Weekend Thoughts - 2.17.18

Image by tomdaemon, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. The bike-sharing war is heating up as competitors eagerly attempt to raise additional funds. LimeBike (which is seemingly Silicon Valley's favored competitor) raised $50 million in funding back in October in an effort to expand into twice as many markets around the country than it previously existed in. The dockless bike-sharing model allows customers to unlock a bicycle with their smartphone and pay $1 to rent it, leaving it wherever they want when they are done riding. The LimeBike service exists in the city where I live (Durham, NC) and a few of my colleagues rented bikes for an afternoon ride a few months ago. The process was easy peasy—both renting and returning the bikes. As a cyclist who commutes by bike to work every day, I have been happy to see bike rentals become more easy and affordable, which will hopefully encourage others to ride bicycles more frequently. But as an environmentalist, I am disturbed by the amount of bikes I see discarded in various areas around town that just seem to stay parked where they are. China even has ridiculous bike-share "graveyards" due to issues with its dockless bike-sharing services. Ultimately, I'd like to see dockless bike sharing expand to more areas, but the ongoing maintenance of the bicycles and the eyesores that parked bikes can create in some places are two things that I think need more consideration.

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

This Week in Psychedelics - 2.16.18

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• New Federal Legislation To Protect Legal Marijuana States And Businesses (NORML)
• Federal Medical Marijuana Protections Temporarily Extended, Again (NORML)
• Marijuana sales overtake alcohol in US city for first time (The Independent)
• Girl Scout sells 300 cookie boxes in six hours after setting up outside cannabis shop (The Telegraph)
• Cannabis Cleans Up Nuclear Radiation And Toxic Soil (Disinfo)
• Fox News: Support for Cannabis Legalization at Record High (Leafly)
• To Placate Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Blocks Medical Marijuana Exports (Reason)
• DAs Making it Easier to Clear California Cannabis Convictions (Leafly)
• Lawsuit Argues That Feds' Cannabis Ban Violates Our Constitutional Rights (Forbes)
• For the legal cannabis trade, some new wrinkles: Older users (Los Angeles Times)
• Can Olympic Athletes Use Cannabis? Officially No, But... (Leafly)
• Dream catchers, succulents and joints: a visit to an LA cannabis shop (The Guardian)
• Prosecutors ask pot regulators to hold off on cannabis cafes (Concord Monitor)
• Warner Robins athlete C.J. Harris controls seizures with cannabis oil (WMAZ)
• Federal Judge To Hear Arguments Wednesday In Legal Fight Challenging The Constitutionality Of Marijuana's Illicit Status (NORML)
• White House Official Resigns Over Cannabis Use 5 Years Ago (Leafly)
• Berkeley declares itself a sanctuary city for recreational pot (CNN)
• Cannabis and Romance: It's Complicated (The Portland Mercury)
• How to Invest in Canada's Coming Legal Cannabis Boom (Leafly)
• Travel Writer and Television Host Rick Steves Briefed Congress On Marijuana Policy (NORML)
• Members-only cannabis club opens for business (KOAT)
• Shopify + Cannabis = Upside (Seeking Alpha)
• Growing Cannabis Use by Patients Needs to be Matched by Counseling and Awareness of Risks, Report Says (Fibromyalgia News Today)
• New cannabis products highly potent, pose mental health risks (Science Daily)
• Growing a book of business in the cannabis market (Employee Benefit Advisor)

LSD

• Neuroimaging study helps explain why LSD makes the familiar seem more surprising (PsyPost)
• Silicon Valley Is On LSD, And The Government Is Holding Them Back (71 Republic)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Scientists studying psychoactive drugs accidentally proved the self is an illusion (Quartz)
• Running Away or Righting The Way: Is Psilocybin a Viable Psychiatric Treatment? (MD Magazine)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• MDMA-assisted psychotherapy being used to treat eating disorders (The Independent)
• REPORT: Hip-Hop Lyrics Glorifying "Molly" Have Heavily Influenced MDMA Use (Your EDM)
• Why ecstasy in the U.S. is getting more dangerous by the day (Big Think)
• After Dropping Bannon, The Mercers Are Looking Into Dropping Ecstasy (Fast Company)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• 9 thoughts i had while taking ayahuasca (MTV)

Dissociatives

• Doctors using ketamine for treatment of depression (FOX 5 DC)
• Anesthesia drug ketamine may fight depression by muzzling 'bursting' brain cells (Science Magazine)
• Ketamine Clinics of Los Angeles is the Leading Clinic Specializing Exclusively in IV Ketamine Infusion Therapy for Depression and Other Mood Disorders (Digital Journal)

Opiates/Opioids

• OxyContin Maker Will Stop Promoting Opioids to Doctors (TIME)
• Plans for heroin to be prescribed to addicts in West Midlands (The Guardian)
• Controversial program gives 'prescription' heroin to users to shoot up (KING5)
• Naloxone, the medicine helping fight the opioid crisis, explained (Vox)
• Afghanistan's First Female Coders Designed a Videogame to Protest Opium Production (Paste)
• Can cannabis save us from the opioid crisis? (KPCC)
• Heroin vaccine blocks lethal overdose (Science Daily)

Kratom

• FDA Informed Consumer Of The Kratom About Its Adverse Effects On Health (Talk Herald)
• Should We Care That Kratom is Classified as an Opioid? (Healthline)
• FDA's war on kratom could worsen opioid crisis (Nation of Change)
• Denver Slapped for Trying to Destroy Kratom From Store Targeted Under Ban (Westword)
• Understanding The Kratom Potential Benefits, Risks, And Current Scientific Studies (Kratom Guides)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Inside the Mind of Amanda Feilding, Countess of Psychedelic Science (Wired)
• The Long, Strange History of Psychotropic Drugs in America (VICE)
• 3 Reasons Why Governments Ignore Scientific Advice on Drug Use (Science Alert)
• Stossel: Silk Road Founder Jailed, Drug Sales Go Up (Reason)
• A trip to hell to cure depression? Psychedelics as psychiatry with Adam Laidler (The Mancunion)

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.

Weekend Thoughts - 2.10.18

Image by rurik2de, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. Earlier this week, Elon Musk's private space transport company SpaceX launched its first Falcon Heavy rocket from the same location that NASA used for its Apollo missions. The rocket had an almost flawless launch, sending a Tesla car containing a mannequin (dubbed "Rocket Man" by some) into space to orbit Mars, and the company was even able to recover two out of its three boosters perfectly (the third missed its landing zone by roughly 30 feet, apparently) for future reuse. I'm amazed by the hard work that Musk and team are putting in at both of these companies, not to mention his other business ventures.

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

This Week in Psychedelics - 2.9.18

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Seattle To Vacate Criminal Convictions For Former Marijuana Offenders (NORML)
• German police association calls for complete legalization of cannabis (The Local)
• The Dirty Secret of California's Cannabis: It's Dirty (Wired)
• Girl, 6, Becomes First Recipient of Medical Marijuana in Texas (TIME)
• How A Cannabis Tech Platform Is About To Make Life A Lot Easier For Marijuana Dispensaries (Forbes)
• The tea costs $60, but the weed is free: Cannabis capitalists exploit loopholes by 'gifting' the drug (Chicago Tribune)
• Portland's First Cannabis Bodega Mixes Weed and Grocery (Willamette Week)
• Despite Tough Talk, Oregon's U.S. Attorney Doesn't Plan to Shut Down the Pot Industry (Reason)
• California's former convicts could get help entering the legal cannabis industry – and get marijuana crimes wiped off their record (Business Insider)
• How Is Oregon Handling Its Cannabis Surplus? (High Times)
• Medical cannabis dispensaries are opening in Texas, but the newly legal oils still aren't easy to procure (The Texas Tribune)
• Cannabis Beer Soon To Be Available  -- In Canada (Forbes)
• Girl Scout Who Sold Cookies Outside Marijuana Dispensary Could Get in Trouble (TIME)
• Study: Cannabis Is Safe And Effective For Elderly Patients (NORML)
• Dow's Big One-Day Drop Doesn't Hurt Cannabis Stocks (Leafly)
• Canadian Cannabis Companies Correct After Capital Raising Crescendo (Forbes)
• Nepal Cannabis Crackdown Targets Temple Hashish (High Times)
• Virginia NORML Considered Instrumental in Passage of Medical Marijuana Expansion Legislation (NORML)
• California's Race to the Top on Cannabis (CityLab)
• House Judiciary Democrats Call For Marijuana Hearing (NORML)
• Cannabis Crunch — Despite Trump Administration, Legalization Still Plows Forward... & All The Other Weed Craziness In January (Psychedelic Times)
• What Are Cannabis Flavonoids and What Do They Do? (Leafly)
• Mendocino Cannabis Company In Showdown With Authorities (High Times)
• Status Report: The Impact Of Adult Use Regulatory Schemes (NORML)
• Renewed War on Marijuana Spurs Congress to Defend Federalism (Reason)
• O Cannabis: How to use marijuana at home without smoking it (Valley Advocate)
• Trust the people and the states on cannabis (The Hill)
• On Building A Consumer Friendly Market In Nevada (NORML)
• ABcann Global Is A Potentially Strong Play In Cannabis (Seeking Alpha)
• Cannabis and Risk for Opiate Misuse (Psychology Today)

LSD

• Tech workers use LSD to help expand creativity (KIRO)
• Naked man high on LSD, covered in cooking oil arrested after getting Tasered twice (New York Daily News)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• How to Prepare a Psilocybin Mushroom Microdose (Psychedelics Daily)
• Do Shrooms Show Up On Drug a Test? (Psychedelics Daily)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Selling MDMA for My Dad Made Us Close, Then Tore Us Apart (VICE)
• Drugs in Berlin: Half of partiers periodically take amphetamines and MDMA (Deutsche Welle)
• MDMA Psychotherapy Trials Showing Promise (7th Space Interactive)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Entrepreneurs Seeking Business Guidance Through Ayahuasca Are Receiving Spiritual Insights Instead (Entrepreneur)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

• Native church's lawsuit spurs training for airport screeners (Bluefield Daily Telegraph)

Morning Glory Seeds

• Can Common Household Plant Seeds Be Used As a Party Drug? (Snopes)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• What Is 4-AcO-DMT? (Psychedelics Daily)
• How To Microdose 4-AcO-DMT? How to Take 4-AcO-DMT Microdose? (Psychedelics Daily)
• MDMA buyers at festivals getting 'seedy', more potent alternative (Newshub)

Dissociatives

• Could ketamine help treat alcohol dependence? (The Guardian)
• Ketamine could help veterans with PTSD, but clinics may be jumping the gun (San Antonio Express-News)
• A-hole in a K-hole: Katie Hopkins' ketamine adventures (The Guardian)
• Ketamine to Treat Suicidal Ideation in Major Depressive Disorder (Psychiatry Advisor)
• Ketamine gaining popularity as a treatment for the severely depressed (CBS News)

Opiates/Opioids

• San Francisco to Open Safe Drug Injection Sites by Summer (Reason)
• Opioid Overdoses and Naloxone: What Everyone Needs to Know (Psychiatric Times)
• Legal Limits on Opioid Prescriptions May Increase the Number of Pills Dispensed (Reason)
• Poppies replacing pot in Mexico's drug fields (Mexico News Daily)
• Homeless. Addicted to Heroin. About to Give Birth. (Mother Jones)
• Jeff Sessions Says Opioid Addiction Starts With Marijuana. Here Are 6 Studies That Say Otherwise (Reason)

Kratom

• Is Herbal Supplement Kratom an Opioid? The FDA Says Yes (TIME)
• Does the Herbal Supplement Kratom Really Contain Opioids? (Live Science)
• Understanding Kratom Strains (Reports Healthcare)
• The Dangers of Taking Kratom (Consumer Reports)

Kava

• Kava, the drink soothing the stress of New York millennials (The New Paper)
• Samoa aims to revive kava exports (Radio New Zealand)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Festival Psychedelic Use and the Archaic Revival: A Conversation with Julian Vayne (Psychedelic Times)
• Showtime Documentary Highlights Drug War's Futility (Reason)
• The hidden side of psychedelics (Felix)
• Recent News and Updates from TripSit (TripSit)
• Silk Road's Founder Is in Jail for Life, but the Dark Web Only Grows (Reason)
• Why Clinicians & Researchers Should Be Interested in The Psychedelic Science Renaissance (Particle)
• A Woman Shaman Defies the Odds, and Starts her Own Healing Center (Reality Sandwich)
• Trump Wants Us 'To Get Really, Really Tough, Really Mean with the Drug Pushers' (Reason)

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.

Weekend Thoughts - 2.3.18

Image by Momentmal, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. Fitness tracking app Strava came under fire this weekend when location data it collected inadvertently revealed the locations of secret U.S. military bases. Strava has reminded its users that they can turn off location sharing, and that the map does not include areas that have been deemed private by its users. However, this is a solid reminder that data that users freely give to technology companies may end up being used for nefarious purposes.

2. The results are in: podcast advertising is well worth it for podcasters and advertisers alike. Apple's Podcast Analytics feature became available last month and the initial numbers have been encouraging, indicating that podcast listeners may be the engaged and supporting audience that podcasters and advertisers were hoping for. That's because apparently most podcast listeners stick around to the end of each show and don't skip ads. However, the results are only taking into account listeners that use Apple's Podcasts app that are also on iOS 11, which is only a slice of the total population. At any rate, it must be welcome news to those in the podcast business!

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