Caution: Disturbing, potentially triggering and possibly NSFW content: The Meth Project, known for their gritty, confrontational and disturbing
online and
print ads, which graphically depict the effects of methamphetamine drug use, launched a
new, interactive website last week. The revamped site gives visitors an opportunity to
share their own stories. They've also premiered four new 30-second television PSA's by the director of
Black Swan and
Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronofsky:
E.R.,
Deep End,
Losing Control and
Desperate.
(Via) [more inside]
posted by zarq
on Nov 16, 2011 -
103 comments
Kava: "a slightly bitter, slightly frothy, aromatic, resinous brew capable of inducing tranquility and an ultimate sense of wellbeing"
[more inside]
posted by Paragon
on Jan 4, 2011 -
45 comments
A year before his passing at the age of 102,
LSD discoverer
Albert Hofmann pens a letter to Apple CEO
Steve Jobs (who had remarked publicly about his own use of the hallucinogenic as a creative factor)
asking for Jobs' support for further research into the use of LSD in psychotherapy. In the remainder of the article, Ryan Grim
touches briefly on the use of LSD by scientists and computer programmers who have transformed the world through novel discoveries and inventions.
posted by Blazecock Pileon
on Jul 9, 2009 -
64 comments
People have been trying to make the appearance of three-dimensional movement
almost as far back as
the first movie cameras. The very first efforts used
stereoscopy (
more pre-
vious-
ly), which wasn't functional for theater-settings.
In 1915, the first public test of 3D film was deemed unsuccessful, as images presented with
green/red lenses detracted from the plot, but that didn't stop people from trying to make 3D films.
Polarized glasses are another inexpensive method of simulated 3D, while
shutterglasses are a more costly method. Up to 1998 or so, there were
approximately 187 3D movies made, not counting porn, cartoons and shorts (which bring the 1998 total to 263). 2009 is supposedly
the year that 3D movies really take off, as it has been reported that 3D films are expected to gross over $1bn (£700m) at the box office next year, a five-fold increase on their $200m haul in 2008.
There are some really big titles coming, including
the "3D drug trip" that is Avatar, and
all of the announced future Pixar releases will get the Digital Disney 3-D treatment. But 3D isn't limited to the big screen and big companies. The next format war
could be over 3D TV. And now the independent production company
MeniThings has released the feature-length movie,
Battle for Terra. [via
mefi projects, and a bit more on the movie after the jump]
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on May 8, 2009 -
56 comments
Addiction: thousands of studies have been done claiming that it is a
disease, often using rats in isolated cages with a bar-press system of delivery, showing they will repeatedly get high even if it means starving to death. Bruce Alexander was a skeptic, questioning the ecological validity of all such results: "They were said to prove that these kinds of dope are irresistible, and that’s it, that’s the end of the addiction story right there," and after delivering one particularly fruitless seminar in 1976, he decided to build
Rat Park to conduct his own studies...
[more inside]
posted by tybeet
on Feb 12, 2009 -
47 comments
The Drug Addiction Paradox "The plants should never have developed toxins that reward animals for eating them, and humans should never have developed a reward mechanism for toxic plants"... De-evolution or Idiotic Design?
[more inside]
posted by wendell
on Apr 17, 2008 -
65 comments
Growing drugs in space. If the rainforest runs out of undiscovered medicines, just grow new drugs in space:
Wired reports that "a swaggering Texas investor" wants to turn the
International Space Station into a kind of orbiting drug lab: "If people knew what I already know," he says, "the International Space Station would be considered one of the most valuable resources our world possesses." Think of it as
New Jack City in zero-G – full of weird, crystallized proteins (and billion dollar cures).
posted by BLDGBLOG
on Oct 7, 2007 -
19 comments
In 1971 Delancey Street began with four residents, a thousand dollar loan, and a dream to develop a new model to turn around the lives of substance abusers, former felons, and others who have hit bottom by empowering the people with the problems to become their own solution. With no professionals, no government funding, and at no charge to the clients, Delancey Street Foundation has rehabilitated and provided job skills to thousands of former drug addicts and criminals. They have a successful
moving company, a well loved (although not necessarily
critically acclaimed) restaurant, a thriving
Christmas tree business, and a
partnership with the local state university.
Founded in the heady radical days of the
early 70s, they've had a few bumps along the way,
(cofounder John Maher died of a drug overdose) but they are one of the most well respected models for rehabilitation in
the world. In recent news, San Francisco mayor
Gavin Newsom has been spending a lot of time there.
posted by serazin
on Feb 25, 2007 -
24 comments
17 year old kid gets 2 years for selling 20 dollars of pot, enough for 1 joint. The entire town is basically a "No Drug Zone" so they used federal law to give the kid the mandatory 2 years. The
Drug Policy Alliance has put together a
video that really hits home on the war against the American people.
posted by IronWolve
on Aug 22, 2006 -
234 comments
"Well, a lot of people have said DEA is in the dark on these issues,
but that is a little bit much." (.doc; long) Despite a power outage, an FDA-lead panel discusses how to manage abuse of the
infamous opiod painkiller
OxyContin.
Purdue Pharma, its sole manufacturer, had tried to bring its more powerful successor
Palladone (.pdf) to the market, before "dosage jump" issues lead to the drug
being pulled by the FDA. Meanwhile, trucks loaded with $3mil dollars of "oxys" continue to get hijacked for a $15mil street turnover, despite GPS tracking and other high-tech security measures used for cigarette distribution. Doctors invariably shuffle pills sideways despite
tamper-proof presciption pads (long). Purdue only stops selling more profitable and addictive
double-doses of OxyContin after government pressure. On the level of the street, addicts who find themselves too tolerant to the drug find their needs more than adequately met when they can buy many more hits of heroin for the same cost. Philadelphia-based writer Jeff Deeney outlines some of these fascinating
issues and more as he looks into how race, cost, manufacturing and distribution factors in OxyContin abuse invariably drive the addict to cheaper and more easily accessible heroin.
posted by Rothko
on Feb 2, 2006 -
72 comments
Radley Balko fisks the DEA's Karen Tandy 'So which is it? Are doctors a "very small part of the problem," or are they "the primary sources of diverted pharmaceuticals available on the illicit market?" ...I guess it depends on whether the agency is trumpeting its victories to Congress, or defending its tactics from critics in newspaper op-eds.'
posted by Kwantsar
on May 16, 2005 -
34 comments
This is Jon's diary. Jon is in prison on money laundering and drugs charges. "My new co-habitants are enduring the twin evils of a broken swamp-cooler and a cockroach infestation. A neighbouring asthmatic inmate happily described how he inhaled a cockroach that had crept into his nebulizer. He could feel the insect crawling around inside him and promptly vomited his stomach contents. Unfortunately the cockroach was not ejected, as it was lodged in his lung."
posted by urban greeting
on Sep 9, 2004 -
13 comments
Cookd and Bombd: With news about the drug Cake, Margaret Thatcher as the new Doctor Who questions in Parliament and Blue Jam.
Turning the zeitgeist of news gathering into the spirit of investigation, an archive to savour
posted by lerrup
on Aug 11, 2004 -
20 comments
