This Week in Psychedelics - 2.2.18

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• San Francisco to Clear Thousands of Marijuana Convictions Dating Back to 1975 (TIME)
• How to Legally Buy Weed in D.C. Without Actually Buying Any Weed at All (Reason)
• Study: Marijuana Smoke Exposure Not Linked To Poor Lung Health (NORML)
• Idaho bill would allow use of cannabis-derived CBD oil (East Idaho News)
• Marijuana: is it time to stop using a word with racist roots? (The Guardian)
• California's New Cannabis Laws Squeeze Out Compassionate Care Programs (Forbes)
• Mondo Cannabis Powder Is Weed Made for Taking at Work (Bon Appetit)
• California mulls state-owned bank for cannabis industry (Financial Times)
• Which city in the world has the cheapest cannabis - and the most expensive? (The Guardian)
• Canadian Cannabis Companies Set Their Sights On South America (Forbes)
• A startup that makes cannabis oil for vaping wants to be America's first $1 billion 'marijuana unicorn' (Business Insider)
• Cannabis 'Gifting' Economy Springs up in Massachusetts (Leafly)
• Oakland selects winners of cannabis dispensary permits (SFGate)
• Maine: Marijuana Moratorium Measure Expires (NORML)
• Cannabis Stocks Begin To Reflect The Real Industry (Forbes)
• Arizona May Finally Begin Lab Testing Medical Cannabis for Contaminants (Leafly)
• Stronger cannabis linked to rise in demand for drug treatment programmes (The Guardian)
• What Are CO2 Cannabis Extracts and How Are They Made? (Leafly)
• The beginner's guide to cannabis (Well+Good)
• This Texas Cop Is Risking His Career for Cannabis Reform (Leafly)
• 'You Can't Roll a Joint on the Cover of a Digital Download': Cannabis Quotes of the Week (Leafly)
• Can pot trigger hallucinations? Report of officers who allegedly ate edibles fuels debate (Luxora Leader)

LSD

• Advice on Taking LSD from Seasoned Acid Afficionados (VICE)
• When the LSD King Timothy Leary Hid in Africa with the Black Panthers (Daily Beast)
• Michael Pollan Talks Farm-to-Table Food—and LSD (Austin Monthly)
• Wormwood's Bad Trip Peddles CIA Conspiracies (Reason)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Study hints magic mushrooms can alter how you feel about nature (and politics) (Medical Xpress)
• How Magic Mushrooms Could Treat Depression From An Entirely New Angle (Forbes)
• Startup plans to give mushrooms to depressed patients (New York Post)
• Can Magic Mushrooms Help Us Come To Terms With Death? (VICE)
• Do Psilocybin Mushrooms Show Up on Drug Tests? (Psychedelics Daily)
• Clinical interpretations of patient experience in a trial of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for alcohol use disorder (Frontiers)
• Three Things To Know About Psychedelic Mushrooms (Psychedelics Daily)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Analyse This: MDMA May Soon Be Used in Psychotherapy (University Observer)
• Ecstasy: Original designer drug still damaging lives (STV News)
• Mum's warning after son, 19, died taking ecstasy for the first time (Gloucestershire Live)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• The US is forgoing a powerful weapon in the war on opiates (The Boston Globe)

Salvia Divinorum

• Salvia Divinorum: The Globalization of a Sacred Psychoactive Plant (Reality Sandwich)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Man arrested on suspicion of poisoning and supplying a controlled drug after 'MDMA' hospital cases (The Isle of Thanet News)

Dissociatives

• 'The fog is gone': How ketamine could help lift hard-to-treat depression (CTV News)
• Israel Says Prison Time Possible for Possessing Unprescribed Ketamine, Fentanyl (Haaretz)
• Man who allegedly murdered mom while he was high on PCP indicted (NJ.com)

Opiates/Opioids

• FDA Cracks Down on Imodium and Other Anti-Diarrhea Medicine Because of the Opioid Epidemic (TIME)
• Controversial Portland program uses marijuana and kratom to treat opioid addiction (Press Herald)
• Why Colorado Tokers Love Opium (Westword)
• History repeats itself with opioid epidemic (Shreveport Times)
• The US is forgoing a powerful weapon in the war on opiates (The Boston Globe)
• Don't Blame Pain Pills for the Opioid Crisis (Reason)
• To combat opioid deaths, it's time to give away Naloxone for free (Jackson Clarion Ledger)

Kratom

• Impressive Health Benefits Of Kratom (Reports Healthcare)
• Kratom Concerns: FDA Warning, Deadly Risks Outweigh Potential (Fibromyalgia News Today)
• Kratom Raid: Myxed Up Protests Order to Destroy Product Under Denver Ban (Westword)

Kava

• I Tried Kava And It Was Nothing Like Xanax (Paper)
• Kava, the drink soothing the stress of NY millennials (Daily Mail)
• Kava thefts increase (The Fiji Times)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• If You Bought Drugs on the Silk Road Using Bitcoin, the Feds Might Know Who You Are (Reason)
• Cryptocurrency and The War on Drugs: Interview with Brian Normand of Psymposia (Psychedelic Times)
• Psychedelic Documentaries You Should Definitely Watch (Psychedelic Times)
• Award-Winning Script On Psychedelic Research In The '60s Gets L.A. Staged Reading (Broadway World)
• Pill Testing is proven. I Am Hardstyle shows how much we need it (The Guardian)
• Hamilton Morris on high (quality) filmmaking (The Justice)
• Vancouver forges new paths in revival of psychedelic research (The Georgia Straight)

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.

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Weekend Thoughts - 1.27.18

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

1. It's been roughly six months since Amazon announced its intention to acquire Whole Foods Market. When that story first broke, I speculated that it wouldn't be too long before we would be "walking into a store and making a purchase without interacting with another human being." Well, that time is now. Amazon opened the first store cashier-less in Seattle this Monday, dubbed Amazon Go. It is essentially a partially-automated grocery store, stocked with sandwiches, salads, snacks, and even beer and wine. There is little-to-no interaction between customers and human employees—once you scan your cell phone at the entrance, cameras track your behavior in the store and your credit card is automatically charged when you leave the store. That's right, there is no cashier at all. The only time you would need to interface with a human is if you were attempting to purchase an alcoholic beverage, because that would involve someone verifying that you are of legal age to buy booze. If you're interested in seeing what the store looks like, Recode has an excellent set of photographs for you. Just walking out of a store and not being required to wait in a line is an innovative, exciting concept. We'll have to wait and see how this experiment goes though—unless you're in or near Seattle this type of store isn't yet available.

2. Burger King came out with an advertisement dubbed "Whopper Neutrality" this week that explains the basics concepts of Net Neutrality. After interviewing several people in a Burger King parking lot about their understanding of what Net Neutrality really is and finding out that the general public is fairly clueless about this issue, the video moves into the restaurant. The prices have been changed to reflect the speed with which the customers will receive their Whoppers. Customers who want to get their burgers quickly must also be willing to pay $26! In addition to being entertaining in a kafkaesque way, this ad may do a lot for helping the mainstream understand this topic a bit better.

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

This Week in Psychedelics - 1.26.18

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Vermont Becomes the Ninth State to Legalize Recreational Marijuana (Reason)
• Medical Cannabis Protections Extended As Part Of Short Term Federal Budget Agreement (NORML)
• What The Government Shutdown Means For Marijuana (NORML)
• Bipartisan Members Of Congress Speak Out Against AG Sessions (NORML)
• Why marijuana retailers can't use banks (The Economist)
• Washington DC's Cannabis Market Is Still Untested, Untaxed, and Underground (Leafly)
• What Is THCV (Tetrahydrocannabivarin) And What Does It Do? (High Times)
• New Jersey: New Governor Calls For 'Patients First' Expansion Of State's Medical Cannabis Access Program (NORML)
• Cannabis Stock Investors Should Pay Attention To The U.S. Federal Policy Change (Forbes)
• Ontario asks for public's opinion on allowing cannabis lounges as legalization looms (Global News)
• How a Cannabis Ban Turned One California County Into 'Ground Zero for Chaos' (Leafly)
• Poll Commissioned by Pot Prohibitionists Shows How Unpopular Pot Prohibition Is (Reason)
• Why No Gadget Can Prove How Stoned You Are (Wired)
• The PAX Era Ushers in a New Generation of Cannabis Cartridge Technology (Leafly)
• Most U.S. Attorneys in States With Legal Pot Don't Seem to Be Planning a Crackdown (Reason)
• Political Commentator Angela Rye on Ending Systematic Racism in the Marijuana Industry (ATTN:)
• Cannabis measures make headway in Indiana Legislature (WISH-TV)
• NORML Activists Take Marijuana Reform Fight to Harrisburg (NORML)
• A 9-Year-Old Accidentally Shared Her Grandpa's Marijuana Gummies With Her Fifth-Grade Class (TIME)
• Looking For Inspiring Work? Consider Cannabis Marketing. Here's Why. (Forbes)
• Re-criminalizing cannabis is worse than 1930s 'reefer madness': Guest opinion (The Oregonian)
• Leafly Readers Share Their Cleverest Hiding Places for a Cannabis Stash (Leafly)
• WeedMD Commences the Sale of Cannabis Oil (GlobeNewswire)
• 'Beyonce Takes THC': The Week in Cannabis Quotes (Leafly)
• Oregon's marijuana industry showcased at cannabis conference (KGW8)
• Getting to Know the Glossy Cannabis Lifestyle Magazines on the Market (Leafly)
• Canadian cannabis firm Aurora in talks to buy both CanniMed and Newstrike: sources (Reuters)
• Introduction to Growing Cannabis with Aquaponics (Leafly)

LSD

• Microdosing LSD helped my company earn $10 million (New York Post)
• How to Microdose Acid and Magic Mushrooms? (Psychedelics Daily)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Psychedelic mushrooms reduce authoritarianism and boost nature relatedness, experimental study suggests (PsyPost)
• Psilocybin (from magic mushrooms) plus meditation and spiritual training leads to lasting changes in positive traits (Research Digest)
• Psychedelic Mushrooms Is the Potential Anti-depressant Treatment of the Future (Health Aim)
• New Psilocybin Research Suggests 'Set and Setting' Are Crucial to Helping Patients Get Better (Reason)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• The psychedelic renaissance: Can Ecstasy really be used to treat mental illness? (International Business Times)
• MDMA For PTSD Therapy Enters Final Round of Trials, Could Be Approved In U.S. and Canada By 2021 (Newsweek)
• From "X" to Rx: Discussing MDMA with Rick Doblin (Psychedelic Frontier)
• Psychedelic-Psychotherapy-QuickFacts (National Post)
• Fake ambulance worker exposed when teenager died from ecstasy at illegal rave (Metro)
• MDMA is Vipassana (Disinfo)
• Grieving mother, 50, whose daughter, 22, died after taking ecstasy in a 'final fling' to celebrate finishing her exams collects her maths degree in moving ceremony just months after her death (Daily Mail)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• No reason to believe the pineal gland alters consciousness by secreting DMT, psychedelic researcher says (PsyPost)
• Acute antidepressant effect of ayahuasca in juvenile non-human primate model of depression. (bioRxiv)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• 'MDMA' warning after 8 Thanet men taken to hospital - with one said to be in a serious condition (The Isle of Thanet News)

Dissociatives

• Can Ketamine Improve 'Electroshock' Therapy? (The Fix)
• Ketamine could prove useful in treatment of severe social anxiety (PsyPost)
• Ketamine 'cures' suicidal woman of bipolar and severe depression (Metro)
• Man faces 5 years for sending PCP to Save the Children (CT Post)

Opiates/Opioids

• Why some US cities are opening safe spaces for injecting heroin (Vox)
• Tom Petty Died of an Accidental Drug Overdose, Coroner Says (TIME)
• Study of Postsurgical Patients Shows Addiction to Pain Pills Is Rare (Reason)
• Scripps researcher developing vaccine to battle heroin addiction (Chron)
• Philadelphia's Government 'Expresses Interest' in Safe Injection Sites (Reason)
• Opium cultivation down by 40%, narcotics chief says (The Nation)
• Chinese Drugmakers Are Getting Opioids Into the U.S. Through the Postal Service (TIME)
• The Feds Are Willing to Let More Medical Workers Treat Opioid Addicts. Now the States Need to Step Up and Allow It. (Reason)

Kratom

• Effective Ways To Deal With Kratom Constipation (Kratom Guides)
• FDA Warns Promoters of Herbal Addiction Treatments (Pain News Network) 
• Kratom: Libertarian Party of Colorado Rips Denver Human Use Ban (Westword)
• The Controversial Painkiller Known As Kratom (TG Daily)
• Kratom: substitute for opioids? (KOLO)

Kava

• 'Acute pain, sore muscles, anxiety, and lethargy': Athletes are embracing kava as an alternative to everything from supplements to opioids (Daily Mail)
• Farmers Keep Potential Buyers At Bay So Yaqona Plants Can Mature Properly (Fiji Sun)
• Kava maker brings popular Polynesian health drink to America (Daily Mail)

Khat

• What Is Khat? (High Times)
• Chewing khat leaves increases risk for chronic liver disease (Healio)
• UK Khat Ban Fails To Stop Contraband Imports (High Times)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Your Sloppy Bitcoin Drug Deals Will Haunt You For Years (Wired)
• A psychedelic trip could tackle depression in a way that antidepressants can't (Business Insider)
• The Experience Elicited by Hallucinogens Presents the Highest Similarity to Dreaming within a Large Database of Psychoactive Substance Reports (Frontiers in Neuroscience)
• Cryptocurrency and Psychedelics: Interview with Brian Normand of Psymposia (Psychedelic Times)
• We Ate the Acid: A Note on Psychedelic Imagery (The Oak Tree Review)
• Trump's 24-year-old drug policy appointee was let go at law firm after he 'just didn't show' (The Washington Post)
• The Office of National Drug Control Policy Is on the Chopping Block Again. Here's Why That's Not a Bad Thing (Reason)
• Herbal Supplements May Be Dangerous When You Take Certain Prescription Drugs (TIME)
• How to Use TripSit's 'Guide to Drug Combinations' Chart (Psychedelic Times)
• Building a Modern Eleusis (Reality Sandwich)
• Bill aims to introduce driver drug testing for MDMA, cannabis and methamphetamine (Stuff.co.nz)
• Group urges safe use of psychedelic substances (The Kingston Whig-Standard)

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.