The Beckley Foundation is a charitable trust that promotes the scientific investigation of consciousness and its modulation from a multidisciplinary perspective. We also seek to change global drugs policy to reflect a more rational, evidence-based approach, shifting the emphasis from criminalisation to health.
The Huffington Post UK, January 27 2012 There were record seizures of class A drugs in the UK last year. According to the National Treatment Agency, there are 10,000 fewer addicts seeking treatment than there were two years previously. But the fact that border officials found 2,116kg of cocaine and 773kg of heroin between April and [...]
Sam Jordison, The Guardian, Thursday 26 January 2012 Given his damaged sight, the book’s emphasis on the visual is all the more piquant, complicating the question of how much its visions reveal Disconcertingly, given the detailed discussions of art and the visual world in The Doors Of Perception, Aldous Huxley was almost blind. Or, at least, some [...]
In this popular science article published in io9, Robert T. Gonzales ties up findings from this week’s Beckley Foundation-Imperial College Psilocybin paper in the PNAS with Aldous Huxley’s ‘reducing valve’ hypothesis, initially presented in his 1954 book The Doors of Perception (http://mescaline.com/huxley.htm); also, to more recent theorising by Karl Friston of University College London (http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/~karl/), [...]
Press Release 25th January 2012 The Beckley Foundation-Imperial College Psychedelic Research Programme Surprising findings of Research: Potential therapeutic applications of psychedelic drugs fMRI brain scans show that psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, lowers the activity of specific brain regions. The finding contradicts the popular belief that psychedelic drugs increase brain activity, and has [...]
CARTEL REPORT 2012 Editor’s Note: In this annual report on Mexico’s drug cartels, we assess the most significant developments of 2011 and provide updated profiles of the country’s powerful criminal cartels as well as a forecast for 2012. The report is a product of the coverage we maintain through our Mexico Security Memo, quarterly updates [...]
By Dominic Casciani BBC News UK Home affairs correspondent 24 January 2012 People who smuggle drugs will face more lenient sentences if they have been exploited, under new guidelines. The change in approach on “drug mules” forms part of new comprehensive rules on drugs offences from the Sentencing Council for England and Wales. The council [...]
Amanda Feilding, Director of the Beckley Foundation, has attended the Information Expert Seminar on the Future of the UN Drug Control Treaties, organised by the TNI (http://www.tni.org) and the IDPC (http://www.idpc.net) in Prague, 25-26 January. The seminar will examine the current status of the UN Drug Conventions, and explore the rationales and options for their revision, including [...]
The Beckley Foundation-Imperial College Psychedelic Research Programme has breaking news on the action of psychedelics. The series of psilocybin studies started by Amanda Feilding, David Nutt and Robin Carhart-Harris in 2009, is bearing valuable fruit. A new paper to be published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) demonstrates how psilocybin works in [...]
Sir Richard Branson is one of the signatories to the Beckley Foundation Public Letter sent to the Prime Minister in November 2011, published in the Times and the Guardian. Published on 23 Jan 2012 in The Telegraph Just as prohibition of alcohol failed in the United States in the 1920s, the war on drugs has failed [...]
Prof Louisa Degenhardt PhD, Prof Wayne Hall PhD Summary This paper summarises data for the prevalence, correlates, and probable adverse health consequences of problem use of amphetamines, cannabis, cocaine, and opioids. We discuss findings from systematic reviews of the prevalence of illicit drug use and dependence, remission from dependence, and mortality in illicit drug users, [...]
