#drugs — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #drugs, aggregated by home.social.
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https://www.europesays.com/uk/990507/ Anger top doctor may return after sex with vulnerable patient at Cardiff hospital #Cardiff #Courts #Drugs #employment #Health #Healthcare #NHS #Premium #UK #UnitedKingdom #Women
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https://www.europesays.com/uk/989849/ Urgent warning to people on sertraline, fluoxetine, amitriptyline as temperatures soar #Drugs #Health #medicines #MentalHealth #NHS #UK #UnitedKingdom #UniversitiesAndColleges
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https://www.europesays.com/ie/?p=506118 Narcolepsy Drugs Market to Reach US$ 6.81 Billion by 2034 as Sleep Disorder Awareness and Innovative Therapies Drive Growth #2034 #681 #and #as #Awareness #billion #by #disorder #drive #Drugs #Éire #growth #Health #HealthCare #Healthcare #IE #innovative #Ireland #market #Narcolepsy #reach #Sleep #therapies #To #US
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https://www.europesays.com/people/89505/ Trump was right, Germany was wrong — First on NATO, now on trade #Drugs #europe #EuropeanUnion #FriedrichMerz #Germany #healthcare #medicine #NATO #PharmaceuticalIndustry #Trade
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Matthew Perry Death: ‘Friends’ Star’s Assistant Sentenced; Ken Iwamasa Injected Fatal Ketamine Shots
#Legal #News #Obituaries #Death #Drugs #Friends #LALocal #MatthewPerryhttps://deadline.com/2026/05/matthew-perry-assistant-sentenced-1236928367/
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Matthew Perry Death: ‘Friends’ Star’s Assistant Sentenced; Ken Iwamasa Injected Fatal Ketamine Shots
#Legal #News #Obituaries #Death #Drugs #Friends #LALocal #MatthewPerryhttps://deadline.com/2026/05/matthew-perry-assistant-sentenced-1236928367/
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Matthew Perry Death: ‘Friends’ Star’s Assistant Sentenced; Ken Iwamasa Injected Fatal Ketamine Shots
#Legal #News #Obituaries #Death #Drugs #Friends #LALocal #MatthewPerryhttps://deadline.com/2026/05/matthew-perry-assistant-sentenced-1236928367/
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Matthew Perry Death: ‘Friends’ Star’s Assistant Sentenced; Ken Iwamasa Injected Fatal Ketamine Shots
#Legal #News #Obituaries #Death #Drugs #Friends #LALocal #MatthewPerryhttps://deadline.com/2026/05/matthew-perry-assistant-sentenced-1236928367/
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Matthew Perry's assistant jailed for role in Friends actor's death
Matthew Perry's live-in personal assistant, who had a central role in the Friends star's descent into ketamine addiction and injected him with the fatal dose of the drug, has been sentenced to three years and five months in prison.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-28/matthew-perry-personal-assistant-jailed-/106730374
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Matthew Perry's assistant jailed for role in Friends actor's death
Matthew Perry's live-in personal assistant, who had a central role in the Friends star's descent into ketamine addiction and injected him with the fatal dose of the drug, has been sentenced to three years and five months in prison.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-28/matthew-perry-personal-assistant-jailed-/106730374
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Matthew Perry's assistant jailed for role in Friends actor's death
Matthew Perry's live-in personal assistant, who had a central role in the Friends star's descent into ketamine addiction and injected him with the fatal dose of the drug, has been sentenced to three years and five months in prison.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-28/matthew-perry-personal-assistant-jailed-/106730374
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Matthew Perry's assistant jailed for role in Friends actor's death
Matthew Perry's live-in personal assistant, who had a central role in the Friends star's descent into ketamine addiction and injected him with the fatal dose of the drug, has been sentenced to three years and five months in prison.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-28/matthew-perry-personal-assistant-jailed-/106730374
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Matthew Perry's assistant jailed for role in Friends actor's death
Matthew Perry's live-in personal assistant, who had a central role in the Friends star's descent into ketamine addiction and injected him with the fatal dose of the drug, has been sentenced to three years and five months in prison.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-28/matthew-perry-personal-assistant-jailed-/106730374
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Trump was right, Germany was wrong — First on NATO, now on trade
Ten years ago, President Donald Trump put Europe on notice, telling them the status quo on defense spending…
#Europe #EU #drugs #EuropeanUnion #Germany #healthcare #medicine #NATO #PharmaceuticalIndustry #Trade
https://www.europesays.com/europe/54182/ -
Trump was right, Germany was wrong — First on NATO, now on trade
Ten years ago, President Donald Trump put Europe on notice, telling them the status quo on defense spending…
#Germany #DE #Europe #EU #Europa #drugs #EuropeanUnion #healthcare #medicine #NATO #PharmaceuticalIndustry #Trade
https://www.europesays.com/germany/25174/ -
Trump was right, Germany was wrong — First on NATO, now on trade https://www.byteseu.com/2058302/ #Drugs #Europe #EuropeanUnion #Germany #Healthcare #Medicine #NATO #PharmaceuticalIndustry #trade
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📣 Book Release Announcement 📣
As our one living planet teeters upon its very axis, heavy munitions pound the Earth stomping out lives like falling forest trees. Up among the branches 🫀love🫀conquers all when we pursue its infinite variations actively and with intention. In this spirit my old pal the photographer Fabrizio Dal Vera and I share our studio shoot of How To Survive Secular Mysticism - a spiritual manifesto, by moi and now available on https://www.plural-studio.net/how-to-survive-secular-mysticism
there is nothing in this book
that you do not already know
though you may have
forgotten
therefore soften your perspective as you engage
these realities
softness allows the future to be remembered into
the present
like brush lines in an act of creativityHow To Survive Secular Mysticism is a fierce meditation on the cultural hijacking of mystical language and imagery. Alex Head’s swirling aesthetic sensibility and kaleidoscopic commentaries pull us through the subtle yet profound distinctions between lived spirituality and its secular simulacrum, demanding conscious intention and devotional presence amid ever-intensifying chaos.
- Ferdiansyah Thajib, author of Enduring Otherwise
Dense and earnest, this is someone thinking seriously about finding transcendence through art, community, and presence rather than doctrine. ‘Secular mysticism’ numbs you, disorients you, and opens you to external control. Genuinely strange and original writing, somewhere between cultural criticism, spiritual autobiography, and conspiracy theory, held together by artistic intelligence.
- Erin Honeycutt, pamphleteer
Secular Mysticism includes but is not limited to:
• Uninitiated or uneducated audiences exposed to
religious ideas and icons such as the ‘all seeing eye’
• Drugs and alcohol consumed without intention
• Social-media generated content consumed without
consent
• Trigger responses to environmental stimuli that confuse
thoughts and feelings, opening a way in for fear and anger
• Hypnotic sexual imagery such as the ‘Super-Hero’
Launch event in Berlin coming soon.
Colophon:
How to Survive Secular Mysticism
Alex Head
Plural Studio
2026, Berlin
First edition
All rights reserved
Fonts: Suisse Neue, Suisse International, Suisse
Works, Work Sans, Fergus McDonald
Layout: Lizard in the Spring
Editing: Anna Kostreva
Cover image, after a collaboration with artist
Gabriel Birch, circa 1994
ISBN: 978-3-9828617-0-8#drugs #religion #hypnosis #sacred #taoism #buddhism #hinduism #christianity #judaism #secularism #secularmysticism #faith #belief #intoxication #dreamtimehealing #aboriginal #holographickinetics #startrek #thoughts #feelings #sex #vision #visions #initiates #esoteric #secret #love #culture #human #intelligence #art #magic #Berlin
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📣 Book Release Announcement 📣
As our one living planet teeters upon its very axis, heavy munitions pound the Earth stomping out lives like falling forest trees. Up among the branches 🫀love🫀conquers all when we pursue its infinite variations actively and with intention. In this spirit my old pal the photographer Fabrizio Dal Vera and I share our studio shoot of How To Survive Secular Mysticism - a spiritual manifesto, by moi and now available on https://www.plural-studio.net/how-to-survive-secular-mysticism
there is nothing in this book
that you do not already know
though you may have
forgotten
therefore soften your perspective as you engage
these realities
softness allows the future to be remembered into
the present
like brush lines in an act of creativityHow To Survive Secular Mysticism is a fierce meditation on the cultural hijacking of mystical language and imagery. Alex Head’s swirling aesthetic sensibility and kaleidoscopic commentaries pull us through the subtle yet profound distinctions between lived spirituality and its secular simulacrum, demanding conscious intention and devotional presence amid ever-intensifying chaos.
- Ferdiansyah Thajib, author of Enduring Otherwise
Dense and earnest, this is someone thinking seriously about finding transcendence through art, community, and presence rather than doctrine. ‘Secular mysticism’ numbs you, disorients you, and opens you to external control. Genuinely strange and original writing, somewhere between cultural criticism, spiritual autobiography, and conspiracy theory, held together by artistic intelligence.
- Erin Honeycutt, pamphleteer
Secular Mysticism includes but is not limited to:
• Uninitiated or uneducated audiences exposed to
religious ideas and icons such as the ‘all seeing eye’
• Drugs and alcohol consumed without intention
• Social-media generated content consumed without
consent
• Trigger responses to environmental stimuli that confuse
thoughts and feelings, opening a way in for fear and anger
• Hypnotic sexual imagery such as the ‘Super-Hero’
Launch event in Berlin coming soon.
Colophon:
How to Survive Secular Mysticism
Alex Head
Plural Studio
2026, Berlin
First edition
All rights reserved
Fonts: Suisse Neue, Suisse International, Suisse
Works, Work Sans, Fergus McDonald
Layout: Lizard in the Spring
Editing: Anna Kostreva
Cover image, after a collaboration with artist
Gabriel Birch, circa 1994
ISBN: 978-3-9828617-0-8#drugs #religion #hypnosis #sacred #taoism #buddhism #hinduism #christianity #judaism #secularism #secularmysticism #faith #belief #intoxication #dreamtimehealing #aboriginal #holographickinetics #startrek #thoughts #feelings #sex #vision #visions #initiates #esoteric #secret #love #culture #human #intelligence #art #magic #Berlin
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📣 Book Release Announcement 📣
As our one living planet teeters upon its very axis, heavy munitions pound the Earth stomping out lives like falling forest trees. Up among the branches 🫀love🫀conquers all when we pursue its infinite variations actively and with intention. In this spirit my old pal the photographer Fabrizio Dal Vera and I share our studio shoot of How To Survive Secular Mysticism - a spiritual manifesto, by moi and now available on https://www.plural-studio.net/how-to-survive-secular-mysticism
there is nothing in this book
that you do not already know
though you may have
forgotten
therefore soften your perspective as you engage
these realities
softness allows the future to be remembered into
the present
like brush lines in an act of creativityHow To Survive Secular Mysticism is a fierce meditation on the cultural hijacking of mystical language and imagery. Alex Head’s swirling aesthetic sensibility and kaleidoscopic commentaries pull us through the subtle yet profound distinctions between lived spirituality and its secular simulacrum, demanding conscious intention and devotional presence amid ever-intensifying chaos.
- Ferdiansyah Thajib, author of Enduring Otherwise
Dense and earnest, this is someone thinking seriously about finding transcendence through art, community, and presence rather than doctrine. ‘Secular mysticism’ numbs you, disorients you, and opens you to external control. Genuinely strange and original writing, somewhere between cultural criticism, spiritual autobiography, and conspiracy theory, held together by artistic intelligence.
- Erin Honeycutt, pamphleteer
Secular Mysticism includes but is not limited to:
• Uninitiated or uneducated audiences exposed to
religious ideas and icons such as the ‘all seeing eye’
• Drugs and alcohol consumed without intention
• Social-media generated content consumed without
consent
• Trigger responses to environmental stimuli that confuse
thoughts and feelings, opening a way in for fear and anger
• Hypnotic sexual imagery such as the ‘Super-Hero’
Launch event in Berlin coming soon.
Colophon:
How to Survive Secular Mysticism
Alex Head
Plural Studio
2026, Berlin
First edition
All rights reserved
Fonts: Suisse Neue, Suisse International, Suisse
Works, Work Sans, Fergus McDonald
Layout: Lizard in the Spring
Editing: Anna Kostreva
Cover image, after a collaboration with artist
Gabriel Birch, circa 1994
ISBN: 978-3-9828617-0-8#drugs #religion #hypnosis #sacred #taoism #buddhism #hinduism #christianity #judaism #secularism #secularmysticism #faith #belief #intoxication #dreamtimehealing #aboriginal #holographickinetics #startrek #thoughts #feelings #sex #vision #visions #initiates #esoteric #secret #love #culture #human #intelligence #art #magic #Berlin
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📣 Book Release Announcement 📣
As our one living planet teeters upon its very axis, heavy munitions pound the Earth stomping out lives like falling forest trees. Up among the branches 🫀love🫀conquers all when we pursue its infinite variations actively and with intention. In this spirit my old pal the photographer Fabrizio Dal Vera and I share our studio shoot of How To Survive Secular Mysticism - a spiritual manifesto, by moi and now available on https://www.plural-studio.net/how-to-survive-secular-mysticism
there is nothing in this book
that you do not already know
though you may have
forgotten
therefore soften your perspective as you engage
these realities
softness allows the future to be remembered into
the present
like brush lines in an act of creativityHow To Survive Secular Mysticism is a fierce meditation on the cultural hijacking of mystical language and imagery. Alex Head’s swirling aesthetic sensibility and kaleidoscopic commentaries pull us through the subtle yet profound distinctions between lived spirituality and its secular simulacrum, demanding conscious intention and devotional presence amid ever-intensifying chaos.
- Ferdiansyah Thajib, author of Enduring Otherwise
Dense and earnest, this is someone thinking seriously about finding transcendence through art, community, and presence rather than doctrine. ‘Secular mysticism’ numbs you, disorients you, and opens you to external control. Genuinely strange and original writing, somewhere between cultural criticism, spiritual autobiography, and conspiracy theory, held together by artistic intelligence.
- Erin Honeycutt, pamphleteer
Secular Mysticism includes but is not limited to:
• Uninitiated or uneducated audiences exposed to
religious ideas and icons such as the ‘all seeing eye’
• Drugs and alcohol consumed without intention
• Social-media generated content consumed without
consent
• Trigger responses to environmental stimuli that confuse
thoughts and feelings, opening a way in for fear and anger
• Hypnotic sexual imagery such as the ‘Super-Hero’
Launch event in Berlin coming soon.
Colophon:
How to Survive Secular Mysticism
Alex Head
Plural Studio
2026, Berlin
First edition
All rights reserved
Fonts: Suisse Neue, Suisse International, Suisse
Works, Work Sans, Fergus McDonald
Layout: Lizard in the Spring
Editing: Anna Kostreva
Cover image, after a collaboration with artist
Gabriel Birch, circa 1994
ISBN: 978-3-9828617-0-8#drugs #religion #hypnosis #sacred #taoism #buddhism #hinduism #christianity #judaism #secularism #secularmysticism #faith #belief #intoxication #dreamtimehealing #aboriginal #holographickinetics #startrek #thoughts #feelings #sex #vision #visions #initiates #esoteric #secret #love #culture #human #intelligence #art #magic #Berlin
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📣 Book Release Announcement 📣
As our one living planet teeters upon its very axis, heavy munitions pound the Earth stomping out lives like falling forest trees. Up among the branches 🫀love🫀conquers all when we pursue its infinite variations actively and with intention. In this spirit my old pal the photographer Fabrizio Dal Vera and I share our studio shoot of How To Survive Secular Mysticism - a spiritual manifesto, by moi and now available on https://www.plural-studio.net/how-to-survive-secular-mysticism
there is nothing in this book
that you do not already know
though you may have
forgotten
therefore soften your perspective as you engage
these realities
softness allows the future to be remembered into
the present
like brush lines in an act of creativityHow To Survive Secular Mysticism is a fierce meditation on the cultural hijacking of mystical language and imagery. Alex Head’s swirling aesthetic sensibility and kaleidoscopic commentaries pull us through the subtle yet profound distinctions between lived spirituality and its secular simulacrum, demanding conscious intention and devotional presence amid ever-intensifying chaos.
- Ferdiansyah Thajib, author of Enduring Otherwise
Dense and earnest, this is someone thinking seriously about finding transcendence through art, community, and presence rather than doctrine. ‘Secular mysticism’ numbs you, disorients you, and opens you to external control. Genuinely strange and original writing, somewhere between cultural criticism, spiritual autobiography, and conspiracy theory, held together by artistic intelligence.
- Erin Honeycutt, pamphleteer
Secular Mysticism includes but is not limited to:
• Uninitiated or uneducated audiences exposed to
religious ideas and icons such as the ‘all seeing eye’
• Drugs and alcohol consumed without intention
• Social-media generated content consumed without
consent
• Trigger responses to environmental stimuli that confuse
thoughts and feelings, opening a way in for fear and anger
• Hypnotic sexual imagery such as the ‘Super-Hero’
Launch event in Berlin coming soon.
Colophon:
How to Survive Secular Mysticism
Alex Head
Plural Studio
2026, Berlin
First edition
All rights reserved
Fonts: Suisse Neue, Suisse International, Suisse
Works, Work Sans, Fergus McDonald
Layout: Lizard in the Spring
Editing: Anna Kostreva
Cover image, after a collaboration with artist
Gabriel Birch, circa 1994
ISBN: 978-3-9828617-0-8#drugs #religion #hypnosis #sacred #taoism #buddhism #hinduism #christianity #judaism #secularism #secularmysticism #faith #belief #intoxication #dreamtimehealing #aboriginal #holographickinetics #startrek #thoughts #feelings #sex #vision #visions #initiates #esoteric #secret #love #culture #human #intelligence #art #magic #Berlin
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After two decades of addiction, drug court offered Brandie a way out
By Lily PlassThe peer support worker at Dubbo's Bunmabunmarra service knows firsthand how the drug court can offer a second chance.
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Barbara Kingsolver - Demon Copperhead
"First, I got myself born."
Compelling story, and a multi-faceted illumination of a real-life world.
The odds are against our young protagonist, and yet...
#fiction #books #WestVirginia #Appalachia #friendship #poverty #sport #drugs
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Earthenware tobacco pipe, Mexico, 300 BCE - 800 AD
https://piefed.social/c/historyartifacts/p/2089961/earthenware-tobacco-pipe-mexico-300-bce-800-ad
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Earthenware tobacco pipe, Mexico, 300 BCE - 800 AD
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Earthenware tobacco pipe, Mexico, 300 BCE - 800 AD
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Earthenware tobacco pipe, Mexico, 300 BCE - 800 AD
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Earthenware tobacco pipe, Mexico, 300 BCE - 800 AD
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Gosh! So sad the Cheating Games were a dud. Who could have foreseen this?
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Gosh! So sad the Cheating Games were a dud. Who could have foreseen this?
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Gosh! So sad the Cheating Games were a dud. Who could have foreseen this?
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Clockwise; bread and wine (or cannibalism), fried chicken, munchies, and N O F O O D
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Clockwise; bread and wine (or cannibalism), fried chicken, munchies, and N O F O O D
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Clockwise; bread and wine (or cannibalism), fried chicken, munchies, and N O F O O D
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Clockwise; bread and wine (or cannibalism), fried chicken, munchies, and N O F O O D
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Clockwise; bread and wine (or cannibalism), fried chicken, munchies, and N O F O O D
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Clockwise; bread and wine (or cannibalism), fried chicken, munchies, and N O F O O D
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Clockwise; bread and wine (or cannibalism), fried chicken, munchies, and N O F O O D
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Clockwise; bread and wine (or cannibalism), fried chicken, munchies, and N O F O O D
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#Tech #billionaires used #performance #drugs in secret. Now they’re selling a revolution. As #biohacking gains momentum among #elites, the Enhanced Games aim to normalize #longevity #drugs through a #Vegas #sports spectacle. Critics call the premise dangerous and #unethical #health #sports #telehealth #scams #FDA #VentureCapital #maga #trump #doping #siliconvalley https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/05/24/with-enhanced-games-silicon-valley-investors-turn-doping-into-billion-dollar-business-pitch/
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#Tech #billionaires used #performance #drugs in secret. Now they’re selling a revolution. As #biohacking gains momentum among #elites, the Enhanced Games aim to normalize #longevity #drugs through a #Vegas #sports spectacle. Critics call the premise dangerous and #unethical #health #sports #telehealth #scams #FDA #VentureCapital #maga #trump #doping #siliconvalley https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/05/24/with-enhanced-games-silicon-valley-investors-turn-doping-into-billion-dollar-business-pitch/
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#Tech #billionaires used #performance #drugs in secret. Now they’re selling a revolution. As #biohacking gains momentum among #elites, the Enhanced Games aim to normalize #longevity #drugs through a #Vegas #sports spectacle. Critics call the premise dangerous and #unethical #health #sports #telehealth #scams #FDA #VentureCapital #maga #trump #doping #siliconvalley https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/05/24/with-enhanced-games-silicon-valley-investors-turn-doping-into-billion-dollar-business-pitch/
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#Tech #billionaires used #performance #drugs in secret. Now they’re selling a revolution. As #biohacking gains momentum among #elites, the Enhanced Games aim to normalize #longevity #drugs through a #Vegas #sports spectacle. Critics call the premise dangerous and #unethical #health #sports #telehealth #scams #FDA #VentureCapital #maga #trump #doping #siliconvalley https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/05/24/with-enhanced-games-silicon-valley-investors-turn-doping-into-billion-dollar-business-pitch/
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#Tech #billionaires used #performance #drugs in secret. Now they’re selling a revolution. As #biohacking gains momentum among #elites, the Enhanced Games aim to normalize #longevity #drugs through a #Vegas #sports spectacle. Critics call the premise dangerous and #unethical #health #sports #telehealth #scams #FDA #VentureCapital #maga #trump #doping #siliconvalley https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/05/24/with-enhanced-games-silicon-valley-investors-turn-doping-into-billion-dollar-business-pitch/
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https://www.europesays.com/nl/219032/ Van verslaafd en crimineel naar ‘heilig boontje’: Rodney helpt jongeren met een krasje aan werk #BreakingNews #BreakingNews #criminaliteit #Drugs #Dutch #FeaturedNews #FeaturedNews #Headlines #Hoofdpunten #HORECA #LatestNews #LatestNews #Lifestyle #LinkInBio #Nederland #Nederlanden #Nederlands #Netherlands #News #Nieuws #NL #rotterdam #TopStories #TopStories #Voorpaginanieuws #Zondaginterview
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NHS tells simvastatin users to 'call 111' for skin symptom
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/health/nhs-tells-simvastatin-users-call-37187204
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“It is a most extraordinary thing, but I never read a patent medicine advertisement without being impelled to the conclusion that I am suffering from the particular disease therein dealt with in its most virulent form”*…
A bottle of Shaker Anodyne from Enfield Shaker Village in New Hampshire (source)We Americans spend over $60 Billion a year on dietary supplements and herbal remedies; to the extent that the market is regulated here in the U.S. it is (essentially exclusively) by the FDA– which treats the category as “food,” not “medicine” and “oversees” the industry/market very lightly. Indeed, while the extent of fraud in the supplement/remedy market (ineffective, mislabeled, or dangerous products) is estimated to be in the billions of dollars per year, the introduction to the FDA’s data base of “Health Fraud Products” reads:
This list includes unapproved products that have been subject to FDA health fraud related violations. These products have been cited in warning letters, online advisory letters, recalls, public notifications, and press announcements for issues varying from products marketed as dietary supplements claiming to cure, mitigate, treat or prevent disease, to the use of undeclared ingredients or new dietary ingredients.
This list only includes a small fraction of the potentially hazardous products marketed to consumers online and in retail establishments. Even if a product is not included in this list, consumers should exercise caution before using certain products…
That said, over half of us make those choices based on health and wellness information from social media influencers or podcasts… and too often these days, even the ostensibly qualified pitch-people are being faked by AI.
As Matthew Wills reminds us, we’ve been here before…
Never more than seventeen thousand people, the Shakers are today best remembered for their handsome furniture. In their own time they were renowned for their homemade medicinal remedies. They might have had a dubious reputation for their outlandish dancing, celibacy, gender equality, and for believing that their founder, “Mother” Ann Lee, was a manifestation of Christ’s Second Coming, but their guarantee of purity in their botanical products was generally accepted as given.
So much so that as Shaker communities dwindled through the nineteenth century, others wanted the cachet of their name in the patent medicine world. Amid all the fakery and flimflam of the pre-regulated drug market, the Shaker brand was the best.
It was worth stealing, and defending.
The Shakers, or more properly the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, arrived in North America from England in 1774. They established their first communes in New York and New England, then farther into the continent as the European frontier expanded. Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Georgia, and Florida also boasted Shaker outposts, mostly shorter-lived than the original ones.
At first, Shakers funded their separation from the “world” by selling furniture and housewares to non-Shakers. But as the number of Shakers dwindled and America’s industrial capacity increased, Shakers typically turned to selling seeds, simples [here], and botanically-based remedies. These were easier to produce, and, imbued with the Shaker reputation for purity, were as good as gold.
Medical historian J. Worth Estes quotes an 1881 almanac advertising Shaker remedies on the basic principles of Shakerism:
innocence, temperance, virgin purity, love, peace, justice, holiness, goodness, and truth. The almanac further explained that Shakers are “just and honest in all [their] dealings with mankind,” and that they “eschew every species of falsehood: lying, deceit and hypocrisy.” Such statements helped “guarantee” the purity and high quality of Shaker-made drugs in the nineteenth century struggle for the American drug market.
Shakers provided ingredients for “worldly” producers, and, in some cases, they even provided start-up capital for non-Shaker manufacturers. The A.J. White company of New York, New York, made Shaker Extract of Roots and Mother Seigel’s Curative Syrup with Shaker-sourced botanicals and capital. This remedy was advertised as “a cure for impurities of the blood” and “a cure for dyspepsia and liver complaints.” A.J. White’s company successfully expanded overseas, and when he died in 1898, his English branch bought out his American branch; in various guises the company existed until 1957, when it was purchased by Smith, Kline & French, whose successor entity is today the world’s tenth largest pharmaceutical company.
In the 1880s, Smith Bros. & Co. of Montreal started producing a product called Shakers’ Blood Syrup. This had a label similar to A.J. White’s Shaker Extract, except it said “Cures completely scrofula, cancer, rheumatism, catarrh, ulcers & skin & blood diseases.” The Shakers of New Lebanon, New York, sued for patent infringement and Smith Bros. agreed to stop pirating the Shaker name.
Shakers also produced their own remedies on their communes. Corbett’s Syrup of Sarsaparilla, for instance, was made in Canterbury, New Hampshire for about half a century until 1896. In 1886, it was one of the few Shaker products to be awarded a U.S. patent. Promoted as “a blood purifier and therefore, by implication, as a panacea,” it was made of “an aqueous mixture of sarsaparilla root, pipsissewa, yellow dock root, dandelion, thoroughwort, black cohosh, elder flowers, Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate), juniper berries, blue gentian, pokeweed root, sugar and alcohol.” At some point potassium iodide was added to “ensure the remedy’s ‘purity.’”
Estes provides a checklist of some 80 other proprietary medicines made in Shaker communities. The names are marvelous: Brother Barnabas Hinckley’s Compound Concentrated Syrup of Bitter Bugle, Eclectic Live Pills, Larus Eye Water, Vegetable Family Pills, Young Shakers’ Grand Catholicon. As Estes notes, more than a few of these products had active ingredients that were cathartic or purgative, a fact rarely noted on labels. Cathartics are generally defined as working faster than laxatives.
After the Food and Drug Act of 1906, products like the 75% alcohol (sanitizer strength!) Norwood’s Tincture of Veratrum Viride, made by non-Shakers with Shaker-sourced botanical ingredients, had to be labeled “Poison” on their instructions for use. Patent medicines, and the Shakers, didn’t survive the twentieth century…
Amid the fraud and flimflam of early drug markets, Shakers stood for purity, creating a brand others were eager to exploit: “A Trusted Name in a Dubious Drug Market” from @jstordaily.bsky.social.
* Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat
###
As we hear history rhyme, we might recall that it was on this date in 1626 that Peter Minuit, the new director of “New Netherland” for the Dutch West India Company, in what we now know as Manhattan, “purchased” the island from the the Canarsee tribe of Native Americans for a parcel of goods worth 60 guilders: roughly $24 dollars at the time, now just over $1,000.
In the event, Native Americans in the area were unfamiliar with the European notions and definitions of ownership rights. As they understood it, water, air and land could not be traded. So scholars are convinced that both parties probably went home with totally different interpretations of the sales agreement. In any case, the Carnarsees were likely happy to take payment in any meaningful amount pertaining to land that was mostly controlled by their rivals, the Weckquaesgeeks.
1626 letter from Pieter Schaghen (a colleague of Minuit) reporting the purchase of Manhattan for 60 guilders [source]
#culture #Drugs #DutchWestIndiaCompany #FDA #fraud #health #healthCare #herbalRemedies #herbals #history #Manhattan #PeterMinuit #Science #Shakers #supplements #wellness -
“It is a most extraordinary thing, but I never read a patent medicine advertisement without being impelled to the conclusion that I am suffering from the particular disease therein dealt with in its most virulent form”*…
A bottle of Shaker Anodyne from Enfield Shaker Village in New Hampshire (source)We Americans spend over $60 Billion a year on dietary supplements and herbal remedies; to the extent that the market is regulated here in the U.S. it is (essentially exclusively) by the FDA– which treats the category as “food,” not “medicine” and “oversees” the industry/market very lightly. Indeed, while the extent of fraud in the supplement/remedy market (ineffective, mislabeled, or dangerous products) is estimated to be in the billions of dollars per year, the introduction to the FDA’s data base of “Health Fraud Products” reads:
This list includes unapproved products that have been subject to FDA health fraud related violations. These products have been cited in warning letters, online advisory letters, recalls, public notifications, and press announcements for issues varying from products marketed as dietary supplements claiming to cure, mitigate, treat or prevent disease, to the use of undeclared ingredients or new dietary ingredients.
This list only includes a small fraction of the potentially hazardous products marketed to consumers online and in retail establishments. Even if a product is not included in this list, consumers should exercise caution before using certain products…
That said, over half of us make those choices based on health and wellness information from social media influencers or podcasts… and too often these days, even the ostensibly qualified pitch-people are being faked by AI.
As Matthew Wills reminds us, we’ve been here before…
Never more than seventeen thousand people, the Shakers are today best remembered for their handsome furniture. In their own time they were renowned for their homemade medicinal remedies. They might have had a dubious reputation for their outlandish dancing, celibacy, gender equality, and for believing that their founder, “Mother” Ann Lee, was a manifestation of Christ’s Second Coming, but their guarantee of purity in their botanical products was generally accepted as given.
So much so that as Shaker communities dwindled through the nineteenth century, others wanted the cachet of their name in the patent medicine world. Amid all the fakery and flimflam of the pre-regulated drug market, the Shaker brand was the best.
It was worth stealing, and defending.
The Shakers, or more properly the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, arrived in North America from England in 1774. They established their first communes in New York and New England, then farther into the continent as the European frontier expanded. Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Georgia, and Florida also boasted Shaker outposts, mostly shorter-lived than the original ones.
At first, Shakers funded their separation from the “world” by selling furniture and housewares to non-Shakers. But as the number of Shakers dwindled and America’s industrial capacity increased, Shakers typically turned to selling seeds, simples [here], and botanically-based remedies. These were easier to produce, and, imbued with the Shaker reputation for purity, were as good as gold.
Medical historian J. Worth Estes quotes an 1881 almanac advertising Shaker remedies on the basic principles of Shakerism:
innocence, temperance, virgin purity, love, peace, justice, holiness, goodness, and truth. The almanac further explained that Shakers are “just and honest in all [their] dealings with mankind,” and that they “eschew every species of falsehood: lying, deceit and hypocrisy.” Such statements helped “guarantee” the purity and high quality of Shaker-made drugs in the nineteenth century struggle for the American drug market.
Shakers provided ingredients for “worldly” producers, and, in some cases, they even provided start-up capital for non-Shaker manufacturers. The A.J. White company of New York, New York, made Shaker Extract of Roots and Mother Seigel’s Curative Syrup with Shaker-sourced botanicals and capital. This remedy was advertised as “a cure for impurities of the blood” and “a cure for dyspepsia and liver complaints.” A.J. White’s company successfully expanded overseas, and when he died in 1898, his English branch bought out his American branch; in various guises the company existed until 1957, when it was purchased by Smith, Kline & French, whose successor entity is today the world’s tenth largest pharmaceutical company.
In the 1880s, Smith Bros. & Co. of Montreal started producing a product called Shakers’ Blood Syrup. This had a label similar to A.J. White’s Shaker Extract, except it said “Cures completely scrofula, cancer, rheumatism, catarrh, ulcers & skin & blood diseases.” The Shakers of New Lebanon, New York, sued for patent infringement and Smith Bros. agreed to stop pirating the Shaker name.
Shakers also produced their own remedies on their communes. Corbett’s Syrup of Sarsaparilla, for instance, was made in Canterbury, New Hampshire for about half a century until 1896. In 1886, it was one of the few Shaker products to be awarded a U.S. patent. Promoted as “a blood purifier and therefore, by implication, as a panacea,” it was made of “an aqueous mixture of sarsaparilla root, pipsissewa, yellow dock root, dandelion, thoroughwort, black cohosh, elder flowers, Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate), juniper berries, blue gentian, pokeweed root, sugar and alcohol.” At some point potassium iodide was added to “ensure the remedy’s ‘purity.’”
Estes provides a checklist of some 80 other proprietary medicines made in Shaker communities. The names are marvelous: Brother Barnabas Hinckley’s Compound Concentrated Syrup of Bitter Bugle, Eclectic Live Pills, Larus Eye Water, Vegetable Family Pills, Young Shakers’ Grand Catholicon. As Estes notes, more than a few of these products had active ingredients that were cathartic or purgative, a fact rarely noted on labels. Cathartics are generally defined as working faster than laxatives.
After the Food and Drug Act of 1906, products like the 75% alcohol (sanitizer strength!) Norwood’s Tincture of Veratrum Viride, made by non-Shakers with Shaker-sourced botanical ingredients, had to be labeled “Poison” on their instructions for use. Patent medicines, and the Shakers, didn’t survive the twentieth century…
Amid the fraud and flimflam of early drug markets, Shakers stood for purity, creating a brand others were eager to exploit: “A Trusted Name in a Dubious Drug Market” from @jstordaily.bsky.social.
* Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat
###
As we hear history rhyme, we might recall that it was on this date in 1626 that Peter Minuit, the new director of “New Netherland” for the Dutch West India Company, in what we now know as Manhattan, “purchased” the island from the the Canarsee tribe of Native Americans for a parcel of goods worth 60 guilders: roughly $24 dollars at the time, now just over $1,000.
In the event, Native Americans in the area were unfamiliar with the European notions and definitions of ownership rights. As they understood it, water, air and land could not be traded. So scholars are convinced that both parties probably went home with totally different interpretations of the sales agreement. In any case, the Carnarsees were likely happy to take payment in any meaningful amount pertaining to land that was mostly controlled by their rivals, the Weckquaesgeeks.
1626 letter from Pieter Schaghen (a colleague of Minuit) reporting the purchase of Manhattan for 60 guilders [source]
#culture #Drugs #DutchWestIndiaCompany #FDA #fraud #health #healthCare #herbalRemedies #herbals #history #Manhattan #PeterMinuit #Science #Shakers #supplements #wellness
