This Week in Psychedelics - 2.9.18

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Seattle To Vacate Criminal Convictions For Former Marijuana Offenders (NORML)
• German police association calls for complete legalization of cannabis (The Local)
• The Dirty Secret of California's Cannabis: It's Dirty (Wired)
• Girl, 6, Becomes First Recipient of Medical Marijuana in Texas (TIME)
• How A Cannabis Tech Platform Is About To Make Life A Lot Easier For Marijuana Dispensaries (Forbes)
• The tea costs $60, but the weed is free: Cannabis capitalists exploit loopholes by 'gifting' the drug (Chicago Tribune)
• Portland's First Cannabis Bodega Mixes Weed and Grocery (Willamette Week)
• Despite Tough Talk, Oregon's U.S. Attorney Doesn't Plan to Shut Down the Pot Industry (Reason)
• California's former convicts could get help entering the legal cannabis industry – and get marijuana crimes wiped off their record (Business Insider)
• How Is Oregon Handling Its Cannabis Surplus? (High Times)
• Medical cannabis dispensaries are opening in Texas, but the newly legal oils still aren't easy to procure (The Texas Tribune)
• Cannabis Beer Soon To Be Available  -- In Canada (Forbes)
• Girl Scout Who Sold Cookies Outside Marijuana Dispensary Could Get in Trouble (TIME)
• Study: Cannabis Is Safe And Effective For Elderly Patients (NORML)
• Dow's Big One-Day Drop Doesn't Hurt Cannabis Stocks (Leafly)
• Canadian Cannabis Companies Correct After Capital Raising Crescendo (Forbes)
• Nepal Cannabis Crackdown Targets Temple Hashish (High Times)
• Virginia NORML Considered Instrumental in Passage of Medical Marijuana Expansion Legislation (NORML)
• California's Race to the Top on Cannabis (CityLab)
• House Judiciary Democrats Call For Marijuana Hearing (NORML)
• Cannabis Crunch — Despite Trump Administration, Legalization Still Plows Forward... & All The Other Weed Craziness In January (Psychedelic Times)
• What Are Cannabis Flavonoids and What Do They Do? (Leafly)
• Mendocino Cannabis Company In Showdown With Authorities (High Times)
• Status Report: The Impact Of Adult Use Regulatory Schemes (NORML)
• Renewed War on Marijuana Spurs Congress to Defend Federalism (Reason)
• O Cannabis: How to use marijuana at home without smoking it (Valley Advocate)
• Trust the people and the states on cannabis (The Hill)
• On Building A Consumer Friendly Market In Nevada (NORML)
• ABcann Global Is A Potentially Strong Play In Cannabis (Seeking Alpha)
• Cannabis and Risk for Opiate Misuse (Psychology Today)

LSD

• Tech workers use LSD to help expand creativity (KIRO)
• Naked man high on LSD, covered in cooking oil arrested after getting Tasered twice (New York Daily News)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• How to Prepare a Psilocybin Mushroom Microdose (Psychedelics Daily)
• Do Shrooms Show Up On Drug a Test? (Psychedelics Daily)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Selling MDMA for My Dad Made Us Close, Then Tore Us Apart (VICE)
• Drugs in Berlin: Half of partiers periodically take amphetamines and MDMA (Deutsche Welle)
• MDMA Psychotherapy Trials Showing Promise (7th Space Interactive)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Entrepreneurs Seeking Business Guidance Through Ayahuasca Are Receiving Spiritual Insights Instead (Entrepreneur)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

• Native church's lawsuit spurs training for airport screeners (Bluefield Daily Telegraph)

Morning Glory Seeds

• Can Common Household Plant Seeds Be Used As a Party Drug? (Snopes)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• What Is 4-AcO-DMT? (Psychedelics Daily)
• How To Microdose 4-AcO-DMT? How to Take 4-AcO-DMT Microdose? (Psychedelics Daily)
• MDMA buyers at festivals getting 'seedy', more potent alternative (Newshub)

Dissociatives

• Could ketamine help treat alcohol dependence? (The Guardian)
• Ketamine could help veterans with PTSD, but clinics may be jumping the gun (San Antonio Express-News)
• A-hole in a K-hole: Katie Hopkins' ketamine adventures (The Guardian)
• Ketamine to Treat Suicidal Ideation in Major Depressive Disorder (Psychiatry Advisor)
• Ketamine gaining popularity as a treatment for the severely depressed (CBS News)

Opiates/Opioids

• San Francisco to Open Safe Drug Injection Sites by Summer (Reason)
• Opioid Overdoses and Naloxone: What Everyone Needs to Know (Psychiatric Times)
• Legal Limits on Opioid Prescriptions May Increase the Number of Pills Dispensed (Reason)
• Poppies replacing pot in Mexico's drug fields (Mexico News Daily)
• Homeless. Addicted to Heroin. About to Give Birth. (Mother Jones)
• Jeff Sessions Says Opioid Addiction Starts With Marijuana. Here Are 6 Studies That Say Otherwise (Reason)

Kratom

• Is Herbal Supplement Kratom an Opioid? The FDA Says Yes (TIME)
• Does the Herbal Supplement Kratom Really Contain Opioids? (Live Science)
• Understanding Kratom Strains (Reports Healthcare)
• The Dangers of Taking Kratom (Consumer Reports)

Kava

• Kava, the drink soothing the stress of New York millennials (The New Paper)
• Samoa aims to revive kava exports (Radio New Zealand)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Festival Psychedelic Use and the Archaic Revival: A Conversation with Julian Vayne (Psychedelic Times)
• Showtime Documentary Highlights Drug War's Futility (Reason)
• The hidden side of psychedelics (Felix)
• Recent News and Updates from TripSit (TripSit)
• Silk Road's Founder Is in Jail for Life, but the Dark Web Only Grows (Reason)
• Why Clinicians & Researchers Should Be Interested in The Psychedelic Science Renaissance (Particle)
• A Woman Shaman Defies the Odds, and Starts her Own Healing Center (Reality Sandwich)
• Trump Wants Us 'To Get Really, Really Tough, Really Mean with the Drug Pushers' (Reason)

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 - 2.3.18

Image by Momentmal, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. Fitness tracking app Strava came under fire this weekend when location data it collected inadvertently revealed the locations of secret U.S. military bases. Strava has reminded its users that they can turn off location sharing, and that the map does not include areas that have been deemed private by its users. However, this is a solid reminder that data that users freely give to technology companies may end up being used for nefarious purposes.

2. The results are in: podcast advertising is well worth it for podcasters and advertisers alike. Apple's Podcast Analytics feature became available last month and the initial numbers have been encouraging, indicating that podcast listeners may be the engaged and supporting audience that podcasters and advertisers were hoping for. That's because apparently most podcast listeners stick around to the end of each show and don't skip ads. However, the results are only taking into account listeners that use Apple's Podcasts app that are also on iOS 11, which is only a slice of the total population. At any rate, it must be welcome news to those in the podcast business!

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

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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