Without further ado, let’s get into this year’s news!
Cannabis
Vaping-Associated Lung Injury (VALI)
Undoubtedly one of the biggest stories this year involved a widespread negative reaction to vaping that seemed to spring up all across the U.S. virtually overnight. The phenomenon went by many names throughout the year—”e-cigarette or vaping product use associated lung injury” (EVALI), “vaping-associated pulmonary injury” (VAPI), or sometimes simply “vaping lung disease.” However, the moniker that most accurately identified the issue at hand was “vaping-associated lung injury” (VALI).
VALI impacted thousands of people and even killed more than 50. After a couple smooth decades of e-cigarette usage and several unexceptional years with cannabis vape pens, this epidemic came out of nowhere, and fast. Interestingly, it seemed to nearly exclusively affect vapers in America, not the rest of the world.
Researchers found unexpected white blood cells in patients who had the disease, but no one could figure out exactly what was causing it. Tests found illicit THC vape cartridges tainted with hydrogen cyanide and heavy metals. One study found that the illness might have been caused by toxic fumes. Some THC vape pens were found to be contaminated with synthetic cannabinoids.
Shortly after the initial outbreak, one of the main culprits of concern was vitamin E acetate, an oil additive that was increasingly being used as a thickener during the manufacturing process of THC vape carts. Multiple studies linked the additive to the illness, but a poor understanding and inaccurate reporting of the issue on the behalf of the CDC and mainstream media attempted to shift the blame to e-cigarettes, rather than the real guilty party—the illicit THC vape pen black market.
Eventually the CDC admitted that THC vapes, not e-cigarettes, were the primary cause of VALI and finally labeled vitamin E acetate as the most likely offender. This prompted Ohio to ban the additive from its medical marijuana vape products.
And the fallout didn’t stop there. Massachusetts implemented an emergency ban on all cannabis and nicotine vapes but later lifted the ban on medical marijuana vapes. Apple removed all vaping-related apps from its app store. Since the blame was initially focused on nicotine-based e-cigarettes, reactionary bans unfortunately hit them as well.
Three companies were subpoenaed in an investigation and the California-based THC vape manufacturer Kushy Punch was caught making and selling illegal products on the side of its legal business and had its licensed revoked. A popular additive company named Honey Cut was found to be involved as well.
The legal THC vape cartridge market was also found selling some of these poisonous products as well—VALI cases were directly linked to legal cannabis vapes sold in Massachusetts and the products contained high levels of lead.
Although it seems like there may have been multiple possible causes for the illness and investigations are still underway, thankfully it seems like the VALI scandal may be coming to an end.
Cannabis Policy in 2019 and Beyond
There were several cannabis policy reform victories in 2019, and this is by no means a comprehensive list. Among the highlights, Guam and two Caribbean islands legalized cannabis for adult use while Israel decriminalized recreational cannabis and Canberra became the first city in Australia to legalize marijuana. In the United States, Illinois legalized weed while Hawaii and New Mexico decriminalized cannabis.
When it comes to consuming weed at the same place you purchase it, Alaska became the first state to legalize on-site marijuana consumption, but the country’s first cannabis cafe in the U.S. ended up in Los Angeles. And cannabis cafes will be coming to Colorado soon, now that a law has finally authorized them.
Meanwhile, public support for marijuana legalization is at an all-time high, with multiple polls reporting that two-thirds of Americans saying that cannabis should be made legal.
Once maligned, cannabis now has a bright outlook. Illinois cannabis dispensaries open tomorrow for adult-use sales, federal marijuana legalization efforts are moving forward, Mexico plans to legalize cannabis next year, and almost 20 states are considering whether to legalize or decriminalize weed in 2020.
Magic Mushrooms
Funky Fungi Spurred A Psychedelic Decriminalization Movement
Denver voters surprised the psychedelic community by narrowly voting to decriminalize the use and possession of psilocybin mushrooms in May. The race was so close that media outlets initially reported that the measure had failed to gain enough support and had to revise their reports the next morning when it was determined that the initiative had barely won with 50.6% of the vote. This win was a huge first for psychedelic policy reform in the country.
Shortly after that, the City Council in Oakland, CA unanimously approved a Decriminalize Nature resolution to decriminalize magic mushrooms along with several other psychedelic plants and cacti. And the movement to decriminalize natural psychedelics has continued to spread across the nation.
However, not everyone supports the idea of decriminalizing, medicalizing, or legalizing psychedelic drugs at this time. Author Michael Pollan, a well-known writer who is new to the psychedelic beat, argued against rushing to change laws involving psychedelics without proper forethought lest there be a public backlash against them like there was in the 1960s due to Timothy Leary and the hippie movement. His ideas faced quite a bit of criticism from the psychedelic community, which is for the most part sick and tired of waiting for change, itching to usher in saner drug laws as soon as possible.
Regardless of what naysayers like Pollan think, efforts to create a legal market for psychedelic mushrooms in California and legalize them for medical use in Oregon are underway. And Denver’s psilocybin mushroom policy review panel is expected to launch next month.
A Mushrooming Industry
Although magic mushrooms are not legal in most countries, that hasn’t stopped businesses from wanting to get in on what is expected to be a ripe financial opportunity, in a new form of opportunistic psychedelic corporatism. Three Chinese companies entered the field, a Canadian online dispensary opened up to sell microdoses by mail order, a company is developing psilocybin mushroom tea and coffee in Denver, and the world’s first magic mushroom nasal spray for PTSD and depression is being developed in Oregon. None of these products will be available for legal purchase unless magic mushrooms are legalized for medical or recreational use, but assuming that eventually happens, it looks like we will need to strap in for a world of fresh innovation coming out of the emerging magic mushroom industry.
MDMA
MDMA Close to Getting FDA Approval
There was a ton of valuable MDMA research that came out in 2019, including a study that found MDMA-assisted psychotherapy to be effective at treating alcohol use disorder and another paper that reported ecstasy users to be more empathetic than people who take other drugs.
MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of PTSD will be entering its round of Phase 3 trials soon, which may mean that it could be legal for medical use as soon as 2021—just as Rick Doblin (the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) has previously predicted.
DMT
Endogenous DMT Was Discovered in the Brain
A debate about whether DMT is created in the human brain has gone on for decades, and although it wasn’t exactly resolved this year, there is at least one new argument to consider. That’s because a natural source of the drug was found in the brains of rats, indicating that same thing might be happening in humans.
5-MeO-DMT
5-MeO-DMT Splashes Onto the Scene With Plenty of Controversy
While it was once a relatively obscure psychedelic drug only known to the most hardened psychonauts, 5-MeO-DMT became far more popular in 2019, although not without a ton of internal debate from its users. Professional boxer Mike Tyson made waves after announcing that he was a big fan of the drug because it helped him cure his addictions. And studies found that the psychedelic toad venom is capable of relieving depression, anxiety, and stress.
One of the main controversies surrounding 5-MeO-DMT involves widespread malpractice among some of the traveling practitioners who administer it to adventurous psychonauts around the world. A discussion has opened up about how to hold these dangerous practitioners accountable in a world where legal recourse cannot be taken against underground shamans.
Another debate involves whether users should work with the venom, which is collected from the Sonoran Desert Toad, or if they should switch to using the synthesized form of 5-MeO-DMT, which is made in a laboratory. There are several factors to consider, including the entourage effect that comes with using the natural material and the endangerment of the toads, a species in rapid decline.
Nitrous Oxide
Laughing Gas For Childbirth & Problems in Europe
More women are choosing nitrous oxide to help them through labor and childbirth, but it can be at a high cost. An administration of laughing gas can be quite expensive, costing up to $5000. And while nitrous oxide can be helpful for labor pain, the epidural is still the top choice.
Recreational laughing gas use has been exploding in Britain and the Netherlands, with users sometimes even consuming the dissociative drug while driving. In response, the Dutch government has decided to officially classify nitrous oxide under its Opium Act in the “Schedule II” category, along with other so-called “soft drugs” like cannabis, hashish, sleep medications, and sedatives like Valium and Seresta.
Ketamine
Esketamine Earns “Breakthrough Therapy” Designation
After many years without approving a new antidepressant, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted the “Breakthrough Therapy” designation to a nasal spray named Spravato for treatment-resistant depression. Also known as “esketamine,” this medicine is simply the left-handed subtype of ketamine, not a brand-new drug.
This was a huge step forward, but not everyone was happy about the news. That’s because there are restrictions on where, when, how, and why patients are able to receive treatment, and it will be prohibitively expensive for many. In a world where ketamine clinics already exist—although you do have to be careful about which one you choose—is a more exclusive drug really needed?
Opioids
Touching Fentanyl Won’t Kill You & The Sackler Family Saga
Opioids are a family of incredibly powerful painkillers. They can be used to anesthetize patients prior to surgeries or help people recover from injuries, but they are often stigmatized as drugs of abuse that can also be used to kill people when in the wrong hands.
The police and media kept spreading the myth that merely touching fentanyl will kill you, but that has been thoroughly debunked and the record needs to be set straight because spreading this lie any further is outright dangerous.
The family behind the pharmaceutical opioid known as OxyContin received a large portion of the blame for causing America’s modern “opioid epidemic.” A lawsuit exposed several offenses that the Sackler family committed, including pushing to keep patients on OxyContin longer, concealing the drug’s strength from doctors, and taking larger payments from Purdue Pharma after it was fined for misleading marketing of the prescription painkiller.
Although maintaining its innocence, the family reached a $270 million settlement in the lawsuit, which is merely a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of money that they pocketed.
Methamphetamine
It Turns Out Meth is a Medicine
Methamphetamine use increased dramatically all across the U.S., but especially in the midwest. South Dakota even ran a controversial anti-meth campaign that got people talking about the problems that many people were aware of but few were openly talking about. Crystal meth even became popular in North Korea, when the drug became a trendy lunar New Year’s gift. But the story that interested me the most this year was about the many health benefits of methamphetamine. That’s right, it turns out the drug can actually be a medicine capable of healing the brain, but stigma surrounding problematic use of street meth is harming patients and holding back research.
Nicotine
Legal Age to Buy Tobacco Raised to 21
The movement to raise the legal age for purchasing tobacco gained steam, with several states and cities opting to limit access to those younger than 21. With e-cigarette usage increasing among teens to the point where schools started installing vape detectors to sniff out students, it certainly seemed to many that reducing access would greatly reduce harms. (Although if underage nicotine users wanted a fix they could’ve probably just gone to Walmart or Kroger to buy their goods before the FDA threatened to fine the stores for selling tobacco to minors.)
This left many people calling for action at the federal level, which happened just earlier this month. Although the FDA technically had until this summer to update its regulations, the agency went ahead and announced that the new legal age is now in effect, so as of now it is a violation of federal law to sell tobacco products (including e-cigarettes, cigarettes, and cigars) to anyone under the age of 21.
While this is arguably a win from a public health perspective, it will put 18-20 year-olds in a situation where their country says it’s okay for them to literally go die in a war to protect our freedoms but they aren’t allowed to buy a pack of cigarettes. And to make matters worse, there’s no grandfather clause, so anyone who is deemed underage will be expected to magically quit one of the most addictive substances on the planet.
I expect a black market for underage tobacco and nicotine users to open up, further increasing the harms that they are exposed to. But on the bright side, this will make it difficult for those who haven’t already started using these products to get started with them, and that’s something worth celebrating.
Unwarranted Bans and the Backlash
The vaping-associated lung injury (VALI) epidemic mentioned earlier in this blog post also greatly affected nicotine-containing e-cigarettes, not because they were really at fault but because the mainstream media and U.S. government mistakenly placed the blame on them.
Even before vaping fell under intense scrutiny, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to pass a ban on e-cigarettes. And once the VALI story had made its rounds, Michigan attempted to ban flavored e-cigarettes, although a judge later put the ban on hold. Massachusetts banned tobacco and vaping products but that ban was also struck down. Washington also joined in. Walmart decided to stop selling e-cigarettes in its stores. These bans were essentially knee-jerk reactions to misreporting from media outlets and the CDC, which claimed that VALI was caused by e-cigarettes when the main culprit was clearly black market THC vape cartridges.
Vapers around the country didn’t buy the official story, and with good reason. When President Trump announced a plan to ban flavored vapes across the U.S., the threat of a crackdown mobilized vapers to protest the proposed ban, which eventually prompted him to back down.
Shortly after the fight, vapers were armed with new research when a long-term study found that although vaping does cause damage to the lungs, it is still safer than smoking.
A New Alternative to Smoking or Vaping with E-Cigarettes
Nicotine fans have other options when it comes to satisfying their cravings. A new device called IQOS, which heats tobacco without burning it, was granted approval in the U.S. and the manufacturer launched the product at quite an optimal time—right on the heels of the VALI epidemic.
Alcohol
The Alcohol Industry is Drowning
While alcohol use seems to be soaring worldwide, another narrative is simultaneously emerging. The powerful alcohol industry, once thought to be undefeatable, has met its match in the form of several new phenomena—the legal cannabis industry, a generation of young people that are sick of drinking, and a forthcoming synthesized alcohol alternative that promises to provide all the joys of drinking without any of the dangers or annoyances that come with traditional alcohol.
Kratom
Kratom is Still Under Attack
Ever since the DEA recommended that kratom be banned at the national level back in 2016, a feverish debate has raged on between federal authorities and kratom supporters. The FDA denied involvement when Indonesia announced its future plans to crack down on kratom in 2024. This year kratom was banned in two Mississippi cities (Columbus and Caledonia) and Castle Rock, CO banned underage sales but the attempt to ban kratom at the federal level has thankfully failed.
Miscellaneous
The Drug War Rages On
Even though the war on drugs has been deemed wildly ineffective and a flagrant violation of human rights by researchers and NGOs, and while the majority of Americans support decriminalizing all drugs, the drug war is showing no signs of packing its bags and heading home anytime soon. But that hasn’t stopped drug policy reform groups from proposing various models for how we could legalize every drug in the future.
El Chapo Goes Down
The notorious drug kingpin known as El Chapo was found guilty in his U.S. trial of all charges involving his role in trafficking billions of dollars worth of illegal drugs into the United States while he was a top boss in the Sinaloa cartel. He was given a life sentence, but even top-security prisons don’t exactly have the best record when it comes to keeping him behind bars, so this story may not be over quite yet.
Three Psychedelic Luminaries Passed Away
The psychedelic community lost three amazing contributors this year. Ralph Metzner, an LSD and consciousness researcher who contributed a lot to the body of psychedelic research died at the age of 82. Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert), who teamed up with Timothy Leary and Aldous Huxley in the 1960s to work with psychedelics at Harvard University—and later went on to promote Hinduism and Eastern philosophy to the West—passed away earlier this month at the age of 88. And James Ketchum, an army psychiatrist who assisted with conducting LSD experiments on U.S. soldiers died at the age of 87. All three of these men left the world in a much better place than it would have been without them, and they will be greatly missed.
The Dark Web Can’t Be Defeated
The dark web hosts many black marketplaces for illicit products, including drugs. One of the biggest markets, known as Dream Market, shut down in April, and another named Wall Street Market followed suit shortly thereafter. The founder of Silk Road 2 was finally sentenced to more than five years in prison nearly five years after the site was shut down by the feds. But no matter what, when one black market site on the dark web goes down, another quickly springs up to fill the void again. How long will this game of cat and mouse continue?
The World’s First Psychedelic Research Centers
More and more psychedelic research has come every year since the early 2000s, increasing our understanding of these powerful and life-transforming plants and chemicals. This year the world’s first psychedelic research centers were opened. The first, the Imperial Centre for Psychedelic Research, based in London, is expected to focus on the use of psychedelics in mental health care and how they affect the brain.
Not to be outdone, the U.S. also opened the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins, which will also study the safety and efficacy of using psychedelics to treat a range of mental health issues. And the mainstream is taking notice—60 Minutes devoted a segment to the center’s opening.
And Jamaica opened up the world’s first magic mushroom research center, which will conduct its research with actual psilocybin mushrooms rather than the synthesized compound.
Trip-Free Psychedelics
The psychedelic experience is often credited for the healing that can take place when people consume psychedelic drugs. But scientists, therapists, and the always money-hungry pharmaceutical industry are all looking at the possibility of removing the trip from psychedelics to treat patients without requiring them to undergo a potentially overwhelming—or even traumatizing—psychedelic experience.
Companies have begun work on developing trip-free psychedelics that will still be helpful for issues like depression and addiction. Whether their quest will be successful is yet to be determined, but the news has left many psychonauts stunned and afraid that this is the first sign of a psychedelic-free world. However, as long as psychedelic plants and fungi continue to grow and underground chemists forge on, the psychedelic experience is most likely here to stay.
A Few More Highlights
And that barely scratches the surface of what happened in psychoactive drug news this year. Psychedelics were featured as a topic on the main TED Talk stage for the first time, drug education has come a long way since D.A.R.E., and more people are going “Cali Sober,” which means they are consciously choosing to abstain from drugs other than cannabis and psychedelics.
Conclusion
It’s been quite an exciting year for drug nerds. Tons of new psychoactive research studies came out, drug policy reform efforts inched forward one by one, and several companies showed an interest in capitalizing on markets that have yet to even fully materialize. I am sure 2020 will be yet another fun one to watch, and encourage you to keep your eyes open for the weekly roundups that are published on this blog as well as the monthly recaps that go up on my YouTube channel so you can stay up-to-date with everything that is happening in this space.
Previous Years In Psychoactives
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Banner image by Psychedelic Astronaut.
