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This Week in Psychedelics - 11.3.17

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

  • Stanford Study Confirms Cannabis Users Have More Sex (Leafly)
  • Trump's Commission Denies Evidence That Cannabis Can Mitigate Opioid Abuse (NORML)
  • Domestic Hemp Production More Than Doubles In Past Year (NORML)
  • Congressional Lawmakers Demand The VA Study Medical Marijuana (NORML)
  • Federal Prohibition Left California Cannabis Farmers Without Insurance or Banks When Wildfires Struck (Reason)
  • Virginia State Crime Commission Holds Hearing On Decriminalization (NORML)
  • 'Corona, Lime, & Cannabis, Please': Big Brewer Enters Marijuana Biz (Leafly)
  • Dazed and Confused: Regulations Remain Hazy as California Looks to Legalize Marijuana Sales (TIME)
  • State Colleges Now Teaching Cannabis, and Harvard Is Playing Catch-Up (Leafly)
  • Ontario's 'Cannabis Act, 2017': Provincial Control, Million-Dollar Penalties (Leafly)
  • American Legion: One in Five Veterans Use Marijuana To Alleviate A Medical Or Physical Condition (NORML)
  • Washington's Cannabis-Tracking Snafu Could Disrupt Sales (Leafly)
  • Finding the 'Green Zone': How Specialty Realtors Are Cashing in on Cannabis (Leafly)
  • Another cultural tipping point? Cannabis ads appear in TSA checkpoint trays at Ontario airport (Los Angeles Times)
  • Using cannabis in place of anxiety meds (The Leaf Online)
  • Is Obama Back on the Cannabis Train? We're Skeptical (Leafly)
  • Cannabis Crunch – Majority of Republicans Support Pot and Sessions Can't Comment on Crackdown (Psychedelic Times)
  • 6 Ways to Save Money by Making Your Cannabis Last Longer (Leafly)
  • Basic Cannabis Growing Setups for Cultivators With Tight Budgets (Leafly)
  • Can cannabis help you get in shape? (The Orange County Register)
  • Pot Doesn't Cure Cancer and Stop Saying It Does, FDA Says (NBC)
  • Medicinal cannabis not miracle epilepsy drug, says professor treating Victorian children (Herald Sun)

LSD

  • Acid Trip: Denver's Underground LSD Labs Fueled the Psychedelic Revolution (Westword)
  • Bootsy Collins: 'LSD was a big part of why I left James Brown's band' (The Guardian)
  • Flashback to the 'Acid Test Graduation' 51 years ago (SFGate)
  • Give Us This Day Our Daily Dose: Ergot, LSD and the Israelites (Reality Sandwich)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

  • Legalizing Magic Mushrooms Could Save California Taxpayers Millions of Dollars (L.A. Weekly)
  • Psilocybin Decreases Depressive Symptoms in Treatment-Resistant Patients (MD Magazine)

MDMA/Ecstasy

  • What is pink champagne, is the MDMA party drug illegal and what are its side effects? (The Sun)
  • Ecstasy warning after boy dies following Halloween rave in Wales (The Guardian)

Ayahuasca/DMT

  • In Mid-Life, The Wonderful Non-Deliverance of Ayahuasca (Literary Hub)

Iboga/Ibogaine

  • He pitched investors on a 'miracle cure' in the Bahamas. Now he faces felony charges. (Miami Herald)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

  • Police investigating whether new designer hallucinogen has hit Winnipeg streets (Winnipeg Free Press)

Dissociatives

  • Migraine pain could be eased with ketamine, study finds (American Pharmacists Association)
  • Ketamine offers option for people suffering from severe depression (FOX31 Denver)
  • Ketamine Infusions for Depression: Beware Pop-Up (Private?) Clinics (HuffPost)
  • Lufkin PD: Man who crashed into parked vehicles at body shop was high on PCP (KTRE)

Opiates/Opioids

  • Naloxone reverses 93% of overdoses, but many recipients don't survive a year (CNN)
  • Trump's Weak Response to Opioid Overdoses (Reason)
  • One in 10 Opioid Overdosers Treated With Naloxone Die (Medscape)
  • DEA to establish team to fight heroin, fentanyl (The Register-Herald)
  • Opioids Haven't Solved Chronic Pain. Maybe Virtual Reality Can (Wired)
  • 'The Drug of Fighters.' Police Seize 24 Million Opioid Tablets Linked to ISIS (TIME)
  • China is using fentanyl in a chemical war against America (The Bellingham Herald)
  • Uruzgan women still give kids opium to silence them (Pajhwok Afghan News)
  • Opioid Commission Mistakenly Blames Pain Treatment for Drug Deaths (Reason)
  • What Doctors Facing the Opioid Crisis Need Next (TIME)
  • In a New Jersey city ravaged by heroin, a needle exchange stalls (The Denver Post)

Kratom

  • Withdrawing Off Of Opioids Using Kratom: Read This Guide (Kratom Guides)
  • The Fight to Keep Kratom Legal: Interview With an Industry Leader & Latest News (Heavy)
  • Can kratom plant help fix opioid crisis? (KSAT)
  • The Kratom Controversy: Herbal supplement or dangerous drug? (WBIR)

Kava

Khat

  • Feature: Yemen's unpaid teachers become Khat sellers (Xinhua)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

  • International Drug Policy Reform Conference Brings Harm Reduction into Spotlight (Psymposia)
  • Psychedelic Drugs Appear to Make People Less Likely to Commit Crimes (Science Alert)
  • Enlisting Marijuana and MDMA to Fight PTSD (Reason)
  • Psychedelics and Drug Addiction (Brain Blogger)
  • Psychedelics Are Making a Comeback Through Microdosing (Westword)
  • Mainstreaming "Psychedelic Medicine" (Rick Strassman MD)
  • The Day the Grateful Dead, Timothy Leary and LSD Turned On City Park (Westword)
  • Smart drugs for stupid people? An argument against the liberal use of pharmacological cognitive enhancers (University College London)
  • Spirit trip: an interview with a psychedelic monk (Political Critique)
  • Your Brain on Psychedelic Drugs (Psymposia)
  • An Arrest Warrant Has Been Issued for Rose McGowan in Connection to Drug Charge (TIME)
  • Fear and Loathing on Flatbrush Avenue (Psymposia)

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 - 4.14.17

Uruguay government legalises sale of recreational cannabis in pharmacies, the scientific evidence for using ketamine to treat acute and chronic depression, the spice epidemic shows why we should legalise herbal cannabis, and more in this week's update.

This Week in Psychedelics - 9.2.16

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

  • 9th Circuit Says Medical Marijuana Cardholders Have No Second Amendment Rights (Reason)
  • States Voting on Marijuana This Year (ATTN:)
  • Chatting with the Man Who Legally Changed His Name to 'Free Cannabis' (VICE)
  • Medical Marijuana: New York Set To Approve Home Delivery Of Cannabis (Inquisitr)
  • New Campaign in Colorado Looks to Keep Underage Kids From Using Cannabis (Merry Jane)
  • Tommy Chong Has a Major Request for Pres. Obama Before He Leaves Office (ATTN:)
  • Promoting Cannabis Legalization: Advice From The Experts (Dope Magazine)
  • These Athletes Add Cannabis To Their Workout Regimen (Forbes)
  • More Americans Are Using Marijuana and Don't See it as Harmful (TIME)
  • When Bob Dylan Turned the Beatles On To Marijuana (Reality Sandwich)
  • UC Irvine Professor: Cannabis Shows Promise Treating Opioid Addiction (Green Rush Daily)
  • California Veterans Group Distributed Free Cannabis (Green Rush Daily)
  • California Cannabis: Show Me The Money (Above the Law)
  • Four Cannabis Entrepreneurs Share Their Strangest Moments (Forbes)
  • Cannabis Growers Seek Blue Ribbons For Their Buds At Oregon's State Fair (NPR)
  • How cannabis harms your will to work: Just ONE joint reduces motivation (Daily Mail)

LSD

  • How the Brain Processes Language on Acid Is a Trip (Motherboard)
  • Grateful Dead fan who sold LSD has life sentence cut by Obama (Mashable)
  • John Lennon on his first acid trip (Boing Boing)
  • Turn on! LSD pioneer Ram Dass recalls pal Timothy Leary (New York Daily News)
  • I Use LSD to Help Me Deal with the Trauma of Being Kidnapped by My Dad (VICE)
  • 1924: A rabbi who sought the light anywhere, including in LSD, is born (Haaretz)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

  • Treating Depression: Human Study Shows Psilocybin Works Where Conventional Antidepressants Don't (Psychedelic Times)
  • Bad Trips Might Be Good For You (I4U News)

MDMA/Ecstasy

  • What the 1980s Glue Sniffing Epidemic Can Teach Us About Preventing Ecstasy Deaths (VICE)
  • This Chemist Should Have Won a Nobel Peace Prize (VolteFace)

Ayahuasca/DMT

  • This Is How Ayahuasca Affects the Brain (Motherboard)
  • Questions raised about what caused woman's death inside Berea church (WKYT)
  • Discovery of illegal drug lab, used to manufacture DMT, prompts extensive hazardous materials response in Northampton (MassLive)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

Iboga/Ibogaine

  • Witness to Transformation: John Harrison on Ibogaine Addiction Treatment (Psychedelic Times)

Dissociatives

  • Man Who Died when Tased Was High on PCP: NY AG (Patch: Southeast)
  • Sheriff: Man on flakka and LSD smashes window, attacks woman (WFXT)

Opiates/Opioids

  • Surgeon General Writes to Every Doctor in U.S. About Opioid Epidemic (TIME)
  • Should the cost of naloxone be determined by its public health impact? (Modern Healthcare)

Kratom

  • The DEA Is Placing Kratom And Mitragynine On Schedule I (Forbes)
  • Why Banning the Controversial Painkiller Kratom Could be Bad News for America's Heroin Addicts (Kratom Project)
  • Why are many states hurrying in banning the kratom? (Kratom Project)
  • The Problem With the DEA Ban on Kratom (ATTN:)
  • Which countries allow kratom usage without restrictions? (Kratom Project)
  • Kratom and Pregnancy: Can a Pregnant Woman Take Kratom? (Kratom Guides)

Kava

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

  • America Can Learn A Lot From Portugal's Drug Policy (NORML)
  • Cocaine 'worth €50m' discovered at Coca-Cola plant (BBC News)
  • Philippine Anti-Drug Strategy: 'Kill Them All' (Reason)
  • Canadian Vacationers Charged With Smuggling $22 Million of Cocaine on Cruise Ship in Australia (TIME)
  • The war on drugs failed. What now? (The Christian Century)
  • 500 legal experts launch bid to reform drug policies (Buenos Aires Herald)

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.

This Week in Psychedelics - 8.26.16

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

  • These Five States Are Next To Vote On Cannabis Legalization (Green Rush Daily)
  • DEA Concession Means Marijuana Could Be Approved As a Medicine (Reason)
  • Is Naked Weed Report a Win for Women in the Cannabis Industry? (Merry Jane)
  • Marijuana's Mystifying Misclassification (Reason)
  • What Will Recreational Marijuana Legalization Mean for California? (Reason)
  • Oregon's Legal Marijuana Raised More Than $25 Million in Tax Revenue This Year (TIME)
  • Michigan Marijuana Legalization Initiative Probably Won't Make Ballot (Reason)
  • Stoner secretly grows cannabis in Glastonbury council's hanging baskets... for 18 years (RT)
  • A Greener Weed: Certified Pesticide-Free Cannabis Comes to Colorado (Modern Farmer)
  • Trial of cannabis withdrawal spray Sativex popular with middle-aged pothead dads (The Sydney Morning Herald)
  • What Gambling Can Tell Us About Legalizing Marijuana (ATTN:)
  • Bob Marley's kids launch a new cannabis 'lifestyle brand' in Oregon (The Oregonian)
  • Die Antwoord to Launch Their Own Cannabis Product Line "Zef Zol" (Merry Jane)
  • To help baby girl, family drives to Denver for cannabis (KOAT)
  • Sexist Cannabis: Marijuana relieves pain for men, not women – study (RT)
  • Medical Marijuana is as healthy as Medical LSD and Heroin (Clapway)

LSD

  • LSD Triggers Strong Activation Of Mind's Semantic Networks, Study Finds (Medical Daily)
  • Would you take LSD to give you a boost at work? WIRED takes a trip inside the world of microdosing (WIRED)
  • LSD Might Make You More Creative (TIME)
  • Beatles' Acid Test: How LSD Opened the Door to 'Revolver' (Rolling Stone)
  • Here's What Happens to Your Brain on LSD (Esquire)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

  • Study: Psilocybin Helps Smokers Quit Long Term (High Times)

MDMA/Ecstasy

  • With the Proper Setting, Women May Respond Better to MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy Than Men (Psychedelic Times)
  • How Your Menstrual Cycle Can Affect Your Reaction to MDMA (VICE)
  • This Is What Sex on MDMA Is Like (Cosmopolitan)
  • Why You Gurn When You Take MDMA (VICE)
  • The growing popularity, and potency, of ecstasy and MDMA (BBC News)
  • Double-strength MDMA causing 'more mental health issues' (The Week)
  • German Police Allegedly Confuse Viagra for Ecstasy in Traffic Stop (THUMP)
  • Irish teenager who first did ecstasy in third year: 'Most schools have dealers amongst students' (Irish Independent)

Ayahuasca/DMT

  • The science of the hallucinogenic drug ayahuasca (Science Alert)
  • How Two Plants Combine To Form The Powerful Drug Ayahuasca (Gizmodo: India)
  • Filipino tourist dies during Ayahuasca session (Peru This Week)
  • Yoga, Ayahuasca, and a Course in Miracles: Notes on the Ongoing Revelation (Reality Sandwich)
  • BBC presenter takes drug in Brazil to "get close to God" - and describes his five-hour hallucination (Mirror)
  • Police investigating App State student's possible drug-related death, drug lab (WBTV)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

  • Travelers Warned Not to Bring Peyote or Marijuana Creams from Mexico (Breitbart)
  • The people who take drugs to see God (BBC News)

Iboga/Ibogaine

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

Dissociatives

  • Ketamine: The Musical 'Does Not Make You Want to Do Ketamine' (The Village Voice)
  • 'Special K' for depression (Seton)
  • Stamford Man High on PCP Urinated in Public Near Children: PD (Patch: Stamford)
  • Angry, PCP-Using Brother Shoots Pregnant Sister and Kills Her Baby: Prosecutor (Patch: Chicago)
  • Man believed to be on PCP in violent struggle with police (The Hour)

Opiates/Opioids

  • Seattle Considers Safe Space for Heroin Use (Reason)
  • When Chinatown was overrun by gambling and opium dens (New York Post)

Kratom

Kava

  • Thousands drinking kava in NZ, but is it a cure or a killer? (TVNZ)
  • Launch of Kava Strategy and Quality Standard (Vanuatu Daily Post)
  • Hawaiian healing herbs help health (The Garden Island)
  • Vatanitawake Speaks Out Against Church Practices (Fiji Sun)

Khat

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

  • The Mainstreaming of Psychedelics (High Times)
  • Almost 1,800 People Have Died in Seven Weeks in the Philippines' War on Drugs (TIME)
  • The Ancient Roots of Psychedelic Harm Reduction at Modern Festivals (Psychedelic Times)
  • Alcohol Prohibition Was a Dress Rehearsal for the War on Drugs (Reason)
  • A Psychedelic Right (VolteFace)
  • Growing research finds psychedelics effective in treating disease (The Baltimore Sun)
  • Psychedelics: The Trip from Criminality to Validity (Reality Sandwich)
  • Is Sex Better on Drugs? (Thrillist)
  • Blame the War on Drugs for stoned, face-eating murderers (Boing Boing)
  • College Student Who Tried to Bite Man's Face Off Told Cops: 'You Won't Find Any Drugs in Me' (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.

This Week in Psychedelics - 8.19.16

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

  • Why We Should Demand That Congress Reschedule Marijuana (NORML)
  • 9th Circuit Says Feds May Not Prosecute State-Legal Medical Marijuana Suppliers (Reason)
  • Arizona Is the Fifth State Where Voters Will Decide Whether to Legalize Pot This Year (Reason)
  • Canada to allow medical patients to grow own cannabis (Fox News)
  • Medical cannabis in Israel to become more accessible (Haaretz)
  • Post-Traumatic Marijuana: Some Military Veterans Are Embracing the Drug as Scientists Scramble to Study it Effects (TIME)
  • Cannabis and Blue Dreams of Unity at the DNC Convention (The Weed Blog)
  • When Treating Bipolar Disorder with Cannabis, Research Suggests the Amount of CBD May Be Key (Psychedelic Times)
  • Poll: Two-Thirds Of Californians Support Legalizing Retail Sales Of Marijuana To Adults (NORML)
  • Is Cannabis Better for Chronic Pain Than Opioids? (Leafly)
  • The NHS are testing a cannabis product for the first time (The Independent)
  • Majority back decriminalisation of cannabis use, poll suggests (Radio New Zealand)
  • How an Ailing Artist Helped Unite Italians Around Cannabis (Leafly)
  • SF pot dispensary vibe: The country club of cannabis clubs (San Francisco Chronicle)
  • Reasonable Doubt: the history of marijuana law in Canada (NOW Magazine)
  • Marijuana Advocates to DEA: Talk to the Hand (ATTN:)
  • Oregon's cannabis fair celebrates growing pot industry (KHOU)

LSD

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

  • Psychedelic mushrooms growing alarmingly popular among middle schoolers (WTVM)

MDMA/Ecstasy

  • Why So Many People in the UK Are Dying from Ecstasy Overdoses (VICE)
  • Science Reveals Whether Sex Feels Best on MDMA, Alcohol or Weed (Maxim)
  • Why Do So Many Women Keep Dying At This Music Festival? (Broadly)
  • Mixmag Launches Campaign for Safe Ecstasy Usage (EDM Tunes)
  • Expert discusses MDMA research (Medical Xpress)
  • Brit holidaymaker in hospital after suspected overdose in Ibiza nightclub (The Sun)
  • Man jailed after supplying ecstasy to friend who died at Sterosonic festival (The Guardian)

Ayahuasca/DMT

  • Ayahuasca Benefits And Risks: Hallucinogenic Drug May Enhance Meditation (Medical Daily)
  • Visions, purging and Peru: what happened when I went to an ayahuasca retreat (Yahoo! Lifestyle)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

  • CBP Reminds Public that Peyote is Prohibited Item (KRGV)

Iboga/Ibogaine

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

  • 'Zombie Drug' Paranoia Resurfaces After Teen's Terrifying Homicidal Outburst (Reason)
  • Proposed N-Bomb drug law change too harsh, contends Drug Foundation (Stuff.co.nz)

Dissociatives

  • Ketamine May Be The Next Great Hope In Treating Mental Illness (The Huffington Post)
  • Australia's largest trial of ketamine to treat depression begins (Scimex)
  • Could ketamine help heavy drinkers cut down on booze? (Dazed)
  • Apparently intoxicated, half-naked man blocks roadway; police suspect PCP (The Examiner)

Opiates/Opioids

  • FDA paves a path for OTC naloxone (Behavioral Health)
  • People Are Overdosing on 'Game of Thrones' Heroin (TIME)
  • A Life-Saving Overdose Drug Is Getting Harder to Afford (ATTN:)

Absinthe

  • This Isn't Your Grandfather's Absinthe (Munchies)

Kratom

Kava

  • Methodist church relaxes certain conditions of smoking and kava ban (Fijivillage)
  • Kava company reached out to the world (The Fiji Times)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

  • Which Drugs Make Your Dick Shrink the Most and Why (VICE)
  • Philippine Leader Duterte Calls U.N. 'Very Stupid' For Criticizing His Drug War (TIME)
  • The global drug wars have failed, how can DU30's 'war' succeed? (The Manila Times)

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.