This Week in Psychedelics - 1.1.16

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

  • A Look Back at 2015; and Ahead to 2016 (NORML)
  • Marijuana Legalization 2016: Which States Will Consider Cannabis This Year? (International Business Times)
  • Best Marijuana Moments of 2015 (ATTN:)
  • California Gets Ready for Legal Marijuana (Reason)
  • FDA Weighs in on Rescheduling Cannabis (Leafly)
  • The 10 States Where It's Easiest to Get Weed (ATTN:)
  • Exchanging Pot Brownies for 'Donations' Is Still a Crime in D.C. (Reason)
  • Parents find success treating kids' epilepsy, autism with cannabis oil (Vancouver Sun)
  • Colorado Cannabis Credit Union Demands Access to the Federal Reserve System (Reason)
  • Nonprofit gives out A THOUSAND free joints to homeless stoners for Christmas in Denver (Daily Mail)
  • Kosher Marijuana: New York Company Says Medical Cannabis Conforms To Jewish Dietary Law (International Business Times)
  • Congress Did Not Legalize Medical Marijuana (Reason)
  • Should Grandma Smoke Pot? (Reset.me)
  • 2015: The Year In Review – NORML's Top 10 Events That Shaped Marijuana Policy (NORML)
  • Crossing the green line: The first cannabis company on Wall Street (The Telegraph)
  • Colorado Settlement Suggests RICO Nuisance Suits Will Hinder Legal Pot Industry (Reason)
  • Colleges Ease Athlete Punishments for Cannabis (Leafly)
  • Now You Can Buy Kosher Marijuana (TIME)
  • The Difference Between Indica and Sativa (ATTN:)
  • 5 Ways Cannabis Creams Help You Chill (Civilized)
  • After 6 months, stakeholders assess Minnesota medical cannabis program (Twin Cities)
  • Indoor farming: Good for cannabis, not so good for food (Gigaom)
  • Six Resolutions for the Cannabis Community in the New Year (Willamette Week)
  • Cannabis Can Gives Free Pot to the Homeless on Christmas Eve (Westword)
  • Mentor Capital Has Five Best Congressional Cannabis Resolutions (Business Wire)
  • NORML's Weekly Legislative Round Up (NORML)
  • World's first kosher cannabis will let Jewish people enjoy medical marijuana (Mirror)
  • Doctors urge cannabis caution for children with chronic diseases (The Vancouver Sun)
  • Summer sun prompts police warning about cannabis growers (Manawatu Standard)
  • Latest: Trio charged for possession of over $10M worth of cannabis (Antigua Observer)
  • ChocoHigh! Chocolate with cannabis goes on sale in Siberia for $3 a bar (RT)
  • Boy, eight, 'kept locked in a tiny shed on illegal cannabis farm was left there forgotten for THREE WEEKS with just chips and a box of muesli bars' (Daily Mail)

LSD

  • Animator dropped acid while creating 'Return of the Jedi' (New York Post)
  • An Interview with the Author of Psychedelic Psychiatry: LSD From Clinic to Campus (Slice Today)
  • Oscar-winning Star Wars animator admits he took LSD while working on 'Return Of The Jedi' (Raw Story)
  • Phil Tippet Took LSD While Animating 'Return of the Jedi' (Inverse)
  • A 'Star Wars' Animator Admits He Took LSD While Working On 'Return Of The Jedi' (Maxim)

MDMA/Ecstasy

  • Ask the Lawyer: Drug penalties depend on what member knows about drug (Military Times)
  • Five youths rushed to hospital after taking ecstasy at Aberdeenshire house party (Press and Journal)
  • MDMA warning to Southport's clubbers (Southport Visiter)
  • Nigerian Sentenced To Death For Drugs Smuggling In Malaysia (NAIJ)
  • 16-year-old using a wheelchair after taking Ecstasy (The San Fransisco Globe)
  • Teen accused of intending to supply ecstasy at Field Day music festival granted strict bail (Courier Mail)
  • The new party drug threat you NEED to know about (LOOK)
  • Police issue warning amid fears of dangerous batch of ecstasy (The Independent)
  • Teenager charged over supplying ecstasy at Boxing Day races at Broadmeadow (Newcastle Herald)

Ayahuasca/DMT

  • Ayahuasca: a Possible Cure for Alcoholism and Depression (Motherboard)
  • Effects of Long-Term Ayahuasca Administration on Memory and Anxiety in Rats (PLoS)
  • Portland Fuckboy in Band Called 'Black Pussy' Says Psychedelic Drug DMT Will Cure 'PC Culture' (The Muse)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

Dissociatives

  • Ketamine To Be Helpful in Depression And Overeating (Capitalberg)
  • Rat Study IDs Brain Circuit Activated By Ketamine (PsychCentral)
  • An Anthem for Ketamine (EMSWorld)
  • Why overeating tends to make us depressed (Free Malaysia Today)
  • Man on PCP gets on KCATA bus, says he's been shot (KMBC)
  • Ketamine May Aid Antidepressant Development (Pharmacy Times)
  • Ketamine worth Rs 2.5 crore seized in Bhiwadi factory raid (The Times of India)
  • Vet office burglarized for second time in month (Daily Journal)
  • Powerful anesthetic drugs stolen in Indiana animal hospital burglaries (WTTV)

Opiates/Opioids

  • FDA Comments on Nasal Naloxone Dose Concerns (MedPage Today)
  • Good and Bad News on the Heroin Front (Patch)
  • Heroin for the Holidays (Reason)
  • Portraits Of Those Killed By Heroin Bring Healing And Awareness (NPR)
  • Law freeing drug antidote for public use has saved hundreds of lives (The News & Observer)
  • Cape Cod: America's Heroin Hot Spot (The Daily Beast)
  • 'I have been reborn': Recovering young addict offers hope to others (Today)
  • HBO's 'Heroin' Is a Harrowing, Necessary Documentary About Addicted Teens (Flavorwire)
  • Fentanyl suspected cause of dozens of overdoses in BC (The Globe and Mail)

Absinthe

  • Five things you thought you knew about absinthe (Los Angeles Times)
  • Vom Fass sells absinthe, liqueurs and flavored oils on the Plaza (The Pitch)

Kratom

  • Rapid Use of Kratom in Western Countries (Kratom Guides)
  • Kratom Being an 'Organic' Opiate Withdrawal Solution – 100% Works (Kratom Guides)

Kava

Khat

  • Tanzania: Police Destroy Khat Farms in Operation (All Africa)
  • Bids to smuggle khat, marijuana foiled; five persons arrested (Muscat Daily)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

  • The Year's Best Drug Scares (Reason)
  • Music Fesivals, Drugs And Pill Testing (The Huffington Post)
  • The best psychedelic videos of 2015 (The Daily Psychedelic Video)
  • The Puzzling Persistence of Pee Tests (Reason)
  • Beyond Zero and One: Machines, Psychedelics, and Consciousness by Andrew Smart review - inside the minds of computers (The Guardian)
  • Toad venom on filmmaker's menu (Echo Net Daily)
  • Skateboarders and Artists Totally Flipped an Abandoned Church Into a Psychedelic Skatepark (RYOT)
  • Psychedelic Themed Nintendo is The New Trend (Clapway)
  • Why NASA released this psychedelic, technicolor video of Pluto (The Washington Post)
  • See: NASA's New Horizons paints Pluto in psychedelic Christmas colors (IBNLive)
  • NASA releases psychedelic new footage of Pluto, capture by New Horizons (Blastr)

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.