I'll pull out of South Dakota just after dawn, headed across the Northern Plains to Denver tonight, then over the high passes of the Rockies and on to Salt Lake City Wednesday night, so I can get up bright and early Thursday morning to attend the opening session of the Harm Reduction Project's 2nd National Conference on Methamphetamine, HIV, and Hepatis. This is a big deal. If you click on the link above and start perusing all that's going to be on offer for the three-day confab, you'll find a stellar selection of cutting edge scientific research, clinical results, and therapeutic best practices. I'm particularly interested in amphetamine replacement therapy, or treating speed freaks with speed. The mayor of Vancouver wants to start up a stimulant replacement therapy pilot project there, and there is some research suggesting it could work. Look for a feature article on the latest on this topic, probably not this week, but next. I'm going over the high passes en route not just for the scenic beauty, but also as a bit of a training exercise for my next trip, now set for February 9. I figure having a little recent experience sucking for air going over 12,000-foot passes in Colorado should be good practice for heading to the high Andes, which I will do shortly after arriving in Lima on that date. From Lima, it's on to Ayacucho (historic heartland of the Shining Path) to meet with coca grower leader Nelson Palomino, then on to Cusco for a little obligatory touristing at nearby Machu Picchu before heading across the altiplano to 13,000-foot La Paz, Bolivia. I'll be blogging daily on that little adventure, so stay tuned. But first, it's Salt Lake and the meth conference. Look for some blogging from the capital of Utah first. Hmmm, I wonder what Park City is looking like this season..