This Week in Psychedelics - 6.15.18

Cannabis

• Canadian Senate Signs Off On Historic Cannabis Regulation Measure (NORML)
• President Trump Expresses Support For Bipartisan Marijuana Fix (NORML)
• Expect Fully Legal Weed Within 5 Years, Says Former Top Pharma Lobbyist and Congressman Billy Tauzin (Reason)
• Parisians queue for cannabis after softening of drug laws  (The Telegraph)
• Minneapolis cops halt low-level marijuana stings after racial disparity revealed (StarTribune)
• CBD Could Help People Smoke Fewer Cigarettes (Tonic)
• Oklahomans To Decide In Two Weeks On Providing Medical Marijuana Access (NORML)
• Meet the Cannasexuals: Can your vagina get high? (BBC)
• UN Drug Committee Finds Cannabis an Effective, ‘Relatively Safe Drug’ (Leafly)
• Five Danish political parties support legalisation of cannabis (The Local)
• Senators Include Medical Marijuana Protections In Justice Department Bill (Forbes)
• The Pot Industry Is Overwhelmingly White, and One Congresswoman Wants to Change That (Rolling Stone)
• 7 mayors want pot removed from federal list of illegal drugs (Associated Press)
• House Appropriations Committee Blocks Cannabis Banking Amendment (NORML)
• Subjective Reports Positive for Cannabis in MS, but Caution Urged (Medscape)
• Senate Majority Leader Announces Progress On Hemp Reform Legislation (NORML)
• S.C. Democrats overwhelmingly supported medical marijuana on the ballot Tuesday. Experts weigh in on what that really means. (Charleston City Paper)
• How Will Employers Handle Cannabis In The Workplace? (Civilized)
• Congressional Black Caucus Announces Support for Marijuana Law Reforms (NORML)
• Uruguay struggling to meet demand for legal marijuana (Associated Press)
• Using Marijuana to Treat Opioid Addiction (The Fix)
• Can Legal Cannabis Help Slow the Opioid Drug Epidemic in the U.S.? (TheStreet)
• How Mapping Marijuana DNA Could Change the Future of Pot (Rolling Stone)
• Rules around marijuana marketing irk some in the cannabis industry (CBC)
• Marijuana Cultivation Is Where Cannabis Workers Can Earn The Largest Salaries (Forbes)
• How to Throw a Cannabis Dinner Party (High Times)
• Ask a Stoner: What Are Some Good Psychedelic Strains? (Westword)
• Art Of The Deal: Trump Looks To Trade Cannabis Legalization for Justice Department Nominees (Forbes)
• How The Cannabis Industry Became America's Hotbed Of Invention (Forbes)
• U.S. Markets 'Definitively' Missing Out on Capital by Barring Cannabis Companies (TheStreet)

LSD

• Did An Acid Trip Change Your Life? Scientists Want To Know About It (Futurism)
• LSD And Toxic Lies (The Third Wave)
• '70s Flashback: When Howard Stern Took LSD (CelebStoner)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• LSD and magic mushrooms could heal damaged brain cells in people suffering from depression, study shows (The Independent)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Why is Britain suffering from an ecstasy overdose? (ShortList)
• Cannabis and MDMA use is on the rise among Irish young people (Extra.ie)
• This Piece of Art Is Made Out of 4,000 Ecstasy Pills (VICE)
• Warning as deadly blue ‘Punisher’ and ‘Duracell’ ecstasy pills found at Manchester’s Parklife Festival (The Sun)

Ayahuasca/DMT/5-MeO-DMT

• DMT vs. 5-MeO-DMT (Psychedelic Heaven)
• Ayahuasca Healings Is a One Stop Online Destination for All Information Relating to Ayahuasca (Digital Journal)

Morning Glory Seeds

• UAE legal Q&As: What is the punishment for being caught having taken 'Morning Glory'? (The National)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Warning over potent 'fake MDMA' drug which causes psychosis and keeps users awake for three days (The Telegraph)

Dissociatives

• Ketamine is likely one solution to prevent school massacres, doctors agree (Rooster)
• Ketamine and Psychedelic Drugs Change Structure of Neurons (Neuroscience News)
• Hit-and-run suspect ran over Deep Ellum bartender while smoking PCP, passenger says (Dallas News)

Opiates/Opioids

• One easy, cost-free thing Trump can do to ease the opioid crisis (The Washington Post)
• Lack of evidence casts doubt on police claims of officers overdosing after accidental opioid contact (The Star Vancouver)
• Beyond Books: How Libraries Are the Latest Front in the Opioid Fight (Governing)
• Big Opium's fines could approach Big Tobacco's as lawsuits mount (Rooster)
• Afghanistan is producing a lot more opium than before the US invasion. The US just can't stop it (Business Insider)
• Nan Goldin's Misleading OxyContin Story Feeds the Myth of 'Highly Addictive' Pain Pills (Reason)

Absinthe

• What Can We Learn About Moral Panics from Absinthe? (Patheos)

Kratom

• Kratom Advocates Take Their Fight To Washington As Potential Federal Ban Looms (HuffPost)
• Kratom Could Be Illegal Before It Gets a Chance to Solve the Opioid Crisis (Inverse)
• Can Kratom Be Detected In Urine And Drug Test? (Kratom Guides)
• Photos: US hunger for opioid alternative drives Kratom boom in Indonesia (Hindustan Times)
• 5 Kratom Strains to Help Increase Your Productivity At Work (Kratom Guides)
• Edmonton kratom retailer frustrated by 'aggressive' Health Canada raids (CBC)
• Yellow Maeng da Kratom Review: Origin, Benefits and Side Effects (Kratom Guides)

Kava

• Kava is the ‘anti-caffeine’ (Greenville Journal)
• More Improvements Needed In Kava Sector (Fiji Sun)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity (Cell Reports)
• How Big Pharma Hopes to Make Psychedelics Profitable (The Market Mogul)
• Psychedelic drugs promote neural plasticity in rats and flies (EurekAlert!)
• Men who have used psychedelics are roughly half as likely to commit intimate partner violence (PsyPost)
• E3 Attendees Get High on Digital Psychedelics (GlobeNewsWire)
• Can psychedelics help prevent suicide? (Big Think)
• Group Therapy for Psychedelic Integration (Chacruna)
• Balancing Cultural Traditions and Science in Entheogenic Research: A Conversation with Brad Adams, Ph.D. (Psychedelic Times)
• New Resolution Demands Congress Apologize For Failed Drug War (Marijuana Moment)
• Why Is Everyone Into Microdosing Right Now? (Girlboss)
• This Is Why Xanax Is Blowing Up in America (VICE)
• Trump Should Hurt Sessions by Helping Drug Offenders (Reason)
• Can Psychedelics Induce Flow States? (The Third Wave)
• The Holy Trinity of Music, Religion, and Psychedelics: Interview with Tim Ferson of OM Collective (Psychedelic Times)
• I talked with Adam Strauss about Ketamine for OCD, Trip Sitters, and The Mushroom Cure Los Angeles (Psymposia)
• Why Are Rhode Island Democrats Pushing a Bill That Could Send Some Drug Dealers to Prison For Life? (Medium)
• 1 In 3 Adults In The U.S. Takes Medications Linked To Depression (NPR)
• Drug testers at festivals will tell you if that MDMA you bought is actually sugar (Metro)
• As Mind-Altering Drugs Meet The Mainstream, The D.C. Psychedelic Society Is Bringing The City's 'Trippy People' Together (DCist)
• Agony and Ecstasy: Psychedelics as the next big health remedy? (The Irish Times)
• Psychedelic Drugs Can Cure 'The Most Painful Condition Known to Man' (Andrew Joseph)

Disclaimer: "This Week in Psychedelics" 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 Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

This Week in Psychedelics - 6.8.18

Cannabis

• All eyes on Canada as first G7 nation prepares to make marijuana legal (The Guardian)
• Bipartisan Legislation Introduced To Protect States That Have Legalized Marijuana (NORML)
• 65 percent of Americans say it’s ‘morally acceptable’ to smoke pot (The Washington Post)
• Study: Majority Of Chronic Pain Patients Replace Opioids With Cannabis (NORML)
• Legalising cannabis ‘could earn Treasury £3.5bn’ (The Guardian)
• Republican Rules Committee Blocks Veterans Medical Cannabis Amendments (NORML)
• Banned from Wall Street, US cannabis companies go north (CNN)
• Looking For Big Returns In The Cannabis Market? Look East, Not West (Forbes)
• Virginia: Crime Data Shows Surge In Marijuana Arrests (NORML)
• Colorado's Governor, Who Founded a Brewpub, Nixes Cannabis 'Tasting Rooms' (Reason)
• Some California hospitals report uptick in ER visits for cannabis (Daily Democrat)
• Part 3, The Most Common Qualifying Conditions for MMJ (Leafly)
• L.A. Supervisors Support Bill to Automatically Expunge Some Cannabis Convictions (LA Weekly)
• Portland Has Nearly Twice as Many Pot Shops as Liquor Stores (Willamette Week)
• Watch This: Celebrities Keep Educating Conan About Cannabis (Leafly)
• It's The 1st Day Cannabis Licenses In Mass. Can Be Issued, But Expect A Slow Rollout (New England Public Radio)
• Why we must legalise cannabis now for the sake of public health (The Guardian)
• A Dietitian's Surprising Take on Cannabis Edibles (U.S. News & World Report)
• The Ontario Election: What Does It Mean For Cannabis? (Leafly)
• NORML's Jared Polis Endorsement and Growing Power of Marijuana Voters (Westword)
• High time India, the land of bhang, legalises marijuana: Shashi Tharoor (ThePrint)
• Everything you wanted to know about cannabis legalization … but forgot to ask (The Guardian)
• Why we need better, smarter, panic-free education on cannabis (The Conversation)
• These Are The 4 Big Buzzwords in the Cannabis Industry Right Now (Entrepreneur)
• The Cannabis Strains of Summer (for Every Tolerance Level) (East Bay Express)
• California’s First Cannabis Business Owners Policy Approved (Insurance Journal)
• Medical cannabis and the challenge for regulation of medicines (The Conversation)
• Cannabis industry leaders opine on budding business (Bristol Herald Courier)

LSD

• The political significance of LSD (Open Democracy)
• ‘Largest ever LSD haul in Germany’ seized in Rhineland-Palatinate (The Local)
• Sheriff: Wrong-way driver on LSD thought he was in video game 'Grand Theft Auto' (KVAL)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• California won't vote on psilocybin this year. Denver still might. (Rooster)
• What Ever Happened to Denver's Magic Mushroom Initiative? (Westword)
• When A Maryland Man Posted Pictures Of Morel Mushroom On Facebook, The Cops Showed Up (Inquisitr)
• What It’s Like to Trip on the Most Potent Magic Mushroom (The Atlantic)
• Psychedelic Medicine 101: Psilocybin and the magic of mushrooms (New Atlas)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Yours for £2: artist Chemical X donates ‘ecstasy’ work as prize for drug test charity (The Guardian)
• Festival goers warned of high dose batches of ecstasy following deaths in UK (Independent.ie)
• MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy Mitigates PTSD Symptoms (Medscape)

Ayahuasca/DMT/5-MeO-DMT

• Is it Cultural Appropriation for White People to Drink Ayahuasca? (Kahpi)
• Spiritual exploration is the top reason people consume 5-MeO-DMT, study finds (PsyPost)
• A Shamanic View of How Ayahuasca & Nature Communicate With Us (Kahpi)
• Psychedelic tourism thrives in Peru despite recent killing (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Ayahuasca Pilot Study Investigates the Meaning of Life and Death: Interview with Brad Adams, Ph.D. (Psychedelic Times)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

• The Essential Guide to Mescaline (The Third Wave)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Synthetic Weed Is Back, Bigger Than Ever, and Scary as Hell (The Daily Beast)

Dissociatives

• From Chaos To Calm: A Life Changed By Ketamine (WMOT)
• NPR (yet again) writes uncritically about ketamine for mental illness (Health News Review)
• Guidelines for Use of IV Ketamine Infusions for Acute Pain Management Released  (MD Magazine)

Opiates/Opioids

• High Schoolers Who Use Heroin Commonly Use Multiple Other Drugs (NYU News)
• Naloxone Recalled Due To Particulate Matter (CBS Pittsburgh)
• A new study shows stigma is hurting our response to the opioid epidemic (Vox)
• She Went to Jail for a Drug Relapse. Tough Love or Too Harsh? (The New York Times)
• Suggested Paths to Fixing the Opioid Crisis (JAMA Network)
• U.S. Hunger For Opioid Alternative Drives Boom in Borneo Jungle (Bloomberg)
• This Is Your Hand on Opioids: Trump's 'Very Bad Commercials' Rely on Dishonest and Pernicious Scare Tactics (Reason)
• She paid nothing for opioid painkillers. Her addiction treatment costs more than $200 a month. (Vox)
• Farmers tell govt to lift ban on cultivation of opium (The Tribune)

Absinthe

• Absinthe Market will touch a new level in upcoming year – Key Players involved in the research (The Financial)

Kratom

• 6 Most Common Myths About Kratom (Kratom Guides)
• Kratom advocates fight FDA crackdown (Washington Examiner)
• Buying Kratom In Canada? Is that Kratom legal In Canada? (Kratom Guides)
• FDA warns about possible contaminated herbal supplement parents may need to worry about (KUTV)
• Where To Buy Kratom In New York And Is It Legal? (Kratom Guides)
• What Are The Best Kratom Strains For Pain? (Kratom Guides)
• Top Extracts Botanicals Review – The Best Vendor To Buy Kratom Online (Kratom Guides)
• What Is The Legal Status of Kratom In Tennessee? (Kratom Guides)
• Companies Leading In Selling Kratom And CBD/Hemp Products Online (Kratom Guides)
• Is Kratom Legal In Florida In 2018 (Kratom Guides)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Psychedelic drug use associated with reduced partner violence in men (EurekAlert!)
• FDA Monitors Social Media for Drug Abuse Trends (Pain News Network)
• Michael Pollan Drops Acid — and Comes Back From His Trip Convinced (The New York Times)
• How should we be teaching students about drugs? (Psymposia)
• Rhode Island Wants to Treat Drug Dealers Like Murderers (Reason)
• With The Rise Of Legal Weed, Drug Education Moves From 'Don't' to 'Delay' (NPR)
• Bangladesh accused of using drugs war to hide political assassinations (The Telegraph)
• The Feds Are Raiding the Offices of Doctors Who Prescribe Addiction Medication (Tonic)
• Festival drug-testing shows a way to reduce harm (The Economist)
• How psychedelic drugs made a comeback (DailyO)
• A debate over plant consciousness is forcing us to confront the limitations of the human mind (Quartz)
• Bestival to offer drug testing facilities for first time in bid to prevent more drug-related deaths (The Independent)
• The Stigma Surrounding Hallucinogens Took Root in Western Colonialism (71 Republic)
• Michael Pollan & the Objectification of the Psychedelic Experience (Disinfo)
• Manchester's night-time adviser backs drug testers for festivals and clubs (The Guardian)
• On Religious Sacraments: Holy Crackers and 'Evil Drugs' (Andrew Joseph)
• Renewed interest in psychedelics as potentially useful therapeutic agents (Drug and Alcohol Research Connections)
• We've been fighting the drug war for 50 years. So why aren't we winning? (The Appeal)
• The Myth of People Who “Don’t Use Drugs” (Psychedelic Heaven)
• About Me: Lawyer, Writer, Psychedelic Enthusiast (Andrew Joseph)
• Psychedelics and Personality (ACS Publications)
• The UK’s Cruel Drug Laws Ruin Lives, Including My Son’s (Talking Drugs)

Disclaimer: "This Week in Psychedelics" 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 Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

This Week in Psychedelics - 6.1.18

Cannabis

• Marijuana Compound Removes Toxic Alzheimer's Protein From The Brain (Science Alert)
• Forget protein shakes. The newest workout supplement? Marijuana. (The Boston Globe)
• Research Finds That Cannabis Used To Grow Wild In Ancient Europe (Herb)
• Craft brewers walk regulatory tightrope with cannabis-related products (MiBiz)
• Utah: Medical Access Initiative Certified For 2018 Ballot (NORML)
• Use of Toxic Pesticides Increased in California’s Illegal Weed Farms (High Times)
• Cannabis: the new tobacco? (CBC)
• Florida: Court Strikes Down Legislative Ban On Medical Cannabis Smoking (NORML)
• Oklahoma: Polling Shows Strong Voter Support For Upcoming Medical Marijuana Vote (NORML)
• World’s First Cannabis Bank Advances in California (Leafly)
• Bad Vibes? Heavy Marijuana Users Hold On to Negative Feelings (Live Science)
• Greece Prepares for First Government-Backed Medical Marijuana Expo (High Times)
• Senators Approve Funds For Feds To Restore Cannabis Genetics (Forbes)
• Epileptic HS football player ineligible for college play because of cannabis oil use (FOX4KC)
• Longtime Cannabis Activist Marc Emery Fined $5,000 For Drug Trafficking (High Times)
• Georgia Kidnapped This Boy Because His Parents Used Marijuana to Stop His Seizures (Reason)
• Cannabis Entrepreneurs Specialize Way Beyond Buds And Brownies (Forbes)
• Nick Etten: Rescue the returned: Medical cannabis could save veterans’ lives (The Spokesman-Review)
• Cannabis-based autism treatments front and center at suburban conference (Chicago Sun-Times)
• Wine may battle cannabis for key consumers with legalization (North Day Business Journal)
• Smoking Not Your Style? Try a Cannabis Cocktail. (Reason)
• Does cannabis kill brain cells? (Mashable)
• American Cannabis Stocks Offer Compelling Relative Value (Forbes)
• Reason's Classic Pot Brownies (Reason)
• Cannabis Tax Relief, Workers' Rights Bills Fail in Sacramento (East Bay Express)
• This Is Not a Pot Pipe (Reason)
• Enforcement grapples with new cannabis environment (The Ledger)

LSD

• Security Troops At Wyoming Nuclear Missile Base Used And Distributed LSD – OpEd (Eurasia Review)
• Does Microdosing LSD Really Improve Cognition? (71Republic)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Fifteen years of crime reporting left me with PTSD. Magic mushrooms helped me begin to recover (The Independent)
• Mushrooms Aren't Magic (Reason)
• 'Magic' mushrooms: The next great legalization debate (The Sacramento Bee)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• We went undercover in a Chinese MDMA factory (Mixmag)
• Study: Party Drug ‘Molly’ Often Not Really Pure MDMA; Pill-Testing At Concerts Could Curb Use (Study Finds)
• Dad who lost two sons to MDMA overdoses on same night calls for drugs to be legalised after Mutiny festival deaths (The Sun)
• Tragic young dad and teenage girl may have taken ‘Green Heineken ecstasy pills’ before festival drug deaths (The Sun)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• The Muká Diet of the Yawanawá Indigenous People in Acre, Brazil (Chacruna)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• The Truth About Research Chemicals (Psychedelic Heaven)
• What's in the ‘Bath Salts’? — Chromatography Explores (Chromatography Today)

Dissociatives

• A ‘breakthrough’ depression drug inspired by ketamine is attracting more attention from big pharma (Business Insider)

Opiates/Opioids

• Mexico detains wife of drug baron blamed for U.S. heroin scourge (Reuters)
• Taliban commander orders closure of opium labs in towns and cities (The Guardian)
• Naloxone and the High Price of Doing Nothing (The Fix)
• Tons of Poppies Destroyed in California’s Biggest Opium Bust (FOX40)
• AMA Castigated for Rightly Opposing a National 3-Day Limit on Opioid Prescriptions (Reason)
• One-Third of New Heroin Users Become Dependent on It (Live Science)

Kratom

• DEA 'waiting for analysis': Kratom may soon be banned (KIRO)
• Source of Kratom Contaminated With Salmonella Is Unknown, CDC Warns (Inverse)
• Which Brands Linked With Nationwide Kratom Salmonella Outbreak? (Kratom Guides)
• Could Kratom Solve the Opioid Epidemic? (San Diego Entertainer Magazine)
• Is Kratom Legal In Georgia 2018 (Kratom Guides)
• Confusion persists over Kratom law in Tennessee (WSMV)

Khat

• Authorities arrest three suspects for smuggling Khat leaves (ANTARA News)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• The Psychedelic Renaissance: Trip Reports from Timothy Leary, Michael Pollan, and Tao Lin (The New Yorker)
• Trips Worth Telling (Medium)
• Asia's newest drug war leaves more than 90 people dead in less than two weeks (Los Angeles Times)
• You're Not a Drug Dealer? Here's Why the Police Might Disagree (The New York Times)
• Ending America's War on Drugs Would Finally Unleash the Therapeutic Potential of Psychadelics (TIME)
• Navigating Your Way Through the Psychedelic Field: How to Get Involved (Psychedelics Today)
• LAPSS Into Higher Consciousness: Interview with Brad Adams, Ph.D. (Psychedelic Times)
• Prohibition, the Constitution, and the Path to Legalization (Andrew Joseph)
• Bangladesh's Deadly Narcotics Crackdown Sparks Fears of a Philippines-Style Drug War (TIME)
• Hidden Horrors of "Zero Tolerance" – Mass Trials and Children Taken From Their Parents (The Intercept)
• Psychedelics And Cluster Headaches (Psychedelic Heaven)
• An Overdose Is Not a Murder (Reason)
• Microdosing - All You Need to Know About This Dangerous Fad (The Quint)

Disclaimer: "This Week in Psychedelics" 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 Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

This Week in Psychedelics - 5.25.18

Cannabis

• New York Democratic Party Endorses Legalizing Marijuana (Marijuana Moment)
• Greens call for national approach for drug law reform as NT reconsiders cannabis penalties (GreensMPs)
• EXCLUSIVE: De Blasio to tell NYPD to stop arresting New Yorkers for smoking pot in public (New York Daily News)
• Cannabis used to grow wild in Europe but went extinct before first farmers arrived, research finds (The Independent)
• Bill On Trump’s Desk Would Allow Marijuana (And Maybe MDMA) For Some Patients (Marijuana Moment)
• New Study: Marijuana Leads to “Complete Remission” of Crohn’s Disease with No Side Effects (USA Health Times)
• Cannabis: It matters how young you start (Science Daily)
• Africa's first medical cannabis dispensary opens in Durban (Al Jazeera)
• DEA Report: Marijuana Seizures Fell Nearly 40 Percent in 2017 (NORML)
• Federal Prosecutors Pledge to Crack Down On Oregon’s Glut of Cannabis Leaking Across State Lines (Willamette Week)
• Denver’s marijuana tax money being used to fund local projects (KDVR)
• State urges Florida Supreme Court to stay out of 'homegrown' medical marijuana case (Orlando Weekly)
• Why anti-marijuana group wants Michigan to legalize weed (Detroit Free Press)
• Cannabis Industry Delivers 100,000+ Jobs And Billions In Tax Revenue (Forbes)
• How My Cannabis Prescription Made Me Realize That Weed Should Be Decriminalized (The Intercept)
• Arizona: Supreme Court Affirms That Lawmakers Cannot Ban Medical Cannabis Access on College Campuses (NORML)
• Senator Jeff Merkley Cosponsors The Marijuana Justice Act (NORML)
• With State Senate Bid, Cannabis Pro Leaps Into Politics (Leafly)
• UK missing out on cannabis industry 'green rush' worth billions because of outdated policies, say experts (The Independent)
• It's high time to change the law: Northern Territory set to allow the growing and smoking of marijuana (Daily Mail)
• Cannabis Consumers Want Hollywood To Abandon Marijuana Stereotypes (Forbes)
• Government looking at how to best source 'quality' medical cannabis for new access programme (The Journal)
• Part 3, Is Cannabis Better for Chronic Pain Than Opioids? (Leafly)
• Massachusetts To Study Race, Gender Disparities in Cannabis Industry (High Times)
• Why Kiss Rocker Gene Simmons Took $2.5 Million to Promote Cannabis (TheStreet)
• Cannabis ban is death sentence for my epileptic son (The Times)
• ‘Sustainability Is Not Enough’: Why Cannabis Farmers Should Look to Regenerative Agriculture (Leafly)
• Money Grows On Weed (The Worldly Magazine)
• Checking In, Not Checking Out: Cannabis-Assisted Psychotherapy (Psychedelic Support)
• Five facts you didn’t know about the cannabis industry (CNBC)
• Former politician, high school teacher among those trying to make it in legal cannabis (The Star)
• Home labs for extracting cannabis concentrates seen as emerging public safety threat (Press Herald)
• Author Tao Lin Goes on a "Trip," Discusses How Cannabis Saved His Life (MERRY JANE)
• Cannabis edibles being popped among Sydneysiders as concerns grow over their use (News.com.au)
• Nurturing cannabis (Chemical & Engineering News)

LSD

• Security Troops on US Nuclear Missile Base Took LSD (Bloomberg)
• The bizarre true story of when the UK military tested LSD on Royal Marines (The Independent)
• Watch the Virtual Reality Recreation of the LSD Trip That Inspired the Whole Earth Catalog (TIME)
• The Loop Trip: How Two Kids on Acid Stumbled on the Theory of Everything (Psychedelic Frontier)
• Victims of alleged LSD brainwashing experiments in Montreal plan to file lawsuit (CTV News)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Magic mushroom treatment improves emotional face recognition in depressed patients (PsyPost)
• Magic Mushrooms Could Help Treatment-Resistant Depression (The Fresh Toast)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Middle-class people are taking MDMA wrapped in cheese in a new trend called 'brieing' (Business Insider)
• What a viral story about mums, MDMA, and brie teaches us about fake news (ShortList)
• Man on five-day ecstasy binge was caught filling hotel bath with potatoes (Mixmag)
• People Told Us the Cringe-Worthy Stuff They've Done on Ecstasy (VICE)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• 150 Years into the opioid epidemic, many are resorting to ibogaine treatment (The Jerusalem Post)

Dissociatives

• Ketamine Eliminated Pain in Patient with Fibromyalgia and RA, Case Study Says (Fibromyalgia News Today)
• Doctor under 'commercial pressure' to prescribe ketamine (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Katie Hopkins wins complaint against Mirror for ketamine headline (The Guardian)

Opiates/Opioids

• America's 150-Year Opioid Epidemic (The New York Times)
• Opioid Crisis: What People Don't Know About Heroin (Rolling Stone)
• The Deadly Opioid Fentanyl Has Made Its Way Into Street Drugs Like Cocaine, Meth and MDMA (Hornet)
• How fentanyl could alter global drug policy (The Washington Post)
• Opioid Crisis Compels New York to Look North for Answers (The New York Times)
• Record-high opium production in Afghanistan creates multiple challenges for region and beyond, UN warns (UN News)
• Surgeon general urges ER docs to advocate for evidence-based opioid treatment (Modern Healthcare)

Kratom

• FDA Issues Warning Letters To Kratom Companies For Deceptive Medical Claims (Kratom Guides)
• Kratom Legality 2018: What Is The Legal Status of Kratom In The US? (Kratom Guides)
• A mysterious 'pain-relief' supplement has been linked to salmonella in 41 states (Business Insider)
• Impressive Health Benefits Of Kratom (The Future of Things)
• What New Research Tells Us About Kratom Benefits & Risks? (Kratom Guides)
• Kratom distributed in NC recalled over salmonella fears (WTVD)
• Mother suing Florida gas station that sold her son kratom pills that led to his death (KFDI)

Kava

• Vanuatu govt bill seeks to protect kava from outsiders (Radio New Zealand)
• Vanuatu destroys $US54k worth of non-noble kava (Radio New Zealand)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• The Spiritual Value of a Bad Trip: A Conversation with Richard Haight (Psychedelic Times)
• What is Microdosing? (The Third Wave)
• Evidence supports more pill testing (The Age)
• How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics by Michael Pollan – review (The Guardian)
• Changing the conversation to make drug use safer (The Lancet)
• On Psychedelics: The Organic vs. Synthetic Fallacy (Adventures Through the Mind)
• Visionary Plant Medicine Integration: Interview with Dr. Katherine Coder Pt. 2 (Psychedelic Times)
• Why psychedelic drugs could transform how we treat depression and mental illness (Vox)
• The Two Things Psychedelics Do to Most People With Depression (Tonic)
• Opening Pandora's Box: Tips for Navigating a Psychedelic Future with Richard Haight (Psychedelic Times)
• Minor drug users 'should not be charged' (BBC)
• Dependence on a War on Drugs (Students for Sensible Drug Policy)
• Potentiating Psychedelics (Psychedelic Heaven)
• Meet the drug-sniffing dog that parents hire to snoop on their kids (Rooster)
• Drugs policing: Federation spokesman calls for policy rethink (BBC)

Disclaimer: "This Week in Psychedelics" 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 Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

This Week in Psychedelics - 5.18.18

Cannabis

• Historic House Appropriations Committee Vote On Marijuana (NORML)
• YouTube's cannabis content purge "a huge loss of cultural history" (Straight Cannabis)
• U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer Says Cannabis May Be De-Regulated Nationwide Within Four Years (Willamette Week)
• Legalising cannabis ‘would save £900m’ (The Times)
• State Democrats plan to endorse marijuana legalization (New York Post)
• State Marijuana Laws Dodge Supreme Court Bullet (Marijuana Moment)
• Doctors Want More Information on Medical Cannabis, Study Finds (Leafly)
• Texas Health Department Considers Cracking Down on CBD (Reason)
• Many U.S. Oncologists Recommending Medical Marijuana (Hemp Gazette)
• 4 Must-Read Quotes on Marijuana From DEA Head Robert Patterson (The Motley Fool)
• California Cannabis Regulations May Make Weed Shippers Report Themselves to the Feds (WIRED)
• Drugs Minister banned from talking about pot — as hubby runs giant cannabis farm (The Sun)
• Canadian pot growers say marijuana byproduct a wasted opportunity for industry (ChatNewsToday)
• These Experts Say Weed Could Help Ease Your Endometriosis Pain (POPSUGAR)
• On marijuana and opioids — the DEA has no clue what it’s talking about (The Hill)
• Marijuana Users Don't Mind Being Labeled Stoners And Potheads (Forbes)
• The Legacy of Stop-and-Frisk in New York's Marijuana Arrests (The New York Times)
• Chittenden, Windsor set plans to erase marijuana convictions (VTDigger)
• Cannabis use up among parents with children in the home (Science Daily)
• Oregon Cannabis Growers Turning to Hemp as CBD Extract Booms (Leafly)
• Cannabis Advocates Defend Cynthia Nixon's 'Reparations' Comments (Forbes)
• Marijuana Could Be A $3.1B Business In New York, Report Finds (Patch)
• Cannabis Cup At Cal Expo Will Have Marijuana After City Council Vote (CBS Sacramento)
• We Can’t Avoid Menopause But Cannabis Makes It Easier (Leafly)
• Chart: Putting the $55 billion US retail cannabis market in perspective (Marijuana Business Daily)
• Cannabidiol significantly reduces seizures in patients with severe form of epilepsy (PsyPost)
• Weed legal states often have fewest drug problems (Rooster Magazine)
• Cannabis bills get mixed reception from Legislature (Colorado Springs Independent)
• Can Massachusetts become a leader in marijuana research? (MassLive)
• Arizona veterans hope federal bill clears path for cannabis research in the VA (Arizona's Family)
• Part 3, How to Start a Cannabis ‘Mother Plant’ (Leafly)
• Marijuana-Growing Nuns Documentary ‘Breaking Habits’ Sells to Cranked Up (Variety)
• California Today: A Start-Up Steps Up to Help Sweep Away Old Pot Convictions (The New York Times)
• Medlab kicks off cannabis spray trial for cancer patients at Royal North Shore hospital (Stockhead)
• Two District Attorneys May Stop Prosecuting Most Marijuana Offenses (The New York Times)
• Most Georgians want legal recreational cannabis, poll shows (Marijuana Business Daily)
• New Study Highlights The Social Impacts Of Cannabis Legalization In California (Forbes)
• Medical Cannabis Is So Expensive, This Mum Might 'End Up On The Street' (Ten Daily)
• What Do Cannabis Entrepreneurs Owe Victims of the Drug War? (Reason)
• Should Florida let patients smoke medical marijuana? A judge will now decide (Miami Herald)
• He lost his daughter, his future, all because of something that's now legal (Rooster Magazine)
• Big Opportunities In Europe's Cannabis Market Come With Big Risks (Forbes)
• Medical cannabis should be legalised, says Royal College of Nursing (The Telegraph)
• California cannot afford to wait on banking for cannabis businesses (The Sacramento Bee)
• Meet the New Faces of Cannabis—10 People Now Shaping Legal Weed in Oregon (Willamette Week)
• Bill Shorten Says Conservative Politicians Need To "Get Out Of The Way" Of Medical Cannabis Patients (BuzzFeed News)
• BDS Analytics, a Boulder-based cannabis data leader, lands $3.5 million investment (The Denver Post)
• RAND Study Says Cannabis Ads May Increase Underage Use (Leafly)
• How One Chocolatier Wants to Bring Luxury Cannabis to a Mall Near You (Eater)
• Nina Fern: "The Highly" Intellectual Cannabis Periodical (Forbes)

LSD

• Might LSD be good for you? (The Spectator)
• Silicon Valley's long obsession with LSD (Big Think)
• Take a hit of acid and call me in the morning (The Boston Globe)
• Webb: Indiana lawmakers to 'study' medical marijuana. They should look at LSD, too. (Evansville Courier and Press)
• LSD to make a comeback? (Swissinfo)
• Will LSD cure my Brexit obsession? (The Spectator)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Denver And Oregon Now Want To Legalize Psychedelic Mushrooms (The Fresh Toast)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Brieing is the new cheese and MDMA drug craze middle class women are trying (Metro)
• The College Student’s Guide To MDMA, Aka Molly (Study Breaks)
• Dutch researchers find ecstasy and cocaine are getting stronger (Mixmag)
• MDMA Opens Door for PTSD Patients to Work Through Trauma (UConn Today)
• DanceSafe Warns Against Super-Strong UPS Shaped Ecstasy Pills (Your EDM)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• What It's Like to Take Ayahuasca at a Psychedelic Healing Retreat (VICE)

Salvia Divinorum

• Salvia and Sage: Nature’s Elixir of Health (The Sun-Gazette)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• 'Spice epidemic in jails risk to nurses' (BBC)

Dissociatives

• Intranasal Ketamine Succeeds for Resistant Depression in Phase 3 Trial (Medscape)
• Specific Features in Mood Disorders May Affect Outcome of Ketamine Treatment (MD Magazine)
• Lily Allen kicked out of awards after accidental ketamine trip (Daily Star)

Opiates/Opioids

• This ‘cure’ only makes the opioid crisis worse (New York Post)
• The Challenge of Ensuring Accessibility to Naloxone for Those Who Need It Most (The American Journal of Managed Care)
• Opioid Death Rates Are Not Correlated With Prescription Rates Across States (Reason)
• Would Naloxone Training Save Lives? (TechnoStalls)
• The County’s Sitting on Thousands of Doses of Naloxone (Voice of San Diego)
• FDA Head Acknowledges Suffering Caused by Opioid Crackdown (Reason)
• Naloxone Reverses Deadly Overdoses, But Then What? (North Carolina Health News)
• Nevada Records Show 'Opioid-Related' Deaths Usually Involve Illicit Drugs or Mixtures (Reason)

Kratom

• Kratom Legalization! Explore What New Research States About It (Kratom Guides)
• Why Is Kratom So Much Controversial? (Kratom Guides)
• Lawmakers urge Louisiana Department of Health to study kratom: why? (Best of New Orleans)
• Kratom: A dangerous opioid or natural panacea? (WTVD)
• Drug expert says ‘kratom’ substance seized from two Edmonton stores helped wean him off opioids (The Star)

Kava

• Kava Is the Alternative High You Need to Know About (The Manual)
• Vanuatu confident of meeting kava target (Radio New Zealand)

Khat

• Why Ethiopian farmers choose Khat over coffee (Reuters)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Michael Pollan: ‘I was a very reluctant psychonaut’ (The Guardian)
• Global Study Finds Tobacco, Alcohol More Harmful Than Illicit Drugs (High Times)
• The struggle to turn psychedelics into life-changing treatments (WIRED)
• Can Psychedelic Drugs Be Medically Useful? (The Wall Street Journal)
• The case for legalising drugs is overwhelming – so why won't governments listen? (The Telegraph)
• Britain's first ever city centre recreational drug testing facility opens in Bristol (ITV News)
• Michael Pollan Opens Up About His Powerful Psilocybin Trip on Stephen Colbert’s Late Show (Psychedelic Frontier)
• Drug Use by State: 2018’s Problem Areas (WalletHub)
• Introduction to Cognitive Enhancement, Microdosing, and Nootropics (Psychedelic Times)
• Carl Jung on Why You Should Be Wary of Psychedelics (Psychedelic Frontier)
• How Often Should Psychedelics Be Done? (Psychedelic Heaven)
• Completed suicide among methamphetamine users: A national study (Drug and Alcohol Research Connections)
• My Adventures With the Trip Doctors (The New York Times)
• How to meditate on psychedelics with Vincent Horn of Meditate.io (Psymposia)
• Northern Ireland drug offences rise by 20% (BBC)
• After the Ceremony Ends: An Interview with Dr. Katherine Coder Pt. 1 (Psychedelic Times)
• Review shows lack of evidence supporting use of antidepressants for insomnia (Medical Xpress)
• Breaking Free From Prohibition: A Human Rights Approach to Successful Drug Reform (Julian Buchanan)
• Movement to Legalize Drug Use Gains in a Former Soviet Republic (The New York Times)
• Oliver North Worked With Cocaine Traffickers to Arm Terrorists. Now He'll Be President of the NRA. (The Intercept)
• Is the ‘war on drugs’ preventing a second revolution in mental health treatment? (WikiTribune)
• After decades of dormancy, psychedelic research makes a comeback (The Globe and Mail)
• With governments asleep, a music festival is leading the world on drug policy (The Canary)
• Thanks to Psychedelic Drugs, "Treatment-resistant" Depression is No Longer a Thing (Andrew Joseph)
• Take it from someone who spent years taking heroin and crack: addiction isn't a physiological problem. It's a mental health one (The Independent)
• When will politicians quit the war on drugs? (UnHerd)
• Walking Backwards, or, The Magical Art of Psychedelic Psychogeography by Greg Humphries & Julian Vayne (Psychedelic Press UK)

Disclaimer: "This Week in Psychedelics" 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 Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.