Cops Are Investigating a Hallucinogenic Desert Toad Heist

Drew Schwartz, writing for VICE:

After sundown on Friday night, a band of thieves allegedly snuck into a conservation area in the Arizona desert with flashlights and grocery bags, and started hunting. According to the Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area, they'd come there to steal Sonoran Desert toads—innocent-looking little hoppers that produce one of the most potent natural psychedelics on Earth.

Almost seems like it's from a scene in a movie.


Why ‘Getting Lost in a Book’ Is So Good for You

Sarah DiGiulio, writing for BETTER:

Whether you’re the reader who rips through a new book each week or the one still slogging through that bestseller your friend recommended months ago, psychologists (and their research) say your time is being well spent.

And if it’s been a while since your last date with a good book, the experts have a few reasons that might convince you to give it another go.

As science has shown, the act of reading comes with a ton of benefits. Books can provide a sense of human connection, the strengthening of social skills, and a healthy form of escape from real life. And if for some reason that's not enough to convince you to pluck a book off your shelf and give it a go, how about the fact that reading is very engaging for the brain and may actually even help us live longer? Be sure to check out this article and find out about why you should be reading more.


This Week in Psychedelics - 7.27.18

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Cannabis

  • Cannabis-based medicines get green light as UK eases rules (The Guardian)
  • 'It hits you very quickly': Canada brews first cannabis beer (The Guardian)
  • N.J. won't prosecute any weed cases until September. It's a big step toward legalization. (NJ.com)
  • Aurora Cannabis Inc. to offer medical pot coverage for employees (The Toronto Star)
  • Federal Report On Marijuana Legalization Required Under New Bill (Forbes)
  • Looming cannabis legalization forces 14 RCMP sniffer dogs into early retirement (The Globe and Mail)
  • California Officials Say No To Marijuana-Infused Alcohol And Bars With Cannabis Consumption (Marijuana Moment)
  • How Self-Care And Women's Health Are Shaping The Cannabis Industry (Forbes)
  • Sessions Says States Are Free To Legalize Marijuana, But DOJ Can Enforce Federal Law (Marijuana Moment)
  • Cannabis companies poaching key talent from the food and beverage sectors (The Globe and Mail)
  • Tennessee GOP Governor Candidate Puts Trump In Medical Marijuana Ad (Marijuana Moment)
  • Pennsylvania: Auditor’s Report Says Marijuana Legalization Would Yield Over $500 Million In New Annual Revenue (NORML)
  • Americans View Marijuana As Significantly Less Harmful Than Cigarettes (Marijuana Moment)
  • Legalizing Marijuana Brings Illicit Consumers To The Legal Market, Study Says (Marijuana Moment)
  • V.A. Shuns Medical Marijuana, Leaving Vets to Improvise (The New York Times)
  • Why Marijuana Consumers Have Smaller Waistlines Than Non-Users (Marijuana Moment)
  • The biggest American cannabis business is in Canada (Quartz)
  • Senators Push Sessions To Stop Blocking Marijuana Cultivation Applications (Marijuana Moment)
  • An exclusive look inside the UK’s legal medical cannabis farm (New Scientist)
  • West Virginia Congressional Candidate Running On Marijuana Gets Political Boost (Marijuana Moment)
  • Most in US think cannabis has health benefits, despite lack of data – study (The Guardian)
  • Cannabis, coworking, and the marijuana-industry land rush (Curbed)
  • Politicians Turn To Facebook To Promote Marijuana Legalization Views (Marijuana Moment)
  • A Look Inside Amsterdam's Cannabis Liberation Day 2018 (Leafly)
  • Blazing a trail: as legal cannabis goes global, will Britain be next? (The Guardian)
  • No, Marijuana DNA Is Not From Outer Space (And Other Cannabis-Related Fake News) (Marijuana Moment)
  • At 70, Founding A Cannabis Startup Can Be Quite A Trip (Forbes)
  • A More Palatable Cannabis Edible (Chicago Magazine)
  • The Paranoid Truth About Edible Weed (Psychedelic Heaven)

LSD

  • Exploring Meow Wolf on two hits of acid (Rooster)
  • GMU Student Sentenced to 3 Years for Selling LSD to Frat Brother Who Jumped to His Death (NBC4 Washington)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

  • No Magic Mushrooms On The Denver Ballot This Year. Supporters Are Looking To 2019 (Colorado Public Radio)
  • Psilocybin Truffles vs. Psilocybin Mushrooms (The Third Wave)
  • A startup backed by Peter Thiel has churned out 20,000 doses of magic mushrooms, and is making more (Business Insider)
  • Op Ed: Kicking Down the Doors of Perception Regarding Psilocybin (Westword)

MDMA/Ecstasy

  • What happens when you give an octopus MDMA? (Psymposia)
  • Sister of teen who died after taking ecstasy shares heartbreaking image of her brother on life support (The Sun)
  • Police warn 'fatal' Ecstasy pills shaped like Darth Vader being sold to schoolchildren online (Bristol Live)

Ayahuasca/DMT/5-MeO-DMT

  • Underground 5-MeO-DMT Facilitators: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly with James Oroc (Psychedelic Times)
  • Thieves caught on video stealing psychedelic toads from park (WGAL)
  • Jon Hopkins on Psychedelic Meditation and Taking DMT to His Own Music (SPIN)

Iboga/Ibogaine

  • What is iboga and can it actually cure opioid addiction? (ZME Science)

Dissociatives

  • Hennepin Ketamine Study Raises Questions About Ethics And Consent (Forbes)
  • Ketamine could help reduce opioid use in the ER (Medical News Today)
  • Social anxiety is being cured by giving people cat tranquilizers (Rooster)
  • I tried ketamine to treat my depression. Within a day, I felt relief. (Vox)
  • PCP-fueled melee leaves officers injured, earns several assault charges (Maryland Independent)

Opiates/Opioids

  • Suboxone: Prescribed for addiction, diverted to the streets – an 'instant relief' for withdrawal (Cincinatti.com)
  • Governor of violent Mexican state wants regulation of opium poppies (WSAU)
  • Prison Inmates 40 Times More Likely to Die From Opioid Overdose Two Weeks After Release (Newsweek)
  • Thank Drug Warriors for the Escalating Death Toll From Superpotent Synthetic Opioids (Reason)
  • Fentanyl killed 763 people in Kentucky - twice as many as heroin (Courier Journal)
  • How to Stop a Heroin Overdose (Teen Vogue)
  • Narcan Saved My Life And Demi Lovato’s. Here’s What You Need To Know About It. (HuffPost)
  • “I really did not want to do it”: Smoking opium to investigate drug crime (New Statesman)

Kambô

  • New Urban Practices Around Kambô (Chacruna)

Kratom

  • What Is Kratom? How the Plant Could Help Fight the Opioid Crisis (Inverse)
  • 5 Reasons to add kratom to your life (NetNewsLedger)
  • What Is The Definition Of Kratom And How To Pronounce It? (Kratom Guides)
  • Psychoactive herb kratom on radar of B.C. doctors and poison control centre (Vancouver Sun)
  • White Vein Vs Green Vein Kratom: Differences And Similarities (Kratom Guides)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

  • Czech Drug Tsar calls for legalisation and regulation of drugs (Transform Drug Policy Foundation)
  • Rethinking psychedelics: U of T study looks at the practice of microdosing to ease anxiety and sharpen focus (University of Toronto)
  • Legalizing Drugs Would Boost US Budgets By $100 Billion, Harvard Researcher Concludes (Marijuana Moment)
  • Drug finds in prison increased by 23% in one year, Ministry of Justice reveals (Sky News)
  • Melania Trump to be briefed on babies born addicted to drugs (Associated Press)
  • Colleges just don’t understand harm reduction (Psymposia)
  • Drug Testing Organizations Save Lives, So Why Haven't Rave and Concert Organizers Embraced Them? (The Appeal)
  • Healing With the Psychonauts: Psychedelic Medicine Goes Mainstream (Leafly)
  • How psychedelic microdosing might help ease anxiety and sharpen focus (Medical Xpress)
  • Gen Z Is More Into Coke, Ket and LSD Than We Thought (VICE)

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.

Colleges Just Don't Understand Harm Reduction

Russell Hausfeld, writing for Psymposia:

In the midst of the the February 2018 [Palm Court Party], a friend approached Hannah Procell — a club leader of the school’s Students for a Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) chapter — and alerted her:

“Hey, I think the cops just locked up the room.”

The room in question was an under-the-radar “chill-out” room, operating out of New College’s Prayer and Meditation room. Here, students could have a safe, meditative space if they were having too intense of an experience at the party. And, SSDP volunteers provide people with water and call medical help if needed. [...]

Just the year before, a large chill-out room was set up near the Prayer and Meditation room, without any issue from the school. The school paper reported in a recap of that party that “the chill out rooms were also an important feature of [the party]. One in the X lounge called the heart room was centered around a large heart structure and adorned with red lights and snacks.”

Procell believes that the crack-down on harm-reduction efforts this year was a response to a case at Florida State University, where students from a fraternity were charged with involuntary manslaughter because of a drug-related hazing incident. She says that school administrations view harm-reduction services as a liability rather than an asset.

It's a shame that universities are jumping on the anti-harm reduction bandwagon. A college should place the safety of its students at the top of their priority list.


No Magic Mushrooms on the Denver Ballot This Year

Ann Marie Awad, writing for Colorado Public Radio:

Denver voters won’t have a chance to “free the spores,” at least not during the 2018 midterms.

The grassroots campaign behind a proposed ballot initiative that would decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms — known by their scientific name psilocybin — ran into a series of hurdles when it came to getting approval from the Denver elections division.

As of this moment ballot language still hasn’t been approved. Kevin Matthews, one of the people behind the Denver Psychoactive Mushroom Decriminalization Initiative said he’s not worried. The group hardly has time to collect the required 5,000 signatures before the city’s mid-August deadline. Instead, now they’re aiming for Denver’s May 2019 ballot.

Earlier this month, I was hopeful that Denver would get its initiative on the November 2018 ballot. Now we know that the earliest it's going to happen is May 2019, which would still be amazing.