This Week in Psychoactives - 6.21.19

CANNABIS

• New York’s Adult-Use Cannabis Legalization Bill Is Dead (Leafly)

• Gene Increases Risk for Pot Addiction (Scientific American)

• Public Cannabis Consumption Now Allowed In Colombia: Is Full Marijuana Legalization Next? (Forbes)

• Congress Votes To Block Feds From Enforcing Marijuana Laws In Legal States (Forbes)

• Beijing says US legalization of marijuana is a 'threat to China' (CNN)

• Three New Studies Explore Link Between Medical Marijuana Dispensaries And Youth Use (Marijuana Moment)

• Study: Cannabis Safe and Effective in Fibromyalgia Patients (NORML)

• Maryland Regulators Warn of Possible Lead Contamination in Weed Vape Pens (MERRY JANE)

• 57% of Arthritis Patients Have Tried Cannabis. 90% Found It Helped (Leafly)

• House Passes Amendments Stripping DEA Funding And Pushing FDA To Regulate CBD (Marijuana Moment)

• Marijuana Study Finds CBD Can Cause Liver Damage (Forbes)

• Public Sewage Revealed Shift Away From Illegal Weed After Legalization (Inverse)

• From Shortage to Surplus: Canada Could Have Too Much Weed by the End of the Year (MERRY JANE)

• Texas Governor Signs Bill To Expand State’s Medical Marijuana Program (Marijuana Moment)

• New Study Finds Cannabis May Be 'Unsafe' For Pregnant Women (WBUR)

• Ex-Novartis Pill Factory Gets a New Life Making CBD Products (Bloomberg)

• Cannabis Use Doubles Among Pregnant Women In The U.S., Study Finds (WBUR)

• Americans Want CBD Available Over-The-Counter, Poll Finds (Marijuana Moment)

• Cincinnati: Council Members Vote to Eliminate Marijuana Possession Penalties (NORML)

LSD

• First controlled study of LSD microdosing finds few benefits — and some downsides (PsyPost)

• How long is acid detectable in the body? (Medical News Today)

MAGIC MUSHROOMS

• Efforts To Decriminalize Magic Mushrooms Beginning To Sprout Nationally (Forbes)

• Replication and extension of a model predicting response to psilocybin (Springer Link)

• Can a psychedelic drug save the terminally ill from their deepest fears of death? (The Age)

NITROUS OXIDE

• Liverpool's streets are littered with laughing gas canisters: the truth about nitrous oxide (The Sun)

KETAMINE

• The controversial ketamine-like drug that Trump is pushing on veterans (The Guardian)

• Why the New Ketamine-Like Nasal Spray Is Worrying Some Physicians (Healthline)

• Imports of ketamine into the Netherlands up to 800 kilograms from 2.6kg in two years (Mixmag)

• Ketamine center aims to help those with depression, PTSD, chronic pain (The Durango Herald)

PCP

• Woman shot at, stabbed after man becomes irate after smoking PCP, police say (KMOV)

OPIOIDS

• Drug addicts to be given free heroin as Home Office awards first licence (The Telegraph)

• Opiate addiction in UK in the over-40s triples in 12 years (The Independent)

• Cops bring addiction counselor on drug raids to fight opioid crisis (CBS News)

• Pharmacists hand out free naloxone spray on Edmonton's Whyte Avenue (CBC)

• Pharmacies may not stock naloxone, despite statewide orders (Reuters)

METHAMPHETAMINE

• Alabama Man On The Lam Insists He Didn’t Give Meth To ‘Attack Squirrel’ (HuffPost)

• Meth In The Morning, Heroin At Night: Inside The Seesaw Struggle of Dual Addiction (NPR)

• Arrested While “Panicking on Meth”—An Hour Later, He Was Dead (Filter)

• Wexford deputy hospitalized after exposure to crystal meth (Cadillac News)

CAFFEINE

• Can You Drink Coffee While Doing Intermittent Fasting? (Healthline)

• Is decaf coffee harmful to health? (Medical News Today)

TOBACCO

• Global Forum on Nicotine Asserts Urgency of Tobacco Harm Reduction (Filter)

• CVS Shifts Anti-Tobacco Fight To E-Cigarettes (Forbes)

ALCOHOL

• The mysterious deaths in the Dominican Republic reportedly may be linked to illicit alcohol, and it wouldn’t be the first time (Business Insider)

• Women not aware enough of breast cancer link to alcohol (BBC)

• Germans thirsty for alcohol-free beer as brewers boost taste (The Guardian)

NOOTROPICS

• What Is The Effect Of Nootropics On Brain Health? (The Frisky)

KRATOM

• Oregon Lawmakers Decide Not To Regulate Kratom, For Now (Jefferson Public Radio)

• Kratom Dosage For Stimulating Energy (MyMMANews)

KAVA

• Auckland city set to get its first kava bar at Victoria Park Markets (Stuff.co.nz)

MISCELLANEOUS

• Movement To Decriminalize Psychedelics Spreads Nationally (Marijuana Moment)

• AOC's Amendment to Expand Psychedelics Research Shot Down by House of Reps (MERRY JANE)

• The Feds Want To Subject Every Burning Man Attendee to a Warrantless Drug Search (Reason)

• Woody Harrelson to play LSD guru Timothy Leary, a Springfield native and Holy Cross alum (MassLive)

• Evidence is mounting that psychedelic drugs can help treat diseases. Here are the most promising uses. (Business Insider)

• Cory Booker Proposes Thousands of Drug War Commutations If Elected President (Reason)

• How Portugal tackled its addiction epidemic to become a world model (CBC)

• 'I would put the son of a gun in jail': Joe Biden said in a 2001 hearing that he wanted to criminalize raves and 'lock up' rave promoters (Business Insider)

• Drugs are decriminalised in the UK—if you are a white, privileged MP (The BMJ)

• The Canadian revival of psychedelic drug research (University Affairs)

• A Change in Russia’s Draconian Drug Laws Could Be on the Horizon (The Moscow Times)

• Psychedelic Masculinities: Reflections on Power, Violence and Privilege (Chacruna)

Think Wilder is reader-supported. If you enjoyed this week’s update, please consider helping out by becoming a patron, making a one-time donation, or sharing this post with a friend. Thank you for your support.

Disclaimer: "This Week in Psychoactives" 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 Psychedelic Astronaut.

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On the Monday following each edition of “This Week in Psychoactives,” I post a “Last Week in Psychoactives” video recap to my YouTube channel. After that is done, I retroactively add the video to the corresponding blog post. Here is this week’s video recap:

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This Week in Psychoactives - 6.14.19

CANNABIS

• Oldest evidence of cannabis smoking found in ancient Chinese cemetery (Ars Technica)

• Nevada bans employers from refusing to hire those who fail marijuana tests (CNN)

• Maryland Legalizes Medical Marijuana Edibles, With Caveats (Reason)

• Drivers With Common THC Limit Are Not More Likely To Cause Accidents, Study Finds (Marijuana Moment)

• Oregon: Governor Signs Law Prohibiting Landlords From Discriminating Against Medical Marijuana Patients (NORML)

• Texas governor signs law legalizing hemp, CBD products (The Hill)

• Court squashes Colombia’s ban on smoking pot and drinking beer in public (Colombia Reports)

• Coroner claims woman overdosed on cannabis, scientists call bullshit (The Next Web)

• Illinois Cancer Patient Sentenced to Four Years in Jail Over Cannabis Edibles (MERRY JANE)

• Study: Veterans Often Substitute Medical Cannabis for Alcohol, Prescription Drugs (NORML)

• U.S. Postal Services Unveils New Policy On Mailing Hemp-Derived CBD Products (Marijuana Moment)

• Recreational Weed Hurts Medical Cannabis Programs, Study Finds (MERRY JANE)

• Huge Cement Blocks Bar Access to Illicit Toronto Dispensaries (Leafly)

• Poll Reveals Top Reasons People Support Or Oppose Marijuana Legalization (Marijuana Moment)

• Nearly All Hospice Professionals Support Medical Marijuana Access, Study Finds (MERRY JANE)

• Las Vegas OK’d Cannabis Lounges but Nevada Just Said No (Leafly)

• Marijuana arrests target mostly blacks and Hispanics in region (Times Union)

• Baby Boomers Are Consuming Pot at Ten Times the Rate of Past Senior Generations (MERRY JANE)

• Ohio board rejects adding insomnia, depression as conditions for medical pot; tables autism, anxiety (WBNS)

• California Appeals Court Rules Cannabis Possession in Prison Legal (Courthouse News)

• Legal Cannabis May Not Lower Opioid Overdose Deaths After All (Gizmodo)

• Ontario Law Now Prevents Pot Shops From Showing Vape Pens to Customers (MERRY JANE)

• Oregon Is About to OK Cannabis Exports. What’s Next? (Leafly)

• Alabama Bucks Its History of Prohibition, Plants First Hemp Crop Since 1937 (MERRY JANE)

• Federal Employment Protections Demanded In Appropriations Bill (NORML)

• Oklahoma’s Medical Marijuana Industry Sold $23 Million Worth of Weed in May (MERRY JANE)

LSD

• The U.S. Army Once Kept $1 Billion Worth of LSD in a Maryland Office for Some Reason (Gizmodo)

• The Highs and Lows of LSD Literature (The New York Times)

MAGIC MUSHROOMS

• Magic mushrooms could replace antidepressants within five years, says new psychedelic research centre (The Independent)

• 'They broke my mental shackles': could magic mushrooms be the answer to depression? (The Guardian)

• I Took Magic Mushrooms To Treat The World’s Worst Headaches... And Got Arrested For It (HuffPost)

MDMA

• Ecstasy warning over high strength MDMA pills at Parklife (Daily Star)

• More than 2000 children need help to ditch ecstasy problem (Mirror)

DMT

• What’s DMT and why are techies and entrepreneurs secretly taking the drug? (The American Genius)

AYAHUASCA

• Psychedelics, dance steps and giant snakes: inside the ayahuasca show (The Guardian)

5-MEO-DMT

• Mike Tyson Says Smoking Toad Venom Cured His Addictions (Civilized)

SYNTHETIC CANNABINOIDS

• Synthetic Marijuana Is Making People Bleed From Their Eyes and Ears (Cosmopolitan)

• Milton teens found in medical distress didn't overdose on opioids, police say (CBC)

KETAMINE

• FDA Overlooked Red Flags In Testing of New Depression Drug (Daily Beast)

PCP

• 'It's an evil drug': Authorities see increase in demand of PCP (KTUL)

OPIOIDS

• Naloxone nasal spray is more available in Philly neighborhoods with more white residents, study finds (Philly Voice)

• Drug Users Armed With Naloxone Double As Medics On Streets Of San Francisco (California Healthline)

• Free heroin? Unusual clinic offers 'chance at being human again' (CBC)

• Insys, the Opioid Drug Maker, Files for Bankruptcy (The New York Times)

• Former champion MMA fighter describes battle with heroin addiction (WKRC)

COCAINE

• Michael Gove: Cocaine 'mistake' a 'deep regret' (BBC)

• Plumbers, builders and cabbies are doing it in the local pub – stop calling cocaine a middle class drug (The Sun)

• Why Peruvian wellness and a 'cocaine massage' could change your life (The Independent)

• Teens with prenatal cocaine exposure exhibit altered patterns of amygdala functional connectivity (PsyPost)

CAFFEINE

• Algorithm provides customized caffeine strategy for alertness (ScienceDaily)

• If We Wrote About Caffeine Like We Do Other Drugs… (Filter)

TOBACCO

• Texas Raises Age To Buy Tobacco To 21 (Inquisitr)

• A Flurry of States Have Raised Their Smoking Ages. But Big Tobacco's Involvement Has Some Health Groups Uneasy (TIME)

• E-cig companies use cartoon characters as logos, and new study shows it works (The Conversation)

• FDA finalizes guidance for premarket tobacco product applications for electronic nicotine delivery systems as part of commitment to continuing a strong oversight of e-cigarettes (FDA)

• Tobacco 21 to take effect June 24 in Mankato (Mankato Free Press)

ALCOHOL

• A Ten-Year Plan To Reduce Global Alcohol Consumption Is Showing Results (Forbes)

• Prohibition worked better than you think (Vox)

• Alcohol main cause of substance-related deaths in hospital (CBC)

• Drinking alcohol at conception shown to harm rats – new study (The Conversation)

• We Drink Basically The Same Wine As Ancient Romans — And That's Not So Great (NPR)

NOOTROPICS

• The Truth About Nootropics and What They Do to Our Brains, According to a Neuroscientist (Good Housekeeping)

• 10 Modafinil Myths You Can’t Afford To Believe (Dreamland Magazine)

KRATOM

• Kratom: A Legal Drug That’s Dangerously Addictive (Child Mind Institute)

KAVA

• Australia’s discussion of kava imports reflects lack of cultural understanding (The Conversation)

• Crackdown on health standards at Vanuatu kava bars (Radio New Zealand)

DATURA

• Dentist Arrested for slow poisoning her brother, niece (Medical Dialogues)

MISCELLANEOUS

• AOC Pushes To Make It Easier To Study Shrooms And Other Psychedelic Drugs (Forbes)

• Seven Tory leadership candidates admit they’ve dabbled in drugs after Gove shock coke revelation (The Sun)

• Say "High" to the World's First Venture Fund Exclusively for Psychedelics (MERRY JANE)

• Drugs expert barred from policy panel after criticising Home Office (The Guardian)

• Rhode Island Senate Approves Bill Allowing Supervised Consumption Sites For Illegal Drugs (Marijuana Moment)

• Fashion is having a seriously psychedelic moment (Los Angeles Times)

• I Think I Hated This Tech Conference on Psychedelics (WIRED)

• New Government Estimates Offer Early Hope That Drug Overdose Deaths Are Waning (TIME)

• Harm Production: Ontario’s Brutal Cuts Add Fuel to the Overdose Fire (Filter)

• El Chapo: what the rise and fall of the kingpin reveals about the war on drugs (The Guardian)

• Dark Web Drug Sellers Dodge Police Crackdowns (The New York Times)

• Palm Beach County wants to start Florida’s second needle exchange program (The Palm Beach Post)

• What to do when your friend gets too high (The Tab)

Think Wilder is reader-supported. If you enjoyed this week’s update, please consider helping out by becoming a patron, making a one-time donation, or sharing this post with a friend. Thank you for your support.

Disclaimer: "This Week in Psychoactives" 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 Psychedelic Astronaut.

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On the Monday following each edition of “This Week in Psychoactives,” I post a “Last Week in Psychoactives” video recap to my YouTube channel. After that is done, I retroactively add the video to the corresponding blog post. Here is this week’s video recap:

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This Week in Psychoactives - 6.7.19

CANNABIS

• Surprise! Illinois Becomes the 11th Cannabis Legalization State! (Leafly)

• Nevada: Governor Signs Measure Sealing Past Marijuana Convictions (NORML)

• Nevada: Governor Signs Medical Cannabis Expansion Measure (NORML)

• Oregon Bans Landlords From Denying Housing to Renters for Prior Weed Offenses (MERRY JANE)

• Oregon: Lawmakers Advance Marijuana Expungement Measure (NORML)

• 73% of Cancer Doctors See Cannabis as Medicine, Survey Says (MERRY JANE)

• JAMA: Most Doctors Know Nothing About Cannabis (Leafly)

• Congressional Report Raises Questions About Whether Marijuana Impairs Driving (Marijuana Moment)

• Transport Canada bars crews from consuming cannabis for 28 days before flying (CBC)

• Delaware Lawmakers Approve Marijuana Legalization Bill (Marijuana Moment)

• Woman with stage 4 cancer sues LARA over lack of access to medical marijuana (ClickOnDetroit)

• Cops Confiscate 10,000 Unlicensed Pot Plants in Massive Santa Cruz Sting (MERRY JANE)

• West Virginia Voters Reject Marijuana Decriminalization Measure (Marijuana Moment)

• Congressional Funding Bill Protects Cannabis Banking And Lets DC Legalize Marijuana Sales (Forbes)

• Massachusetts inches cautiously toward ‘cannabis cafes’ (Boston.com)

• Presidential Candidate Gillibrand Unveils Wide-Ranging Marijuana Legalization Plan (Marijuana Moment)

• RIP: New York Marijuana Activist Doug Greene (CelebStoner)

• Women Are Underrepresented In Clinical Research On Cannabis (Forbes)

• Can Cannabinoids Help Treat OCD? (PsychCentral)

LSD

• James Ketchum, Who Conducted LSD Experiments on Soldiers, Dies at 87 (The New York Times)

• Guy Banned From Festival After Posting Video Eating 20 Tabs of LSD (YourEDM)

MAGIC MUSHROOMS

• It is Time to Legalize Psilocybin Mushrooms (Psychedelic Times)

• Will Canada follow Denver’s lead in decriminalizing magic mushrooms? (The GrowthOp)

• Mayor indicates he'll stomp out Denver mushrooms, if re-elected (Rooster Magazine)

• Michael Hancock Re-Elected To Third And Final Term (CBS Denver)

MDMA

• Dutch officials launch perfume that smells like MDMA (Newshub)

• MDMA Erases PTSD Symptoms After Two Guided Therapy Sessions, Study Finds (MERRY JANE)

DMT

• Synthesized ‘Spirit Molecule’ Caters to Evolving Chile Drug Demand (InSight Crime)

AYAHUASCA

• As Ayahuasca Tourism Booms, Peru’s Traditional Healers Try to Regain Control (World Politics Review)

• Why LGBTQI+ Members are Creating Their Own Ayahuasca Circles (Chacruna)

• Katy Perry Trips on Ayahuasca in “Never Really Over” Video (W Magazine)

NOVEL PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCES

• The Research Chemicals That You Can Purchase Legally (The Third Wave)

• 'Chinese Ecstasy' drug linked to 125 deaths has arrived in Britain, NCA warns festival goers (The Telegraph)

SYNTHETIC CANNABINOIDS

• What is Synthetic Weed and Why is it Hazardous? (WeedMaps)

KETAMINE

• New Ketamine Clinic Opens In Beverly Hills (Patch)

• Expert urges cautious approach to ketamine use (Medical Xpress)

OPIOIDS

• The Mysterious Consequences of Repeatedly Overdosing on Opioids (VICE)

• Congress Is Racing To Address a Fentanyl Problem That Fentanyl Experts Say Probably Doesn't Exist (Reason)

• Police said a trooper collapsed from an incidental overdose. Now they’re saying nothing. (VTDigger)

• Researchers pose as heroin users to find treatment gaps (AP News)

• Two friends shared heroin in a KFC bathroom. One died, one went to prison. Their families are picking up the pieces. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

• As US cities decriminalize psychedelics, the focus may turn to opioid addiction (Newstrail)

• Sheriff who warned of fentanyl-laced weed says test erred (AP News)

COCAINE

• 'Cocaine call centres' set up across Europe, drugs agency says (BBC)

• Mother-of-three teacher, 42, died after swallowing $75 bag of cocaine in first class lounge before flight to Dubai (Fox News)

METHAMPHETAMINE

• Meth overdoses surpass heroin deaths in southern Colorado (The Denver Channel)

• Effectiveness of methamphetamine abuse treatment: Predictors of treatment completion and comparison of two residential treatment programs (ScienceDirect)

CAFFEINE

• Up to 25 cups of coffee a day safe for heart health, study finds (The Guardian)

• Study Suggests It's OK To Drink 25 Cups Of Coffee A Day. It's Not. (HuffPost)

• The secretive nonprofit that made millions suing companies over cancer warnings (Ars Technica)

• Nicotine and caffeine withdrawal may lead to unnecessary suffering and testing in intensive care patients (EurekAlert!)

• Caffeine and Exercise Performance, HITT and Type 2 Diabetes, Physical Activity and Sedentary Time and More from the Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports & Science® (Newswise)

• The Side Effects Of Too Much Caffeine (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

• California says those ominous warning signs about coffee being linked to cancer can be taken down (USA Today)

TOBACCO

• Beverly Hills becomes the first U.S. city to end most tobacco sales (Los Angeles Times)

• Tobacco 21 wins passage in Senate, heads to governor for signing (The CT Mirror)

• Senate Majority Leader McConnell Pushes To Raise Tobacco Sales Age To 21 (NPR)

ALCOHOL

• The media has a problem with alcoholism – and it's stopping people getting help (The Guardian)

• Southern comfort: SEC lifts booze ban at games (ESPN)

• Why Alcohol Companies Are Betting on Non-Alcoholic 'Booze' (TIME)

• Family Dollar Plans to Sell Alcohol at 1,000 Stores (The New York Times)

• Early farmers liked alcohol so much they invented two ways to brew it (New Scientist)

• The Search for the World’s Oldest Alcohol (Discover Magazine)

NOOTROPICS

• Combating Modern-Day Anxiety with Nootropic Supplements (Baltimore Post-Examiner)

KRATOM

• Castle Rock bans underage sales of kratom, the controversial herbal extract (The Denver Post)

• Council votes down ban on Kratom (KQ2)

• Kratomic Bomb: The highs and lows of kratom for pain (Augusta Free Press)

• Kratom Effects On Fitness, Pre-Workout & Bodybuilding (VENTS Magazine)

KAVA

• Australia urged to 'step up' kava allowance for travellers (Radio New Zealand)

MISCELLANEOUS

• Oakland Officials Decriminalize Psychedelics And Say They’ll Work To Legalize Sales Next (Marijuana Moment)

• Overdose crisis death toll would be more than double without harm reduction, study says (CBC)

• Psychedelics seem to alter social cognition by modifying facial emotion recognition (PsyPost)

• Dark net drug sales on the rise in England (BBC)

• Unsanctioned overdose-prevention site opens in Maple Ridge, renewing debate over drug use and homelessness (The Globe and Mail)

• Overdose Prevention Site Acceptability among Residents and Businesses Surrounding a Proposed Site in Philadelphia, USA (Springer Link)

• Psychedelic drugs: would you accept a prescription? It depends if you’ve tried them before (The Conversation)

• The stimulant epidemic: Why our worries should go beyond opioids (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

• The Mind’s Horizon II: The recreational world of psychedelics (Arizona Daily Sun)

• Operator of 'Silk Road 2.0' Likely Avoided Prison by Cooperating with Feds (Reason)

• The next battle in the War on Drugs will be fought over psychedelics (Quartz)

• Edir Da Costa died after bag of drugs became stuck in his airway (The Guardian)

• The Keeper of the Fire: Shamanic Initiation (Reality Sandwich)

• A year after Anthony Bourdain’s death, his story of recovery can still inspire. (Grub Street)

Think Wilder is reader-supported. If you enjoyed this week’s update, please consider helping out by becoming a patron, making a one-time donation, or sharing this post with a friend. Thank you for your support.

Disclaimer: "This Week in Psychoactives" 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 Psychedelic Astronaut.

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On the Monday following each edition of “This Week in Psychoactives,” I post a “Last Week in Psychoactives” video recap to my YouTube channel. After that is done, I retroactively add the video to the corresponding blog post. Here is this week’s video recap:

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Oakland Votes Unanimously to Decriminalize Natural Psychedelics

KTLA:

Oakland City Council voted Tuesday to become the first U.S. city to decriminalize the adult use and possession of psychoactive plants like ayahuasca and peyote, and the second to make the same move for hallucinogenic mushrooms.

The resolution makes the adult use and possession of all entheogenic, or psychoactive, plants and fungi the lowest priority for police. That means, along with psilocybin mushrooms, it applies to cacti like peyote, the shrub iboga that has been used to treat opioid dependence and a variety of plants used to brew ayahuasca, among other things.

Huge news out of Oakland late last night.

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Post Permalink

This Week in Psychoactives - 5.31.19

CANNABIS

• Illinois Senate Passes the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act (NORML)

• TSA Updates Marijuana Rules To Allow Hemp-Derived CBD On Flights (Marijuana Moment)

• Cannabis Extracts Are Legal, Arizona High Court Rules (Leafly)

• Report Says 70% of CBD Products Are Contaminated with Heavy Metals or Pesticides (MERRY JANE)

• Early Presidential Primary State Voters Oppose Federal Intervention In Local Marijuana Laws, Poll Shows (Marijuana Moment)

• Marijuana Ban in Public Housing Lifted in NYC––And Nation May Be Next (Filter)

• Legal Medical Marijuana Tied To Lower Opioid Use, Another Study Finds (Marijuana Moment)

• Colorado Springs dispensary pulls THC-free CBD products because of City Code (KOAA)

• CBD and THC May Help Treat Alzheimer's Disease, New Research Suggests (MERRY JANE)

• Alberta Lifts Ban on Licensing New Cannabis Stores (Leafly)

• States Can’t Block Legal Hemp Shipments Within Their Borders, USDA Says (Marijuana Moment)

• Workplace Deaths Fell 34% After Medical Cannabis Legalization (Leafly)

• Google won't allow marijuana delivery apps in the Play Store (Engadget)

• Nigerians Smoke the Most Weed on Earth, Spend Over $15 Billion on Pot Annually (MERRY JANE)

• Man Shoots Himself in Testicles Before Cops Found Weed Up His Ass (MERRY JANE)

• Israel is banking on cannabis as its next big industry (Los Angeles Times)

• Former NFL Pro Chris Long Admits to Smoking Weed His Entire Career (MERRY JANE)

• eBay Says It Will Continue To Ban People From Selling CBD Products (Marijuana Moment)

• Most people accept medical use of marijuana: Nida Poll (Bangkok Post)

MAGIC MUSHROOMS

• Mushrooms: Today Denver, tomorrow all of Colorado? (GOPUSA)

• Psilocybin Could Open the Door to Legal Hallucinogens (Medium)

MDMA

• Mums of children killed by ecstasy explain why they want drug to be legalised (Mirror)

• Teacher is jailed for six years after he drugged woman's hot chocolate with MDMA then sexually assaulted her and held her captive in his car for five hours (Daily Mail)

• Unpredictable MDMA: Here’s why it’s ‘impossible’ to know how the drug affects you (Rave Jungle)

AYAHUASCA

• Can and Should Ayahuasca Become Part of Western Medicine? (Kahpi)

• Ayahuasca Community Guide for the Awareness of Sexual Abuse (Chacruna)

• The Shaman’s Treasure: The Many Plants Added to the Ayahuasca Brew (Kahpi)

• What It Takes to Hold an Ayahuasca Ceremony (Kahpi)

5-MEO-DMT

• Smoking the Toad (Chacruna)

IBOGA

• Biosynthesis of an Anti-Addiction Agent from the Iboga Plant (bioRxiv)

SYNTHETIC CANNABINOIDS

• Researchers Find Synthetic CBD Effective in Treating Seizures in Rats (High Times)

• Get ready for a new wave of synthetic cannabinoids and derivatives (Greencamp)

• Man died after taking spice and suffering multiple seizures in prison (WalesOnline)

• Schoolboy rushed to hospital after eating sweet laced with zombie drug Spice (The Sun)

NITROUS OXIDE

• Bill Of The Month: $4,836 Charge For Laughing Gas During Childbirth Is No Joke (NPR)

OPIOIDS

• Opioid Maker Agrees to Pay Oklahoma $85 Million Over Claims Company Helped Create Addiction Crisis (TIME)

• More Drug Users Are Intentionally Using Fentanyl Amid Overdose Crisis, Study Finds (VICE)

• Murphy presents research on police views of addiction (BCTV)

• Tory leadership candidate Rory Stewart apologises for smoking opium in Iran (Yahoo! Finance)

• That guy who made up a story about stealing a brick of heroin from an MS-13 gang member says he now regrets it (Boing Boing)

• Most Opioid Deaths in MA Involve Other Drugs (U.S. News & World Report)

• Colorado’s Opioid Crisis Slows, In Part Because Of A Drug That Reverses Overdoses (Colorado Public Radio)

• The chronic-pain quandary: Amid a reckoning over opioids, a doctor crusades for caution in cutting back (STAT)

CAFFEINE

• This is the Best Time of Day to Drink Coffee, According to Science (Civilized)

• Energy drink consumption rising in the U.S. (WHTC)

• Energy drinks: Here’s what they do to your heart (WAVE3)

• Here's the truth about whether you should drink coffee and tea while pregnant (INSIDER)

TOBACCO

• 90% of lung cancers can be avoided by eliminating tobacco use, new WHO report reveals (World Health Organization)

ALCOHOL

• Young people are drinking less alcohol; here’s why (Marin Independent Journal)

KRATOM

• Kratom's reputed pain-relief benefits could come from one of its metabolites (EurekAlert!)

• Fibromyalgia Stole My Life, Kratom Gave It Back (Pain News Network)

• Kratom is called a mood enhancer, but three deaths in St. Louis region are causing concern (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

• St. Charles County pausing decision to ban Kratom, instead of looking at new regulations (KMOV)

• Herbal supplement kratom could face regulations in Monument (Colorado Springs Gazette)

KHAT

• Nyandarua to ban sale of miraa (The Standard)

• Turning a blind eye to khat use in the west does vulnerable communities in which it is consumed few favours (Illicit Trade)

MISCELLANEOUS

• Oakland Lawmakers Advance Psychedelic Decriminalization Measure (Marijuana Moment)

• Colorado Just Passed a Slew of Groundbreaking Drug Reform Laws (MERRY JANE)

• Philly’s supervised injection site nonprofit gets tax-exempt status from IRS (Philadelphia Inquirer)

• The Drug War's Hidden Foster Care Crisis (Reason)

• Nancy Pelosi's Drug Price Compromise Is Bad Policy and Worse Politics (Splinter)

• DanceSafe Announces Return To Virginia (DanceSafe)

• The Case for Taking Psychedelics Seriously (National Review)

Think Wilder is reader-supported. If you enjoyed this week’s update, please consider helping out by becoming a patron, making a one-time donation, or sharing this post with a friend. Thank you for your support.

Disclaimer: "This Week in Psychoactives" 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 Psychedelic Astronaut.

---

On the Monday following each edition of “This Week in Psychoactives,” I post a “Last Week in Psychoactives” video recap to my YouTube channel. After that is done, I retroactively add the video to the corresponding blog post. Here is this week’s video recap:

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