This Week in Psychedelics - 11.24.17

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Study Finds Alcohol 10 Times More Deadly Than Cannabis on the Road (Leafly)
• Michigan: Legalization Coalition Turns in 360,000 Signatures to Place Issue on 2018 Ballot (NORML)
• California Weed Club Caught Pretending to Be a Church (TIME)
• Study: Medical Cannabis Registrants More Likely To Cease Using Opioids Compared To Non-Participants (NORML)
• California releases cannabis regulations, with no limit on farm size (Sonoma Index-Tribune)
• Good News: Congo Is Ditching Conflict Metals For Cannabis (High Times)
• Pennsylvania Couple Sues Drug Warriors Who Thought Hibiscus Was Marijuana (Reason)
• Is The TSA More Chill About Weed Than San Francisco? (Reason)
• Caffeine Is More Dangerous Than Marijuana (ATTN:)
• Pennsylvania Town Used Confidential Informant and Undercover Cops to Arrest a Man For Selling Bongs (Reason)
• Bush-Era Attorney General Cautions Against Cannabis Crackdown (Leafly)
• Cannabis Crunch – Ex-Cops Selling Weed, Dubious Marijuana 'Overdose' And Don't Trust Sessions (Psychedelic Times)
• Don't Blame Wildfires for Rising California Cannabis Prices (Leafly)
• Last stop for cannabis advertising on Muni buses, trains, stations and stops (SFGate)
• Can The Standard Hotel Really Open a Cannabis Shop in Its Lobby? (Leafly)
• Does medical marijuana really work? The truth behind the buzz. (HuffPost)
• Massachusetts Towns Reject Cannabis Bans, Bucking Early Trend (Leafly)
• RightSciences raises cash to develop cannabis and hemp-based medicinal patches (GeekWire)
• Across State Lines: One Medical Cannabis Refugee's Journey to Colorado and Back (Leafly)
• Talk About Marijuana At Thanksgiving This Year (NORML)
• How One Painting Class Is Bringing Art, Cannabis, and People Together (Leafly)
• Oakland reviewing 255 permit applications to cultivate, deliver cannabis (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Medical cannabis clinic, possible pot shop coming to Old Strathcona (Edmonton Journal)
• Italian toddler hospitalized after mistaking cannabis for chocolate (The Local)

LSD

• Observations from 4000 LSD Sessions: A Dialogue with Stanislav Grof (Reality Sandwich)
• LSD is making a comeback, but not in the way you'd expect (My Fox Boston)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• The California Psilocybin Legalization Initiative Looks to put Magic Mushrooms on the Ballot (The Weed Blog)
• Johns Hopkins studying effects of psilocybin on brains of long-term meditators (Psymposia)
• Posttreatment Brain Effects of Psilocybin in Patients With Treatment-Resistant Depression (Psychiatry Advisor)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Psychedelics and Psychotherapy: Is There a Role for MDMA in the Treatment of PTSD? (Medical News Bulletin)
• 'A Void No One Can Fill': Mum's heartbreaking tribute to daughter, 18, who died after 'taking MDMA at Newcastle nightclub' (The Sun)
• 3 charged after cat allegedly abused and drugged with MDMA, with videos sent to family (CBC News)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Criminalization Makes It Harder to Study Ayahuasca, Scientists Say (VICE)
• How Tripping on Ayahuasca Could Help People with Eating Disorders (Broadly)
• What is DMT and why you should care. (Psychedelics Daily)
• NM veterans vouch for ayahuasca therapy (Albuquerque Journal)
• Wook Describes His Wild Method of Transporting DMT Crosscountry (Your EDM)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Cambridge student 'confused' after taking legal high, inquest hears (The Guardian)
• German therapist convicted of botched psychedelic experiment (San Francisco Chronicle)

Dissociatives

• Your Healthy Family: Ketamine being used to treat PTSD and severe depression (KOAA)
• The Effect of a Single Dose of Intravenous Ketamine on Suicidal Ideation: A Systematic Review and Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis (The American Journal of Psychiatry)
• OKC grandmother arrested after child swallows PCP (KSWO)
• Police: Driver arrested after crashing into vehicle while on PCP (The Herald-News)

Opiates/Opioids

• Afghan opium production at all time high (Daily Times)
• NJ pharmacies can now dispense naloxone without prescription (American Pharmacists Association)
• DEA puts synthetic opioid fentanyl on par with heroin and meth (Washington Examiner)
• US conducts airstrikes on Afghan opium labs (NewsPatrolling)
• America's Opioid Epidemic Is Costing Hundreds of Billions of Dollars (TIME)
• U.S. Strikes on Taliban Opium Labs Won't Work, Say Afghan Farmers (U.S. News & World Report)
• New York asks residents to carry naloxone to reverse drug overdoses (The Journal News)

Absinthe

• Absinthe Was Once Banned for Being Evil—Now It's Just Meh (The Wall Street Journal)

Kratom

• Can Kratom Help With Withdrawal From Methadone? (Kratom Guides)
• Using Kratom For Suboxone Withdrawal (Kratom Guides)
• Seeking Alternative Addiction Treatment, Mainers Experiment With Kratom (Maine Public)
• FDA finally rules on kratom: It's a potential killer (New York Post)
• Where FDA Sees Deadly Drug, South Florida Advocates See Natural Alternative To Prescription Drugs (WUSF)
• Denver bans sale of Kratom, drug often used as painkiller (9NEWS)
• Mom of man killed by kratom calls for research, not ban (WTSP)

Kava

• Vanuatu pushes standardisation of kava industry (Radio New Zealand)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Hunting for the Most Potent Psychedelic Toad Venom on Earth (VICE)
• Psychedelic Treatments for Cluster Headaches (Psychedelic Times)
• What The Women's Rights Movement Shares With The Drug War (High Times)
• Could Oregon Be the First State to Legalize Psychedelic Therapy? (Psymposia)
• Psychedelic society launches in Glasgow to try to change the law on mind-altering drugs (The Herald Scotland)
• Mainstreaming psychedelics. Are we there yet? (Rick Strassman MD)
• Hallucination machine lets you blow your mind without taking psychedelic drugs (RT)
• LAPD Officer Gaxiola Caught Allegedly Planting Cocaine on Suspect by Own Body Cam Footage (ATTN:)
• Mind menders: how psychedelic drugs rebuild broken brains (New Scientist)
• WATCH: Fox News host wants you to have a psychedelic experience before you die (Raw Story)

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.

This Week in Psychedelics - 11.27.15

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Medical Marijuana Supporters File Petition To Get DEA Chief Fired (ATTN:)
• Using Marijuana During Pregnancy Does Not Make A Mother Unfit (Reason)
• How Cannabis Can Take Your Sex Life to the Next Level (Leafly)
• Sarah Palin Says Legal Pot Is 'Absolutely No Big Deal' (Reason)
• Myrcene: There's More To Marijuana Than Cannabinoids (Reset.me)
• Desperate family calls for medicinal cannabis amnesty after police come knocking (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Five Scientific Benefits to Smoking Marijuana on Thanksgiving (ATTN:)
• Is Cannabis Addictive? (Leafly)
• Why Driving While High Laws Are Very Troubling (ATTN:)
• Alaska Regulators Propose Allowing Cannabis Cafés (Reason)
• How California Will Legalize Pot in 2016 (Reason)
• Golden Leaf eyes joint listing as cannabis market grows (Financial Times)
• DHS office says no to cannabis connected food donation (KGW)
• Mexican girl's medical cannabis win raises hope for others (Yahoo! News)
• Cannabis Wedding Expo: Plan a weed wedding at this first-of-its-kind event (The Cannabist)
• Will Denver Okay a Two-Year Moratorium On New Pot Businesses?: Cannabis Events (Westword)
• Do Pot and Pregnancy Mix? (Reason)
• 'Godmother' of cannabis meets her tech-happy children at SF pot summit (CNET)
• Poll shows rising support for Cannabis decriminalization among Israeli college students (The Jerusalem Post)
• Colorado Cannabis Clubs are Coming -- But How Soon? (Leafly)
• Cannabis Coffee Makers Are Hoping to Become Bulletproof 2.0 (Bloomberg)
• Bed heads: Colorado's Airbnb-style website for cannabis lovers (The Guardian)
• Oregrown: A High Class Cannabis Establishment in Bend, Oregon (Marijuana Politics)
• Clinical study at CAMH tests how cannabis affects volunteers' driving skills (The Star)
• Colorado police officers warns of marijunana [sic] dangers (Sioux City Journal)
• Cannabis oil use in Missouri off to slow start (KMBC)
• Cannabis Confiscated at North Iceland Farm (Iceland Review)
• Proof strong cannabis DOES harm your brain: Regularly smoking 'skunk' found to damage area that carries signals - and can lead to mental illness (Daily Mail)

LSD

• How LSD Microdosing Became the Hot New Business Trip (Rolling Stone)
• Switzerland Briefly Legalized LSD Therapy and Then Couldn't Let It Go (VICE's Motherboard)
• Mississippi Man Died After Police Hogtied Him for More Than an Hour (ATTN:)
• Inside the Plot to Get Every American High on Acid (The Daily Beast)
• What Happens When Military Troops Are Given LSD? (First to Know)
• Forget Coffee, Silicon Valley's New Productivity Hack Is 'Microdoses' of LSD (GQ)
• 'The Sunshine Makers': Film Review (The Hollywood Reporter)
• LSD Microdosing Is a Thing (The Interrobang)
• A Brief History of Microdosing (VICE's Motherboard)
• Forget Coffee, Silicon Valley's Young Professionals Turn to LSD (Social News Daily)
• Taking LSD for breakfast 'can cure anxiety and insomnia' (Metro)
• Ex-soldier high on LSD almost killed 3 generations of same family in car crash (Mirror)
• Man drowns after LSD beach trip (New Zealand Herald)
• Silicon Valley professionals are taking LSD at work to increase productivity (The Telegraph)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Microdoses of LSD and mushrooms as an alternative to Adderall (or coffee!) (Boing Boing)
• deGeneration X: Did I Just Eat Mushrooms in Indonesia (Paste Magazine)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• How to Legally Buy a Kilo of Pure MDMA (VICE's Motherboard)
• US Border Protection Just Seized $880,000 in MDMA (VICE's Thump)
• This is what ecstasy looks like under a microscope (The Week)
• This Australian Man's Testimony About The Alleged Long-Terms Effects of Ecstasy Use Is Heartbreaking (VICE's Thump)
• How ecstasy-related deaths in Britain can be traced to illegal logging in Cambodia (The Telegraph)
• Former bikini model walks free over ecstasy supply charges (The Courier Mail)
• Hugging woman exposes bikini model drug dealer (9news.com.au)
• Ecstasy pills seized at SA schoolies (The Australian)
• Drug dealer caught with 34kg of MDMA at M6 hotel fails to get sentence cut (Express & Star)
• College student killed himself while on massive MDMA comedown (Metro)
• Athens man accused of ecstasy trafficking, $180K seized from Whitehall Road home, banks (Online Athens)
• 'It all seems like fun and games and a cheap $25 pill but it's not worth it' (News.com.au)
• Canadian Arrested While Importing Ecstasy (Windsor Square)
• Student who took MDMA died after suffering 'suicide Tuesday' symptoms (The Times)
• Trenton man caught eating MDMA (The Trentonian)
• Businessman raped air stewardess he met on millionaire dating website after spiking drink with ecstasy (Mirror)
• North Devon homeless man tried to sell ecstasy and methadrone in attempt to 'big himself up' (North Devon Journal)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• What Ayahuasca Taught Me About Taking Care of My Health (VICE's Motherboard)
• Exclusive Clip: Experience "Jungle Fever" From The Movie "Aya: Awakenings" (Reset.me)
• DMT Journeys with Devin James Fry (Austin Chronicle)
• Art of the Day: 'Plant Spirit: After Castaneda', by Merrilee Challiss (Nashville Scene)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Meet the Godfather of the Dangerous LSD Substitute NBOMe on Today's 'Daily VICE' (VICE)
• 13 hospitalized in San Diego after overdose of synthetic drug Spice (Los Angeles Times)
• Man stabbed 32 times by friend high on psychedelic drug known as Mr Happy (Mirror)
• SA man charged over 'liquid acid' (Yahoo! News)
• Horrifying new drug made knifeman slaughter pal in desperate battle to escape dream world (Daily Star)

Dissociatives

• Police release 911 call of a suspected PCP overdoes of 500-pound man (The Washington Post)
• Chicago cop charged with murder in killing of black teen (CBS News)
• Ketamine as an antidepressant (Kelowna Capital News)
• Scuba Keeps Offering People Ketamine on Twitter (VICE's Thump)
• Does it tell the whole story? Video recorded inside West Allis jail cell after man's arrest goes viral (Fox6 Now)
• Ketamine and Dance Music: The Drug's Surprising Rise in Popularity (Magnetic Mag)
• Police: Nearly 500 pound man dies after possible PCP overdose (W*USA 9)

Opiates/Opioids

• FDA Approves Nasal Naloxone To Combat Opioid Overdosing (Hospitals & Health Networks)
• Heroin, Survivor of War on Drugs, Returns With New Face (The New York Times)
• America's Heroin Problem Is Helping Mexican Drug Cartels Expand (ATTN:)
• Injection rooms for addicts to open next year in drug law change, says Minister (The Irish Times)
• Americans' growing taste for heroin is killing thousands of people outside America (Quartz)
• Iranian Police Seize 555 Kilograms of Opium (Tasnim News Agency)
• Delaware's heroin babies: Starting life in withdrawal (Delaware Online)
• Iranian Official Demands Europe's Cooperation to Curb Poppy Cultivation in Afghanistan (Fars News Agency)
• BRIEF-Indivior says received a complete response letter from FDA on naloxone nasal spray (Reuters)
• Thousands of drug users are rescuing each other with antidote naloxone (The Washington Post)
• Rantz: Seattle wants to essentially legalize heroin (My Northwest)
• Viewpoint: 'Addiction deserves all the same life-saving measures any other disease demands' (Monadnock Ledger-Transcript)
• Activists promote opiate antidote as U.S. overdoses surge (Reuters)
• No FDA Nod for Second Nasal Naloxone in Opioid Overdose (Medscape)

Absinthe

• Eat. Drink. Do. Wigle Whiskey debuts Absint Minded absinthe (Next Pittsburgh)

Kratom

• Drug task force explains reason behind pulling Kratom off Talladega County shelves (ABC 33/40)
• Banning kratom: Wisconsin treats safe herbal supplement like a dangerous drug (Wisconsin Watchdog)
• Will other counties in Alabama outlaw Kratom? (WIAT)
• Bus Bound for Phuket Packed With Kratom, Alcohol and Cigarettes, say Police (Phuket Wan)
• Sam Dunkovich: Why is Wisconsin banning natural pain relievers? (The Cap Times)

Khat

• Man detained after Khat seizure at Dublin Airport (Breaking News)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Never before published photos from Psychedelic Conference II in Santa Barbara, 1983 (Boing Boing)
• Common Sense: The Need To Improve Harm Reduction Services At Music Events (Reset.me)
• DEA Boss Clings On Amid Campaign for His Ouster (U.S. News & World Report)
• Cut Sentences for Low-Level Drug Crimes (The New York Times)
• The origin story of the Timothy Leary archives (Boing Boing)
• The stunning paradox of Iran's war on drugs: How it actually makes America look worse (Salon)
• Psychedelic Parenting Is About More than Just Drugs (VICE's Motherboard)
• Dream Tripping: Getting High in Deep Sleep (Psychedelic Press UK)
• Miley Cyrus Brings Her Dead Petz for a Messy, Psychedelic Performance in Detroit: Live Review (Billboard)
• I Tried Getting 'High' on Drugless Psychedelic Alternatives in the Suburbs (VICE's Motherboard)
• Kalamazoo Institute of Arts explores psychedelic British and American screen prints of '60s and '70s (Michigan Live)
• Prosthetic Penises and Spilled Milk: Miley's Psychedelic Tour Wardrobe (Moviepilot)
• Miley Cyrus review - new psychedelic direction is a bad trip (The Guardian)
• Turn on, tune in, drop - um - in to check out 'Strange Days' (NIU Today)
• The Flaming Lips and Miley Cyrus Share Psychedelic, Colorful "Lighter" Video (Pitchfork)

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 (and other psychoactives) are presented by the mass media, which includes everything from the latest scientific research to misinformation.