Weekend Thoughts - 10.1.16

Image by Rafael Vianna Croffi, 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 honor of Banned Books Week (September 25 to October 1), here is an article showing the most-challenged books of 2001 and 2015 and some commentary on what that means about our society's greatest fears. Interestingly, 15 years ago our banned books focused on strong language, sexual content, and drugs, whereas nowadays the concerns are more about transgender issues, homosexuality and religious reasons. It's an interesting list of books, including the fact that the Harry Potter books were most-challenged in 2001 (they were believed to be involved with cults and Satanism, apparently), although they have been accepted as normal now. It's worth perusing the list to see if your next favorite book may currently be (or formerly been) a commonly-banned book!

2. One of the techniques that was used during World War I was to paint military vessels with dazzle camouflage, which made it challenging for the enemies to obtain an accurate read on the vessel's distance, speed, and direction of travel. An artist created a disorienting psychedelic dazzle camouflage room that blurs the boundaries between the dazzle camouflaged-person and the room. It's pretty trippy; I'd like to experience it in person.

3. Apple announced some new products a few weeks ago during their September 2016 Keynote, and among the new goodies that were introduced were AirPods, a pair of wireless headphones built with a proprietary wireless "W1" chip. One of the primary methods of interacting with the AirPods is to speak to them using the Siri assistant technology. This article argues that AirPods are precisely the best place to use Siri, comparing the combination of technologies to the movie Her, in which the main character (and the rest of society) begins interacting with in-ear virtual assistants on a near-constant basis. It's a well-written, thought-provoking article that also references Jane, the artificial sentience in the Ender's Game series book Speaker for the Dead, by Orson Scott Card. Seriously, this article combines a lot of my favorite things—Apple, Her, and the Ender's Game books. Well done, and an excellent sneak peek into our likely future personal (and societal) relationships with artificial intelligences.

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

This Week in Psychedelics - 9.30.16

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Where Your Representatives Stand on Marijuana (ATTN:)
• FBI: Marijuana Arrests Decline Significantly In 2015 (NORML)
• Pharma Company Admits Opposing Marijuana Legalization to Protect Its Corporate Profits (ATTN:)
• Blockchain Startups Want to Solve Cannabis' Banking Problem (Merry Jane)
• Why Marijuana Advocates Are Criticizing Chelsea Clinton (ATTN:)
• Colorado Will Use Extra Marijuana Revenue to Prevent Bullying in Schools (TIME)
• Do You Know These Stoner Superstitions About Cannabis Rules and Etiquette? (Leafly)
• Alaska's first commercial cannabis harvest begins (Alaska Dispatch News)
• A company just had another successful test of a cannabis drug for epilepsy – and now their stock is spiking (Business Insider)
• Why You Shouldn't Blame Gary Johnson's Memory on Pot (ATTN:)
• Meet "Asamiko" the New Cannabis Mascot of Japan (Merry Jane)
• Common Sense Proposal Would Treat Marijuana Like Tobacco in New Jersey (Reason)
• BDS Analytics Launches Scientific Consumer Survey of Nation's Cannabis Users (Westword)
• How this tiny Middle Eastern nation came to lead the world in medical marijuana research (The Cannabist)
• Weed Weekends: Are Marijuana Bars Coming To Denver? (Dope Magazine)
• Medical Marijuana Replaces More Dangerous Drugs (Reason)
• Alaska Reporter Who Quit On Air in Support of Marijuana Legalization Facing 24 Years in Prison (Reason)
• Everything You Need to Know About Cannabis Flavonoids (Merry Jane)
• Gentleman ejected from Uber for smoking "medicine" (Boing Boing)
• Hebrew U fund invests in cannabis sorting technology (The Times of Israel)
• 5 Experts Weigh in on Cannabis Concentrates and How to Use Them (Leafly)
• The fitness-first, cannabis-second 420 Games come to Denver this weekend, boulder next (The Denver Post)
• How to Combine Cannabis and Prostate Play (Leafly)
• Chubut first to accept cannabis oil (Buenos Aires Herald)

LSD

• Silicon Valley Professionals 'Microdosing' LSD Before Work (The Daily Caller)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Ecstasy prices reveal its path from city to city (Futurity)
• How Ecstasy Augments Psychological Therapy in PTSD (Medscape)
• Ecstasy drug therapy (Al Jazeera)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Actual Scientists Found That Ayahuasca Can Help You Think More Creatively (The Huffington Post)
• The Agonizing Enlightenment of Ayahuasca (Reality Sandwich)
• Attend The 2nd World Ayahuasca Conference to Meet Leading Healers And Experts (Reset.me)
• "How Ayahuasca Helped Me Recover from a Traumatic Injury" (Psychedelic Times)
• Ayahuasca and anal beads: the hallucinogenic art of Donna Huanca (The Guardian)
• What is hallucinogen Ayahuasca? (ABC Online)
• DMT, a hard-core hallucinogenic, also known as 'dream time', causing danger (Herald Sun)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

• "Peyote at a Crossroads": Documentary Traces an Ancient Bond Between Plant and People (KRTS)

Morning Glory Seeds

• Students hospitalized after ingesting hallucinogen at Eureka High School (Eureka Times Standard)

Dissociatives

• Could 'party drug' ketamine be a treatment for cocaine addiction? (International Business Times)
• 'Club Drug' Ketamine Useful In Migraine Treatment, Researchers Say (Inquisitr)
• Ketamine Shows Signs of Efficacy in Treating PTSD (Monthly Prescribing Reference)
• 5 safety tips for cops when dealing with a subject high on PCP (PoliceOne.com)

Opiates/Opioids

• Just say no to Narcan? Heroin rescue efforts draw backlash (CBS News)
• Is methadone an answer to Alaska's heroin crisis? (Alaska Dispatch News)
• Rite Aid Expands Naloxone Dispensing Program in Four Additional States (Yahoo! Finance)
• The US heroin habit is growing, and 2 of Mexico's most powerful cartels are fighting to supply it (Business Insider)
• NYC wants to make it safer for drug addicts to shoot up (New York Post)
• CVS Health (CVS) Announces Expansion of Naloxone Accessibility (Street Insider)
• Pennsylvania Artist Tackles Heroin Epidemic, Despite Police Intervention (The Huffington Post)
• Naloxone can help save lives in the battle against heroin and opiates (The Journal Times)
• 10Listens: The cost of anti-overdose drug Naloxone (WBIR)

Kratom

• 45 Congressmen Ask DEA Not to Ban Kratom Next Week (U.S. News & World Report)
• Kratom Drug Ban May Cripple Promising Painkiller Research (Scientific American)
• Is Kratom the CBD of Opioids? (Reality Sandwich)
• The DEA Is About to Kill Kratom and Internet Sales Are Going Crazy (Gizmodo)
• Kratom Is A Drug By Any Measure - Treat It Like One (American Council on Science and Health)

Kava

• Kava council calls for restructure (The Fiji Times)
• Committee endorses standards (The Fiji Times)

Khat

• Miraa continues to serve as unifying symbol of divided Horn of Africa (Daily Nation)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• ACLU Urges Mass. Court to Vacate 24,000 Drug Cases Based on Tainted Lab Evidence (Reason)
• Here's What Happened When a German Reporter Took a Bunch of Hard Drugs on TV (Thump)
• New Species Discovered, And It's A Psychedelichen (VolteFace)
• Is the FDA Too Cozy With Drug Companies? (TIME)
• Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte Invokes the Holocaust to Defend 'War on Drugs' (TIME)
• Psychedelic experiences might "cure" smoking and OCD. Should we allow them? (Vox)
• David Bowie on cocaine in 1974 (Boing Boing)
• Donald Trump Shows How Drugs are Used as Weapons in Politics (ATTN:)
• Maine Gov. Paul LePage's 'Binder of Drug Dealers' Shows He Was Lying About the Race of Arrestees (Reason)

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 - 9.24.16

Image by msoe, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. There have been a few instances of police-murdering-civilians this week, and this article delves a bit into the issue of using body cams. The article is definitely worth a read, but the TL;DR is: when body cameras are used to hold both suspects and police officers accountable, that's transparency, whereas when they are only used to hold suspects accountable, that's a method of surveillance.

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

This Week in Psychedelics - 9.23.16

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Medical cannabis sales soar in German pharmacies (RT)
• Tommy Chong Seeks Obama's Pardon for Drug Paraphernalia Conviction (Hollywood Reporter)
• Memphis and Nashville May Take Steps to Decriminalize Marijuana (TIME)
• Will The Marijuana Vote Be A Factor This November? (NORML)
• Cannabis Attracting Mainstream Research Analysts (Forbes)
• Inside the Company Helping Native Americans Grow Cannabis (VICE)
• Cannabis Companies Are Attracting Marijuana Investors With a Lost of Green (LA Weekly)
• 3 Phoenix Cops Resign After Forcing Man to Eat Marijuana (TIME)
• Can Cannabis Help Anorexia? How Medical Marijuana May Treat the Emotional Trauma Behind Anorexia (Psychedelic Times)
• California Marijuana Legalization Would Cause 'Sea Change' in Capital for Cannabis Startups (Inc.)
• Study: Opioid Prevalence Falls Following Medical Cannabis Legalization (NORML)
• Longest Strike in Colombia’s History Dries Up Bogotá’s Cannabis Supply (Leafly)
• Legalise cannabis protests outside NZ police stations (Stuff.co.nz)
• Cannabis oil hailed as 'a miracle' for epileptic son (Vancouver Sun)
• Nine cannabis clubs ordered to 'cease and desist' in Colorado Springs (Colorado Springs Gazette)
• Oakland conference focuses on budding relationship between cannabis and Bay Area tech (San Francisco Business Times)
• Teenage cannabis use rises in Europe - EU Espad survey (BBC News)

LSD

• How LSD Affects Language (AlterNet)
• LSD Legalization Activists Savor a Rare Win (Inverse)
• LSD Candy and Explosive Love Beads: Revelations from the US Government's Private Drug Newsletter (VICE)
• Weekly Dose: LSD – dangerous, mystical, or therapeutic? (The Conversation)
• LSD, Spirituality, and Creativity in the Sixties: Interview with Fred Weaver III, M.D. (Psychedelic Times)
• Lick and get high: LSD stamps creep into Vietnam (VNExpress)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Can 9/20 Become the 4/20 of Magic Mushrooms? (VICE)
• Psychedelic Mushrooms Help Your Brain (Snopes)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• 'My therapist gave me a pill': can MDMA help cure trauma? (The Guardian)
• Legitimising MDMA, 'The Love Drug', For Couples Therapy (VolteFace Magazine)
• Mum Fiona Spargo-Mabbs, whose son Daniel died after taking ecstasy at illegal rave brings fight for mandatory drugs education to Downing Street (Croydon Guardian)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Ethical Ayahuasca Tourism: A Guide for First Time Ayahuasca Users with Matthew Watherston (Psychedelic Times)
• Ayahuasca as Antidote (Reality Sandwich)
• How do you cope with losing your hair? I took ayahuasca and felt like an imbecile (The Guardian)

Morning Glory Seeds

• Multiple Eureka High Schoolers Hospitalized After Consuming Psychedelic Seeds (Lost Coast Output)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Teen's Death Leads to Discovery of Drug Operation (Patch: Woodbury)

Dissociatives

• Police officials confirm PCP found in shooting victim Terence Crutcher's car (KFAQ)
• Police: Fleeing driver on crack and PCP crashed into cruisers (York Dispatch)

Opiates/Opioids

• DEA Blocks Research Into Promising Opioid Alternatives (Slate)
• Over 7,000 Candidates Took Money from Opioid Companies During the Epidemic (ATTN:)
• 6 Ways to Fight America's Heroin Epidemic (TIME)
• Seattle's new war on drugs: Giving heroin addicts 'safe sites' to shoot up (Los Angeles Times)
• Oregon Pharmacies Can Now Prescribe Naloxone For Overdoses (OPB News)
• Searching for naloxone to cure a heroin overdose? The FDA wants an app for that. (The Washington Post)

Kratom

• What it's like to be high on kratom, according to the people who use it (The Washington Post)
• Why Kratom's Getting Banned – And How We Can Stop This Madness (Kratom Project)
• Kratom Movement Draws Attention From Congress, And More On The DEA's Plan To Schedule 1 (Forbes)
• Survey: Kratom 'Very Effective' for Chronic Pain (Pain News Network)

Kava

• Getting kava industry back on track (Fiji Broadcasting Corporation)
• Milestone for kava industry (The Fiji Times)
• Kava demand worry (The Fiji Times)

Khat

• Khat cargo plane overshoots the runway at Bardale Airport (Mareeg)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• How Drug Cartels Operate Like Silicon Valley Startups (Motherboard)
• Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte Wants Six More Months for His Drug War (TIME)
• Colorado Drug Warriors Mistakenly Storm Innocent Family's Home (Reason)
• 10 Psychedelic Artists You Should Know (Merry Jane)
• 'Dying to Know': a sedate look at psychedelic pioneers Ram Dass, Timothy Leary (The Seattle Times)
• The Daughter of a British Aristocrat Has Been Killed by Philippine Drug War Vigilantes (TIME)
• Is the Drug Trade Really Bank-Rolling Terrorism? (VICE)
• The Journey of a Psychedelic Marine (Reality Sandwich)
• New directions in our understanding of addiction: The role of psychedelics (Understanding Addiction)
• Neil Woods: A 'Traitor' To The War On Drugs (Disinfo)
• Rodrigo Duterte's Top Critic Has Been Demoted in a Senate Probe into the Drug War (TIME)

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 - 9.17.16

Image by Rich Edwards, 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 U.S. Federal government is planning to expand its ability to hack up to millions of machines with a single warrant, and unless Congress passes legislation to block Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, the new rules will go into effect December 1st. Essentially, the government is claiming that it needs this expanded hacking authority to identify and investigate large networks of malware controlled by criminals, or what is known as a "botnet". These botnets have the ability to erase data on machines, such as hospital systems and personal cell phones and computers. However, the government has not provided a detailed explanation about its hacking tools and how it intends to use them, which could result in data loss caused by the FBI. There is no shortage of evidence that the government has (plausibly unintentionally) placed hacking tools in the hands of criminals in years past, and it could happen again. I would encourage anyone reading this to speak up about this to friends and family, and contact your local representatives in an effort to block Rule 41 from being used in the future.

2. A man who served in the U.S. Marines for four years was reportedly terminated from his post as a West Virginia police officer for neglecting to shoot and kill an armed civilian (with an unloaded gun that wasn't pointed at him) who was not threatening the man's safety. The former Marine was using his military training that taught him to assess "the whole person" before using deadly force. Military servicemen and women are provided with extensive firearm training, and there are strict rules concerning the rules of engagement with others. Identifying a weapon doesn't warrant shooting a suspect; each threat must be judged holistically to minimize risk. In addition to this is the concept that a gun should only be pointed at another person when its handler intends to kill the target. This is very different from modern police training: "Police training — though its content and length varies enormously across police departments — by and large does not prepare policemen to manage high-stress situations the way the military prepares its soldiers," The Washington Post reports. "Police training tends to be short and classroom-based, and rarely emphasizes deescalation." In addition, there is not as much legal accountability for police as there is for military members. The West Virginia police department placed the former Marine on administrative leave, investigated his actions, and terminated him in late June for "failing to eliminate a threat" and placing other officers' lives at risk. It seems that our police forces have a long way to go to catch up to the maturity of our military's firearm handling training and conflict deescalation practices.

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