News

Dutch government bans khat

January 31, 2012 - Earlier this month the Dutch government announced that khat (Catha edulis) will be banned in the Netherlands. Up until now the Netherlands were one of the few remaining countries that allowed the plant, which is primarily used by Somalis, traditionally by chewing on the leaves. The government has discouraged the sale of khat for some time now. The fact that the Dutch government feels it...
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Magic mushrooms may help treat depression, researchers say

January 24, 2012 - Psilocybin , the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, may help people with depression, based on two studies that suggest that the psychedelic could have an enduring effect on patients. Professor David Nutt, the controversial sacked government drugs advisor, claimed this recent research proved what a mistake it was to abandon therapeutic psychedelic drugs more than 50 years ago....
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Salvia divinorum – the anti-drug?

January 17, 2012 - In the search for effective anti-addiction compounds to help fight drug cravings and withdrawal symptoms as well as relapses, the hallucinogen Salvia divinorum is being studied by a group of researchers in New Zealand. The research is a collaborative project between Victoria University and the University of Kansas, the aim of which is to find ways of targeting the kappo opioid receptor....
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Smoking a joint less harmful to the lungs than cigarettes

January 13, 2012 - Joints do less damage to the pulmonary function than smoking tobacco does. American physicians published their findings earlier this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study examined over 5000 men and women from four American cities. The subjects were divided in tobacco smokers, non-smokers (control group) and cannabis users. As expected, the study showed that...
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Start the new year healthy, start vaporizing!

January 9, 2012 - Wanting to quit smoking is one of those New Year's resolutions that has been among the top 5 of good intentions for decades. If you have resolved to make this the year that you stamp out your smoking habit, but don't want to give up on enjoying some of nature's finest tobacco or other herbs, then a vaporizer could prove helpful. For those who are new to vaporizing: A vaporizer is a safer...
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Happy New Year!

January 3, 2012 - From everyone at Azarius, we wish you a healthy and euphoric 2012! The coming year you can once again expect many new products from energizers and cannabis seeds to vaporizers. As always, we continue to strive for the best service possible. Do you think we could better? Are there certain products you think we should stock in 2012? Let us know in the comments below!
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Azarius closed first week of 2012

December 23, 2011 - In the first week of January, Azarius will be 'closed' for stock counting and renovation of our warehouse. All orders made just before New Year and in the first days of January will be delayed and won’t ship until Monday January 9th. We apologize for any inconvenience and will be doing everything we can to get back to normal delivery times as soon as possible. Our Customer Service will still...
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Loud music leads to increase in alcohol consumption

December 22, 2011 - According to a new British study, there is a direct correlation between music and the rate of alcohol consumption. Dr. Stafford, of the University of Portsmouth, studied the effects of music on the taste of alcohol. His findings are that alcohol tastes sweeter when experienced in a setting with loud music and that the noise makes it difficult for drinkers to judge how much they’ve had....
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Salvia cuttings: When are they coming back?!

December 14, 2011 - So some of you may have noticed our Salvia cuttings haven’t been in stocked since last summer… In fact, this has quickly become one of the most frequently asked questions for our Customer Support. We felt it was time to be completely honest and inform everyone on the status of our salvia cuttings. As you may guessed by now, we simply don’t know when or if we’ll be able to stock cuttings...
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Czech Republic removes mescaline cacti from blacklist

December 7, 2011 - Last week, the Czech cabinet approved changes to its drug policy; it’s now allowed to cultivate cacti containing the hallucinogen mescaline, such as the Peyote and San Pedro. Plants containing DMT and 5-MeO-DMT are reportedly allowed for cultivation as well. Previously these products were on the list of prohibited plants, meaning both the cultivation and possession was illegal. Under the new...
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Second Mayan calendar found: 2012 the end?

November 29, 2011 - The Mayan calendar ends in the year 2012 on the 21st of December, inspiring apocalyptic movies and prophets of doom to predict this date to be the end of the world. Up until now this was all based on one stone tablet found in Tortuguero, Mexico. But recently, the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History admitted to having found a second ‘doom’ tablet, referencing the calendar’s...
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Police raid on the 24th High Times Cannabis Cup

November 24, 2011 - Yesterday, a large Dutch police force raided the 24th annual High Times Cannabis Cup, held in Amsterdam – a first in the long history of the Cup. The force consisted of 150 to 200 men and showed up unexpectedly around 4.30 p.m. Eye witnesses reported via Twitter that all attendees were searched and all booths were investigated. Buds were confiscated but no charges or arrests were made....
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Link between high IQ and drug use?

November 21, 2011 - A new study shows a correlation between a high IQ among children and the use of cannabis or other drugs later in life. The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health analysed nearly 8,000 people. It showed that men with a high IQ at the age of 5 are 50% more likely to have experimented with drugs 25 years later than those with low IQ. Women were more than twice as...
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Happy Caps contest on Facebook

November 16, 2011 - It's contest time again on the Azarius Facebook fan page . Everyone with a Facebook account can join in and win a free Happy Caps pack ! All you have to do is post a comment on our contest post (on Facebook, not here) with the name and tag line of a fictitious new happy caps line. It could be anything you imagine, from 'Sleep-E: Never counting sheeps again' to 'Weekend-E: Hold on to...
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It's getting cold!

November 14, 2011 - Although viruses and bacteria surround and attack us all year long, our body is generally quite capable of killing off these invaders before they can do us any harm. But when the air gets colder, and heaters widen the gap between inside and outside temperatures, our immune system has a much harder time keeping us healthy. The immune system is a complex organization of organs, glands,...
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Strawberries may protect stomach from harmful effects of alcohol

November 9, 2011 - We all know eating fruits is good and healthy for the body. This facts seems further strengthened by news last week that a group of researchers have confirmed that strawberries have a beneficial effect on the antioxidant defence mechanisms and may protect against the harmful effects of alcohol on the stomach. The research group conducted the study on lab rats and found that the consumption...
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Bloggers wanted

November 1, 2011 - The review feature of our site is something we feel really adds trust to a particular product and is a great way for one Azarian to help another. Unfortunately sometimes we get a comment such as ‘does not work’ – which doesn’t explain what the user tried (dosage, preparation, circumstances, etc) and in most cases they contradict other reviews. That’s why we’re looking for one or more...
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Law for mandatory drug tests for welfare applicants halted

October 26, 2011 - A federal judge in Florida, U.S.A. has temporarily stopped a new law that would have required welfare applicants to pass a drug test before being eligible for their benefits.The lawsuit was filed by a 35-year-old Navy veteran who applied for welfare benefits and refused to take the test. Judge Scriven stated in her 37-page injunction that the proposed law could violate the Constitution’s...
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Another step towards cannabis legalization in the US?

October 20, 2011 - Though we doubt you’ll soon be picking up prescription cannabis in the United States, the California Medical Association (CMA) recently joined cannabis advocates with an official urge for legalization and regulation. The new policy was adopted unanimously by the Board of Trustees of the largest physician group in California – the first state medical association to take this stance. The CMA...
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Dutch cabinet plans to classify ‘strong’ cannabis as Class A drug

October 13, 2011 - The Dutch cabinet has approved the proposal to classify cannabis with a THC percentage of more than 15% as a hard drug. Coffee shops are only allowed to sell cannabis with a THC percentage below 15%. Shops that don’t comply risk fines or closure. Acceptance of this proposition means another blow to the coffeeshops in the country that was once known for its liberal drug laws. Earlier this...
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14 Peruvian shamans murdered

October 12, 2011 - The Peruvian government is sending a team of officials to a remote region of the Amazon jungle to investigate the deaths of 14 shamans who were killed in a string of brutal murders. The traditional healers, all from the Shawi ethnic group, were murdered in separate incidents over the last 20 months, allegedly at the behest of a local mayor. Roger Rumrrill, an expert on Peruvian Amazon...
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Study: Magic mushrooms may permanently make you more open

September 30, 2011 - Psilocybe cubensis, commonly referred to as magic mushrooms have the potential to make a lasting change to one’s personality. This is a preliminary conclusion from a study conducted by Johns Hopkins researchers and published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology. A single dose of ‘shrooms’ was enough to make a lasting impression on the personality in 30 of the 51 participants, or nearly...
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Free Shaman Aziz

September 27, 2011 - A shaman in the United Kingdom who brewed a Ayahuasca potion has been given a jail sentence of 15 months. Peter Aziz, of Buckfastleigh, Devon learned the art of making Ayahuasca by spending years in the jungles of Peru. He was caught by an undercover policeman, as he provided the brew to a small group of followers in a healing ceremony. Ayahuasca contains the powerful hallucinogenic...
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Afghanistan's poppy production on the rise

September 23, 2011 - For years, both the Afghan government and the international community have been struggling to get farmers in Southwestern part of the country to stop the production of opium. A recent effort, conducted by the Afghan government and financed by the international community that encouraged growers to abandon their poppy crops in favor of cotton appeared to be meeting with some success....
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Contrary to popular belief, marijuana doesn’t make you stupid

September 16, 2011 - We all know the way marijuana works in pieces of fiction. A single hit from a bong is enough to make a person giggle uncontrollably or lose all inhibition. Even the blockbuster action flick Transformers 2 showed people going from regular to loony in the span of a minute after eating a space cake. Whether hilarious or not, pop culture more often than not portrays potheads as lazy, unemployed and...
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Dutch political party GroenLinks: Legalize use of hard drugs

September 12, 2011 - In an interview with the local Amsterdam TV station AT5, the political party GroenLinks stated that the use of hard drugs should be made legal in Amsterdam. Currently the Dutch Opium laws do not forbid the use of hard drugs, though the city of Amsterdam does explicitly forbid it in its police regulation. City counsel member Marco de Goede of GroenLinks: “People that use [hard drugs] and...
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Free weed on the streets of San Jose

September 6, 2011 - A few days ago a truck crashed and flipped over in the middle of a busy intersection in San Jose, USA. The driver fled the scene as the contents of the truck was thrown all over the street; a large quantity of marijuana bags. Several cars and pedestrians stopped to quickly pick up the bags lying in the street, before the police arrived. The San Jose authorities confiscated the remaining bags...
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Phase II Study: Ecstasy and post-traumatic stress disorder

August 31, 2011 - MDMA or XTC may well provide relief to people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As we’ve posted before , small trial studies have shown the potentially beneficial effects when using ecstasy in a supervised manner and in conjunction with intense psychotherapy. Now the phase-II study is well under way and the focus is on US war veterans that are heavily traumatized by the...
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Why France should legalise cannabis

August 26, 2011 - In a recent article on Guardian Weekly , economist Pierre Kopp of Paris University stated that France could be far better off legalising cannabis. Kopp compared the costs of enforcing strict cannabis laws in France to the possible cost when made legal. According to the economist, the most important factor is duty levied by the state. As with tobacco the price needs to be high enough (no...
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Modified XTC could be used in cancer treatment

August 19, 2011 - Researchers from Birmingham University claim the active component in XTC, MDMA, could be used to treat several forms of cancer after making it 100 times more effective at suppressing growth. Ecstasy was already known to be effective against more than half of white blood cell cancers, but previously the large dose required to treat a tumour would also have killed the patient. In a study...
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