This Week in Psychedelics - 12.15.17

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Federal Medical Marijuana Protections Temporarily Extended (NORML)
• 8 States Let You Smoke Weed, But Massachusetts Might Be the First to Make it Easy (Reason)
• Could Cannabis Be A Treatment For Dementia? (High Times)
• Ontario Passes Legislation to Ensure Safe Transition to Federal Cannabis Legalization (Government of Ontario News)
• WHO Report: No Public Health Problems Attributable To CBD (NORML)
• California Now Accepting Cannabis License Applications (Leafly)
• Following marijuana legalization, teen drug use is down in Colorado (The Washington Post)
• Coffee Shop Wants to Be Denver's First Legal Cannabis Club (Leafly)
• Broccoli, lifestyle magazine for women who love cannabis (Boing Boing)
• Cannabis Project Aims To Help Multiple Sclerosis Patients (High Times)
• With New Cannabis Cafes, You Can Smoke 'Em Where You Bought 'Em (New England Public Radio)
• Emerald Cup cannabis festival: Better plants, bigger businesses, new rules (The Cannifornian)
• Stoner Sterotypes Contradict the Truth (ATTN:)
• These Are the Fastest-Trending Cannabis Products in Every State in 2017 (Leafly)
• PharmaCann Challenges "Racial Quotas" for Ohio Medical Marijuana Licenses (Reason)
• Cannabis Crunch – How Alcohol And Opioids Are Falling To Cannabis, Plus Weed Nasal Sprays, Guns In Hawaii (Psychedelic Times)
• 'It Is Not a Major Public Health Hazard': The Week in Cannabis Quotes (Leafly)
• Indigent Marijuana Defendants Will Be Covered Under Amended Contract Between Kansas City and Legal Aid of Western Missouri (NORML)
• Cannabis cultivation may threaten mountain lions of Santa Cruz mountains, scientist says (Santa Cruz Sentinel)

LSD

• LSD Is Making a Comeback in Very Small Doses (HowStuffWorks)
• Micro-dosing LSD and Psilocybin Guide (Psychedelics Daily)
• Wormwood Trailer Investigates the CIA's Secret LSD Experiments (Screen Rant)
• LSD Stamps- the new scourge (Daijiworld.com)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Peter Thiel's Unusual Bet on Magic Mushrooms For Treating Depression Is About to Be Tested (Fortune)
• Counselor Couple Pushes to Legalize 'Magic Mushrooms' in Oregon (Legal Reader)
• The Secret Psychedelic Mushroom Initiations of Early Christianity: Interview with Jerry Brown (Psychedelic Times)
• Psychedelic Scientists Put Together the Squarest Psilocybin Playlist Imaginable, On Purpose (Disinfo)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Defending MDMA as a Treatment for PTSD (Medscape)
• How clubbing drug MDMA has left a trail of tragedies in the South West (Plymouth Herald)
• Two teenagers die tragically thought to have taken MDMA (Devon Live)
• Warning over ecstasy pills with Ikea and Rolls Royce logos after girl, 16, is left seriously ill (The Sun)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Ayahuasca Retreats Gains Phenomenal Popularity Among Spiritual Seekers In USA (MENAFN)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

• Peyote's Complicated History (Digg)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• Dying to get clean: is ibogaine the answer to heroin addiction? (The Guardian)
• The Ibogaine Conversation Pt 4: We are Bwitists and healers in Gabon. Here's what we think of the global interest in iboga. (Psymposia)
• The Ibogaine Conversation Pt 5: Talking ibogaine research for opioid addiction with Thomas Kingsley Brown (Psymposia)
• The Ibogaine Conversation Pt 6: Patrick Kroupa, hacker and ex-heroin 'junkie', on microdosing and the medicalization of ibogaine (Psymposia)

Dissociatives

• Ketamine Rapidly Reduces Suicidal Ideation (Medscape)
• Ketamine provides short term relief from chronic migraine (The Pharmaceutical Journal)
• My Life as an International Ketamine Smuggler (VICE)
• Thinking of doing ketamine? Here's what you need to know about the drug that wrecks your bladder (Somerset Live)

Opiates/Opioids

• Watch : U.S. Military Pulverizes $4 Million-Worth of Taliban Opium in Afghanistan (Breitbart)
• Myanmar sees a 'significant' decrease in opium cultivation (Newstalk)
• If police use naloxone and someone dies, will they be in trouble? (CBC)

Absinthe

• From Wormwood Tinctures to Absinthe Mixtures: The Instability of Absinthe in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture (eScholarship)

Kambô

• Brooklyn's Kambo Shamans Have the Frog Venom You Crave (Bedford + Bowery)

Kratom

• Inside Kratom, the Gas Station Drug That Could End the Opioid Crisis (VICE)
• FDA Head Tweets New Warning About Kratom (Pain News Network)
• Despite DEA and FDA warnings over kratom use, substance remains legal for now (The Columbus Dispatch)
• Getting High on a Thai Tree with Psychoactive Leaves (VICE)

Kava

• Kava craze hits the USA (Loop PNG)
• Kava drinkers urged not to "wash-down" with alcohol (Radio New Zealand)
• Tongan MP wants ban on foreigners growing kava (Radio New Zealand)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Important Psychedelic Organizations You Should Check Out (Psychedelic Times)
• States Spent $1.3 Million Drug Testing People on Welfare Last Year, Only 369 Tested Positive (ATTN:)
• The Government Has Analysed Our Poo To Find Out What Drugs We're All Taking (Junkee)
• How a Drug-Free School Zone Sent a Tennessee College Student to Prison For 17 Years (Reason)
• Gnosis Journey: Knowledge of Spiritual Mysteries (The Costa Rica News)
• Andrew Garfield only takes hallucinogens in 'safe' place (The Gonzaga 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 - 12.9.17

Image by Vitamin, 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 concept of a speaker that listens to and interacts with its users is still fairly new, but they are becoming more common with each passing day. However, there are still reasons why you should not buy a smart speaker. It seems odd to me that we as a society are reaching a point where, just like in Orwell's 1984, being constantly surveilled by technology is becoming commonplace. Even if you trust companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft to not intentionally spy on you via smart speakers, smart cameras, and the like, these devices are certainly hackable and susceptible to bugs, which means that the data they obtain may eventually get into the wrong hands. Maybe I'm alone here, but I don't want every snippet of the private conversations I have in my home to be shared with others just because of vulnerabilities in these "smart" devices (and yes, that includes smartphones!). I'd suggest reading through this article carefully because it's worth considering whether you are willing to put your privacy (and the privacy of others in your home) on the line for the sake of convenience.

2. Although I went to a Chess Club meeting or two in middle school, I wouldn't consider myself to be a very strong chess player. However, I do enjoy playing the game from time to time and find it to be an interesting—albeit endlessly intimidating—game of skill. Now it turns out that a new artificial intelligence known as AlphaZero has handily beaten the previously highest-rated Chess engine known as Stockfish. Perhaps most impressively, AlphaZero taught itself how to play in just four hours. At the end of the day, the final tally (out of 100 matches) was 28 wins, 72 draws, and zero losses. In other words, the chess engine that human chess players have been using to train has been bested so badly by this new AI that it didn't even win a single game—against an opponent that didn't even know how to play chess four hour prior to the first match.

3. Modern burials (at least in the Western world) typically involve toxic chemicals that are used to preserve the human body as well as coffin materials that do not break down quickly, harming the Earth and causing trouble for the surrounding environment and wildlife. A new burial technique involves a mushroom spore death suit that detoxifies the corpse and turns them into nutrients for plants. It's an innovative concept and one that may help preserve future life on Earth.

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

This Week in Psychedelics - 12.8.17

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Study: Alcohol Sales Fall Following Cannabis Legalization (NORML)
• Maryland Begins Sales of Medical Marijuana After Delays (TIME)
• L.A. Just Legalized Recreational Marijuana. Here's When You Can Buy It (TIME)
• Florida Judge Admits He Made a Mistake Locking up Marijuana Users (ATTN:)
• U.S. States Tried Decriminalizing Pot Before. Here's Why It Didn't Work (TIME)
• California's cannabis festivals face uncertain future under new state rules (The Mercury-News)
• Cannabis linked to bipolar symptoms in young adults (Science Daily)
• Regenerative Organic Cannabis Farming (High Times)
• Colorado's Marijuana Profits Continue to Deprive Cartels (ATTN:)
• An Overview of Cannabis Legalization Driving Politicians Insane (Leafly)
• 'Cannabis Clubs' Considered By Massachusetts Lawmakers (CBS)
• Cannabis Crunch – DEA THC Favoritism, California Expunging Pot Offenses, And Italy's Army Weed (Psychedelic Times)
• Lawyers Walk Fine Line to Navigate State, Federal Cannabis Laws (Leafly)
• Dallas Marijuana 'Cite & Release' a Half-Assed Measure (Reason)
• Albania Under Pressure To Catch 'Big Fish' of Cannabis (High Times)
• Lawlessness on cannabis attracts more tourists in Morocco (Africa News)
• Delaware Officials Eye Gun Ban for Cannabis Consumers (Leafly)
• 5 Top Cannabis Stocks to Consider Buying Now (The Motley Fool)
• High Design: Q&A With a Cannabis Packaging Designer (Leafly)
• Meet The Herbal Chef, The Man Turning Weed-Infused Food Gourmet (Forbes)
• 'The Leafly Guide to Cannabis' Is Now Available for Purchase (Leafly)
• Historic Vapor and Communal Spirit: 5 Takeaways From the Canadian Cannabis Awards (Leafly)

LSD

• New Netflix Documentary Will Explore the CIA's Attempt to Control Minds with LSD (Motherboard)
• Microdosing LSD: Smart Drug or Placebo? (Sapiensoup Blog)
• Some Use LSD As Brain Boost, But Dangers Remain (WebMD)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Two Magic Mushroom Studies Suggest Psychedelics Increase Spirituality, Decrease Criminal Behavior (Psychedelic Times)
• Amanita Muscaria and Psilocybin in Early Christian Art: Interview with Jerry Brown (Psychedelic Times)
• Group pushes for legal psychedelic mushrooms in Oregon (KATU)
• This playlist is scientifically curated for your magic mushroom trip (The Daily Dot)
• COMPASS Pathways Partners With Worldwide Clinical Trials To Conduct World's First Large-Scale Clinical Trials In Psilocybin Therapy For Treatment-Resistant Depression (Clinical Leader) 
• FDA Confirms Psilocybin Reduces Risk Of Mindlessly Following Society's Rules Like Fucking Lemming (The Onion)
• Dude running for mayor in Cali is trying to legalize... magic mushrooms? (Kulture Hub)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Linkin Park's Chester Bennington Did Not Take Ecstasy Before He Died (Radio.com)
• 23-Year-Old Arrested with $40 Million In Pure MDMA (Your EDM)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Can Giving Ayahuasca to Prisoners Reduce Recidivism? (Big Think)
• Yagé: On the Quest for Spiritual Enlightenment in Colombia (The Bogotá Post)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• The Ibogaine Conversation Pt 1: Ibogaine presents unique challenges in how we approach harm reduction and treat addiction (Psymposia)
• The Ibogaine Conversation Pt 2: Taking Iboga with the People of Gabon (Psymposia)
• The Ibogaine Conversation Pt 3: How has Western influence changed the traditional use of iboga in Gabon? We talked to a French guy living there. (Psymposia)

Dissociatives

• Study confirms rapid antidepressant effect of ketamine extends to Taiwanese patients (PsyPost)
• Down With Depression: Ketamine Clinics of Los Angeles Is Saving Lives Using IV Ketamine Infusion Therapy (Digital Journal)
• Intranasal ketamine or fentanyl for children (American Pharmacists Association)
• Man found lying in street faces PCP charges (NJ.com)

Opiates/Opioids

• Heroin in Soups and Lollipops: How Drug Cartels Evade Border Security (The New York Times)
• US General: $50 Million Worth of Taliban Narcotics Destroyed in Afghanistan (Voice of America)
• Naloxone Safely Reverses Opioid Overdoses in the Field (American Academy of Family Physicians)
• The Opioid Commission Almost Got Something Right with Their Naloxone Recommendation (Human Rights Watch)
• It Doesn't Take a Genius to Solve the Opioid Crisis (VICE)
• Legislators Dust Off Medieval Methods to Address the Opioid Crisis (Reason)
• Information Gaps Exist about Opioid Antidote Naloxone, Study Says (National Pain Report)
• Doctors studying psychiatry helped soldiers in Vietnam hooked on heroin (The Buffalo News)
• Afghan farmers revert to growing opium, sending yields soaring (The National)
• Drug Users In D.C. Can Now Legally Test Their Dope for Fentanyl. Now How About Over-the-Counter Naloxone? (Reason)
• Ohio State sells Naloxone kits at student pharmacy (Dayton Daily News)

Kratom

• Does Kratom Really Kill? Officials Aren't Telling Us The Whole Story. (HuffPost)
• What is kratom (mitragyna speciosa)? (Sun Sentinel)
• Kratom beginning to rival cannabis in controversy over risks, benefits (Standard-Examiner)
• FDA moves to restrict kratom shipments (WMUR)
• Push to ban kratom sale to minors in NY (MPNnow.com)
• What's Kratom, and Why Are States Banning It? (Governing)
• Kratom Not the Cause of Yelm Woman's Death (Nisqually Valley News)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Fear of Death? Psychedelics Can Help! (Bedford + Bowery)
• 'HAMILTON'S PHARMACOPEIA' Traces Peyote's Psychedelic History (VICE)

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 - 12.2.17

Image by manfredrichter, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. After losing a 19-year court battle with the US Department of Justice, several big tobacco companies will be running advertisements admitting that they violated federal racketeering and fraud laws by conspiring to cover up the fact that their products killed their customers. These ads will run for a full year, and the television ads are going to run five nights a week on multiple networks. Looking at the long view, I'm wondering if this will ever happen with the meat, dairy, egg, and processed foods industries.

2. Meanwhile, the Netherlands has closed prisons because crime is so low. This is partly due to the fact that Dutch judges favor alternatives like fines, community service, and electronic tagging to prison sentences.

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

This Week in Psychedelics - 12.1.17

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Canada: House Members Overwhelmingly Pass Adult Use Regulation Bill (NORML)
• The Swiss cannabis farm aiming to supply 'legal weed' across Europe (The Guardian)
• How Does Cannabis Help PTSD Patients? (High Times)
• New Mexico Study Suggests Medical Cannabis Helps Chronic Pain Patients Reduce Opioid Use (Reason)
• Bipartisan Letter To Congressional Leadership Urges Continued Protections For Medical Marijuana Programs (NORML)
• Inside Paraguay's illegal cannabis plantations (Al Jazeera)
• NIDA Study Finds Underage Cannabis Use Alters Brain Connectivity (Leafly)
• Study Explores Chemical Links Of Cannabis, Exercise, And Sexual Bliss (Forbes)
• Marijuana Can Replace Sleeping Pills (ATTN:)
• Supporters Turn in Petition to Legalize Cannabis in North Dakota (Leafly)
• Cannabis Crunch – Marijuana Tops Conflict Minerals, Florida Ignoring MMJ Law, And We Need More Weed Scientists (Psychedelic Times)
• State Courts Say Early-Morning Pot Raids Were Gratuitous and Illegal (Reason)
• If You Fear Having a Panic Attack From Smoking Weed, Read This Before Lighting Up (POPSUGAR)
• Cannabis could be a boost for state farmers (The Virginia Gazette)
• Sacramento to Consider Greenlighting Jan. 1 Cannabis Sales (Leafly)
• Octavia Wellness Launches "Healing without the High" Cannabis Starter Kit Tailored for Seniors (GlobeNewsWire)
• PBS Travel Host Urges Illinois to Legalize Cannabis (Leafly)
• Rick Steves Testifies In Illinois In Support Of Legalization (NORML)
• Two New Import Deals Hurry Medical Cannabis Into Australia (Leafly)
• Setting The Record Straight (NORML)
• Proposed Tax Amendments Would Benefit Cannabis Industry (Leafly)
• Hawaii, Which Registers Guns and Medical Marijuana Users, Starts Disarming Patients (Reason)
• Here's Why VR and Cannabis Are a Match Made in Heaven (Leafly)
• Medicinal cannabis: Health Minister signs licence for Ava Barry (BBC)
• Cannabis plants destroyed (The Hindu)

LSD

• Could LSD Be the Right Prescription for the Terminally Ill? (The Daily Beast)
• Why It Feels Like You Can Communicate with Nature on LSD (VICE)
• LSD modulates effective connectivity and neural adaptation mechanisms in an auditory oddball paradigm (ScienceDirect)
• Applying to Law School on LSD (Psymposia)
• 'It isn't for everyone and I respect that': Byron Bay hipster Mitch Gobel triggers drug debate on social media after comparing 'freedom' to 'LSD' (Daily Mail)
• NEW: Judge approves hiring expert to determine LSD's role in stabbing death of Leah Marie Adams (The Winchester Star)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Could These Magic Mushrooms Help Improve Our Political Climate? (The Alternative Daily)
• After marijuana, are magic mushrooms next to be decriminalised in California? (The Guardian)
• US Mayoral Runner-Up Says Magic Mushrooms Can Help Deal With 'Trump, Brexit' (Sputnik News)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• New figures show steadily increasing use of cocaine in Auckland, spike in MDMA usage (New Zealand Herald)
• Killer ecstasy pill warning: These car-themed 'turbo' drugs contain DEADLY MDMA levels (Daily Star)
• Son of former Chilworth council leader dies of ecstasy overdose (Daily Echo)
• Lad, 24, found dead in bed by his mum after taking two MDMA tablets at party (The Scottish Sun)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Brazil is giving prisoners ayahuasca as part of their rehab (Salon)
• What Is Ayahuasca? Psychedelic Drug Used by Ancient Religions Is Trendy but Could Have Serious Benefits (Newsweek)
• Ayahuasca Helped Me Get Over My Divorce (Tonic)
• Amazon Jungle Drug Could Be Potential Treatment for Depression (Healthline)
• The day I drank ayahuasca, the illegal brew (The Times)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• 'Legal highs' posing a big challenge to Bengaluru's NCB sleuths (Deccan Chronicle)

Dissociatives

• Ketamine effective as migraine treatment (Healio)
• Intranasal Ketamine or Fentanyl for Children: Similar Analgesia, Disproportionate Side Effects (Anesthesiology News)
• Entertainment Outlets Busted For Serving Ketamine-Drug Flavoured Ice Tea Drinks (Malaysian Digest)
• 'Party drug' may be a lifesaver to many (Boston Herald)
• Suspect in fatal Springfield fire was naked, high on PCP and claimed 'she was god', arrest report says (MassLive)

Opiates/Opioids

• This Country Could Soon Legalize Cannabis And Opium (High Times)
• U.S. strikes on Taliban opium labs won't work, say Afghan farmers (Reuters)
• Bring Back the Opium Den, Say Drug Campaigners (Gizmodo)
• The Justice Department's New Opioid 'Tools' Are All About Escalating the Drug War (Reason)
• Management of Suspected Opioid Overdose With Naloxone in Out-of-Hospital Settings: A Systematic Review (Annals of Internal Medicine)

Kratom

• Reader: Big Pharma Would Lose Billions If People Knew the Truth About Kratom (Westword)
• National Expert: No Cases Show Deaths Solely From Coffee-Like Herb Kratom, Which Should Be Handled No Differently Than Other Substances (PR Newswire)
• Can Kratom Be Patented? (Pain News Network)
• Oregon's Public Health Officer Says Kratom Buyers Beware (OPB News)
• If Kratom Sales Are Banned, Advocate Says, Users May Go Back to Heroin (Westword)
• Locals react to FDA advisory citing kratom dangers (WTSP)
• Kratom sales continue despite FDA report on dangers (KOIN)

Kava

• Kraving Kava? Carrboro's first kava bar provides a relaxing experience (The Daily Tar Heel)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• What It's Like to Smoke the World's Strongest Psychedelic Toad Venom (VICE)
• Drug Checking – How People Use It And What Do They Learn (VolteFace)
• Scientists Have Built a 'Hallucination Machine' For a Drug-Free Brain Trip (ScienceAlert)
• How Should Plant Medicines Be Regulated? (Chacruna)
• Transformational Tripping (High Times)
• The Psychedelic Gospels: Interview with Jerry Brown, Ph.D. (Psychedelic Times)
• Science Says: Psychedelic Users Less Likely To Commit Violent Crimes (Dance Music Northwest)
• Can psychedelics help cancer survivors shake death anxiety? (Salon)
• How Zendo Training Taught Me To Calm Freaked-Out Festival Fans (Leafly)
• How a little bit of drugs can make your boss a better boss (TNW)
• Drug Overdoses Claimed More American Lives Than the Vietnam War (ATTN:)
• Can Psychedelics Make Us More Content? (Big Think)

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.