This Week in Psychedelics - 2.23.18

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Meta-Analysis: Studies Refute Claims That Medical Cannabis Access Encourages Teen Use (NORML)
• Philadelphia: District Attorney To Cease Prosecuting Marijuana Possession Offenders (NORML)
• California Sends 'Several Hundred' Warning Letters to Unlicensed Cannabis Businesses (Leafly)
• Should employers keep testing workers for pot? (CBS News)
• 'I'm a pot evangelist': meet America's dope queens (The Guardian)
• Green Rush: How Cannabis Legalization Will Impact California (Visual Capitalist)
• Government refuses medical cannabis to six-year-old epileptic boy who had 3,000 seizures in a year (The Independent)
• Keeping medical cannabis from children is callous, and foolish (The Guardian)
• California: Alameda County District Attorney To Vacate Thousands Of Past Marijuana Convictions (NORML)
• Admitting You Smoked Pot Can Get You Bounced From White House Job (Reason)
• Doctors warn against rush to prescribe medicinal cannabis (The Guardian)
• How Can Cannabis Retailers Implement Sustainable Practices? (Leafly)
• Less than 1% of California's cannabis growers have state licenses because regulations are too expensive, prohibitive (San Francisco Business Times)
• Can You Treat Irritable Bowel Syndrome With Cannabis? (High Times)
• 9 Things We Learned From Al Harrington's 'The Concepts of Cannabis' Documentary (Leafly)
• I shouldn't be criminalised for using cannabis to ease my constant pain (The Guardian)
• 7 Cannabis Edibles that Changed the Game (Leafly)
• Cannabis Winners And Losers In Manitoba And Quebec (Seeking Alpha)
• What Are Feminized Cannabis Seeds? (Leafly)
• No cannabis events or sales at O.C. fairgrounds, Fair Board decides (Los Angeles Times)
• Dear Abby Tells It Like It Is: The Week in Cannabis Quotes (Leafly)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Clinical Interpretations of Patient Experience in a Trial of Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy for Alcohol Use Disorder (Frontiers)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• How ecstasy and magic mushrooms can be used in medicine (Pharmacy News)
• Teenage clubber Michael Trueman died after taking ecstasy at Rainbow Venues (Birmingham Live)
• Norwegian man dies following an MDMA overdose while on trip to Essex (Echo)
• MDMA madness: Two more teenagers hospitalised (The Copenhagen Post)
• Ecstasy or candy? Wendover Police warning parents (FOX13)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• The brutal mirror: What an ayahuasca retreat showed me about my life. (Vox)
• The Psychedelic Tale of Terence McKenna's Forgotten Music About DMT (Noisey)
• Interview: 'The Shaman and The Scientists' Director Sarah Hutt on Her New Documentary (Outer Places)

Dissociatives

• How ketamine relieves depression by suppressing the brain's "anti-reward" center (New Atlas)
• Patients angry ketamine treatment trial to end (Otago Daily Times)
• 'Ketamine saved my life': Users claim depression relief from the controversial drug (Dancing Astronaut)

Opiates/Opioids

• The Opioid Diaries (TIME)
• Inside the Mexican towns that produce America's heroin (The Washington Post)
• Police officers take on a bigger role in the fight against opioid deaths (The Sacramento Bee)
• Fentanyl found in majority of heroin, opioid-related overdoses in 2017 (The Baltimore Sun)
• Mexican cartels pushing more heroin after U.S. states relax marijuana laws (USA Today)
• In Asia, the unintended consequence of consequences of fentanyl (The Globe and Mail)
• Toronto police to issue naloxone to front-line downtown officers (The Globe and Mail)

Absinthe

• Absinthe Market, Expected to Grow Parallel to Alcoholic Beverages Market (Digital Journal)

Kratom

• Kratom Is Linked to a Salmonella Outbreak Across 20 States, CDC Says (TIME)
• FDA Warns That the Popular Herbal Supplement Kratom Has Been Associated With 44 Deaths (Allure)
• FDA oversees destruction and recall of kratom products (American Pharmacists Association)
• Vancouver researchers take issue with U.S. FDA's alarmist memo on kratom (The Georgia Straight)
• Reader: Kratom Is Just Another Way for Addicts to Get High (Westword)
• Best Kratom Strains For Pain Relief (Reports Healthcare)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Trump Megadonor Donates $1 Million to MAPS Research (Good Times)
• Study reveals the similarity between psychedelic states and dreaming (PsyPost)
• Alcohol more likely to lead to post-sex regret than marijuana or ecstasy (PsyPost)
• New Research Suggests Psychedelic Drugs Can Improve Mental Health, But There's a Catch (Hornet)
• Selecting an Appropriate Dosage Level for a New Drug (Psychedelic Times)
• The Psychedelic Debriefing in Alcohol Dependence Treatment: Illustrating Key Change Phenomena through Qualitative Content Analysis of Clinical Sessions (Frontiers)
• Rev. Barber: How We Can Address Racial Inequalities in Handling Drug Addiction (TIME)
• How you speak predicts if psychedelic therapy will help you (New Scientist)
• Australia lagging behind in psychedelic science renaissance (News-Medical)

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.

Book Review - The True Light of Darkness

This is the most recent book written by the psychedelic writer/speaker/podcaster James W. Jesso—it was published three years ago, in 2015. I reviewed Jesso's book Decomposing the Shadow: Lessons from the Psilocybin Mushroom last summer, if you would like to check it out.

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In the author's note at the very beginning of this book, James W. Jesso lets his readers know upfront that while The True Light of Darkness was written for the play of reading and storytelling, it should primarily be considered a serious cautionary tale. Although its true that psychedelics can be used as a tool for psychotherapy and alleviating depression, he writes,

"The cautionary elements of this book are to expose how dark, painful and potentially damaging these experiences can be when they lack certain support structures, such as a guide, a supportive community and an understanding of one's psychology."

Later on in the author's note, Jesso mentions that the deepest intention behind writing the book was "greater health, understanding and wisdom for all of us through sharing stories and welcoming conversation." The book is structured in three main parts, which explore the outcomes of three separate challenging experiences that Jesso had with psilocybin mushrooms.

The first chapter in the trip trilogy of chapters is titled 2 Friends, 5 Grams, and a Box from Cusco, Peru and it describes a high-dose mushroom experience that Jesso had with two other friends, during a period of his life when he had recently worked through the feeling of lacking a sense of general direction. That feeling left him confused and perplexed about the purpose of life, but he identified that his life purpose was to write a book about his experiences with psilocybin mushrooms, which eventually became his second book, Decomposing the Shadow: Lessons from the Psilocybin Mushroom. However, that book had not been finished when he embarked on this trip—in fact, he was still in the process of writing it. After making what Jesso considers to have been a "terrible breakfast decision" (consisting of "a toasted kamut grain bun with butter, jam, and hemp seeds, followed by a big bowl of oatmeal and a cup of black tea"), a wave of nervous anxiety washed over him, eventually leading to a series of challenging events that escalated quickly. These events included things like the development of paranoid feelings about a dirty box from Peru, the thought of being attacked by germs in an unhygienic bathroom, and the belief that the Internet was alive and under immediate threat. At one point in the trip, one of Jesso's friends asked him a question about the direction his life was going that sends him into an existential crisis of sorts. However, he ultimately ended up learning that he desperately needed to change the way he approached his writing project, which turned out to be beneficial for his wellbeing.

The next trip trilogy chapter is titled Discovering the True Light of Darkness. It takes place after a thirteen-month practice where Jesso worked with psilocybin mushrooms once per month, always during the full moon, and always solo. He noticed that after more than a year with this practice, he was a noticeably changed man—and for the better. So Jesso decided to break the model he had established and embark on a psychedelic journey outside of the full moon ceremony framework, with one of his close friends, and prior to the December 21, 2012 (a date that was predicted by many, including Jesso, to bring about great change). Both Jesso and his friend were experiencing feelings of anxiety and depression and wanted to work with the mushroom to learn how to alleviate those feelings. Jesso makes a point to describe the custom blend of tea that he consumed at the beginning of his trip, which I found to be an intriguing side note and something to research further on my own in the future. After working through several challenging thoughts during a meditation, a walk in nature, and a productive mind mapping session, Jesso was able to identify the source of his negative emotions and made plans to change his behavior so that he could live a less stressful and happier life.

The final chapter of the trip trilogy is titled Facing Forgiveness; Embracing the Shadow, and it takes place in a unique location: a float tank. Once again, Jesso found himself battling an especially rough round of depression and decided to combine the use of psilocybin with the distraction-free environment of a sensory isolation tank. Although I have not had any personal experiences with float tanks at the time that I write this review, I am aware that they are intense on their own, without the addition of any psychedelic compounds, so it seemed to me to be both extremely courageous and also somewhat foolish to work with the mushroom while floating. However, I also knew that Jesso is not a reckless psychonaut and would not embark on a journey of this caliber without ensuring that he would be in a safe, supportive environment that would minimize any potential physical risks that could occur during the experience. He describes the entire evening's events, including the humble beginnings of consuming a chocolate drink made with the mushrooms, a simple-yet-transformative walk to the float center, and the wild contents of his psychedelic trip inside the tank. Once again, Jesso ends up working through psychological material that was hidden within his unconscious and finds himself healed by his experience with the mushrooms in the tank.

I really enjoyed The True Light of Darkness and found it to be a brutally honest inside look at Jesso's more challenging psilocybin experiences. As someone who has had a fair share of challenging psychedelic experiences, I appreciated how forthcoming Jesso was when describing the things he had to work through (and the methods that he employed to do so) and how these psychedelic experiences positively impacted his life. If you're interested in psychedelics, and especially if you want to know how challenging they can be, you owe it to yourself to check out this book. At the very least, I encourage you to head over to jameswjesso.com and look at all of the work that he has produced, including three books, a collection of writings, a podcast called Adventures Through The Mind, and a series of videos. As a fellow writer and content creator, I definitely look up to Jesso and strive to create content that is similar in both quantity and quality. Perhaps one of these days I will write a book that is as honest and insightful as The True Light of Darkness, but for now the psychedelic community is blessed to have books like this one.

4/5 stars. 156 pages.

Weekend Thoughts - 2.17.18

Image by tomdaemon, 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 bike-sharing war is heating up as competitors eagerly attempt to raise additional funds. LimeBike (which is seemingly Silicon Valley's favored competitor) raised $50 million in funding back in October in an effort to expand into twice as many markets around the country than it previously existed in. The dockless bike-sharing model allows customers to unlock a bicycle with their smartphone and pay $1 to rent it, leaving it wherever they want when they are done riding. The LimeBike service exists in the city where I live (Durham, NC) and a few of my colleagues rented bikes for an afternoon ride a few months ago. The process was easy peasy—both renting and returning the bikes. As a cyclist who commutes by bike to work every day, I have been happy to see bike rentals become more easy and affordable, which will hopefully encourage others to ride bicycles more frequently. But as an environmentalist, I am disturbed by the amount of bikes I see discarded in various areas around town that just seem to stay parked where they are. China even has ridiculous bike-share "graveyards" due to issues with its dockless bike-sharing services. Ultimately, I'd like to see dockless bike sharing expand to more areas, but the ongoing maintenance of the bicycles and the eyesores that parked bikes can create in some places are two things that I think need more consideration.

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

This Week in Psychedelics - 2.16.18

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• New Federal Legislation To Protect Legal Marijuana States And Businesses (NORML)
• Federal Medical Marijuana Protections Temporarily Extended, Again (NORML)
• Marijuana sales overtake alcohol in US city for first time (The Independent)
• Girl Scout sells 300 cookie boxes in six hours after setting up outside cannabis shop (The Telegraph)
• Cannabis Cleans Up Nuclear Radiation And Toxic Soil (Disinfo)
• Fox News: Support for Cannabis Legalization at Record High (Leafly)
• To Placate Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Blocks Medical Marijuana Exports (Reason)
• DAs Making it Easier to Clear California Cannabis Convictions (Leafly)
• Lawsuit Argues That Feds' Cannabis Ban Violates Our Constitutional Rights (Forbes)
• For the legal cannabis trade, some new wrinkles: Older users (Los Angeles Times)
• Can Olympic Athletes Use Cannabis? Officially No, But... (Leafly)
• Dream catchers, succulents and joints: a visit to an LA cannabis shop (The Guardian)
• Prosecutors ask pot regulators to hold off on cannabis cafes (Concord Monitor)
• Warner Robins athlete C.J. Harris controls seizures with cannabis oil (WMAZ)
• Federal Judge To Hear Arguments Wednesday In Legal Fight Challenging The Constitutionality Of Marijuana's Illicit Status (NORML)
• White House Official Resigns Over Cannabis Use 5 Years Ago (Leafly)
• Berkeley declares itself a sanctuary city for recreational pot (CNN)
• Cannabis and Romance: It's Complicated (The Portland Mercury)
• How to Invest in Canada's Coming Legal Cannabis Boom (Leafly)
• Travel Writer and Television Host Rick Steves Briefed Congress On Marijuana Policy (NORML)
• Members-only cannabis club opens for business (KOAT)
• Shopify + Cannabis = Upside (Seeking Alpha)
• Growing Cannabis Use by Patients Needs to be Matched by Counseling and Awareness of Risks, Report Says (Fibromyalgia News Today)
• New cannabis products highly potent, pose mental health risks (Science Daily)
• Growing a book of business in the cannabis market (Employee Benefit Advisor)

LSD

• Neuroimaging study helps explain why LSD makes the familiar seem more surprising (PsyPost)
• Silicon Valley Is On LSD, And The Government Is Holding Them Back (71 Republic)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Scientists studying psychoactive drugs accidentally proved the self is an illusion (Quartz)
• Running Away or Righting The Way: Is Psilocybin a Viable Psychiatric Treatment? (MD Magazine)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• MDMA-assisted psychotherapy being used to treat eating disorders (The Independent)
• REPORT: Hip-Hop Lyrics Glorifying "Molly" Have Heavily Influenced MDMA Use (Your EDM)
• Why ecstasy in the U.S. is getting more dangerous by the day (Big Think)
• After Dropping Bannon, The Mercers Are Looking Into Dropping Ecstasy (Fast Company)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• 9 thoughts i had while taking ayahuasca (MTV)

Dissociatives

• Doctors using ketamine for treatment of depression (FOX 5 DC)
• Anesthesia drug ketamine may fight depression by muzzling 'bursting' brain cells (Science Magazine)
• Ketamine Clinics of Los Angeles is the Leading Clinic Specializing Exclusively in IV Ketamine Infusion Therapy for Depression and Other Mood Disorders (Digital Journal)

Opiates/Opioids

• OxyContin Maker Will Stop Promoting Opioids to Doctors (TIME)
• Plans for heroin to be prescribed to addicts in West Midlands (The Guardian)
• Controversial program gives 'prescription' heroin to users to shoot up (KING5)
• Naloxone, the medicine helping fight the opioid crisis, explained (Vox)
• Afghanistan's First Female Coders Designed a Videogame to Protest Opium Production (Paste)
• Can cannabis save us from the opioid crisis? (KPCC)
• Heroin vaccine blocks lethal overdose (Science Daily)

Kratom

• FDA Informed Consumer Of The Kratom About Its Adverse Effects On Health (Talk Herald)
• Should We Care That Kratom is Classified as an Opioid? (Healthline)
• FDA's war on kratom could worsen opioid crisis (Nation of Change)
• Denver Slapped for Trying to Destroy Kratom From Store Targeted Under Ban (Westword)
• Understanding The Kratom Potential Benefits, Risks, And Current Scientific Studies (Kratom Guides)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Inside the Mind of Amanda Feilding, Countess of Psychedelic Science (Wired)
• The Long, Strange History of Psychotropic Drugs in America (VICE)
• 3 Reasons Why Governments Ignore Scientific Advice on Drug Use (Science Alert)
• Stossel: Silk Road Founder Jailed, Drug Sales Go Up (Reason)
• A trip to hell to cure depression? Psychedelics as psychiatry with Adam Laidler (The Mancunion)

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 - 2.10.18

Image by rurik2de, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. Earlier this week, Elon Musk's private space transport company SpaceX launched its first Falcon Heavy rocket from the same location that NASA used for its Apollo missions. The rocket had an almost flawless launch, sending a Tesla car containing a mannequin (dubbed "Rocket Man" by some) into space to orbit Mars, and the company was even able to recover two out of its three boosters perfectly (the third missed its landing zone by roughly 30 feet, apparently) for future reuse. I'm amazed by the hard work that Musk and team are putting in at both of these companies, not to mention his other business ventures.

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