This Week in Psychedelics - 9.8.17

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Despite Legalization, Adolescent Marijuana Use Hits 15-Year Low (Reason)
• Amendment to Cut Funding of DEA's Cannabis Eradication Program (NORML)
• Gaetz Introduces Amendment for Medical Marijuana Research (NORML)
• House Rules Committee Blocks Amendment Protecting Medical Marijuana (Reason)
• American Universities Offering Cannabis Classes This Fall (Forbes)
• Bonamici Files Amendment Preventing Federal Interference of State Hemp Laws (NORML)
• Congressman Heck Introduces Marijuana Banking Amendments (NORML)
• Colorado Cannabis Sales Funnel $9.2M Into School Health Programs (Leafly)
• Hemp Comes Home (Reason)
• Cannabis Tribes Form Cannabis Association (Indian Country Today)
• Does the First Amendment Protect Spiritual Cannabis Use? A D.C. Activist Plans to Argue For It (Psymposia)
• California Won't Ban Cannabis Ads, for Now (Leafly)
• North Texas Experts Explore the Cannabis 'Green Rush' (D Magazine)
• California is about to open its first legal cannabis shops and it's posing a huge problem for local pot farms (The Independent)
• Cannabis Growers Accused of Offering California Sheriff $1M Bribe (Leafly)
• Sonoma State University launches professional cannabis business series (Santa Rosa Press Democrat)
• Last Week In Cannabis—New Jersey May Legalize, Cabbie Wins MMJ Case, And More (Psychedelic Times)
• Investing in Cannabis? Ask These 3 Questions Before You Do (Leafly)
• Meet the companies launching Maryland's cannabis industry (The Baltimore Sun)
• Massachusetts' Top Cannabis Regulator Says He's Committed to Timely Rollout (Leafly)
• Cannabis church leader's pet peacock brutally killed (USA Today)
• How Are Canadian Patients Using Medical Cannabis? (Leafly)
• The Game Changer for Paragon and the Cannabis Industry (The Merkle)
• Cannabis workshops begin this week (Mad River Union)
• Stockton may temporarily tap brakes on cannabis businesses (Stockton Record)
• Cannabis Industry Weekly Recap 9/1/2017 (Forbes)

LSD

• Meet the World's First Online LSD Microdosing Coach (Rolling Stone)
• Netflix's 'Wormwood' Spotlights CIA's Secret LSD Mind Control Experiments (The Fix)
• Memories from the Summer of Love: Meet the '60s Couple Who Helped 'Turn on the World' to LSD (People)
• Meet the professor who self-administered 73 high-dose LSD sessions (Psymposia)
• The Upside of LSD: This Guy Wants You to Microdose on Psychedelics (OZY)
• Researcher To Study The Effects of LSD Microdosing on Cognitive Function (Collective Evolution)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Scientists Discover Why Magic Mushrooms Evolved Psychedelic Powers (Inverse)
• Will California Legalize Mushrooms? (The Fix)
• The Chemical In Shrooms Can Now Be Made In A Lab, & It Could Help Sufferers Of Mental Illness (Bustle)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Why The FDA's 'Breakthrough' Nomination For MDMA Matters (Psychedelic Times)
• Ecstasy Is on Its Way to Becoming a Legal Treatment for PTSD (Lifehacker)
• Dude Leaves Contact Info On Bag Of MDMA -- Gets His Dumbass Arrested (Magnetic Magazine)
• Embarrassed Pill Takers Tell Us Their Worst Ecstasy Stories (VICE)
• British teenager died in Ibiza after five bags of ecstasy exploded in her stomach, finds coroner (The Independent)
• Police warn public of 'ecstasy' pills containing ketamine (Mixmag)
• Woman dies and two men taken to hospital after taking ecstasy (The Guardian)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Dimethyltryptamine (DMT): a biochemical Swiss Army knife in neuroinflammation and neuroprotection? (NCBI)
• Spiritual But Secular (United Church Observer)
• Man fined for having drug used in Amazon (Irish Times)

Salvia Divinorum

• Synthetic simplification of hallucinogen pays off (Chemical & Engineering News)

Dissociatives

• Use of ketamine for depression shows rapid, long-lasting effects: study (New York Daily News)
• 30 years ago, PCP seemed like the most threatening drug to America's future (MuckRock)
• How Do 4 Alternative Treatments for Bipolar Disorder Stack Up? (Psych Central)

Opiates/Opioids

• Will California Beat Seattle in Building a Safe Drug Injection Facility? (Reason)
• The Right Chemistry: The long and colorful history of opium (Montreal Gazette)
• How Many More People Have to Die From Heroin and Fentanyl Before We Try Something Different? (Reason)
• Canadian schools stock up on naloxone kits in wake of growing opioid crisis (Global News)
• More Access Granted to Naloxone in Arkansas (KARK)

Kratom

• Editorial: Many defend use of plant kratom (Plattsburgh Press Republican)
• Super Green Indo Kratom: How It Differs From Green Malay And Green Maeng Da? (Kratom Guides)

Kava

• Selling kava with a wink and a buzz (Missoula Independent)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• People Who Have Taken Psychedelics Are More Likely To Be Environmentally Friendly (IFLScience)
• Neurosis is Natural: Human Development and Rites of Passage with Neal M. Goldsmith, Ph.D. (Psychedelic Times)
• Coming Out of the Psychedelic Closet to Your Parents (Psychedelic Times)
• 4 Philosophers Who Experimented With Psychedelics (Big Think)
• A Reverend's Moving Sermon About Psychedelics and Religion (Psychedelic Frontier)
• Scientific doping will lift scholarship to new heights (Times Higher Education)
• Eight Things to Do After You've Taken Psychedelics (Psymposia)
• Rethinking serotonin could lead to a shift in psychiatric care (Imperial College London)
• The 21st century psychedelic renaissance: heroic steps forward on the back of an elephant (Springer Link)
• Psychedelics, Personality and Political Perspectives. (PubMed)
• My biggest conclusion after years writing about drugs (Psymposia)

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 - 9.2.17

Image by cydog66, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. It's that time of year again—hordes of people are flocking to Black Rock City, Nevada for the life-changing, transformational festival known as Burning Man. Modern-day cities could stand to learn something about urban infrastructure from the awesome and totally bizarre architecture that is found at the festival. Sure—it's controlled chaos, but the fact that the 2,000 organizers and volunteers are able to build and take down a 70,000-person city in just two months is an amazing feat. Not only is the scale and speed impressive, but the structures and artwork are visually stunning and innovative as well. If you haven't taken a look at any images from Burning Man before, check out this photo gallery of insane pictures from the previous years of Burning Man.

2. Neuroscientist, long-time meditator, and bestselling author Sam Harris believes that the scientific community should take back the word "spirituality". In essence, the underlying argument is that spirituality can be used to describe "a 'soaring feeling', a feeling of poetic wonder in the face of our sublime and incomprehensible cosmos, or the works of extraordinary human beings". Although the term is usually used to relate to religious or mystical events, Harris is asking the agnostic and atheistic communities to reclaim the word, because it does a better job of describing a domain that cannot be accurately represented by words like "awe" and "well-being", or "love" and "positive psychology". Those words simply don't go deep enough to provide a full understanding of the concept, nor do they address and acknowledge the traditional etymology that surrounds "one of the richest sources of meaning within the human experience". I tend to agree with him on many matters (Harris is also an honest and rigorous seeker of truth), and this is one topic I certainly agree with. However, I'd like to add that I don't see any problem with using the word "spirituality" to relate to matters of religion and mysticism as well. In fact, I think the main issue here is the negative opinion that these communities have about religion, and Harris is attempting to get these people to open their minds a bit. Many scientists, academics, agnostics, and atheists can stand to do just that!

3. There's been yet another update to the TRAPPIST-1 system story this week when scientists found evidence of water on five of the planets orbiting the ultra-cool dwarf star. Bear in mind that the star system is 39 light years away and that the data and telescope technology available at this time cannot decisively prove that water currently exists—nor that it ever existed—however this is pretty exciting news!

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

This Week in Psychedelics - 9.1.17

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Cannabis Shows Promise In Treating Schizophrenia And Tourette Syndrome (Forbes)
• Green gold: how China quietly grew into a cannabis superpower (South China Morning Post)
• Colorado's Governor Sets Jeff Sessions Straight on Marijuana Legalization (Reason)
• FDA Seeking Public Comments On CBD (NORML)
• Lagunitas Unleashes New IPA Made With Cannabis (Eater)
• American Legion Resolves In Support Of Expanding Veterans' Access to Medicinal Cannabis (NORML)
• Researcher Says V.A. Obstruction Jeopardizes Study of Marijuana As PTSD Treatment (Reason)
• 'Snoop & Martha' Earns the First-Ever Cannabis Industry Emmy Nomination (Leafly)
• AAA Is Doubling Down On Their Marijuana Distortions (NORML)
• Cannabis Industry Weekly Recap (Forbes)
• How budtenders help customers pick the right cannabis (The Seattle Times)
• Congressman O'Rourke Introduces Amendment To End Arbitrary License Suspensions (NORML)
• Man protests at court over pot, bong seizure (The Record)
• Is Cannabis a 'Gateway Drug'? (Leafly)
• American Cannabis Company, Inc. Announces 2017 Mid-Year Review and Shareholder Update (American Cannabis Company)
• Cannabis Entrepreneurs Offer Advice On Where To Jump In (Forbes)
• School Is In—Cannabis School, That Is (The Portland Mercury)
• Cannabis website Herb raises $4.1M (TechCrunch)
• Coolest Travel Jobs: What It's Like to Own a Cannabis Tour Company (AFAR)
• Time to Leave Las Vegas, Gaming Commish Tells Cannabis Trade Shows (Leafly)
• Clinical Cannabis Treatment for Trauma (Viceland)
• California Gets Into the Weeds of Pot Marketing (U.S. News & World Report)
• Baltimore City Council weighs concerns about cannabis dispensaries (The Baltimore Sun)
• Cannabis 101: SR 260 cultivation facility grows 60-plus strains of medical marijuana (Verde Independent)
• Cannabis medicines firm GW Pharma plans UK expansion (The Telegraph)
• Bianca Jagger To Receive Second Annual Michael J. Kennedy Social Justice Award (NORML)
• Last Week In Cannabis—Five Marijuana Stories You Might Have Missed (Psychedelic Times)

LSD

• First-Look Trailer: Errol Morris Explores CIA's Secret LSD Experiments in Netflix Doc (The Hollywood Reporter)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Will California Become The First State To Decriminalize Psychedelic Mushrooms? (HuffPost)
• The case to legalize magic mushrooms (IOL)
• Magic enzymes in 'magic' mushrooms analyzed (Science Daily)
• Magic Mushrooms Break on Through to Biosynthetic Reality (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News)
• I Tried Psychedelic Therapy to Help Get Over My Father's Death (VICE)
• My experience with mushrooms was an epiphany. There's never been a need to revisit that depth of consciousness. (Psymposia)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• FDA Designates MDMA As 'Breakthrough Therapy' For Post-Traumatic Stress (Forbes)
• Some Brave Soul Tried 26k Ecstasy Pills From Around The World (EDM Tunes)
• MDMA could help save your marriage (Metro)
• Final phase trials for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy to treat PTSD (New Atlas)
• Trump-Branded Ecstasy Tablets Seized By Cops – Make Partying Great Again? (Inquisitr)
• Several hospitalised over 'potentially lethal' MDMA (Metro)
• Dad of daughter who died after taking single 'MDMA' pill says family released tear-jerking video to stop others making the same mistake (The Sun)
• New Westminster police make arrest after girl dies of MDMA overdose (Vancouver Sun)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Ayahuasca: what mental health professionals need to know (Archives of Clinical Psychiatry)
• Vision Quest: A Journey Within (The Costa Rica News)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

• Peyote Is A Hallucinogenic Astral Experience You Can Find In Your Backyard (Konbini)
• Uneasy alliance — Native Americans and the Summer of Love (Canton Daily Ledger)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• The Complexities of Medical Tourism (The Market Mogul)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Jail bosses own up over Spice 'zombie' drug epidemic as fumes land another SIX guards in hospital (Daily Record)
• AG Schneiderman announces legal action against local synthetic drug sellers (Watertown Daily Times)

Dissociatives

• Ketamine-depression paper retracted following investigation at Yale (Retraction Watch)
• Danbury man arrested for DUI and possession of PCP (Monroe Courier)
• Police: Man On PCP Attempted To Carjack Woman (Hartford Courant)

Opiates/Opioids

• A New Vaccine Could Make The Brain Immune to Heroin and Opioids, Scientists Say (Science Alert)
• Because Of The Drug War, There Is Virtually No Heroin Without Fentanyl In Many Places (HuffPost)
• Could a heroin vaccine cure the west's drug epidemic (The Guardian)
• U.S. Opioid Deaths Nearly Doubled Since 2009 (TIME)
• New Study Finds Heroin Users Less Likely to Overdose If They Know What Drugs They're Actually Taking (Reason)
• Heroin deaths skyrocket nationwide; prescription drugs are big problem in Oregon (The Oregonian)
• Seattle Ballot Initiative Would Block Safe Drug Injection Centers (Reason)
• For Trump, Opioids Are Still Not a Crisis (TIME)
• Afghanistan and the CIA Heroin Ratline (Sputnik International)
• Baltimore health clinic offers naloxone training to combat opioid epidemic (The Washington Times)
• How this Catholic saint might be the patron of opioid addicts (Catholic News Agency)
• The Heroin and Opioid Crisis Is Real (Urban Milwaukee)
• New Family Pharmacy Hosting Narcan Training Day (The Newtown Bee)

Absinthe

• Filming an Absinthe Haze (Reason)

Kratom

• Energy drink manufacturers behind kratom ban? (The Nation)
• How To Grow A Kratom Tree From Seeds? (Kratom Guides)
• The List of 5 Best Kratom Strains Available in the US Today (Kratom Guides)
• A Response to the Dean of Students Email on Kratom Abuse (The George-Anne)
• The 5 Natural and Legal Painkillers Similar to Kratom (Kratom Guides)

Kava

• The worlds [sic] most unique Kava bar... (HuffPost)
• Significance of kava (The Fiji Times)

Khat

• Yemeni left Switzerland to help addicts quit 'Khat' (Al Arabiya)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• MAPS Now Accepts Bitcoin—Plus, Other Ways You Can Support Psychedelic Research (Psychedelic Times)
• The Middle Age Trip: Musings on Midlife Psychedelic Use and Psychotherapy with Neal M. Goldsmith, Ph.D. (Psychedelic Times)
• Depression Cure? Could Psychedelic Drugs Like Special K, LSD, And Psilocybin Mushrooms Be An Answer? (Inquisitr)
• Decoding the Tripping Brain (The Scientist)
• World's largest honey bee makes rare hallucinogenic honey (Mother Nature Network)
• 5 Common Beliefs About Psychedelics That Are Total Bullshit (High Existence)
• Sugar is as addictive as cocaine, study (Blasting News)
• Border Patrol Sets Up Immigration Checkpoint in New Hampshire; Makes Nearly Twice as Many Drug Arrests (Reason)
• The coming revolution in psychedelic medicine (Red Dirt Report)

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 - 8.26.17

Image by Denis De Mesmaeker, 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 manifesto arguing for technology fasting to combat Internet addictions was published this week on a website that can only be viewed offline. It's an intriguing use of a web browser feature that recognizes when the user has disconnected their Wi-Fi connection. After clicking the link, disconnect your Wi-Fi (or go into Airplane Mode, if you're on a mobile device) and give it a read. It's short—about two minutes—but it's a nice reminder that it can be beneficial to take a break from technology from time to time.

2. If you've ever avoiding composting or recycling an item because you weren't sure if it was recyclable or not, a new recycling system designed to recognize what you're throwing away may be just what you need. The company designing these smart bins envisions a future where you'll be rewarded via a phone app with points or a charitable donation when you use the bins. This really warms my heart, because it's a perfect example of how technology can be used to further environmentalist causes.

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

This Week in Psychedelics - 8.25.17

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• A Cannabis Industry PR Exec Explains Why the Future of Pot is Old People and Office Workers (Reason)
• HUD Secretary Ben Carson Spreads Marijuana Myths (NORML)
• Cannabis Potency: How Does Lab Testing for THC and CBD Work? (Leafly)
• Cannabis congeniality: A handful of bed and breakfasts are just fine with their guests lighting up (The Register-Guard)
• California Is Still Arresting Too Many People of Color for Cannabis (Leafly)
• Denver to Start Licensing First Cannabis Clubs, but Few May Apply (Leafly)
• Trump Comments Spark Boycott of LA Cannabis Expo (Leafly)
• Cannabis conference in Arcata celebrates women industry leaders (KIEM)
• Oakland's Marijuana Equity Permit Program (NORML)
• Gavin Newsom Racking Up Cannabis $$$ in California Governors Race (Leafly)
• Lagunitas Unleashes New IPA Made With Cannabis (Eater)
• Australian States Split on Medical Cannabis (Leafly)
• Medical Marijuana Protections Offered Again, But Will They Receive A Vote? (NORML)
• Hispanic caucus: Criminalization of cannabis rooted in bias (Wisconsin Gazette)
• Clearing the Haze Around Cannabis Delivery Services (Voice of San Diego)
• Does Cannabis Make You Walk Funny? (Leafly)
• Cannabis companies eager to take growing biz to the bank (CBS News)
• The latest cannabis-related news from the pages of the Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles Times)
• I Became a Pot Felon at 18. I'm Owed More Than an Apology. (Reason)
• 4 Ways to Make Use of Male Cannabis Plants (Leafly)
• Philly-area law firms bullish on cannabis despite grave legal risks (Philly.com)
• A Professional Dominatrix Walks Into a Cannabis Investor Conference... (Leafly)
• Corte Madera prepares moratorium on cannabis business (Marin Independent Journal)

LSD

• No way woman died from LSD overdose at local music fest, experts say—'It's not possible' (The Tribune)
• Microdosing with LSD and its Research Potential (Heffter Research Institute)
• Watch Jamila Woods' new video for "LSD" featuring Chance The Rapper (HUH.)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Magic mushroom chemical may be a hallucinogenic insect repellent (New Scientist)
• Scientists Unlock Magic Mushrooms' Mysterious Chemical Compound (Smithsonian)
• How Mushrooms Became Magic (The Atlantic)
• Is Psilocybin Is [sic] The World's Safest Recreational Drug? (Collective Evolution)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Police Seize Thousands of Donald Trump-Inspired Ecstasy Tablets (TIME)
• Report: Only 34.7% of Pills Marketed as MDMA Are Pure (Noiseporn)
• Illegal schemes in India offer "rave packages" with MDMA and hashish (Mixmag)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Ayahuasca Stimulates the Birth of New Brain Cells (Beckley Foundation)
• Life Coaching and Death Coaching: Comedian Myq Kaplan on the Benefits of Ayahuasca (Psychedelic Times)
• Assessing the Psychedelic "After-Glow" in Ayahuasca Users: Post-Acute Neurometabolic and Functional Connectivity Changes Are Associated with Enhanced Mindfulness Capacities (Beckley Foundation)
• Can Ayahuasca Alleviate Depression and Poverty? (Indian CountryToday)
• DMT showed me how my ego influenced my emotions (Psymposia)
• It's Time To Reflect On WTF Happened In That 'Rick And Morty' Trip Scene (Movie Pilot)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• How Ibogaine has Saved the Lives of Countless Addicts (The London Economic)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• V Festival organisers warn about 'extremely dangerous' Pentylone drug being sold as MDMA on site... and urge revellers to seek IMMEDIATE help if they think they've taken it (The Sun)
• Family of 20-year-old Amy Vigus who died after taking what she thought was MDMA release heart-breaking video (East Anglian Daily Times)

Dissociatives

• That Time David Letterman Accidentally Smoked Animal Tranquilizer (Cinema Blend)
• Ketamine alone is best sedative for children's emergencies (American Pharmacists Association)
• An old medication used in new ways spells relief for chronic pain and other ailments (WZZM)
• To prevent more needless deaths like Ellie's, we need an open conversation about drugs (Left Foot Forward)
• Ketamine suspected as factor in death of care worker Hannah Bennett in Great Ellingham crash (Norwich Evening News)
• Lufkin PD: Woman who passed out on stranger's back porch was high on PCP (KTRE)

Opiates/Opioids

• The federal government is systematically undercounting heroin users (The Washington Post)
• Golden retriever digs up heroin in Oregon backyard (Albany Times Union)
• Initiative to ban heroin safe-injection sites in King County qualifies for ballot (The Seattle Times)
• New law requires naloxone to be placed in all Maryland schools (WUSA)
• NYC councilman wants naloxone kits in schools to prevent overdoses (EMS1.com)
• How to save a life: Officials push Naloxone trainings into the community (The Baltimore Sun)
• Kaleo Pharmaceuticals Donates Naloxone to Fight Opioid Epidemic (Community Idea Stations)
• How Medicaid Rescued This Man From Opioid Addiction (ATTN:)

Kambô

• Healing with the Frog: Interview with Joe Mattia about IAKP Kambo Training (Psychedelic Times)

Kratom

• Call To Legalise Kratom And Allow Its Use For Medicinal Purposes (Buriram Times)
• Families allowed to grow kratom trees for cultural reasons (The Nation)
• Best Tips on How to Take Kratom (TG Daily)
• The newest energy drink? 'Kratom' (Phuket Gazette)

Kava

• Kava is hardly dangerous drug (Sun Sentinel)
• Kiribati people 'cursed' by kava (Radio New Zealand)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• AI Is Edging Into the Art World in Psychedelic Ways (Smithsonian)
• Feds Bust 'Dark Web' Drug Ring Operating Out Of Altadena Gated Community (CBS Los Angeles)
• People Are Getting High on Drugs for the Eclipse (Newsweek)
• 2001: A Psychedelic Odyssey (Psymposia)
• You've had a life changing experience with psychedelics. Do you tell your kids? (Psymposia)
• How to help young people minimise drug harm (The Age)

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.