This Week in Psychedelics - 9.9.16

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• The Reason a Record Number of States Can Vote to Legalize Weed This Fall (ATTN:)
• CDC: Young People Say Marijuana Is Becoming Less Available (NORML)
• Can Cannabis Cure Cancer? (Leafly)
• Women Are Changing The Way Cannabis Is Viewed, Consumed, And Understood (GOOD Magazine)
• Court To Cops: Residing In A State Where Marijuana Is Legal Does Not Automatically Make A Motorist 'Suspicious' (TechDirt)
• What's the Donald Trump Weed Position And Will It Benefit Cannabis Users? (Inquisitr)
• The American Legion Wants Marijuana Reclassified to Help Treat PTSD (Reason)
• Social Cannabis Use Makes the Ballot in Denver (Leafly)
• Alaska Cannabis Regulators Poised to Approve Retail Licenses (Leafly)
• Poll: Record Percentage Of Californians Backing Adult Use Initiative (NORML)
• Italian Law Enforcement Join Push for Cannabis Legalization (Leafly)
• Young veterans find purpose as cannabis watchmen in Colorado (The Seattle Times)
• 7 Must Attend Cannabis Events This Fall (Merry Jane)
• 4 Lessons Learned Working in the New Cannabis Industry (Small Business Times)
• Black Rock OG Supports Cannabis Law Reform (NORML)
• San Francisco's private cannabis lounge: leather seating, chess and a concierge (The Guardian)
• Study: Cannabis May Treat Vascular Dementia (The Weed Blog)
• Melissa Etheridge developing cannabis collection (TV3.ie)

LSD

• How the CIA Used LSD to Destroy the New Left (Dissident Voice)
• LSD dealer sentenced to life granted clemency by Obama (Dazed)
• Oteil Burbridge Talks About Taking Owsley LSD At The Gorge With Dead & Company (Live for Live Music)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Many Silicon Valley professionals are microdosing with psilocybin, LSD before work (Natural News)
• Is tripping on mushrooms the secret to happiness? (Fusion)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Drug Safety Organization The Loop Have Issued a Warning About Orange 'Tesla' Pills (THUMP)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• The Ayahuasca Pre-Diet: How to Prepare for an Ayahuasca Ceremony, According to Shamans (Psychedelic Times)
• The Drug of Choice for the Age of Kale (The New Yorker)
• DMT: 'The Spirit Molecule' Explained (World of Lucid Dreaming)
• This Silicon Valley angel investor loves a drug that gave him hours of seizures (SFGate)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• Ibogaine Therapy: Why You Probably Need Multiple Treatments to Fully Recover from Addiction (Psychedelic Times)
• Heart Medicine: Interview with Elizabeth Bast and Chor Boogie (Psychedelic Times)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Anything-goes culture surrounds dangerous bath salts, designer drugs (Palm Beach Post)

Dissociatives

• Ketamine Is an Essential Medicine, Says Anesthesiologists (VICE)
• Ketamine has split personality: risky club drug, effective anesthetic (KTOO)
• Man sentenced for PCP-fueled armed robberies at bars on Cleveland's West Side (Cleveland.com)

Opiates/Opioids

• The Global Heroin Epidemic: 90% of World's Supply Still Comes From Afghanistan (Sputnik International)
• Heroin Epidemic's New Terror: Carfentanil (Rolling Stone)
• America is suffering from a heroin epidemic. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton don't seem to care (The Week)
• How Opioids Are Contributing to the High Maternal Death Rate in America (ATTN:)

Kratom

• Outrage over DEA's Kratom Decision (Pain News Network)
• Kratom Ban In The US: What Is It, Effects & Why Is It Being Banned? (Morning Ledger)
• Kratom Petition Attracts 55K Signatures In Six Days, 100K Needed For Response From White House (Inquisitr)
• DEA ban on kratom affecting local businesses (KRDO)
• Why You Should Never Smoke Kratom (Kratom Project)

Khat

• Somalia: Puntland state slams Federal Government ban on Khat (Garowe Online)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• The Death Toll From Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's War on Drugs Has Exceeded 2,400 (TIME)
• Netherlands Leads the Dark Net Polls in Drug Distribution (The Merkle)
• Indonesia's Drug Czar Is Buying Up Weapons After Saying He Wants a Duterte-Style Drug War (TIME)
• What Happens When You Flush Pills Down the Drain (ATTN:)
• What Happened When We Tested Women's Drugs at a Music Festival (Broadly)
• [Event] The Legal Regulation of Psychedelics (VolteFace)

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 - 9.3.16

Image by Vicido..., courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. Ben Thompson at Stratechery wrote a detailed analysis of Google, Uber, and the Evolution of Transportation-as-a-Service that is worth a read for anyone interested in self-driving automobile technology and ride-sharing market competition. I predict that the next few decades will be extremely interesting in this area.

2. As someone who shares an elevator ride with other people (with a bicycle, no less) several times a week, I found this article detailing elevator body placement and behavior etiquette (also known as elevator "proxemics") to be pretty interesting and helpful. For example, wearing bright colors (like a fantabulous tie dyed t-shirt) will encourage people to put more space between themselves and you, because of the added "stimulation". Also, face forward unless you want people to think that you are a wrong-way-facing lunatic.

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

This Week in Psychedelics - 9.2.16

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• 9th Circuit Says Medical Marijuana Cardholders Have No Second Amendment Rights (Reason)
• States Voting on Marijuana This Year (ATTN:)
• Chatting with the Man Who Legally Changed His Name to 'Free Cannabis' (VICE)
• Medical Marijuana: New York Set To Approve Home Delivery Of Cannabis (Inquisitr)
• New Campaign in Colorado Looks to Keep Underage Kids From Using Cannabis (Merry Jane)
• Tommy Chong Has a Major Request for Pres. Obama Before He Leaves Office (ATTN:)
• Promoting Cannabis Legalization: Advice From The Experts (Dope Magazine)
• These Athletes Add Cannabis To Their Workout Regimen (Forbes)
• More Americans Are Using Marijuana and Don't See it as Harmful (TIME)
• When Bob Dylan Turned the Beatles On To Marijuana (Reality Sandwich)
• UC Irvine Professor: Cannabis Shows Promise Treating Opioid Addiction (Green Rush Daily)
• California Veterans Group Distributed Free Cannabis (Green Rush Daily)
• California Cannabis: Show Me The Money (Above the Law)
• Four Cannabis Entrepreneurs Share Their Strangest Moments (Forbes)
• Cannabis Growers Seek Blue Ribbons For Their Buds At Oregon's State Fair (NPR)
• How cannabis harms your will to work: Just ONE joint reduces motivation (Daily Mail)

LSD

• How the Brain Processes Language on Acid Is a Trip (Motherboard)
• Grateful Dead fan who sold LSD has life sentence cut by Obama (Mashable)
• John Lennon on his first acid trip (Boing Boing)
• Turn on! LSD pioneer Ram Dass recalls pal Timothy Leary (New York Daily News)
• I Use LSD to Help Me Deal with the Trauma of Being Kidnapped by My Dad (VICE)
• 1924: A rabbi who sought the light anywhere, including in LSD, is born (Haaretz)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Treating Depression: Human Study Shows Psilocybin Works Where Conventional Antidepressants Don't (Psychedelic Times)
• Bad Trips Might Be Good For You (I4U News)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• What the 1980s Glue Sniffing Epidemic Can Teach Us About Preventing Ecstasy Deaths (VICE)
• This Chemist Should Have Won a Nobel Peace Prize (VolteFace)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• This Is How Ayahuasca Affects the Brain (Motherboard)
• Questions raised about what caused woman's death inside Berea church (WKYT)
• Discovery of illegal drug lab, used to manufacture DMT, prompts extensive hazardous materials response in Northampton (MassLive)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

• Peyote and the racialized war on drugs (The Christian Century)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• Witness to Transformation: John Harrison on Ibogaine Addiction Treatment (Psychedelic Times)

Dissociatives

• Man Who Died when Tased Was High on PCP: NY AG (Patch: Southeast)
• Sheriff: Man on flakka and LSD smashes window, attacks woman (WFXT)

Opiates/Opioids

• Surgeon General Writes to Every Doctor in U.S. About Opioid Epidemic (TIME)
• Should the cost of naloxone be determined by its public health impact? (Modern Healthcare)

Kratom

• The DEA Is Placing Kratom And Mitragynine On Schedule I (Forbes)
• Why Banning the Controversial Painkiller Kratom Could be Bad News for America's Heroin Addicts (Kratom Project)
• Why are many states hurrying in banning the kratom? (Kratom Project)
• The Problem With the DEA Ban on Kratom (ATTN:)
• Which countries allow kratom usage without restrictions? (Kratom Project)
• Kratom and Pregnancy: Can a Pregnant Woman Take Kratom? (Kratom Guides)

Kava

• High price leads to weak kava sales (The Fiji Times)
• Competition between Fiji and Vanuatu kava (The Fiji Times)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• America Can Learn A Lot From Portugal's Drug Policy (NORML)
• Cocaine 'worth €50m' discovered at Coca-Cola plant (BBC News)
• Philippine Anti-Drug Strategy: 'Kill Them All' (Reason)
• Canadian Vacationers Charged With Smuggling $22 Million of Cocaine on Cruise Ship in Australia (TIME)
• The war on drugs failed. What now? (The Christian Century)
• 500 legal experts launch bid to reform drug policies (Buenos Aires Herald)

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 - Zig Zag Zen

The book Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics is a compilation of articles and interviews written and conducted by several respected people in both the Buddhist and psychedelic communities. The pieces explore the crossovers between Buddhism and psychedelics and offer an honest perspective about whether psychedelic substances have a place in a sincere Buddhist practice, and vice-versa.

Following a foreword written by Stephen Batchelor, a preface written by religious studies scholar Huston Smith, and an introduction written by the book's editor Allan Badiner, Zig Zag Zen is broken into three main sections: "Intersection", which explores the points common to both topics, "Concrescence?", which discusses the coalescence or "growing together" of Buddhism and psychedelics, and "Lessons", which offers advice from the elders in both movements for a beginning psychonaut or Buddhist.

The "Intersection" section covers topics like the Tibetan Book of the Dead and a 1964 psychedelicized version of it called The Psychedelic Experience, the concept of suffering, America's relationship with Buddhism, shamanism, spiritually-influenced artwork, and other various spiritual practices. The authors featured in this section include psychedelic researcher Ralph Metzner, professor Roger Walsh, anthropologist/writer Christian Rätsch, and Allan Badiner, among others.

The "Concrescence?" section begins with a thorough explanation of Buddhist and psychedelic artwork by visionary artist Alex Grey, followed by an explanation by Rick Strassman concerning his groundbreaking DMT research, and then features several chapters on various topics such as "psychoactivism", "leaning into rawness", ayahuasca, cannabis as a harm reduction practice, and a fantastic analysis of psychedelics' potential role in Buddhist practice by writer Erik Davis.

The final section, "Lessons", includes several discussions concerning whether psychedelics are a help or a hindrance on the Buddhist path, features an interview with the well-known psychedelic bard Terence McKenna, the work of Rick Doblin with the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), Lama Surya Das' "zen commandments", and more.

The book is extremely well-written and edited, and offers an honest look at whether psychedelics can play a valid role in a Buddhist practice. The authors (and speakers) in the book do not all agree on a conclusion, and so it is up to the reader to decide whether psychedelics would truly assist them in their spiritual path or not. Featured throughout the book are a plethora of breathtaking art pieces in full color. I would advise this book to anyone who has an interest in either Buddhism or psychedelics.

5/5 stars. 240 pages.

Weekend Thoughts - 8.27.16

Image by gibbyli, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. Libraries are currently places where we can access information—books, magazines, the Internet, audiobooks, etc. This article describes how libraries in the future may change to allow us to create the future, rather than learn about the present. Some libraries already offer 3D printers and laser cutters, but future libraries may have other types of technologies. Imagine experiencing virtual or augmented reality with library equipment and software, "checking out" a trip to another planet or a day in the life as another animal, for example. As someone who currently enjoys libraries, I would definitely welcome a shift away from housing print books to an Epcot-like place where new technologies could be experienced without needing to purchase them for oneself.

2. Millennials have been featured in headlines recently for "killing" paper napkins, wine, golf, and other products. However, the real reasons for this trend are not generational snark and apathy toward capitalism. Instead, it's a combination of multiple factors that contribute to the fact that millennials do not have the spending power of earlier generations. They earn $2,000 less than their parents did in 1980 after adjusting for inflation, drastically more student loan debt, and they work longer hours leaving them with less time to shop. I would like to think that in addition to those facts, millennials are plausibly more environmentally conscious and understand that using paper napkins can be replaced with using alternatives (such as cotton towels and reusable "paper" towels)—although you can compost paper napkins, so there is that option as well.

3. A magickian has written an article taking a critical look at Robert Anton Wilson, focusing on some of the downsides in his reality tunnels. Although I am a RAW fan, I did find some of the points made to be valid, even if those in the comment section did not agree. At any rate, if you're into the late author, I would advise giving it a read and some thought.

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