Drug users are dying from street drugs in record numbers. Yet most of us still turn away when our friends let us know that they are struggling with addiction. COVID-19 has only made things worse. Once we push the drug users in our life away--good ol' tough love--they often wind up on the streets, where there are few services available to them. The Denver Harm Reduction Action Center is one of the few resources devoted to the safety and well-being of addicted people in the local community, and th...
Sep 21, 2020•55 min•Season 1Ep. 19
We have all been robbed of something very valuable, and we don't even know it. Our ability to recognize and control much of what goes on in our bodies is gone, replaced by an auto-pilot system that allows us to focus on more "important" concerns, like where to eat or what to watch on television. This trait once saved us from predators that would have consumed us if we were busy looking inward, regulating our kidney function or controlling our digestion. But now days it prevents us from living in...
Sep 16, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 18
Who hasn't taken a handful of magic mushrooms and walked seven miles in a psychedelic haze of love while sharing your heart with a friend? If you haven't, life is short. Come to Colorado for a vacation. In May of 2019, psilocybin consumption was decriminalized. In this episode I sit down with one of my daughters and her partner to unpack their first trip--a magic mushroom fueled night just 48 hours earlier that is still fresh in their minds. And we model a little bit of responsible drug use. We ...
Sep 09, 2020•43 min•Season 1Ep. 17
(Meth)amphetamine is one of the most widely used legal drugs in the United States. In some parts of the US doctors write enough prescriptions for (meth)amphetamine to give every person 70 milligrams per year. Amphetamines are popular drugs, and they have been ever since they were first synthesized, in 1887. But a lot has happened since then, namely, stigma and shame. Dr. Erin Boyce joins me to discuss rituals of use, myths surrounding meth, the sense of community that drug users build in our enc...
Sep 02, 2020•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 16
In this episode I will talk about shame, where it comes from and how it poisons those who experience it. The war on drugs only works with the central pillar of Shame in tact, yet we have made a political habit of talking about "destigmatization," and "shame reduction" of late. Our lip service is worthless, counterproductive even, so long as we don't actually change anything. This episode is about what to change, how to change it, and why it was fucked up in the first place. Support the show...
Aug 26, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 15
You asked for it. You got it. This episode is about my criminal record, including the way that shame was vital to my life course. I also talk about prison, trauma, and the costs of incarceration, a $180 BILLION-per-year budget-drainer supported by taxpayers. Support the show
Aug 15, 2020•28 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Join me for a chat with author, poet, activist and ex-inmate Chandra Bozelko about all things prison. Our inside views of the prison-industrial complex gave us both a lot of insight into criminal "corrections." And as inmate-workers who both wiggled our way up the short ladder of prison labor, we had lots to talk about. We also discussed the way power works in prison, the nature of change in a system designed to prevent it, and the double-edged sword of attempting to reform prison labor. Support...
Aug 10, 2020•1 hr 24 min•Season 1Ep. 13
One out of 50 US citizens is under the thumb of the Prison-Industrial Complex at any given time. That's seven million of us right now! 2.3 million are in prison or jail, and another 4.5 million are on parole or probation (one mistake away from being thrown back in). And each of them represents a paycheck: for COs, for investors, for prison labor contractors, and for probation officers. There are a lot of people who stand to lose out if we end the war on drugs and allow our prisons to empty out. ...
Aug 03, 2020•36 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Kratom is a leaf from a tropical plant, often dried and crushed for easy shipment, then brewed into tea or swallowed in a gelcap by consumers, like you and me. Kratom is showing incredible potential for treating withdrawal symptoms from opioid use, and we haven't even begun to test it in clinical trials. But for many addicted people, and for people dealing with pain who don't want to take opioids, kratom is a game-changer. In this episode, Dr. Grundmann shares his latest research on kratom. Supp...
Jul 27, 2020•49 min•Season 1Ep. 11
What happens when we feel the spirit? Are we high? Are we faking it? Does a Mormon religious experience feel the same as a Pentecostal experience? Or a Baptist experience? Join me for a conversation with Dr. Michael Ferguson and Dr. Jeff Anderson, two neuroscientists whose work to pinpoint the mechanisms of religious experience has yielded some fruitful results. Support the show
Jul 19, 2020•1 hr 24 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Molly, Ecstasy and MDMA--different names for the same drug. MDMA is no longer restricted to underground rave culture. It is finding its way to the Dr.'s office and the therapist's couch. And it appears to be an incredibly effective tool of psychotherapy. Dr. Ben Sessa has called MDMA the "antibiotic of psychotherapy." He joins me to explain why it works so well as a therapeutic tool. We discuss addiction and treatment applications, Big T versus little t trauma and their connection to self-medica...
Jul 12, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Pure heroin currently costs up to $400 dollars per gram on the streets. But it only costs around $2 per gram to produce. The 40,000% profit margins go to street dealers and traffickers--the cops can't exactly sell it at auction when they confiscate it. This episode details the history, production and use of opium products. From Tramadol to Fentanyl--how strong is each drug, and how is it best consumed? From pills to injections--what dangers do drug users face in the ongoing war on drugs? From bl...
Jul 06, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Opium is one of human-kind's oldest drugs. We have been eating, smoking, snorting and injecting it for at least 6,000 years, and fighting wars over it for more than 500 years. Its been cultivated, distilled, processed, and synthesized ever since we realized it was a good buzz, and now there are so many different types of opioids that most of us have no idea what we are taking, or how strong it is compared to other types. This episode details the history, production and use of opium products. Fro...
Jun 29, 2020•29 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Veterans Advocate Dr. Jeni Hunniecutt joins me to discuss her latest research involving veterans using cannabis as an alternative to opioids & benzodiazepines, and MDMA therapy in veteran populations. We talk about the difficulty of beginning mindful meditation practices, the concept of spirituality as a drug, our cultural conceptions of love, and how to get drugs legalized. We also dive into the connection between Christianity and our current state of affairs in the US, as a COVID-19 pandem...
Jun 23, 2020•1 hr 35 min•Season 1Ep. 6
In the United States we often find ourselves confronted with the sins of our ancestors: racism, sexism, able-ism, classism. We could just begin the long-overdue project of cultural self-improvement, but the comfort in putting that project off has proven so tempting that for hundreds of years our parents, and their parents have done just that--put off a project that should have long ago been completed. It feels good to be woke, so we learn a few feminist terms and put an equality sticker on our l...
Jun 16, 2020•50 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Honest answers about marijuana and its active ingredients. Marijuana doesn't actually contain any chemicals that get us high. But with a bit of chemistry--like lighting it on fire--we can produce psychoactive ingredients that many of us enjoy regularly. Join me to discuss how weed works in the body, and how to use it without wasting your buzz. Plus the history of marijuana, from homeopathic healers to racist politicians, the drug has taken an interesting route through US history. Support the sho...
Jun 09, 2020•40 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Power works, in part, through the creation and sustainment of cultural myth, and the US has no shortage of mythological identities which don't pan out when closely examined: Santa Clause, meritocracy, justice, delicious diet products, slavery reparations, and (central to this podcast) the war on drugs as a righteous endeavor of harm reduction. Before the war on users began, drugs were legal in the United States. And believe it or not, everything was fine. Few people had issues with addiction and...
Jun 02, 2020•38 min•Season 1Ep. 3
In this episode I talk about cocaine: where cocaine comes from, how much it costs to produce, and who gets rich when it's sold on the streets. Plus, a look back at the history of cocaine, from Sigmund Freud, to Coca-Cola, to prohibition, to a permanent war. Support the show
May 31, 2020•30 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Join me on this journey of truth and discovery. I'll detail the purpose of the podcast and explain why I am your host. Plus, a bit about my history of addiction, crime and prison. Drug users are dying in record numbers, and we have learned to blame it on the drug dealers, the doctors, and the pharmaceutical manufactures, but most of the dangers drug users face are the result of the war on drugs, not the drugs we use. Support the show...
May 28, 2020•29 min•Season 1Ep. 1
