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Last May at the international harm reduction conference in Barcelona, Mr. Costa had promised to publish the report “very soon” – it still hasn’t been released. You can see Dr Polak’s previous attempts to get Costa to respond to his questions about the paper here.
By Emily from Tranform
This time, Mr. Costa did admit that there [...]
“This series is about how those in power have used Freud’s theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy.” – Adam Curtis
As if it isn’t already obvious…This cartoon by Current TV gives a good summary of the depressing elements of society, such as loneliness, self-absorption, and celebrity worship that Twitter seems to embody more than any other online phenomenon…so far!
The world of professional gamers may seem about as irrelevant to Brainwaving’s mission as say Pumping Iron does. However I believe that in both cases these films present significant and entertaining insights into some of the sub-cultures that have arisen in today’s society. They are is some sense social tumors – clusters of people that [...]
Mariana van Zeller travels to South Florida, the “Colombia of prescription drugs”, to expose a bustling pill pipeline that stretches from the beaches of Ft. Lauderdale to the rolling hills of Appalachia. “The OxyContin Express” features intimate access with pill addicts, prisoners and law enforcement as each struggles with a growing national epidemic.
Ben Cato Clough investigates the rising trend in people who are using laughing gas recreationally and asks whether it is as innocuous as it first appears.
Introduction #
We are rarely surprised by media coverage about recreational psychoactives. Most can be lumped into the broad genre of sensationalist exposé about the terrible dangers of drugs designed to titillate teens and frighten parents. The ABC News special “Ecstasy Rising”, first aired on April 1st, 2004, stands out mostly because of the very high [...]
How do we learn to speak? What is the connection between language and movement? Join a broad and distinguished panel on an exploration of how striking parallels between bird and human brains are providing sharp new insights into how we acquire language and the links between hearing and movement.
This event was moderated by Faith Salie [...]
This legendary footage shows the apparently super-human powers of an Indonesian Medicine man, who claimed to derive his power from meditation and the control of his yin and yang forces within his body – you must see this.
Amit Goswami is one of the world’s foremost quantum physcicists. In the late 1980s Goswami developed an idealist interpretation of quantum mechanics, inspired in part by philosophical ideas drawn from Advaita Vedanta and theosophy. Calling his theory “monistic idealism”, he claims it is not only “the basis of all religions worldwide” but also the correct [...]
I saw this and thought it was probably the best documentary I had ever seen – Arnie is so much better in real life than he is playing a made up character. Its amazing insight into the Governator’s character, he’s definitely got my vote anyway.
Unfortunately I read this is Wikipedia which slightly undermines my initial [...]
“Where do we come from? How did the universe begin? Why is the universe the way it is? How will it end?“All my life, I have been fascinated by the big questions that face us, and have tried to find scientific answers to them. If, like me, you have looked at the stars, and tried [...]
In 1848 a strange skull was discovered on the military outpost of Gibraltar. It was undoubtedly human, but also had some of the heavy features of an ape… distinct brow ridges, and a forward projecting face. Just what was this ancient creature? And when had it lived? As more remains were discovered one thing became [...]
The sixties gave birth to he civil rights movement, anti-vietnam war protests, the counter-culture movement, women’s rights movement & the rise of the Black Panthers. The most notable place during the 60’s was Berkeley, where radical politics was rampant & the need to change America & the world was ever more urgent.
Unfortunately the sound [...]
These people suffer from one of the strangest of all brain disorders. It makes them think they have been touched by god. But their unusual condition is giving scientists a unique insight into faith and the human mind. As a result researchers are now asking one of them most explosive questions of all – could [...]
RICK STRASSMANS OVERVIEW FROM HIS BOOK DMT: THE SPIRIT MOLECULE
In 1990, I began the first new human research with psychedelic, or hallucinogenic, drugs in the United States in over 20 years. These studies investigated the effects of N, N-dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, an extremely short-acting and powerful psychedelic. During the project’s five years, I administered approximately [...]
Joseph Dispenza, D.C ON The Brain, Quantum Physics & The Observor and Creating Your Day
Zeitgeist, the Movie is a 2007 documentary film by Peter Joseph about historical and modern conspiracies, including the origins of Christianity, the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks, and the banking system. Due to subject matter and the unorthodox methods used in citing the sources for the information presented, many of the statements and sources in [...]
Director Peter Joseph stated: “The failure of our world to resolve the issues of war, poverty, and corruption, rests within a gross ignorance about what guides human behavior to begin with. It addresses the true source of the instability in our society, while offering the only fundamental, long-term solution.”
Part I follows on from Part III [...]
Another fascinating and insightful Adam Curtis film, this time concerning the parallel development of modern Islamic radicalism and Neo-conservatism. Details the rise of the latter movement and its masquerade as traditional conservatism to garner support and acquire power. This film also discusses the development of the current Arab political ideology and shows how both movements [...]
Journalist Nicky Taylor travels to Amsterdam to investigate the growing debate about the legal classification of cannabis. While there she helps out in a coffee shop that sells the drug, and discovers first hand what the effects of cannabis are on everyday life. Back in the UK Nicky finds out about the genetically modified cannabis [...]
Dr. Quantum makes the fundamentals of quantum physics seem simple – at least until you start thinking about it! I think everyone should watch him, just to have some idea of how weird and counterintuitive quantum physics really is. No wonder so many quantum physcisits end up with pretty whacky theories of the universe, God, [...]
35 years after Nixon started the war on drugs, we have over one million non-violent drug offenders living behind bars.
The War on Drugs has become the longest and most costly war in American history, the question has become, how much more can the country endure? Inspired by the death of four family members from “legal [...]
Bill Hicks – the great comedian discusses prohibition
In this one-off documentary, David Malone looks at four brilliant mathematicians – Georg Cantor, Ludwig Boltzmann, Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing – whose genius has profoundly affected us, but which tragically drove them insane and eventually led to them all committing suicide.
The film begins with Georg Cantor, the great mathematician whose work proved to be [...]
Quantum Physicist John Hagelin discusses consciousness, the observer effect & Superstring Unified Field Theory.
Hagelin is a world-renowned quantum physicist, educator, public policy expert, and leading proponent of world peace. He received his A.B. summa cum laude from Dartmouth College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University, and conducted pioneering research at CERN (the European [...]
Constrains of Consumerism – Blu’s vision of materialism
The End of Aging – Is old age a curable disease? – a TED talk by Aubrey de Grey
The Harms of Drugs? – scale of the harms of legal and illegal drugs compared
What Does It All Mean? – The times are changing fast
Elegant Universe – String Theory simply and delightfully explained.
Last May at the international harm reduction conference in Barcelona, Mr. Costa had promised to publish the report “very soon” – it still hasn’t been released. You can see Dr Polak’s previous attempts to get Costa to respond to his questions about the paper here.
By Emily from Tranform
This time, Mr. Costa did admit that there are some discussion papers produced by his agency that “were eventually quashed” and “remained an internal document never published”. However he claimed that he had given a detailed answer regarding the document on his website.
In fact there was a ‘leaked’ report written by Costa following his visit to the Netherlands, that was published (and scrutinised) on this very blog, before being rather begrudgingly published on Costa’s own site (not really a ‘blog’ in the traditional sense as it does not accept even moderated comments). This report, however, was clearly his personal views and was a long way from an objective piece of policy analysis, being, as it was, entirely reference free and replete with subjective opinion and unevidenced assumptions and inference. Introducing this report he not only refers again to the ‘pro-drug lobby’ but notes that:
According to economic science, the greater the availability of a commodity on the market, the more likely its consumption (via the price effect, but also thanks to psychological factors). Does this only apply to normal markets? My Office has examined whether there is a statistical relationship between availability of drugs and their use, and reached the same conclusion.
This is important work, that should be informing important decisions (not least around the now completed 10 year review and political declaration), but has similarly never been published and made available for public scrutiny, even to member state Governments. ‘Scientists’ actually publish work, so that their statistics, methodologies and conclusions can be discussed, scrutinised and learnt from. This is the very essence of scientific and social policy discourse, something Costa parades the trappings of whilst simultaneously ignoring its most basic principles.
Hopefully someone at the UNODC will see fit to release both the Netherlands study and statistical analysis on drug availability into the public domain so we can see what it reveals reveals and why the UNODC have chosen to go against there own promises and scientific (and indeed UN) principles of free debate, by suppressing the work. Hopefully member states – particularly the UNODC funders (prominently including the UK and the Netherlands) who of course fund such work in the first place – will demand that the reports are published so they can be subject to public scrutiny and contribute to public debate. This is what the rational policy development within UN forums should be all about.
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