This Week in Psychedelics - 7.6.18

Cannabis

• Luxembourg Is Latest EU Country to Legalise Medical Cannabis (Talking Drugs)
• Vermont: Law Legalizing Adult Marijuana Use Takes Effect Sunday, July 1 (NORML)
• Here’s what’s next now that the FDA has approved a cannabis drug for seizures (The Verge)
• Up in smoke: new California law could send $350m worth of cannabis to incinerator (The Guardian)
• Marijuana Dispensaries Don’t Increase Crime, Study Finds (Marijuana Moment)
• Defying Congress, Jeff Sessions Keeps Blocking Medical Marijuana Research (Reason)
• Toke Up and Chow Down on Netflix’s Pot-Infused Cooking Competition (Reason)
• The US Stopped Other Countries from Legalizing Weed for Generations (VICE)
• Jeremy Corbyn calls for cannabis to be decriminalised for medical use 'as soon as possible' (Mirror)
• The Canadian Conundrum: Legalizing Cannabis Is One Thing, Marketization Is Another (Forbes)
• ‘Keep California Safe’ initiative fails to make the November 2018 ballot (The Orange County Register)
• It Didn't Have To Be This Way: Policy Decisions Led To Delays In Massachusetts' Cannabis Market (Forbes)
• Billy Caldwell licensed for cannabis oil use in Northern Ireland (The Guardian)
• Weighing The Legal Cannabis Industry's Catch-22 Problem (Forbes)
• South Australia's cannabis crackdown based on 'nonsense', experts warn (The Guardian)
• How police are preparing to catch drivers under the influence of cannabis (CTV News)
• If Sacramento's cannabis industry goes corporate, these three men will be to blame (The Sacramento Bee)
• Major study reveals cannabis is not a miracle pain reliever (New York Post)
• The first cannabis lounge in Southern California is coming to Palm Springs, and neighbor isn’t pleased (The Press-Enterprise)

LSD

• Millions in Cryptocurrencies Seized in Biggest LSD Bust in European History (Gizmodo)
• Man found dead in Mississippi River had bad LSD trip during concert, friend says (FOX13)
• Michael Pollan: Why I started taking LSD and what it helped me to do (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Revisiting the Beatles’ Cartoon LSD Utopia Yellow Submarine (Vulture)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Can Magic Mushrooms Treat Cocaine Dependency? (AlterNet)
• Psilocybin and Mental Health–Don't Lose Control (Frontiers)
• Magic Mushroom May Have Cure for Depression (Colorado Daily Ledger)
• Do Magic Mushrooms Work Better Than Prozac? She Aims to Find Out (OZY)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• MDMA strengths surge to 'potentially fatal' levels (BBC)
• Both my sons died after taking ecstasy – that's why I want to legalise it – video (The Guardian)
• Party drug MDMA is likened to 'Russian roulette' after 18-year-old died after taking the Class A on a night out (Daily Mail)
• Cops seize orange ecstasy pills shaped like Donald Trump (New York Post)
• Mum releases shocking photos of her son’s final hours after taking MDMA (Metro)
• How MDMA is leaving a trail of tragedies in Devon and Cornwall (Plymouth Herald)
• ‘MDMA gave me anxiety, depression and panic attacks’ (Zloto News)

Ayahuasca/DMT/5-MeO-DMT

• Ayahuasca: The Spiritual Journey Hollywood Is Talking About. (NewsGram)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• An Almost Unknown Psychedelic to Kick the Habit (ThirdAge)

Dissociatives

• Cops Are Telling Paramedics To Inject Arrestees With Ketamine. Worse, EMS Crews Are Actually Doing It. (Techdirt)
• Minneapolis Investigates Police Use Of Ketamine On Suspects (WHQR)

Opiates/Opioids

• Searching For The Next Naloxone (The Fix)
• Investigation Shows How Florida Sparked U.S. Heroin Crisis (WLRN)
• Overdoses Can Happen Anywhere, So Naloxone Becomes A Part Of First Aid Kits (WESA)
• Link Between Heroin Addiction And Narcolepsy Examined (The Fix)
• Chicago’s Black Communities Hit Hardest In Opioid Overdoses (WBEZ)
• Where Did $8.2 Billion in US Aid to Fight Opiates in Afghanistan Go? (Sputnik International)
• Heroin may be Mozambique’s second largest export—and it’s being disrupted by WhatsApp (Quartz)
• OxyContin, Heroin and the Opioid Crisis (Pain News Network)
• The Opium War and the Humiliation of China (The New York Times)

Kratom

• FDA commissioner says kratom not worth the Salmonella risk (Food Safety News)
• 3 Best Kratom Strains for Opiate Withdrawal In 2018 (Kratom Guides)
• Kratom Supplements Won’t Make You Healthier — They’ll Probably Just Make You Sick (The Cheat Sheet)
• Kratom use spreads in Phuket (Pattaya Mail)
• Kratom And Moisture: What To Do When Kratom Gets Moisture? (Kratom Guides)
• How Can You Mix Kratom And Cranberry Juice? (Kratom Guides)

Kava

• Kava Bar Places "God Hates Beer" Signs in Front of Saltwater Brewery (Miami New Times)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Suicide is on the rise. Depression therapy is limited. Let’s try psychedelics. (The Washington Post)
• First-of-Its-Kind Conference Brings Psychedelics Into the Mainstream (High Times)
• White House lawyer expected to be named new head of DEA (The Washington Post)
• Could psychedelics transform mental health? (BBC)
• Duterte is Assassinating Opponents Under the Cover of the Drug War, Philippine Rights Groups Say (TIME)
• Reclaiming Your Identity As A Drug User (Psymposia)
• Use of ‘smart drugs’ on the rise (Nature) 
• Psychedelics And Cancer (Psychedelic Heaven)
• Hallucinogens and Depression (Psychology Today)
• How To Cope With Anxiety And Paranoia During A Trip (The Third Wave)
• Psychedelics And Schizophrenia (Psychedelic Heaven)
• Drug abuse: how China is fighting the problem (The Telegraph)

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.

This Week in Psychedelics - 6.29.18

Cannabis

• Oklahoma voters approve medical marijuana measure (CNN)
• FDA Approves First Marijuana-Based Prescription Drug (TIME)
• U.S. Senate Votes To Legalize Hemp After Decades-Long Ban Under Marijuana Prohibition (Forbes)
• Schumer introduces bill to federally decriminalize marijuana (CNN)
• Cannabis oil: what is it and does it really work as medicine? (New Scientist)
• Legalising cannabis 'would raise £1bn in tax for the UK' (BBC)
• Get Too High? 'Undoo' Inventor Wants to Take Cannabis Consumers Down (Phoenix New Times)
• Mexico opium poppy growers see price drop, turn to marijuana (Tampa Bay Times)
• Durham police chief calls for legalisation of cannabis in UK (The Guardian)
• Meet Colorado’s New Single-Issue Voters: The Cannabis Community (The New York Times)
• For Medical Marijuana, Is it the Whole Plant That Matters? (Undark Magazine)
• Rite Aid poised to sell its first cannabis-derived drug (CNN)
• Medical-Cannabis Extracts Like Vape Pen Oil Are Illegal, Arizona Appeals Court Rules (Phoenix New Times)
• My 10-Year-Old Daughter Takes the First FDA-Approved Marijuana Drug. It's Changed Our Lives (TIME)
• Cannabis growth is killing one of the cutest (and fiercest) creatures in the US (The Guardian)
• Cannabis Businesses Hope To Shed Stoner Stereotype By 'Professionalizing Industry' (WBUR)
• Oklahoma's hypocrites legalize cannabis after suing Colorado for the same (Rooster)
• #PermitPatty Episode Blows Up on California Cannabis Company (Leafly)
• What Recreational Cannabis In Mass. Means For Medical Marijuana (WBUR)
• Cheap cannabis products available before new California rules kick in (San Francisco Chronicle)
• I Want My Weed Coffeehouses (Seattle Weekly)

LSD

• Microdosing with LSD vs. Psilocybin Mushrooms (The Third Wave)
• Johnny Depp Wanted To Take Out Osama Bin Laden By Spraying LSD Over His Compound (Esquire)
• LSD And 'Magic Mushrooms' Can 'Help People Deal With Serious Problems,' According to UC Berkeley Prof (Civilized)
• Rampant LSD Use Sweeps US Colleges (Liberty Nation)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Psychedelic therapy for smoking cessation: Qualitative analysis of participant accounts (SAGE Journals)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• ‘Storm Chasers’ Star Joel Taylor Died from MDMA, Ketamine Poisoning (The Blast)
• MDMA strengths surge to 'potentially fatal' levels (BBC)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• New N-bomb hallucinogenic drug that can bring on ‘extreme paranoia’ sparks cop probe after death links (The Scottish Sun)

Dissociatives

• Rat Study Shows How Ketamine Combats Depression (Psych Central)
• Revisiting the Hallucinogenic Potential of Ketamine (Psychiatric Times)
• Minneapolis Police Order EMS Workers To Sedate Suspected Criminals With Ketamine (Herb)
• Man kills himself in Williamsport apartment after smoking PCP: police (PennLive)

Opiates/Opioids

• Why SITSA Act Will Actually Move the Needle Backward on the Opioid Crisis (Inverse)
• Needle exchanges have been proved to work against opioid addiction. They’re banned in 15 states. (Vox)
• A Gallery Owner Was Arrested After Leaving a 10-Foot Heroin Spoon Sculpture Outside OxyContin Maker Purdue Pharma (TIME)
• Ontario Promotes Free Use of Opioid Antidote (The Wall Street Journal)
• Mexican heroin cannot escape the law of supply and demand (New York Post)
• Tech Companies Deflect Blame for Opioid Crisis Ahead of FDA Summit (WIRED)
• Legal uncertainty surrounds overdose-fighting drug (The Gazette)
• What we know about the crack-fentanyl outbreak in Philly (Philadelphia Weekly)
• When an Iowa Family Doctor Takes On the Opioid Epidemic (The New York Times)

Absinthe

• Booze 101: Absinthe (The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Kratom

• More Kratom Products Recalled Owing to Salmonella Risk (Medscape)
• Kratom Users In States That Ban It Discuss How Prohibition Has Made Life Worse (HuffPo)
• This Bill Could Give Jeff Sessions the Power to Ban Kratom (Tonic)
• FDA Seeks to Curb Kratom Sales (Blue Virginia)
• How To Get Kratom Out Of Your System Fast? (Kratom Guides)
• Meet The “Kratom Warriors” Who Say This Plant Will End The Opioid Epidemic (BuzzFeed News)
• Which Kratom Strains For Sleep You Can Try in 2018? (Kratom Guides)
• What you need to know about Green Thai Kratom before Use (The Bona Venture)
• Can You Buy Kratom On Local GNC, Walmart, Walgreens, And CVS? (Kratom Guides)

Kava

• What Is Kava And Is It Good For You? (Women's Health)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• A Microguide to Microdosing Psychedelic Drugs (WIRED)
• The Dangers and Risks of Microdosing (The Third Wave)
• It may take hallucinogens to get us through the Trump years (Raw Story)
• If America wants to stop the migrant crisis, it should decriminalize drugs (The Week)
• Psychedelics Are Going Mainstream, Because the Mainstream Needs Them (VICE)
• Can Psychedelics Induce Flow States? (The Third Wave)
• Groovy, baby! The renaissance in psychedelic science is here (The Globe and Mail)
• Treating PTSD with a Psychedelic (ThirdAge)
• Information Update - Drug Use During Festival Season (Markets Insider)
• Paul Stamets’ Psilocybin Stories on Joe Rogan Podcast Will Blow Your Mind (Psychedelic Times)
• Taking Psychedelic Drugs to Ease Anxiety Over a Terminal Diagnosis: It’s a Real Option (ThirdAge)
• Study: Can taking a hallucinogen curb cocaine use? (UAB News)
• Different Ways Of Using Drugs (Psychedelic Heaven)

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.

Transformational Festivals and the New Psychedelic Revolution

Wesley Thoricatha, writing for Psychedelic Times:

In the 60’s there used to be this idea of creating this commune where people could gather together and live and grow veggies and all that stuff, and I think now we’re more of this gypsy global tribe where we have these nodes that we come together at and then we go apart again. I hadn’t been to Lightning in a Bottle in years, and there were so many people there- you go from one hug to the next. The more time you spend within the family, the more people you meet, and the more you feel at home. That sense of belonging I think is one of the things that transformational festival culture has been able to provide. It’s more and more rare in today’s society.

This is an excellent interview with James Oroc, author of the recent book The Psychedelic Revolution: The Genesis of the Visionary Age.

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Psychedelics And Male-Perpetrated Violence

The Third Wave:

Male-perpetrated violence is, unsurprisingly, soaked throughout culture and history. It’s not just a phenomenon confined to the bloody sands of ancient battlefields or the slave trade of America and Europe’s shameful legacies. It’s reflected in modern domestic violence statistics, showing that male-perpetrated domestic violence accounts for 91% of all domestic abuse prosecutions, and that 87% of all domestic homicides are perpetrated by men. 

There is clearly a very current, prevalent, systemic issue with male-perpetrated violence in society. The incel movement is just another way in which this problem is being highlighted. And we need to do something about it.

Since the early 2000s, studies have consistently shown that psychedelics are associated with reductions in violence. A recent survey of more than 1,200 men and women had several important findings:

• Emotional dysregulation (the inability to understand and control emotions) is associated with increased levels of domestic violence in both men and women.

• The men in the study who had taken psychedelics were associated with improved emotional regulation, however this finding did not exist with the women.

• Men with a history of psychedelic use are half as likely to commit violence against a partner.

These findings are not only interesting—they could also aid in healing the world by helping men get in touch with their feelings for the first time, which may lead to a significant reduction in overall violence.

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This Week in Psychedelics - 6.22.18

Cannabis

• Canada becomes second country to legalise cannabis use (The Guardian)
• Portugal's parliament legalizes cannabis-based medicines (Reuters)
• Oklahoma voted to legalize medical marijuana (Vox)
• Marijuana legalization is having its best year ever (Vox)
• Poll: Record Percentage Of Americans Support Legalizing Marijuana (NORML)
• Texas Republican Party Endorses Marijuana Decriminalization (Forbes)
• Home Office looks at allowing cannabis oil for boy with epilepsy (The Guardian)
• Senate Democratic Leader Introduces Far-Reaching Marijuana Descheduling Bill (NORML)
• New York: State-Commissioned Report Will Recommend Legalizing Marijuana (NORML)
• What Might Medical Cannabis Mean for our Children? (Beckley Foundation)
• Why Are Cannabis Industry Leaders Donating to Anti-Immigration Candidates? (Cannabis Wire)
• Full marijuana legalization up for a vote today in Delaware House (Delaware Online)
• New York State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker to Allow Patients who are Prescribed Opioids to Access the State's Medical Marijuana Program (Drug Policy Alliance)
• Why a Top Conservative Politician Is Calling for Marijuana to Be Legalized in the U.K. (TIME)
• Counting Canada, More Than 100 Million People Live in Places Where Pot Is Legal (Reason)
• Alexander discusses DOH's plans to legalize recreational marijuana (Spectrum News)
• NYPD Will Start Using Summonses, Not Arrests, for Marijuana (The New York Times)
• Legislation To Protect Legal Consumption In Federal Housing Introduced (NORML)
• Massachusetts crafts 'social equity' program to help minorities and drug offenders enter marijuana industry (MassLive)
• Senators Vote To Block Marijuana Banking Amendment (Forbes)
• Pot pros to budtenders: stop telling pregnant ladies to smoke cannabis (Rooster)
• PAX’s ‘Session Control’ helps you control your vape high (Engadget)
• NORML Releases Comprehensive Report Summarizing Local Decriminalization Laws (NORML)
• Sister-in-law of Home Office Minister who banned cannabis oil confesses: I have used it too, so make it legal (Daily Mail)
• Will Marijuana Be Legal in the U.S. Anytime Soon? Canada Law Revives Talk of Weed Legalization Nationwide (Newsweek)
• Denver Contradicts Itself by Targeting Previously Tolerated Cannabis Tour Buses (Reason)
• What is cannabis oil and how does it work? (The Guardian)
• Will Doug Ford change how Ontarians buy legal marijuana? (CityNews Toronto)
• Can cannabis oil really treat epilepsy and what would impact of medicinal reclassification be? (The Independent)
• This New Data Reveals the Scale of the UK's Cannabis Industry (VICE)
• Review needed on medicinal cannabis cases, says May (BBC)
• Cannabis 101: Where Entrepreneurs, Lawyers and Caregivers Go To Learn (Forbes)
• Higher Standards Pop-up Offers Next-Level Cannabis Accessories (Hollywood Reporter)
• Marine veteran gets first look at cannabis products (The Gainesville Sun)

LSD

• Meet the Canadian “Psychedelic Revolutionaries” Who Pioneered LSD Research (MERRY JANE)
• When Timothy Leary Got Artists to Take LSD (Artsy)
• Considering Microdosing LSD for Treatment-Resistant Depression? Read This First (Third Age)
• Johnny Depp Admits He Gets Lines Fed to Him on Set, Believes LSD Would’ve Helped Find Osama bin Laden Faster (Indie Wire)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Psilocybin Mushrooms vs. LSD for Mental Health Issues (Psychedelic Heaven)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Study: Ecstasy could be far less dangerous than past research suggests (Big Think)
• MDMA Being Used in New Trials to Help Beat Alcoholism (Your EDM)
• FDA Moves Closer to Approving Ecstasy (The Beacon)
• Ecstasy-assisted psychotherapy is bringing peace to people with PTSD (Yahoo! News)
• Patrick Coakley died after taking fatal MDMA overdose (Kent Online)
• Student who supplied killer ecstasy to friend says he should not be blamed as taking drugs is university 'culture' (The Telegraph)

Ayahuasca/DMT/5-MeO-DMT

• New Study: Ayahuasca Tea Rapidly Helps Patients Overcome Severe Depression (Kahpi)
• Enhancing Your Ayahuasca Experience: Harnessing the Power of Intention and Belief (Kahpi)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• Gabon's sacred plant 'Iboga' under threat of extinction (Africanews)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Cartoon Dystopia: 25I-NBOMe and Why You Should Test Your LSD (Psymposia)

Dissociatives

• Minneapolis police asked medical workers to use ketamine on suspects (The Seattle Times)
• First Ketamine Guidelines for Pain Released (WebMD)
• Ketamine a safer option for agitated patients and providers (EMS1.com)
• Can Ketamine Cure Depression? (Psychedelic Heaven)
• PD: Man on PCP did pushups in the middle of the road (CT Post)

Opiates/Opioids

• Facebook redirects would-be opioid buyers to crisis helpline (Engadget)
• How legal drug companies helped revive the heroin trade (The Washington Post)
• Afghanistan is producing more opium than ever before (We Are The Mighty)
• Researchers May Have Underestimated the Number of Opioid Overdose Deaths (TIME)
• Many Doctors Give Morphine to Babies Born With Opioid Addiction. A New Study Suggests There's a Better Way (TIME)
• Opiate addiction and the history of pain and race in the US (The Conversation)
• Purdue Pharma, company behind Oxycontin, just laid off its entire sales team (VICE News)
• Heroin use in Pacific Northwest linked to incurable kidney disease (UW Medicine Newsroom)

Kratom

• The House Just Passed a Bill That Could Make Kratom Illegal (Inverse)
• What Is It Like To Be High On Kratom And What It Feels Like? (Kratom Guides)
• 3 Best Kratom Strains You Should Try If You Suffer From Anxiety (Kratom Guides)
• How Much Does An Ounce Of Kratom Cost? (Kratom Guides)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• New law gives critically ill people 'Right to Try' psychedelics (Rooster)
• The DEA Is Worried Sick About Touching Contaminated Drug Money (The Daily Beast)
• Alleged Silk Road Mentor Indicted, Extradited to United States (Reason)
• Can People Who Had a Drug Addiction Ever Drink Alcohol? (Tonic)
• New Study Shows Drug War Sends Users to Dark Web (Reason)
• We need to offer safety drugs testing to users across society, not just at festivals and nightclubs (Metro)
• Psychedelics Are Promising, But Many Psychiatrists Don't Want to Use Them (Tonic)
• Congress Wants To Give Jeff Sessions Unprecedented New Drug War Powers (Reason)
• Staten Island Law Enforcement Won’t Stop Fighting the War on Drugs (The Village Voice)
• Psychedelic Drugs Promote Neural Plasticity (Worldhealth.net)
• While we discuss cannabis oil, we should remember that the government is blocking life-saving research into MDMA and magic mushrooms (The Independent)
• Would psychedelics really lead to democratic transformation? (Open Democracy)
• Mental health of a self-selected sample of psychedelic users and self-medication practices with psychedelics (ResearchGate)
• Psychedelics and Male-Perpetrated Violence (The Third Wave)
• Transformational Festivals and the New Psychedelic Revolution: A Conversation with James Oroc (Psychedelic Times)
• A mind-bending psychedelic art temple is coming to Upstate New York (Time Out)
• The Underground World of Psychedelics and the Potential of Plant Medicine (NYU News)
• Psychonautics: A Comic’s Exploration Of Psychedelics (Film Threat)
• The Power and Promise of Psychedelics: Michael Pollan Show Us How to Change Our Minds (AlterNet)
• Drug Checking in Latin America: the Countries Leading the Way (Talking Drugs)
• How underground groups use psychedelic drugs for healing (Futurity)

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.