This Week in Psychoactives - 6.21.19

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CANNABIS

  • New York’s Adult-Use Cannabis Legalization Bill Is Dead (Leafly)

  • Gene Increases Risk for Pot Addiction (Scientific American)

  • Public Cannabis Consumption Now Allowed In Colombia: Is Full Marijuana Legalization Next? (Forbes)

  • Congress Votes To Block Feds From Enforcing Marijuana Laws In Legal States (Forbes)

  • Beijing says US legalization of marijuana is a 'threat to China' (CNN)

  • Three New Studies Explore Link Between Medical Marijuana Dispensaries And Youth Use (Marijuana Moment)

  • Study: Cannabis Safe and Effective in Fibromyalgia Patients (NORML)

  • Maryland Regulators Warn of Possible Lead Contamination in Weed Vape Pens (MERRY JANE)

  • 57% of Arthritis Patients Have Tried Cannabis. 90% Found It Helped (Leafly)

  • House Passes Amendments Stripping DEA Funding And Pushing FDA To Regulate CBD (Marijuana Moment)

  • Marijuana Study Finds CBD Can Cause Liver Damage (Forbes)

  • Public Sewage Revealed Shift Away From Illegal Weed After Legalization (Inverse)

  • From Shortage to Surplus: Canada Could Have Too Much Weed by the End of the Year (MERRY JANE)

  • Texas Governor Signs Bill To Expand State’s Medical Marijuana Program (Marijuana Moment)

  • New Study Finds Cannabis May Be 'Unsafe' For Pregnant Women (WBUR)

  • Ex-Novartis Pill Factory Gets a New Life Making CBD Products (Bloomberg)

  • Cannabis Use Doubles Among Pregnant Women In The U.S., Study Finds (WBUR)

  • Americans Want CBD Available Over-The-Counter, Poll Finds (Marijuana Moment)

  • Cincinnati: Council Members Vote to Eliminate Marijuana Possession Penalties (NORML)

LSD

  • First controlled study of LSD microdosing finds few benefits — and some downsides (PsyPost)

  • How long is acid detectable in the body? (Medical News Today)

MAGIC MUSHROOMS

  • Efforts To Decriminalize Magic Mushrooms Beginning To Sprout Nationally (Forbes)

  • Replication and extension of a model predicting response to psilocybin (Springer Link)

  • Can a psychedelic drug save the terminally ill from their deepest fears of death? (The Age)

NITROUS OXIDE

  • Liverpool's streets are littered with laughing gas canisters: the truth about nitrous oxide (The Sun)

KETAMINE

  • The controversial ketamine-like drug that Trump is pushing on veterans (The Guardian)

  • Why the New Ketamine-Like Nasal Spray Is Worrying Some Physicians (Healthline)

  • Imports of ketamine into the Netherlands up to 800 kilograms from 2.6kg in two years (Mixmag)

  • Ketamine center aims to help those with depression, PTSD, chronic pain (The Durango Herald)

PCP

  • Woman shot at, stabbed after man becomes irate after smoking PCP, police say (KMOV)

OPIOIDS

  • Drug addicts to be given free heroin as Home Office awards first licence (The Telegraph)

  • Opiate addiction in UK in the over-40s triples in 12 years (The Independent)

  • Cops bring addiction counselor on drug raids to fight opioid crisis (CBS News)

  • Pharmacists hand out free naloxone spray on Edmonton's Whyte Avenue (CBC)

  • Pharmacies may not stock naloxone, despite statewide orders (Reuters)

METHAMPHETAMINE

  • Alabama Man On The Lam Insists He Didn’t Give Meth To ‘Attack Squirrel’ (HuffPost)

  • Meth In The Morning, Heroin At Night: Inside The Seesaw Struggle of Dual Addiction (NPR)

  • Arrested While “Panicking on Meth”—An Hour Later, He Was Dead (Filter)

  • Wexford deputy hospitalized after exposure to crystal meth (Cadillac News)

CAFFEINE

TOBACCO

  • Global Forum on Nicotine Asserts Urgency of Tobacco Harm Reduction (Filter)

  • CVS Shifts Anti-Tobacco Fight To E-Cigarettes (Forbes)

ALCOHOL

  • The mysterious deaths in the Dominican Republic reportedly may be linked to illicit alcohol, and it wouldn’t be the first time (Business Insider)

  • Women not aware enough of breast cancer link to alcohol (BBC)

  • Germans thirsty for alcohol-free beer as brewers boost taste (The Guardian)

NOOTROPICS

  • What Is The Effect Of Nootropics On Brain Health? (The Frisky)

KRATOM

KAVA

  • Auckland city set to get its first kava bar at Victoria Park Markets (Stuff.co.nz)

MISCELLANEOUS

  • Movement To Decriminalize Psychedelics Spreads Nationally (Marijuana Moment)

  • AOC's Amendment to Expand Psychedelics Research Shot Down by House of Reps (MERRY JANE)

  • The Feds Want To Subject Every Burning Man Attendee to a Warrantless Drug Search (Reason)

  • Woody Harrelson to play LSD guru Timothy Leary, a Springfield native and Holy Cross alum (MassLive)

  • Evidence is mounting that psychedelic drugs can help treat diseases. Here are the most promising uses. (Business Insider)

  • Cory Booker Proposes Thousands of Drug War Commutations If Elected President (Reason)

  • How Portugal tackled its addiction epidemic to become a world model (CBC)

  • 'I would put the son of a gun in jail': Joe Biden said in a 2001 hearing that he wanted to criminalize raves and 'lock up' rave promoters (Business Insider)

  • Drugs are decriminalised in the UK—if you are a white, privileged MP (The BMJ)

  • The Canadian revival of psychedelic drug research (University Affairs)

  • A Change in Russia’s Draconian Drug Laws Could Be on the Horizon (The Moscow Times)

  • Psychedelic Masculinities: Reflections on Power, Violence and Privilege (Chacruna)

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Disclaimer: "This Week in Psychoactives" does not censor or analyze the news links presented here. The purpose of this column is solely to catalogue how psychedelics are presented by the mass media, which includes everything from the latest scientific research to misinformation.

Image by Psychedelic Astronaut.


On the Monday following each edition of “This Week in Psychoactives,” I post a “Last Week in Psychoactives” video recap to my YouTube channel. After that is done, I retroactively add the video to the corresponding blog post. Here is this week’s video recap: