This Week in Psychedelics - 4.1.16

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• US-Made Cannabis Oil That Canadian Kids Rely On Is Stuck at the Border (VICE News)
• Money Grows on Cannabis Plants (Merry Jane)
• Use of Medical cannabis makes profound difference in Air Force veteran's life (Belleville News-Democrat)
• The continuing saga of stoned driving (Drug WarRant)
• A Cannabis Advocate's Case for Bernie Sanders (Leafly)
• During Washington State Easter Egg Hunt, Cops Find Huge Pot Operation (TIME)
• Our Recent Supreme Court Victory and What It Means (NORML)
• Is Cannabis The Secret To The Cure For HIV? (Reset.me)
• Gary Johnson Has High Hopes President Obama Will Reclassify Marijuana (Reason)
• Mississippi Dog Brings 1-Lb Bag of Marijuana Home to Family (TIME)
• The Brits are Modeling Their Cannabis Legislation After the US (Merry Jane)
• The Genes for Pot Addiction Have Been Identified (TIME)
• U.S. firms target investment in Israeli cannabis R&D (Yahoo! News)
• These 15 Smoke Spot Photos Defy Stoner Stereotypes (ATTN:)
• Live Well: Why a cannabis oil-infused massage is better than a traditional rubdown (Colorado Springs Gazette)
• Vermont Governor on Marijuana Legalization: It's What 'Enlightened States' Do (TIME)
• Women Grabbing Picks and Shovels in the Cannabis Gold Rush - Jane West (Forbes)
• Cannabis vs. alcohol: economic and social impacts (Medical News Today)
• A Crowdfunded Cannabis Company That The Crowd Should Avoid (Forbes)
• Can Marijuana Save Your Skin—And Your Sex Life? Inside the New Topical Cannabis Phenomenon (Vogue)
• On Marijuana Legalization, Chris Matthews Sounds Dumber Than Donald Trump (Reason)
• The March Towards Normalization Continues (NORML)
• From Porn to Pot: Hustler's Larry Flynt Invests in Legal Cannabis Industry (High Times)
• Whoopi Goldberg Gets Into the Medical Marijuana Business (TIME)
• Majority of businesses in Massachusetts are against legalizing cannabis (Mashable)
• 5 Fun Date Ideas for Cannabis-Friendly Couples (Leafly)
• Colorado Springs ban on cannabis clubs sparks action (Colorado Springs Gazette)
• Medicinal cannabis 'loophole' may be applied at border, says Customs (Stuff.co.nz)
• Swede who 'put cannabis in coffee' on trial for drug abuse (The Local)

LSD

• Researchers Are Using LSD to Help in the Fight Against Depression (GOOD Magazine)
• SXSW Film Review: 'Orange Sunshine' (Blogcritics)
• Naked man, on LSD, approaches woman on Noland Trail (Daily Press)
• 2 Teens Charged After 8 Chicago Students Sickened by Suspected LSD (5NBC Chicago)
• Washington Student Charged in Alleged LSD-Fueled Murder (WDJT)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• What's the Right Psychedelic Mushrooms Dosage? Deciding the Best Dose for Psychedelic Treatment (Psychedelic Times)
• Cops seize 1.5 kilos of pot and 180 grams of magic mushrooms in raid (Thompson Citizen)
• Men accused of trespassing to search for psychedelic mushrooms (WKMG)
• Anchorage man found with large stash of heroin, psilocybin, and other drugs (KTUU)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• A new injectable drug is being trialled to combat MDMA-induced hyperthermia (Mixmag)
• The USA could legalize medical MDMA – should the UK follow suit? (Metro)
• An effort to get Ecstasy FDA-approved is moving right along (Tech Insider)
• 6 UC Santa Cruz Students Face MDMA Felonies, but Throwing Them In Prison Won't Help Anyone (AlterNet)
• Raleigh police: Wake man, Detroit resident had hundreds of MDMA doses (The News & Observer)
• Lethal 'Dr Death' ecstasy pills using Chupa Chups sweets logo flood Britain (Daily Star)
• Father speaks of his anguish as daughter, 16, dies of ecstasy overdose (Sunday Express)
• Charity Talk To Frank pulls back the curtain on taking ecstasy (Daily Mail)
• Cops hunt source of deadly ecstasy (Independent Online)
• Mail Order Ecstasy Pills Lead to Arrest (AviationPros)
• Young dad caught dealing Ecstasy in Yarm nightclub fell into world of drugs and violence (Gazette Live)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• The All-Star Shaman Ayahuasca Massacree (Reality Sandwich)
• Ayahuasca Helped Me Overcome Trauma And Gave Me A New Purpose In Life (Reset.me)
• 'The Path', Ayahuasca, and South America's Very Real Cults (Inverse)
• EXCLUSIVE "Peruvian Ayahuasca Ceremony" Clip from HULU's THE PATH (Nuke the Fridge)
• Ayahuasca-fueled vision sends Aaron Paul down a dark 'Path' (Zap2It)
• SLO County Sheriff's deputies uncover evidence of psychedelic drug lab (KSBY)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

• Religious Freedom Acts Born Out Of ... Peyote (HowStuffWorks)
• How a Seventh-Day Adventist and peyote led to Supreme Court fights over contraception (Daily Kos)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Mason teen indicted in LSD, designer drug trafficking case (WLWT)

Dissociatives

• Professor to share depression study findings at Aware event (Village Living)
• Ketamine Linked to Bladder Toxicity (Medscape)
• Officer: Man yelling on MLK emanated the smell of PCP (The Lufkin News)
• HPD: Man high on PCP taken into custody, ending SWAT standoff in southeast Houston (KPRC)

Opiates/Opioids

• Heroin Epidemic Is Yielding to a Deadlier Cousin: Fentanyl (The New York Times)
• Can an Implant Stop Heroin Addiction? (The Daily Beast)
• How Switzerland Could Teach the U.S. To Deal With Its Heroin Problem (ATTN:)
• Controversial Drug Naloxone Reverses Overdoses – But Here's What It Does To Your Brain (Mic)
• Coroner Says Selling Heroin Is Murder--He's Wrong (Forbes)
• Chiefs: Fentanyl outpacing heroin (Gloucester Daily Times)
• There's a Way to Treat Opiate Addiction, So Why Isn't It Being Used? (TIME)
• 'Drug Users Need Treatment,' Says President Obama. Not So Fast, Says Dr. Carl Hart (Reason)
• TBT: In the 1800s, One Opium-Laced Drug Helped Moms Soothe the Pains of Teething Children (Hospitals & Health Networks)
• President Obama Talks Drug Abuse With Doctors and Addicts (TIME)
• America's opium war in Afghanistan (ABC Online)

Kratom

• Substance abuse counselors say "pain killer" ingredient should be banned (WAAY)
• Two Phuket women arrested with kratom, bullets and gun (The Phuket News)

Kava

• Luau Time! Krave Celebrates One Year in Carrboro (Chapelboro.com)
• Going under kava (Radio New Zealand)

Khat

• Wuhan customs seizes 25 kilograms of khat from Africa (News Ghana)
• China customs find khat, cannabis in foreign mail (Shanghai Daily)
• Don't give miraa or its proceeds to church, priest tells Catholics (Standard Digital News)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Lancet Commission Recommends Drug Legalization (Reason)
• Medical Marijuana, Decriminalization, and Opium: 2016 Looks Big for Drugs in Mexico (VICE News)
• Tracing Drug Use Patterns Through Nightclub Toilets (CityLab)
• Could Hallucinogenic Drugs Treat Mental Illness (The Alternative Daily)
• Why Making the Music Festival Scene Safer Is So Hard (Cosmopolitan)
• Obama Shortens Sentences of 61 Drug Offenders (TIME)
• 22 Top Medical Experts Call For A Shift In "Drug" Policies (Reset.me)
• Mind-altering drugs could treat mental disorders (EurekAlert!)
• Better Living Through Psychedelics with Comedian Duncan Trussell (Indy Week)
• Unthinkable: Could we make a computer trip on acid? (The Irish Times)
• Psychedelics and the Evolution of Festival Culture: David Starfire Talks Psychedelic Music (Psychedelic Times)
• Public Awareness Campaign on Generosity introduces Drink Cop test cards that arms people with the power to test their drinks for illicit drugs (Digital Journal)
• How Decades-Old Drug Offenses Kept Two Elected Officials Out of Office (Reason)
• The Many Lives of Mongolian Shamanism (Reality Sandwich)
• Idiot Falls for Joke Facebook Post, Gets Arrested (Disinfo)
• Mexico Detains Top Money Launderer to Drug Lord 'El Chapo' (TIME)
• Psychedelic compounds like ecstasy may be good for more than just a high (Chemical & Engineering News)

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 Crack in Space

This is a fairly representative sample of Philip K Dick’s paranoia-fueled alternate universes at its best. The Crack in Space was published in 1966 and is an expanded version of the novella Cantata 140, which was published in 1964. Both are based on the short story Prominent Author.

The novel is set on Earth in the year 2080. The planet struggles with overpopulation when a portal to a parallel version of Earth is discovered, hidden within a vehicle known as a Jiffi-scuttler. There are a lot of moving parts to the story, and it can be a bit difficult to keep them all in mind while reading.

For one, it is an election year (how appropriate for me to read this in 2016), and one of the candidates believes that the alter-Earth can be utilized for moving 70 million people known as "bibs", who have been cryogenically frozen until the overpopulation problem has been resolved, to colonize the planet. However, it is later discovered that this alter-Earth is not uninhabited.

Since I don’t want to give to much of the plot away, I will leave the description of the novel at that.

I found the book to be extremely enjoyable to read. I hesitate to say that it’s one of Dick’s finest works, because there are some truly amazing pieces that I have read along with even more that I have yet to get to. But when it comes down to it, this particular novel really nails the paranoid explanation of alternate realities that Dick was excellent at creating and expressing in some of his novels. It verges on the line of being classified as a horror novel, rather than just a science fiction novel, because a lot of the book strikes a chord similar to that of HP Lovecraft—something utterly wrong and horrible has happened, but it isn’t clearly defined.

At any rate, I’d highly suggest giving this one a read. I’m not sure if I’d rate this in my “Top Ten” Philip K Dick novel’s list yet, but it seems to be a worthy contender at this point.

4/5 stars. 188 pages.

One-Year Blogiversary and Site Redesign

Image by Dražen Jerković, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Think Wilder was launched one year ago on March 27, 2015. Since then, I have learned a lot about blogging, developing a regular writing practice, news cultivation, and more recently website design. It is with great pleasure that I announce a new design today!

For the past year, I have received feedback from many of you that it would be nice if it was easier to get around the site. First of all, thank you for the feedback and keep it coming! Although I have been tagging posts and placing them in categories, I realize that it has been difficult to find other pages on the site aside from stumbling upon those categorization options and the pagination available at the bottom of the site. There is now a sidebar on the right side of the site that will allow you to view popular posts, featured posts, and a list of categories. I plan to add more navigational capability in the future as well.

I have additional plans for Think Wilder that will be launching in the next few months. To those of you reading this post, thank you for your continued support and staying along while I learn how to make this project even better! As always, keep thinking wilder!

Weekend Thoughts - 3.26.16

Image by Stefan Rüdiger, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. As a creative person, I have often suffered from periods lacking in productivity. For fellow writers and artists, the feeling of writer's block can be a crippling and demoralizing experience. This article explains the history of writer's block and techniques that one can practice to overcome it. Having procrastinated on my creative projects during the better part of a decade after earning a Bachelor's of Arts in Communication (with a concentration in Print Journalism), I know the depression that can come from not producing creative work. If you find yourself in a similar situation, give the aforementioned article a read!

2. For a visual treat, check out this gallery of panoramic photos that experienced technical glitches. Some of them are disturbing, some funny, and some border on psychedelic.

3. An interesting analysis of the pitfalls of Internet media explores various ways that corporations and governments manipulate news via the mainstream media. Techniques such as favoritism in search engines, misleading and clickbait headlines, siloing and polarization, enforcing copyright laws only when they use copyrighted material in a way the copyright holder disapproves of, blatant Internet censorship, and paid commenters are just some of the methods that are used to sway public opinions, report misinformation, and essentially get away with lying to audiences. Always consider your source, be open-minded to information that conflicts with your own opinion, and do your own research!

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

This Week in Psychedelics - 3.25.16

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Supreme Court Won't Take Case Challenging Colorado Marijuana Laws (TIME)
• Peek Into Uruguay's Legal Marijuana Scene (NORML)
• Marijuana Legalization and the Presidential Election (NORML)
• Blockbuster Report Backs U.N. Cannabis Regulation, End to Prohibition (Leafly)
• Tampa City Council Votes to Decriminalize Possession of Small Amounts of Marijuana (Reason)
• Here's Why A Cardiologist Took A Second Look At Cannabis (Reset.me)
• The Hidden Hypocrisy of the Marijuana Industry (ATTN:)
• Texas gentleman explains why he led police on a 100 mile chase (Boing Boing)
• Families swear by cannabis oil's effect, but legislation to expand it in Georgia stalls (Gainesville Times)
• What You Should Know Before Taking Marijuana Edibles (ATTN:)
• Why Sports Leagues And Owners Should Allow Players To Consume Medical Cannabis (The Weed Blog)
• Drugs gang smuggled £24 million worth of cannabis in carpets (Evening Standard)
• Over €500,000 worth of cannabis seized in Belfast (Newstalk)
• The Real but Exaggerated Danger of Stoned Driving (Reason)
• Medical Cannabis Access Associated With Decreased Opioid Use In Chronic Pain Patients (NORML)
• Hillary Clinton Talks About Emails, Apples and Pot on Jimmy Kimmel (TIME)
• Kansas Seized Disabled Vet's Children While He Was Moving to Colorado to Use Medical Marijuana Legally (Reason)
• Marijuana Startup Accelerator CanopyBoulder Is Leading A Cannabis Industry Boom, But Some Grads Say The Program Isn't Worth The Hype (International Business Times)
• Pesticides 101: Question and Answers for Cannabis Patients and Consumers (Leafly)
• Cannabis smokers end up in worse jobs and have less money than average, study finds (Mirror)
• The National Cannabis Festival is coming to D.C. in April (The Washington Post)
• Cannabis Testing: The Importance of Independent Third Party Analyses of Cannabis Products (Leafly)
• Queensland father who gave cancer-stricken daughter cannabis oil avoids jail (ABC Online)
• The Secrets of Colorful Cannabis Revealed: Here's Why Some Strains Turn Purple (Leafly)
• Cannabis clubs lead community clean-up (KOAA)
• Thousands of cannabis plants wiped out in summer raids (Stuff.co.nz)
• UCD study finds cannabis 'not safe' for long-term users (KCRA)
• Three due in court following cannabis seizures (The Irish Times)
• Fire leads to alleged cannabis 'house' (The Courier Mail)

LSD

• Man Claims to Have Successfully Used LSD to Break His Facebook Addiction (NextShark)
• India's Temporary Acid Tattoos Revive the Dallas Cowboys LSD Hoax (Inverse)
• Police: Man, woman had 499 doses of LSD (The News & Observer)
• Ohio man, allegedly high on LSD, accused of biting chunk of father's ear off (WKRC)
• Police: Suspect was high on LSD when he brutally attacked woman in U District (KOMO News)
• Man sold almost $2K worth of LSD to police informant, cops say (Sun Sentinel)
• Washington student charged in alleged LSD-fueled murder (CBS News)
• Fife man sentenced to do unpaid work after 'bad trip' on LSD (The Courier)
• Biggs Sentenced for LSD Possession (KOWB)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• MDMA Steps Closer to FDA Approval as a Drug, but Now it Needs to Leap (Inverse)
• Legal MDMA Could Happen By 2021 (As Long As You've Got A Prescription) (UPROXX)
• Patients in ecstasy clinical trial find drug beneficial (San Francisco Chronicle)
• MDMA moves a step closer to becoming legal medicine (JOE.co.uk)
• I Took A Pill In Ibiza: Controversial Mike Posner song about ecstasy hits UK No 1 (The Independent)
• UC Santa Cruz students face potential felony charges in Ecstasy case (Santa Cruz Sentinel)
• Wellington student at Otago University dealt ecstasy to friends to fund own drug use (Stuff.co.nz)
• Crest Hill man who had ecstasy in his system pleads guilty in fatal crash (The Herald-News)
• KZN govt confirms 'mystery drug' was a bad batch of ecstasy (Eyewitness News)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Jan Kounen on Visionary Ayahuasca (Reality Sandwich)
• DMT psychedelic trip a neuroscientist tells all to end fear (Examiner)
• Resident says South Davis drug-lab allegations are false (The Davis Enterprise)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

• Huachuma (San Pedro Cactus) And Ayahuasca Taught Me The Meaning Of Enlightenment (Reset.me)
• The abuelita who dealt peyote: Amada Sanchez Cardenas (Santa Fe New Mexican)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• Chor Boogie Shines Love Into Macaya Gallery (Miami New Times)

Dissociatives

• New study strengthens ketamine's use as an antidepressant (Mixmag)
• Ketamine abuse can permanently damage your bladder (Zee News)
• Ketamine May Provide Lasting Relief From Depression (Psychiatry Advisor)
• Ketamine Gaining Traction as a Treatment Option for Depression (Healthline)
• News release makes claim about ketamine for depression based on thin evidence (HealthNewsReview)

Opiates/Opioids

• Mexico mayor: To beat opium farming, legalize it (CBS News)
• MOH gives greenlight for Buprenorphine-Naloxone as heroine addict treatment (The Sun Daily)

Kratom

• Using Kratom to Quit Using Alcohol (Kratom Project)
• Does Kratom Work for RLS? (Kratom Project)
• Attorney urging parents to beware of legal drug (WBRC)
• Phuket cops search home for kratom, find unregistered gun (Thai Visa News)
• Kratom use can be devastating (Newton Daily News)

Kava

• Exotic kava bar takes over old Flipnotics space on Barton Springs Road (Austin Business Journal)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Legalize It All (Harpers Magazine)
• Myths, Moralism, and Hypocrisy Drive the International Drug Control System (StoptheDrugWar.com)
• Common Antidepressant Side Effects: Why You Might Want to Use Psychedelics Instead of SSRIs (Psychedelic Times)
• From cannabis cafes to death row: drugs laws around the world (The Guardian)
• In Florida Rehabs, Addicts Are Bought And Sold (BuzzFeed)
• Physicians Face Moral Dilemma In Conscription on War on Drugs (Reason)
• Can Club Drugs Revolutionize the Psychiatric Industry? (Verge Campus)
• The Psychedelic Re-Evolution (Reset.me)
• Assault Charges for Pregnant Drug Users to Stop in Tennessee (Reason)
• What Do Your Hallucinations Mean? What Psychedelics Teach Us About Human Consciousness (Psychedelic Times)
• 5 Ways Over-The-Counter Drugs Are Misused (ATTN:)
• The Dangerous Side Effects of Benzodiazepine: Using Psychedelics as an Alternative Anxiety Treatment (Psychedelic Times)

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.