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Illegal Drugs

The federal government is reclassifying medical marijuana as a less dangerous drug.

State-Licensed Medical Marijuana Has Been Reclassified as a Less-Dangerous Drug. Here’s What That Means

The move should make it easier for researchers to study the substance and give tax breaks to licensed medical marijuana dealers

In experiments, juvenile Atlantic salmon that were exposed to cocaine’s primary metabolite swam more and dispersed farther than their sober peers.

Cocaine Pollution Seems to Make Salmon Swim Farther Than Usual. Scientists Don’t Know the Long-Term Consequences

The illegal drug’s main byproduct, benzoylecgonine, caused more robust effects than cocaine itself. Wastewater treatment plants often don’t fully process such metabolites, so they are frequently found in bodies of water at higher concentrations than their parent drugs

The League for Spiritual Discovery, an LSD-based meditation center in New York City, in 1967

The First LSD Trip Was a Literal Bicycle Ride 83 Years Ago. Fans of the Psychedelic Celebrate the Occasion Every April 19

In 1943, a chemist in Switzerland synthesized a drug that alters consciousness. His discovery changed the study of medicine, psychiatry and biology—and became a central component of the counterculture movement

The hallucinogenic mushroom Psilocybe pelliculosa, which contains psilocybin

How Do Different Psychedelics Affect the Brain? Scientists Analyzed More Than 500 Neural Scans to Find Out

A new study suggests that four psychoactive compounds work in surprisingly similar ways, and that they break down the separation between how we think internally and how we perceive the outside world

Nearly 200 hippos are estimated to roam in Colombia.

Colombia Plans to Euthanize Dozens of ‘Cocaine Hippos,’ Descendants of Animals Brought by Notorious Drug Trafficker Pablo Escobar

If nothing is done to control the invasive creatures, officials estimate the population could grow to 1,000 animals by 2035. So, they aim to cull about 80 individuals later this year

Tobacco plants make a lot of the amino acid tryptophan, the basis of many psychoactive compounds.

Scientists Engineered Tobacco Plants to Produce Five Mind-Altering Psychedelic Compounds

The substances have been used by Indigenous peoples for thousands of years, but they’ve recently become popular as possible therapeutics for mental health conditions

Sharks in the Bahamas, including the Caribbean reef sharks, are ingesting drugs, a new study suggests.

Sharks in the Bahamas Test Positive for Drugs, Including Cocaine and Painkillers, in a New Study

Around one-third of the studied sharks had detectable levels of the analyzed drugs in their blood

Psilocybe cubensis, a mushroom that produces the psychoactive compound psilocybin.

Magic Mushrooms Evolved Psilocybin Not Once, but Twice

Two different types of mushroom evolved the same psychedelic compound in completely unrelated ways, a recent study finds

Scientists are currently studying whether cannabis use may cause schizophrenia.

Inside the Quest to Understand the Link Between Cannabis and Schizophrenia

Recent studies have examined the relationship between the drug and psychoses and looked at how the brain responds to the substance

Ibogaine extract is pictured next to the iboga root it is derived from. The psychedelic drug has shown potential to treat traumatic brain injury and opioid addiction.

Texas Will Invest $50 Million in Ibogaine Research, Testing the Psychedelic Drug’s Medical Potential

The state’s new law marks one of the largest government investments into psychedelics to date, with advocates citing the drug’s potential to help veterans with traumatic brain injury and PTSD

Many teens have shared videos on social media showing their use of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, which is sold in small metal canisters.

The Long, Strange History of Nitrous Oxide, a Popular Drug Users Have Been Inhaling for Hundreds of Years

Galaxy Gas has brought the drug back into the spotlight, and scientists are raising alarms about its health risks

Albert Hoffman, the chemist who first synthesized LSD, as photographed in 1976

On This Day in History

Discover the Origins of a Psychedelic Drug Synthesized by a Swiss Chemist Who Claimed It ‘Found and Called Me’

Five years after he created LSD in a lab on this day in 1938, Albert Hofmann accidentally underwent the first acid trip in human history, experiencing a kaleidoscope of colors and images in a sleepy Swiss city

Researchers excavated a crypt in Milan and found human remains containing evidence of cocaine use.

New Research

Europeans Were Using Cocaine in the 17th Century—Hundreds of Years Earlier Than Historians Thought

Scientists identified traces of the drug in the brain tissue of two individuals buried in the crypt of a hospital in Milan

Researchers have been looking into whether psychedelics could be used to treat PTSD. Currently, only therapy and two antidepressant medications are approved to treat the condition.

MDMA Treatment for PTSD Fails to Secure Federal Approval

One day after the FDA declined to approve the psychedelic for medical use, a journal retracted three studies of MDMA-assisted therapy due to unethical conduct by researchers

The Brazilian sharpnose sharks were purchased from fishers between September 2021 and August 2023.

Thirteen Sharks Test Positive for Cocaine Off the Coast of Brazil

All of the wild Brazilian sharpnose sharks tested in a new study had the drug in their bodies, but many questions remain about cocaine’s effects on aquatic creatures—and the humans who eat them

A heat map of brain activity shows stable patterns before and after taking psilocybin in blue and green, while temporary changes are shown in red, orange and yellow.

See How the Brain Responds to Psychedelic ‘Magic Mushrooms’

A new study mapped large, temporary changes in brain areas related to introspection and one’s sense of self, after participants took a dose of the drug psilocybin

A Parkinson’s patient in Nice, France, is prepped for a surgery to implant electrodes into the brain. The technique, called deep brain stimulation, is being used experimentally or in small studies to treat addiction.

Can a Brain Implant Treat Addiction?

Some experts tout deep brain stimulation as a lifeline for people struggling with opioid use. Others question the hype

Leaves from the iboga plant, collected in 1933 from Angola. The psychedelic drug ibogaine can be derived from the plant's root bark.

A Lesser-Known Psychedelic Drug Shows Promise for PTSD Treatment

Ibogaine, derived from a central African shrub, has been used in rituals for two millennia. But in a small study, it appeared to reduce symptoms of PTSD among veterans

Hippos swimming close to the Magdalena River in Doradal, Colombia.

Pablo Escobar’s Multiplying ‘Cocaine Hippos’ Will Be Sterilized in Colombia

The country’s hippo population has grown to about 170, and officials warn it could reach 1,000 individuals by 2035 if left uncontrolled

MDMA, also called molly or ecstasy.

MDMA Moves Closer to Approval for PTSD Treatment After New Clinical Trial

If endorsed by the FDA, the drug would become the first psychedelic approved for mental health treatment in the United States

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