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During most of this century, athletes have sought to increase the performance of their physical body by using different means. And while most have opted for the development of their muscle mass by using standard techniques, such as lifting weights, running, or other methods, some have started using artificial substances, which quickly promoted muscle growth and expression of male traits adolescents experienced at puberty. These substances, anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS), more commonly known as steroids are actually a derivative of the male hormone testosterone. That’s how they work.

The fight against drug use in America has been underway since early last century, but the term war on drugs is not part of our national dialogue in 1970 when it was first used by President Richard Nixon.

The president would form the DEA and began a push to ban drugs of all kinds. Among the drugs most frequently discussed in this war is marijuana.

Join Dr. Andrew Weil and other eminent physicians and researchers in this regard, often surprising in the long history of drug use in different cultures around the world.

Since the beginning of humanity, in all civilizations, humans have found ways to alter their consciousness in search of something bigger than everyday reality.

To this end, we engaged in experiments and all sorts of scary substances, toxic, potentially fatal, in many different rituals.

Booze is by far the most widely employed medication – plus a hazardous 1 at that. So why are so many of us consuming more than the suggested limits? Why does booze have such a powerful grip on us? How a lot of our romantic relationship with this medicine is written in our genes?

What are the actual dangers of our kids drinking as well youthful? Addiction specialist John Marsden, who likes a drink, makes a expert and private exploration of our romantic relationship with booze.

Sacred Weeds was a four part television series of 50 minute documentaries investigating the cultural impact of psychoactive plants on a broad array of early civilizations. The series was filmed at Hammerwood Park by the producer, Sarah Marris, and her production company TVF.

The Reader in European Pre-History at the University of Oxford, Dr Andrew Sherratt, was the series host. Prior to his resignation from the Uinversity of Oxford, Sherratt was appointed Professor of Archaeology. Each episode began and ended with Sherratt inscribing his diary with his reflections on the series’ scientific and cultural investigations.

In each episode the series investigated one psychoactive plant and its cultural significance. Three specialists of various scientific disciplines were invited to monitor two volunteers who had taken each plant.

After the four episodes, Sherratt assigned considerably more significance to the psychoactive properties of plants in ancient civilization and the prehistoric period than expert knowledge hitherto.

Narrated by Colin Friels and produced by Chris Hilton, Afghanistan: Drugs, Guns and Money asks these difficult questions by following the journey of this years opium crops, tracing the drug trafficking routes heading north from Afghanistan through the nations of the Old Silk Road on its way to Europe.

The film examines who are the winners and losers as the crop finds its way to market. The awesome beauty of the landscape provides a powerful backdrop for the treachery uncovered each step of the way.

Like a cancer, the heroin trade has spread its tentacles through almost every level of society. In Afghanistan there is mass local addiction, local HIV epidemics, an unending cycle of violence and crime, and the corruption of state institutions.

With the war on terror raging, the war on drugs has slipped down the priority list of the current US administration. But, in the crucial frontline states of Central Asia, these two wars are inextricably linked… a fact all too often ignored.

The business is booming. Afghanistan and its near neighbors still supply around 80 per cent of the heroin sold in Western Europe. Yesterday’s drug lords are today’s cabinet ministers. How much of a problem is it for America (and the West) that many of its newest allies are implicated in one of the most lucrative drug routes in the world?

This documentary covers a whole lot of ground. It deals with every historical and contemporary aspect of hemp usage and cultivation (mainly in the U.S.), which turns out to be a lot.

From describing the production of a fiber much more durable and economic than wood, the documentary discusses hemps multilateral uses as e.g. food products, as a non-polluting fuel and as a pharmaceutical product with much less grievous side-effects than chemical pharmaceutical products.

The film also investigates why America went from a country which produced vast quantities of the non-narcotic industrial hemp, to the complete ban on hemp production in 1938.

This story in particular is interesting, and it points out that the large oil-based industries actually had a key role in the aforementioned ban. Food for thought! The conclusion of the documentary could be that hemp may prove to be a valid alternative to both oil and wood in the future.

Evidence from Switzerland suggests that prescribing heroin can reduce crime and increase levels of employment among addicts. While still illegal in the UK, cannabis was downgraded to a category C drug in January 2004. Would drug legalisation really reduce crime overall, and would it make drug use any safer?

Based on rigorous research and interviews with experts, the programme hears the arguments for leaving the most dangerous drug of all – crack cocaine – illegal, and examines how a legal and regulated system of drugs would work.

It is 2015. In the film, an ex-drugs policeman investigates two girls’ deaths. The government, persuaded by the vast economic cost of prohibition, has decided to legalise drugs. The UK, along with a coalition of progressive countries from Europe, Canada and Australia, has opted out of the UN treaties which control drugs. Much of the trade from possession to use, and production to supply, has been legalised.

The drama opens with the collapse and subsequent deaths of two girls in a club which is licensed to sell drugs. In the scenario, most drugs are readily available, with government health warnings and lists of ingredients, from various outlets. Drugs of addiction, like heroin, are free but only available on prescription from Swiss-styled heroin clinics.

Cocaine is still illegal. The whole trade is regulated by a new agency, called Ofdrug. The film follows the investigation into the two girls’ deaths by an Ofdrug agent who works closely with an ex-drugs policeman. Experts such as former chief constable Francis Wilkinson argued the case for pro-legalisation, while David Raynes of the National Drug Prevention Alliance was one of the voices arguing against.

As a bright schoolboy from a loving, middle-class family Ben Rogers was expected to make a success of his life. Raised in a quiet, picturesque village Ben was a Boy Scout, loved cricket, played in the school orchestra and looked forward to the annual family holiday. But despite his privileged start in life Ben found himself on the road to ruin, injecting heroin up to four times a day.

During his last months, Ben kept a video diary of his drug use and desperate attempts to come off heroin. Ravaged by the drug, Ben’s body began to break down: he developed DVT and his veins were rendered so useless he had to inject into his groin. Despite his family’s best efforts, Ben couldn’t stop. He was haunted by, and hooked on, heroin.

Ben: Diary of A Heroin Addict charts his lies and manipulation as he mixes his next hit whilst telling his mother Anne he is clean and making a new start. It reveals Annes anger and tears as Ben loses his fight against the drugs and shows how father Mikes unconditional love continues undiminished as they are forced to deal with their sons addiction.

Director Olly Lambert comments: It’s incredibly rare to come across such raw and unflinching footage of a man so close to an abyss. I was speechless when I first watched it. I hope the film finishes what Ben had begun: to give people a visceral understanding of the nature of addiction. It has been a privilege to try and unpick who Ben really was using the intimate legacy hes left behind.

“I hope to god you look at these videos and see what a mess I got myself into.” Ben Rogers.

From the creators of American Drug War the long awaited sequel How Weed Won The West delves deeply into the culture and commerce of cannabis featuring California’s ganja growers, medicinal marijuana patients and law reform advocates. Kevin Booth’s vivid document from behind the front lines of the “war on pot” blows the lid off a multi-billion dollar industry on the verge.

This is a must-see film because it destined to become an icon of the marijuana anti-prohibition movement. Even to someone who has not consumed weed in decades, this film definitely opens anyone’s eyes concerning the detrimental economic, social and human ramifications created by marijuana prohibition.

It takes the viewer through a journey of real life stories involving the relatively new California legal marijuana industry using a refreshing angle which does not focus strictly on the medicinal value of marijuana. The widespread responsible consumption of marijuana for personal recreation and mood enhancement is addressed as well.

While there are many light and entertaining moments which are implied by a somewhat playful title, the subject matter and the production values of this film give it a serious historical position as an iconic mainstream documentary film.