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A former flight attendant caught smuggling over 100 pounds of a deadly new synthetic drug made of human bones faces up to 25 years in a Sri Lankan prison.Charlotte May Lee, 21, from the United Kingdom, was seized at Bandaranaike Airport in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo earlier this month after allegedly carrying suitcases full of "kush," a new[-ish] drug originating in West Africa which kills an estimated dozen people a week in Sierra Leone alone.

A psychoactive drug made from human bones is leaving addicts digging up graves in order to get their fix. Police officers are guarding cemeteries in Freetown, Sierra Leone, after more people are turning to the drug Kush. It is made from a variety of toxic substances, with one of its main ingredients is ground-up human bone. Human remains contain traces of sulphur, which allegedly can enhance the affects of drugs. It first emerged in the country around six years ago and induces a hypnotic high which can last for several hours. One former user Abu Bakhar, 25, told Channel 4...

Sierra Leone has declared a national emergency over a psychoactive drug made from human bones. The country has witnessed a sharp spike in abuse of the drug, kush, forcing police officers to guard cemeteries in the capital of Freetown, to stop young men from digging up skeletons to get high. Kush is a drug made from a variety of substances, including toxic chemicals, herbs, cannabis, disinfenctant but one of its main ingredients is ground-up human bone, as they contain traces of sulphur, which allegedly can enhance the drugs effect. In a nationwide broadcast yesterday, Sierra Leone's President Bio said: 'Our...

I ask you to look up. Look past the ceiling. Past the clouds. Past the stars that twinkle in the silence of night. And ask this question — not with your eyes, but with your soul: What is this universe?...

Patients prescribed medicinal cannabis in maintained improvements in overall health-related quality of life (HRQL), fatigue, and sleep disturbance across a one-year period, according to a study. Anxiety, depression, insomnia, and pain also improved over time for those with corresponding health conditions. A multicenter prospective study called the QUEST initiative (QUality of life Evaluation STudy) recruited adult patients with any chronic health condition newly prescribed medicinal cannabis oil between November 2020 and December 2021. Tait and colleagues gathered 12-month follow-up data to determine if previously reported improvements at three months would be maintained long-term. Of 2744 consenting participants who completed baseline...

Weed users are much more likely to suffer a heart attack, stroke or other life-threatening heart condition than people who don't indulge, a new study says.Adults under 50 are more than six times as likely to suffer a heart attack if they use marijuana, compared to non-users, researchers reported Tuesday in the journal JACC Advances.They also have a dramatically higher risk of stroke, heart failure and heart-related death, researchers said."Asking about cannabis use should be part of clinicians' workup to understand patients' overall cardiovascular risk, similar to asking about smoking cigarettes," lead researcher Dr. Ibrahim Kamel, a clinical instructor at...

SANTA ROSA, Calif. - A 38-year-old man convicted of sexual battery and the disfigurement of a woman in Santa Rosa, an attack that happened in front of the victim’s daughter and cousin, was sentenced to probation.

Senator Bernie Sanders' Vermont office was set ablaze by a suspected arsonist who is on the run. Burlington firefighters were called to the senators office on the third floor of One Church Street around 10:45 am on Friday. Police said an unidentified man entered the vestibule of the office, sprayed an accelerant on the door and set it on fire, reported NBC5.

A type of Trema micrantha. (Daniel Pineda Vera/iNaturalist/CC BY 4.0) Scientists have discovered cannabidiol, a compound in cannabis known as CBD, in a common Brazilian plant, opening potential new avenues to produce the increasingly popular substance. The team found CBD in the fruits and flowers of a plant known as Trema micrantha blume, a shrub which grows across much of the South American country and is often considered a weed, molecular biologist Rodrigo Moura Neto of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro told AFP in 2023. CBD, increasingly used by some to treat conditions including epilepsy, chronic pain and...

***[Elton] John, who had a notorious drug addiction during the 1970s and 1980s but has been clean and sober for decades, made [the following] statement in [an] interview: John now divides his life into pre- and post-sober periods. … Those struggles have made him doubt the wisdom of legal weed. “I maintain that it’s addictive. It leads to other drugs. And when you’re stoned—and I’ve been stoned—you don’t think normally,” he says. “Legalizing marijuana in America and Canada is one of the greatest mistakes of all time.”John couldn’t be more right.***We’ve long known that marijuana use damages the brain, especially...

Using cannabis may cause changes in the human body's epigenome, a study of over 1,000 adults suggests. The epigenome functions like a set of switches, activating or deactivating genes to change how our bodies function. "We observed associations between cumulative marijuana use and multiple epigenetic markers across time," explained epidemiologist Lifang Hou from Northwestern University when the research was published in 2023.

Jay-Z’s cannabis brand looked timeless as soon as it launched in 2020. The billionaire rapper, legal name Shawn Carter, rolled out his Monogram line of luxury joints and cannabis flower with a photo shoot at the famous Frank Sinatra house in Palm Springs. Models elegantly smoked joints in front of mid-century pool furniture, as if the brand had been around for decades. Glowing profiles in GQ, Vogue and Vanity Fair soon followed. Four years later, it looks like this splashy celebrity cannabis brand has already disappeared. The conglomerate originally hit California’s market with $575 million in cash and plans to...

An employee at a cannabis dispensary in North Portland is accused of fatally shooting two people who attempted to rob the business last week. Jason Steiner, 34, turned himself in to Portland police Wednesday and was booked into Multnomah County’s downtown jail on allegations of two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of unlawful use of a weapon. Last week’s shooting happened just after 9:30 p.m. on Thursday. The North Portland store had been targeted by at least four previous armed robberies since 2022, state records show. In June of this year, one employee was working when five people...

A cannabis dispensary in San Francisco was ransacked overnight Tuesday in a burglary that involved a vehicle smashing into the front of the building, causing significant damage. Security camera footage of the incident showed at least five burglars emerging from two vehicles at 4:48 a.m. Tuesday in front of Cannabis Cultures dispensary at 2715 Judah Street in the city's Sunset District. The burglars are seen attaching a chain from the back of an SUV to the metal security gate and yanking it free. The vehicle is then seen ramming through the store's rollup metal door and into the front lobby;...

Image by SerenityArt from Pixabay ======================================================================== Researchers from the Nanjing Agricultural University (NJAU) Academy of Science say they have found a crucial gene that directly impacts the number of flowering sites on a Cannabis sativa plant. Dubbed CsMIKC1, the gene was found to drive inflorescence development when overexpressed and hinder development when overexpressed. The team also found that adding ethylene increased the gene’s expression. Together, the discoveries could directly impact the commercial Cannabis industry. “Through gene editing and functional analysis, the researchers demonstrated the gene’s impact on flower production, highlighting its potential to transform agricultural practices,” explains the NJAU press...

A study suggests that cannabis, the most commonly used illicit substance worldwide, is associated with an increased occurrence of head and neck cancer. A large, multicenter study revealed that adults with cannabis dependence, known as cannabis use disorder, are 3.5 to 5 times more likely to develop head and neck cancer than those who do not use the substance. Head and neck cancer, the sixth most common cancer in the world, includes several cancers, including cancer of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, oropharynx (tongue and tonsils and back wall of the throat) and adjacent salivary glands. The researchers discovered that those...

Former Justice Minister Haim Ramon spoke out against the proposed ceasefire-prisoner swap deal, saying that it is "the worst deal" that Israel could possibly agree to. In an interview with 103 FM Radio, Ramon said, "The deal proposed today is the worst of all worlds. In practice, we will end the war. Anyone who thinks that after 42 days, by pressing a button, we will restart the war - is making a mistake. People will return to the Gaza border area, to the north, and it will be very hard to continue the war." "Because it is this way, and...

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that her administration has shut down hundreds of unlicensed, illegal cannabis stores. This after her May overhaul at the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), which included the launch of the Cannabis Enforcement Task Force. “How do the legal businesses thrive if the illegal ones are locked out of the market?” Hochul asked the crowd at a press conference Tuesday morning. To that end, she said that the task force has already closed 114 stores. A spokesperson from Hochul’s office confirmed that not all were in New York City. Without these...

Choudary: Refuses to discuss his dissolute youth At 39, Anjem Choudary should be a symbol of success for his peers. Born into the working-class family of a market trader in Welling on the outskirts of London, he has risen - thanks to the opportunities offered by the British education system - to become a qualified lawyer. But it is unlikely his old school will be inviting him to be guest speaker on prize-giving day. Their former pupil is not famous for his elegant oratory in court. Instead, the articulate Mr Choudary preaches hatred and murder in the streets of Britain...

Researchers have found an over-the-counter natural health product may help counteract negative effects of heavy cannabis use among adolescents aged 12 to 17, including depression, anxiety and diminished motivation in adulthood. Marta De Felice and Steven Laviolette demonstrated in animal models that interventions using antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC) can mitigate the detrimental mental health effects of chronic cannabis use later in life. Sometimes referred to as "amotivational syndrome," chronic cannabis use in adolescents can result in a lack of motivation, diminished enjoyment from daily activities and other depressive effects. Currently, there is no known intervention strategy available. The study found that...