Psychoactive Drugs

WILD THING

T.J. Miller Hits Gotham Comedy Club

Hudson River Park Rapist Opts For The Old Four Lokos And Weed Defense

A convicted sex offender accused of violently raping a woman at Hudson River Park last month told police that he doesn't know if he raped the woman because he'd consumed five Four Lokos before the attack -- but that was only after drinking vodka, and smoking weed and K-2, a brand of synthetic mariju ... More >>

Political Official: "Gaga Is A Slut Who's Influencing Many Children!"

And you thought Mitt Romney saying that windows on planes should be openable was the dumbest remark of the year! Well, here comes Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro demonizing Lady Gaga as some kind of Reefer Madness-style villain because she was photographed smoking a joint in Amsterda ... More >>

Medical Marijuana: Feds Crack Down on California's Harborside Health Center

Federal authorities, in their ongoing campaign against California's legal cannabis corps, are now trying to shut down Harborside Health Center -- America's largest and most famous medical marijuana dispensary. As detailed by the Los Angeles Times, the feds filed complaints for forfeiture of propert ... More >>

Medical Marijuana: No More Prescription Pot in Malibu?

Medical marijuana is soon to be no more in Malibu, Calif. Federal law enforcement authorities' continued pressure on dispensaries has already prompted one of the town's prescription pot shop to close. The city's second store will shutter July 1, according to media reports.

Miami Cannibal Rudy Eugene Wasn't High On Bath Salts When He Ate A Homeless Man's Face

It turns out the "Miami Cannibal" who ate a homeless man's face in Florida last month wasn't under the influence of bath salts at the time of the attack. In fact, the only drug the medical examiner found in his system was marijuana, according to a report released today.This, in our humble opinion, m ... More >>

Synthetic Weed Stoner Brutally Attacks Elderly Couple, Cops Claim

And you thought bath salts were the only designer drug making people go batshit... A Costa Mesa, Calif. man, high on synthetic marijuana, was "speaking gibberish and hanging out in front of a married couple's apartment in the 600 block of Baker Street when he allegedly stole the 70-year-old man's s ... More >>

Medical Marijuana: Feds Threaten Pot Shop Landlords

Right as New York's Assembly voted to greenlight prescription pot, federal authorities continue to put pressure on states with legal medical weed -- targeting dispensaries and now, landlords who lease space to marijuana shops.

Reefer Madness: Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Not Linked to Crime?

Lots of pot news this morning! Though New York might reform weed regs, the Feds have continued their crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries elsewhere -- most recently, they filed court docs to shut down three dispensaries near Los Angeles -- but new research puts to question law enforcement's ... More >>

Goodbye, Chemical Cannabis? U.S. Senate OKs Fake Pot Ban

The U.S. Senate has just put the kibosh on K2. After a months-long effort to ban synthetic marijuana, spearheaded by the Empire State's very own Charles Schumer, the Senate voted today to ban the sale of fake bud.

Medical Marijuana Comes to Connecticut

For our Northeastern neighbor, it's a shame 4/20 was two weeks ago. This morning, after 10 hours of debate, the Connecticut Senate voted 21 to 13 on a bill that will legalize marijuana for medical usage. After already being cleared in the House, the "green" legislation heads to the desk of Gove ... More >>

Smoking Pot Occasionally Won't Hurt Your Lungs, May Make You Better at Lung Tests

According to a new paper released by the Journal of the American Medical Association, contrary to the beliefs of some, smoking pot is actually cool, healthwise, so long as you do it in moderation. Moderation means "one marijuana cigarette a week for 49 years, or one joint a day for 7 years." In eith ... More >>

More Americans Than Ever Support Legalizing Marijuana

​Happy Tuesday. More Americans than ever are in favor of legalizing pot, according to a new Gallup poll that shows the highest percentage of those in favor ever, since the first Gallup poll asking about marijuana in 1969, when only 12 percent of respondents thought it should be legalized. Toda ... More >>

Harry Levine of Marijuana-Arrests.com: "We Are Always Encouraged When the Police Decide to Obey the Law"

Queens College​Much of what we know about the racial discrepancy between marijuana use and marijuana arrests in New York comes largely from the research of one man: Queen College sociology professor Harry Levine. Levine is the go to guy for information on marijuana and the criminal justice sys ... More >>

Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance Responds to the Big NYPD Marijuana News

Drug Policy Alliance​Ethan Nadelmann is the founder and Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance. Interviews with DPA staff and data from DPA reports were used through out this week's Voice feature, "White Mayor's Burden." We spoke with Nadelmann after the stunning news from WNYC that t ... More >>

Crime Higher in Neighborhoods Without Marijuana Dispensaries, RAND Corporation Finds

Rickard Blommengren​Our feature in this week's Voice finds that under Mayor Bloomberg, over 60,000 (mostly black and Latino male) New Yorkers will be arrested this year for small levels of marijuana possession. In a study co-authored by Harry Levine and Loren Sigel, the Drug Policy Alliance pu ... More >>

Andrew Cuomo Reconsiders Medical Marijuana

​After New Jersey Governor Chris Christie gave the state's medical marijuana program the green light on Tuesday, our own Governor Cuomo is reconsidering whether or not to implement a similar program in New York. A group of New York politicians recently co-sponsored a medical marijuana bill, an ... More >>

New Jersey's Medical Marijuana Program Could Begin by the End of 2011

​After complications, New Jersey will move forward with its medical marijuana program, Governor Chris Christie said on Tuesday. The bill, signed into law by former Governor Jon S. Corzine, a Democrat, on his last day in office back in January of 2010, was supposed to make way for operation wit ... More >>

Columbia Drug Ring Kids Want to Protect Their Futures

​In December, five Columbia students were arrested in a major drug sting, and yesterday, their lawyers turned down a no-jail plea deal. Four of the five were offered the bargain, which would have allowed them to serve zero jail time as long as they pleaded guilty to a felony. The students' law ... More >>

Donna Rogers, Day Care Owner, Stashed Pot In Preschool, But Wants Her License Back

​Yesterday, Donna Rogers, a Brooklyn day care owner arrested after ten pounds of marijuana were discovered in her preschool, asked New York Supreme Court Justice Gustin Reichbach to reinstate her child care license after he gave her a no-jail sentence. Police discovered the ten pounds of pot i ... More >>

Heroin.com: Selling Junk Online

Manny Ramirez: No Chance for the Hall of Fame?

​If it hadn't happened while Barry Bonds was on trial, Manny Ramirez might have made the Hall of Fame. As you've heard by now, Manny's career is over. Late last week Major League Baseball released a statement confirming what many had been whispering about: Ramirez was in some violation of bas ... More >>

The 5 Most Profitable Drugs: They Never Cure You

​In this week's cover story, writer Keegan Hamilton investigates the controversy surrounding ibogaine, the experimental hallucinogen drug that has helped kick meth and heroin addictions. Ibogaine is illegal, even though its power to cure addicts has been proven. Hamilton's story describes th ... More >>

Live-Bonging the Prop. 19 Vote with Broam Chronsky

​As the results of America's midterm elections come to light, the Village Voice's expert panel of political thinkers and shapers will be weighing in live over the course of the evening. Covering California's landmark vote on whether or not to legalize Marijuana, Proposition 19, is our special ... More >>

CVS to Pay $77.6 Million for Accidentally Helping People Make Meth

​Poor CVS. Not only does everyone in New York pretty much prefer Duane Reade (not that there's really a choice), now the drugstore-er is being slapped with (a/k/a, has agreed to pay) $77.6 million in fines and returned profits because they allegedly improperly controlled a substance used to ma ... More >>

Carrying a Little Marijuana in California is Totally Chill

​Proposition 19, a move to legalize marijuana in California, will face the voters in November, and though he opposes the legislation, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is giving weed a head start. Last this week, he signed a bill downgrading possession of less than an ounce to an infraction. As i ... More >>

NY Senate Warming to Weed to Fill Budget Gap?

​The New York State Senate has rejected a variety of 'sin' taxes that Governor Paterson has proposed to raise revenue. The Senate's budget proposal has neglected to tax sodas, or additionally tax cigarettes to help fill the $9 billion budget deficit. They've also declined to earn additional re ... More >>

Clip Job: Feds Looking to Set Up Ginsberg?

​Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archives. April 21, 1966, Vol. XI, No. 27 U.S. Tried to 'Set Up' Ginsberg for Dope Run By Marlene Nadle Musician Jack William Martin, underground film-maker Jack Smith, and poet Piero Heliczer were convicted last week in Federal court of assa ... More >>

Jockbeat: Lupica's Precious Sox Juicing? He Blames the Union, Naturally

​Since Selena Roberts's February 7 Sports Illustrated story broke the news that Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in 2003, we've maintained that there's no mystery as to how and why these names are being revealed:  the federal agents who seized the 2003 test samples and the results ... More >>

An OD Revival Story

What to do if your friend turns blue? Try Narcan.

We Are Not OK

Crystal meth marks a new crisis for the gay community—and an all too familiar underlying problem

The Drug to End All Drugs

Addicts may get new lives, as clinical studies of exotic, controversial ibogaine are set to resume

The Numbers Beyond the Bling

In the streets of America, people are worse off, and more of them are in jail

Seven Years on the Sidewalk

With the worst injustices gone from the Rockefeller drug laws, Randy Credico gropes for a new strategy to repeal them

CRACK Comes to New York

Group Pays Addicts for Sterilization

Strokes Are Stoked!

Opium for the Masses

Tales of the Afghan Drug Trade

Dream of a Worldwide Truce

Sacrificial Lamb

Orthodox Rabbi Yitzchak Fried Could Do Hard Time for Medical Marijuana

Free to Be Deported

Melita Oliveira Got Clemency. Now the INS Wants to Ship Her to Peru.

‘A New Day’

With Silver’s Support, New York Gets Best Chance to Fix Rockefeller Drug Laws

Buzz Kill

Club-Drug Publishers Could Face Prison Terms

Breaking Down Prison Walls

An Organizer Takes His Street Movement to Albany

Letters

Chillin' With Uncle Sam

Feds to Teens: Just Say No, Dude

NYPD's Tunnel Vision

Truth or D.A.R.E.

The Dubious Drug-Education Program Takes New York

Die, Yuppie Scam

Prisons vs. Schools

A new study blasts state spending priorities