This Week in Psychedelics - 12.9.16

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

  • Congressional Republicans Vow To Block Marijuana Amendments (Marijuana.com)
  • Here Is the Trouble With Legalized Cannabis (Merry Jane)
  • White House Hints At Possible Marijuana Moves (Marijuana.com)
  • Medical cannabis shop touts plant as alternative to opioids (Belleville News-Democrat)
  • In Remote Indian Village, Cannabis Is Its Only Livelihood (The New York Times)
  • 7 Reasons President Trump Is Unlikely To Fight Legal Marijuana (TIME)
  • The Big Business of Making a Cannabis Surveillance State (Motherboard)
  • Memory Impairment Caused By Marijuana Can Both Assist and Hinder PTSD Therapy (Psychedelic Times)
  • Cannabis use spikes 70% among Americans aged 50 and above (The Independent)
  • Marijuana Advocates Are Celebrating This Small Victory (ATTN:)
  • Maine Marijuana Opponents Can't Get Enough Volunteers for Legalization Recount (Reason)
  • Legal cannabis in NZ? Green Party offers green light to pot smokers (Stuff.co.nz)
  • This Company Wants To Super-Chill Your Coffee With Cannabis (The Huffington Post)
  • Cannabis Business Hype Is About to Go Up in Smoke (Fortune)
  • Steve Kerr Admitted to Using Marijuana For Back Pain (ATTN:)
  • 13 Chicago High School Students Hospitalized After Eating 'Laced' Gummy Bears (TIME)
  • Cannabis 'affects your eyesight': Study finds regular marijuana use damages link between retina and brain (Daily Mail)

LSD

  • Wildlife cameras unexpectedly snap naked man high on LSD who thought he was a Siberian tiger (Mirror)
  • Did HALLUCINOGENS spark the Salem witch trials? Experts say locals may have eaten bread contaminated with a fungus found in LSD (Daily Mail)
  • And You're Making Me Feel Like I've Never Been Born: The Beatles' Second Acid Trip (VICE)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

  • Psilocybin, the Active Ingredient in 'Shrooms, Is Looking More and More Like a Potential Wonder Drug (New York Magazine)
  • How A Psychedelic Drug Helps Cancer Patients Overcome Anxiety (NPR)

MDMA/Ecstasy

  • MDMA Is Now One Step Away From Being a Prescription for PTSD (New York Magazine)
  • UK nightclubs will offer free cocaine and MDMA booths to test Class A's are safe to take (The Sun)
  • The MDMA being used to treat trauma is different from the street drug Ecstasy (The Conversation)
  • MDMA for PTSD? How Ecstasy Ingredient Works in the Brain (Live Science)
  • Teenager battling depression took potentially fatal dose of ecstasy before she killed herself at a beauty spot (Mirror)
  • Heartbroken mum of ecstasy death victim begs teens not to 'play Russian roulette' with drugs (Mirror)

Ayahuasca/DMT

  • Study: Single Session of Ayahuasca Can Defeat Depression (Collective Evolution)
  • Silicon Valley's new craze is flying to Peru to take a psychedelic you can't legally get in America (Business Insider)
  • Hallucinogenic drug ayahuasca 'stimulates the brain to fight Alzheimer's, study claims (Daily Mail)

Iboga/Ibogaine

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

  • Deadly designer drugs now in the workplace (SafeToWork)

Dissociatives

  • Anaesthetists to study ketamine for post-surgery pain (Newstalk ZB)
  • For one NC veteran, ketamine offers a treatment breakthrough (WNCN)
  • 'My wonk addiction is destroying my bladder': Ketamine dealer knows he has a problem (Gloucestershire Live)
  • Man Sentenced for Conspiring with Postal Carrier to Distribute PCP (Kansas City infoZine)
  • 1-year-old poisoned by PCP recovering (The Port Arthur News)

Opiates/Opioids

  • "I am a human being:" Heroin user speaks out after overdose streamed on Facebook Live (FOX 6 Now)
  • Heroin deaths exceeded gun murders for 1st time last year – CDC (RT)
  • Heroin overtakes cocaine as the biggest concern for local cops (VICE News)
  • Mexican cartels are expanding their control over the US heroin market (Business Insider)
  • Why all the opium in the world won't make America happy (The Hill)
  • Utah pharmacists can now dispense naloxone without a prescription (Deseret News)

Kratom

  • DEA refuses to release evidence backing Kratom ban (MuckRock)
  • Kratom and Cannabis Combination – The Medicinal and Psychological Effects (Kratom Guides)
  • Drug policy experts and advocates implore DEA to keep opiate-like plant legal (The Washington Post)
  • Kratom Mixed with Coffee (Kratom Guides)
  • Kratom & Yerba Mate Tea—Is It A Safe Combination? (Kratom Guides)
  • Kratom and Chamomile - A Great Combination to Potentiate the Effects (Kratom Guides)

Kava

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

  • Integrating Your Experience: Why You May Question Your Sexuality After Using Psychedelics (Psychedelic Times)
  • How Donald Trump's Cabinet Could Affect Executive Polices on Psychedelics (Psychedelic Times)
  • Why Psychedelic History Matters (VolteFace)
  • The Different Approaches to Appropriate Dosage Amounts In Psychedelic Therapy (Psychedelic Times)
  • Rodrigo Duterte: Donald Trump Endorsed Deadly War on Drugs as 'The Right Way' (TIME)
  • Microsoft says virtual reality could make you HALLUCINATE in the same way as LSD (Daily Mail)
  • VR Isn't Going To Be Like LSD – It's Going To Be Much Better (Inverse)
  • Can Psychedelics Make You Smarter and More Creative? (TalkingDrugs)
  • Blue Lotus: The Ancient Egyptian Dream Flower (World of Lucid Dreaming)
  • China's 'Walter White' Sold $600,000 Worth of Illegal Drugs Every Month to U.S. and Europe (TIME)
  • Psychedelic War Stories & Cosmic Flights: An interview with Andy Roberts (Psychedelic Press UK)
  • This Is the Latest Chilling Statistic to Emerge From the Philippine War on Drugs (TIME)

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.