Decline Of Christianity Sparks Rise In Claims For Religious Protections Of Psychedelics
UFC's Israel Adesanya said he did psychedelics in the shower before last championship victory: 'Hone in, bro'
Former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya revealed he had several "macro" ingestions of psychedelic drugs before his most recent victory.
Adesanya, who is now seemingly retired, said he had a lot of mental and emotional work to do leading up to his April 8, 2023, fight against Alex Pereira at UFC 287.
At that point, Adesanya had just lost his championship to Pereira the previous November at UFC 281 in New York City. To make matters worse, Pereira had also beaten Adesanya in kickboxing in both 2017 in Brazil and 2016 in China.
After about seven years of losing to Pereira around the world, Adesanya knew that if he was to beat his rival in Miami, he would need to do some internal work on himself.
'I don't know if it's your ancestors or whatever, but I could feel myself on a level I've never felt before.'
"The work I've done on myself internally — I can't stress that enough. The work that I've done through therapy, as well, and just life experience," Adesanya said on "Pound 4 Pound with Kamaru and Henry."
The 35-year-old then revealed that he attributed a lot of his emotional work to having had several large psychedelic trips leading up to the fight.
"The Pereira fight in Miami, I did three — not micro, macro — shroom trips in the shower where it was, like, I was able to just f**king hone in, bro."
While Adesanya explained that he does not "go too deep" intellectually or spiritually with the drugs, he also said he got to a point where he could "feel" his ancestors.
"I don't go too deep. It's more, I can feel myself, I can feel myself deeper. I don't know if it's your ancestors or whatever, but I could feel myself on a level I've never felt before."
The New Zealand resident said that he enjoyed altering his state of mind from time to time in an attempt to off-load any inner demons or feelings that he has been harboring. During this process, he recalled writing messages to himself on his mirror about having the greatest comeback in UFC history.
All the psychedelic talk inspired former UFC champion and host Henry Cejudo to ask Adesanya if he had taken up toad licking or if he would be willing to. The host asked because he noticed that Adesanya had been a guest on Mike Tyson's former podcast, and Tyson has championed toad licking many times.
Licking toads is typically in reference to the psychotropic compounds secreted by toads from the Colorado River area, which have hallucinogenic effects. According to the Banyan Treatment Center, licking toads can lead to vivid visual hallucinations, changed time and space awareness, and spiritual experiences.
Adesanya said he was open to the experience.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
After long suggesting ADHD has biological basis, scientists now make stunning admission
The medical establishment has a troubling track record of confidently stating things that just aren't so — as became clear to Americans who suffered injuries from supposedly safe and effective vaccines during the pandemic.
There was a damning admission in New York Times Magazine over the weekend that may inspire new doubts about the credibility of the so-called experts advising the masses on matters of health, namely that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder may not have a basis in biology after all.
That admission was not volunteered from some activist or critic but rather by the Dutch neuroscientist who apparently misled the world into thinking "A.D.H.D. is a disorder of the brain."
'No one knew exactly how the medication worked.'
In a piece titled "Have we been thinking about A.D.H.D. all wrong?" Paul Tough discussed the correlated explosion of ADHD diagnoses and Ritalin prescriptions in the 1990s — a trend, he noted, that was accompanied by criticism from parents and others concerned about the apparent campaign to load kids with methylphenidate and amphetamines.
"You didn't have to be a Scientologist to acknowledge that there were some legitimate questions about A.D.H.D.," wrote Tough. "Despite Ritalin's rapid growth, no one knew exactly how the medication worked or whether it really was the best way to treat children's attention issues."
Parents were right to be concerned.
Ritalin, Adderall, and the other highly addictive stimulants foisted upon hard-to-control American youths have a variety of undesirable side effects, both immediate and long-term.
In the short term, they can cause side effects such as bladder pain, bloody urine, an irregular heartbeat and palpitations, diarrhea, headaches, joint pain, trouble sleeping, confusion, agitation, seizures, and vomiting. In the long term, these drugs can apparently impact growth, dopamine regulation, and memory formation and retention and cause elevated blood pressure, psychosis, and mood disorders.
Over the past decade, prescriptions for stimulants to remedy imagined ADHD have skyrocketed — by 58% between 2012 and 2022. Most of the drugs dished out have been amphetamines, according to a 2023 document prepared for the Drug Enforcement Administration.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 7.1 million American children (approximately 1 in 9) aged 3-17 had ADHD diagnoses as of 2022. That's up from two million in the mid-1990s. Over half of the children currently diagnosed with ADHD receive at least one ADHD medication.
Tough noted that the medical establishment, already bullish on the ADHD craze, seized upon the initial results of the Multimodal Treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Study. The study, published in 1999, suggested that Ritalin was effective.
After the Ritalin train left the station at full speed, James Swanson — who subsequently went to consult for drug companies, including the manufacturer of Adderall — and his colleagues realized that their study championing stimulant use had aged poorly.
While the children in their MTA study reported improvements after 14 months of choking down stimulants, after 36 months, their advantage had effectively disappeared such that they were expressing the same supposed symptoms as the comparison group. Years later, the same test subjects turned out to be an inch shorter than their peers.
In other words, the medical establishment was hyping and pushing addictive drugs largely on the basis of perceived short-term gains that, unlike drug dependency, faded in under two years.
"There are things about the way we do this work," Swanson, now in his 80s, told Tough, "that just are definitely wrong."
"I don't agree with people who say that stimulant treatment is good," Swanson said, after spending three decades studying the drugs. "It's not good."
Swanson is apparently not the only supposed ADHD expert now having significant doubts.
Edmund Sonuga-Barke, a researcher in psychiatry and neuroscience at King's College London, told Tough, "I've invested 35 years of my life trying to identify the causes of A.D.H.D., and somehow we seem to be farther away from our goal than we were when we started."
'We're terrified of what will happen to the kids who can't get the meds.'
"We have a clinical definition of A.D.H.D. that is increasingly unanchored from what we're finding in our science," added Sonuga-Barke.
Sonuga-Barke suggested further that ADHD is not a static, easily definable, or objectively measurable condition.
That's not what Martine Hoogman, the chair of the Enigma ADHD working group, and her team suggested in a 2017 paper funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in the Lancet Psychiatry, a peer-reviewed Elsevier journal.
After years of academic chatter about potential physical differences in the brains of people with ADHD diagnoses, Hoogman and her team compared the cortical volumes of ADHD-diagnosed subjects with those of a control group.
While Tough indicated their data showed the opposite to be true, Hoogman and her team originally stated:
We confirm, with high powered analysis, that ADHD patients truly have altered brains, i.e. that ADHD is a disorder of the brain. This is a clear message for clinicians to convey to parents and patients, which can help to reduce the stigma of ADHD and get a better understanding of ADHD. This way, it will become just as apparent as for major depressive disorder, for example, that we label ADHD as a brain disorder. Also, finding the most pronounced effects in childhood provides a relevant model of ADHD as a disorder of brain maturation delay.
Hoogman did a complete about-face when recently pressed about her statement, telling Tough, "Back then, we emphasized the differences that we found (although small), but you can also conclude that the subcortical and cortical volumes of people with A.D.H.D. and those without A.D.H.D. are almost identical."
"The A.D.H.D. neurobiology is so much more complex than that," added Hoogman.
Sonuga-Barke indicated that there is a desperation among some scientists to find evidence pointing to the biological nature of ADHD.
"In the field, we're so frightened that people will say it doesn't exist," said Sonuga-Barke. "That this is just bad parenting, from the right, or this is just a product of our postindustrial society, from the left. We have to double down because we're terrified of what will happen to the kids who can't get the meds. We've seen the impact they can have on people's lives."
'It's infuriating.'
The well-documented overdiagnosis and overtreatment of ADHD in children and adults is troubling on its face but far worse when considered in light of Sonuga-Barke's understanding that ADHD diagnoses are purely subjective and effectively unfalsifiable; Swanson's admission that ADHD treatment doesn't help in the long-run; and Hoogman's admission that there is not a biological signature for the supposed disorder.
Blaze News previously noted that the Trump administration's plan to assess the prevalence and impact of pharmaceuticals on children has some childhood psychiatrists and other prongs of the pharmaceutical industry panicking. After all, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might cost them a source of revenue by taking a closer look at ADHD.
Kennedy noted during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee that "15% of American youth are now on Adderall or some other [attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder] medication."
"We are not just overmedicating our children, we are overmedicating our entire population," said Kennedy. "Half the pharmaceutical drugs on earth are now sold here."
Conservative commentator Matt Walsh noted in response to the New York Times Magazine article, "ADHD is one of the greatest scams in modern history. Millions of kids have been given mind-altering drugs on the basis of a lie. Now after decades — and after shouting down and defaming those of us who knew better — they're finally starting to admit it. It's infuriating."
Author and journalist Alex Berenson tweeted, "It's unbelievable that drug companies and shrinks ('telehealth' in particular) have pushed this junk for so long."
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
'Incredible blessing': JD Vance celebrates his mom's sobriety at White House
Vice President JD Vance has made no secret of his challenging relationship with his parents growing up, particularly his mother, Beverly Aikins. In fact, Vance, who was largely raised by his grandparents, wrote a best-selling memoir about his troubled childhood, detailing instances when his mother beat him, would periodically vanish, cycled through romantic partners, abused alcohol and heroin, and even used her son's urine to pass drug tests.
Aikins has, however, undergone a profound transformation in recent years — from a drug-addicted former nurse to a re-licensed nurse committed once again to helping people, especially those struggling with drug abuse.
The vice president celebrated his mother, her redemptive arc, and her 10 years of sobriety in the White House on Friday.
"Mom, I'm so proud of you," Vance wrote on X.
— (@)
In his VP nominee speech at the Republican National Convention in July, Vance said, "This moment is not about me; it's about all of us and who we're fighting for."
Among those with whom Vance shared the moment but decided to single out was his mother. He noted that she "struggled with money and addiction but never gave up."
'I didn't know whether you would live long enough to have a relationship with my kids.'
"I am proud to say that tonight my mom is here, 10 years clean and sober," said Vance. "I love you, Mom."
The crowd erupted into applause, chanting, "JD's mom! JD's mom!"
"Mom, I was thinking — it'll be 10 years officially as of January 2025," continued Vance. "If President Trump's okay with it, let's have the celebration in the White House!"
Sure enough, Vance brought his wife, Usha, their three children, and Aikins to the Roosevelt Room on Friday to mark the occasion with nearly 20 other family members and friends.
The Washington Examiner's Salena Zito reported that Vance became misty-eyed at one stage while delivering his heartfelt remarks.
"I remember when I gave my RNC convention speech, which was the craziest thing, and I even said during the speech that we would have your 10-year medallion ceremony at the White House," said Vance. "Well, here we are. And you made it, and we made it. And most importantly, you're celebrating a very, very big milestone. And I'm just very proud of you."
Vance, allegedly welling up with tears, said, "I'm gonna try not to cry here."
— (@)
The vice president expressed delight not only that his mother was able to join him at the White House but that she survived to meet her grandchildren.
Aikins, who apparently grew up in a brutal household, became a drug addict when Vance and his sister were just young children, reported Deseret News. She started off taking Vicodin, stealing pills from the hospital where she worked, then switched to Percocet, then heroin. Aikins began her recovery just prior to the publication of Vance's "Hillbilly Elegy."
"I didn't know whether you would live long enough to have a relationship with my kids. And now here they are, almost 8, 5, and 3, and you're the best grandmother that these kids could ever ask for," said the vice president. "It is one of the great blessings of becoming a father, is that I've been able to see these kids develop the love and the affection for you and to see it in return. And that's just an incredible blessing."
'I pray a lot more.'
Aikins, who now works as a nurse at the Seacrest Recovery Center in Cincinnati, told Zito last year, "I want people who are struggling with addiction or who have family members who are struggling with addiction to know that recovery is possible, and you get back so much more from recovery than you ever think you can get back."
Vance shared a similar message, noting, "I meet a lot of people who think that there is no other side for those who suffer from addiction. Unfortunately, we know that for some, that's true, but for many, there is another side. And you know, sometimes you get another opportunity with your friends and your family."
Prior to eating a chocolate cake with the presidential seal in the center, Aikins — who received a challenge coin from President Donald Trump via Vance — emphasized her gratitude to her family, reported the Examiner
"I love my family more than anything," said Aikins. "I pray a lot more, and hopefully, God gives me several more years to watch these guys grow up. I love you all. Thank you so much for being here."
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Trump And RFK Should Accelerate Inexpensive Treatments For Long Covid And Other Diseases
Navy sends second warship to US southern border to 'restore territorial integrity'
U.S. Northern Command deployed the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Gravely to the Gulf of America on March 15 to secure American territorial waters and to help prevent waterborne drug-runners from shipping their poison into the United States.
On Saturday, a second guided missile destroyer embarked on a mission to support U.S. Northern Command southern border operations — this time down the West Coast.
NORTHCOM announced Saturday that the USS Spruance — one of the American ships previously with the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group that Houthi terrorists tried to damage in the Red Sea last year — departed Naval Base San Diego.
The warship is accompanied by an embedded U.S. Coast Guard Law Enforcement Detachment, which specializes in maritime interdiction missions, including military combat operations, alien migration interdiction, and counterterrorism.
USS Spruance fires its MK45 5-inch gun during a live-fire exercise. Photo by Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Ryan McLearnon
"USS Spruance's deployment as part of U.S. Northern Command's southern border mission brings additional capability and expands the geography of unique military capabilities working with the Department of Homeland Security," Air Force Gen. Gregory Guillot, NORTHCOM commander, said in a statement.
"With Spruance off the West Coast and USS Gravely in the Gulf of America, our maritime presence contributes to the all-domain, coordinated DOD response to the presidential executive order and demonstrates our resolve to achieve operational control of the border," added Guillot.
'It is essential that the Armed Forces staunchly continue to participate in the defense of our territorial integrity and sovereignty.'
The military noted in its statement that the Spruance's presence brings maritime capabilities "in response to presidential executive orders and a national emergency declaration and clarification of the military's role in protecting the territorial integrity of the United States."
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump directed his future Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to assign NORTHCOM the mission of sealing America's borders and maintaining its territorial integrity "by repelling forms of invasion including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities."
Trump noted that the American military has long worked to secure "our borders against threats of invasion, against unlawful forays by foreign nationals into the United States, and against other transnational criminal activities that violate our laws and threaten the peace, harmony, and tranquility of the Nation."
"Threats against our Nation's sovereignty continue today, and it is essential that the Armed Forces staunchly continue to participate in the defense of our territorial integrity and sovereignty," continued Trump. "A National Emergency currently exists along the southern border of the United States. Unchecked unlawful mass migration and the unimpeded flow of opiates across our borders continue to endanger the safety and security of the American people and encourage further lawlessness."
In recent weeks and months, the Coast Guard has encountered numerous migrant boats off the coast of southern California as well as drug-runners. The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Waesche alone interdicted 11 separate suspected drug-smuggling vessels from December through February, offloading 37,256 pounds of cocaine.
Narcos and potential invaders might now think twice about testing the waters off the West Coast with the USS Spruance patrolling the area.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Seattle BLM treasurer arrested on drug, weapons charges following commutation from Democratic governor
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) has a habit of making bad or questionable decisions.
In 2023, he ratified legislation letting strangers shelter children who want sex-change mutilations or abortions without notifying parents. The previous year, his administration secured federal approval to provide illegal aliens with health and dental insurance through the Affordable Care Act. After prohibiting indoor dining and closing gyms, choir performances, and receptions at weddings and funerals, Inslee announced in 2021 that large events would have to confirm attendees' receipt of the experimental COVID-19 vaccines or have them demonstrate negative tests.
Inslee is apparently no better a judge of people than of policy. One of the individuals he sprung from prison is now facing nearly a dozen drug and gun charges.
The Democratic governor commuted the sentence of felon Percy Levy, 54, in 2019. Levy had spent the previous 17 years in prison for a drug house robbery.
Since receiving executive clemency from Inslee, Levy — who the Lynnwod Times indicated sits on the Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County chapter's board of directors as treasurer — has masqueraded as a changed man, working as a community outreach specialist for the Washington Defender Association and running the car dealership Redemption Auto.
Levy's bio on the car vendor's website states, "In 2019, Percy received executive clemency from Governor Inslee, propelling his mission to reform the criminal legal system, with a focus on sentencing reform and advocacy for those affected by the 'war on crime.'"
It appears he rejoined the losing side in that war.
Levy was arrested on March 13 after a traffic stop in Everett, Washington, and slapped with 11 Class B felony charges, including two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of a stolen firearm, and eight counts of possession of controlled substances with attempt to sell. Each charge carries with it a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
'I would not change it for the world.'
The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office indicated that Levy's arrest followed a 16-month investigation by the Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force, a multi-agency partnership consisting of local, state, and federal detective and special agents.
Detectives with the SRDTF reportedly secured a warrant for Levy's residence, not far from where he was ultimately pulled over. At the scene, they apparently found 2,818 grams of powder cocaine, 14.7 grams of crack cocaine, and 556 grams of fentanyl — enough to kill well over 250,000 people, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Detectives also found ample evidence signaling intent to distribute the drugs as well as a handgun.
Hours before his arrest, Levy testified remotely to the Washington State House Public Safety Committee. He provided insights regarding proposed legislation that would remove the requirement that Department of Corrections must provide convicts being released from prison with the least expensive method of public transportation.
Democratic Washington state Rep. Roger Goodman congratulated Levy on his "successful transition" from prison life.
KIRO-TV indicated that Levy is being held on a $1.5 million bond.
In his autobiographic statement on the Redemption Project of Washington website, Levy noted, "What more could I ask than having the privilege of actively working to smooth the road for the release of those back inside? It is fulfilling on a level that is surreal to me. I would not change it for the world."
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Drug prescribers fret as RFK Jr. investigates kids' use of amphetamines, SSRIs
The prospect the Trump administration might take action that would see multitudes of children taken off addictive, overprescribed, and potentially dangerous drugs has some childhood psychiatrists and other prongs of the pharmaceutical industry both panicking and defending select drugs.
President Donald Trump established the Make America Health Again Commission last week, tasking Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with assessing the prevalence and impact of antidepressants, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, and other pharmaceuticals on children. Trump also directed Kennedy to assess "the threat that potential overutilization of medication, certain food ingredients, certain chemicals, and certain other exposures pose to children with respect to chronic inflammation or other established mechanisms of disease."
Kennedy, the chair of the commission who initially endorsed Trump partly in hopes of helping make American children healthy again, reportedly made clear at his first meeting with HHS staff on Tuesday that he fully intends to execute the president's directive.
An employee who attended the meeting told NBC News that Kennedy signaled he would take aim at the possible overmedication of children as well as the risks of antidepressants.
Kennedy has made no secret of his desire to officially investigate the adverse and avoidable impacts that pharmaceuticals might have on children.
The HHS secretary noted, for instance, during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee that "15% of American youth are now on Adderall or some other [attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder] medication. Even higher percentages are on SSRIs and benzos. We are not just overmedicating our children, we are overmedicating our entire population. Half the pharmaceutical drugs on earth are now sold here."
A 2024 study published in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics found that between 2016 and 2022, the number of Americans ages 12 to 17 with an antidepressant prescription shot up 43%. The researchers noted further that "antidepressant dispensing to adolescents and young adults was rising before the COVID-19 outbreak and rose 63.5% faster afterward."
A 2021 study published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open found evidence of ADHD overdiagnosis and overtreatment in children and adults — especially problematic because the drugs often prescribed are amphetamines, which have numerous side effects and are highly addictive.
The health secretary added during the confirmation hearing that prescription drugs are the third-leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer, and they do not appear overall to be making America healthier.
The Trump administration's promise of investigations, transparency, and greater caution around certain drugs appears to have some prescription writers in the medical establishment worried.
'Americans have lost confidence in the medical apparatus that let us down during the COVID pandemic.'
A number of physicians and so-called psychiatric experts recently suggested to The Hill that they are more concerned that children might lose access to psychotropic drugs and other substances than they are worried about overmedication.
Lisa Fortuna, chair of the American Psychiatric Association's Council on Children, Adolescents, and their Families, said, "There is some concern, even more so in the field, that many children with depression and mental health disorders do not get access to the mental health services that they need, and that includes the comprehensive treatment that we would recommend."
Tami Benton, president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, complained to The Hill about Kennedy's previous suggestions that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are addictive and may have something to do with school shootings — a possibility Kennedy indicated might warrant a National Institutes of Health override of medical privacy rules to verify.
Benton suggested these suggestions "don't address the reality of psychiatric treatment" and claimed that "these medications are not addictive."
The Mayo Clinic indicated that missing doses or abruptly going off SSRIs — which have various side effects including anxiety and sexual dysfunction — can cause "withdrawal-like symptoms," a consequence associated with addictive substances that are the result of the physical dependence users can often develop when taking the drugs.
When asked about its investigation into SSRIs and other drugs, White House spokesman Kush Desai told NBC News, "Americans have lost confidence in the medical apparatus that let us down during the COVID pandemic and oversaw an unprecedented explosion in chronic disease."
"The Trump-Vance administration will continue to review current best practices and health care bodies to implement needed reforms," added Desai.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Trump Admin Designates Drug Cartels as Global Terrorist Organizations
The United States has designated Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa cartel, and six other drug cartels as global terrorist organizations, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday in a notice.
The post Trump Admin Designates Drug Cartels as Global Terrorist Organizations appeared first on .
Get the Conservative Review delivered right to your inbox.
We’ll keep you informed with top stories for conservatives who want to become informed decision makers.
Today's top stories