Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-22T20:50:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-06-24 / Ecstasy (MDMA) é uma droga que possui importante ação neurotóxica. O seu uso é descrito como um fenômeno jovem. A pesquisa teve por objetivo estudar longitudinalmente uma amostra de usuários de ecstasy entrevistada em 2001 em São Paulo e re-entrevistada entre 2005 e 2006 a fim de observar mudanças no padrão de consumo da droga. A coleta de dados ocorreu por meio de entrevistas semi-estruturadas e casos de dependência foram avaliados por meio do DSM-IV. Utilizou-se a metodologia qualitativa com duas fases de entrevista: entrevista inicial (32 entrevistados) e follow-up (21 re-entrevistados). As entrevistas foram gravadas, transcritas literalmente e submetidas à análise de conteúdo. A média de idade da amostra foi de 24,8 anos na fase inicial e 28,7 anos na fase follow-up. Três cenários foram observados: a) uso transicional (n=14) – marcado por acentuada redução ou abandono do consumo de ecstasy ao longo do período investigado; b) uso habitual de longo prazo (n=06) - manutenção no padrão de consumo de ecstasy ou discreta moderação; uso compulsivo de longo prazo (n=01) – aumento em mais de 50% no consumo de ecstasy ao longo dos anos. O uso de álcool e maconha manteve-se inalterado ao longo do período investigado. Quatro sujeitos relataram aumento no consumo de cocaína e seis fizeram menção à iniciação no uso de metanfemina. Observou-se que para uma parte dos entrevistados o ecstasy se caracterizou como uma droga transicional. Para outro grupo o uso de ecstasy se caracterizou por ser uma experiência duradoura. / Ecstasy (MDMA) is an important neurotoxic agent. Its use is described as a youth-limited phenomenon. The aims were to determine the natural course of ecstasy use within a five year timeframe in a sample of Brazilian young adults and to assess changes in ecstasy use patterns. Interviews took place in two waves: 2001 in São Paulo and in 2005/06. Data collection occurred through semi-structured interviews. The DSM-IV was used to assess ecstasy dependence. Qualitative method was utilized during the baseline sample (n=32) and the follow-up sample (n=21). All interviews were fully recorded, transcribed and interpreted though content analysis. Subjects’ average age was 24.8 years in the baseline group and 28.7 years in the follow-up. Three scenarios emerged: (A) the transient use group (n=14) either quit using ecstasy or cut down use significantly; (B) the long term habitual use (n=06) group maintained or cut down slightly on MDMA use; (C) the compulsive use group (n=01) increased ecstasy use by more than 50% over the course of the study. As ecstasy use shifts occurred, alcohol and marijuana consumption remained unaltered. Four respondents reported increases in cocaine use, and six subjects mentioned initiation in crystal methamphetamine use. For a group of respondents ecstasy use was a transient phenomenon. For another group of subjects MDMA use manifested as a lasting experience. / TEDE / BV UNIFESP: Teses e dissertações

The Graphic Journalism genre is emerging with influences from war reportage with authors like Joe Sacco. I would like to address and report the “War on Drugs” from small first hand experiences, personal connections, and a genuine deep desire to see the healthcare and justice system change. The war on Drugs started in the 1970s during Richard Nixon’s term in the U.S. Presidency. Nixon’s influence to launch the “War on Drugs'' campaign began shortly after two congressmen released a report on the growing heroin epidemic that affected hundreds to thousands of servicemen who fought in the Vietnam War, who used heroin to treat PTSD. Nixon launched unfair disconnected political policy and passed laws that disproportionately targeted those against him and his values (minorities, specifically African Americans and anyone belonging to the counterculture “subwhite”). The War on Drugs movement started as a way to outcast and control minorities through unrealistic and systemically racist and oppressive laws. As the movement evolved so did its focus, the War on Drugs eventually metamorphosed into the “War on Class”, or a war against the economically disadvantaged. The War on Drugs has done way more harm than good and immediate action needs to be taken to begin to restart drug policy in America and within the World. The incomparable Billie Holiday, world renowned jazz singer and creator of “Strange Fruit” once said “I need help. Not jail time.” Shortly after her arrest for heroin possession in 1947. In my opinion, these famous words that Billie Holiday shared during the day of her arrest should be the leading quote in the much needed movement against the criminalization of drug abuse victims. Not only does the War on Drugs disproportionately disenfranchise black and brown communities, it makes researching the benefits of any type of narcotic that was not fully understood nearly impossible. My goal is to reverse the taboos that currently exist throughout our society with a graphic novel/ zine aimed at high school students. I believe that future generations can benefit from natural hallucinogens and other forms of holistic medicines in a safe way that doesn’t involve them having to access illegal avenues of receiving narcotics in order to remedy their pain. Afterall, there is a far greater risk in taking street narcotics due to one’s ability to use an incorrect dosage according to their size and bodily chemistry which can ultimately lead to an overdose and street narcotics may include an unknown amount of ingredients, some of which include fentanyl, a synthetic product of prohibition that is cheaper than heroin, but far more powerful. Fentanyl is used pharmacologically in anesthesia and neuroleptanalgesia and can be extremely harmful to the mind and body. I believe extremely deadly drugs like fentanyl would never exist if it wasn’t for the War on Drugs and its consistent agenda to demonize the usage of all narcotics without exploring the benefits of holistic medicines like hallucinogens and regulating the usage of these medicines through legalization, supervision, FDA regulation, and accessibility within the U.S, Healthcare System.

This report presents findings of a community survey of 3,021 adolescents and young adults aged 14–24 years in Munich, Germany, carried out to determine the prevalence of use and abuse of and dependence on ecstasy, amphetamines and hallucinogens. The response rate was 71%. Results: (1) In 1995, 4% of the male and 2.3% of the female respondents aged 14–24 reported the use of ecstasy. Ecstasy-related substances (amphetamines and chemically related substances) were reported by 3.6% of men and 1.6% of women. Hallucinogens were reported slightly less frequently by 3% of men and about 2% of women (LSD combined with others). (2) Compared to findings from a 1990 survey this constitutes a substantial, at least twofold, increase in consumption rate of both types of substances. (3) Among lifetime users of both ecstasy and related substances as well as hallucinogens about two thirds could be regarded as regular users. (4) The prevalence of DSM-IV abuse and dependence on ecstasy and related substances is about 1%, identical to rates of hallucinogen abuse and dependence. Findings also point to a significant dependence potential for both substances. (5) Furthermore, considerable overlap between the two substances was found. Conclusion: Our study suggests a substantial increase in both the use of ecstasy and related substances as well as hallucinogens. The data further suggest that the increase is strongest in younger age groups, but the risk of first use of these substances continues to be present up to the age of 24 years. The higher proportion of women contributing to this increase is noteworthy.

Objective: To determine incidence and patterns of natural course of ecstasy/stimulant/hallucinogen (ESH) use and disorders as well as cohort effects in a community sample of adolescents and young adults. Method: Cumulative incidence and patterns of ecstasy use and disorders were examined in a prospective longitudinal design (mean follow-up period=42 months) in a representative sample (N=2446) aged 14–24 years at the outset of the study. Patterns of DSM-IV defined ESH use, abuse and dependence were assessed with the Munich Composite International Diagnostic Interview (M-CIDI). Results: (1) Cumulative lifetime incidence for use of ESH at second follow-up: 9.1%, 1.0% for abuse, 0.6% for dependence; (2) men used and abused ESH more often than women; (3) the younger birth cohort (1977–81) tended to start earlier with substance (ab)use compared to the older birth cohort (1970–77); (4) use of ESH was associated with increasing rates of concomitant use of other licit and illicit drugs; (5) the majority of the lifetime ESH users without disorder had stopped to use these substances and not consumed them during the 12 months preceding the second follow-up; (6) those who had stopped to take ecstasy and related drugs at follow-up also took other illicit drugs less often than those who continued to consume ESH. Conclusions: Use of designer drugs is widespread in our sample, but the probability of developing use disorders is fairly low (1.6%). The majority of the ESH users stopped their use spontaneously in their twenties (80% of the prior users without disorder, 67% of the prior abusers), but 50% of those that once had fulfilled DSM-IV criteria of dependence continued to use these substances.

This dissertation is a theoretical study of the relationship between digitality, knowledge, and power in the age of Big Data. My argument is that human medical research on psychedelic substances supports a critique of what I call "the data episteme." I use "episteme" in the sense developed by philosopher Michel Foucault, where the term describes an apparatus for determining the properties associated with the epistemic condition of scientificity. I write that the data episteme suppresses bodies of knowledge which do not bear the epistemic virtues associated with digital data. These include but are not limited to the capacities for positivistic representation and translation into discrete digital media. Drawing from scientific reports, I demonstrate that certain forms of knowledge regarding the therapeutic mechanisms of psychedelics cannot withstand positivistic representation and digitization. Henceforth, psychedelic research demands frameworks for epistemic legitimation which differ from those predicated on the criteria associated with the data episteme. I additionally claim that psychedelic inebriation promotes a form of thinking which has been called, by various theorists, "negative," "abstract," or "idiosyncratic" thought. Whereas the data episteme denies the existence of negative thought, psychedelic research suggests that this mental function is essential to the successful deposition of psychedelic substances as adjuncts to psychotherapy. For the reasons listed above, psychedelic science provides a uniquely salient lens on the normative operations of the data episteme. In the course of suppressing non-digitizable knowledge, the data episteme implements what Foucault conceptualizes "knowledge-power," a term which affirms the fact that there is no meaningful difference between knowledge and power. Here, "power" may be defined as the power to promote but also to retract conditions on which phenomena may exist across all sites of social, intellectual, and political construction. I write that the data episteme seeks to both nullify the preconditions for negative thought and to naturalize the possibility of an infinite expansion of human mental activity, which in turn figures mentality as an inexhaustible resource for the commodity of digital data. The data episteme therefore reifies the logic of ceaseless economic proliferation, and as such, abets technologized capitalism. In the event that the data episteme fulfills its teleological goal to become total, virtually all that is thinkable would yield to economic subordination. I present psychedelic science as a site where knowledge which challenges the data episteme is empirically necessary, and which, by extension, attests to the existence of that which cannot be economically subsumed. / Doctor of Philosophy / In the age of Big Data, scientists draw upon the ever-expanding quantities of data which are produced, circulated, and analyzed by digital devices every day. As data grow in number, digital tools gain in their ability to yield precise and faithful information about the objects they represent. It would appear that all forms of knowledge may one day be perfectly replicated in the form of digital data. This dissertation claims that certain forms of knowledge cannot be digitized, and that the existence of non-digitizable knowledge has important implications for both science and politics. I begin by considering the fact that digital tools can only produce knowledge about phenomena which permit digitization. I claim that this limitation necessarily restricts the sorts of information which digital devices are capable of generating. I also observe that the digital turn has inaugurated a novel mode of capitalist economic production based on the commodity of digital information. Thus, the increasing dependence of scientific authority on digital methods is also a concern for political economy. I argue that the reliance of scientific authority on digital data restricts the scope of scientific inquiry and makes ceaseless economic expansion appear both necessary and inevitable. It is therefore critical to indicate sites of research and practice where non-digitizable knowledge plays an essential role in informing scientific processes. Such an indication is not only pertinent to scientific research, but points up the ways in which data facilitate unregulated economic growth. Psychedelic drug research serves as my lens on digitality and political economy. Specifically, I explore the ways in which quantitative and computational methodologies have been used and critiqued by scientists who study the psychiatric benefit of psychedelics on human consciousness. Taking a historical approach, I demonstrate that psychedelic scientists have always faced the paradoxical task of translating the unusual and ineffable effects of psychedelics into discrete, measurable variables. This quandary has become more pronounced in the age of digital tool use, as such tools rest on the logic of metrical and discrete analysis. I suggest that the therapeutic mechanisms of psychedelics can only be fully revealed by methodological techniques which explicitly address the epistemic limitations of digital data. Noting that the ascendance of Big Data is contemporaneous with a rise of interest in psychedelics as adjuncts to psychotherapy, I assert that psychedelic science provides abundant materials for a critique of the ostensive epistemic authority of digital data, which operates as an alibi for technologized capitalism.

The thesis investigates the theoretical knowledge about the issue of addictive substances and personal experience with their use for pupils 6. and 8. classes of primary school and for students 2. and 4. year of the grammar school. In the first part of my work, I focused on the definition of basic concepts, the outline of the characters and the possible causes that lead to addiction to drugs, I presented the most commonly used drugs and identified the possibilities of drug prevention. The second part is devoted to a survey in the form of a questionnaire, which directly examines the knowledge and experience with the drug specific age groups of pupils and students. This work could be material for teachers who want to participate in the drug prevention.

This thesis presents an analysis of Piaroa shamanic practices that combines elements of symbolic, psychobiological and phenomenological approaches. Theories from, and clinical findings in, neuroscience, pharmacology, psychology and psychoneuroimmunology are integrated with extended participant observation field study involving basic shamanic training to demonstrate how Piaroa shamans learn to understand and effect biopsychosocial adaptation and promote health. It is argued that Piaroa shamanism is a sophisticated means of interpreting ecological forces and emotional processes in the interests of minimising stress across related systems: self, society, ecosystem, and cosmos. Piaroa shamans should be cadres in the promotion of an ethos, the good life of tranquillity, which serves as the basis for low-stress social relations. Piaroa mythology is predicated upon human-animal-god reciprocity and provides the shaman with a series of informationprocessing templates, designed to be invoked with the use of hallucinogens, which assist him to understand inter-systemic relations. I analyse how Piaroa shamans develop the psychic skills to divine and regulate ecological relationships and emotional processes, while highlighting possible relationships among native symbolism, neurology, consciousness and the emotions. It is argued that Piaroa shamanic practices involve conditioning the mind to achieve optimal perceptive capacities that, in association with sensitive biopsychosocial study, facilitate accurate prediction and successful psychosocial prescription. A cultural neurophenomenological approach enables articulation of the psychocultural logic of ethos, epistemology, divination, sorcery, and curing, and a fuller picture of a South American indigenous society’s shamanic practices than less integrative approaches have afforded

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