The Peace On Drugs

Kimberly is a Navy Veteran, diagnosed with PTSD. She struggled with addiction and is now a peer support specialist. She is the Louisiana State Leader of a national nonprofit organization raising awareness of veteran suicide.

Aaron hangs in Gastonia with childhood friends Brandon and Jason Robbins! Jason went from drug dealer facing decades behind bars to becoming a preacher and writing the book, "From Prison to the Pulpit."

After being arrested in Beijing for possession of 1.5 grams of cannabis, Chancellor returned to the states and wrote the book "14 days in Beijing" to share his experience.

We survived hurricane Ian! Here is our story.

Aaron joined David in Asheville, NC to talk about drugs and do some as well.  David and his wife own the Pied Piper smoke shop chain and the adult stores, Love Nest in the NC mountains and he and Aaron are lifelong friends.

Chelsea and Suzanne host the Stiicky Eddie Podcast and joined Aaron to talk about addiction and substance use disorder and they discuss ways we could change the world and make it a safer place for people who suffer from addiction and mental illness.

Charlie joins Aaron in the studio to discuss the war on drugs and the many ways it has affected their lives.

Josh hosts the Pineal Podcast. He and Aaron talk global consumption and the state of the world and what we can do to better ourselves.

Spencer is author of "Social Security Disability Revealed" and he joins us to discuss how drugs and alcohol can be used to deny access to social security benefits.

Ben Boyce is an author and prison educator and he hosts the Dr Junkie Show podcast.

De'Vannon is host of the podcast and author of the book Sex, Drugs, and Jesus. We talk drugs, addiction, and recovery and religion and spirituality.

Harrison is a cannabis and psychedelic lawyer in Toronto, Canada.

Larry is a specialist in addiction medicine, was the first to write about AIDS in the press and is co-founder of Gay Men's Health Crisis. He is also an author and his books are available at LawrenceDMass.com

Teza is an author, artist, and spiritual activist. She Co-hosts the ZLORD podcast with her husban, Carter Lord.

Al is a cannabis activist, CBD Educator. Holistic health advisor. Patient zero.  He has been selling cannabis since 1987!

Michaell is an artist and art educator and he joins the podcast to talk about drug prohibition and the societal and structural problems that are at the root of substance use.

This is Smoke in the Air- Elephant in the Room (Part 2).  After Roe V Wade was overturned by a conservative supreme court, women's rights is now the most important issue in the country and we need to talk about it.  Aaron's wife, Meagan Rose takes lead on this episode.  This is the Peace on Abortion.

Shoshana is Assistant Professor, Department of Family and Community Health at Pennsylvania School of Nursing where she works to increase access to substance use disorder treatment and harm reduction services.

Happy Fourth of July! Or is it? Let's talk politics, religion, history, immigration, and of course the war on drugs.

This is one segment of the Elephant in the Room (Part 1) which will be released in its entirety on Monday July 4th.

Terri Joins the Peace On Drugs to tell the story of her long road to recovery, and her and Aaron talk about the war on drugs and addiction.

Prince Bull is Executive Director at the West African Drug Policy Network. He is fighting to decriminalize drugs and to stop the arresting and incarceration of drug users across the nations of West Africa.

Gretchen is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of A New PATH and the Lead organizer of the Moms United to End the War on Drugs campaign.

Scott is a true crime author.  His latest book is "Hitmen: The Mafia, Drugs, and the East Harlem Purple Gang."

Dr Bethany Halford- Science writer and senior correspondent at c&en. Chemical and Engineering News.

Aaron's lifelong friend and fellow musician joins us to talk about music, addiction, and recovery.

Will is the CEO and Founder of Grasshopper farms, an outdoor cannabis farm.  They have 31 strains on 160 acres and are the leading Michigan cannabis farm.

Scott is a substance abuse expert, crisis coach, and author of "The Opioid Epidemic: What You Don't Know Will Destroy Your Family and Your Life.

Michael Rosino is author of "Debating the Drug War- Race, Politics, and the Media."  He is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Molloy College.

Happy 420!  Aaron, Adam, and Will are lifelong friends and they got together to celebrate the holiday and discus cannabis and have a good time.

Jimi Fritz is a writer, filmmaker, and musician.  For many years he dealt psychedelic drugs and he shares his story in his latest book, Confessions of an Ethical Drug Dealer.

Katinka has her Doctorate in Cultural and Global Criminology.  She researches harm reduction, specializing in performance and image enhancing drugs.

Alex if founder of the Albertus Project, a nonprofit organization with a vision of transforming the way the world views addiction from a mindset of blame and shame to one of compassion and support.

Benjamin Boyce, PhD, is the author of Dr. Junkie.  One man's story of addiction and crime that will challenge everything you know about the war on drugs.

Micheal and Bigg John were the first two guests on the Peace on Drugs Podcast and have returned to celebrate the podcast's one year anniversary.

Chris Cauhape is author of Parlor Whales: A City Hall Brawling Borderlander's Memoir of Drug Prohibition's Collateral Mayhem, and How to Use America's Most Powerful Weapon to Conquer Substance Abuse.

Maia is a Neuroscience Journalist.  Contributing Opinion Writer, New York Times.  She is a New York Times bestselling author and her latest book is Undoing Drugs: The Untold Story of Harm Reduction.

Kevin is a cannabis entrepreneur and joins Aaron from Colorado to talk bitcoin, cannabis, and the war on drugs.

Sister Kate is founder of Sisters of the Valley.  They are a sisterhood that operates a CBD Hemp farm and online business out of California.  Sister Kate joins the Peace on Drugs Podcast and talks about her journey and how the sisterhood began.  Her and Aaron also discuss the war on drugs, religion, and politics.

Phillip is a retired attorney from the New York bar and author of the books The Mafia and the Gays, Jersey Queens, and Railroaded: The Homophobic Prosecution of Brandon Woodruff for His Parent's Murders.  In this episode he talks with Aaron and explains that the LGBTQ community has been hit exceptionally hard in the war on drugs and is over-represented in the US criminal justice system.

A brief explanation of why

How do you take care of your language system? Or have you ever considered it?  That voice that talks constantly inside your head, directing you to say, do, feel, and act.  The voice that can give you anxiety by reminding you of a fear or past mistake.  Or signal your body to release adrenaline when you are hiking and it asks if there are bears in these woods?  Or trigger happiness and a release of serotonin when it reminds you of an upcoming date with a person you admire- anxiety when it asks what you do if they don't show.  How can we nourish this mental system and train it to be a positive influence on us and those around us?  Let's talk about it.

When Marc was 19 years old he went to prison for 4 years and spent another 4 years after failing drug tests on parole.  He is currently writing his memoir and he joins us from North Carolina to tell his story.

Nick McLaughlin hosts the Stationary Astronaut Podcast!  Aaron and Nick talk about his trips into the Amazon rainforest with ayahuasca and his spiritual journey.  They discuss reincarnation and the afterlife, the war on drugs and the peace on drugs on an epic ride into the cosmos.  Enjoy!

Carlyn Zwarenstein is a Toronto writer- her second book is titled "On Opium" and can be ordered online through her Twitter @CarlynZwaren.  In this episode Aaron and Carlyn talk about the opioid regulation crisis and addiction and suffering and some of the things we can do as a society to solve these problems.

Aaron recaps the year.  Things he learned doing a podcast.  How it all started.  And he walks us through a drug filled day.

David Poses is a writer and activist and author of: The Weight of Air: a story of the lies about addiction & the truth about recovery.

Claire Zagorski works in harm reduction and co-hosts the Drug Futurisms Podcast.  From Austin, Texas, Claire joins Aaron on the Peace On Drugs Podcast and they talk about the war on drugs, harm reduction, and underground safe-injection sites and the medical staff that risk their careers and freedom by working at them.  They also talk about the misinformation about fentanyl that has spread so much fear that it actually is costing lives.

The Beckley Foundation is a UK-based think tank and UN-accredited NGO, dedicated to activating global drug policy reform and initiating scientific research into psychoactive substances.

Reilly is a psychedelic journalist and Co-founder of Denver Mushroom Cooperative.  He and Aaron discuss how the laws are changing around psychedelics and how the drug war is slowly coming to an end.  Also, Reilly talks about his hometown, Denver, Colorado, and his time as an EMT.  Enjoy!

Aaron and Meagan visit his Mom in North Carolina and have a conversation in the living room of the house he grew up in.  Aaron shares stories of his past with his Mom about drugs and violence for the first time.  Happy Thanksgiving Peaceniks!

This Thanksgiving, and through the holidays will we be able to enjoy our time with family without getting into heated political arguments.  Will your Uncle and Grandpa still be talking when the New Year arrives?  Let's show our families that love is stronger than hate!  Let's spend what little time we have with each other engaged in laughter and cheer and let's check our differences at the door!

David Buckley owns The Pied Piper chain of Headshops in the NC mountains. In this episode Aaron and David talk about all sorts of things like the drug war, addiction, overdose, and Delta-9 THC vs Delta-8.

Amanda S. is an instructress, research analyst, and official spokesperson at Psilocybin Academy!  In this episode Aaron and Amanda talk about Psilocybin Academy and psychedelic therapy and research and they discuss the ways the world is changing its attitude towards drug use, addiction, and the drug war.

Kristen Jones returns for a third time!  Aaron and his wife visited NC and he and his sister sat down for another discussion about the war on drugs.  This podcast was recorded in Kristen's kitchen in Mt Holly, North Carolina

Michael is a musician and artist.  He is frontman and creator of the band Singular Fashion and releases his multi-media art through Plexi Media Group.  In this episode Aaron and Micheal talk music and drugs and life and death.  Enjoy!

In 2020 over 93,000 people died of drug overdose in the US.  Almost 70,000 involved opioids.  In this episode Aaron investigates what the opioid crisis is.  He explains how it is a crisis of regulation.  He explains how, because of prohibition, there is now a super-potent synthetic opioid called fentanyl in abundance on the black market.  Aaron ends with explaining what he believes to be the solutions.

In this episode Aaron contemplates the political divide in the country and discusses ways to avoid falling into political fights when visiting family over the holidays.

Aaron and TJ discuss cults and religion and psychedelics.  Also, Aaron explains his brief absense.

Finding our inner creative force.

Jeff Greene is a Southwest Florida musician.  He and Aaron share stories of past drug experiences such as Jeff's wild ride on peyote that led him to shopping naked at a neighborhood garage sale.

This Sunday's Psychedelic Spirit is about finding our flow and moving with the current of our divine purpose.  Turn on the light, tune in to the infinite energy of the universe, and drop out of a dull existence and fall into the life you deserve to live.

Our species needs more than anything to reconnect to the nature world; Mother Earth.

Kevin McGinnis is a guitar player, singer, and song-writer.  He has recently released new music for his projects, Twelve A.M. Flowers, and Twiggy Branches.  In this episode Aaron and Kevin discuss over some beers, the music industry, covid, and how the world has changed.

Our morning can have a huge impact on how our entire day unfolds.  Having a morning routine can be a positive way to change our lives for the better.  Once we've changed our morning routine, our entire day will begin to evolve until we've found ourselves flowing with the current on the path we were born to take.  As Brandon Boyd said, "Deeper than the deepest Cousteau would ever go.  Higher than the heights of what we often think we know."

Love is so much more than a romcom or a Hallmark card.  Love is the fabric of the entire universe and it flows through every living thing.  We all have access to this divine and cosmic energy if we open up to it.

Linda has struggled with heroin addiction and she is now recovered and living the dream on a beautiful Florida Island in the Gulf of Mexico.  On this Fourteenth episode, Aaron sits down with Linda in her home on Captiva Island and they discuss addiction and how prohibition has contributed to the Opioid Crisis making addiction and overdose rates much higher than they have to be.  Thank you Linda for sharing your story and we hope her story helps someone struggling with addiction to know that you CAN get your life back.

On this Sunday's Psychedelic Spirit, Aaron talks about the power of forgiveness and having mercy on ourselves.

On this Psychedelic Sunday, Aaron talks about the insidious nature of mental parasites and the importance of building up our immunity against them.  It gets uncomfortable.  It gets political.  But this is an important episode.

Spoiler alert:  It's just us.

In this episode Aaron and Brandon record all over New Orleans.  This podcast can best be summed up with the closing remark, "You can't buy this experience, you've got to earn it."

This week Aaron contemplates existence and the theory that we are all one consciousness, one energy; we are all God, or the Universe, or Vishnu, or whatever word you want to use to describe the ubiquitous energy that flows through the earth and galaxies.

How do we deal with depression? How do we explain our existence? When we find ourselves in holes how do we climb out?  In this episode of Sunday's Psychedelic Spirit, Aaron asks these questions.

A new segment for Sundays! Let's get spiritual! In this first segment of Sunday's Psychedelic Spirit, Aaron pontificates on human existence and what this crazy little thing called life might be.  This episode could best be summoned up in something he said in closing, "we are all born of the same star."

William "Rhino" Mueller is riding a unicycle from Las Vegas to Key West from June 1st through September 11th with his Golden Retriever, Schnarf!  He came to the Akulis Studious Studio to sit down with Aaron and explain his mission and smoke a doobie.  Enjoy!

Kristen and Aaron discuss Johann Hari's book, Chasing the Scream, and they talk about people they have lost to overdose and how detrimental the war on drugs has been on our society.  This podcast was recorded in-person in a hotel room in Siesta Key.

William Wernicke (Wild Dog Willy) is a professional drug dealer (bartender) and has recovered from a serious addiction to the very drug he is peddling (alcohol).  He is one of Aaron's oldest friends and in this tenth episode (that should be titled "White Privilege") they tell some funny stories from their past and Will shares some of the horrors of alcohol dependency withdrawals that landed him in the hospital where he nearly died.  Will was born with nine lives but he has spent most of them by now but he looks forward to many good years ahead, free of addiction, and free of venereal diseases.

Gretchen Bergman is Co-Founder & Executive Director of A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing) and Lead Organizer of Moms United to End the War on Drugs.

Happy 420! Just having fun on this one!

Meagan Rose is a pianist and singer AND wife of the host, Aaron Akulis.  In this episode they record her withdrawal of alcohol while on the drug Librium.  Meagan is now over thirty days sober and this is her story.

Aaron Akulis gives a quick update on news related to the war on drugs.

Dustin Mathews grows medical cannabis in Tallahassee, Florida.  He and Aaron were close friends in high school and in this seventh episode of the Peace on Drugs they reminisce on smoking pot in the woods and doing LSD in class.  Enjoy!

TJ Carrozza spent most of his life in a Christian cult and after a psychedelic mushroom trip he escaped but not without being excommunicated from his family.  In this Easter special Aaron and TJ get into a heavy discussion about religion and how psychedelics played a role in shaping the early christian faith and how the war on drugs originally started with the Catholic church and the witch hunts.

The Smoke in the Air series is Aaron Akulis riffing solo with different segments.  The three segments of this first edition of Smoke in the Air are Today on Drugs (current affairs), Peace on Drugs Live (a live recording of the speech Aaron gave at the podcast launch party), and Let's Talk Psychedelics.

David Buckley is a Head Shop owner, owning four Pied Piper locations in the North Carolina Mountains.  Buckley and Aaron grew up together in Gastonia, NC, and on this episode they share stories of their youth and how the war has impacted their lives, and tell funny anecdotes about their lives in drug culture.

Sister of the host, Kristen Jones, has her Master's degree in Latin American studies.  In this second episode, Kristen Jones and Aaron Akulis discuss the effects of the war on drugs south of the border, and their personal experiences with loss caused by addiction.  This podcast begins with a brief introduction featuring their mother talking about the first cannabis experience she had in many years visiting her daughter (Kristen and Aaron's sister) in Colorado.

In this first episode of The Peace On Drugs Aaron Akulis and Michael O'Neill talk about the purpose of the podcast and the effects of the drug war.  They are both musicians in Southwest Florida and go off on a few musical tangents.

DJ Bigg John and Aaron Akulis discuss the effect the war on drugs has had on them personally.  They go off on philosophical tangents and tell personal experiences they've had with drugs.

This is The Peace On Drugs- An Introduction featuring the host, Aaron Akulis, and his first three guests- Mike O'Neil, Kristen Jones, and DJ Bigg John!!! Peace!!!