Rolling Stone Australia • 30/06/2022

Aussie Artists Return to The Global Stage at Glastonbury 2022

It’s been a long, long time coming, but finally, Australian artists have been let loose from the locked box of our island home and are wasting no time in reminding the world exactly what our homegrown talent can do. What better place to burnish our credentials than Glastonbury 2022. The event is one of the longest running and largest music festivals on the planet. Name an iconic band and they’re guaranteed to have appeared on the festival line up in some capacity during its 50 year history. Gl

VICE • 26/05/2021

We Asked Experts How Risky It Is to Self-Medicate With Mushrooms

Studies showing the mental health benefits of psychedelics are inspiring people to take matters into their own hands. But doctors warn it's not as simple as it sounds.

The Latch • 18/11/2022

Football’s Coming Out: How the FIFA World Cup Could Impact LGBTQI+ Rights in Qatar

Ever since the gas-rich Middle Eastern state of Qatar was chosen to host the FIFA Football World Cup, way back in 2010, it has been the subject of controversy. From the offset, the controversy centred on Qatar’s human rights record, its lack of a free press, and its outlawing of homosexuality, which is punishable by death. It also seemed an incredibly odd choice to host a sporting event, typically played on grass during European summer, in a desert state where temperatures reach an average of

VICE • 26/05/2021

Meet the Man Who Brought DMT to the Masses

I meet Julian in a cafe in Bowral, about an hour and a half south-west of Sydney. He’s a tall guy, mid-40s, with a loud cackle that peels off at moments you don’t expect. That aside, he seems like a regular and unassuming man. You wouldn’t know that Julian Palmer has done more to perpetuate DMT usage around the globe than almost anyone.

Rolling Stone Australia • 18/11/2020

Cognitive Frontiers: 250 Years After Cook’s Arrival, Are We Ready to Talk?

Waanyi artist Gordon Hookey has spent a lifetime raging against the system to explore these themes. The recent anniversary of Cook’s arrival at Botany Bay, and the events since, show why Hookey’s message matters more than ever.

Drugs Wrap • 23/01/2022

Drugs Wrap: Aus Gov Grants $2.2 Mil to Study Psychedelics | Snapchat Cracking Down on Drug Dealing | Could 'I Know You Do Ketamine' Win Hottest 100?

Happy Friday and welcome to issue #70 of Drugs Wrap, a weekly compilation of the top stories in drug policy from across Australia and around the world. After denying the application to reschedule MDMA and psilocybin on the basis of ‘more evidence needed,’ you may be forgiven for thinking this was another attempt by the government to kick the can down the road. However, it appears there is genuine interest in exploring the potential benefits of these drugs at the highest level, with news this we

The Latch • 07/07/2022

Clownfall: UK Prime Minister Resigns After Being Absolutely Shredded By His Own Party

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has finally been brought down like an injured wildebeest covered in ravenous lions. His Conservative party turned on him in a stunning display of mass resignations triggered by the latest in a vast list of sexual misconduct scandals. Johnson has resigned as Conservative party leader following the sudden resignation of both his Treasurer and his Health Secretary on Tuesday evening. They sparked an unprecedented exodus of at least 57 members of his own government w

The Latch • 09/12/2021

Professor David Nutt Explains Exactly How Psychedelic Therapy Works

Lying on a comfy bed with eyes closed in a darkened room, surrounded by soft mood lighting and calming music while a trusted person next to you whispers encouraging phrases sounds like the ultimate way to relax. Throw 25mgs of psilocybin into the mix, and it’s a different scenario entirely. 25mgs is about what you would get in 5gs of magic mushrooms. That’s about five times more than you might take for a casual recreational experience. Lying in a room with two psychologists present, an individu

Rolling Stone Australia • 14/09/2022

Growing Pains: What’s Next for Cannabis in Australia?

This article is sponsored by Sydney Vaporizers On a recent trip to the UK, I was stunned to see how far the British cannabis economy has grown in the three and a half years since I last visited. Once a pernicious weed, and still the motivation for the racially biassed stop-and-search practices of UK law enforcement, cannabis has become something of a supplementary staple. In high-street pharmacies up and down the country as well as boutique specialty stores in London’s Soho, CBD products are

The Latch • 03/10/2021

The Great De-Vape: What Happens Now Vaping Has Been Banned

Welcome to The Great De-Vape, a three part series from The Latch‘s News and Culture Editor Jack Revell, drug policy nerd and author of the Drugs Wrap newsletter. In part one, we looked at the changes to vaping laws that are coming this Friday, 1 October and why they are being made. In part two, we examined the health impacts of vaping. In this third and final part, we look at the impact that the new policy will have on smokers, vapers, and society at large. From tomorrow, Friday, 1 October,

The Latch • 30/11/2021

‘Burning’s Daisy Jeffery: How Climate Action Became the Personal Mission of One Young Girl

When Daisy Jeffery was 17, she should have been studying for her final music exams at Sydney’s Conservatorium High School. Instead, she was leading a revolution. Actually, that’s not quite accurate. Jeffery was of course also studying for her finals, it’s just that every hour of the day she had spare was dedicated to saving the planet. While the issue of climate change took something of a backseat during the past 18 months as another global crisis swept the planet, it’s a problem that has come

The Latch • 12/10/2022

Fat Bear Week 2022 Has Come to a Close as the Internet Crowns Alaska’s Biggest Chonk

The annual Fat Bear Week competition has come to a close with Bear 747 — named after the plane — taking his second crown from last year’s winner Otis. After six days of knock-out style voting, 747 won with 68,105 votes, beating out the impressive first-timer Bear 901 who racked up 56,876. 747 is estimated to weigh around 635kgs, having stacked on the weight over the summer ready for his big winter sleep. It should come as little surprise to fans though, as 747 has been seen fishing almost ever

VICE • 26/05/2021

How I Felt After Binge-Drinking 'Hangover-Free' Alcohol

OPPIL is a cocktail bar situated at the north end of King Street, the main artery of Sydney’s Inner West. What makes the bar special is not what it claims to do, but what it claims not to do. OPPIL claims their cocktails won’t give you a hangover which sounds too good to be true. What goes up must come down and what goes down must come up into the toilet the next morning: these are the laws of the universe.

The Latch • 05/11/2021

Surfing Legend Belinda Baggs on the Fight to Protect Our Coastlines

While the eyes of the world fall upon Glasgow as head’s of state wrestle with their commitments to fighting climate change, at home the fossil fuel industry continues to march ahead. If you’re a water person based around NSW, you may have heard of a little project called PEP11. It’s a cute name hiding some pretty terrifying plans for the future. PEP11 stands for Petroleum Exploration Permit 11, a license to drill for oil and gas just off the coast from Manly to Newcastle in New South Wales, a

The Latch • 13/10/2022

NSW Ministers Shout “Pass the Bong” as They Vote Down Laws to Protect Cannabis Patients

The Liberal-National and Labor Parties have together voted down a Greens’ bill in NSW Parliament that would amend the drug driving laws in the state to prevent patients lawfully prescribed medicinal cannabis from being arrested. The Road Transport Amendment (Medicinal Cannabis – Exemptions from Offences) Bill 2021 was introduced into the Legislative Council on 17 November 2021 by Greens MP Cate Faehrmann. It was designed to provide a defence for medicinal cannabis patients against drug driving c

Crikey • 31/03/2020

'It's As Terrifying': Talking to a Blitz Survivor About Coronavirus

Doreen Turner, née Duncan, was born in Harrow in 1932. She was eight when bombs first began to fall across the UK in the German aerial campaign that became known as the Blitz. Fighting coronavirus is not like fighting the Second World War, despite what some world leaders and media figures might tell you, but a bit of Blitz Spirit might be what we all need right now.

The Latch • 03/11/2021

Could Elon Musk Really End World Hunger? We Crunch the Numbers

The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has gotten into a Twitter spat with the United Nations World Food Programme over whether or not he could solve world hunger. Musk, the founder of Tesla, PayPal, SpaceX and proponent of joke cryptocurrency Dogecoin, has hit back at reports that “just 2%” of his wealth could solve world hunger. This was a statement made by UN WFP Director David Beasley and reported by CNN. Technically Beasley didn’t really say that. What he said was that there is a current “p

The Latch • 19/10/2022

Local Heroes Get Stuck in to Help During NSW and VIC Floods

The weeks of drenching are set to continue across large parts of New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania, leaving many homes and communities stranded or underwater. The east of Australia is experiencing some of the worst flooding it’s ever seen, with virtually every river west of the dividing range either currently overflowing or soon set to burst. Yet amidst all this chaos and heartache, some truly uplifting stories are emerging of all the ways local residents are pitching in to help each oth

The Latch • 04/11/2022

As Elon Musk Logs on as the New Boss of Twitter, Thousands Are Logging Off For Good

Twitter’s new owner, tech-billionaire and almost-human Elon Musk, has fired the entire board of the company. He is now the sole member, crowning himself CEO, or ‘Chief Twit’. The world’s sometimes-richest person has wasted no time in shaking up the social platform — used daily by nearly 400 million people — since he completed his takeover last Friday. All nine members of the board have been sacked, with a new ‘content moderation’ council set to step up. Also on the chopping block are 50% of th

The Latch • 23/11/2021

Adele Is Right, Spotify Has Changed Our Relationship to Music

A few years back I lost my iPod classic. This wasn’t back in 2010 when the iPhone 4 became the dominant selling phone of the day. This wasn’t 2012 when the iPhone 5 reached comparable storage capabilities to the iPod. It wasn’t even 2014 when the iPod Classic was discontinued. This was 2018. Three years ago. I held onto that thing well past its use-by date and into the realms of vintage hipsterdom. I was manually downloading albums from the internet (okay, I was pirating them), loading them int