Weekend Thoughts - 11.25.17

Image by susuteh, 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 turns out that last Month, astronomers operating the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii spotted a foreign object moving through our solar system. It is the first time that we have observed an interstellar object in our own solar system, and the object has an intriguing cigar shape. The object has been named "Ounuamua", which means "messenger from afar arriving first" in Hawaiian, and it appears to be an asteroid that has travelled millions of miles through space. Due to its unique shape, it's certainly worth taking a look!

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

This Week in Psychedelics - 11.24.17

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Study Finds Alcohol 10 Times More Deadly Than Cannabis on the Road (Leafly)
• Michigan: Legalization Coalition Turns in 360,000 Signatures to Place Issue on 2018 Ballot (NORML)
• California Weed Club Caught Pretending to Be a Church (TIME)
• Study: Medical Cannabis Registrants More Likely To Cease Using Opioids Compared To Non-Participants (NORML)
• California releases cannabis regulations, with no limit on farm size (Sonoma Index-Tribune)
• Good News: Congo Is Ditching Conflict Metals For Cannabis (High Times)
• Pennsylvania Couple Sues Drug Warriors Who Thought Hibiscus Was Marijuana (Reason)
• Is The TSA More Chill About Weed Than San Francisco? (Reason)
• Caffeine Is More Dangerous Than Marijuana (ATTN:)
• Pennsylvania Town Used Confidential Informant and Undercover Cops to Arrest a Man For Selling Bongs (Reason)
• Bush-Era Attorney General Cautions Against Cannabis Crackdown (Leafly)
• Cannabis Crunch – Ex-Cops Selling Weed, Dubious Marijuana 'Overdose' And Don't Trust Sessions (Psychedelic Times)
• Don't Blame Wildfires for Rising California Cannabis Prices (Leafly)
• Last stop for cannabis advertising on Muni buses, trains, stations and stops (SFGate)
• Can The Standard Hotel Really Open a Cannabis Shop in Its Lobby? (Leafly)
• Does medical marijuana really work? The truth behind the buzz. (HuffPost)
• Massachusetts Towns Reject Cannabis Bans, Bucking Early Trend (Leafly)
• RightSciences raises cash to develop cannabis and hemp-based medicinal patches (GeekWire)
• Across State Lines: One Medical Cannabis Refugee's Journey to Colorado and Back (Leafly)
• Talk About Marijuana At Thanksgiving This Year (NORML)
• How One Painting Class Is Bringing Art, Cannabis, and People Together (Leafly)
• Oakland reviewing 255 permit applications to cultivate, deliver cannabis (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Medical cannabis clinic, possible pot shop coming to Old Strathcona (Edmonton Journal)
• Italian toddler hospitalized after mistaking cannabis for chocolate (The Local)

LSD

• Observations from 4000 LSD Sessions: A Dialogue with Stanislav Grof (Reality Sandwich)
• LSD is making a comeback, but not in the way you'd expect (My Fox Boston)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• The California Psilocybin Legalization Initiative Looks to put Magic Mushrooms on the Ballot (The Weed Blog)
• Johns Hopkins studying effects of psilocybin on brains of long-term meditators (Psymposia)
• Posttreatment Brain Effects of Psilocybin in Patients With Treatment-Resistant Depression (Psychiatry Advisor)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Psychedelics and Psychotherapy: Is There a Role for MDMA in the Treatment of PTSD? (Medical News Bulletin)
• 'A Void No One Can Fill': Mum's heartbreaking tribute to daughter, 18, who died after 'taking MDMA at Newcastle nightclub' (The Sun)
• 3 charged after cat allegedly abused and drugged with MDMA, with videos sent to family (CBC News)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Criminalization Makes It Harder to Study Ayahuasca, Scientists Say (VICE)
• How Tripping on Ayahuasca Could Help People with Eating Disorders (Broadly)
• What is DMT and why you should care. (Psychedelics Daily)
• NM veterans vouch for ayahuasca therapy (Albuquerque Journal)
• Wook Describes His Wild Method of Transporting DMT Crosscountry (Your EDM)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Cambridge student 'confused' after taking legal high, inquest hears (The Guardian)
• German therapist convicted of botched psychedelic experiment (San Francisco Chronicle)

Dissociatives

• Your Healthy Family: Ketamine being used to treat PTSD and severe depression (KOAA)
• The Effect of a Single Dose of Intravenous Ketamine on Suicidal Ideation: A Systematic Review and Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis (The American Journal of Psychiatry)
• OKC grandmother arrested after child swallows PCP (KSWO)
• Police: Driver arrested after crashing into vehicle while on PCP (The Herald-News)

Opiates/Opioids

• Afghan opium production at all time high (Daily Times)
• NJ pharmacies can now dispense naloxone without prescription (American Pharmacists Association)
• DEA puts synthetic opioid fentanyl on par with heroin and meth (Washington Examiner)
• US conducts airstrikes on Afghan opium labs (NewsPatrolling)
• America's Opioid Epidemic Is Costing Hundreds of Billions of Dollars (TIME)
• U.S. Strikes on Taliban Opium Labs Won't Work, Say Afghan Farmers (U.S. News & World Report)
• New York asks residents to carry naloxone to reverse drug overdoses (The Journal News)

Absinthe

• Absinthe Was Once Banned for Being Evil—Now It's Just Meh (The Wall Street Journal)

Kratom

• Can Kratom Help With Withdrawal From Methadone? (Kratom Guides)
• Using Kratom For Suboxone Withdrawal (Kratom Guides)
• Seeking Alternative Addiction Treatment, Mainers Experiment With Kratom (Maine Public)
• FDA finally rules on kratom: It's a potential killer (New York Post)
• Where FDA Sees Deadly Drug, South Florida Advocates See Natural Alternative To Prescription Drugs (WUSF)
• Denver bans sale of Kratom, drug often used as painkiller (9NEWS)
• Mom of man killed by kratom calls for research, not ban (WTSP)

Kava

• Vanuatu pushes standardisation of kava industry (Radio New Zealand)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Hunting for the Most Potent Psychedelic Toad Venom on Earth (VICE)
• Psychedelic Treatments for Cluster Headaches (Psychedelic Times)
• What The Women's Rights Movement Shares With The Drug War (High Times)
• Could Oregon Be the First State to Legalize Psychedelic Therapy? (Psymposia)
• Psychedelic society launches in Glasgow to try to change the law on mind-altering drugs (The Herald Scotland)
• Mainstreaming psychedelics. Are we there yet? (Rick Strassman MD)
• Hallucination machine lets you blow your mind without taking psychedelic drugs (RT)
• LAPD Officer Gaxiola Caught Allegedly Planting Cocaine on Suspect by Own Body Cam Footage (ATTN:)
• Mind menders: how psychedelic drugs rebuild broken brains (New Scientist)
• WATCH: Fox News host wants you to have a psychedelic experience before you die (Raw Story)

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 - 11.18.17

Image by maneepoi, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. Ever since Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market earlier this year, I've been wondering how that would affect the Whole Foods shopping experience. Now we have our first hint of what's to come—Whole Foods will be offering a set of special discounts for Amazon Prime members. It seems that Prime will become the official rewards program for Whole Foods. As a current Prime member, I'm happy to see yet another perk being added to my membership. It's worth clicking through the link to take a look at the specific items being discounted at this time, and I imagine we'll see more to come soon.

2. Tesla made some pretty cool announcements this week—a new big rig Tesla Semi and a fancy-looking Tesla Roadster that is expected to come out in 2020. There are plenty of nifty features packed into the Semi, like a 500-mile range, Enhanced Autopilot, jackknifing prevention, sensors for blind-spot detection, and data collection to assist with fleet management. It also looks pretty cool—at least I'd be in favor of replacing today's big rigs with Tesla's version, that's for sure. But that's not all that Tesla announced at their event; the upcoming Roadster was a nice surprise for those in attendance. Elon Musk claimed that the car would be the fastest production car ever made, and it boasts a 620-mile range, zero-to-sixty in less than 2 seconds, and a top speed of over 250 MPH. I'm glad to see some innovative products being previewed by Tesla, but I do wonder if they're going to be scalable, because Tesla has recently run into issues with producing a sufficient quantity of its Model 3 offering.

3. If you're like me, it's probably been a while since you've taken a look at how much information you're sharing with others on social media. There is a guide that shows you how to lock down your Facebook account with more privacy that is worth checking out. In fact, there may be some settings that you would've sworn were set differently than they actually are...

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

This Week in Psychedelics - 11.17.17

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Colorado girl suing U.S. attorney general to legalize medical marijuana nationwide (KDVR)
• Smoking marijuana shouldn't be a disqualifying factor for federal judgeship: Top senators say (The Washington Times)
• New York Adds PTSD as Qualifying Condition for Medical Cannabis (Leafly)
• Marijuana Has the Potential to Reverse Memory Loss in Old Age (ATTN:)
• Sessions Says He Is Sticking With His Predecessors' Tolerance of State-Legal Marijuana (Reason)
• We Need Your Help to Protect Patients from Jeff Sessions (NORML)
• 6 Ways to Advocate for a Pro-Cannabis Local Government (Leafly)
• The Startup Catering To Women's Curiosity About Cannabis (Forbes)
• Colorado Is Offering Students the World's First Marijuana-Funded Scholarship (ATTN:)
• Maryland May See Medical Cannabis This Month, but Diversity Issues Loom Large (Leafly)
• Delay Makes It Unlikely San Francisco Will Sell Pot Jan. 1 (U.S. News & World Report)
• Buffalo/Western New York: Blacks Disproportionately Arrested For Minor Marijuana Offenses (NORML)
• Massachusetts to Hire a Cannabis Inspector (Seven Days)
• Women Who Weed (NORML)
• California releases cannabis regulations, with no limit on farm size (The Press Democrat)
• How Veterans Are Leading the Fight for Cannabis Reform (Leafly)
• Brilliant Cannabis Commercial Parodies Ridiculous Pharma Ads (Psychedelic Frontier)
• Master Blasters: Hash-Off Announces Denver's Top Cannabis Concentrates (Westword)
• Cannabis Crunch – 12-Year-Old Girl Sues Sessions, Billion Dollar Urine Screens And Weed Election Results (Psychedelic Times)
• Quebec's Cannabis Regulations: 8 Takeaways (Leafly)
• Cannabis-Infused Fine-Dining Pop-Up to Bring Fancy Edibles to Chicago (Eater)
• 5 Reddit Communities for Cannabis Enthusiasts (Leafly)
• Connecticut: NORML Affiliate To Co-Host Gubernatorial Debate (NORML)
• Can medical cannabis decrease Ark. opioid deaths? (EMS1.com)
• City To Miss Legalization Deadline After Supervisors Postpone Cannabis Vote (Hoodline)
• Hero dogs save family from house fire 'that started in neighbour's cannabis factory' (Metro)

LSD

• Happy 79th Birthday, LSD! (Inverse)
• Children of Drug Cult Spill the Beans (Laguna Beach Independent Newspaper)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Magic Mushrooms Take Critical Step Towards Legalization in California (Your EDM)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Is MDMA a curse or a cure? (The Weed Blog)
• Ecstasy use on the rise in south Flintshire, say police (The Leader)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Psychedelic Drink Used By Shamans May Help Treat Mental Illness (Gears of Biz)
• Ayahuasca and Avocados: A Conversation with Rita Kočárová (Psychedelic Times)
• Orlando church battles to use hallucinogenic tea (Click Orlando)
• Well-being, problematic alcohol consumption and acute subjective drug effects in past-year ayahuasca users: a large, international, self-selecting online survey (The University of Queensland)
• Psychedelic drug known as Vine of the Dead could treat depression says Devon research (Devon Live)
• Tourists Are Flocking To South America To Take THIS Drug And Cure Diseases (The Alternative Daily)
• Los Angeles Wook Smuggles DMT in Container Labeled "Nana's Ashes" (Noiseporn)
• A Spiritual Hand Prepares to Establish a New Ayahuasca Kitchen (Digital Journal)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• The Legend of Zombie Drugs Will Not Die (Reason)

Dissociatives

• New Ketamine Research Points to Wide-Ranging Therapeutic Potential (Psychedelic Times)
• Steve Levine, MD: Ketamine's Role in Solving the Opioid Crisis (MD Magazine)
• Use of ketamine for acute suicidal ideation in a patient with chronic pain on prescribed cannabinoids (BMJ Case Reports)

Opiates/Opioids

• FDA clears nerve stimulator to aid recovery from opioids (The Washington Post)
• The Deadly Designer Opioids (HuffPost)
• America Is Losing Yet Another Drug War—in Afghanistan (The Nation)
• The State: The Opioid Epidemic (Psymposia)
• Reversing opioid overdose: Concentrated naloxone nasal spray as good as injection (Medical Xpress)
• Why West Virginia's Heroin Overdose Rate Doubled After it Mandated Doctors Use the State Drug-Monitoring Database (Pacific Standard)
• The Opioid Crisis Is So Bad People Are Using the Anti-Diarrhea Drug Imodium to Get High (ATTN:)
• Fentanyl Crisis and Naloxone Supply - Omega Laboratories spares no effort to meet demand (Markets Insider)

Kratom

• The Federal Government Is Trying to Ban Kratom (Again) (Reason)
• Is Breastfeeding Possible With Kratom? (Kratom Guides)
• NY Post Spreads DEA Disinformation Regarding Kratom (Inquisitr)
• Supplement to 'cure' heroin addiction could be addicting too (New York Post)
• FDA Warns Of Risks Associated With 'Natural' Opioid Kratom (NPR)

Khat

• Ethiopian Government now links Somali-Oromo region ethnic conflict to Khat trade (Borkena)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Jeff Sessions Used His Scheduling Powers Last Week. Here's What That Means (Reason)
• You Won't Believe Which Middle East Theocrat Has Okayed Psychedelics Treatment (Drug War Chronicle)
• Bad Trip Vs. Hard Trip (Adventures Through The Mind)
• Microdosing Reportedly Safer Than Antidepressants (Noiseporn)
• Naked Suspects In Alberta Kidnapping Drank Hallucinogenic Tea, Relative Says (HuffPost)
• How festival pill testing works in the UK, and what it finds in the drugs (ABC)
• Detroit Cops Posing As Drug Dealers Brawl With Colleagues Posing As Customers (Reason)
• Villagers in Nepal Risk their Lives for Psychedelic Honey (Addiction Now)
• Psychedelic drugs may be making a comeback (WSMV)
• President Trump Praises Philippines' Duterte – and Says Nothing About Thousands Killed in Drug Crackdown (TIME)
• Cocaine Tourism in Columbia (Psymposia)
• LAPD Officers Unwittingly Film Themselves Putting Cocaine In A Suspect's Wallet (Digg)
• My Drug-Induced Psychosis Experience | My First Spiritual Journey (Adventures Through The Mind)
• The 'Psychedelic Club' at CU Boulder (FOX31 Denver)
• The Therapeutic Potential of Marijuana and Psychedelics (The American Journal of Managed Care)
• Rose McGowan Arraigned on Felony Cocaine Charges (TIME)

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.

Go Take the 2018 Global Drug Survey

Image by andibreit, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

The Global Drug Survey has been collecting useful and enlightening drug usage data since 2014, and has recently launched its 2018 Global Drug Survey.

From GDS' About Us page:

"GDS is an independent research company based in London. We produce reports for global media, public health and corporate organisations. GDS use its data and expertise to create digital health applications delivering screening and brief interventions for drugs and alcohol. We create free online harm reduction resources and anonymous, confidential self-assessment tools. GDS also produces a range of drug education materials for health and legal professionals, the entertainment industry and the general public.

GDS aims to make drug use safer, regardless of the legal status of the drug, by sharing information with individuals, communities, health and policy organisations.

Using anonymous online research methods Global Drug Survey runs an annual survey in 10 languages, which is hosted by partners in over 20 countries. We work with global media giants around the world who act as hubs to promote our survey and our findings, ensuring that the first people to see the results are the general public.

Survey findings are frank, honest, and revealing. GDS explores the positives and negatives of drug use and detects new drugs trends as soon as they appear. GDS has a unique insight into personal decision-making about drug use . Our international networks of researchers and specialists have extensive experience in data analysis and report writing."

I have already submitted my survey, and highly suggest that you do the same by clicking here. The survey period will remain open until December 31st, 2017, at which time it will be closed and no longer accepting responses.