Narcotica Podcast

Aphrodisiacs are powerfully attractive for a reason. Sex is, after all, crucial to the survival of our species and it feels fucking amazing, so using chemicals that can make sex last longer, feel better or otherwise enhance the act is going to be like candy to a bunch of horny primates. But the term chemsex—using drugs, or chemical enhancement, to prolong or alter sexual experiences—is actually specific to the gay community, or men who have sex with men. Drugs used have included methamphetamine, Viagra or sildenafil, cocaine, the anesthetic GHB, mephedrone (also known as ‘bath salts,’ although that’s a broad term), ketamine, and amyl nitrates or “poppers.”Our guest today is David Stuart, who has spent decades as a fixture in London’s gay community. Stuart is an independent social worker and activist who actually coined the term ‘chemsex’ in the 1990’s. Stuart has witnessed the fundamental changes in the gay community as homosexuality has become more acceptable, but fleeting internet-based hook ups became increasingly ubiquitous, and in some cases fraught with potential medical and mental health risks. You can follow David Stuart on Twitter and learn more about him at https://www.davidstuart.org/ Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher and more. Tell your friends about us! Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary Siegel Co-Producer: Aaron Ferguson Music: Glass Boy / MonplaisirPhoto: Linnaea Mallette / Edit Troy Farah The post Episode 33: Party and Play—An Intro to Chemsex with David Stuart appeared first on Narcotica.

The single biggest driver of the overdose crisis today is not oxycodone or heroin: It’s fentanyl. Drug trends around the world are always in flux, and a wide-range of nebulous supply-and-demand factors are always in play. But according to “Fentanyl, Inc.,” a sprawling investigation into the global supply of illicit fentanyl by journalist Ben Westhoff, the advent of fentanyl is not driven by user-demand. Rather, the prevalence of illicit fentanyl, largely produced in China, is part of a larger material history involving free trade, technology, and a web of complex geopolitics. On today’s show, co-host Zachary Siegel interviews Westhoff about his new book, diving into thorny topics that went unmentioned with his interview on NPR’s Fresh Air. They discuss how Westhoff gained access to a clandestine lab in China, the prominent role that America’s War on Drugs has played in producing deadlier, more potent drugs that no user actually really wants, and finally, that in order to save the lives of people using drugs, the US must adopt innovative harm reduction strategies that have been tested around the world, like supervised injection sites and drug checking. Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher and more. Tell your friends about us! You can buy Fentanyl, Inc. here. Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary Siegel Co-Producer: Aaron FergusonMusic: Glass Boy, Chad CrouchPhoto: Pixabay / edit Troy Farah The post Episode 32: How Synthetic Drugs Conquered the Globe with Ben Westoff appeared first on Narcotica.

Safehouse is safe, for now. On Wednesday Oct. 2, a federal judge in Philadelphia ruled that a supervised injection site proposed by the nonprofit Safehouse would not violate a provision of the Controlled Substances Act, known as the “Crack House” statute, authored by none other than Democratic presidential frontrunner, Joe Biden. On today’s episode, hosts Troy, Chris, and Zach are joined by Philadelphia Inquirer’s Abraham Gutman. Gutman has been cranking out fiery editorials in support of harm reduction, criminal justice reform, and tons of other topics for Philly’s biggest newspaper. He breaks down the complicated legal, political, and social implications of the Safehouse ruling and what comes next. You can follow Gutman on Twitter and read his work here. Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher and more. Tell your friends about us! Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary Siegel Co-Producer: Aaron Ferguson Music: Glass Boy Photo: Holden Blanco        The post Episode 31: Supervised Consumption: Narcotica Breaks Down Safehouse Ruling with Av Gutman appeared first on Narcotica.

Doctors are often blamed for prescribing America into the opioid crisis. Their reckless actions, relying on opioids to relieve just about every morsel of pain, ignited the deadliest overdose crisis in history, so we’re told. Of course, the narrative around doctors is much more complex than that. But one truth is inescapable: Without doctors prescribing methadone and buprenorphine, and taking care of some of the most marginalized people in the health care system, like incarcerated women, there is no end to the crisis in sight. Meet Dr. Kimberly Sue, the medical director of the Harm Reduction Coalition, and a leader in addiction medicine. Dr. Sue wrote a new book, Getting Wrecked: Women, Incarceration, and the American Opioid Crisis. In this episode, co-host Zachary Siegel interviews Dr. Sue, and they talk about women’s self-determination, the brutality of incarceration, and they imagine a world where women are treated humanely, not criminalized. Buy Dr. Sue’s book: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520293212/getting-wreckedFollow Dr. Sue on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrKimSue Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher and more. Tell your friends about us!Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary SiegelCo-Producer: Aaron FergusonMusic: Glass Boy, Pictures of the Floating World The post Episode 30: Getting Wrecked with Dr. Kim Sue appeared first on Narcotica.

via New York Department of Health/Troy Farah By now you might be wondering whether your vape pen has acquired a taste for human blood. There have been several deaths and hundreds of cases of “mysterious lung illnesses” traced back to various “vaping products,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since that sentence is incredibly vague and next to useless, we decided to bring Amelia Ruby Howard, a sociologist who studies science and technology, on the show to clear the air and tell us what’s up. Amelia begins by spelling out exactly what kind of products are being linked to what kind of illnesses, and then helps us unpack the politics of what appears to be a textbook moral panic. You can follow Amelia on Twitter here. Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher and more. Tell your friends about us!Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary SiegelCo-Producer: Aaron FergusonMusic: Glass Boy, Pictures of the Floating World The post Episode XXIX: Darth Vaper The Panic Strikes Back appeared first on Narcotica.

Antibiotic resistance and doping at the Olympics are two pretty unrelated ideas, but they’re both covered in the new book ‘The Day It Finally Happens’ by author and journalist Mike Pearl, who sat down in Narcotica co-host Troy Farah’s kitchen. The book is kind of exploring the future in an interesting way, taking a lot of these wild, worst case scenarios, like what happens when the last fish in the ocean dies or truly bizarre, hypothetical situations, like what if a real life Jurassic Park opens. It breaks down this potential future using facts and experts. This is a show about drugs (and the people who use them) and so we’re going to be talking about two chapters from the book: The Day Antibiotics Don’t Work Anymore and The Day Doping is Allowed at the Olympics. Antibiotics are drugs and we don’t often think about the most popular way to use them: feeding them to animals. Also important is addressing antibiotic use in injection drug communities. And will we ever see a future where performance-enhancing drug use is acceptable? It’s not as unlikely as you may think, and we break down some of the fundamental ideas behind anti-doping rules.Follow Mike Pearl on Twitter and order ‘The Day It Finally Happens’ here: http://bit.ly/2kDl3wUAlso, here is more info on that study regarding antibiotic resistance in drug-using communities: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2628989/ Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Sticher and more. Tell your friends about us!Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary SiegelCo-Producer: Aaron FergusonMusic: Glass Boy, Pictures of the Floating WorldImage: Antibiotics: Global Panorama; Olympics: Informedmag // edit by Troy Farah The post Episode 28: Antibiotic Resistance and Doping at the Olympics with Mike Pearl appeared first on Narcotica.

Narcotica co-host Zachary Siegel was in Los Angeles for a conference on depicting drug use in Hollywood films and TV shows, so co-host Troy Farah trudged down from the High Desert and they recorded an episode in a hotel room. Despite doing Narcotica for well over a year, the pair hadn’t met in person before. (Chris Moraff couldn’t make this episode.) Picking an impromptu topic, they decided to riff on a recent USA Today article titled “The 25 most dangerous drugs.” So… what is the most dangerous drug? Alcohol? Carfentanil? Acetaminophen? And what is with the obsession with ranking these things? Lots of riffing and banter in this episode, so take some of this info with a grain of salt (it’s not medical advice) and we’ll be back to interviewing policy experts and drug nerds next week. Plus, we hope to get together in person with Chris in St. Louis this November 6th to 9th, for the Drug Policy Reform conference. More details here: http://www.reformconference.org/ Read the USA Today article here:https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2019/07/31/opioid-epidemic-25-most-dangerous-drugs-side-effects-death-rates/39807161/ Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Sticher and more. Tell your friends about us!Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary SiegelCo-Producer: Aaron FergusonMusic: Glass Boy, Aaron FergusonImage: Pixabay, edit by Troy Farah The post Episode 27: What’s the Most Dangerous Drug? appeared first on Narcotica.

Sarn is a Pathway to Housing participant in Philadelphia via Chris Moraff The Kensington neighborhood in Philadelphia is often described as “ground zero” in the overdose crisis. The New York Times Magazine gave Kensington’s open air drug market the dubious title, “The Walmart of Heroin.” Of course, if you take a tour of Kensington without a DEA agent nearby, you might meet someone like Sarn, who after years of unstable housing and chaotic drug use, now has his own place to live. Operating from a Housing First model, organizations like Pathways to Housing are fighting the tides of endemic poverty, homelessness, and addiction. On today’s show, the crew interviews Sarn and Matt Tice, of Pathways to Housing, about how “Housing First” is a critical response to Philly’s overdose crisis. Follow Matt Tice on Twitter and learn more about Pathways on their website. Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Sticher and more. Tell your friends about us! Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary SiegelCo-Producer: Aaron Ferguson Music: Glass Boy, Aaron FergusonImage: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah The post Episode 26: Housing As Harm Reduction appeared first on Narcotica.

Kratom, a strange plant from Southeast Asia has become one of the most controversial herbs in the United States. In this episode, Troy Farah breaks down the risks and potential benefits of this unique tree and why banning it would likely lead to a devastating increase in deaths in the opioid overdose crisis with Walter Prozialeck, a pharmacology professor at Midwestern University, who has a long-standing interest in herbal medicine, including marijuana and kratom. Topics discussed on this episode, recorded June 26, include why people use kratom, the pharmacokinetics of kratom alkaloids including actual overdose potential, cicadas infected with psilocybin-producing fungi, conspiracy theories about former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb, and much more. Read Prozialeck’s paper here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2019.05.003Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Sticher and more. Tell your friends about us! Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary SiegelCo-Producer: Aaron Ferguson Music: Glass Boy, Ian Sutherland and JunglemireAdditional audio engineering: Troy FarahImage Credit: Wikipedia / edit by Troy Farah The post Episode 25: Banning Kratom Will Escalate the Opioid Overdose Crisis with Walter Prozialeck appeared first on Narcotica.

What does abortion access have to do with the war on drugs? EVERYTHING. On this episode, we talk about some of the most controversial drugs of them all, drugs that are often overlooked in the debate about reforming drug policy: abortifacients, drugs that induce miscarriage, ending pregnancies. Specifically, misoprostol and mifepristone. We speak with Lynn Paltrow, the founder and executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women and Francine Coeytaux co-founder of Plan C Pills, co-founder of the Pro-Choice Alliance for Responsible Research, and a founder of the Pacific Institute for Women’s Health. If you need to obtain abortion pills, for any reason, for yourself, for your mother, for your sister, or your neighbor, go to PlanCPills.org or AidAccess.org. You can order these drugs discreetly and they will arrive at your door with your Amazon packages and student loan bills. Here are also abortion funds in states where regressive laws are threatening a woman’s right to choose: https://abortionfunds.org/fund/yellowhammer-fund/https://abortionfunds.org/fund/gateway-womens-access-fund/Here’s a great list from Bustle: https://www.bustle.com/p/11-abortion-funds-in-alabama-georgia-kentucky-other-states-you-can-donate-to-rn-17895282You can find Lynn Paltrow on Twitter at @LynnPaltrow and advocatesforpregnantwomen.orgLearn more about Francine Coeytaux in this New York Times piece. You can find Lynn Paltrow on Twitter at @LynnPaltrow and advocatesforpregnantwomen.orgLearn more about Francine Coeytaux in this New York Times piece. Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Sticher and more. Tell your friends about us! Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary SiegelCo-Producer: Aaron Ferguson Music: Glass Boy and Aaron FergusonAdditional audio engineering: Troy Farah The post Episode 24: How To Get Abortion Pills Feat. Lynn Paltrow and Francine Coeytaux appeared first on Narcotica.