Magic mushrooms and LSD should be legally reclassified so they can be used to treat common mental health problems, a leading psychiatrist has said.

James Rucker, honorary lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, said legal restrictions should be lifted on psychedelic drugs, which could provide an effective treatment for anxiety and addictions.

Writing in the BMJ, he said legal restrictions imposed on the medical use of psychedelic drugs, such as LSD and psilocybin, the compound found in “magic” mushrooms, make medical research into their benefits almost impossible.

Israel, a nation rich in history and diversity, holds its reputation when it comes to medical marijuana research as well. It is the home of “the father of medical marijuana,” Professor Raphael Mechoulam at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the 1960s, JNS.org reported. 

In this video, Dr. Gabor Maté untangles the complex connections between the stresses of Western society, the prevalence of addiction and the so-called War on Drugs.

Maté, an addiction specialist who was born in Hungary but spent most of his life in Canada, explains that “the heart of addiction is always emotional loss.”

When the doctor worked with people suffering from addictions in Vancouver, he says, all his female patients and many of the men had experienced sexual abuse as children. That accounts for one half of pediatrician and psychoanalyst D.W. Winnicott’s theory on two things that can go wrong in childhood. The first involves the things shouldn’t happen, like abuse and trauma, Maté says.

Recent scientific studies have validated the use of marijuana to treat many conditions, including some mental illnesses. Users on Leafly — an app that provides information on the growing number of marijuana varieties — have rated hundreds of cannabis strains as effective in alleviating symptoms of depression and anxiety. And your partner smokes weed every day. So, is he or she just enjoying themselves, or are they self-medicating a disease with the green?

Science Supports Using Marijuana for Mental Illness

Oregon is exactly five weeks away from officially legalizing recreational marijuana. But as July 1st looms in the near distance, the hard rules are still waiting in the wings. 

The reason being, the state legislature has pulled the focus back to medical marijuana. 

A much-debated piece of medical marijuana legislation has bounced from a joint House-Senate Committee to the Senate’s special committee, and now resides on the Senate floor for a vote. 

The bill in question would require the Oregon Health Authority to track medical marijuana through the supply chain to curb black market sales. 

Supplying marijuana for medicinal use is already a well-established industry in Canada. Now, as recreational use of marijuana becomes legal in more U.S. jurisdictions, major money and marketers are getting behind some of the emerging marijuana brands.

The first thing you need to know when marketing marijuana to mainstream consumers is not to call it marijuana. Corporate brand managers prefer the term cannabis, which sounds more scientific and doesn't carry as much hippie-counterculture baggage. Even worse, of course, are terms like weed and pot.

When I first saw a headline talking about using some new drug to help cannabis addicts kick the habit, I scoffed loudly. When I read the article, I scoffed, but mostly inwardly.

Some scientists in the UK believe that cannabidiol is an effective treatment to help with cannabis withdrawals. I know I’m oversimplifying the process, but it boils down to treating cannabis addiction with, well, cannabis.

In between slurps of soup and sips of coffee, Jindřich Vobořil tells a story of his youth that would sell out a Broadway theater. He lived on and off the streets in his hometown of Brno, Czechoslovakia, running with local gangs. By age 12, he was burning through 30 cigarettes a day and says he moved on to hard drugs by his teenage years. By the mid-’80s, Vobořil was a 17-year-old dropout who played guitar in a rock band and had joined the nation’s preeminent anti-communist organization, Charter 77, before becoming … a Catholic, organizing underground religious activities — back then, religious people were persecuted by the government.

Friends, meet the unlikeliest top-level bureaucrat on planet Earth.

Mitchell Trellis is putting everything on the line for a chance at what could be one of the most lucrative new business opportunities in Maryland: medical marijuana.

Trellis’ company, Maryland Wellness Access LLC, is among those gearing up to compete for one of 15 licenses Maryland will issue to cultivate cannabis and sell it to dispensaries. Trellis thinks the company’s best shot for a strong application — and being able to open for business — is to have the company ready to fire out of the gate, should Maryland give the signal.

“This is a heavy lift,” Trellis said. “This is kind of a difficult situation for an entrepreneur. You have to invest upfront without the promise of winning, then have the resources set up if you do win.”

Use of cannabis may have various effects on human fertility, depending on gender, general health, socioeconomic status and several other factors. Here, we take a look at existing research on cannabis and human fertility, in order to provide readers with an accurate, up-to-date summary of the current state of scientific knowledge.

Cannabis use and male fertility

Various studies into the effect of cannabis use on male fertility have indicated that regular use may reduce spermatogenesis (the production of sperm in the testes) and testosterone levels.