A plant with dissociative and psychoactive properties began to attract the attention of the media and United States policymakers following a well-publicized suicide in 2006 and reports that the plant served as a 'legal high' and substitute for cannabis. As a result, Salvia divinorum and its active ingredient, salvinorin A, were classified as Schedule I substances by the Florida Legislature on...
Δ-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol homologs have been increasingly abused since their introduction in 2004. Such products were used as a "legal high" for those wishing to experience cannabinoid effects while evading basic drugs-of-abuse testing. We describe a series of exposures to products marketed as synthetic cannabinoids to better characterize the clinical effects in these patients. All...
For over a decade, amphetamine-type stimulants have made their way into the adolescent culture of Thailand. Coupled with the more recent emergence of the legal, over-the-counter cough medicine dextromethorphan (DM), they represent the most commonly abused substances among Thai youths today. Methamphetamine is the second most popular drug of abuse in Thailand, the first being cannabis. It is...
Animal and cellular work has shown that central cannabinoid-1 receptors modulate neural oscillations in the gamma range (40 Hz), which may be important for normal perceptual and cognitive processes. In order to assess the effect of cannabinoids on broadband-frequency neural oscillations in humans, the current study examined the effect of chronic cannabis use on auditory steady-state responses...
The past decade has seen the development of an array of emerging psychoactive substances (EPS), however, there is minimal information on the extent of their use outside Europe. This study aimed to determine the extent of use of EPS from stimulant (such as mephedrone) and psychedelic classes (such as 5-methoxy-dimethyltryptamine [5-MeO-DMT]) among an Australian sample of regular ecstasy users...
Objective To describe patterns of simultaneous polysubstance use (SPU) among Danish 3,4‐methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) (“Ecstasy”) and hallucinogen users. Methods A cross‐sectional survey of 98 active MDMA and/or hallucinogen users recruited through homepage advertisements, flyers, and word of mouth in Denmark. Lifetime and recent substance use and SPU at last recalled use was described...
DrugScope is very proud to present The media guide to drugs: key facts and figures for journalists. This new guide is intended to be a resource for journalists working across all media. The guide contains an A to Z of drugs, including information on what substances look like, how they are used, what effects they have and how many people use them in the United Kingdom. The essential Q&A section...
Cannabinoids affect positive and negative affective experience and emotional perception, possibly by modulating limbic brain reactivity. In this double-blind crossover, placebo-controlled functional magnetic resonance imaging study in humans, an acute oral dose of ∆(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) attenuated subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) reactivity during the induction of negative...
Altered states of consciousness induced by hallucinogens (H-ASC) is still a vaguely understood phenomenon. Taken the diverse psychological effects they exert, the main mechanism of action of hallucinogens; LSD, ibogaine, THC, PCP, MDMA, methamphetamine, mescaline, psilocybin and DMT, of which psychological effects are discussed in the article, are not properly understood and explained by the...
Cannabidiol (CBD), a major phytocannabinoid constituent of cannabis, is attracting growing attention in medicine for its anxiolytic, antipsychotic, antiemetic and anti-inflammatory properties. However, up to this point, a comprehensive literature review of the effects of CBD in humans is lacking. The aim of the present systematic review is to examine the randomized and crossover studies that...