On Drugs

We're hard at work putting together the next new episode, but in the meantime, here's a favourite from last season. It's deep look at the intersection of music, drugs and creativity. Enjoy.

Host Geoff Turner is back in Colorado for part two of his road trip to see what Canada can learn from four years of legal cannabis in the Rocky Mountain State.

We're busy working on next week’s show, but I wanted to share another CBC Original Podcast I think you might like. It’s called Personal Best. I wouldn’t be doing it justice to call it a self improvement show, because it’s a lot more than that. In an episode called the Doppelganger, we meet Julia - she’s struggling to find a way to communicate her authentic self through texting and technology. It’s trippy and fun and it has all kinds of heart. Please give it a listen!

Cannabis will be legal and regulated across Canada later this year, but Colorado has a four year head start on ending prohibition. Host Geoff Turner travelled to the Rocky Mountain State to see how legalization looks, four years on.

Before pharmaceuticals find their way to your medicine chest, they are subjected to batteries of tests for safety and efficacy. Those tests begin with animals, but eventually scientists need to try out the drugs on people. In this episode, we explore the world of clinical drug trials, including host Geoff Turner's own experience as a human guinea pig.

In our episode on Utah, Mormonism and drugs, you met Dan Snarr, the former mayor of Murray Utah. He told us about losing his son to opioid overdose. Here's a full length version of Geoff's conversation with Dan.

There’s an expectation that members of the Church of Latter Day Saints will live with chastity and modesty in order to secure a place in heaven. And yet, Utah, the heart of Mormonism, has one of the highest overdose rates in the U-S. In this episode of On Drugs, we hit the road to investigate why.

People have been using caffeine in one form or another for thousands of years. And for more than a century, people have been fretting about what it does to our health and our moral condition. This episode dives into the history and significance of the most widely used psychoactive drug on earth.

This episode of On Drugs explores how cannabis went from unknown, illegal and vilified to the present day, where it's considered medicine and the foundation of a multi-billion dollar industry.

We launched season two of On Drugs with an episode about how people are using psychedelics in search of spiritual enlightenment. One of the people we met was Tanya Kammonen. Tanya and I spoke at length about her experience with psychedelics -- ayahuasca in particular -- and if you’ve listened to the episode already, you’ll have heard some of that conversation. But I thought you might be interested in hearing what didn’t make it to air. So here's a special extended version of my conversation with Tanya Kammonen.