On Drugs

We're busy working on next week’s show, but I wanted to share another CBC Original Podcast I think you might like. It’s called Personal Best. I wouldn’t be doing it justice to call it a self improvement show, because it’s a lot more than that. In an episode called the Doppelganger, we meet Julia - she’s struggling to find a way to communicate her authentic self through texting and technology. It’s trippy and fun and it has all kinds of heart. Please give it a listen!

Cannabis will be legal and regulated across Canada later this year, but Colorado has a four year head start on ending prohibition. Host Geoff Turner travelled to the Rocky Mountain State to see how legalization looks, four years on.

Before pharmaceuticals find their way to your medicine chest, they are subjected to batteries of tests for safety and efficacy. Those tests begin with animals, but eventually scientists need to try out the drugs on people. In this episode, we explore the world of clinical drug trials, including host Geoff Turner's own experience as a human guinea pig.

This episode of On Drugs explores how cannabis went from unknown, illegal and vilified to the present day, where it's considered medicine and the foundation of a multi-billion dollar industry.

If you've been craving a fix of the CBC original podcast, On Drugs, the wait is nearly over. Season 2 launches February 13. Here's a chance to meet the people who put it all together and to hear some highlights from the season ahead.

If most recreational drug users do it because it feels good, why is pleasure always left out of policy conversations about drugs?

In this episode of On Drugs, it's the story of a very important drug that you've probably never heard of. The Drug is called Miltown and it changed the world of psychiatric medicine forever.

From berzerkers on mushrooms, to Nazis on meth and Iraq vets on ecstasy, armies and soldiers have used drugs to fight, cope with and recover from war since ancient times.

Drugs don't exist in a vacuum. In many cases, they've been used to prop up mythologies around race and justify discriminatory policies against already struggling communities.