Writer Michael Pollan echoes this thought when he cites the paucity of cultures and civilizations that have existed without the use of any psychoactive substances. The difference between heroin, which will promptly get you arrested, and codeine, morphine, or oxycodone, which we frequently prescribe in clinics, is merely a few atoms. We freely accept the deadliest of drugs by the score—tobacco and alcohol, along with dozens of addictive, intoxicating prescription drugs—yet we have demonized much less dangerous drugs.

The film’s title, “Uprooting Addiction,” refers to one of the support tools used by a social worker named Hope Payson who has helped hundreds of people with their addiction. The tool is a tree made of paper up on a board that embodies the roots of someone’s addiction and how they managed to heal from past traumas and deal with their vices. The tree shows that the most common cause of addiction is some type of childhood trauma.

Despite the fact that cannabis was a widely distributed medicine with MDs writing more than 3,000,000 prescriptions per year in the 1930s, it became prohibited at the federal level in the United States in 1937. That prohibition was continued via the Controlled Substances Act in 1970 with cannabis placed firmly in the Schedule I category, which is where it has remained since. The decision to place cannabis in the Schedule I category was not based on science.

In the 17^th century, Europeans who had not traveled overseas tasted coffee, hot chocolate, and tea for the very first time. For this brand new clientele, the brews of foreign beans and leaves carried within them the wonder and danger of faraway lands. They were classified at first not as food, but as drugs — pleasant-tasting, with recommended dosages prescribed by pharmacists and physicians, and dangerous when self-administered.

This is an age of unparalleled transparency. With the steady grind of an always-hungry-for-content 24-hour news cycle, and the unprecedented window into individuals’ personal lives provided by social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, Vine and Instagram, so much of what people do or think is documented that, for those who embrace these modes of communication, it would seem nearly impossible for anyone to disown a statement or action expressed through one of these public forums. 

Transnational organized crime generates $2 trillion in revenue per year globally, roughly the size of Britain’s economy, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Wonder how much money those fake Luis Vuitton handbags and DVDs of the latest Hollywood hits bring in? At $654 billion annually, counterfeiting and intellectual property piracy tops the global list of most lucrative illicit activities. 

July 1964. And 50 years ago a bus - a 1939 school bus, furnished with bunk beds, basic kitchen facilities and wired-up audio equipment - sets out from a house 15 miles from the Californian town of Palo Alto to journey across America. Painted in bright psychedelic colors with the destination sign of `Further` at the front and the words `Caution: Weird Load` at the rear, and carrying on board ten or so 60s` drop-outs from various walks of life, the bus makes its erratic way towards Route 60 and the road to New York. 

The documentary “Evergreen, The Road to Legalization” the directorial debut of Riley Morton demonstrates well how the debate surrounding Initiative-570, which passed in November 2012 legalizing marijuana in Washington State, brought such factionalism to a head. Indeed the staunchest opposition to the initiative came not from the traditional law and order conservative element but from a small but vocal cohort of medical marijuana activists, led by Steve Sarich who opposed how the legalization was implemented. 

Bitcoin’s origins are murky. Some speculate it was created in response to the 2008 recession, promising anonymity and escape from regulation, monetary policy and central banking authorities. These promises made it particularly alluring to Silicon Valley libertarians - as well as drug dealers, Ponzi schemers, and other unscrupulous types. The virtual currency is stored on individual users’ computers and devices or on online repositories, in “digital wallets,” and like cash, can be transferred directly to other users.

Norma knows what it’s like to live through hell. She says she’s experienced it ever since she was a child, growing up in an abusive family in extreme poverty in South Texas, as a teenager when she was forced by her stepfather to enter the world of drug trafficking, later as an informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and throughout 39 years of living as an undocumented immigrant. Norma, who asked that her real name not be used, agreed to start working for the DEA in 1989.