Delic Radio: The Drug War and Psychedelics
In this episode of Delic Radio, Jackee Stang takes a deep dive with award-winning journalist, author of Fentanyl Inc., and Meet Delic speaker Ben Westhoff into the world of Novel Psychedelic Substances (NPS), notably fentanyl. Nowadays a 100 new drugs come onto the market every year or more.
These new drugs are synthetic and made to replace or adulterate popular drugs such as heroin, cocaine, etc. “Because you can manipulate their chemical structures, there’s literally an infinite number of them possible,” Westhoff tells us. Most of them are lethal. In his critically-acclaimed book, Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic, Westhoff explores and exposes this “whole new crop of chemicals [that are] radically changing the recreational drug landscape.” Fentanyl is one of the most dangerous NPS to come on the market, and currently, it is killing more people than guns. Jackee and Westhoff discuss the captivating story behind his book and how NPS fit into the psychedelic conversation. While Westhoff was the LA Weekly Music Editor, he started asking himself why so many people were dying at raves in the early to mid-2010s. Although most blamed popular drugs such as ecstasy for these deaths, Westhoff knew that it was not a particularly lethal drug. He discovered that adulterated MDMA caused these deaths. Soon enough, he stumbled upon fentanyl, one of the most dangerous NPS, which sold as heroin. Fentanyl is only the beginning. A four-year investigation into the dangerous world of synthetic drugs, Westhoff takes us to black-market drug factories in China, to streets in the U.S., and to harm reduction activists on the streets in Europe to give us the first intimate look into this illicit industry. Chances are if you buy drugs on the street, the substances are adulterated if not replaced with a different drug. “This becomes a conversation about purity, public education, and the ability to test your substances.
The opioid crisis is a part of the psychedelic conversation,” Jackee says. Informative, fascinating, and thought-provoking–be a part of the psychedelic conversation. Jackee and Westhoff delve into the fascinating history of NPS, how they contributed to psychedelics getting a negative rep, and how to educate and protect yourself in this new world of NPS. Tune in, don’t drop out! .
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