MDMA // Current TV

The Totally Raving Ecstasy Experience

For many, Ecstasy is a way to open up and express feelings for which they don't... more

tomretterbush
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1 year ago
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Free Ebooks about Mind Altering Drugs

Free Ebooks about Drugs, Drug Use, Drug Experimentation and Drug Experiences,... more

tomretterbush
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1 year ago
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Is Britain's Love Affair With Drugs Over?

It seems the British youth are starting to fall out of love with drugs as the number... more

sbacker
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2 years ago
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10 comments

Can Ecstasy Help Ease Post-Traumatic Stress?

The drug MDMA—better known by its street name, Ecstasy—may be illegal, but... more

copperdragon
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2 years ago
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Death of 15 year old at Los Angeles Rave Renews Calls for Rave Bans

A 15-year-old girl died Tuesday of a suspected drug overdose after attending a rave... more

jubal
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2 years ago
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Drugs and Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge

Tonight, Vanguard premieres The Forest of Ecstasy at 10pm ET/ 10pm PT on Current. Not too long before our trip, I’d bought myself a new digital SLR camera to satisfy my then-newfound passion for still photography. (Some photos below) As I go through the hundreds of photos I took during our trip, I’m reminded of all the moments and experiences my colleague Joanne and I experienced during our trip to Cambodia.

While the ecstasy trade, and its impact on Cambodia’s rainforest was one of the main focuses of our trip, this was just one of many many stories that caught our attention. In her blog entry, Joanne touches upon how the drug trade has overrun the heretofore vulnerable nation – today, mostly in the form of meth.

In the mid-late 70s, Cambodia was run by a genocidal regime, known as the Khmer Rouge. In 1975, the Khmer Rouge took over the country, and declared the beginning of Year Zero – and all cultural institutions and traditions were to be wiped. Essentially, the nation would hit the restart button, and only new revolutionary ideas would hold.

These guys were responsible for killing nearly 1/5 of the nation’s population, wiping out entire classes of intellectuals and professionals, and instituting an entirely socialized, agrarian society.
During the campaign of terror, the country was essentially hermetically sealed off from the rest of the world. This isolation would outlast the regime itself, which was driven from power in 1979. Ongoing violence and instability kept much of the rest of the world from wanting to engage, or do any business in this dangerous country.

Drugs, like many other legal products, are part of international business. Cambodia’s instability proved to be too risky for the drug traffickers, who steered clear. So even though the country sat in a region known for massive flows of drugs, Cambodia was entirely drug free.

In the years since the Khmer Rouge have lost power and melted away, Cambodia has begun to rejoin and re-engage with the world. This has meant increased trade with its neighbors. And now, the drugs are flowing in, in massive amounts.

Drug pushers are finding Cambodia to be rich, fertile ground for the proliferation and sale of drugs. Meth has proven to be particularly viral for this broken population. At the same time, those who are resource-hungry are also finding Cambodia ripe for exploitation. Like the forests full of the ecstasy precursors and the exotic animals deep inside.

Unfortunately for Cambodia, this is what democracy, the ideals of freedom, and trade have brought. Development has been extremely positive for Cambodia, and the nation is far better off than it was under the Khmer Rouge. But did liberty and freedom have to be so costly?

Recently on the Vanguard Blog:
- A Geologist’s Analysis of the War in Afghanistan - Kaj Larsen
- Everything is connected: ecstasy, rainforests, and beyond - Adam Yamaguchi
- Street Hustlers, Militants, and Vanguard’s Mission - Mitch Koss
- Cambodia’s Coming Drug Crisis - Joanne Shen
- Preparing for armageddon in the year 2012 - Adrian BaschukTonight, Vanguard premieres The Forest of Ecstasy at 10pm ET/ 10pm PT on Current. Not... more

Adam_Yamaguchi
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3 years ago
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Cambodia's Coming Drug Crisis

Those of us who have grown up in the U.S. have an ingrained understanding of what a drug is. We know that sometimes drugs can make you feel really good and sometimes they can make you feel really bad. We know that drugs alter your body chemistry, and affect your body and brain functions - for a short time or perhaps forever. Assailed from an early age with public service announcements, school drug education programs, and the diatribes of political candidates, we know about the dangers of addiction to the point at which "This is your brain on drugs" campaigns and "Just Say No" slogans have become the easy butt of jokes.

But Cambodia is starting from scratch. After decades of civil war, genocide and mass starvation, there is still too little understanding of what a drug is, in comparison to the amount of drugs that are quickly becoming available. This summer Adam Yamaguchi and I traveled to Cambodia to produce "Forest of Ecstasy" which will be airing this Wednesday at 10P/9C. In the program, we examine how the global demand for the club drug ecstasy is fueling the destruction of Cambodian rainforest as criminals try to get their hands on locally produced safrole oil, a key ingredient in the drug.

Ecstasy belongs to a category of drugs called Amphetamine Type Stimulants (ATS), and according to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, global demand for ATS drugs is on the rise and Asia is becoming a hotspot for global production. Cambodia's porous borders and inadequate law enforcement and border controls have made it an easy destination for drug traffickers and producers who manufacture ATS drugs, like ecstasy and meth, to feed the lucrative international trade. Consequently, there's a spillover effect when these illicit drugs pass through the country and locals get their first contact with them.

It's easy to see how local demand for these synthetic drugs could grow furiously. As a country like Cambodia, which was closed off from the rest of the world for decades, enters the fast paced 21st century, its population is increasingly curious about these meds that supposedly make you happier, stronger and more productive. While ecstasy is still too expensive for the average Cambodian, abuse of meth, is quickly becoming prevalent among working-class Cambodians. People like fishermen, truck drivers and agricultural workers, who have to work long, strenuous hours take meth-laced pills known in local slang either as yaba or yama. (It depends who is talking about it. We were told that "yaba" literally means "the pill that makes you crazy" but drug dealers call it "yama" which means "strong like a horse"). These little pills look like colorful, harmless candy and they're pushed onto unsuspecting, uneducated Cambodians as vitamins. In this clip of raw footage, Adam Yamaguchi looks at a handful of this popular form of meth:

Yaba (Video)

Meth in the form of yaba/yama is the gateway drug for many Cambodians. From yaba or yama, they move onto highly addictive crystal meth, which is already the drug of choice amongst Cambodian street kids. Natural curiosity about drugs, the growing available supply of drugs and a population in which more than a third of the population is under the age of 15, are all factors that collectively could lead to a national drug crisis. Time to bust out some catchy anti-drug slogans in Khmer, 'cause we've got a perfect storm brewing.

Recently on the Vanguard Blog:
- Preparing for armageddon in the year 2012 - by Adrian Baschuk
- There's no app for that - San Francisco's tough new trash law - by Tracey Chang
- Sustainable Sushi: Cooking with Vanguard's Christof Putzel - by Christof Putzel
- Mexico's narco war isn't ours - by Mitch Koss
- Celeb Oxy Watch: Sam Jones III of Smallville - by Mariana van ZellerThose of us who have grown up in the U.S. have an ingrained understanding of what a... more

joanneshen
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3 years ago
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Tune in, Turn on and drop IN

We're now in the midst of a worldwide renaissance in psychedelic research, after decades of political suppression. Scientists from around the world will present their new findings at the largest psychedelic conference to take place in the US in 17 years, on April 15-18, 2010, in San Jose, CA (http://www.maps.org/conference/ ). Even media reports, which usually mention in passing the widespread use of psychedelics by the counterculture in the 1960s, are more hopeful than alarming. In this talk, we'll review the factors which led to the backlash and the lessons to be learned, discuss how the FDA opened the door to research around the world, how the ghost of Timothy Leary was buried at Harvard, and how Burning Man struggles to respond to people who have difficult psychedelic experiences. We'll conclude by explaining how non-profit drug development, initially of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for postraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), can transform psychedelics into FDA-approved prescription medicines and can lay the groundwork for the successful, long-term integration of psychedelics into the mainstream of medicine, religion, art, creativity, and celebration.

Rick founded MAPS in 1986. His dissertation [http://www.maps.org/dissertation/] (Public Policy, Harvards Kennedy School of Government) was on "The Regulation of the Medical Use of Psychedelics and Marijuana," and his masters thesis [http://www.maps.org/docs/doblin-mt.html] (Harvard) focused on the attitudes and experiences of oncologists concerning the medical use of marijuana. His undergraduate thesis [http://www.maps.org/research/cluster/psilo-lsd/goodfriday.pdf] (New College of Florida) was a twenty-five year follow-up to the classic Good Friday Experiment [http://www.maps.org/books/pahnke/index.html], which evaluated the potential of psychedelic drugs to catalyze religious experiences. He has also conducted a thirty-four year follow-up study to Tim Learys Concord Prison experiment [http://www.maps.org/news-letters/v09n4/09410con.html].We're now in the midst of a worldwide renaissance in psychedelic research, after... more

crystalman
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3 years ago
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Man dies after attending Edmonton rave early Monday morning

EDMONTON - Police are investigating the death of a 19-year-old man who collapsed at a... more

copperdragon
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3 years ago
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Tripping over red tape

Recent results from a US trial looking at post traumatic stress disorder found more... more

JackHerer
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4 years ago
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The man who took 40,000 ecstasy pills in nine years

A recent case report from St George's Medical School, released by doctors from... more

mattbrawn
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4 years ago
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10 comments

The Economist tells us how to stop the drug wars

Prohibition has failed; legalisation is the least bad solution "The failure of... more

ninthstate
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4 years ago
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8 comments

Treating Mental Disorders With Hallucinogens

Researchers are again using mind-bending drugs as a means of treating mental disorders.

msltj20
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4 years ago
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3 comments

Psychedelic Healing?

Mind-altering psychedelics, or hallucinogens, are back in the research labs, where... more

phillyphil
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4 years ago
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36 comments

Ecstasy successfully used to treat PTSD

Dr. Michael Mithoefer is at the forefront of a controversial field of study. He is... more

bansheewail
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4 years ago
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62 comments

Couple admits to selling Winehouse drugs

Johnny Blagrove, 34, and his 22-year-old girlfriend Cara Burton have admitted to... more

nazbags
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4 years ago
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1 comment

Sarah Palin Lsd Found in Car Going to Phish Show

Thursday, March 5, 2009 NEW KENT, Va. (AP) -- A man was arrested outside of New Kent,... more

Psychedelic
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4 years ago
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6 comments

Clubbers confuse ecstasy powder with cocaine

A rise in the importation of high-purity powder or crystal ecstasy has led to clubbers... more

TravG73
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4 years ago
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Is ecstasy still a drug problem?

In January, North Wales Police chief constable Richard Brunstrom courted controversy... more

Psychedelic
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4 years ago
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US Office star faces drug charges

Craig Phillip Robinson has been charged with drug offenses, after being arrested in... more

TravG73
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4 years ago
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