalizing the sale and possession of the unique herb.

According to Dale Woolery, the associate director of the Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy, the state must ban Salvia in order to preclude the possibility of it ever harming anyone.

However, the state’s own Legislative Services Agency notes in a document explaining the background behind the proposal to criminalize Salvia that the Iowa Department of Public Health’s Substance Abuse and Prevention Division has not received a single report of Salvia divinorum abuse in Iowa — ever. The document also highlights that throughout fiscal 2008, there was not even one prison admission for the hallucinogenic drugs that are illegal.

“This is more about prevention than it is punishment,” Woolery said. “We’re not hearing anything about a widespread epidemic or widespread use like the prevalence of marijuana or meth.”

However, he said, his office is beginning to get more information about Salvia from the law-enforcement and drug-treatment communities.

“There’s probably more of it out there than we hear about,” he said. “Right now, our research has turned up impairment issues, and we’d hate for anyone to become injured or worse as a result of this.”

Those who have experienced a Salvia trip firsthand are fully aware of the “impairment issues” to which Woolery so ominously alludes. But those effects are precisely what drives inquisitive minds to experiment with this substance.

Anthony Fippinger, 24, who graduated in 2007 from the UI with a double major in art and English, currently lives in Mingo, Iowa. Having tried Salvia, he refers to it as an enigmatic substance.

“The time it takes to articulate its effects on you usually lasts longer than the high itself,” he said. “Yet, while under its spell many describe a world devoid of time and infinitely spacious, me included — I liken the experience to one of those acid-dipped music videos with an endless number of replicated shapes perpetually coming at you.”

Another Salvia user is Tanner Faaborg, a 25-year-old Iowa City resident who has a degree in political science and is currently taking English courses. He described his first Salvia experience as shocking.

“When it hit me, and it hit hard, the effects were … fast as hell and targeting every sense I had,” Faaborg said. “I leaned over to express the sensation to my buddies to discover they weren’t there.”

Like Fippinger, Faaborg also perceived the passage of time in a distorted fashion.

“Time cannot exist in a place like that; time can only exist in preconceived concepts of order,” he said. “With Salvia there is no order, it simply is, and you simply are.”

Because of the extent to which tripping on Salvia temporarily annihilates one’s ability to interact with the world in an ordinary way, those who are experienced with the plant suggest it should only be used in a safe and carefully monitored environment.

Smoking Salvia to aid him in meditation and stress relief, Ori Fienberg, a 25-year-old Iowa City resident who in 2008 graduated from the UI with an M.F.A. in nonfiction writing, said he thinks health and safety concerns dictate that the potent herb be properly studied and regulated.

“I think Salvia divinorum is a useful natural aid to self-exploration,” he said. “However, choosing to ban it rather than studying it and making appropriate laws will create an unregulated black market and ultimately increase the number of people who will abuse it by not giving it the respect it deserves as a powerful empathogen.”

Feinberg is right. Despite the value some find in Salvia’s intriguing mind-altering effects, its astounding potency demands respect. Thus, the government should regulate it in such a way as to protect public safety.

But when asked about the possibility of slowing down the legislative process and allowing a more thorough investigation into how Iowa could best regulate Salvia, Woolery remained firm in his prohibitionist stance.

“I don’t think I need scientific research to convince me, based on what I’ve seen, that Salvia should be banned,” he said.

If you haven't already done so, please read my case in defense of Salvia divinorum and continue to fight the injustice of prohibition.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Feds to end raids on medical MJ dispensaries?

U.S. to yield marijuana jurisdiction to states

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Alex-Grey-Barack-Obama

A step in the right direction.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is sending strong signals that President Obama - who as a candidate said states should be allowed to make their own rules on medical marijuana - will end raids on dispensaries in California.

Bill Piper, national affairs director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a marijuana advocacy group, said the statement is encouraging.

"I think it definitely signals that Obama is moving in a new direction, that it means what he said on the campaign trail that marijuana should be treated as a health issue rather than a criminal justice issue," he said.

Piper said Obama has also indicated he will drop the federal government's long-standing opposition to health officials' needle-exchange programs for drug users.

During one campaign appearance, Obama recalled that his mother had died of cancer and said he saw no difference between doctor-prescribed morphine and marijuana as pain relievers. He told an interviewer in March that it was "entirely appropriate" for a state to legalize the medical use of marijuana "with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by doctors.

Friday, March 6, 2009

The New Bail Out Mascot

the bail out mascot

  
Recently the U.S. Government has announced that it has created a new national symbol for the bail out plan as it very accurately represents the reality of our current situation.



The Condom

Its a cheap & easy fix, allows for inflation, halts production, destroys all hope for the next generation, protects a bunch of dicks and gives you a sense of security while you're being screwed in an unpleasing way by those above or behind you.

Should this bailout actually benefit my friends & family who are currently afflicted by unbearable amounts of stress and heartbreak due the the collapse of the "American Dream". I will happily rescind this entry with my most sincere apologies. Until then, at least this post may bring a little humor to these depressing times.

Here's to better days,
E

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Hunter S. Thompson on Conan O'Brien

Hunter Thompson Conan O'Brien Hunter S. Thompson
on Conan O'Brien

Feb 6, 2003

A short 10 minute segment with Dr. Thompson as a guest on Late Night with Conan O' Brien. Featuring a clip of the two of them drinking whiskey & shooting assault weapons together. Hunter talks about accidentally shooting his assistant, Johnny Depp living in his basement next to a home made bomb and a few other interesting tid bits that any fan of Gonzo will find entertaining.

Hunter S. Thompson on Conan O'Brien 2003-02-06

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

5th International Amazonian Shamanism Conference

EROCx1-5th-Amazonian-Shaman 
The 2009 International Amazonian Shamanism Conference
The Art and the Heart of Healing

July 11th - July 18th 2009
Iquitos, Peru

Speakers to include:

Alan Shoemaker

Andrew Ostapenko

Benny Shanon

Dennis McKenna

Martin Ball

Pablo Amaringo

Peter Gorman

Richard Grossman

Robert Forte

The Presenters - The Curanderos - Schedule - Register

Please mention our friend Martin Ball's name when signing up.
Doing so will help him out on this trip.

There will be pre-conference retreats again for 2009. First I recommend Peter Gorman & Martin Balls guided trip around Peru. I also believe The Temple of the Way of Light will be holding pre & post conference retreats. Their prices are typically very fair & are they too are good people to work with. I know of a couple other reputable Ayahusca centers in the Peruvian Amazon if you are looking for something different or the first two I mentioned are full. Please contact me.

4th International Amazonian Shamanism Conference:
FREE Mp3 Downloads from the 2008 presentations