The UK man became infamous after appearing in a promotional video for the Rumes nightclub in Preston in 2014. The clip included Jackson on the dance floor, where he appeared to be enjoying himself—very intensely.

Footage of Jackson’s wide-eyed, teeth-clenching enjoyment quickly went viral, earning him the nickname “Gurning Rave Guy.”

(One Urban Dictionary entry defines gurning as “the muscle tension in the face that usually ends up with the jaw and tongue rolling and teeth grinding as a result of amphetamines.”)

Jackson opened up about the moment in a 2019 interview on the Flexxed podcast.

“So I’ve gone out from there that night, three-quarters of a bottle of Vodka already down by neck and then three or four drags of real good MD (MDMA),” he shared.

“The rest is history,” the podcast co-hosts laugh.

Despite the substances, Jackson claimed that his on-camera performances as “Gurning Rave Guy” were totally deliberate.

“When I go out anyway, if there is a camera there or not, I am always doing a bit of mad stuff just to get people laughing,” he shared.

The 15 Minutes of Fame has continued to follow Jackson throughout the years. He made headlines when spotted at the Glastonbury music festival in 2022, and even had an action figure made in his honor that same year.

Jackson’s only regrets? He claims things got wilder as the night went on—there was just no one filming.

The post ‘Gurning Rave Guy’ Finally Revealed the Drugs He Was on in Viral Video appeared first on VICE.

Marijuana is legal in California for those over the age of 21, but it’s still strictly regulated. Black market sales are a no-no. And look, we don’t know this guy’s tolerance level. Maybe he had a marathon smoke session planned that would make Willy Nelson step back in awe. But the amount of weed he had in his $350,000 car was a little suspicious, and the five cell phones made it even more difficult to explain.

Even if he could explain it—he buys his drugs in bulk and sells knitted hats across five different Etsy shops—it’s still illegal to keep a primate as a pet.

The unusual assortment of objects in the Rolls allowed police to slap California resident Ali Mused Adel Mohamed with charges of driving under the influence, possession of an exotic animal, and possession of cannabis for sale.

The spider monkey—which has since been named Marcel after Ross Geller’s pet capuchin monkey on Friends—was transported to the Oakland Zoo to receive “appropriate care,” CHP reported in a Facebook post.

“Last night (December 30, 2024), CHP Madera officer stopped a Rolls Royce Ghost on northbound SR-99, north of Avenue 17, for excessive speed. The driver was found to be under the influence and placed under arrest for DUI, and possession of cannabis for sale,” the agency wrote.

“The driver was also in possession of a Spider Monkey, believed to be 1 month old,” they continued. “Primates are illegal to own as pets in California. The monkey was safely taken by Animal Control where he will receive the proper care. Some next-level monkey business!”

Before little Marcel made it to Oakland Zoo, he spent the night at the arresting officer’s home, then spent some time with Madera County Animal Services.

“We really want to deter people from participating in the pet trade like this, because it’s clearly illegal and it’s not good for animals to be raised with unqualified care,” said Fish and Wildlife Captain Nathan Smith, per the LA Times. “Many of the spider monkeys we see are malnourished due to a lack of understanding of dietary and medical needs.”

The post A Spider Monkey in a Onesie, a Rolls-Royce, and a Shit-Ton of Weed. A California DUI Story. appeared first on VICE.

Nicholas Kindle has been accused of selling seized drugs along with David Cole, who had been previously accused of conspiracy to distribute and possess drugs with intent to distribute.

According to the federal court documents, “Kindle and Cole used their positions as special agents to wrongfully obtain illegal narcotics seized by the Department of Homeland Security and other law enforcement agencies and then sold the illegal narcotics to drug dealers … for their own personal enrichment.”

Previous court documents from mid-December initially alleged the two Homeland Security special agents (Kindle unnamed at the time) acquired bath salts by claiming they would use them to conduct Homeland Security investigations.

However, the document stated the two profited hundreds of thousands of dollars via illegal drug sales.

Charging documents also alleged that Kindle and Cole allowed a confidential informant to purchase the drugs, resell them, and then keep the money. The informant and his attorney had contacted the U.S. Attorney’s Office regarding illegal drug sales, which triggered an investigation by the FBI. The informant kept tabs on the two special agents and their illegal activity throughout the investigation.

“According to (the informant), Cole and Kindle never arrested any of the individuals to whom (the informant) sold the bath salts, nor did Cole and Kindle provide (the informant) with recording devices or other equipment to aid in gathering evidence of those involved in the illegal drug purchases,” the documents state.

New charges also claimed that “on at least three occasions, Cole and Kindle stole evidence that was meant to be seized by Homeland Security as part of legitimate Homeland Security investigations. This theft included thousands of dollars in cash, a diamond ring, and a Peruvian antiquity.”

This occurred between the years of 2021 and 2024, the documents state.

The post Another DHS Agent Was Just Charged for Selling Bath Salts From Evidence appeared first on VICE.

Seth has a big history with both VICE and just about every lever of US law enforcement. In 2015, he was released from a 21-year stint in federal prison for selling quantities of cannabis and LSD so biblically huge they provoked national outrage; by that point, he’d already been writing for VICE and many other publications for years: a columnist behind bars. Since being freed, he’s made his name as a screenwriter and filmmaker.

But now, he’s back in the shit.

Over the phone, Seth is eager to point out that Nebraska, where he was arrested on October 29, just voted to legalize medical cannabis—joining the other 38 states where it is either medically or recreationally legal. But outside of regulated frameworks, criminal punishments remain in place for possession. “Why can all these legal corporations transport money and marijuana wherever the fuck they want, but individual citizens can’t?” asks Ferranti rhetorically, in his distinctive gruff drawl between heady tokes of a hash joint. 

The 52-year-old, who grew up in the California suburbs before following his military father on placements overseas, is under no illusions as to why the authorities remain so keen to make an example of him. It goes all the way back to 1991, when he was 20 years old, and that original bust when he was accused of distributing more than 100,000 doses of acid in Virginia. A situation he responded to by jumping bail and spending two years on the lam.

After absconding, the 6 foot 1 rogue elaborately but unsuccessfully staged his own drowning in an attempt to throw police off the scent. He drove to the edge of a river in Maryland and left an empty vodka bottle and a note in his abandoned car. However, the “suicide” was declared a hoax by police after they worked out Ferranti had staged it on the wrong side of the river; if his body had really entered the water that side, it would have washed up into a dam. It led him to be placed on the US Marshals’ 15 ‘Most Wanted’ fugitives list. His wanted poster explained that Ferranti was a member of a North Virginia drug distribution organization that supplied LSD and marijuana “to students at numerous high schools and universities.”

“Out of all the fugitives, they made a Deadhead college marijuana dealer a top priority in the whole United States,” as he despaired, previously. Needing money, and unable to work legally, he went back to selling cannabis but got caught smoking a joint outside a Burger King while doing a deal in 1993. He was released under investigation but his fingerprints marked him out as a man on the run, and he was tracked to a motel bed in Missouri. He was promptly given a maximum sentence, the kind usually reserved for hardened drug kingpins. “They gave me 25 years when I was only 22,” he recalls. “I was a first-time non-violent offender. There were dudes who’d killed people in there that had less time than me. It shook me to my core.” 

Seething with a fierce sense of injustice that he still harbors today, Ferranti spent his initial years incarcerated working out, playing guitar in a prison death metal band, and doing “a lot” of drugs—cannabis, LSD, mushrooms—along with getting drunk on prison moonshine. He wouldn’t recommend tripping in prison: “When you were out in the yard, it was OK, but then you go back and get locked in a cell… LSD is about setting, and in prison your mindset’s a lot of negativity.”

Whether prompted by a psychedelic prison-yard epiphany or not, Ferranti eventually stopped twiddling his thumbs. The high school dropout got three college degrees and became a journalist while locked up behind the razor wire, writing for a popular underground prison magazine, launching the website Gorilla Convict, and beginning his I’m Busted column for VICE in the late 90s. His plight soon elicited attention from Rolling Stone.

“I had to do something; I had to let people know,” he says. On his anti drug war crusade, he wrote about his own case and other narcotics inmates who found themselves inside on what they felt were unjustifiably long sentences. He also wrote about gangsters and the doll porn craze. “I told the real stories,” he says. “The mainstream news media just repeats the prosecutor’s story. But there’s a lot of gray areas in life.” He also revealed prison officer corruption, leading guards to throw him in solitary confinement. 

When he was in ‘the Hole,’ he would simply switch focus from mag deadlines to one of his many books. “They say you got First Amendment rights and can write for the press, but as soon as I started getting national attention for work that was critical of what was going on in the institution, I found out real quick I had no rights,” he says. “When I was in the Hole I’d pay one of the orderlies like, $20 to bring me a pen, and I’d write. That’s the type of dude I was.” The Daily Beast, for whom he also contributed articles, reported in 2013 that Ferranti was in the throes of a weeks-long stint in solitary, “evidently as a punishment for his journalism.” 

After he was finally released from prison to a more 4/20-friendly world in 2015, his 2017 documentary White Boy—the true story of Rick Wershe Jr, a teenaged FBI informant who became a cocaine kingpin—was among the top 5 most watched movies on Netflix in the US. It led to a swathe of further films, including last year’s Secret History of the LSD Trade. But Seth didn’t always manage to make ends meet through his journalism—the golden days of the early noughties web boom and getting paid $900 from VICE for a column long behind him. “As an artist, sometimes you struggle, man. If your work is not as accepted as some of your other work has been. But that’s life, I’m not giving up.”

Ferranti’s trial has been set for March 25. He’s pleaded not guilty and plans to question the legality of the stop, pointing to a local police force with a reputation for pulling people over and forcing them into “civil forfeitures.” Ferranti claims it was only after being made to stop that the cops said they could smell weed; his defense will argue that some courts have ruled that the scent of cannabis alone—a legal aroma, in many places—does not justify a search. (The police claim Seth was driving on the hard shoulder.) Ferranti spent three weeks in county jail before his supporters were able to amass the $25,000 in cash needed to meet his bail.

“They had me like I’m some cartel dude,” he says. “I never got caught with a gun. I never got caught with no powders. I’m not a fucking criminal.” Ferranti remains ardent that he is first and foremost a repeat victim of the enduring War On Drugs, seeing himself more as a “trailblazing entrepreneur” who has championed causes that happen to be politically unpopular. Perhaps, with the ongoing legalization of cannabis and the psychedelic renaissance, he is in the process of being vindicated by history—despite his most recent arrest.

“I always believed these substances were medicinal, spiritual, and therapeutic,” he says. “I’m like a rebel with a cause. I was a psychedelic, cannabis warrior. They almost convinced me I was wrong. But now I feel justified: I was an activist. I was ahead of my time and had to pay the price.”

His gritty new documentary, A Tortured Mind, covers the failure of the authorities to reintegrate former prisoners back into society and the realities of post-incarceration syndrome. The protagonist, Ryan Leone, who was not long out of prison, fatally overdosed while they were making the movie. “If it happened tomorrow, I’d have a tonne of regrets, but I can honestly say that I didn’t die with fear of death,” Leone says, morbidly, in the film.

“He had maybe a few mental issues and drug addiction but then all the violence and stuff he witnessed during eight years in prison exacerbated everything,” Ferranti says. “When he came out he was a complete mess. He couldn’t stay off drugs, his mental illness was off the charts. He went to prison and they grinded him up and he came out totally more fucked up.”

Today, it’s Ferranti who faces the possibility of another stretch inside, this time on charges of possession with intent to supply. But he is unrepentant. “They don’t call me the Outlaw Filmmaker for nothing,” he says. “The laws need to change.”

Follow Mattha Busby on Instagram @matthamundo

The post The Ballad of Seth Ferranti, Who the Cops Just Won’t Leave Alone appeared first on VICE.

Shrooms offer an abundant source of psilocybin, a psychedelic that has recently been used in a medical setting to help patients overcome trauma and depression. But while magic mushrooms might be good for your mental health, they may also be bad for your mental health.

There have been plenty of clinical trials that show promising results for psilocybin’s applications toward mental health. However, some experts are warning that recreational use of psilocybin can lead to a whole host of psychological maladies, like anxiety, insomnia, trauma, and something called HPPD. HPPD stands for Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder, which is when a person who has used a psychedelic experiences hallucinations long after they’ve taken the drug.

Are Mushrooms Good or Bad for Your Mental Health?

The use of psilocybin to treat mental health issues has been on the rise in recent years. Several states in the US legalized its use strictly under medical circumstances, and a tiny minority of states legalized it outright.

Back in November 2020, the state of Oregon became the first state to legalize psilocybin-assisted therapy. Colorado soon followed suit. Even conservative stalwart Texas has made strides in recognizing the medical benefits of psilocybin by passing a bill in June 2021 that calls for the study of psilocybin’s therapeutic use for veterans with PTSD. It could just be a matter of frequency.

Some research suggests that 8.9% of people who have used psychedelics regularly over their lifetime reported impairments lasting longer than a day. The study of psychedelics on the mind is still in its infancy. Right now the debate seems to be stuck in the same place the egg debate finds itself in even after all these years.

There are pros. There are cons. Your decision to use psychedelics and reap the benefits of psilocybin rests almost entirely on whether the pros outweigh the cons for you.

The post Magic Mushrooms Could Boost Your Mental Health—and Traumatize You appeared first on VICE.

Mika Voorhans, 21, of the Netherlands, was arrested after officials discovered 100 kilos of ketamine hidden behind paneling screwed inside his van, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA). Originally, Border Force officers stopped Voorhans while he was boarding the Channel Tunnel in France last December. After noticing a bulge in the paneling, they further investigated the situation and found the drugs.

However, “Voorhans denied knowledge of the drugs,” the agency reported in a press release. “He told NCA investigators he hired the van to collect a second-hand motorbike in Coventry for a friend-of-a-friend. He claimed the panelling was installed by others, to prevent damage to the van.”

That’s quite an elaborate and unlikely excuse.

Man Arrested for Allegedly Trying to Smuggle Ketamine in His Van

“Officers found a tape measure and drill inside the vehicle, along with receipts revealing Voorhans had spent £850 on plywood and the tape measure at a DIY shop in Amsterdam three days before being stopped,” the press release continued. “NCA officers, assisted by Dutch Police, retrieved shop CCTV footage before it could be wiped. The footage showed Voorhans buying the paneling and taking it to the van.”

In addition to this footage, officials also found a video on Voorhans’ phone of the paneling, as well as Snapchat posts where he requested assistance with the woodwork.

And if that wasn’t enough evidence, Voorhans’ DNA was all over the drugs, so… rookie mistake. 

“Voorhans prepared a cover story but he underestimated the close working relationship we have with police overseas and our determination to stop extremely harmful drugs making it to UK streets,” said NCA Operations Manager Richard Deakin. 

Voorhans was basically forced to come clean and pleaded guilty to importing Class B drugs at Canterbury Crown Court. Unluckily for him, he was sentenced on Friday, December 13.

“Had Voorhans not been stopped, I have no doubt this huge quantity of drugs would have caused harm to a great many people in the UK,” Deakin said. “Instead, the ketamine will be destroyed and Voorhans is spending years in prison.”

The post Man Busted With £4m in Ketamine Says He Didn’t Know He Had It appeared first on VICE.

In the latest episode of The War On Drugs show, VICE visited downtown Düsseldorf, a city that has recorded a 14000% increase in crack use at its safe consumption rooms.

This new influx of crack users has seen anti-social behavior soar and long-term addicts pine for the Elysian days when you could hang out, shoot the shit, and smoke some rock without getting bottled by hyped-up newbies. 

Watch the full episode now in the player below or over at the VICE YouTube channel.

The post We Met Germany’s New Generation of Crack Cocaine Users appeared first on VICE.

It will surprise no one who’s ever used the internet to learn that the post easily surpassed Chris’s threshold, drawing a few thousand likes and generating nearly 300,000 impressions. In fact, Chris—who says he started taking mushrooms to cope with his manic depression and PTSD—was so impressed by the reaction that he declared he would amp up his efforts, and gobble up another 10.5g of the psychedelic fungus.

So it was that on Friday night, somewhere in the US, @Chompers2024 ate more than an ounce of magic mushrooms live on X, while sitting in his Tesla car.

It may sound like some kind of elaborate, life-threatening homage to the X- and Tesla-owning, pro-psychedelics tycoon Elon Musk, but Chris said he didn’t trip at home because he didn’t want his wife to find out. “The most shrooms I ate before this was about 10g, and I was tripping hardcore,” he explained to me. Despite going minorly viral and attracting so much attention that his X profile was removed, he claims his wife remains in the dark.

At least two people were directly inspired to join in with Chris. “Youve got this brother,” wrote one X user, alongside a photo of a bag of mushrooms. “im not gonna go ape shit like you but ill [take] a nice lil 3.5 wit ya.” Another said they would take 4g in solidarity with Chris. Others jumped into the replies, often just to raise their own profiles or promote their mushroom brands. Yet the madness raised a question: Are live-streamed psychedelic binges, sparked by random pied pipers, going to become A Thing?

“There has been an uptick in increasingly brazen viral marketing stunts pulled by manufacturers and sellers of psychedelics,” says mushroom industry expert Dennis Walker, of the Mycopreneur podcast. “It’s a cat and mouse game of people posting and getting taken down. I’ve seen these binge-level live-streamed doses several times across various platforms in recent months.” Walker says that one mushroom grower on Instagram, whose account is now inactive, recorded himself weighing out 100g of psychedelic fungi and then stuffing handfuls of it into his mouth, before the video cut to a scene of him being carried around by his friends. (Side point: remember when getting shitfaced on alcohol was actually cool?)

Alongside the goonish binges have been prominent endorsements. A retailer of DMT vapes teamed up recently with an LA-based influencer, who posted about the product to their 400,000 followers, Walker says. Meanwhile, both a boxer and a comedian have partnered with a mushroom chocolate brand. This month, on Logan Paul’s podcast, Mike Tyson pulled out a bag of mushrooms and said he never trains without them. Previously, he ate a handful of mushrooms—enough for a strong trip—on the podcast while smoking a joint. “It’s a fungus, it’s what we’re made out of,” Tyson reasoned.

During his five minutes of fame, Chris had the wherewithal to remember to shout out mushroom company Matrix Genetix—which encourages ‘shroom use on its Instagram. “The Matrix wants you busy, brainwashed, and bound to their system. It’s time to wake up and channel into the dimensions around us,” a recent post read. Neither Chris nor Matrix Genetix denied they had a business relationship, in correspondence with VICE. 

There will be concerns that such marketing stunts, and binge-dose exhibitionism, downplay potential risks. The psychedelic mushrooms on sale in underground dispensaries and online are becoming increasingly potent, due to more advanced breeding methods amid a race to create the strongest mushroom. There are some varieties that are four times as strong as others. Yet at no point in recent history has the use of psychedelics felt so normalized.

“After decades of drug war propaganda demonizing psychedelics, the narrative has swung to the opposite extreme, with increasing claims that they’re among the safest drugs one can take,” says Dr Manesh Girn, a neuroscientist specializing in psychedelics at the University of California. “While safe in the sense of not being neurotoxic or addictive in the conventional way, these claims downplay the very real risks of psychological harm and destabilization. We need a balanced, evidence-based view that doesn’t trivialize these powerful substances.”

Concern is growing that as more people take psychedelics, many are experiencing distressing trips which do more harm than good. Some are left with persisting hallucinations, anxiety, and a sense of derealization. “For about 18 months, I awoke with the sun every morning full of a feeling of absolute terror,” one person told the authors of a study on bad trips last year. “Sometimes my anxiety would be so high in the morning I would physically shake.”

Speaking to VICE, Chris concedes that his journey with mushrooms, which began around a year ago, has possibly caused more issues than it has solved. “One day I had a meltdown and took too many mushrooms and I ended up totaling my car and I got arrested,” he claims. “I spent overnight in a jail cell.”

When Chris declared he’d eat the ludicrously strong dose of mushrooms on X, some warned that he might not survive. Others advised him not to do it alone. “Get a good trip sitter you trust,” one user said, “I went full berserk last time I exceeded my limits.” GIFs of rocket launches and advisories for people to fasten their seatbelts showered the replies to his tweets, but Chris appears to have emerged relatively unscathed.

“I went to lay down and then I don’t remember much,” he says. “I saw weird flashes of light and when I closed my eyes I saw crazy-looking patterns and shapes. It was a very wild experience. I slept the best that I ever slept in my life. Normally I wake up five or six times per night but I slept all the way through.” Unsurprisingly, he remains a firm advocate. “I love mushrooms,” he says.

The trip, however, was condemned in some quarters. “As a mycologist and myconaught [sic],” wrote “Mr Shire Genetrics”, “I have to say not only is this super wreckless. I am really ashamed of everyone who is egging this on. You all really disgust me. Psilocybin is about healing. This has so many levels of cringe and dude is happy he went viral. Smh.” Another gave Chris props. “Willingly deciding to see the aspects of the universe,” they wrote. “Ya gotta respect it.” Another rolled out the red carpet for his return. “Welcome back from your trip to gnomeland Chompers,” they said.

Walker laments how “a very American and capitalist sense of bravado where more equals better” seems to be invading the psychedelic space. “Large doses can potentially be great for some people and shouldn’t be considered as inherently a bad idea,” he says, “but the intersection of recording yourself on social media and marketing as a stunt around these large doses is a terrible idea.”

Follow Mattha Busby on Instagram @matthamundo

The post People Are Binge-Eating Huge Doses of Magic Mushrooms Live on Social Media appeared first on VICE.

The study found that 37.8 percent of adults who identify as LGBTQ+ have tried electronic cigarettes, compared to 16.5 percent of straight adults. Electronic cigarettes in this distinction include basically everything you’re probably already thinking of, by the way – e-cigars, e-pipes, e-hookahs, vaping pens, and hookah pens.

The data, which was collected between 2019 and 2021, showed that 31.8 percent of gay men, 26.7 percent of lesbian women, and 46.7 percent of bisexual adults have used e-cigarettes.

The numbers are also higher among younger members of the LGBTQ+ community, at 42.1 percent, compared to young people who identify as straight, at 30.3 percent.

“Tobacco use is a singular health threat to LGBTQ+ communities,” Kristy Marynak, a senior science adviser at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told NBC News. “This report finds that nearly one in five of all deaths in the United States are caused by tobacco, and it shines a light on the disproportionate burden borne by certain communities, including LGBTQ+ communities.”

Why Do More LGBTQ+ PEOPLE Vape Than Straight People?

As for why this is the case, the report noted that experiences of sexuality-based harassment were associated with higher odds of e-cigarette use among LGBTQ+ people.

Additionally, the report found that the tobacco industry has targeted the LGBTQ+ community through advertising and coupons, and by touting its “donations to organizations focused on addressing HIV/AIDS and its support” for LGBTQ+ pride.

Xavier Becerra, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, noted that the goal of the report is to shine a light on initiatives that “are expected to meaningfully advance efforts to eliminate the burden of death and disease caused by commercial tobacco use.” To do so, he said, the U.S. “must engage all sectors of society” and “close the gap in tobacco-related health disparities in the United States.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Mandy Cohen, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noted that menthol-flavored tobacco products—which have been found to increase the likelihood of initiation, addiction, and sustained use—”are target marketed to certain population groups,” including the LGBTQ community.

The post Gay Adults Vape More Than Straight Adults, New Report Finds appeared first on VICE.

Police grew suspicious of the shipment when they found that the Ecuadorian exporter had a history of illegal trafficking. Concern grew when, upon arrival to Algeciras on Oct. 14, discrepancies were detected between the declared and actual cargo. This led cops to open the container and uncover a shocking amount of cocaine.

The container was full of boxes containing bananas, as expected. Behind the fruit-carrying boxes, though, were identical boxes housing the drugs. Bricks of cocaine, which were the exact size of the boxes they were in, were discovered in the back boxes.

In the shipment, police found 13 tons of cocaine, which is more than 25,000 pounds. Before this bust, the largest drug find in Spain came in 2023, when police seized 9.3 tons of cocaine.

After the bust, police raided five locations in Madrid and Alicante. During these raids, police seized loads of documents that will soon be analyzed by investigators.

One woman, who is a partner of the company receiving the illicit shipment, was arrested in Toledo. Two managers of the importing company are on the run.

The post Record Cocaine Haul Uncovered in Banana Boxes From Ecuador appeared first on VICE.