This Week in Psychedelics - 10.13.17

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• DEA Report: Marijuana Seizures Increased By 20 Percent In 2016 (NORML)
• VA Secretary Shulkin Still Hasn't Responded to The American Legion's Call for Marijuana Research (NORML)
• Al Sharpton defends pot at cannabis business expo (Wicked Local Framingham)
• Data Dive: Alaska Cannabis Sales Continue to Rise (Leafly)
• Is CBD Similar To Kratom And Opiates? (Kratom Guides)
• Cannabis intoxication may be stopped with anti-obesity drug (Medical News Today)
• Meet the People Who Sent Cannabis Into Space (Leafly)
• Eric Holder: Attorney General Sessions "Almost Obsessed With Marijuana" (NORML)
• Cannabis in a Distinct Society: Quebec's Idiosyncratic Grapple With Legalization (Leafly)
• Greg Barns: South Australia should become the first state in Australia to legalise recreational cannabis (The Advertiser)
• MPs join medical marijuana protest outside Parliament, with activists smoking joints and demanding legalisation (The Independent)
• Canadian Firm Invests in Massive Australian Cannabis Venture (Leafly)
• NORML Founder Keith Stroup to Speak at First Annual Cannabis Fund Gala & Awards (NORML)
• How Spain Influenced the America's With Cannabis (WeedReader)
• Testimony Submitted By MassCann/NORML In Massachusetts To Cannabis Control Commission (NORML)
• 'Worst year on record' for cannabis harvests amid widespread California wildfires (SFGate)
• Can You Get Evicted for Legally Using Cannabis? (Leafly)
• With cannabis legalization around the corner, Los Angeles contemplates another dumb move (Los Angeles Times)
• Canada's Largest Cannabis Producer Is Doubling in Size (Leafly)
• Los Angeles County Issues Its First Cannabis License (Forbes)
• Cannabis consumption increases violent behavior in young people in psychiatric care (Science Daily)
• Successful People That Smoke Marijuana (ATTN:)
• Group rallies for legalization of medical cannabis (Terre Haute Tribune Star)
• Personality Quiz: How Open Are Cannabis Consumers? (Leafly)
• Bob Dunning: No Cannabis Outlet Store? The killjoys... (The Davis Enterprise)
• Cannabis Crunch – Gorilla Glue Sues, MMJ Pitfalls In NY, and FDA Looking Into Cannabis Claims (Psychedelic Times)
• Legal pot opponents urge Cannabis Commission to 'protect the people' (Wicked Local Maynard)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Psilocybin-occasioned mystical-type experience in combination with meditation and other spiritual practices produces enduring positive changes in psychological functioning and in trait measures of prosocial attitudes and behaviors (Journal of Psychopharmacology)

LSD

• LSD's Health Benefits Convince Norway to Relax Punishment For Possession (Tonic)
• Only A Handful Of People In History Have Ever Overdosed On LSD. This Is What Happened To Them (IFLScience)
• Watch: Mormon Missionaries Try LSD For The First Time (High Times)
• Disneyland on LSD With A Giant Dog (The Austin Chronicle)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• FDA Approves Trials on Ecstasy and PTSD (Medical News Bulletin)
• Comedian Simon Amstell calls for ecstasy to be legalised (Buzz.ie)
• Dog-walker discovers €100,000 worth of ecstasy and MDMA (The Irish Times)
• 'Beautiful' Amy Vigus from Colchester died after taking MDMA at music festival, inquest hears (East Anglian Daily Times)
• Bitter pill to swallow as 11 party goers overdose in Newcastle (Newcastle Herald)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

• 50 Years Ago: Debate over peyote in passage of bill of rights (Navajo Times)

Dissociatives

• If You Thought Ketamine Was Only About Rave Parties, Think Again (The Quint)
• One Doctor's Ketamine Concern (Medscape)
• Pharmacies selling ketamine get warning (The Times of India)
• PD: Man naked, high on PCP fatally shot in Bridgeport (WTNH)

Opiates/Opioids

• Pennsylvania man's drug rehab center was really a hub for heroin and fentanyl, feds say (The Washington Post)
• How a generation of young athletes became addicted to heroin (New York Post)
• Pennsylvania offering $5 million in naloxone kits to first responders (Philly Voice)
• Bad Opioid Policy Is Killing So Many People That New Hampshire's Medical Examiner Is Quitting His Job (Reason)
• Experts say Naloxone without prescription is helping save lives (WKRN)
• 14 People Overdose on Fentanyl-Laced Heroin in Camden in Four Hours: Officials (NBC 10 Philadelphia)
• Intranasal naloxone and related strategies for opioid overdose intervention by nonmedical personnel: a review (Dove Medical Press)

Kratom

• What Is A Good Kratom Dose For Energy And Positive Mood? (Kratom Guides)
• Analysis: Reports Of New York And Florida "Kratom Deaths" Are Unsupported By Facts (PR Newswire)
• What Is Kratom? Is It Bad For Your Health? (Kratom Guides)
• Kratom Non-Profit Seeks Missing Financial Records (Pain News Network)
• Kratom controversy (Adirondack Daily Enterprise)

Kava

• Will Kava Make You Fail A Drug Test? (Kratom Guides)
• Wisdom in a Cup of Fijian Kava (Hawai'i Public Radio)

Khat

• Khat Intertwined Liver Damage (Journal of Infectious Diseases and Therapy)
• Kenya: Judge Stops Release of Miraa Billion, Execution of Report (AllAfrica)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Scientists Grow Human Mini-Brains in Lab Then Dose Them With Psychedelic Drugs (Newsweek)
• Psychedelic Drug Doses: From Mega to Micro (Rick Strassman MD)
• The psychedelic renaissance is here. Will it last this time? (Massive)
• Researching psychedelics (Dakota Student)
• Club drugs are getting more powerful - so do police and the industry need to do more to prevent deaths? (Manchester Evening News)
• Getting high to get happy? (Independent Online)
• Woman jumps into fire after taking hallucinogenic drugs at music festival (Townsville Bulletin)

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 - 10.7.17

Image by mikegi, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. I love books and lend some credit for that all the way back to going to the book fairs at my elementary school. It turns out that I'm not entirely alone on this—apparently plenty of other people have fond memories of the Scholastic Book Fair from their childhoods as well. The linked article takes a look at what caused us to get nostalgic about the book fair. It turns out that one of the keys to our enjoyment in the fairs was that they marked the first times we were presented with choice about what we would like to read, upgrading the experience of reading from a forced homework assignment into a pleasurable recreational experience. I can still remember perusing the books in my elementary school library and wanting to read them all! Alas, I'm sure I (well, my parents really—thanks Mom and Dad!) only bought a few dozen of them, but the Scholastic Book Fair certainly played a role in my reading education and helped me form a lifelong reading habit.

2. Nowadays it seems like there's yet another online security breach every day. This time it's a bit different though—Yahoo is revising its statement from last year when it admitted that it had been hacked in 2013 and estimated that 500 million user accounts had been affected. Now they've revised that statement to say that all 3 billion Yahoo user accounts were compromised in 2013, which is huge news. If you had ever had a Yahoo account, it would be wise to change your password as soon as possible. But probably even more important than that—if any other user accounts used the same password, you'll want to change those passwords too. This is a great example of why it's important to have a different password for each service that you use, because your Yahoo password is now up for grabs by people with malicious intent, and could be used on any other services that used the same password. Your email account or bank account, for example. Make sure you make password management a priority!

3. Drone deliveries seem to be just around the corner, and a new app called DelivAir is shifting the focus to have drones deliver directly to a person instead of a location. With this technology, users can request a delivery from the app, a delivery drone identifies their location via GPS, and once it arrives the user points their phone at the drone to deliver a coded blinking pattern via the camera flash to verify that the drone is delivering to the correct person. The drone then hovers near the person and lowers the package into their hands before returning to its base. There are plenty of scenarios that this delivery method would be useful for, like delivering essential supplies to stranded people or during disaster relief efforts, or delivering medical equipment directly to those in need. One downside of this technology might be that our skies may eventually be filled with buzzing drones, but that may be a trade-off that our society is willing to make for the sake of convenience.

4. I wasn't anticipating this final bit of news anytime soon, but McDonald's has launched it's McVegan burger—a fully vegan burger that is only available for a limited time in Finland while McDonald's performs a test run. The burger is made out of a soy patty and comes complete with fully-vegan chips (known as "French Fries" in America). This is great news because it means that veganism is becoming more accepted (apparently 6% of Americans self-identify as vegan now as opposed to 1% in 2014). Although I'm not a fan of McDonald's, I would probably still stop in on a road trip to try out a McVegan if it was available.

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

This Week in Psychedelics - 10.6.17

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Marijuana Prohibition Turns 80 (NORML)
• Pot, Paranoia, and Buddhist Wisdom: A Conversation with Stephen Gray (Psychedelic Times)
• Atlanta Decriminalizes Possession of Small Amounts of Marijuana (Reason)
• Tom Petty, Musician, Cannabis Advocate and Humanitarian, Dies at 66 (High Times)
• Holy Smokes: Cannabis as a Catalyst for Spiritual Growth (High Times)
• 'Dabbing' cannabis may release cancerous toxins (Medical News Today)
• How a Blue Butterfly Stamp Brought Down One of the Dark Web's Biggest Marijuana Vendors (Reason)
• Study Finds Top 5 Causes of Cannabis-Related Emergency Visits (Leafly)
• Cannabis Industry Struggles With Hiring People With Past Pot Convictions (Forbes)
• Watch This: The 'Sinister' Reason Cannabis Is Illegal (Leafly)
• Canadian Cannabis Confabs in Countdown to Legalization (High Times)
• Investing in Cannabis? Consider Going Global With Canadian Companies (Leafly)
• Voters decisively reject cannabis industry bans in local Alaska elections (Alaska Dispatch News)
• Will 'Microbusiness' Licenses Let Craft Cannabis Flourish in California? (Leafly)
• Celebrity Cannabis (SF Weekly)
• A Pro Chef Envisions the Future of Brick and Mortar Cannabis Restaurants (Leafly)
• BREAKING: Malta's First Official Cannabis Legalisation Movement Takes Root (Lovin Malta)
• Cannabis oil relieves chronic seizures suffered by six-year-old niece of Aston Villa star Gabby Agbonlahor (The Independent)
• Iowa Man Faces Deportation for a Single Gram of Cannabis (Leafly)
• NORML Weighs In For Personal Cultivation Rights In Washington State (NORML)
• What Is a Feed Chart and How Can It Improve Your Cannabis Garden? (Leafly)
• California's Cannabis Priestess Arrested on Felony Charge (Leafly)
• Cannabis Crunch – Toxins In Dabs, FBI Pot Arrest Stats And Snoop Dogg's Marijuana Tech Company (Psychedelic Times)
• 8 Common Household Ingredients That Contain Cannabinoids (The Fresh Toast)

LSD

• A Fateful Hunt for a Buried Stash of the Greatest LSD Ever Made (VICE)
• American Adults See Occasional LSD Use As Riskier Than Regular Binge Drinking (Reason)
• Silicon Valley's LSD habit is exploding, and now a 27-year old is offering how-to tutorials over Skype (Business Insider)
• A$AP Rocky Details His Love for LSD and Confirms Skepta Will Feature on Latest Studio Album (Highsnobiety)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Medical Psilocybin for Depression (ECU Daily)
• Are We Ready For Legal Psychedelic Mushrooms? (Fox and Hounds Daily)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• MDMA-assisted psychotherapy a "breakthrough" treatment for PTSD (The Rambler)
• More than Ecstacy, MDMA is Medicine (Los Angeles Free Press)
• FDA Moves One Step Closer to Approving MDMA for PTSD Treatment (Law Firm Newswire)
• Ecstasy For PTSD And Alcoholism? Here's What The Science Says (The Alternative Daily)
• Risky behaviour and adverse events are increasing among ecstasy users (UNSW Sydney Newsroom)
• Police are warning people about pink 'Mastercard' ecstasy pills (Mixmag)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Ayahuasca: Hallucinogenic drug used by indigenous Amazon tribes could help treat eating disorders, study finds (The Independent)
• This Guy Makes Bootleg Ayahuasca from Traditional Japanese Herbs (VICE)
• Memories Of Ayahuasca (Adventures Through The Mind)
• Veterans Are Turning to Ayahuasca for PTSD Relief (Motherboard)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• Ibogaine: A Call to Action and a Demand for Integrity (The Fix)
• Ibogaine ideal substance to combat addiction (Kankakee Daily Journal)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• City caught in deadly grip of Black Mamba (The New Indian Express)

Dissociatives

• A new study shows how the powerful drug ketamine could help fight severe depression (Mic)
• Ketamine clinic opens in Aspen with aim to fight severe depression (The Aspen Times)

Opiates/Opioids

• How FIU hopes to pinpoint where heroin comes from and help stop the opioid crisis (Miami Herald)
• Heroin crisis: New drug addiction treatment could be 'game changer' that saves lives (The Courier-Journal)
• Nova Scotia pharmacies now offering free naloxone kits for opioid overdoses (The Chronicle Herald)
• Toronto bars begin carrying naloxone to help combat opioid crisis (CBC)
• 'The greatest drug fiends in the world': An American opioid crisis – in 1908 (The Washington Post)
• MetroHealth received $1.9M grant to increase naloxone distribution by law enforcement (Cleveland.com)
• Mattis: Trump Afghan Strategy to Combat Opium Trade (Breitbart)
• The harrowing rise of heroin, in one chart (Vox)
• Protecting Heroin Clinics From Prosecution (The Atlantic)
• The Tale of North Indian Opium Cultivators (BW Business World)

Kratom

• Kratom Overdose -– Risk Factors And How To Avoid It? (Kratom Guides)
• Which Are The Most Strongest Kratom Alkaloids? (Kratom Guides)
• Ketum, There's More To This Controversial Plant Than Meets The Eye (Malaysian Direct)
• Herbal supplement Kratom linked to death in Florida (KSGF)
• Upstate NY officer's death intensifies scrutiny of herbal supplement kratom (NewYorkUpstate.com)

Khat

• Somalia Bakool region bans khat for negative effect on al-Shabaab combat (AfricaNews)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Entheogens And The Mind Of Society (Adventures Through The Mind)
• Psychedelic Renaissance (HuffPost)
• Sitting, Not Guiding: The Power of Non-Directive Support (Psychedelic Frontier)
• Study Proves Psychedelics Are Super-Drugs That Can Treat Mental Illness (Outlook India)
• The Political Correction of Psychedelics. Part 4. Manageable Doses (Rick Strassman MD)
• DEA Agents Sold Opioids, Stole Cash, and Falsely Identified Drug Suspects, Say Feds (Reason)
• Healing With Tobacco: Rapé Tribal Snuff (Psychedelic Times)
• What's so controversial about microdosing? (Psymposia)
• Bruce Parry on returning to the jungle, hallucinogenic drugs, and why he wants to start a tribe of his own (The Telegraph)
• I was in the MAPS MDMA for PTSD study. It freed me from a childhood of abuse. (Psymposia)
• Magic mushrooms and ketamine: The controversial ways we might treat depression in future (Netdoctor)
• Italy recalls frozen spinach feared to contain hallucinogenic mandrake (The Local Italy)
• George Mason University student dies after taking hallucinogenic drug, falling from window (The Washington 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.

Book Review - On Cats

On Cats is a collection of short stories and poems written by German-American author Charles Bukowski, all of which have something to do with cats. Although Bukowski is often regarded as tough and gnarly, he considered cats to be special creatures—something that I can certainly relate to as well.

The cats featured in this book are amusing, touching, resilient, and much more. As Bukowski puts it, "The cat is the beautiful devil." He pays tribute to their abilities as predatory hunters, street-smart scrappers, and resourceful survivors, as well as their positive qualities like providing affection and care for their owners. However, this is not exclusively a cutesy book about cats. The cats featured in this book are shown sneakily stalking their prey, stabbing their claws into Bukowski's typewritten pages as they walk across his work, and defending themselves viciously against the other neighborhood cats.

This was the first book that I've read of Bukowski's, and I very much enjoyed it. It's a quick read (it only took me a few days to complete) and it's about my favorite domestic animal. I especially appreciated how similar his cats were to his own personality, almost as if they had attracted each other with a strong magnet. If you appreciate cats (or even if you don't—Bukowski's cats run the full gamut of lovable all the way to loathsome) then you should check this one out.

4/5 stars. 128 pages.

Weekend Thoughts - 9.30.17

Image by Frank Lindecke, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. Moscow's local authorities are upgrading the city's massive CCTV network of security cameras with facial recognition technology to assist police with identifying criminal activity on the streets. A collection of 170,000 security cameras have already been monitoring the city and recording millions of hours of video since 2012. During a six-month test run of the new system, the cops were reportedly able to catch six suspects that would've presumably evaded capture without the assistance of the new technology. There are privacy concerns with facial recognition technology—just think about what would happen if the system is infiltrated by third-parties who use the information to know where Moscow's citizens live, work, and the specific routes that they normally take. And it's worth mentioning that the city cannot afford to upgrade all of its security cameras at this time—the plan is to upgrade the ones that are located in areas that have the greatest need. It would be wise to anticipate the eventual spread of facial recognition technology to other locations in the future.

2. I'm a pretty big fan of efficient, inexpensive public transportation, which is why I enjoyed this analysis of why public transportation sucks in the United States. Strap in for a short history of the streetcar, bus, and personal automobile.

3. Here's an entertaining video clip of Robert Anton Wilson calling Donald Trump "fucking crazy" from back in the day.

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