This Week in Psychedelics - 7.3.15

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Obama Administration Lifts Restrictions On Cannabis Research (Reset.me)
• Astonishing smokable blunt sculptures (Boing Boing)
• Marijuana: The Super Antibiotic Of The Future (Reset.me)
• Inside America's Billion-Dollar Weed Business: The Grass Is Greener (VICE)
• Cannabis Church leader 'horrified' by link to mass murder-suicide (Indystar)
• Mother who gave disabled daughter cannabis oil to stop seizures 'treated like a criminal' (Mirror.co.uk)
• Cannabis farmer grew £20k of the drug to mix into butter and make pain-killing omelettes (Mirror.co.uk)
• Marijuana Legalization 2015: Leaf's Cannabis Grow System Aims To Turn Home Grows Into A Smartphone Accessory (International Business Times)
• Minnesota medical cannabis dispensaries ready to open Wednesday (Bring Me The News)
• Cannabis college hosts D.C. marijuana seminar (Washington's Top News)
• Eight arrested over Albania's 'cannabis kingdom shootout' (Yahoo! News)
• Unimpaired motorcyclist charged over cannabis trace after near-fatal crash (Canberra Times)
• Getting high in senior year: Researchers examine whether reasons for smoking pot are associated (Science Daily)
• Self-Described 'Cannabis College' Sprouts Offshoots as More States Legalize Marijuana (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
• If they're bored, teen pot smokers may try other drugs (Futurity)
• Church of Cannabis Prepares for First Service in Indiana (U.S. News)
• Why a Teen's Reasons for Using Marijuana Matter (Live Science)
• Smoking cannabis isn't a gateway to trying harder drugs like cocaine... UNLESS you're a bored teenager, study finds (Daily Mail)
• Congregants, protestors gather for 1st service at Indiana's First Church of Cannabis (Fox News)
• Cannabis Day protest turns violent, leads to 4 arrests (CTV Vancouver News)
• Cops Arrest Veteran for Growing Pot to Treat PTSD. Then CPS Makes Life Hell (Reason)
• A Cannabis Church Tests Indiana's Religious-Freedom Law (TIME)

LSD

• What is lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD)? Effects and hazards of LSD (Medical News Today)
• Scientists Are Finally Studying LSD Again (Timewheel)
• Police in Vail Arrest 8, Seize Cocaine, Ecstasy, LSD, Heroion, Guns & Cash (CBS Denver)
• Asheville woman charged with selling LSD from Subaru (Citizen-Times)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Psilocybin Helps Terminal Cancer Patients Find New Ways Of Coping (Reset.me)
• Israel Police find 'magic mushroom' lab in chemistry teacher's house (Haaretz)

MDMA

• Woman Charged With Robbery After Drug Sting Goes Band In Centralia (The Chronicle)
• Ecstasy pills, PCP, guns seized during MCSENT arrests (WTVM)
• Sheriff: City man arrested with 23 MDMA pills on Presidential Boulevard (Paterson Times)
• Ecstasy for PTSD? Study concludes drug might help (Ocala StarBanner)
• Cash-strapped father jailed for role in ecstasy trafficking between Adelaide and Perth (ABC.net.au)
• Valencia Man Arrested After Deputies Find More Than Three Gallons Of Ecstasy (KHTS)
• Popping at a music festival this summer? Keep in mind most ecstasy is far from pure MDMA (The Georgia Straight)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Trippin' with Leigh heads to Peru (The Chronicle Herald)
• The Unexpected Ways Ayahuasca Prepared Me For Pregnancy And Parenting (Reset.me)

Iboga

• Iboga: A Complete Overview (Reset.me)

Peyote/Mescaline

• Conscience and the Culture Wars (The American Prospect)
• Peyote In Mexico (Mushroom Magazine)
• Police: Poughkeepsie man had psychedelic hallucinogen (Poughkeepsie Journal)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Police seize synthetic drugs in Shamokin sting (Newsitem.com)
• Army National Guard member, wife indicted in federal drug conspiracy officials say included sales to military members (Sun Herald)
• New 'legal high' drugs are being discovered (Business Insider)

Dissociatives

• Rethinking Depression Treatment At VistaGen Therapeutics (Seeking Alpha)
• How ketamine is revolutionizing the way we treat depression (Fox News)
• UAB scientists developing blood tests, ketamine treatment for suicidal thoughts (AL.com)
• Could a Dose of Ketamine Prevent Psychiatric Disorders Such as PTSD? (Health Canal)

Opiates

• Opium poppies as far as the eye can see - in BRITAIN, not Afghanistan (Mirror.co.uk)
• Opium Now Bigger Cash Crop than Marijuana in Mexico (Breitbart)
• It's a relaxing scene... A bumper crop of opium poppies set to become medical morphine being grown in DORSET (Daily Mail)
• Tamper-resistant opioids will not solve opioid addiction problem, study suggests (Science Daily)
• Quincy police arrest 4, seize $150,000 in heroin (The Boston Globe)
• Record Afghan opium output sparks rise in cheaper heroin supply (New Vision)
• U.N. drug body warns of more heroin deaths on record Afghan supply (Reuters)
• Portland Police discover 3 kilos of heroin (KOIN)
• Rise in drug deaths due to opium output (iOL News)
• Heroin investigation targeting College Park leads to seizure of 700 doses, $60K in cash (Orlando Sentinel)
• Duo arrested with dozens of balloons filled with heroin (Fox 23)
• Police dismantle heroin delivery service in Quincy, Braintree (WCVB 5)
• Long prison terms for armed New York heroin traffickers (The Washington Times)
• M6 drug raids: Seven charged after £8.5m in heroin recovery (BBC)
• Report: Wesley Hadsell says stepdaughter did not have heroin problem (Pilot Online)
• Western Isles opium castle given £4m Lottery boost (The Scotsman)
• Myanmar promotes success in opium poppy substitution (Myanmar Times)
• Merrimack holds community meeting to discuss growing heroin epidemic (WMUR 9 ABC)
• Northern York County was hub for heroin dealers, police say (YDR.com)
• Afghanistan increases opium production (WBFO)
• Afghan army general arrested for trafficking heroin: officials (Tribune)
• Opium in Afghanistan: A New High (The Economist)

General Psychedelics

• Psychedelic twisting tunnel is a new summer pavilion (Treehugger)
• Historic Meeting of the Remaining Matsés Elder Shamans Concludes with Completion of First Indigenous Medicine Encyclopedia (Acaté Amazon Conservation)
• Psychedelic Images Made By 'Dreaming Computer' Revealed by Google (Vocal Republic)
• How Britain's khat ban devastated an entire Kenyan town (The Guardian)
• Vine co-founder launches a psychedelic new app that captures the spirit of the early internet (Business Insider)
• The Revolutionary Potential of Psychedelics (Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies)
• Agony and Ecstasy in the Amazon: An Excerpt from 'Broad Street' (Notes from the Ethnoground)
• Dr. Gabor Maté: - Toxic Culture | How materialistic society makes us ill (iBogaine-Thailand)
• The Ten Lessons of Psychedelic Therapy, Rediscovered (Psychology Today)

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 (and other psychoactives) are presented by the mass media, which includes everything from the latest scientific research to misinformation.

Grateful Dead's Final "Fare The Well" Tour

Image by Kevin Schraer, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

My favorite band, the Grateful Dead, is in the middle of saying goodbye to its fans with a final five-night "Fare Thee Well" tour that is taking place in Santa Clara, CA and Chicago, IL. I wanted to share my personal story about how the band has affected me over the years as well as provide some information about the tour for anyone interested in attending a show or live streaming the tour.

From what I can remember, I was first introduced to the Grateful Dead in 2000 when my mother gave me the "What A Long Strange Trip It's Been: The Best of the Grateful Dead" compilation. I may have heard some Grateful Dead tunes before receiving that album, but that was the first Dead album that I listened to all the way through, multiple times. Although I enjoyed the album at the time, it wasn't until I went off to university that I really immersed myself in the music and the culture.

According to Deadhead standards, I am a quite a latecomer to the scene—many fans have been going to Dead shows for decades! I went to my first big outdoor venue show in 2008, where Phil Lesh and Friends and Allman Brothers Band put on an amazing performance at Walnut Creek Amphitheatre in Raleigh, NC. I was completely enamored  with the music and vibes of the crowd, and ended up seeing many more reincarnations of the Dead over the years—The Dead, Furthur, Bob Weir and Bruce Hornsby featuring Branford Marsalis, Mickey Hart Band, Bill Kreutzmann's Lockstep Allstars, etc. I've also seen some of the Grateful Dead tribute bands like Dark Star Orchestra, Cosmic Charlie, and Keller Williams' Grateful Grass.

There's something indescribable about the music and the people that attend Grateful Dead shows—the Deadheads—but when I first saw Phil Lesh and Friends play live, I knew that I was a Deadhead at heart. When I'm at a show or a festival, I feel like I am at "home" with my closest family and friends. Although I didn't have the opportunity to see Grateful Dead play live with Jerry Garcia, I have cherished the moments when I have seen the remaining members of the band play live.

Over 15 years, more than tie dye t-shirts, meeting hundreds of fellow Deadheads, listening to countless hours, and several unforgettable experiences later, I am still a Deadhead. In fact, I consider myself to be more of a Deadhead every day. It has become such a big part of my life that I still dedicate several hours a week to listening to recordings of old Grateful Dead shows on podcasts like Dead Show of the Month and Deadpod.

The Grateful Dead brought us 50 years of music, thousands of shows and original songs, and a sense of community among the counter-culture. If you are interested in live streaming or attending the "Fare The Well" tour, I encourage you to check out Dead50.net. The Santa Clara shows happened last weekend, and they were both amazing. The final three shows are happening in Chicago this weekend (July 3rd, 4th, and 5th), and I hope you'll join the rest of the worldwide community in checking them out.

I need to end this post with a big "Thank you!" to the members of the Grateful Dead and the fellow Deadheads in the community that have been so kind to me and my friends. Although this tour marks the official end of the band, the music will carry on for a long time to come.

Sometimes the light's all shinin' on me,
Other times I can barely see.
Lately it occurs to me—what a long, strange trip it's been.

"Truckin'" by the Grateful Dead

Weekend Thoughts - 6.27.15

Image by Airik Lopez, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. Summer has officially arrived here in the northern hemisphere, and that means it is time for many of us to attend our favorite thing in the whole wide world—music festivals. I was really intrigued by this profile of Cameron Bowman, also known as "The Festival Lawyer", on VICE Thump. Bowman offers some great advice for festival-goers on his Tumblr blog. The advice is spot-on and definitely worth a read if you're like me and would like to stay out of trouble at your next music festival.

2. A well-researched article written by Kim Williams, MD, the president of the American College of Cardiology, that describes the outstanding benefits to heart health that a vegan diet can provide. Although these findings are probably not surprising to someone familiar with veganism, it is nice to see a credentialed doctor is backing up these claims. I will note that it is possible to be a vegjunktarian, or someone who eats vegan junk food, which obviously is not a healthy variation of the vegan diet, and not something that I would recommend.

3. Owl Farm, the Aspen, Colorado home that author Hunter S. Thompson lived in for 35 years, is going to be a museum. I am a huge HST fan, having read many of his books, and I am ecstatic about the possibility of visiting his former home in the future!

4. Reset.me published an interesting article about a naturally-occurring cancer-fighting vitamin that is found in apricot seeds. Vitamin B-17 has been banned by the FDA but has been shown to assist in the fight against cancer, which may indicate that a cover-up is happening. The theory is that since the vitamin is naturally-occurring, it is thereby not patentable, which obviously means the pharmaceutical industry cannot make a profit. This was completely new to me and is definitely worth a read.

5. In time for Grateful Dead's Fare The Well tour, Casey Hardison has teamed up with MAPS to create a petition asking President Obama to grant clemency to Deadheads and other nonviolent drug offenders in prison. If you have a moment, please take a look and consider signing your name.

6. Reason brought us five public service announcements concerning drugs that tried to scare the shit out of us that didn't work. And for good measure, they followed up with five more.

7. The Marijuana Policy Project has put together a resource guide that grades 2016 U.S. presidential candidates on their stances about cannabis law reform.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

This Week in Psychedelics - 6.26.15

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Meanwhile, this week in psychedelics...

Cannabis

• Inside the NYC cannabis convention (CBS News)
• Cannabis comes to Salinas in manufacturing form (Kion Right Now)
• Pot entrepreneurs fill Cannabis Invitational (KOIN.com)
• Cannabis business gets higher and higher at Cow Palace (SFGate)
• U.S. Cannabis Expo connects businesses and consumers while industry entrepreneurs share ideas (Fox 21 News)
• 'The biggest mistake in my life': caught in the cannabis dragnet for Mr Bigs (WA Today)
• UTech advancing ganja research with 'revolutionary' cannabis testing machine (Jamaica Observer)
• Government Study Casts Doubt on Legal Definitions of Stoned Driving (Reason)
• Canada Legalizes Medical Cannabis in All Forms (Cannabis Now Magazine)
• White House to Let Researchers Study Medical Marijuana for PTSD (Military.com)
• Marijuana Legalization 2015: Study Finds Cannabis Edibles Pack More (And Less) Punch Than Advertised (International Business Times)
• Cannabis relieves pain, says government (Swissinfo.ch)
• Some physicians concerned about cannabis oil use (I3WMAZ)
• Cannabis oil: Terminally-ill man appeals for drug derivative approval to prolong life (BBC News)

LSD

• LSD For Breakfast: The Key To A Great Day? (Huffington Post)
• Beach Boys' Brian Wilson says LSD 'expanded his mind' (Page Six)
• Work-in-progress 'LSD: The Opera' is powerful musical theatre (LA Times)
• Behold, the World's First Opera About LSD (VICE)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• The Life Changing Effects of Magic Mushrooms and Why the Government Keeps this from You (The Free Thought Project)

MDMA

• Police and greater Glasgow health chiefs issue MDMA capsule warning (Clydebank Post)
• OK, let's look into MDMA then (Stuff.co.nz)
• Drug dealer used emojis to sell MDMA, court told (Daily Mail)
• Drug welfare groups advise MDMA users to 'crush-dab-wait' (Mixmag)
• Leo Schep: Ecstasy not the safe party drug advocates claim (The New Zealand Herald)
• ED doctor: John Key needs to do his homework on MDMA (Stuff.co.nz)
• Ecstasy users urged to test their own pills by drugs experts (Evening Times)
• Young women most at risk from ecstasy hospitalization (Mixmag)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Study: Ayahuasca Drinkers Have Better Mental Health (Reset.me)

Iboga

• Detox or Die (iBogaine-Thailand)

Peyote/Mescaline

• Comanche Chief Quanah Parker Came to Big Bend Seeking Peyote (High Plains Public Radio)

Synthetic Cannabinoids

• Chasing the synthetic high: 'Legal' drugs are causing trouble for law enforcement (Las Vegas Sun)

Ketamine/Dissociatives

• Students Say Doc Forced Them To Drink, Take Ketamine, Examine His Penis (Gizmodo Australia)
• US doctor allegedly sexually abused trainees and injected them with ketamine (International Business Times)

Opiates

• Public forum targets youth heroin use (Pal-Item)
• TPI has expanded its Victorian opium poppy plantings (Stock & Land)
• Heroin epidemic presents new challenges to law enforcement in Manatee (Bradenton Herald)
• Heroin addiction endemic in promising sports stars (News.com.au)
• Heroin is the new crack, says Dauphin County district attorney detective (Lancaster Online)
• Lethbridge supports plan for opium poppy production facility (Calgary Herald)
• First-ever comprehensive online system to counter narcotics launches in Afghanistan (UN News Centre)
• Pure fentanyl sold as heroin causing increase in overdoses (The Roanoke Times)

General Psychedelics

• MAPS's Zendo Project has an Indiegogo campaign to raise money for psychedelic harm reduction. Please read and consider donating.
• This Therapist Advocates 'Going Down into the Basement' With Psychedelics (Bedford+Bowery)
• Sask[atchewan] medical historian sees renewed interest in psychedelic drugs (CBC News)
• Study: cannabis, pharmaceuticals, MDMA most exchanged goods on deep web (SC Magazine)

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 (and other psychoactives) are presented by the mass media, which includes everything from the latest scientific research to misinformation.

Why You Should Keep A Journal

Image by Joel Montes de Oca, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

In today's busier-than-ever world, it is common to experience weeks, months, or years of life without realizing that time is flying by. The practice of keeping a journal can provide a log of your events throughout life as well as offer a cathartic release that comes from the act of recording your thoughts. Today's post will cover the benefits of journaling, various types of journals, journaling mediums, and how to start a journal.

I have kept a journal off and on since elementary school, although it wasn't until my years at university that I developed a more focused approach and found the inspiration to keep a regular journaling practice. I have found that my practice has generated many benefits for me, and no obvious negative side effects. In a sense, Think Wilder is an extension of my own personal journal in blog form. Without further ado, let's jump right into the main subject matter.

The Benefits of Journaling

Keep a record of life experiences and track your development: Writing about events that have already occurred gives you the chance to process them and find closure when it is needed. It's easy to get to the end of a month or year and have trouble recalling the events that happened. While it may be possible to look through photographs or another medium of record-keeping, I have found that writing a journal means that I will always have a record of the most important events that have occurred in my life. An additional benefit of record-keeping is that it is easier to identify the improvements that you have made over time.

Improve mental clarity, more effectively solve problems, and increase focus: It's easy to get caught up in thinking that has nothing to do with what you are trying to focus on, but it can be difficult to send those thoughts packing. By recording your thoughts in a journal, you are effectively transferring them from your head to the page. This helps clear the mind so that you can focus on the things that are important in your life, whether they are outstanding problems that need to be solved or a time-sensitive task at hand.

Inspire personal growth: If you are feeling stuck in a rut, finding it difficult to progress in life, I would highly recommend taking up a journaling practice. Consistently writing down our thoughts encourages self-development, because it gives us an opportunity to review our previous entries and identify times that we made mistakes. Once you identify a mistake, you are less likely to make that mistake in the future, and you can brainstorm alternative behaviors that more honestly reflect the person you want to become.

More fully connect with your values, emotions, and goals: It can be hard to be honest with ourselves concerning how we feel about relationships, work, or our true passions in life. Yet over time, you will find out what is truly important to you through your writing. It took many journal entries about my desire to keep up a regular writing practice before this blog was born, but through my experience with journaling I finally realized that I needed to get started with my writing projects instead of procrastinating any longer. I am sure that there are things that you want to improve on in your life, or work through your feelings on a tough issue, and journaling is a great way to facilitate that work.

Cultivate your creativity: Just like anything else, a journaling practice becomes better with time. In addition to becoming a better writer, you may also improve your abilities to process and communicate complex ideas, memorize important information, and brainstorm more effectively. I find that writing, or even thinking about what I will write later, helps me think of new ideas and projects to work on.

Types of Journals

There are several types of journals, which are not limited to those listed below. Use your imagination and think of specific types of journals that could help you on your path!

Food journal: Many of us are unaware of our dietary lifestyles. I know that I was before I started a food journal several years ago, and I was shocked to see what I was eating (and drinking!) on a regular basis. Keeping a food journal can be as simple as compiling a daily list of foods in a Fields Notes memo book, or you can take a more advanced approach, like using an application like MyFitnessPal to get a more thorough breakdown of your daily nutritional intake.

Work journal: A written record of your work performance can be a very useful thing. How often does a yearly performance review come around and leave you wondering, "What exactly did I do the past 12 months?" By keeping track of the day's events at the office, you will have a log of the things that went well, mistakes you made and how you addressed them, and successes worth highlighting in your next performance review or job interview. By recording your mistakes, you will be able to adapt so that you won't make the same mistake twice.

Dream journal: This type of journal is designed around capturing as many details about your dreams as you can remember upon first waking up. You can use the dream contents to look into their imagery and suggested meanings, or you could use them as inspiration for a new work of fiction! By writing down the contents of your dreams, you can review them later and see if there are any patterns that reoccur.

Gratitude journal: Sometimes we are so busy with all the things in our lives that we forget the good things that happen every day. A gratitude journal helps you focus on the positive aspects of life, which will shift your focus away from negative things and allow you to start appreciating even more positive things that you are grateful to have in your life.

Miscellaneous activities: All sorts of activities can benefit from keeping a log of their progress. Fitness, gardening, traveling, reading, meditation, and yoga are just a few to get you started. It can be helpful and extremely rewarding to see where you are headed and how far along you have come.

Journal Mediums

Journals were traditionally written on paper, but today's technologies have allowed additional mediums for you to record your thoughts. Some mediums will appeal to certain types of people, and other mediums will be attractive for the rest. I have firsthand experience with myriad journaling mediums, and will explore some of the options below.

Paper journals: If you like the feeling of physically writing down your thoughts, like I do, then a paper notebook may be the most appealing option for you. There's nothing quite like setting pen to paper, which gives you physical control over your writing, and there is no chance that your journal will disappear or be leaked when an online service shuts down or is compromised. However, there are no backups of paper journals, and it is possible that someone will find your journal in its hiding place and read it without your permission.

Digital journaling: Using a computer, tablet, or mobile phone to write your journal may appeal to you. Something as simple as Apple's Pages or Microsoft Word can be used, or you can try your hand at many journaling apps found online. Digital journals have the benefit of password protection, and people typically type faster on a keyboard than they can write by hand. I have tried many journaling apps and have come to the conclusion that I prefer paper journals, but your experience may be different.

Blogging: An extension of journaling, blogging is essentially a published online journal medium. This is a great option to reap the benefits of journaling, while providing an opportunity to make yourself heard all around the world. Keeping a public blog means that you have a wide audience, but this comes with the sacrifice of privacy. There are many different blogging platforms to choose from, but they all have one thing in common—the ability to share your message with the world.

How to Start A Journal

Getting started with journaling is pretty easy. You just need to pick a medium and journal type, and start writing! I would advise starting as soon as possible—even if you're not completely sure what you want to write about. One of the things that writing for many years has taught me is that you will gradually find your voice in your writing over time, but you will never find it if you don't get started. Now that you know the basics of journaling, I encourage you to start one as soon as possible!