This Week in Psychedelics - 7.28.17

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Senate Committee Passes Amendment To Protect Medical Marijuana (NORML)
• Colorado: Tax Revenue From The Legal Cannabis Industry Surpasses Half-Billion Dollars (NORML)
• Vote on Veterans' Marijuana Access Is Shut Down (ATTN:)
• Trump's DOJ gears up for crackdown on marijuana (The Hill)
• Marijuana is NORML: 45% of Americans Have Tried Cannabis (NORML)
• The Federal Government is Being Sued Over Marijuana (ATTN:)
• House Committee Blocks Veterans Equal Access Amendments (NORML)
• Sessions Boosts Forfeiture and Mandatory Minimums but Lets Pot Prohibition Collapse (Reason)
• Will cannabis be legalised in the UK, who supports it and where is marijuana already legal? (The Sun)
• Reefer Madness at The New York Times (Reason)
• AAA Is Fighting to Stop Legal Marijuana (ATTN:)
• Cannabis and goggles — the latest in concussion treatments and research (Miami Herald)
• Calgary debates where and how to sell cannabis, eyes liquor store model as template (The Globe and Mail)
• California Wants to Stop Pot Dispensaries from Branding Merchandise (Reason)
• On a Boat? Cannabis Is Still Illegal, US Coast Guard Says (Leafly)
• How Jeff Sessions Could Crack Down on Legal Marijuana (And Why He Might Not) (TIME)
• Sen. Positive Nelson Wants to Bring Medical Cannabis to the Virgin Islands (Leafly)
• GANJASANA: An Authentic Relationship With Cannabis Blooms Through Yoga (Dope Magazine)
• Is microdosing the future of marijuana? (VICE)
• Medical cannabis grow sites are now almost legal in West Berkeley (Berkeleyside)
• Pennsylvania Cities Continue to Embrace Decriminalization of Marijuana (NORML)
• Cannabis Impairment in the Workplace: Easy to Discuss, Difficult to Detect (Leafly)
• In Vermont, Students And Lawmakers Are Getting The Facts On Cannabis (Forbes)
• Why Weed Improves Sex For Some But Not Others (ATTN:)
• Maine Panel Mulls Doubling 10% Tax on Cannabis (Leafly)
• State's Billboard Got Major Backlash For Trying Tone Deaf Tactic To Stop Teen Pot Use (ATTN:)
• How Cannabis Is Used for Nausea and Vomiting Relief (Leafly)
• Online Portals Guide Australian Doctors Through Medical Cannabis Maze (Leafly)
• Medical Cannabis Education Tour launches Thursday in Philly (Philly.com)
• Vancouver pot activist calls for open cultivation of cannabis plants (Vancouver Sun)
• Inside Colorado's psychedelic Church of CANNABIS where chilled-out worshippers smoke joints in the pews while listening to rock music (The Sun)
• How To Smoke Cannabis Wax Without A Rig (Green Rush Daily)
• Cannabis Charges Decline in Canada, But Montreal Bucks Hard (Leafly)
• 5 Keys To Forecasting Sales Of New Products: Cannabis And Other Examples (Forbes)
• How to Trim Your Cannabis Plants for Beautiful Buds (Leafly)
• Smoke and Mirrors: Cannabis, Fashion, and How It All Connects to Rihanna (Leafly)

LSD

• You're not tripping: LSD is making a comeback (USA Today)
• How microdosing psychedelics like LSD could boost your leadership skills (Quartz)
• Albert Hoffman [sic]: Looking Back At LSD Inventor's First Strange Trip (Worldcrunch)
• Officer Used 'Reasonable Force' When Shooting Man On LSD: State's Attorney (Grayslake Patch)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• At Johns Hopkins, clergy try mind-altering drugs for scientific research (The Washington Post)
• Hallucinogenic mushroom blooms in the Nilgiris (The Hindu)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Could MDMA Save Your Relationship? (Elle)
• What are the dangers, effects, and laws when it comes to Molly (or MDMA)? (Metro)
• The six-month search for a $10-20 million ecstasy lab in Canberra (Newcastle Herald)
• Charlize Theron admits to taking cocaine and ecstasy in her 20s – but now goes to bed at 8:45pm (The Sun)
• 'Five friends go out and take ecstasy, one doesn't come home': the rise of super-strength pills (The Guardian)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Study Shows Psychedelic Plant Medicine Ayahuasca Stimulates The Birth Of New Brain Cells (Collective Evolution)
• Ayahuasca: The Dark Side and Dangers (The Recovery Village)
• Peruvian Ayahuasca Retreat Creates Annual Cash Scholarship Award to Bring Awareness to Amazonian Plant Medicine (Press Release Rocket)
• Global Ayahuasca Project: how nothing is the same after taking 'The Tea' (ABC)
• My night on ayahuasca: the Amazonian hallucinogen known as the 'rope of death' (The Times)
• Incredible pictures show an Amazonian witch doctor introducing his new apprentice, 13 to a sacred and hallucinogenic brew and teaching him the secrets of the forest (Daily Mail)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

• What is Peyote? (The Recovery Village)
• Watch: Rare Event: Psychoactive San Pedro Cactus Flower Blooming (Awesome Time-lapse) (EnviroNews)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• Tips for success: Ibogaine therapy success rate for substance dependency and addiction. (iBogaine-Thailand)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Synthetic cannabis: New Zealand police issue warning after spate of deaths (The Guardian)
• Friends of teen who died from synthetic cannabis warn others (Newshub)

Dissociatives

• Ketamine proven to treat depression among older Australians in 'revolutionary' pilot program (ABC)
• Govt. bans abuse of nitrous oxide (The Korea Herald)
• Bismarck Clinic Treats Pain, Depression With Ketamine (U.S. News & World Report)
• Ketamine as an adjunct to opioids for acute pain in the ED (American Pharmacists Association)
• Ketamine for depression encouraging, but questions remain around long-term use (Medical Xpress)
• What is Wet Weed? (Green Rush Daily)
• Oklahoma Vice: Woman tossed baby into stranger's car after smoking PCP (NewsOK)
• Man Accused of Fleeing, Ramming Cop Cars While High on PCP (U.S. News & World Report)

Opiates/Opioids

• How Much More Vicious Will the War on Painkillers Get? (Reason)
• Another record year for opioid and fentanyl-related deaths (Indianapolis Star)
• Yes, Poppy Seeds Contain Opiates, And Here's What You Need To Know (The Huffington Post)
• The Female Warlord Who Had C.I.A. Connections and Opium Routes (The New York Times)
• Take a Trip Into the Absurd at This Anti-Drug Museum in the Land of Opium (OZY)
• Heroin highs: Afghani, Pak smugglers use Punjab route (The Times of India)
• The answer to opioid overdose: Naloxone (The Richmond Register)
• What it's like to spend 14 years undercover as a heroin addict (Metro)
• Six overdose deaths linked to two heroin brands, officials say (The News Journal)

Absinthe

• A One-Stop Explainer For Drinking Absinthe (Essence)

Kava

• Kava study unearths new take on reaction times (Radio New Zealand)
• What is Kava? (The Recovery Village)
• Across the Pacific Islands, the price of kava is surging (Newshub)
• One strong mix; kava and prayers (The Fiji Times)
• Cultural clash over medicinal kava (Newshub)

Khat

• Once a Killer Drug, Qat Is Now a Dropout Drug, If You Believe The New York Times (Reason)
• Remove miraa from harmful drugs list, Munya tells Bett (Citizen TV)
• For Ethiopia's Underemployed Youth, Life Can Center on a Leaf (Nazret)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Police Body Camera Appears to Catch Baltimore Officer Planting Drugs for a Search (Reason)
• Psychedelic medicines can help heal the trauma of mass incarceration (Psymposia)
• When Do Prescription Drugs Really Expire? (ATTN:)
• Meeting McKenna in His Jungle (The Huffington Post)
• An Introduction to Shamans of the Global Village (Psychedelic Times)
• How technology can help government fight the war on drugs (The Hill)
• We Are All On Drugs... (Collective Evolution)
• Vigilante Psychopharmacology: An Interview with Psychedelic Comedian Adam Strauss (Reality Sandwich)
• If Jared Kushner Wants to Reform Federal Drug Sentences, Here's What He Should Keep in Mind (Reason)
• England's new psychedelic renaissance (PRI)
• Psychedelics and Normality (The Huffington Post)
• Reasons to Consider Trying Psychedelics (Fox Weekly)
• Healing the Hurt at the Center of Addiction (Reality Sandwich)
• Another Day, Another Article About Psychedelics in an Incredibly Mainstream Publication (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 are presented by the mass media, which includes everything from the latest scientific research to misinformation.

This Week in Psychedelics - 7.21.17

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Uruguay pharmacies start selling cannabis straight to consumers (The Guardian)
• Cops Conducting Fewer Traffic Searches Following Marijuana Legalization (Freedom Leaf)
• Smoking Marijuana While Black (The New York Times)
• Analysis: Criminal Justice Referrals Driving Youth Marijuana Treatment Admissions (NORML)
• How Weed Interacts With Popular Prescription Drugs (ATTN:)
• New Hampshire: Marijuana Decriminalization Measure Signed Into Law (NORML)
• Colorado Hits Another Cannabis Milestone With Half A Billion In Tax Revenue (Forbes)
• Psychiatrists Say Cannabis Medicine Has Psychedelic Properties (The Marijuana Times)
• Should We Reclassify Marijuana as a Hallucinogen? (Big Think)
• Cannabis cigarettes are being sold legally at this supermarket chain (USA Today)
• 5 Differences Between the United States' and Canada's Medical Cannabis Programs (Leafly)
• Massachusetts: Medical Marijuana Patients' Afforded Workplace Protections, High Court Rules (NORML)
• Could Cannabis Be A Tourist Attraction For Nevada? Officials Want To Find Out (Civilized)
• San Francisco Creates Centralized 'Office of Cannabis' (Leafly)
• WATCH: Marijuana in the Halls of Congress! (NORML)
• Nonmedical Marijuana Use Is (Mainly) Recreational, So Why Not Call It That? (Reason)
• What Jeff Sessions is getting wrong about legal weed (CNBC)
• When To Use Cannabis as a Substitute for Pharmaceuticals (ATTN:)
• Marijuana Legalization Is Another Reason Dogs Should Not Issue Search Warrants (Reason)
• Tell AAA To Stop Lying About Legalization (NORML)
• Nearly Half of All Americans Have Tried Cannabis, Poll Finds (Leafly)
• The High Cost of Being a Medical Marijuana Patient (ATTN:)
• The Stages of Cannabis Plant Growth (Leafly)
• Activists Plan Marijuana Ceremony Inside D.C. Basilica During Eclipse (U.S. News & World Report)
• Ohio's Aspiring Cannabis Growers: A Closer Look (Leafly)
• Video Footage Offers Glimpse of Australia's Secret Medical Cannabis Crops (Leafly)
• Spot-On Memes Highlight Undeniable Facts About Weed Everyone Should Know (ATTN:)
• The Future of California Cannabis Depends on Rain (Leafly)
• What Is 'Larf' Cannabis and What Is It Good For? (Leafly)
• Watch This: The Guy Who Won't Shut Up About Cannabis (Leafly)
• Oregon Town Cracks Down on Pot-Selling Robotic Blonde Mannequins (Reason)

LSD

• Young woman left screaming, fitting and gasping for breath after drink spiked with LSD on night out (Mirror)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Religious leaders rebuked for taking psychedelics to be more 'effective' (WND)
• The 'Stoned Ape' Theory Might Explain Our Extraordinary Evolution (Inverse)
• Two dose investigation of the 5-HT-agonist psilocybin on relative and global cerebral blood flow (ResearchGate)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• New UK Study Treats Alcoholism with MDMA Therapy (Psychedelic Times)
• Medical Researchers Are Steps From Legalizing Ecstasy. Here's How They Did It. (Reason)
• Ecstasy Tablets Shaped Like Donald Trump's Head With High MDMA Floods UK Streets (India.com)
• Friend blames ecstasy for woman's death after night out in Fife (BBC)
• Boy (16) in State care died due to MDMA toxicity, inquest hears (The Irish Times)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• How Our Santo Daime Church Received Religious Exemption to Use Ayahuasca in Canada (Chacruna)
• The alkaloids of Banisteriopsis caapi, the plant source of the Amazonian hallucinogen Ayahuasca, stimulate adult neurogenesis in vitro (Beckley Foundation)
• Avicii Takes Part In Ayahuasca Ceremony And Continues To Tease New Music (EDM Sauce)
• DMT: Living in an alien world and we don't even know it (Boulder Weekly)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

• Bill in congress would rein in abuse of religious freedom act (Gay Star News)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• Ibogaine for Opiate Addiction Treatment: Miracle Cure or Illegal and Dangerous? (iBogaine Thailand)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• New psychoactive substances: How to know if someone is taking the new trend of drugs (Devon Live)

Dissociatives

• The Ketamine Breakthrough for Suicidal Children (Scientific American)
• Ketamine clinic opens in Bismarck (The Bismarck Tribune)
• Researchers dispute the therapeutic mode of action of a ketamine metabolite (The Pharmaceutical Journal)
• Spanaway man high on PCP rams deputies twice during wild chase, prosecutors say (The News Tribune)

Opiates/Opioids

• Violence over opium crops plagues Mexico's Guerrero state (TRT World)
• Discarded Syringes from Heroin Crisis Create Health, Environmental Problems (NBC)
• Woman Shares Graphic Photos to Show What Addiction Really Looks Like (ATTN:)
• Afghanistan's Opium Trade: A Free Market of Racketeers (The Diplomat)
• Study Finds Opium Cultivation On The Rise In Balkh (TOLONews)
• How a Reddit forum has become a lifeline to opioid addicts in the US (The Guardian)

Absinthe

• Absinthe and Jazz Party Dispels the Green Fairy's 'Strange, Outlandish Reputation' (Bedford + Bowery)

Kratom

• Congress Wants More Power To Ban Drugs—Kratom Could Be Next (Psychedelic Times)
• Christopher Miller Sets Legal Precedent In Tennessee Kratom Case (Inquisitr)

Kava

• Regional kava standard proposed (The Fiji Times)
• Fiji youth group hopes to take farming to the next level (Radio New Zealand)

Khat

• Confusion as Health ministry lists miraa as dangerous drug (Standard Digital)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Can Psychedelics Be Therapy? Allow Research to Find Out (The New York Times)
• Oregon Set to Make Psychedelics a Misdemeanor (Disinfo)
• No, Oregon Isn't Decriminalizing Heroin & Cocaine – But It Should (Refinery29)
• Cop Suspended After Body Camera Video Shows Him Planting Drugs (TIME)
• This magical drug mansion in Upstate New York is where the psychedelic '60s took off (Timeline)
• Donald Trump Admits Border Wall Won't Stop Drugs From Mexico (Reason)
• Teenagers are using a secret emoji code to buy drugs online (Metro)
• What Happens When You Eat Psychedelic 'Mad Honey'? (Inverse)
• Downtown Atlanta's Lost Psychedelic Theme Park (Atlas Obscura)
• Psychedelic drugs could tackle depression in a way that antidepressants can't (Business Insider)
• Selling the Silk Road Soap Opera (Reason)
• Exactly How Addictive Are Party Drugs? (The Debrief)
• How a techie turned into the 'drug king' of Hyderabad (Asianet Newsable)
• Police make first major drug bust using app popular with dealers (The Jerusalem Post)
• Should drug dealers face murder charges for overdoses? State Attorney Melissa Nelson thinks so (The Florida Times-Union)
• Book review: Examination of psychedelic drug therapy a timely read (Vancouver Sun)
• Quitting alcohol cold turkey could be deadlier than kicking heroin (New York Post)

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 - 7.22.17

Image by ShyViolet09, 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 first global analysis of the production, use, and fate of all the plastics our species has ever produced" has been completed, and the results are grim indeed. Since plastic production began in the 1950s, 8.3 billion tons have been created—76% of which has already gone to waste! And unfortunately, plastic production is still growing—roughly half of the plastic ever created was produced in the last 13 years. The article argues that our civilization should refocus its efforts on creating alternative materials, methods that can convert plastics to liquid fuel, and options for responsible disposal. Changing our approach to those topics would benefit all life on Earth.

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

This Week in Psychedelics 7.21.17—Delayed

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Hello readers! I am out of town this weekend with extremely limited access to the Internet, so today's "This Week in Psychedelics" column will be published within the next few days. Thank you for your patience!

Weekend Thoughts - 7.15.17

Image by J Aaron Farr, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. Microsoft must be on an environmentalist bent of some sort lately, as the company has recently announced an "AI for Earth" initiative. The program will attempt to use artificial intelligence to solve the major environmental issues that we are currently facing. Ultimately, Microsoft's President Brad Smith said, "Our goal is to empower others in new and more impactful ways to help create a more sustainable future. This program expands our commitments to democratizing AI and advancing sustainability around the globe." So far, the company has focused on creating more detailed land maps to aid conservation, improving agriculture with smart technology, and using drones to collect mosquitos to track and prevent potential emerging infectious diseases. Considering the state of affairs that our world is in, Microsoft deserves a big round of applause.

2. Elsewhere in the technosphere, Amazon has been considering allowing third-party developers to access the private transcripts of Alexa-powered devices so they can build better voice apps for the device. This is something that Google Home already allows. If Amazon moves forward with this decision, it would raise privacy concerns for its customers. At this point, Alexa developers can only see non-identifying information, like the number of times you use a specific command, how many times you talk to your Amazon Echo, and your location data. This change would potentially allow third-party developers access to actual transcripts, although we do not know the method that would be used and how much data would be divulged.

3. Audi is concerned that millenials will be bored in self-driving cars, so the company has developed a research product called The 25th hour, which is designed around the issue of what people will do to avoid boredom while riding in their fully-automated vehicles. The idea is that people will have extra time in their busy days to spend doing something other than focusing on the road. My initial reaction was, "Why wouldn't people use that time to read books?!" But while it's probably more likely that people will be watching television or scrolling through Facebook than reading, this project's existence means that automobile manufacturers are already thinking of ways to keep their customers entertained (and probably market to them, as well). In my opinion, the riders' recovered time would be best spent producing content rather than consuming it, but that's a whole other conversation altogether.

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