Weekend Thoughts - 6.10.17

Image by Ed Schipul, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. Although gardening can be a rewarding experience, identifying and pulling weeds is not always fun. That's why the creators of the Roomba are hard at work developing the Tertill, a robot that automatically weeds your garden for you. After placing protective collars around your plants, the solar-powered device will use sensors to identify small weeds and chop them down. The company, Franklin Robotics, will be launching a Kickstarter on June 13th to raise funds for this project.

2. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to settle a digital rights privacy case that will determine whether police will be required to obtain a warrant to get access to your cellphone location data, which is archived by wireless carriers. This will be an interesting case to follow, as it will decide once and for all whether a police officer can request access to private details of our lives without a warrant.

3. Dubbed "Subway Libraries", the New York Public Library has outfitted 10 MTA subway cars with downloadable ebooks that will be available to riders for free during the next six weeks. I'm all for encouraging reading, and if I was a New Yorker I would be all over this!

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

This Week in Psychedelics - 6.9.17

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Former British Police Chief: It's Time for the U.K. to Legalize Pot (TIME)
• Cannabis-derived compound may help treat schizophrenia (Medical News Today)
• Detroit Cracks Down Hard On Medical Marijuana (Reason)
• Mum claims cannabis has stopped her 12-year-old daughter's life-threatening seizures which left her in coma (The Sun)
• What a regulated UK cannabis market might mean for business (The Independent)
• Review Identifies 140 Controlled Clinical Trials Related to Cannabis (NORML)
• Nevada Lawmakers Set Cannabis Tax: 10% Retail, 15% Wholesale (Leafly)
• A California Plan To Save Millions On Cannabis Regulation Is Getting Props Worldwide (Forbes)
• Dealing With Breast Cancer: How Cannabis Can Help Patients Cope (Leafly)
• Oregon Economist Projects Cannabis Sales to Rival Colorado's, But Admits the Forecast is "Highly Uncertain" (Willamette Week)
• New York Lawmakers to Renew Push for Cannabis Legalization (Leafly)
• The Science-y Reasons Why Some People Can't Handle Their Weed (Disinfo)
• How Many of These DEA 'Cannabis Slang' Terms Do You Know? (Leafly)
• You Can Now Buy Marijuana-Infused Pizza (TIME)
• Massachusetts Tobacco Wholesalers Want a Piece of the Cannabis Pie (Leafly)
• 7 Prince Songs That Reference Cannabis (Leafly)
• High Times Cannabis Cup gives Wine County different weekend buzz (SFGate)
• Data Dive: Cannabis Extract Sales Skyrocketing (Leafly)
• Michigan Police May Get $8.8M to Increase Cannabis Enforcement (Leafly)
• 5 Questions To Ask Before Attending a Cannabis Food Tasting (LA Weekly)
• HelloMD raises $1M to connect customers with medical cannabis via telemedicine (MobiHealthNews)
• Proof cannabis DOES lead teenagers to harder drugs: Study finds users are 26 times more likely to turn to other substances by the age of 21 (Daily Mail)

LSD

• Cary Grant dropped acid 100 times to get over his mommy issues (New York Post)
• Why I cancelled my scheduled LSD trip (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• WATCH: Paul McCartney talks about LSD use: Lennon was 'miffed' because HE used drugs first (Express)
• Man, allegedly on LSD, arrested after running naked and bleeding into west Toledo road (KFVS)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• New Psilocybin Review: It's Safe, Highly Effective and Begs Further Study (Psychedelic Times)
• 9 Millionth Study Confirms that Psilocybin is the Safest Recreational Drug (Disinfo)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Victoria pharmacy finds fentanyl in more than half of MDMA, cocaine samples (CHEK)
• MDMA use among young Irish adults rising – drugs report (The Irish Times)
• Drug that killed New Westminster teen confirmed as MDMA (Surrey Now-Leader)
• Woman in 'life threatening condition' after taking ecstasy drug in Newcastle (ITV News)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Risks associated with combining Bufo Alvarius with ayahuasca (International Center for Ethnobotanical Education Research & Science)
• Dr. Gabor Maté recounts experiences with ayahuasca for forthcoming documentary The Path of the Shaman (The Georgia Straight)
• DMT Is the Drug Everyone Wants to Try, But Do You Know Why? (Crave)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• PRESS RELEASE: Two New Studies Show Ibogaine's Promise As Treatment for Opioid Addiction (MAPS)
• IBOGAINE: Addiction cure for many, lethal for a few (Rockland County Times)

Dissociatives

• 'I can stop and breathe': the people taking ketamine for depression (The Guardian)
• Ketamine: Fresh hope for the treatment of OCD (Scope)
• Government takes action against nitrous oxide (Korea Biomedical Review)
• Ketamine May Not Be So Effective To Alleviate The Postoperative Pain and Delirium (The Science Times)
• New Insight Into Off-Label Ketamine Use for Depression (Medscape)
• Kansas City Man Sentenced for PCP Conspiracy (Kansas City infoZine)
• Man Arrested With PCP In Stamford After Hitting 3 With Car In Bridgeport (Stamford Daily Voice)

Opiates/Opioids

• Investing in Naloxone: How America's Opioid Crisis Could Drive One Little-Known Stock (Wealth Daily)
• Naloxone Made Available Over the Counter in Baltimore (CDA News)
• What You Need To Know About Opioids, The Painkillers Behind A Crisis (Forbes)
• Police Give Dogs Naloxone In Fentanyl Overdoses—Unseen Victims Of Opioid Epidemic (Inquisitr)
• The Lesson Behind This Father's Intentional Heroin Overdose (ATTN:)

Absinthe

• Nicole Kidman gets candid about drinking absinthe with the Moulin Rouge cast in Sydney (The Fix)

Kratom

• Kratom Vending Machines Are Making Waves In Arizona (The Fix)
• Can this little-known herb help solve Canada's opioid crisis? (NOW Magazine)
• Christopher Miller Plans To Challenge Legality Of Kratom In Tennessee (Inquisitr)

Kava

• The Mind-Altering, De-Stressing Beverage That Wellness Insiders Are Obsessed With Right Now (Well+Good)
• Surge in kava demand spurs export boom for Pacific nations (Nikkei Asian Review)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• America's Trippiest Chemist: Making Psychedelics 'Was Fun' (Motherboard)
• Recreational drugs market should be managed by 'governments not gangsters', says expert (The Independent)
• The History Of Drugs in Jazz Music (Disinfo)
• Why Certain Drugs Make Specific Genres Sound So Good (Noisey)
• Psychedelics May Help Alleviate Depression (The Science Times)
• People Tell Us About the Most Ambitious Things They've Done While High (VICE)
• Drugs Did Not Contribute to Chris Cornell's Death, Autopsy Finds (TIME)
• On the Other Hand? Psychiatric Drugs May Kill More People Than Heroin or Cocaine! (Disinfo)
• Stop Policing Psychedelic Science (Motherboard)
• No, Donald Trump is Not a Common Nickname for Meth (ATTN:)
• Don't lose your head over mind-altering drugs (Inquirer)

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 are presented by the mass media, which includes everything from the latest scientific research to misinformation.

Weekend Thoughts - 6.3.17

Image by Grant Guarino, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. Although the story has been told many times before, I enjoyed this retelling of the Buddha's final encounter with Mara. In the story, the "demon" Mara attempts to tempt the Buddha to remain in Samsara with promises of worldly pleasures, but the Buddha poses a question that Mara is unable to answer. It is said that the Buddha attained true enlightenment after this encounter.

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

This Week in Psychedelics - 6.2.17

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• France to quash prison terms for cannabis users (RFI)
• Will Cannabis Businesses Find It Easier To Put Money In The Bank? (East Bay Express)
• Why People Are 'Microdosing' Marijuana (ATTN:)
• DOJ Turns Attention to Cannabis Enforcement (Leafly)
• New Hampshire Cannabis Decriminalization Bill Heads to Governor (Leafly)
• Veterans Affairs Head 'Interested' in Medical Marijuana (ATTN:)
• Say What? Why 'Cannabis' Is Rising and 'Marijuana' Is Fading (Leafly)
• Here Are The Top 5 Financial Leaders In The Cannabis Industry (Forbes)
• The Holidays People Smoke the Most Marijuana (ATTN:)
• Nevada Cannabis License Applications Stream in as Deadline Approaches (Leafly)
• Why More Seniors Are Using Cannabis to Sleep (Leafly)
• The Ultimate Stoned Staycation: Take a Virtual Cannabis-Fueled Train Ride (Leafly)
• Smoking pure cannabis is better for your health than smoking it with tobacco, new research reveals (The Sun)
• Melissa Etheridge: 'Anybody Who Smokes Cannabis Is Using it Medicinally' (Leafly)
• Cannabis Is A Gateway Drug (Disinfo)
• Medical Cannabis Is The Next Boom, but When Will It Bust? (Delaware Law)
• San Diego Cannabis Festival Will Keep Trying After Venue Loss (Leafly)
• Medical Journal slams Cannabis Act for failing to protect youth (KamloopsBCNow)
• Court to Grandma: You Shouldn't Lose Your House Just Because Your Dumb Son Sold Some Weed There (Reason)
• 6 of the Best Cannabis Bath Products on the Market (Leafly)
• Cannabis growers overcome the powerful scent (North Day Business Journal)

LSD

• 'A voice told me to turn on the world': Hippy chemist who made purest LSD in the 1960s (Mirror)
• Bill Ward on the early days of Sabbath and drumming on LSD (TeamRock.com)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Measure To Legalize Psilocybin Proposed At Oregon Psychedelics Conference (OPB News)
• Global Survey Says Magic Mushrooms Are The Safest Recreational Drug (Forbes)
• Death and Family Healing with Psilocybin: A Conversation with Dennis McKenna (Psychedelic Times)
• Woman will share results of her year of psilocybin microdosing (Boing Boing)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Ireland takes MDMA more than any other country in the world (Mixmag)
• The dude who makes Ecstasy artwork is having his own exhibition (Stoney Roads)
• Justin Bieber's Been Searching For 'MDMA' On YouTube And There's Receipts To Prove It (We The Unicorns)
• Drug users warn 'bad batch' of MDMA drug called Gold Bars is on streets following tragic death of teenager (Mirror)
• 21-year-old remains in 'serious condition' after taking MDMA at Plymouth house party (Plymouth Herald)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Path of the Shaman doc goes deep with B.C. ayahuasca healer (MetroNews Canada)
• Holy Shit, People are Finally Building a DMT/Alien Contact Device! (Disinfo)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• Treatment of opioid use disorders with ibogaine: detoxification and drug use outcomes (Taylor Francis Online)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• N-bomb alert in Mumbai: Cheapter LSD-like drug has cops on their toes (NYOOOZ)
• One New West teen dead, one critical after taking what they thought was MDMA (CTV News)

Dissociatives

• Ketamine may not reduce post-surgery pain, delirium (Medical News Today)

Opiates/Opioids

• In Mexico, The Price of America's Hunger for Heroin (The Washington Post)
• Overdose mapping system could be used in fight against heroin (WHAS)
• Baltimore makes overdose-reversing drug naloxone available over the counter (The Washington Times)
• North Carolina Police Found 2,000 Pounds of Opium While Looking for a Cannabis Grow-Op (Merry Jane)
• What you need to know about naloxone (Vancouver Sun)
• Dad overdoses on heroin to teach his addict son a lesson (New York Post)
• Opium Dens Are a Terrible Theme for Bars (CityLab)

Kratom

• Susan Ash Steps Down As American Kratom Association Chair (Inquisitr)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Ross Ulbricht Loses His Appeal Over Conviction and Sentencing in Silk Road Case (Reason)
• Mind-altering drugs lower suicide risks; study suggests (Business Recorder)
• Why you can't blame mass incarceration on the war on drugs (Vox)
• GLOBAL DRUG SURVEY 2017: 40% of the Novel Psychoactive Substances taken in Ireland are bought on the internet (Hot Press)
• The Long, Hard Road to a Science of Bad Drug Trips (Motherboard)
• Federal Prosecutors Say They Never See Low-Level Drug Offenders (Reason)
• Study: 'Donald Trump' Tops List of New Meth Nicknames (Rolling Stone)
• The World's Safest and Most Dangerous Recreational Drugs (ATTN:)
• Trump's Repeal of a Welfare Drug-Testing Regulation Backfires (Thankfully) (Reason)
• Psychedelics touted as solution for society (Ashland Daily Tidings)
• Magick & Psychedelic Novelty With Maja D'Aoust (Disinfo)
• Convicted Drug Trafficker Schapelle Corby Has Been Deported to Australia After 12 Years in Indonesia (TIME)
• This Pigeon Exposes a Hole in President Trump's Plan to Stop Drug Trafficking (ATTN:)

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 are presented by the mass media, which includes everything from the latest scientific research to misinformation.

Weekend Thoughts - 5.27.17

Image by Andy Kaye, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. A couple months ago I wrote a bit about how Border Agents have been requesting U.S. citizens to turn over passwords for their devices and social media accounts. As a response to Maciej Cegłowski's demand for software developers to create a "travel mode" that would prevent account access during the period that a traveller is expecting to be outside of the country, the password manager application 1Password has announced that a "travel mode" feature has in fact been created and will be included to everyone with a 1Password membership. Although this is the first company (that I am aware of, anyways) that has developed this type of functionality, hopefully we will begin to see it become more frequently offered by all types of software manufacturers. In the long run, our privacy and security concerns may be further protected against the prying eyes of the government with this type of feature.

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