The Drug Classroom The Drug Classroom

Dr. Rick Barnett is a psychologist with a doctorate in psychology and a master's degree in clinical psychopharmacology. He owns a private mental health practice in Vermont called BPS Health, LLC and is also President-Elect of the American Psychology Association's Division 55 (American Society for the Advancement of Pharmacotherapy).

He is currently advocating in favor of legislation in Vermont that would grant doctorate-level psychologists the ability to prescribe psychiatric medications. In this episode we discuss that proposal and the potential impact of letting psychologists prescribe medications. Additionally, we talk about psychiatric medicine prescribing in general and as it relates to addiction treatment.

Dr. Barnett is active on Twitter: @drrickbarnett

BPS Health, LLC: https://bpshealth.com/

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Music credit: Lee Rosevere (BY)

Zach Rhoads is a counselor who works with families and children. Along with the psychologist Stanton Peele he has coauthored Outgrowing Addiction, a new book that explains why a developmental model of the disorder makes more sense than the disease model.

The book draws on Zach’s personal experience with addiction and on his work with children in highlighting the often overlooked fact that the natural course of addiction, like with childhood behavioral issues, is to grow out it.

Zach also hosts The Social Exchange podcast, which I have previously been a guest on.

Outgrowing Addiction:
https://outgrowingaddiction.com/

The Social Exchange (podcast):
https://thesocialexchange.libsyn.com/

The Social Exchange (the episode featuring myself):
https://thesocialexchange.libsyn.com/seth-fitzgerald

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How you can support TDC: https://thedrugclassroom.com/support/

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Music credit: Lee Rosevere (BY)

Hamilton Morris is a journalist and scientific researcher known for his documentaries, particularly those in the series Hamilton's Pharmacopeia, which is available through iTunes, Google Play, Hulu, and more. He has also written a number of articles for Harpers, which can be found here: https://harpers.org/author/hamiltonmorris/

In this episode we cover a range of topics, from atypical hallucinogens to the US government's experiments with psychoactive chemical weapons.

Morris is also active on Twitter (http://twitter.com/hamiltonmorris).

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How you can support TDC: https://thedrugclassroom.com/support/

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Music credit: Lee Rosevere (BY)

Dr. Mark Lysyshyn is a medical health officer with Vancouver Coastal Health in British Columbia, Canada. The Vancouver region, like many parts of North America, has been strongly affected by the rise in opioid-related fatalities. Dr. Lysyshyn is among those working to reduce fatalities by implementing and expanding harm reduction tools.

He recently co-authored a study looking at drug checking for fentanyl at Insite, a supervised consumption facility. It found a very high prevalence of fentanyl in heroin samples and also showed users do change their behavior, primarily by reducing their dose, when they know their drugs contain fentanyl. This suggests expanding the availability of drug checking could give users actionable information that will reduce overdoses.

You can find the study here: https://harmreductionjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12954-018-0252-8

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How you can support TDC: https://thedrugclassroom.com/support/

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Music credit: Lee Rosevere (BY)

Brad Burge is the Director of Communications at the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). MAPS is a leading organization in the field of psychedelic research and it has been particularly focused on MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, largely for PTSD.

MDMA appears to be very useful in the treatment of PTSD. A couple therapy sessions with the drug can produce long-lasting benefits in a large percentage of people, including in patients who have been unresponsive to other substances and treatment options.

In this episode we talk about the MDMA studies, how the psychedelic research field has changed over time, and where MAPS' research is headed.

MAPS' Website - http://www.maps.org/

MAPS on Twitter - https://twitter.com/maps

MAPS on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/mapsmdma

Zendo Project - https://www.zendoproject.org/

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How you can support TDC: https://thedrugclassroom.com/support/

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Music credit: Lee Rosevere (BY)

Guy Jones runs Reagent Tests UK and is a senior chemist for The Loop, a drug checking organization in the UK. He's also associated with Kosmicaid, a group that offers psychedelic harm reduction services at music events.

Drug checking involves analyzing a substance with tools like reagent liquids and GC/MS in order to gain a better understanding of what the substance is. Misrepresentation is fairly common in the illicit drug market, so if you're not careful, you could end up using something you didn't intend to take. You should always test your drugs before taking them.

The Loop offers both drug checking and educational services at festivals and other events.

In this episode, Guy and I discuss the various ways substances can be analyzed, harm reduction, and research chemicals, among other things.

Reagent Tests UK - https://www.reagent-tests.uk/

The Loop - https://wearetheloop.org/

Kosmicaid - https://kosmicaid.org/

Guy has given multiple presentations on these topics, including these:

https://youtu.be/kL_EVW-24PA
https://youtu.be/TmaPnL4j5s8

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How you can support TDC: https://thedrugclassroom.com/support/

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Music credit: Lee Rosevere (BY)