This Week in Psychedelics - 7.14.17

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• DEA Reaffirms Stance That CBD Meets Schedule I Criteria – Reality Says Otherwise (NORML)
• Nevada's Half-Hearted Marijuana Legalization Guarantees a Healthy Black Market (Reason)
• Study: Alcohol Use, But Not Cannabis, Associated With Changes In Brain Structure (NORML)
• Senate Committee Overwhelmingly Passes Veterans Equal Access Amendment (NORML)
• Study: No Increase In Problematic Cannabis Use By Young People Following Changes In Marijuana's Legal Status (NORML)
• Rand Paul Presses Jeff Sessions on Industrial Hemp Policy (Reason)
• Billy Caldwell: Medical cannabis oil named after 11-year-old boy with severe epilepsy (The Independent)
• Could legal cannabis transform provincial New Zealand? (Stuff.co.nz)
• Michigan: Legalization Coalition Effort Reaches Signature Milestone (NORML)
• Carl Sagan Was a Lifelong Cannabis User and Advocate (Merry Jane)
• Three New Marijuana Myth-Busting Studies That the Mainstream Media Isn't Picking up On (AlterNet)
• High-CBD Cannabis Cigarettes Coming to Swiss Supermarkets (Leafly)
• Congressional Cannabis Caucus Ready to 'Bump Heads' With Trump's Anti-Pot Attorney General (AlterNet)
• Infographic: Know Your Rights When Driving With Cannabis (Leafly)
• Register for the 2017 NORML Conference (NORML)
• Hemp-growing: first step to medicinal cannabis in Utah? (The Salt Lake Tribune)
• Cannabis: Can low doses of tetrahydrocannabinol help restore memory? (ABC)
• This Women's Weed Network Is Empowering Cannabis Entrepreneurs (LA Weekly)
• Police Destroy Art Installation, Mistaking It for Cannabis Farm (Hyperallergic)
• Feds Authorized Montana Woman's Hemp Farm, but Now They're Killing It (Reason)
• How does cannabis actually affect the human body? (Stuff.co.nz)
• Help, and hope: Could cannabis possibly help fight cancer? (The Denver Post)
• A New Site Selling Luxury Cannabis Cigars Bills Itself as "420 for the 1 Percent"—So We Tried It (The Potlander)
• Video: Lord Jones Throws Cannabis-Infused Sound Bath Events and They're Incredible (Leafly)
• Police Leave Homeowner Hilarious Note After Discovering Marijuana Field (TIME)
• Leafly Staff Picks: Cannabis Strains and Products Perfect for Summer Days (Leafly)
• Fresno needs a cannabis plan, not a ban (Fresno Bee)
• Fancy Truffles Filled With Ganache ... And Cannabis? Yes, Please. (East Bay Express)

LSD

• 'Stranger Things 2' Will Pull From The CIA's Infamous Mind Control Program (UPROXX)
• Carlos Santana Says 'More People Taking LSD' Would Make The World A Better Place (Civilized)
• The Promise of LSD Microdoses and Other Psychedelic "Medicines" (Scientific American)
• WATCH: The British Military Doses Some Marines With LSD (AlterNet)
• Flying higher than Mighty Mouse! Top schools in Hyderabad discover LSD being smuggled in as kids' stickers (Daily Mail)
• LSD & The Search For God At The Ritz (Silicon Valley's Metro)
• LSD: educate, Don't get agitated (The New Indian Express)
• Man Pleads No Contest To LSD-Fueled Assault Of Police Officer (CBS)
• Milwaukee authorities: Man jumped to death after taking LSD (WSAW

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Religious leaders get high on magic mushrooms ingredient – for science (The Guardian)
• Shrooms Could Be Legalized Sooner Than You Think (VICE)
• Research Shows Magic Mushrooms Can Offer Real Benefits in Depression Therapy (Science Alert)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Bad Drugs: Ecstasy Often Doesn't Contain Any MDMA, Study Shows (Newsweek)
• Testing Ecstasy pills at concerts and raves could reduce risks for users (The Hub)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• What Went Wrong When a Psychiatrist Self-Medicated With DMT (Inverse)
• Burning Man and Ayahuasca: Interview with Random Rab (Psychedelic Times)
• CONVERSING WITH THE MOTHER VINE: Life, Death and the Living Universe (Dope Magazine)
• Powerful hallucinogen can help drug addicts, PTSD veterans conquer their demons (WTSP)
• 'Icaros: A Vision' is an assured, trippy brew of sound and vision (Los Angeles Times)

Dissociatives

• The Growing Integration of Ketamine into the Major Depressive Disorder Treatment Paradigm and the Implication for Future Fast-Acting Antidepressants: Reflections After the American Psychiatric Association's Annual Meeting (Decision Resources Group)
• Driver of vehicle that struck woman in D.C. was high on PCP, police say (The Washington Post)

Opiates/Opioids

• Capitol Watch: NY Weighs Next Steps in Fight Against Heroin (U.S. News & World Report)
• Meet the Doctor Who Refuses to Stop Prescribing Opioids to Pain Patients (Reason)
• Homeland Security Head to Mexico: US Drug Use Fuels Violence (U.S. News & World Report)
• Let Them Die: A Radical Proposal To Deal With The Opioid Epidemic (Reason)
• A sheriff in an opioid county won't have cops carry a $37.50 dose of life-saving naloxone (Quartz)
• Naloxone: A miracle medication for the opioid epidemic (The Daily Texan)
• Facts about the opioid abuse crisis (WTSP)

Khat

• Miraa chewing culture and the stereotype as a cheap twig for truck drivers (Mediamax)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Jeff Sessions Wants to Revive D.A.R.E. (Reason)
• The Psychedelic Renaissance owes its life to an open internet (Psymposia)
• It's Time for the U.S. to Decriminalize Drug Use and Possession (Drug Policy Alliance)
• Oregon Decriminalizes Cocaine, Meth, Heroin And More (MintPress News)
• House Advances Bill That Would Expand the DEA's Power to Make Legal Highs Illegal (Reason)
• Senator Schumer Calls On FDA To Regulate 'Snortable Chocolate' (CBS New York)
• It's Not Just Chocolate Powder. You Shouldn't Be Snorting Anything, Doctors Say (TIME)
• Did Police Just Take Down the Biggest Dark Web Drug Market in History? (Reason)
• Trump explains why he wants to be able to 'see through' his border wall (CNBC)
• Hunting Hallucinogenic Honey In The Himalayas (Teton Gravity Research)
• Alameda author's new book examines psychedelic drugs' medical use (East Bay Times)
• WATCH: Microdosing Comes To Silicon Valley: Produces Workplace Productivity (Trill Magazine)
• Illegal drug market is booming, says UN watchdog (The Guardian)
• This 'True Blood' Actor's Death Reveals a Hidden Danger of Addiction We Don't Talk About (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 - 7.8.17

Image by maddalena monge, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. Volvo has not only announced that all of its cars will be hybrid or fully-electric by 2019, but also that kangaroos have been throwing off the self-driving detection system that is being used for their autonomous vehicles. Definitely didn't see that one coming.

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

This Week in Psychedelics - 7.7.17

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• You Can Now Buy Recreational Marijuana Legally in Nevada (TIME)
• Study: Cannabinoids Reduce Migraine Frequency (NORML)
• Legalised cannabis: How free access could impact vulnerable Kiwis (Stuff.co.nz)
• Study: Crimes Spike Following Closing of Dispensaries (NORML)
• Nevada Cannabis Sales Exceed Stores' Expectations (Leafly)
• 6 Things to Watch as the Countdown to Legal Canadian Cannabis Commences (Leafly)
• Residents Demand Diversity in Cannabis Industry at LA Town Hall (Leafly)
• How to Spot the Differences Between These Three Types of Marijuana (ATTN:)
• New Guidelines for Decreasing Health Risks of Cannabis Use (Good Therapy)
• Two New Virginia Laws Foreshadow Larger Cannabis Policy Changes (NORML)
• Some psychiatrists think cannabis can be considered a psychedelic drug like shrooms – here's why (Business Insider)
• The history of cannabis: 8 things you didn't know (Stuff.co.nz)
• Florida: Lawsuit Filed Challenging Medical Cannabis Smoking Ban (NORML)
• Cannabis regulations contribute to thriving market in Washington (Puget Sound Business Journal)
• In Seattle US old-timers rediscover the high life on cannabis tours (The Guardian)
• Cannabis vs. marijuana: WHAT IT MEANS TO THE INDUSTRY (Northern Nevada Business Weekly)
• 7 Must-Try Cannabis Topicals for Those Scorching Summer Days (Leafly)

LSD

• In Hyderabad, Dealers Working At Top Companies Deal LSD To Students As Young As Thirteen (India Times)
• Police patrol Welsh village after story of huge LSD stash buried since the 70s (Metro)
• Meet Dock Ellis: the baseball star who pitched best on LSD (The National Student)
• Is LSD the new coffee? (Factor Daily)
• Operation Julie: The house that was once an LSD factory (BBC)
• Salem man ingests LSD before jumping to his death at downtown Milwaukee apartment building (Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Mushrooms Are the Safest Drug (Men's Journal)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• World's first trials of MDMA to treat alcohol addiction set to begin (The Guardian)
• New warning issued for "stronger than average" ecstasy pills (Mixmag)
• Student (22) dies after taking MDMA on 'final fling' night out (Independent)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Is Ayahuasca Tourism Doing More Harm Than Good? (The Third Wave)
• The brain on DMT: mapping the psychedelic drug's effects (Wired)
• Ex-MMA fighter seeks religious exemption to use hallucinogen in N.S. ceremonies (Local Xpress)
• 'Master of natural healing' who raped tourist after giving her Rohypnol-laced drink gets 12 years (South China Morning Post)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

• Tripping on Peyote in Navajo Nation (Scientific American)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Potentially lethal form of spice being mistaken for MDMA, police say (The Guardian)

Dissociatives

• Could Ketamine Cure Addiction? (VICE)
• Ketamine Clinics Show Promise For Treatment-Resistant Depression (Inquisitr)
• Waterbury Man On PCP Crashes Car In North Haven, Injuring Two (Hartford Courant)

Opiates/Opioids

• Did Pop Culture Help Cause the Opioid Epidemic? (ATTN:)
• As the Drug That Reverses Opioid Overdoses Gets More Expensive, Can Cities Afford It? (Governing)
• The Heroin Crisis in Trump's Backyard (Politico)
• These Counties Have the Most Opioid Prescriptions in the U.S. (TIME)

Kratom

• Kratom: Antidote or adversary in Canada's opioid crisis? (CBC News)
• American Kratom Association Announces New Chairman (Inquisitr)
• Kratom Gaining Popularity As Opioid Alternative In Southern Arizona (KJZZ)
• The Kratom Controversy: What should be done about it? (WALB)

Kava

• Kava Root Extract Market Driven by Increasing Demand in Cosmetic & Pharmaceutical Industry (Digital Journal)
• Kava bar banned over designer-drug rule in Lighthouse Point (Sun Sentinel)
• Green kava ban warning (The Fiji Times)

Khat

• LPD conducted a controlled delivery of 18 pounds of Khat (Lexington Clipper Herald)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Watch This Nepalese Man Harvest Hallucinogenic Honey Hundreds of Feet Off the Ground (The Inertia)
• Psychedelics Could Help Asia's Mental Health Care, But Stigma Remains Roadblock (The Fix)
• Rethinking Substance Use: 5 Truths that Will Blow Your Mind (Psychedelic Times)
• What Ritalin Does To Kids' Brains (ATTN:)
• Test kits can help prevent drug use tragedies (The Register-Guard)
• What Trump's Plan To Stop Illegal Drugs Misses (ATTN:)
• Exploring the Formless Edge: A Conversation with Random Rab (Psychedelic Times)
• The Summer of Love was more than hippies and LSD – it was the start of modern individualism (The Conversation)
• Dogs Are Testing Positive for Cocaine in Florida. Here's Why. (ATTN:)
• My grandfather was a death row doctor. He tested psychedelic drugs on Texas inmates. (The Texas Tribune)
• Cannabist Show: He's psychedelic comedian Shane Mauss (The Cannabist)

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 - 7.1.17

Image by Jody McIntrye, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. This week marked the 10-Year Anniversary of the release of the original iPhone, and John Gruber at Daring Fireball wrote a short piece that explored some of the various ways that the iPhone changed the world. Among some of the things to consider:

"The iPhone’s potential was obviously deep, but it was so deep as to be unfathomable at the time. The original iPhone didn’t even shoot video; today the iPhone and iPhone-like Android phones have largely killed the point-and-shoot camera industry. It has obviated portable music players, audio recorders, paper maps, GPS devices, flashlights, walkie-talkies, music radio (with streaming music), talk radio (with podcasts), and more. Ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft wouldn’t even make sense pre-iPhone. Social media is mobile-first, and in some cases mobile-only."

As usual, it's an extremely well-written piece and I'd like to suggest that we take some time to think about all of the things that the iPhone (and other smartphones) catalyzed over the past decade that are taken for granted nowadays.

2. Speaking of Uber and Lyft, the surge pricing model that those companies employ may start coming to your local parking meters soon. Imagine pulling up to a parking space on a Saturday night—the same one that you parked in earlier the same day for one dollar—and being charged eight dollars instead. It definitely seems like this is plausible and I wouldn't be surprised to experience this in the next few years.

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

This Week in Psychedelics - 6.30.17

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Why You Can't Smoke Weed in States Where It's Legal (ATTN:)
• Study: Patients Report Substituting Cannabis For Opioids, Other Pain Medications (NORML)
• Why the cannabis industry will soon be bigger than the NFL (New York Daily News)
• Dismantling The Drug War: Is Cannabis a Gateway to Legalizing Drugs? (Dope Magazine)
• Koch Network Warns Trump Against 'Failed' Cannabis Fight (Leafly)
• Will the House of Representatives Let Jeff Sessions Shut Down Medical Marijuana? (NORML)
• DC Cannabis-Dealing Arrests Back to Pre-Legalization Levels (Leafly)
• Medical cannabis in Kansas: hope or hopeless? (The Garden City Telegram)
• Growing Demand Drives Flurry of Aussie-Israeli Cannabis Partnerships (Leafly)
• Data Dive: Cannabis Sales Keep Climbing in Washington and Colorado (Leafly)
• California Bill Would Ban Cannabis-Branded Hats, T-Shirts, Other Merchandise (Leafly)
• Detroit Police Sued Again For Shooting Dogs During a Marijuana Raid (Reason)
• Are Constitutional Challenges the Future of Canadian Cannabis Litigation? (Leafly)
• Oregon ranks low on cannabis industry transparency (Oregon Business)
• Growing Cannabis Bonsai Trees: Separating Fact From Fiction (Leafly)
• Cannabis World Congress lights up New York (CNET)
• With Emergency Rules, Vegas Gears Up for Nevada's July 1 Cannabis Launch (Leafly)
• Cannabis experts produce 'High'-way Code of 10 tips to help reduce health risks (The Independent)
• A viable cannabis industry requires strict controls (Puget Sound Business Journal)
• Maryland regulators want to deny license to medical cannabis farm (The Baltimore Sun)
• Cannabis club robbed at gunpoint (Berkeleyside)

LSD

• LSD to be used to treat people with depression for first time ever in UK (The Sun)
• Scientists are about to find out how Silicon Valley's LSD habit really affects productivity (Business Insider)
• LSD Microdosing: The New Silicon Valley Productivity Hack (Reason)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• People's Pharmacy: Hallucinogen psilocybin may relieve cluster headaches (Online Athens)
• Police: Teen high on psychedelic mushrooms killed Northland teen by running him over with his vehicle (KXLF)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• What is MDMA? (ITV)
• Warning as four men rushed to hospital after taking 'potent' MDMA (Metro)
• High strength MDMA likely to be in circulation in Island (Isle of Man)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• DMT: Underground Research Masquerading As Science – Or Sound Science? (Collective Evolution)
• What it's like to experience ayahuasca (ABC)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

• San Pedro: One of the Most Potent Psychedelic Plants in the World (High Existence)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Ten people hospitalised after 'taking MDMA called Pink Champagne' had actually swallowed crystallised form of 'zombie drug' Spice (Mirror)

Dissociatives

• You May Be Eating Chicken Contaminated With a Hallucinogenic Drug (AlterNet)
• Scientists are reformulating the party drug Ketamine to remove its terrible side effects (Quartz)
• Ketamine for Mental Health Conditions: New Findings (The Fix)
• Researchers Learn How Ketamine Acts on the Brain (PsychCentral)
• Ketamine novel approach to treating depression (Toledo Blade)
• Study proves how Ketamine fails to prevent post-operative delirium (Catch News)

Opiates/Opioids

• Safe injection centers are not opium dens (Los Angeles Times)
• Why is deadly fentanyl now showing up in street drugs like MDMA and cocaine? (NOW)
• An EMT's view from the front lines of America's heroin crisis (CNN)
• Inside America's 19th Century opium dens which spread across the country creating thousands of dope addicts (The Sun)
• Fox Hosts for Legalizing Heroin (Reason)
• Let them die? A controversial proposal about heroin (Cincinnati.com)

Absinthe

• The Most Ridiculous Scenes of People Tripping on Absinthe (Supercall)
• The Best Absinthe Bars in America (Supercall)

Kratom

• Kratom: The Solution to Opioid Addiction? Why Does the FDA Want it Banned? (KVRR)

Kava

• Report reveals 171 students were drinking kava in schools in last 3 years (Fijivillage)

Khat

• High Court bars implementation of miraa task force report (KDR)
• At $240 a Pound, the World's Original Coffee Producer Is Back in Business (Bloomberg)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• The Psychedelic Revolution Is Being Led by a 74-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor (VICE)
• The war on drugs is back. Will psychedelic drug research survive? (The Verge)
• New History Channel Series Unveils Dirty Secrets of America's War on Drugs (Psychedelic Times)
• Psychedelics and Virtual Reality Make a Trendy but Illegal Therapy (Inverse)
• Majority of Americans Support Psychedelic Therapy, New Poll Shows (Merry Jane)
• Open Your Mind This Weekend at Europe's Largest Psychedelic Conference (VolteFace)
• Are Brain-Boosting Performance Enhancers Invading Silicon Valley? (Inquisitr)
• Is Microdosing Just a Placebo? (The Third Wave)
• Man Jailed for 90 Days After Police Thought Drywall in His Car Was Cocaine (TIME)
• Sally Yates Condemns Jeff Sessions for Reinstating Harsh Low-Level Drug Sentences (TIME)
• Psychedelic Drugs Could Radically Improve Asia's Mental Healthcare -- If It Wasn't For Stigma (Forbes)
• Astrophysicists Finally Wonder if the Universe is Alive – Only Trail Shamans By the Entirety of Human History on that Front (Disinfo)
• Psychedelic drugs not wonder cures: Doctors (Deccan Chronicle)

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.