This Week in Psychedelics - 11.6.15

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Mexico's Supreme Court Declares Individuals Have the Right to Consume and Cultivate Marijuana (Drug Policy Alliance)
• Is Marijuana The 'New Same-Sex Marriage'? (ATTN:)
• Groundbreaking Research: Cannabis Treats ADHD Better Than Adderall (Health Nut News)
• Mexico's Supreme Court Gets Ball Rolling On Marijuana Reform (TIME)
• Bernie Sanders Just Introduced a Historic Marijuana Bill (ATTN:)
• Michigan Creates 'Bogus Crimes' by Conflating Cannabis Extracts with Synthetic THC (Reason)
• Magistrate Snatches Newborn From Mother Who Used Cannabis Tea for Pain Relief (Reason)
• Massive cardboard box of cannabis flung from van during police chase (Evening Standard)
• Germany mulls state cannabis body for pain relief (Deutsche Welle)
• Ohio Voters Overwhelmingly Reject Marijuana Legalization (Reason)
• 19 Year-Old Suing Orlando Bike Cop Who Punched Him Over Smell of Weed (ATTN:) 
• DEA Chief Says Medical Marijuana Is a 'Joke' (TIME)
• Why Marijuana Bans Are Racist (ATTN:)
• Napster Co-Founder Backs Push to Legalize Pot in California (TIME)
• Why Does Cannabis Cause Paranoia in Some But Helps Anxiety in Others (Leafly)
• After mines, jail closed, town turns to cannabis to boost economy (USA Today)
• Uruguay's radical cannabis plans (BBC News)
• Hemp, the sober cannabis cousin to marijuana, is making waves in SC (The Post and Courier)
• 11 Things Colorado Can Now Fund Thanks to Legal Marijuana (ATTN:)
• Nine Totally Legal Substances Way More Addictive Than Marijuana (ATTN:)
• Marijuana candy: trick or treat? (Scienceline)
• Cannabis investor hires employees from DEA in expansion push (The Boston Globe)
• New Book Explains Marijuana Laws For Every U.S. State (Reset.me)
• DEA Chief Says Medical Marijuana 'Is A Joke' (Reason)
• Why the Head of the DEA is Wrong About Medical Marijuana (ATTN:)
• Hinkle: Bernie Sanders is right, but not enough (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
• GTSO: Edibels Recall Highlights Need for Newer, Better Cannabis Solutions (MarketWatch)
• Ohio Votes Down Legalizing Pot for Medical and Recreational Use (TIME)
• Investors should take a deep breath before they try cannabis (The Globe and Mail)

LSD

• Did the CIA's Experiments With Psychedelic Drugs Unwittingly Create the Grateful Dead? (Collectors Weekly)
• The Secret Montreal Experiments They Don't Want You To Know About (MTL Blog)
• Acid Test 50th Anniversary Celebration (Grateful Web)
• Death Metal, Dylan and LSD: A Q&A with Shakey Graves (American Songwriter)
• Stamford woman brings pipe and LSD into passport office (The Advocate)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Magic Mushrooms Are Legal in New Mexico: How 'Bout That? (Inverse)
• SCIENCE MATTERS: Mushrooms show how all nature is connected (The Chronicle Herald)
• University of Wisconsin tunes in to magic mushroom medicine (The Washington Times)
• Psychedelic mushroom artwork gets to the point (The Queensland Times)
• We Exist in the Space Between Space - Reflections on my First Mushroom Trip 20 Years After the Fact (Disinformation)
• UW Conducts Study On Benefits Of Psilocybin Mushrooms (Wisconsin Public Radio)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• This Is What An MDMA Assisted Therapy Session Looks Like (Collective Evolution)
• Insomniac Steps Up Drug Awareness For Annual Halloween Festival (Your EDM)
• Lisa Ling: I was a '90s rave queen (CNN)
• Dog nearly dies after eating Ecstasy tablets (Pet Business World)
• Parklife festival death: Robert Hart 'took ecstasy', inquest told (BBC News)
• Student Hospitalized for MDMA Poisoning (The Wesleyan Argus)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Personal Story: How Ayahuasca And A Dieta Helped Me Find Unconditional Love (Reset.me)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

• Peyote in the United States: Prisoner of Wars as the War Wanes (Drogas, Política Y Cultura)
• The use of peyote reaches the Supreme Court (Hoy En Animal)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• 'Herbal seizures'-atypical symptoms after ibogaine intoxication: a case report (7thSpace Interactive)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Setting the Record Straight on 'Synthetic Drugs' -- and What We Should Do About Them (The Huffington Post)
• Governor Signs Griffo Bill Banning 'N-Bomb' Synthetic Drug (Madison County Courier)

Dissociatives

• All About the Psychedelic Club Drug Being Used to Treat Depression (Health.com)
• Ketamine May Reduce Chronic Pain in Adolescents (Pharmacy Practice News)
• The Search for a 'Safer' Ketamine (MedPage Today)
• Despite "Flurry of Interest," Ketamine Remains Unproven for Depression (Mad in America)
• Dog ingests PCP At Fort Funston, Still Wigging Out Weeks Later (SFist)
• CRPS Message Being Heard in Emergency Rooms (National Pain Report)
• Grandmother who was given party drug Ketamine by the NHS is left with irreversible liver damage after doctors failed to monitor its effects (Daily Mail)

Opiates/Opioids

• Injection rooms for addicts to open next year in drug law change, says Minister (The Irish Times)
• In Heroin Crisis, White Families Seek Gentler War on Drugs (The New York Times)
• $8.4 billion spent on counter-drug efforts in Afghanistan - country remains leading producer of opium (Ottawa Citizen)
• '60 Minutes' Blames the Pharmaceutical Industry For America's Heroin Epidemic (Forbes)
• Family doctors encouraged to prescribe naloxone when necessary (Clinical Advisor)
• Heroin Use is Skyrocketing, DEA Says (TIME)
• Heroin Deaths Are Surging, But Deadliest Drugs Still Come In Pill Bottles (The Huffington Post)
• Naloxone is no silver bullet for heroin epidemic but is saving lives (Michigan Live)
• Take-home Naloxone the new front in Saskatchewan's war against Fentanyl (Global News)
• Teaching kids to use naloxone robs their childhood (Cincinnati.com)

Absinthe

• VIDEO: Absinthe leads to poolside mayhem in The Ultimate Fighter house (SportsJoe)
• On the Bar: Sazerac is conspicuous by its absinthe (Yakima Herald-Republic)
• The Whitney adds an Absinthe Room to its offerings (Detroit Metro Times)

Kratom

• Meet up to eat up: Miami food clubs connect online communities in real life (Miami Herald)

Kava

• Kava for the treatment of generalised anxiety disorder (K-GAD): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial (Trials Journal)
• Local kava demand high (Fiji Broadcasting Corporation)

Khat

• Chewing themselves into madness? Khat is 'finishing' men in the Horn of Africa (Mail & Guardian Africa)
• Two Somali soldiers killed in khat confrontation (Mareeg)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Cops Around the Country Quietly Begin Rebelling Against the Drug War (The Anti Media)
• Ireland to 'decriminalise' small amounts of drugs, including heroin, cocaine and cannabis, for personal use (Independent)
• More Americans Than Ever Use Prescription Drugs (NBC News)
• Why Is it Still Illegal to Visit the US if You Admit to Using Drugs? (VICE News)
• Ecstasy, Fake LSD, and Sort-Of Magic Mushrooms: The Future of Dance Music's Drugs (SPIN)
• Why Banning Smart Drugs for College Students Is Impossible, Evil (Reason)
• Chris Christie's Speech on Drugs is a Must-Watch (ATTN:)
• This is what a sensible drug policy looks like (Boing Boing)
• Comedians on Acid: Hippie madness at the end of the 60s (Dangerous Minds)
• Psychiatrist publishes novel based on psychedelic drug research (Weston, Worle & Somerset Mercury)
• 'Driest Place on Earth' Turned into Psychedelic Canvas of Reds, Purples and Greens Flowers (NYC Today)
• Voodoo Fest 2015: Step inside the Pepsi Dome for a 3-D psychedelic art experience (The Times Picayune)
• Is Coldplay Making a Psychedelic Album? 'A Head Full of Dreams' Teaser Emerges (Music Times)
• Air Force Cadet Accused Of Dealing Drugs Faces Court Martial (Colorado Public Radio)

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.

Book Review - The Genesis Generation

Photograph taken by David Wilder.

Lorenzo Hagerty, host of the inimitable Psychedelic Salon podcast for nearly the past ten years, first released The Genesis Generation: A Psychedelic Novel in audiobook format in 2010, and I remember listening to it and enjoying the story as well as the psychedelic ideas that are weaved throughout. He recently released the print version of the book and I sat down to read it over the course of the past couple of weeks.

The book follows the main protagonist, a character named "William", through a transitionary period in his life where he goes from being a corporate stooge working at a large technology company to becoming deeply ingrained in the underground worldwide psychedelic community. Along the way he meets many challenges and has a plethora of eye-opening experiences. I believe Will's story is loosely based on Lorenzo's own life, although Lorenzo appears as a separate character in the novel a few times.

There are several main characters involved in the story, some of whom have real-life counterparts in the actual psychedelic community. This book has the same feel as Alexander and Ann Shulgin's PiHKAL and TiHKAL books, which weave bits of fiction with a mainly-nonfiction story as both a narrative device and to protect those involved.

I enjoyed this book immensely, although I feel as if I cannot give it five stars because of the poor editing throughout the book. I would recommend it to anyone who already listens to Psychedelic Salon podcast or is interested in psychedelics, with the caveat that it isn't a perfect book. However, it is a fairly quick read and should definitely be considered on any psychonaut's bookshelf.

4/5 stars. 398 pages.

Weekend Thoughts - 10.31.15

Image by Jon Fife, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. Pretty much the only yoga-specific blog that I read on a regular basis, The Everything Yoga Blog, has a post titled Yoga Privilege that discusses the tendency that some typically-cheerful, focus-on-the-bright-side, spiritual folks have to actively avoid addressing the "dark" aspects of life. Combined with that, there is the possibility that someone will catch said people on a bad day and ask in a snarky tone, "I thought you were all about being grateful and everything being love?" The author (Diane DeGiorgio) defines this as yoga privilege—yogis are expected to be happy-go-lucky, zen, meditative, chill people who aren't supposed to feel sad, angry, annoyed, frustrated, impatient, afraid, or grumpy. Rather than buy into this outsider's opinion, DeGiorgio recommends that we give ourselves the permission to feel all of our feelings fully, even the "bad" or "negative" ones.

2. Earlier this week, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a statement showing that processed meat (like hot dogs and bacon) causes cancer. Eating 50 grams of processed meat (meat that has been salted, cured, fermented, smoked, or processed in another way) each day increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18%. In addition, red meat (which includes beef, lamb, and pork) was deemed "probably carcinogenic to humans" and has associations with colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, and prostate cancer. In light of that news, I would like to encourage my friends and family to put down the plate of meat and pick up a plate of vegetables, fruits, beans, grains, nuts, and seeds!

3. During the same week that a South Carolina police officer was fired for violently throwing an unarmed (albeit unruly) high school teenager across the room, one cop in Washington DC spun a negative conflict into a positive dance-off that was fun for all. I highly recommend checking out the video. As one of the DC kids mentioned, "There are some good cops." Amen to that.

4. Turns out that people who have stressful jobs suffer from years being shaved off of their lives. In other words, according to science, your job is literally killing you.

5. Finally, to leave you with some otherworldly brain fodder, a think-piece that discusses the concept that if we encounter extraterrestrial life, it may be inorganic. This means that the aliens we're looking for may be more similar to our cell phones, televisions, computers, and aircraft than any organic life that exists on Earth. This idea does sit well with me, as it makes sense that the next "stage" in evolution could involve inorganic, rather than organic, life forms.

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

This Week in Psychedelics - 10.30.15

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• 50 Pounds of Pot Accidentally Mailed to the Wrong Address (TIME)
• Will Canada or Mexico legalize pot before the United States? (Boing Boing)
• The Next Country To Legalize Cannabis: Iran (New Republic)
• How Important Is the 2016 Election for Cannabis? (The Huffington Post)
• Bernie Sanders Proposes Removing Marijuana From Federal Drug List (TIME)
• Disturbing New Video of Teen Killed by Cop Over Marijuana (ATTN:)
• Has The Rate of U.S. Marijuana Usage Really Doubled? (Reset.me)
• Federal agents seize 30,000 marijuana plants on Menominee Native American tribal land (Boing Boing)
• The GOP Candidates Failed the Marijuana Test (ATTN:)
• Marijuana Legalization: A Second Thought (Disinformation)
• MythPuffers: The Curse Of The White Lighter (NYU Local)
• Pot Pleasure, Pot Problems (Reason)
• How America Gets It's Weed (Disinformation)
• Landmark Case in Mexico's Supreme Court Could Pave the Way for Marijuana Legalization (Drug Policy Alliance)
• Snoop Dogg Launches Online Platform for All the Cannabis Lovers (BET)
• Pot for your pup? Startups cash in on cannabis trend (SFGate)
• Netherlands and Israel, a Marriage of Cannabis (The Times of Israel)
• Cannabis farm worth more than half a million pounds discovered in Hoylake (Liverpool Echo)
• How smoking cannabis raises the risk of STROKE: Drug 'significantly narrows blood vessels in the head' (Daily Mail)
• DEA Raid on Wisconsin Tribe's Cannabis Crop Infuriates and Confuses Reformers (U.S. News & World Report)
• Peter Dunne backs NZ clinical trials for medicinal cannabis (Stuff.co.nz)

LSD

• Report: NIU student 'Timi' Okedina used LSD, pot before falling from dorm window (Northwest Herald)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• What's the best way to give up smoking? Take Magic Mushrooms, says study (Newstalk)
• Autumn is the season of magic mushrooms and psychedelic maple trees (The Spectator)
• Ministers and magic mushrooms: Why religion is about more than mysticism (Christian Today)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• MDMA-assisted psychotherapy could come into play in 2021 (Mixmag)
• Mississippi Police Just Fell for the Oldest Halloween Drug Myth (ATTN:)
• Muay Thai fighter bust for supplying MDMA for tattoo bill (The Queensland Times)
• Queensland news: Former Gold Coast Titan under-20 player Dan Kilian accused of being drug mule (Herald Sun)
• An Urban Legend Evolves: First Pot, Now MDMA in Trick-or-Treat Bags (Reason)
• Is that candy or Ecstasy? Halloween warnings spook parents (CBS News)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• On Finding Ayahuasca and Taking the Psychedelic Drug for the First Time (Inverse)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

• On Hunt for the Eeriest Ghost Town in Mexico (Yahoo! Travel)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• North Country Sen. Griffo wants to ban synthetic drug 'N-Bomb,' says mimics LSD's hallucinogenic effects (North Country Now)
• Punishment for 'N-Bomb' soldiers (New Zealand Herald)
• Soldiers hospitalised in Palmerston North after taking mystery substance (Manawatu Standard)

Dissociatives

• What if Drugs Had Branding Slogans: Special K / Ketamine (Magnetic Magazine)
• King's scientists to give ketamine to students (The Tab)
• Low-dose Ketamine Eases Pain, Reduces Opioid Use in ED (Medscape)
• Vet drug ketamine faces regulation scrutiny (Horsetalk)
• Hong Kong police make biggest ketamine seizure in nine years (South China Morning Post)
• Stafford man accused of multiple PCP-fueled attacks (The Free-Lance Star)

Opiates/Opioids

• Now Kids Are Being Trained to Stop Heroin Overdoses (The Daily Beast)
• Heroin vs. Fentanyl: What's the difference? (WMUR)
• Children, teens to receive naloxone training (EMS1.com)
• How CVS pharmacies are trying to stop fatal heroin overdoses with an over-the-counter remedy (PIX11)
• Myanmar anti-drug crusaders uncover $500K ledger of payoffs (WiscNews)

Absinthe

• The absinthe allure; Oregon distillers make up for liquor's long "absinthe" (The Bulletin)
• Arbutus Distillery: Delicious craft spirits in bewitching packaging (VUE Weekly)

Kratom

• Rethink 'War on Drugs', say Phuket pollsters (Thai Visa News)

Khat

• The Investigators: Smugglers Trying To Bring Drugs, Weapons, Fake Money Through FJK Airport (WABC-TV)
• These are the 9 most popular and bizarre drugs in the Middle East (Al-Bawaba)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Censored UN paper calling for decriminalization marks beginning of the end of drug war as we knew it (Salon)
• Turn on, tune in to psychedelics as medicine (NOW Magazine)
• In Search of Burt Shonberg's Lost 1960s Psychedelic Art (Los Angeles Weekly)
• China's Five-Year Plan Now Has Its Own Psychedelic Music Video (Wall Street Journal)
• Newly Digitized 'Phenakistocope' Animations That Pre-Date GIFs by Over 150 Years (Colossal)
• This desert's become a psychedelic wonderland (New York Post)
• Saudi prince held in massive drug bust in Lebanon (CBS News)
• Absurd Creatures: Don't Do Drugs. But If You Do, Look At This Trippy Critter (Wired)

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.

Weekend Thoughts - 10.24.15

Image by Benjamin Balázs, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. In a harrowing tale about the NSA and surveillance, Waltern Kirn at The Atlantic suggests that if you're not paranoid, you're crazy. The story is fairly lengthy, but definitely worth a read—it explores the surveillance techniques and technology that are currently used to sell us products as well as policies. A bit bone-chilling, to say the least, and a perfect fit for the Halloween month of October.

2. In another heartbreaking example of United State law enforcement's zero tolerance demand to receive 100% compliance from its citizens, an unarmed 17 year-old named Deven Guilford was fatally shot by a Michigan police officer for flashing his high-beams at the patrol SUV to let the driver know that the vehicle's high-beams were activated. In a dash of irony, Sergeant Jonathan Frost pulled him over for violating a state law that requires drivers to "use a distribution of light or composite beam so aimed that the glaring rays are not projected into the eyes of the oncoming driver." In surveillance footage from Frost's body camera, Deven is shown to have been laying face-down on the ground shortly before being tased by a stun gun. Seconds later, the video goes black and gunshots and screams are heard from the teenager. Frost will not be reprimanded by the police department for his actions and was deemed to have acted within the limits of Michigan's self-defense law. However, Deven's family has initiated a lawsuit to sue him. In a statement from the boy's mother, she asks, "Whatever happened to protect and serve?" Whatever happened, indeed—this situation was utterly unconscionable and entirely avoidable.

3. There is an assumption being promoted by Fox News and others in the lamestream media that there is a "War on Cops" occurring simultaneously to the "War(s) on People" that the cops are waging against us. However, that point of view is entirely incorrect. In fact, violence against police officers has been steadily trending downward rather than upward, with 2013 being the lowest level of violence against United States police in recorded history. Although the number of police officer deaths caused by civilians is up since the all-time low in 2013, that doesn't take away the fact that being a police officer is safer than it ever has been before. Don't let the mainstream media distort the facts and mislead you into believing their fictive stories.

4. Caffeine and technology are often blamed for poor sleeping experiences, but is it possible that our judgment of sleep is tainted by the fact that we just don't know what an average night of sleep looked like for pre-technology humans? Some new scientific research has showed that pre-industrial peoples sleep an average 6.5 hours per night, and their bedtimes are regulated by temperature, rather than daylight.

5. A rigorous landmark government-funded study found that people who are diagnosed with schizophrenia are better off with less drugs and more therapy. Specifically, the article states that "patients who received increased drug counseling along with individual talk therapy, family training, and support for employment and education experienced a greater reduction in symptoms, were more likely to resume work and school, and reported a higher quality of life than those receiving current standard treatments". Current treatments require lifelong use of antipsychotic drugs, which have side effects so severe that three out of four patients stop taking their prescriptions after a year and a half. In the new treatment program (called NAVIGATE), doses are reduced by 20%-50%, the families are given "psychoeducation", and the patient participates in resilience-focused individual therapy before progressing to an employment and education program. This is excellent news because it means that our society now has the evidence that supports changing the approach to helping people diagnosed with schizophrenia, although it makes me wonder if psychedelic medicines could also play a role, as in the case of a schizophrenic drug addict who was able to reclaim his life with help from the root bark iboga. In fact, many other cultures treat the people who are now diagnosed with schizophrenia differently, by encouraging them to pursue practices like shamanism, rather than forcing them to think and behave more like the normal population.

6. The Nintendo Entertainment System (the first console I owned) turned 30 this week! I spent countless hours playing and learning with video games, which certainly helped shape the person I have become today. Happy Birthday NES!

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