This Week in Psychedelics - 9.16.16

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Holland-Style Marijuana Lounges Coming to America (ATTN:)
• Germany and Austria Are Pouring Billions Into Cannabis Prohibition (Leafly)
• Canada Wants the U.S. to Change Its 'Ludicrous' Marijuana Policy (TIME)
• Opioid Maker Donates to Help Halt Marijuana Legalization in Arizona (Reason)
• Nationwide rally for legalisation of medicinal cannabis to take place outside police stations (Stuff.co.nz)
• The benefits of cannabis reform are now undeniable (iNews)
• More American Adults are Consuming Cannabis than Ever Before (The Marijuana Times)
• Cannabis Industry Expected to Be Worth $50 Billion by 2026 (Bloomberg)
• Two Major Canadian Banks Refuse to Take Cannabis Clients Due to 'The Nature of Their Business' (Cannabis Business Times)
• Study Suggests Pot Has Been Blamed for Fetal Risks Caused by Tobacco (Reason)
• How Women Grow is cultivating cannabis leaders in North America (YourStory)
• Ophelia Chong: On Photography, Race And Art In The Cannabis Industry (Dope Magazine)
• Washington State Will Test Pot for Banned Pesticides More Frequently (TIME)
• Cannabis 101: Cues to determine shelf life of that new legal marijuana (Food Safety News)
• The Cannabis-Based Biotech Sector's Best Buyout Candidates (Forbes)
• Major rise in amount of cannabis sold by German pharmacies (Deutsche Welle)
• How to Decarboxylate Cannabis and Make Better Edibles (Merry Jane)
• Report Shows Pot Prohibitionists' Desperation (Reason)
• Diversity Issues Threaten to Derail Maryland's Medical Cannabis Program (New Cannabis Ventures)
• These Factors Can Impact How Quickly or Slowly Your Cannabis Burns (Leafly)

LSD

• LSD is in a league of its own (The State Press)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Having A Bad Trip On 'Shrooms' Can Actually Improve Your Well-Being (Collective Evolution)
• Magic Mushrooms Might Be a Great Way to Quit Smoking (New York Magazine)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• What Ecstasy Does to Your Body: The Science Behind Music's Most Controversial Drug (Billboard)
• The many overlooked benefits of ecstasy (Quartz)
• Ecstasy making a comeback as purity rises in MDMA form, experts warn (ABC Online)
• Crystal ecstasy is on the rise among young Australians (News.com.au)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• The Science of Ayahuasca: Inside the ICEERS Study at the Temple of the Way of Light (Psychedelic Times)
• Hipsters Are Healing Their Souls With 'Grandmother' Drug (Newser)
• The Tradition of Ayahuasca in the Amazon: Creating the Temple of the Way of Light (Psychedelic Times)
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the ups and downs of ayahuasca (The New Yorker Radio Hour)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• Fear and loathing in the five-star rehab: Inside the controversy around ibogaine, the psychedelic drug that just may cure addiction (Salon)
• Iboga: Kicking Heroin Addiction with the Ultimate Ancestral Trip (iBogaine Thailand)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• K2 and the DEA (Splice Today)

Dissociatives

• Ketamine: known anaesthetic as quick remedy for depression (Health Canal)

Opiates/Opioids

• Heroin Is Being Laced With a Terrifying New Substance: What to Know About Carfentanil (TIME)
• The story behind the photo of two heroin users and their four-year-old child (The Independent)
• Prescription heroin gets green light in Canada (CNN)
• Drug deaths reach record levels as purity of heroin and cocaine rises (The Telegraph)
• The turbulent history of the opium trade (The Asian Age)
• Naloxone may not help synthetic heroin overdose (WTHR)
• TN makes naloxone available without Rx (Knoxville News Sentinel)

Kratom

• After Banning Kratom, DEA Says It Might Be a Useful Medicine (Reason)
• Why is the US banning kratom, the virtually harmless herb? (The Guardian)
• DEA targeting of addiction treatment kratom will protect Big Pharma profits (RT)
• Kratom Proponents Present 120,000-Signature Petition To White House To Stop DEA Rush To Ban Coffee-Like Herb In U.S., Seek Opportunity To Comment (PR Newswire)
• What The DEA's Plan To Schedule 1 Kratom Will Mean For Million (Forbes)

Kava

• Kava, with caveats: is this popular psychoactive tea bad for your liver? (The Verge)
• What's Behind The Intoxicating Rise Of Kava Bars In The U.S. (Forbes)
• High kava demand (The Fiji Times)
• Kava in short supply (The Fiji Times)

Khat

• Anger over Somalia's khat import ban (Africa News)
• How Much Does It Cost for Somalia to Ban Khat for a Week? Millions. (Foreign Policy)
• Somalia lifts ban on Kenya khat exports (Africa Review)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Why Today's Illegal Drugs Are More Dangerous Than Ever (ATTN:)
• Recovering from Depression: Two Meditations for Integrating a Psychedelic Experience (Psychedelic Times)
• Jay-Z: 'The War on Drugs Is an Epic Fail' (The New York Times)
• Philippine President Rodigo Duterte Targets Over 1,000 More Officials In His Drug War (TIME)
• GOP Aide Urges Republicans to Oppose Criminal Justice Reform Because 'Drug Trafficking is a Violent Crime' (Reason)
• Rio Branco, Brazil, to be transformed into the global epicenter of ayahuasca culture and debate for 2016 World Ayahuasca Conference (Psychedelic Press UK)
• The Incoherence of Schedule I (CATO Institute)
• Silene Capensis: The African Dream Herb (World of Lucid Dreaming)
• Paul Howard Was The First Silk Road Vendor To be Arrested (News BTC)
• Inside Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's War On Drugs (TIME)
• Fresh take on American Buddhism and psychedelics (Massey University)
• Stretching on Psychedelics, The Mystery of Sound and Enhancing Your Life Through Inner Work (Disinfo)

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 - 9.10.16

Image by kergatyphoto, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. The annual transformational festival, Burning Man, took place in Black Rock City, Nevada, a couple of weeks ago. Here is a timelapse video of some of the art installations and an article featuring many of the "mutant vehicle" art cars that appeared at the 2016 Burn. Personally, I have yet to attend Burning Man, but would like to sometime in the future! Until then, I'm stuck living vicariously through others' experiences at the Burn.

2. The largest United States prison labor strike in history occurred yesterday, when nearly half of the inmates imprisoned decided to stop working or start hunger strikes in an effort to highlight the injustices of prison labor. What is pretty amazing is that these prisoners were able to coordinate the unprecedented strike with the assistance of technology—specifically, social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Although the use of cell phones is not allowed in prisons (and is against the law in some states), visitors and prison guards smuggle them into prisons anyway. It's amazing to me that technology has given so much power to those of us that did not have it in the past. Think about it—the world's governments, corporations, wealthy individuals, and even prisons, don't have the same stranglehold on the human population that they did even 30 years ago because of advancing technologies on the Internet.

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

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.