This Week in Psychedelics - 12.22.17

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Legal Pot: Mexico to Sell Space Cakes, Cannabis Drinks and Marijuana Lipsticks (Newsweek)
• World Health Organization clashes with DEA on marijuana compound CBD (Ars Technica)
• The Safety of Dabbing: An Honest Terpene Story (Psychedelic Times)
• Bitcoin offers the cannabis industry an alternative to banks (CNBC)
• Cannabis ingredient holds promise as antipsychotic medicine (Reuters)
• Move Over California -- Canada's Opening Its Own $5B Cannabis Market In 2018 (Forbes)
• DEA Releases Report Citing No Deaths From Marijuana (ATTN:)
• Study: CBD Effective As Adjunctive Therapy For Psychosis (NORML)
• Mass. Recreational Pot Industry Won't Just Line Pockets Of Big Businesses, Regulators Say (WBUR)
• Cannabis as a Tool to Fight the Opioid Epidemic (Reality Sandwich)
• New Policy Lets V.A. Docs Talk to Veterans About Medical Marijuana Use (Reason)
• An 11-Year-Old Is Suing the Government Over Medical Marijuana Legalization (ATTN:)
• A marijuana salve won best in show at a cannabis convention this weekend (Boston Globe)
• Portland Companies are Fighting a Secret Plot to Monopolize Cannabis (The Potlander)
• Massachusetts May Leap Ahead on Cannabis Cafes (CT Post)
• Even Without the Rider That Protects Medical Marijuana, a Pot Crackdown Is Unlikely (Reason)
• These Kids Prove Marijuana Is Medicine (ATTN:)
• Cannabis and Mental Health: Cause, Cure, or It's Complicated? (Yes) (Leafly)
• Here's how marijuana does, and doesn't, affect your health (The Mercury News)
• Universities Are Offering Marijuana Business Classes (ATTN:)
• This cannabis-infused wine promises to prevent hangovers (Moneyish)
• A Utah Grandma Explains Why She Gave Her Grandson Medical Marijuana (ATTN:)
• Part 1, Leafly's Faves 2017: Our Strain, Product, and Brand Picks (Leafly)
• EnviroGrow expands reach in cannabis industry (CT Post)
• Jury Rejects Damages for Victims of Pot Raid Based on Wet Tea Leaves (Reason)
• How to Make the Most of Cannabis Plant Count Grow Limits (Leafly)
• Cannabis Regulators Busy Rolling Out the Rules for Legal Pot (U.S. News & World Report)
• NORML "Rolls Out" New Rolling Papers (NORML)
• Cannabis Crunch – Arizona MMJ Battle Ends, Denver Closes 26 Legal Dispensaries And WHO Ok With CBD (Psychedelic Times)

LSD

• How Dock Ellis, Player Who Pitched a No-Hitter on LSD, Is Misremembered (Rolling Stone)
• Errol Morris talks about teaming up with Netflix to delve into the LSD-laced mystery of a CIA scientist's death (Business Insider)
• Government staffer's LSD work 'pick-me-up' (NT News)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Santa Is a Psychedelic Mushroom (The New York Times)
• Are Modern Religions All Modeled Off Amanita Mushroom Trips? (Disinfo)
• After Cannabis is Legal, Could Magic Mushrooms be Next? (Good Times)
• 7 mind-bending facts about magic mushrooms (Brinkwire)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Anonymous Bitcoin philanthropist donates $1m to prove health benefits of ecstasy (International Business Times)
• Can the use of MDMA to help treating alcohol addiction make an impact in psychiatric treatment methods? (MIMS)
• Flamefest raver Steven Graves 'took lethal MDMA dose' (BBC)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Ayahuasca Retreats Offers Magical Healing Sessions Based on Sacred Plant Medicine (MilTech)
• 5-Methoxy-N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT): Patterns of use, motives for consumption, and acute subjective effects (ResearchGate)
• 'HAMILTON'S PHARMACOPEIA' Digs into the Origins of DMT (VICE)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

• Huachuma: Healing Medicine For Modern Times (Reset.me)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• The Ibogaine Conversation Pt 7: Former underground provider, Dimitri Mugianis, on the regulation of ibogaine (Psymposia)
• The Ibogaine Conversation Pt 8: How Not to Do Ibogaine 101 with Juliana Mulligan (Psymposia)
• The Avante Institute Pioneers Ibogaine Plant-Based Therapy for Addiction in a Beautiful and Tropical Environment in the Bahamas (Digital Journal)
• Johnny Tabaie Explains How the Holistic Sanctuary Got a 90% Addiction Recovery Rate (Newswire)

Dissociatives

• Ketamine Relieved Suicidal Thoughts Within Hours in Hospital Study (Gizmodo)
• Who Laced The Titanic Cast's Chowder With The Hallucinogen, PCP? (Refinery29)
• Synthesis of methoxetamine, its metabolites and deuterium labelled analog as analytical standards and their HPLC and chiral capillary electrophoresis separation (Royal Society of Chemistry)
• Oklahoma City woman believed to have passed out on PCP arrested for child neglect (KFOR)

Opiates/Opioids

• Experimental Heroin Vaccine Triggers the Immune System So Mice Can't Get High (Gizmodo)
• Tech Alone Can't Solve the Opioid Crisis (Wired)
• Why is Big Pharma Raising Prices on Naloxone? (The Fix)
• What's the Difference Between Opiates and Opioids? (Pain News Network)
• Afghanistan has Reached a Record on the Production of Opium Poppy (Novinite)
• The Opium Wars still shape China's view of the west (The Economist)
• Vermont's U.S. Attorney Says Injection Sites Encourage Illegal Drug Use. The Research Shows She's Wrong. (Reason)

Kratom

• Findings suggest kratom's potential to treat opioid addiction (Medical Xpress)
• Kratom: An old plant sparks a new challenge (Capital Gazette)
• Why Banning Kratom May Make the Opioid Epidemic Even Worse (MSN)
• Polis asks FDA to lift public health warning on Kratom (Jared Polis)

Kava

• Stressed New Yorkers Take to Kava, 'Nature's Xanax' (The New York Times)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Gordon Wasson's Hidden Ties to the Vatican: Interview with Jerry Brown (Psychedelic Times)
• Ben Carson Admits War on Drugs Conflicts with War on Poverty (Reason)
• Microdosing LSD and Mushrooms: Guide To A Better Life (Psychedelics Daily)
• These Ten Foods Can Trigger Hallucinations if Over-Consumed (Netralnews)

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 - 12.16.17

Image by brenkee, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. If you've ever gotten stuck on a train or bus after your intended stop, you may find Google Map's new feature that will tell you when it's time to get off to be helpful. Essentially, the app will be able to guide you through every step of your ride, including alerting you when you need to get off at your stop. It's unlikely that you would need this level of detail in your daily commute, but it may be helpful when you are traveling to new places.

2. Net Neutrality has been a huge topic for the past several months (and years), at least in the technological and political circles that I run around in. An article describing the FCC's decision in the Carterfone case from more than 50 years ago makes for an interesting read. I also learned that the word "modem" comes from the words "modulate" and "demodulate", something I didn't know prior to reading the article. Although the current heads of the FCC voted to repeal Net Neutrality this week, it's still nice to take a look back on our history and see how the FCC sided with the American people instead of the corporations—at least back in the day.

3. And finally, some more cryptocurrency news—an armed robber allegedly stole $1.8 million of ether. Ether is the name of the cryptocurrency of the ethereum network. It turns out that the suspect knew the victim and also knew that he owned a lot of this cryptocurrency. Apparently he was held up at gunpoint and told to turn over his cell phone, wallet, and keys. The suspect then allegedly went to the victim's apartment where he stole the ethers. Although this is certainly a tragedy for the victim, it is a good time to remind owners of cryptocurrency that it is imperative to keep private keys securely locked away and to never tell others how much money you are holding onto.

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

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.