This Week in Psychedelics - 5.4.18

Cannabis

• Maine Legislators Override Governor's Veto of Marijuana Legalization (Reason)
• Zimbabwe legalises marijuana for medicinal use (The Independent)
• Thailand Authorises Country’s First Medical Cannabis Programme (Talking Drugs)
• Cannabis versus Cancer (Scientific American)
• Seattle wipes criminal marijuana convictions for hundreds of people (The Independent)
• Study: Frequent Cannabis Use Unrelated To Brain Morphology (NORML)
• Legislation Introduced To End The Federal Government’s Marijuana Production Monopoly (NORML)
• YouTube Remains Silent as Weed Pages Are Purged (High Times)
• An easy policy fix: Jeff Sessions should finally reschedule cannabis (The Hill)
• So far, California has 6,000 licensed cannabis businesses. Here’s what that looks like (The Orange County Register)
• Ninth Circuit Court Rejects Challenge To DEA’s Classification Of Marijuana Extracts (NORML)
• NFL player makes medical marijuana history: 'I have a life to live' (CNN)
• Weed 101: How to Choose Marijuana (Rolling Stone)
• Igniting A Powder Keg: Discussing Cannabis And Cryptocurrency With Dübercoin CEO Glenn Ballman (Forbes)
• It's Dumb Not to Have Investments in Cryptocurrencies, Cannabis in a Portfolio (The Street)
• Trudeau vows cannabis will be legal by summer as senators urge delay (CBC)
• Marijuana Gives Health-Conscious Consumers Something Alcohol Cannot (Forbes)
• Feinstein drops opposition to legal pot, giving legal marijuana a new ally (McClatchy DC Bureau)
• NORML Working With Cory Gardner's Office on Hands-Off-Colorado-Pot Bill (Westword)
• At 89, legendary psychiatrist and marijuana advocate still wonders about Harvard professorship (Boston Globe)
• New York Voters Strongly Support Legalizing Marijuana, Poll Shows (Marijuana Moment)
• Some Prosecutors Are Erasing Old Weed Convictions. Why Isn’t Yours? (HuffPost)
• Getting off opioids with medical marijuana: Patients turn to pot over pills (CNN)
• Is Israeli Cannabis a Bubble Waiting to Burst? (Merry Jane)
• The Quest for an Ancient Culture’s Cannabis-Filled Cooking (Atlas Obscura)
• Moorenko’s Ice Cream Introduces Cannabis Coffee to Silver Spring (Bethesda Magazine)
• Veterans' grass-roots movement shares health benefits of marijuana (CNN)
• Growing 4 cannabis plants for recreational use is not a ‘grow-op,’ experts say (Global News)
• Investing in Australia’s Cannabis Industry: 5 Companies to Watch (Leafly)
• Quebec Lawmaker Explains Provincial Ban on Home-Grown Cannabis (High Times)
• Cannabis tycoons plot to make drug legal in Britain in next five years (The Sun)
• Lidl offers locally grown cannabis to Swiss shoppers (The Guardian)
• Medical marijuana may help combat the opioid crisis. But there are better solutions. (Vox)
• Police Raid Dispensary Over Cannabis-Infused Candy (High Times)
• Medicinal cannabis should be more than pot luck (Asia and the Pacific Policy Society)
• Boyack: Medical cannabis initiative opponents are trying to mislead you (Daily Herald)
• OrganiGram: Medical Cannabis Leader In The Maritimes (Seeking Alpha)
• Aurora Cannabis Set to Challenge Canopy Growth in Australia? (Smallcap Power)

LSD

• I Had a Bad Trip on LSD: This is My Story (71 Republic)
• Diplo, Sia and Labrinth Will Drop New Team Effort 'LSD' This Thursday (Billboard)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Shrooms Could Help Scientists Better Understand Consciousness (Tonic)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Trials testing MDMA as a treatment for alcoholism have begun (Mixmag)
• Active ingredient in ecstasy may help veterans with PTSD, study finds (CNN)
• Ecstasy as PTSD relief for soldiers: ‘I was able to forgive myself.’ (Watertown Daily Times)
• 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-assisted psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder in military veterans, firefighters, and police officers: a randomised, double-blind, dose-response, phase 2 clinical trial (The Lancet)
• Ecstasy as a Remedy for PTSD? You Probably Have Some Questions. (The New York Times)
• Ecstasy island: The is the story of how MDMA reached the UK in 1988 (Mixmag)
• Lady Gabriella Windsor's ex claims they took ECSTASY at Windsor Castle and swam NAKED in Queen's swimming pool at Buckingham Palace (Mirror)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• The Global Ayahuasca Community Is Reeling in the Wake of Recent Murders (VICE)
• Gun used to kill shaman was purchased by Canadian man lynched in Peru: authorities (Global News)
• Peru's brutal murders renew focus on tourist boom for hallucinogenic brew (The Guardian)
• The epidemiology of 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) use: Benefits, consequences, patterns of use, subjective effects, and reasons for consumption (SAGE Journals)
• I had an 11-year addiction to heroin — and I beat it with ayahuasca (San Francisco Chronicle)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• New hope for opioid addicts with innovative ibogaine treatment (San Francisco Chronicle)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Deadly new drug has reached Australia, pill testing reveals (The New Daily)

Dissociatives

• Pharma giants are looking to ketamine for clues to the next blockbuster depression drug — and science says they're onto something big (Business Insider)
• Police say Bryan man rammed his car into other vehicle, possessed PCP (The Eagle)

Opiates/Opioids

• Cocaine Deaths Are Rising At An Alarming Rate, And It’s Because Of Fentanyl (BuzzFeed News)
• The US Opioid Crisis Started in India (VICE)
• Maine Gov. Vetoes Bill Increasing Access to Naloxone Overdose Drug (Governing)
• To Save Lives, Make Naloxone an Over-the-Counter Drug (Reason)
• De Blasio Moves to Bring Safe Injection Sites to New York City (The New York Times)
• Questions Raised About Study Of Device To Ease Opioid Withdrawal (NPR)
• Afghan Farmers Stick to Growing Opium in the Face of Less Lucrative Options (U.S. News and World Report)
• The Four Main Reasons People in Denver Overdose on Heroin (Westword)
• A Vet Helped Smuggle Drugs by Implanting Puppies With Heroin, Police Say (TIME)

Kratom

• Experts Are Concerned that Kratom Will Become the Next Marijuana (Tonic)
• Pro-Kratom Scientist Blasts Denver Ban, Federal Policies as Recipe for Death (Westword)
• What is Kratom and why is it banned in 5 states? (CBS17)
• Maya Distribution, LLC Recalls Dragon Label Kratom Because Of Possible Salmonella Contamination (US Recall News)

Khat

• Khat (Plant) Market to Set Phenomenal Growth from 2018 to 2023 (The Financial Analyst)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Politicians Are Finally Getting On Side With Pill Testing After The Success Of Groovin The Moo (Junkee)
• Antidepressant Use Leads to Worse Long Term Outcomes, Study Finds (Mad in America)
• Storming the Gates of Psychedelia: Scientists Commit to Collaboration in the Face of Capitalist Competition (Chacruna)
• The Timothy Leary Project: Interview with Jennifer Ulrich (Psychedelic Times)
• The New Science of Psychedelics (The Wall Street Journal)
• Jon Hopkins interview: My new album is a psychedelic experience (Evening Standard)
• President Duterte’s Son Cleared of Drug Trafficking, as Extrajudicial Killings Continue (Talking Drugs)
• The FDA receives a petition to prohibit sugar alongside cannabis, LSD and heroin (Herb)
• Everything You Need to Know About Microdosing (The Cut)
• Pill Testing Probably Won’t Happen In NSW Any Time Soon Because Of This Idiot (Junkee)
• A New Netflix Series Tells the Story of the Philippines' Drug War. But Its Critics Are Condemning Amo as Propaganda (TIME)
• The Best Books About Microdosing and Psychedelic Therapy (The Strategist)
• New Clues In The Psychedelic Treatment Of Depression (High Existence)
• Kacey Musgraves: ‘Psychedelics have made me compassionate’ (Hollywood.com)
• People Trying to Quit Their Psychiatric Medications Can Get Help from This Online Group (Healthline)
• Australia’s First Sanctioned Pill Testing Trial Is Just the Beginning (Sydney Criminal Lawyers)

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.

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Weekend Thoughts - 4.28.18

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

1. Dockless bike sharing companies should scoot over a bit on their loveseat, because now there's a new option available—dockless electric scooter rentals. The idea is essentially the same; you can rent a scooter off the street for a low price, ride it to your desired destination, and leave it anywhere. One of the main problems is that riders are discarding them anywhere they want, cluttering up sidewalks and making them dangerous to walk on. It's gotten so bad (in a very short time, mind you) in California that San Francisco is already thinking about how to deal with the scourge of discarded electric scooters littering its streets.

2. There's some scientific research showing why you should read every day. For starters, it can reduce your stress. In fact, a mere six minutes of reading can reduce stress levels by up to 68 percent! Reading also changes the circuitry of the parts of the brain. There's a bunch of reasons to read regularly, so you should!

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

Image by susannp4, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

This Week in Psychedelics - 4.27.18

Cannabis

• Top Democrats Embrace Marijuana Reform Ahead of Midterm Elections (Truthout)
• Dr. Sanjay Gupta to Jeff Sessions: Medical marijuana could save many addicted to opioids (CNN)
• NEW POLL: 63% of Americans Believe “Marijuana Should Be Made Legal” (NORML)
• Sessions Admits There ‘May Well Be Some Benefits From Medical Marijuana’ (Marijuana Moment)
• Marijuana Legalization Will Be on Michigan's Ballot in November (Reason)
• Cannabis is having its 'smartphone' moment (Engadget)
• How activists are fighting for full cannabis legalization in Washington, D.C. (Psymposia)
• The End of the Joint As We Know It (The Ringer)
• NORML Delivers Over 10,000 Citizen Comments To The FDA Calling For The Reconsideration of Cannabis Prohibition (NORML)
• The best way to fight illegal pot is with legal cannabis (The Hill)
• Why Are Marijuana Policies So Behind in 4/20-Heavy Places Like New York? (Rolling Stone)
• How Seniors Joined the Cannabis Craze (The New Yorker)
• Cannabis Flowers Are Legal in Italy. You Just Can’t Eat or Smoke Them. (The New York Times)
• How 'dank' became a compliment for both beer and marijuana (Detroit Free Press)
• Greens' cannabis plan could raise $3.6bn (9NEWS)
• Isle Of Man Could Be The First Place In The British Isles To Decriminalise Cannabis Possession (HuffPost)
• These Five States Lead the Nation in Marijuana Arrests (AlterNet)
• Miracle drug or the devil's lettuce? (The Washington Post)
• The Complicated History of Cannabis in the US (History)
• FDA Rejects Anti-Legalization Pharma Co’s Cannabis Drug Request (Marijuana Moment)
• Legalising marijuana is a lot more complex than you might think (The Age)
• 4/20 Special: How Advocates and Entrepreneurs of Color Are Fighting for Equity in the Legal Weed Business (Colorlines)
• Liberal party members overwhelmingly vote for decriminalizing drugs while Trudeau repeats opposition (The Georgia Straight)
• Assemblyman introduces bill that would allow vets to prescribe cannabis for pets (KABC-TV)
• Utah Medical Marijuana Measure Has Enough Signatures For Ballot (Marijuana Moment)
• Is marijuana decriminalization possible in the Middle East? (The Washington Post)
• Anxiety Relief Without The High? New Studies On CBD, A Cannabis Extract (NPR)
• YouTube Continues Its Cannabis Purge and Nobody Knows Why (Leafly)
• Facebook Has a Cannabis Problem That ‘Community Standards’ Don’t Solve (Leafly)
• Two Cannabis Entrepreneurs Share Their Secrets For Success (Forbes)
• Police Department Offers Prize For Possessing The Most Cannabis (High Times)
• Medical cannabis oil is legal in Texas, but epilepsy patients still struggle (The Texas Tribune)
• A Multibillion-Dollar Cannabis Company Has Announced Its Asia-Pacific Headquarters In Australia (BuzzFeed News)
• Senator Wants Jeff Sessions To Meet With Drug War Victims (Marijuana Moment)
• Psychedelic Rapper Challenges New Jersey's Cannabis Laws In New 420 Song (PR Newswire)
• 'The Truth About Cannabis': Inside New Pro-Pot Web Doc (Rolling Stone)
• Cannabis Cultivation Will Be A Race To The Bottom (Forbes)
• 'Women of Cannabis' Cultivate Ideas and Relationships (Seven Days)
• Cannabis and psychosis: what is the link and who is at risk? (The Conversation)
• Marijuana moguls optimistic about legalisation of recreational cannabis in Australia (ABC)
• Can Cannabis Make You Sick? (The Stranger)
• Is This The Most Expensive Marijuana In The World? (Forbes)
• Could 'one puff' of cannabis ease depression? (Medical News Today)
• Understanding Terpenes: Linalool (Cannabis Now)
• Harvard Medical Students Say Schools Need to Teach More About Medical Marijuana (Civilized)

LSD

• LSD Provokes Synesthetic Hallucinations in a Congenitally Blind Man (Psychedelic Times)
• Couple drop LSD to see if it makes them better at assembling IKEA furniture (Metro)
• Psychedelic Cyclists – An Irishman’s Diary about Albert Hofmann and Flann O’Brien (The Irish Times)
• St. Pete man on LSD punches 13-year-old girl in face, knocks her out (WFLA)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• The Man Who Treated His OCD with Magic Mushrooms (VICE)
• Inside Jamaica's magic mushroom retreat for women (The Independent)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Can MDMA Treat Alcoholism? Scientists Begin First Clinical Trials (Newsweek)
• MDMA research meets Australian antipathy (Cosmos Magazine)
• An Amsterdam house had so much MDMA discovered inside it's been locked down (Mixmag)
• Teen dies after taking 'Netflix and Chill' ecstasy pills (New York Post)
• Melissa McCarthy Snorts Ecstasy With Sex Crazed Puppets in ‘Happytime Murders’ (Variety)
• Gardaí fear 'bad batch' of MDMA may have killed teen (17) (Independent.ie)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Canadian Lynched by Mob After Being Accused of Killing Shaman at Ayahuasca Retreat (VICE)
• UN condemns murder of Peruvian indigenous leader (Andina)
• A Judge Has Ordered Arrests Over Killing of a Canadian in the Peruvian Amazon (TIME)
• Effects and risks of ayahuasca, the hallucinogen sought after by Canadians travelling to the Amazon (CBC)
• How Did Avicii Die? Details On The Artist's Sudden Passing (EDM Sauce)
• Doctor sees healing power in psychedelic plant as Peru investigates deaths (The Reminder)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• Why opioid addicts desperate to quit are turning to this risky treatment (New York Post)

Dissociatives

• Ketamine Nasal Spray May Help Reduce Depression Symptoms, Study Says (The Fix)
• Oral ketamine does not ease cancer-related neuropathic pain (medwireNews)
• Beneficial effects of ketamine in a chronic pain state with allodynia, possibly due to central sensitization (Science Direct)
• Document: Hagerstown man smoked PCP before shooting woman (Herald-Mail Media)
• Boyfriend of Morgan Freeman's slain kin knew what he was doing despite being in PCP haze (New York Daily News)

Opiates/Opioids

• New York Could Open the First Safe Injection Site in the US (The Nation)
• asha bandele: Prince could still be alive today if America didn’t shame people for using drugs (Mic)
• Google uses its search skills to help fight opioid addiction (Engadget)
• The New York Times Suggests Opioids Should Be Reserved for Terminal Patients (Reason)
• Will Getting Tough on Dealers Curb the Opioid Crisis? (The Crime Report)

Kratom

• Leading Scientists Say Salmonella Outbreak Tied To Kratom May Be Side-Effect Of FDA Crackdown & Underscores Need For Regulation … Not A Ban (PR Newswire)
• Kratom Products Recalled for Risk of Salmonella (Coherent Chronicle)
• Kratom Wars: FDA, Proponents Square Off on Controversial Opioid-Like Plant (Pain Medicine News)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Lessons from Portugal: The Case for Drug Policy Reform (Beckley Foundation)
• Becoming a Psychedelic Researcher: Alan Kooi Davis (Psymposia)
• Are psychedelics the answer to depression and addiction? (Salon)
• Not all drug dealers are the same – it’s time to ditch outdated stereotypes (The Conversation)
• Harm Reduction: More than just clean needles (Julian Buchanan)
• A Survey Shows The Most Used Drugs At Music Festivals: Here’s What We Learned (Dance Music Northwest)
• Antidepressants and Withdrawal: Readers Tell Their Stories (Mad in America)
• A revolution in teen drug education (New York Daily News)
• Police chiefs studying decriminalizing drugs as possible solution to opioid crisis (CBC)
• Just Because You Can't Stop Taking Antidepressants Doesn't Mean You're Addicted (VICE)
• Pill-testing trial approved for Groovin the Moo festival in Canberra (ABC)
• Why we should test drugs for safety (Virgin)
• The Best Drug Documentaries On Netflix Right Now (HotNewHipHop)
• 'Archaic and harmful': report condemns strict handling of student drug takers (The Guardian)
• Psychedelic Scholar Robert Forte Talks Conspiracy Theories and Consciousness (Santa Barbara Independent)
• New Research Provides First Peek at Ancient Mesopotamian Drug Use (Ancient Origins)

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.

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Help Clean Up the Planet on Global Psychedelic Earth Day: An Interview with Kwasi Adusei

Every year on April 22nd, various events are held all around the world to demonstrate support for environmental protection. Until now, there hasn’t been an Earth Day event that psychonauts could take part in to honor the Earth and bring attention to the concept of psychedelic plant medicine conservation. But that’s about to change.

That’s because Kwasi Adusei, the founder of the Psychedelic Society of Western New York, has organized a new psychedelic-focused Earth Day event named Global Psychedelic Earth Day that is taking place worldwide that will allow psychonauts to gather together and celebrate the preservation of our natural environment. I recently caught up with Kwasi to learn more about the history behind this innovative event and how people can get involved. 

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First of all, thank you for taking the time to chat with me about your event. To begin, could you tell me a little bit about what Global Psychedelic Earth Day is and how you came up with the idea?

In my personal psychedelic travels, the inward journey found three common themes: take better care of yourself, take better care of others, and take better care of the planet. These themes highlight for me a quintessential truth of life—that we are all one. Based on this philosophy, the psychedelic society I founded in Western New York placed a priority on community service. We began doing regular cleanups of city streets and parks, started a community garden open to the public to source fresh fruits and vegetables, and volunteered in soup kitchens and homeless shelters when help was needed.

Motivated by the practice of community service, I sought to encourage other groups to integrate this model. The encouragement presented itself through the Global Psychedelic Month of Service, which I led by reaching out to psychedelic group organizers around the world, and marketed to individuals through campaigns with The Third Wave, Psymposia, and Psychedelics Today.

The success of that project inspired me to revisit a topic which I was introduced to at Psychedelic Science 2017, the issue of psychedelic plant conservation. Mother Earth provides us with healing medicines that have impacted cultures and individuals for millennia, but due to the widespread use of psychedelics, some of these medicines are experiencing a conservation crisis, particularly with peyote and ibogaine. It was something I never truly considered. Issues of conservation are widespread in nature, even with potable water, so why wouldn’t this be the case with psychedelics?

The notion inspired the Global Psychedelic Earth Day Cleanup, where we encourage psychedelic groups around the world to honor Mother Earth by organizing a community cleanup on Earth Day. In doing so, the project will draw attention to, and support for, the issue of psychedelic plant conservation.

Part of the focus of this event is on psychedelic plant medicine conservation. What is this concept and why should psychonauts know about it?

Using the attention from the cleanup, our website provides brief information and resources for follow up on psychedelic plant conservation issues. We have also created an avenue to receive donations that will support organizations working on the problem.

Peyote's natural range of distribution is located in the Chihuahuan Desert. Native people in and around this region have used peyote for at least 6000 years for its rich alkaloid content, including mescaline. With as many as 57 alkaloids present in any given specimen, peyote has been a staple used medicinally as a panacea by natives. It is a “free medicine” Native Americans have traditionally used because it grows wild and is a rich source of many beneficial alkaloids. The market for peyote has expanded dramatically in recent years and the “free medicine” has been exploited on an industrial scale. As a result, peyote has been over-harvested and is now on the vulnerable species list with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Follow for more information, visit the Cactus Conservation Institute webpage.

And now, on to iboga. Ibogaine is the naturally occurring psychoactive substance found in a number of plants, principally in a member of the Apocynaceae family known as iboga. The primary method of production of ibogaine is through extraction from this plant source, which is endemic to the tropical rainforests of the Congo Basin in Equatorial Africa, principally Gabon. Recently there have been reports that iboga may be threatened in this natural habitat, and that access has decreased for traditional knowledge holders. If these reports are verified, the ramifications could be far-reaching, including considerations for the future availability of some aspects of ibogaine therapy, as well as for Gabonese culture.

In your opinion, what do you think makes environmentally-friendly events like this one especially important in today’s day and age?

Participating in events like this increases our awareness of our behavior. Increased awareness can lead to a shift in habits. For example, after organizing cigarette butt cleanups on one of our downtown streets, one of the participants mentioned that ever since, he no longer throws his cigarette butts on the ground. The state of our home is progressively declining. Our government has put this issue to the back burner, but we as individuals can step up and do our part.

Is this the first-ever Global Psychedelic Earth Day? Do you plan to continue organizing it in the future?

As far as I know, this is the first, but I intend to make this an annual event. My hope is to have every habitable continent represented as the years go by.

Organizing an event like this must be a lot of work! Could you go into detail about what your team has done to turn your vision into a reality?

Including me, the team consists of 6 people. Chase Conatser is a graphic designer based in New York City who developed images for social media marketing. Eugene Zollinger is a student at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and runs the Facebook page, sharing articles about conservation issues, psychedelic and more, to educate the people. Jason Palevsky designed the website, and manages submissions for events so organizations that participate will be seen on the map located on our website. Prudence Haze is a psychedelic artist and has been helping to spread the project to individuals in psychedelic oriented groups on social media sites. Duane David, who was influential in the carrying the initiative forward, is founder of an Atlanta based group called the Society for the Exploration of Altered States. He has been helping to get the word out on the project to psychedelic group organizers around the world. In leading this project, I’ve been doing a little bit of everything!

Some people may want to create a cleanup in their own area but may not know where to start. Do you have any suggestions that someone could use when brainstorming what type of cleanup effort to focus on?

If anyone wants to start a cleanup of their own, talk to friends who might be interested in being a part of it, find a street, park, or river that might need some care and attention, create an event through Facebook or Meetup.com, and see who may be interested in joining. Recommended supplies are bags of different colors, one for recycling and one for garbage, gloves, and a small plastic bin in the event that needles are found, something that we’ve run into at a past cleanup.

Where can people go to learn more about Global Psychedelic Earth Day and how can they help support this project?

If people want to get involved, visit our website. There, you will see a link to donate, find a cleanup near you, host one, and learn more about the problem of psychedelic conservation. Also, you can check out our Facebook page.

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I am very grateful to Kwasi for speaking with me about this exciting event. To learn more or get involved, check out the Global Psychedelic Earth Day website. You can also donate via Bitcoin or Paypal to help support the cause.

Image by jplenio, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Weekend Thoughts - 4.21.18

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

1. Another week, another update on Facebook's latest scandal. You may recall that two weeks ago I sided with John Gruber's opinion that the total number of users that were affected was likely more than 87 million—Facebook second publicly-admitted figure. Well, it turns out we were right. Apparently, far more than 87 million people had their private data harvested out of Facebook by political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. Color me not surprised.

2. Earth has a growing problem with pollution, but one group of scientists may have found one solution that may help resolve the issue—a mutant enzyme that eats plastic. The enzyme was found accidentally when the scientists started investigating a bacterium that was found in a Japanese waste dump in 2016. The discovery of this enzyme is important, and putting it to use may prove to be a completely new way of tackling the pollution crisis on our planet.

3. I thought this was pretty neat—a TL;DR for Terms of Service called ToS;DR. It's a crowdsourced database that houses website terms of service that proves a letter grade (from Grades A to E) for each site you visit, based off of things like data-retention and the rights the site can assert regarding your contributions.

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

Image by SatyaPrem, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.