Take Rooster Magazine's 2019 Ultimate Drug Survey Now!

There’s a new survey you can take over at Rooster Magazine:

Here it is folks, the completely anonymous and ungraded test you all haven't been waiting for — Rooster Magazine's first annual Ultimate Drug Survey. 

We want to know what it is that makes drug users tick, why they do it, what they have to say about it. The following is a series of questions ranging from your first time to the last bender. We want it all. Again, this is a completely anonymous form and we're totally not cops. We're one of you.

Results of the survey will be posted in next month's issue. Stay tuned online for expanded results as well. 

I just submitted my survey, and you should too. It’s always interesting to see what drug use looks like around the world, and this survey is much faster to fill out than the annual Global Drug Survey.

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Could ‘Alcosynth’ Provide All the Joy of Booze – Without the Dangers?

Amy Fleming, writing for The Guardian:

[Scientist David Nutt] has long been developing a holy grail of molecules – also referred to as “alcosynth” – that will provide the relaxing and socially lubricating qualities of alcohol, but without the hangovers, health issues and the risk of getting paralytic. It sounds too good to be true, and when I discuss the notion with two alcohol industry experts, they independently draw parallels with plans to colonise Mars.

Yet Alcarelle finding its way into bars and shops is starting to look like a possibility. Seed funding was raised in November 2018, allowing Nutt and his business partner, David Orren, to attempt to raise £20m from investors to bring Alcarelle to market. “The industry knows alcohol is a toxic substance,” says Nutt. “If it were discovered today, it would be illegal as a foodstuff. The safe limit of alcohol, if you apply food standards criteria, would be one glass of wine a year.”

An alternative to alcohol that will get you tipsy or buzzed without allowing you to reach blackout drunk levels, and it doesn’t cause the health issues and hangovers that alcohol does? Count me in.

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You Can’t Overdose on Fentanyl by Touching It

German Lopez, writing for Vox:

The latest horror story in America’s opioid epidemic: Police officers are supposedly overdosing just by coming in contact with the synthetic opioid fentanyl. In the most recent example, a Vermont state trooper, acting Sgt. Brett Flansburg, last week reportedly fell ill and collapsed in a parking lot after he was exposed to small quantities of a drug.

This isn’t the first time a similar story has been widely reported. This genre of stories really took off with national reports that an East Liverpool, Ohio, police officer collapsed after he brushed fentanyl residue off his uniform. And there have been similar reports in California, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

But there’s one problem: Overdosing on fentanyl just by touching it or by simply being in proximity to it is extremely unlikely, if not impossible. Yet overdose by contact has been a persistent myth about fentanyl since it began supplanting heroin in much of the US’s illicit opioid supply.

Still, these stories and the myth they perpetuate really matter. They suggest that helping people who use drugs can be dangerous. That can lead to unnecessary caution or new requirements, like forcing officers to put on certain equipment when they respond to an overdose — which could then lead to people in need of quick, unhesitating emergency help getting hurt or killed as they wait.

This myth needs to die, and fast.

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The UN Chief Executives Board Unanimously Endorses Decriminalization

Transform Drug Policy Foundation:

The Chief Executives Board of the UN, representing 31 UN agencies, has adopted a common position on drug policy that endorses decriminalisation of possession and use. This comes just days before a key meeting of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, which will review, the UN’s 10-year Global Drug Strategy, and plan for the next one.

People are always going to use drugs. Criminalizing possession and use does nothing to help users or the wider society, but it does cause a lot of unnecessary harm. This is good news coming out of the UN, but we’ll have to see if this advice is heeded.

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Polly Wants Crack!

Miranda Aldersley, writing for Daily Mail:

Flocks of parrots believed to be addicted to opium have been ravaging crops on Indian farms in order to feed their bizarre habit.  

Footage recorded in central India’s Madhya Pradesh state shows the birds indulging in the unusual activity of tearing apart poppy seed pods to get to the opium inside - much to the chagrin of the local farmers. 

This is a wild story, but the clickbait headline is simply asinine. I hope for the love of God Almighty that at least one person at the Daily Mail actually knows the difference between crack cocaine and opium, but I know I shouldn’t hold my breath.

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