Albany Democrat-Herald, 22 Jan 2012 - A Dozen Years After Fleeing the Valley, Bill Conde Remains As Pro-Hemp As Ever Editor's note: Today is the first installment in a monthly series that revisits and updates stories we reported on as the 21st century began a dozen years ago.

Wall Street Journal, 14 Jan 2012 - Colombia's Success in Curbing the Drug Trade Has Created More Opportunities for Countries Hostile to the United States. What Happens When Coca Farmers and Their Allies Are in Charge?. In the dusty town of Villa Tunari in Bolivia's tropical coca-growing region, farmers used to barricade their roads against U.S.-backed drug police sent to prevent their leafy crop from becoming cocaine. These days, the police are gone, the coca is plentiful and locals close off roads for multiday block parties--not rumbles with law enforcement.

Arizona Daily Wildcat, 13 Jan 2012 - College Student Experiences Firsthand The Pros And Cons Of Contraband, Offers Her Take On Drug Laws And What She Wished She Knew About Tripping Krystle Cole has tried more psychedelic drugs than all of the Beatles combined, personally knew the operators of the biggest LSD laboratory in history and lived through some of the most profound and darkest experiences a human being can have, such as run-ins with the law and bad trips. A native of Kansas and former Tucson dweller, Cole is a pursuing a master's degree in psychology from Capella University. Through her experience, she became an expert in psychedelics and safe drug use, penned a book called "Lysergic" and founded Neurosoup.com, a website that focuses on trying to educate people on responsible drug use.

Los Angeles Times, 30 Nov 2011 - Hallucinogens and other street drugs are increasingly being studied for legitimate therapeutic uses, such as helping patients deal with post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction, chronic pain, depression and even terminal illness. Janeen Delany describes herself as an "old hippie" who's smoked plenty of marijuana. But she never really dabbled in hallucinogens - until two years ago, at the age of 59.

Globe and Mail, 14 Nov 2011 - Vancouver physician Gabor Mate - the subject of a recent CBC documentary on his use of the Amazonian plant medicine ayahuasca to treat addicts - has drawn the wrath of Health Canada. Facing threats of criminal prosecution if he didn't stop immediately, Dr. Mate has complied, of course. But he has said he will seek an exemption to continue with his treatments. Putting aside for the moment all the legal and public policy issues that surround the use of a psychotropic medicine, we shouldn't lose sight of the larger context. We have to ask ourselves how open we are as a society to other modes of healing - especially from cultures so far from our own.

Globe and Mail, 09 Nov 2011 - Health Canada is threatening to prosecute a Vancouver physician successfully using the Amazonian plant medicine ayahuasca to treat addiction. In a two-page letter sent last week, Johanne Beaulieu, director of Ottawa's Office of Controlled Substances, reminded Gabor Mate that mere possession of ayahuasca is illegal under Canada's Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

Contra Costa Times, 29 Oct 2011 - To legalize or not to legalize? The question of marijuana's safety, its impacts on society and its potential as a government revenue source has probably never been so hotly debated in the mainstream of public opinion. We've been waging war on the drug trade for decades, and what has it gotten us? Prisons full of drug users and street-corner dealers, an ever-increasing enforcement bill that cuts deeply into other services, and a murderous drug cartel to the south that threatens to turn Mexico into a full-blown narco state. Today, even "respectable" people feel the burden of those hard truths. Dr. David E. Smith certainly does. And, as a person uniquely and intimately qualified to talk about the social, medical and spiritual ramifications of illicit drugs' widespread use, his is a worthwhile voice.

Ledger-Enquirer, 26 Oct 2011 - From his job and family to his decaying teeth, Ted R. Bobe lost nearly everything to drug addiction. Years of smoking crack cocaine and injecting methamphetamine took an irreversible toll on his 50-year-old body, as evidenced by the jagged track marks that cover his arms.