This Week in Psychedelics - 6.18.21

Cannabis

• Louisiana Governor Signs Marijuana Decriminalization Bill Into Law (Marijuana Moment)

• Texas: Governor Signs Medical Cannabis Expansion Legislation into Law (NORML)

• Connecticut Marijuana Legalization Bill Heads To Governor’s Desk (Marijuana Moment)

• Poll: 92 Percent of Americans Say Marijuana Should Be Legal Under Certain Circumstances (NORML)

• Florida Supreme Court Kills Another Marijuana Legalization Ballot Measure For 2022 (Marijuana Moment)

• Stoned Driving Is Far Safer Than Operating a Vehicle on Prescription Drugs, Study Says (MERRY JANE)

• Rhode Island Marijuana Legalization Bill Approved In Senate Committee (Marijuana Moment)

• Montana: Opponents Drop Lawsuit Challenging Voter-Approved Legalization Initiative (NORML)

• Two cannabis legalisation bills to be considered in Portugal (CanEx)

• Nebraska Marijuana Activists Plan ‘Mass Scale’ Medical Cannabis Campaign For 2022 Ballot (Marijuana Moment)

• Local Marijuana Decriminalization Efforts Launch In Ohio, South Carolina And West Virginia (Marijuana Moment)

• Wyoming Activists File 2022 Marijuana Decriminalization And Medical Cannabis Ballot Measures (Marijuana Moment)

LSD

• Could LSD Really Be a Better Smart Drug Than Modafinil? (Sam Woolfe)

Magic Mushrooms

• Oregon’s psilocybin program starts to take shape (OPB)

• Filament Announces First GMP Batch of Pharmaceutical Grade Natural Psilocybin (Psilocybin Alpha)

• Psyence Group Announces Collaboration with the Scientific Research Council (SRC) of Jamaica for Psilocybin Product Development (Psilocybin Alpha)

Ayahuasca

• How Ayahuasca Can Help Gay Men Create Better Dance Parties (Chacruna)

Novel Psychoactive Substances

• Cybin Selects Anxiety Disorder Indications for Proprietary Psychedelic Molecule CYB004 (Psilocybin Alpha)

Nitrous Oxide

• Laughing gas could help people with hard-to-treat depression (Popular Science)

Miscellaneous

• Federal Drug Decriminalization Measure Introduced in the House (DoubleBlind)

• Introducing the Mormon Psychedelic Summit (DoubleBlind)

• The problem at the heart of modern psychedelic clinical research (New Atlas)

• This Summer Might Be a Psychedelic Dumpster Fire. Are You Ready? (Lucid News)

• West Coast Psychedelic Update (Dr. Bronner's)

• Toronto board of health to ask Ottawa to decriminalize drug possession in the city (Toronto Star)

• Clinics Seek to Widen Access to Psychedelic Therapy for BIPOC Communities (Lucid News)

• Can Psychedelics Help Make Dying Easier? (Rolling Stone)

• Hippie Girls in Yorkville: Canada’s Haight-Ashbury (Chacruna)

• Whole-Body Effects of Psychedelics – Part 1 (Psychedelic Science Review)

• The Brain’s Psychedelic System (Reality Sandwich)

• As the Pandemic Wanes and the Party Kicks Off, Drug Testing and Safety Are More Important Than Ever (Lucid News)

• Consent is Psychedelic. Here’s Why. (DoubleBlind)

• Psychedelics and Surfing (Reality Sandwich)

Think Wilder is reader-supported. If you enjoyed this week’s update, please consider helping out by becoming a patron, making a one-time donation, or sharing this post with a friend. Thank you for your support.

Disclaimer: "This Week in Psychedelics" does not censor or analyze the news links presented here. The purpose of this column is solely to catalog how psychedelics are presented by the mass media, which includes everything from the latest scientific research to misinformation.

This Week in Psychoactives - 6.14.19

CANNABIS

• Oldest evidence of cannabis smoking found in ancient Chinese cemetery (Ars Technica)

• Nevada bans employers from refusing to hire those who fail marijuana tests (CNN)

• Maryland Legalizes Medical Marijuana Edibles, With Caveats (Reason)

• Drivers With Common THC Limit Are Not More Likely To Cause Accidents, Study Finds (Marijuana Moment)

• Oregon: Governor Signs Law Prohibiting Landlords From Discriminating Against Medical Marijuana Patients (NORML)

• Texas governor signs law legalizing hemp, CBD products (The Hill)

• Court squashes Colombia’s ban on smoking pot and drinking beer in public (Colombia Reports)

• Coroner claims woman overdosed on cannabis, scientists call bullshit (The Next Web)

• Illinois Cancer Patient Sentenced to Four Years in Jail Over Cannabis Edibles (MERRY JANE)

• Study: Veterans Often Substitute Medical Cannabis for Alcohol, Prescription Drugs (NORML)

• U.S. Postal Services Unveils New Policy On Mailing Hemp-Derived CBD Products (Marijuana Moment)

• Recreational Weed Hurts Medical Cannabis Programs, Study Finds (MERRY JANE)

• Huge Cement Blocks Bar Access to Illicit Toronto Dispensaries (Leafly)

• Poll Reveals Top Reasons People Support Or Oppose Marijuana Legalization (Marijuana Moment)

• Nearly All Hospice Professionals Support Medical Marijuana Access, Study Finds (MERRY JANE)

• Las Vegas OK’d Cannabis Lounges but Nevada Just Said No (Leafly)

• Marijuana arrests target mostly blacks and Hispanics in region (Times Union)

• Baby Boomers Are Consuming Pot at Ten Times the Rate of Past Senior Generations (MERRY JANE)

• Ohio board rejects adding insomnia, depression as conditions for medical pot; tables autism, anxiety (WBNS)

• California Appeals Court Rules Cannabis Possession in Prison Legal (Courthouse News)

• Legal Cannabis May Not Lower Opioid Overdose Deaths After All (Gizmodo)

• Ontario Law Now Prevents Pot Shops From Showing Vape Pens to Customers (MERRY JANE)

• Oregon Is About to OK Cannabis Exports. What’s Next? (Leafly)

• Alabama Bucks Its History of Prohibition, Plants First Hemp Crop Since 1937 (MERRY JANE)

• Federal Employment Protections Demanded In Appropriations Bill (NORML)

• Oklahoma’s Medical Marijuana Industry Sold $23 Million Worth of Weed in May (MERRY JANE)

LSD

• The U.S. Army Once Kept $1 Billion Worth of LSD in a Maryland Office for Some Reason (Gizmodo)

• The Highs and Lows of LSD Literature (The New York Times)

MAGIC MUSHROOMS

• Magic mushrooms could replace antidepressants within five years, says new psychedelic research centre (The Independent)

• 'They broke my mental shackles': could magic mushrooms be the answer to depression? (The Guardian)

• I Took Magic Mushrooms To Treat The World’s Worst Headaches... And Got Arrested For It (HuffPost)

MDMA

• Ecstasy warning over high strength MDMA pills at Parklife (Daily Star)

• More than 2000 children need help to ditch ecstasy problem (Mirror)

DMT

• What’s DMT and why are techies and entrepreneurs secretly taking the drug? (The American Genius)

AYAHUASCA

• Psychedelics, dance steps and giant snakes: inside the ayahuasca show (The Guardian)

5-MEO-DMT

• Mike Tyson Says Smoking Toad Venom Cured His Addictions (Civilized)

SYNTHETIC CANNABINOIDS

• Synthetic Marijuana Is Making People Bleed From Their Eyes and Ears (Cosmopolitan)

• Milton teens found in medical distress didn't overdose on opioids, police say (CBC)

KETAMINE

• FDA Overlooked Red Flags In Testing of New Depression Drug (Daily Beast)

PCP

• 'It's an evil drug': Authorities see increase in demand of PCP (KTUL)

OPIOIDS

• Naloxone nasal spray is more available in Philly neighborhoods with more white residents, study finds (Philly Voice)

• Drug Users Armed With Naloxone Double As Medics On Streets Of San Francisco (California Healthline)

• Free heroin? Unusual clinic offers 'chance at being human again' (CBC)

• Insys, the Opioid Drug Maker, Files for Bankruptcy (The New York Times)

• Former champion MMA fighter describes battle with heroin addiction (WKRC)

COCAINE

• Michael Gove: Cocaine 'mistake' a 'deep regret' (BBC)

• Plumbers, builders and cabbies are doing it in the local pub – stop calling cocaine a middle class drug (The Sun)

• Why Peruvian wellness and a 'cocaine massage' could change your life (The Independent)

• Teens with prenatal cocaine exposure exhibit altered patterns of amygdala functional connectivity (PsyPost)

CAFFEINE

• Algorithm provides customized caffeine strategy for alertness (ScienceDaily)

• If We Wrote About Caffeine Like We Do Other Drugs… (Filter)

TOBACCO

• Texas Raises Age To Buy Tobacco To 21 (Inquisitr)

• A Flurry of States Have Raised Their Smoking Ages. But Big Tobacco's Involvement Has Some Health Groups Uneasy (TIME)

• E-cig companies use cartoon characters as logos, and new study shows it works (The Conversation)

• FDA finalizes guidance for premarket tobacco product applications for electronic nicotine delivery systems as part of commitment to continuing a strong oversight of e-cigarettes (FDA)

• Tobacco 21 to take effect June 24 in Mankato (Mankato Free Press)

ALCOHOL

• A Ten-Year Plan To Reduce Global Alcohol Consumption Is Showing Results (Forbes)

• Prohibition worked better than you think (Vox)

• Alcohol main cause of substance-related deaths in hospital (CBC)

• Drinking alcohol at conception shown to harm rats – new study (The Conversation)

• We Drink Basically The Same Wine As Ancient Romans — And That's Not So Great (NPR)

NOOTROPICS

• The Truth About Nootropics and What They Do to Our Brains, According to a Neuroscientist (Good Housekeeping)

• 10 Modafinil Myths You Can’t Afford To Believe (Dreamland Magazine)

KRATOM

• Kratom: A Legal Drug That’s Dangerously Addictive (Child Mind Institute)

KAVA

• Australia’s discussion of kava imports reflects lack of cultural understanding (The Conversation)

• Crackdown on health standards at Vanuatu kava bars (Radio New Zealand)

DATURA

• Dentist Arrested for slow poisoning her brother, niece (Medical Dialogues)

MISCELLANEOUS

• AOC Pushes To Make It Easier To Study Shrooms And Other Psychedelic Drugs (Forbes)

• Seven Tory leadership candidates admit they’ve dabbled in drugs after Gove shock coke revelation (The Sun)

• Say "High" to the World's First Venture Fund Exclusively for Psychedelics (MERRY JANE)

• Drugs expert barred from policy panel after criticising Home Office (The Guardian)

• Rhode Island Senate Approves Bill Allowing Supervised Consumption Sites For Illegal Drugs (Marijuana Moment)

• Fashion is having a seriously psychedelic moment (Los Angeles Times)

• I Think I Hated This Tech Conference on Psychedelics (WIRED)

• New Government Estimates Offer Early Hope That Drug Overdose Deaths Are Waning (TIME)

• Harm Production: Ontario’s Brutal Cuts Add Fuel to the Overdose Fire (Filter)

• El Chapo: what the rise and fall of the kingpin reveals about the war on drugs (The Guardian)

• Dark Web Drug Sellers Dodge Police Crackdowns (The New York Times)

• Palm Beach County wants to start Florida’s second needle exchange program (The Palm Beach Post)

• What to do when your friend gets too high (The Tab)

Think Wilder is reader-supported. If you enjoyed this week’s update, please consider helping out by becoming a patron, making a one-time donation, or sharing this post with a friend. Thank you for your support.

Disclaimer: "This Week in Psychoactives" 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.

Image by Psychedelic Astronaut.

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On the Monday following each edition of “This Week in Psychoactives,” I post a “Last Week in Psychoactives” video recap to my YouTube channel. After that is done, I retroactively add the video to the corresponding blog post. Here is this week’s video recap:

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This Week in Psychoactives - 4.26.19

CANNABIS

• CBS Poll: Nationwide Support For Marijuana Legalization At All-Time High (NORML)

• All the Top Democrats Running for President Favor Legalizing Marijuana (Reason)

• Marijuana Legalization Not Linked To Increased Traffic Deaths, Study Finds (Marijuana Moment)

• Years After Legalization, Maine Releases First Cannabis Industry Rules (Leafly)

• Mexican Lawmakers Plan To Tackle Marijuana Legalization This Summer (Marijuana Moment)

• The Clean Slate Act's Record-Sealing Provisions Go Further Than Cory Booker's Marijuana Justice Act (Reason)

• North Dakota: Governor Signs Medical Cannabis Expansion Laws (NORML)

• Alabama Lawmakers Approve Medical Marijuana Bill (Marijuana Moment)

• CBD reduces impairment caused by cannabis (EurekAlert!)

• Homeland Security Says Cannabis Users Lack ‘Good Moral Character’ (Leafly)

• USDA Clarifies That Farmers Can Import Hemp Seeds From Other Countries (Marijuana Moment)

• Texas House Votes To Legalize The Farming Of Industrial Hemp (Marijuana Moment)

• Wisconsin Legalization Would Save Lives, Bring $1.1B Benefit, Study Says (Leafly)

• Utah is allowing only 10 cannabis farms. Will that be enough to supply the state’s new medical marijuana program? (Salt Lake Tribune)

• Denver City Council to vote on allowing cannabis clubs to operate closer to daycare and rec centers (KDVR)

• Cannabis websites in US and Canada crash on biggest 4/20 day (The Guardian)

• Lawmakers Want Legal Protections For Universities That Research Marijuana (Marijuana Moment)

• SFPD Spread Misinformation about Fentanyl-Laced Marijuana (SF Weekly)

• The Weed Industry Is Burning Millions on DC Lobbyists and Getting Nowhere (VICE)

• Earth Day Begs The Question: Is Cannabis Farming Sustainable? (Forbes)

• USDA Accepting Applications For Hemp Intellectual Property Protection (Marijuana Moment)

• Cannabis, Marijuana, Weed, Pot? Just Call It a Job Machine (The New York Times)

• How Israel Became the Global Leader in Cannabis Research (Green Entrepreneur)

• Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome, Without the Hype (Filter)

• Where Presidential Candidate Joe Biden Stands On Marijuana (Marijuana Moment)

• Where Presidential Candidate Seth Moulton Stands On Marijuana (Marijuana Moment)

• Keeping Score: Major League Sports’ Stance on Cannabis (Leafly)

• Can Cannabis Replace Wellbutrin? (Civilized)

• The Indica vs. Sativa Distinction Isn’t Real (Slate)

• Did a Cannabis Company Just Patent the Spliff? (Leafly)

• Quitting Cigarettes? Joints Rolled With CBD Might Help (Marijuana Moment)

• The Paradoxical Power of Medicinal Microdosing (Psychology Today)

• Uplifting a New Face & Voice of Cannabis: A Happy 4/20 with Safon Floyd of EstroHaze (Psychedelic Times)

LSD

• “Discover who you truly are.” Albert Hofmann’s Bicycle Day and A Critical Look at LSD (Psychedelic Times)

• Here's Why You Don't Mix LSD and Nuclear-Powered Aircraft Carriers (The National Interest)

• Is microdosing LSD a solution to the 'crisis of meaning' in modern life? (Montreal Gazette)

MAGIC MUSHROOMS

• Award Winning Filmmaker Brings Psilocybin Documentary To Denver Prior To Decriminalization Vote (Prime Time News)

• Research shows psilocybin — a Schedule I narcotic — to be of great help to patients with end-of-life problems (Anchorage Press)

MDMA

• "Japanese Walter White” Accused Of Teaching Students To Make Ecstasy (The Fix)

• Study Suggests MDMA Could Help People With PTSD, Autism (The Swaddle)

• War, Morality, and MDMA: A Conversation with an Anonymous Military Psychologist (Psychedelic Times)

• To Unravel PTSD, She Took MDMA. A Promising Therapy Offers Hope (KJZZ)

AYAHUASCA

• Do Ayahuasca Shamans See Microbial Worlds in Their Visions? (Kahpi)

• Police intervene in 'healing ceremony' after death: report (NL Times)

• Ayahuasca Spirits Are Special Because They Are Not Real (Kahpi)

• Ayahuasca: the alternative antidepressant (The Vermont Cynic)

5-MEO-DMT

• Psychedelic Toad Venom Relieves Depression, Anxiety And Stress, Studies Find (Marijuana Moment)

PEYOTE

• Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy) on Taking Peyote (Reality Sandwich)

IBOGA

• The Future of Medical Ibogaine (Psychedelics Today)

• Serotonin transporter–ibogaine complexes illuminate mechanisms of inhibition and transport (Nature)

SYNTHETIC CANNABINOIDS

• Spice-related overdoses on the rise in Alabama - again; feds warn about ‘disturbing’ trend (AL.com)

NITROUS OXIDE

• Arctic Laughing Gas Emissions Could Accelerate Global Warming (EcoWatch)

• Hippy crack is no laughing matter (GQ)

KETAMINE

• Robust Evidence Supports Analgesic, Antihyperalgesic Properties of Ketamine (Clinical Pain Advisor)

• How ketamine can change the brain to fight depression (Medical News Today)

PCP

• Man accused of PCP-crazed shotgun killing of Chinese missionary pleads guilty in KC (The Kansas City Star)

• Driver was high on PCP in crash that split car in half, cops say (Lehigh Valley Live)

OPIATES/OPIOIDS

• The FDA Just Approved the First Generic Nasal Spray to Reverse Opioid Overdoses (TIME)

• After Leaving Thousands in Agony, the CDC Is Finally Clarifying Its Painkiller Restrictions (Tonic)

• Demystifying buprenorphine misuse: Has fear of diversion gotten in the way of addressing the opioid crisis? (Taylor and Francis)

• FDA clears Psychemedics hair test for fentanyl (Seeking Alpha)

• Do Electronic Health Record Prompts Increase Take‐Home Naloxone Administration for Emergency Department Patients After an Opioid Overdose? (Wiley Online Library)

• Fentanyl Speedballs Are the Latest Disturbing Trend in America's Opioid Crisis (VICE)

• Narcan is just the start of fighting the opioid overdose epidemic (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

• Heroin used to pass through South Africa en route to Europe. Now much of it stays, with devastating effects (Los Angeles Times)

• Vancouver pot king hopes to brew opium tea to help drug addicts (The Chronicle Herald)

• How the US military's opium war in Afghanistan was lost (BBC)

• New “Generic” Naloxone: Expect More Big-Pharma Sleight of Hand (Filter)

• Fentanyl killed a Penn physician’s son. Now she works to save other families from the same pain. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

• Life after a life of addiction (Cincinnati Enquirer)

METHAMPHETAMINE

• Use of meth on the rise, officials say (The Indiana Gazette)

CAFFEINE

• Beverages containing caffeine more harmful to liver than alcohol? (The Asian Age)

• Unless we act now, scientists warn, that coffee so many of us love could become extinct (WCPO)

• Wholesale coffee is cheaper than it’s been in years. That’s not good news. (Vox)

• Experts Find Out How Many Cups of Coffee Are Needed to Enhance Your Workout (Inverse)

• Coca-Cola is making a big push into coffee (CNBC)

• Leading expert warns of dangers after man (34) dies from caffeine toxicity (Irish Independent)

• SC could ban kids from buying caffeine-packed energy drinks, but not this year (Charleston Post Courier)

• Is Kombucha Environmentally Friendly? Here’s The Real Tea (Bustle)

• Dear Pharmacist: Caffeine is a natural option for ADHD (The Gainesville Sun)

• The One Thing I Gave Up That Made A Massive Difference In My Anxiety (mindbodygreen)

• 9 Benefits Of Matcha Tea That Will Make You Want To Drink It Every Day (Woman's Health)

TOBACCO

• Walgreens, Rite Aid to Raise Tobacco Buying Age to 21 and Older (The Wall Street Journal)

• Vermont House Gives Final Approval To Tobacco 21 Bill (WAMC)

• 21 and older: Proposal to raise tobacco-buying age nationwide drawing mixed feelings (WEAR)

• New Evidence of Smoking Disparities Underlines That Tobacco Harm Reduction Is Social Justice (Filter)

• ‘Tobacco 21’ Proposal Draws Debate In Florida (WLRN)

• Vaping teens exposed to as much nicotine as tobacco smokers but don't know it (NBC News)

ALCOHOL

• Why faking positive emotions at work can lead to heavier alcohol consumption (Quartz)

• Illinois Senate approves statewide rule for alcohol delivery (WQAD)

• 5 Reasons You're Depressed After Drinking too Much Alcohol (Mens Health)

• Anne Hathaway doubles down on giving up alcohol until her son is 18, but says she'll spend the 'back half of my life completely sloshed' (INSIDER)

NOOTROPICS

• An Experiment With Smart Drugs – What I Learned From Modafinil (The Quint)

KRATOM

• Kratom Craze: After wife’s death, Franklin County man seeks ban on popular substance (KMOV)

• What is kratom? ‘Controversial’ herbal supplement leads to overdoses in the U.S. (Global News)

• Kratom: Castle Rock Deciding What to Do About Controversial Substance (Westword)

• When pregnant women take kratom, their babies may suffer (Medical Xpress)

MISCELLANEOUS

• Another dark web marketplace bites the dust --Wall Street Market (ZDNet)

• Joe Biden’s long record supporting the war on drugs and mass incarceration, explained (Vox)

• Survey of subjective "God encounter experiences": Comparisons among naturally occurring experiences and those occasioned by the classic psychedelics psilocybin, LSD, ayahuasca, or DMT (PLOS)

• Imperial launches world’s first Centre for Psychedelics Research (Imperial College London)

• Psychedelics as a treatment for disorders of consciousness (Neuroscience of Consciousness)

• How a drug gang devastated our helpless family (The Guardian)

• America’s Only Publicly Traded Addiction Treatment Chain Makes Millions Off Patients. What Could Go Wrong? (Mother Jones)

• Trump Justice Department Goes After Overdose Prevention Sites as ‘Crack Houses’ (The Daily Beast)

• Psychedelic therapy: The patients paying $2k to get high with their doctor (news.com.au)

• B.C.’s chief health officer calls for decriminalization of illicit drugs (The Globe and Mail)

• British Police Are Raising Their Voices Against the Drug War (Filter)

• Confronting Sexual Misconduct in the Psychedelic Community: An Interview with Daniel Pinchbeck (Chacruna)

• Trump has been... good?... for psychedelic drugs???... (The Outline)

• What Politicians Daring Each Other to Be Drug Tested Reveals (Filter)

• Building a Psychedelic Community During the War on Drugs (Chacruna)

• Psychedelics to treat mental illness? Australian researchers are giving it a go (The Conversation)

• Psychedelics as a Path to Social Learning (The Wall Street Journal)

• Shades of Sobriety: Life Shows That Recovery Needn’t Mean Abstinence (Filter)

• The Five Phases of Psychedelic Initiation (Chacruna)

• How drug decriminalization could help stem an epidemic of drug overdoses (The Globe and Mail)

• Trump Praises China for Killing Drug Traffickers (Reason)

• Young People of Color As Leaders in The Movement To End the War on Drugs (Psymposia)

• Prison For Forced Addiction Treatment? A Parent's 'Last Resort' Has Consequences (NPR)

• The Psychedelic State of South Texas (Texas Monthly)

• Drug Use in Music Festivals Across the United States (One EDM)

• Your Guide to Microdosing for Anxiety and Depression (Allure)

Think Wilder is reader-supported. If you enjoyed this week’s update, please consider helping out by becoming a patron, making a one-time donation, or sharing this post with a friend. Thank you for your support.

Disclaimer: "This Week in Psychoactives" 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.

Image by Psychedelic Astronaut.

---

On the Monday following each edition of “This Week in Psychoactives,” I post a “Last Week in Psychoactives” video recap to my YouTube channel. After that is done, I retroactively add the video to the corresponding blog post. Here is this week’s video recap:

---

This Week in Psychoactives - 3.29.19

CANNABIS

• Guam Becomes First U.S. Territory To Send Marijuana Legalization To Governor In 2019 (Marijuana Moment)

• House Will Vote To End Federal Marijuana Prohibition Within ‘Weeks,’ Key Chairman Says (Marijuana Moment)

• Cannabis Out! New York Drops Legalization From Budget Bill (Leafly)

• Marijuana Legalization Vote Cancelled Due To Lack of Support In New Jersey Senate (Marijuana Moment)

• Marijuana Banking Bill Approved By Congressional Committee (Forbes)

• Louisiana Takes a Step Toward Finally Delivering Medical Marijuana (Leafly)

• Marijuana Legalization Bill Clears Another Major Hurdle In New Hampshire (Marijuana Moment)

• Cannabis-related ER visits in Colorado jump threefold after legalization, study says (CNN)

• Mexican Government Launches Poll To Ask Citizens If Marijuana Should Be Legal (Marijuana Moment)

• Connecticut Lawmakers Approve Marijuana Legalization Bill In Key Committee (Marijuana Moment)

• CVS Ignores DEA, Says It’s Already Selling CBD Products (Leafly)

• Texas: Marijuana Decriminalization Bill Advances Out Of Key Committee (NORML)

• San Diego Considers Cannabis Cafes (NBC Los Angeles)

• States With More Immigrants Are More Likely To Legalize Marijuana, Study Finds (Marijuana Moment)

• Seth Rogen launches weed company 'to make it easier for people to learn to love cannabis' (CNBC)

• FDA Chief Clarifies Enforcement Priorities For CBD Products (Marijuana Moment)

• Flood of products containing marijuana extract puts FDA in a bind (Politico)

• CBD for sport: legality and benefits (The Sports Daily)

• Where Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg Stands On Marijuana (Marijuana Moment)

LSD

• Missouri Man Spikes Coworkers' Drinks With LSD (KOLR)

• Stanford double checking applications following LSD and admissions scandals (Palo Alto Daily Post)

MAGIC MUSHROOMS

• Explorer’s Guide: Taking Magic Psilocybin Truffles in Amsterdam (& The Netherlands) (Maps of the Mind)

MDMA

• 'Popular' schoolgirl, 13, died at home after taking ecstasy (Mirror)

AYAHUASCA

• We Need to Talk About When People Feel Worse After Ayahuasca (Kahpi)

• Considerations for Engaging with Amazonian Ancestral Practices, People, and Places (Psymposia)

• How Ayahuasca Can Be Used to Build Cohesion and Better the World (Reset.me)

• Wade Davis on the Popularization of Ayahuasca and the Climate Crisis (Reality Sandwich)

• How Ayahuasca Connected Me To The Divinity Of The Universe (Reset.me)

5-MEO-DMT

• Study Finds 5-MeO-DMT Effective in Relieving Depression and Anxiety (Psychedelic Times)

NOVEL PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCES

• Mice tripping on psychedelics help explain neural origins of hallucinations (New Atlas)

• The Dangers of Synthetic Drugs (The Fix)

SYNTHETIC CANNABINOIDS

• Researchers Gave People Synthetic Pot. Here's What Happened. (Live Science)

• GMO Brewer’s Yeast Used to Produce THC and CBD (Oregon Cannabis Connection)

NITROUS OXIDE

• No laughing matter – nitrous oxide helps to unravel rapid antidepressant mechanisms (Medical Xpress)

• Florida man was high on erotic-themed nitrous oxide when he killed lawyer, cops say (Miami Herald)

• Jim Nielsen’s bill to ban sale of nitrous oxide passes committee (Chico Enterprise-Record)

• Frat denies hazing claims in lawsuit over student's death (San Antonio Express-News)

KETAMINE

• From Popular Anesthetic to Antidepressant, Ketamine Isn’t the Drug You Think It Is (Discover Magazine)

• Ketamine: A Promising Novel Therapy for Anxiety and PTSD (Psychiatry Advisor)

• FDA Approves Ketamine Derivative as Depression Treatment for First Time (Discover Magazine)

• Ketamine IV Infusions Made Me Myself Again. Here’s Everything You Need To Know (High Times)

• Esketamine to become available for Yale students (Yale News)

• Ketamine: can it really be an antidepressant? (The Guardian)

OPIATES/OPIOIDS

• Purdue Pharma and Sacklers Reach $270 Million Settlement in Opioid Lawsuit (The New York Times)

• You can’t overdose on fentanyl by touching it (Vox)

• As They Profited From the Opioid Crisis, Sacklers Funded Anti-Muslim Network (Sludge)

• The White House And Federal Scientists Are Pushing The Myth That Marijuana Is Laced With Fentanyl (BuzzFeed News)

• New York State Sues Billionaire Sackler Family Behind OxyContin (TIME)

• Want to Reduce Opioid Deaths? Get People the Medications They Need (The New York Times)

• How I overcame my heroin addiction – and started to live (The Guardian)

• ‘Mistreatment’ centers shouldn’t be adding to the opioid crisis (Philadelphia Inquirer)

• Vt. committee approves bill decriminalizing drug (WCAX)

• What NJ is doing to take down unimaginable number of heroin mills (New Jersey 101.5)

• Mother charged in Mount Holly man's overdose death (The Sentinel)

• FINDING HOPE: Utah law allows librarians to distribute opioid reversal drug, Naloxone (KiviTV)

• Pharmacists Role in Providing Naloxone Is Expanding (Pharmacy Times)

COCAINE

• Here’s What a Legal Market for Cocaine Could Look Like (Filter)

• 'Special offers' on crack cocaine fuelling big rise in use in England (The Guardian)

• Deaths from cocaine and fentanyl mixtures a growing concern in Northeast Ohio: What you need to know (Cleveland.com)

• Cocaine making comeback amid opioid epidemic, officials say (WCVB)

METHAMPHETAMINE

• Florida Woman Faced 10 Years For 'Meth' That Was 'Just a Rock' (The Appeal)

CAFFEINE

• There's Evidence Coffee Acts on Your Brain Like Cannabis, But in Reverse (ScienceAlert)

• Myanmar to try growing, exporting more coffee as alternative to opium (Myanmar Times)

• Mouse Studies Suggest Protective Effects of Caffeine in Parkinson’s Disease (Parkinson's News Today)

• If you have a daily caffeine habit, do you know how much is too much? (WXYZ)

• Can Taking Caffeine During Your Workout Actually Be Dangerous? (Runners World)

• 10 health benefits of living caffeine-free (MDLinx)

TOBACCO

• As Pa. prisons ban tobacco, new informal currencies arise: chips, ice cream tickets, ramen (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

• How Big Tobacco uses Big Tech to hook new smokers (Fast Company)

• Washington State Legislature Votes to Raise Age for Buying Tobacco to 21 (KPQ)

• Two more Minnesota cities make 21 the legal age for tobacco purchases (MPR News)

• New Denver proposal would ban tobacco sales to people under 21 years of age (FOX31 Denver)

ALCOHOL

• Could ‘alcosynth’ provide all the joy of booze – without the dangers? (The Guardian)

• Scientists Have Cured Alcoholic Rats by Shooting Lasers at Their Brains (ScienceAlert)

• Utah's New Beer Law Isn't Lifting Many Spirits (Reason)

NOOTROPICS

• Could These Nootropics Help You Achieve Peak Mental Performance? (San Antonio Express-News)

• Improving brain health with nootropics (Personal Liberty)

• Is Modafinil the new Wonder Drug? (Thrive Global)

• Best Nootropics for Athletic Performance (The Sports Daily)

KRATOM

• Monroe County looking to ban Kratom drug (WTVA)

• Your Guide to Kratom (San Diego Entertainer)

MISCELLANEOUS

• Acid test: how psychedelic virtual reality can help end society's mass bad trip (The Guardian)

• Researchers examine classic versus novel psychedelic use in United States (University of Alabama at Birmingham)

• Ralph Metzner, Bay Area expert on hallucinogens, death and psychology, dies (San Francisco Chronicle)

• German biotech startup raises $43 million for psychedelic medicines (Axios)

• Stigma Is Barrier to Health Care for People Who Inject Drugs (Boston University School of Public Health)

• Schedule I Sacrament (Harvard Political Review)

• Going to Burning Man? The Feds Want You Searched for Drugs (Reason)

• A New Resource to Measure Good and Bad Drug Policies (Filter)

• Investors are starting to bet big on psychedelic medicine (CNBC)

• Wicked Ecstasy: Altered States in The Name of the Rose (The Oak Tree Review)

• Jump in antidepressant prescriptions in England (BBC)

• Houston police investigator probing failed drug raid relieved of duty (Chron)

• Legal Syringe Programs Could Finally Be Arriving in Iowa (Filter)

• Kensington neighbors angered by potential location of supervised injection site (WHYY)

• Psychedelic Integration: The Importance of Community and a Daily Practice (Psychedelics Today)

• Houston Narcs Implicated in Deadly Drug Raid Will Soon Be Receiving Pensions (Reason)

• Here are 6 psychedelic trips from legal drugs you probably didn’t know about (Raw Story)

• Could psychedelic medicine be the new cannabis? (Proactive Investors)

• Are psychedelics the new anti-depressants? (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Think Wilder is reader-supported. If you enjoyed this week’s update, please consider helping out by becoming a patron, making a one-time donation, or sharing this post with a friend. Thank you for your support.

Disclaimer: "This Week in Psychoactives" 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.

Image by Psychedelic Astronaut.

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On the Monday following each edition of “This Week in Psychoactives,” I post a “Last Week in Psychoactives” video recap to my YouTube channel. After that is done, I retroactively add the video to the corresponding blog post. Here is this week’s video recap:

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This Week in Psychedelics - 9.4.15

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Cannabis Study: Indica And Sativa Are Basically The Same Thing At This Point (SFist)
• Oregon wedding features marijuana bar, budtender (KGW)
• Scientists Are Trying to stop GMOs on a New Front: Weed (ATTN:)
• The Latest Craze In Winemaking: Marijuana-Infused Wine (Vinepair)
• Weekend Weirdness: Drone Deliveries are Making Cannabis Rain from the Heavens (Leafly)
• Value of On-Site Cannabis Dispensaries Is Missed in Federal Regulations (The Huffington Post)
• Cannabis-industry women are blazing a path to equity (The Oregonian)
• College Students Now Prefer Daily Smoke to Daily Toke, Research Says (Slate)
• An Australian medical cannabis company just sold its first pot pills (Mashable)
• Mom: Cannabis oil drastically improving daughter's life (11 Alive)
• These Colorado Vets Are Suing Over Marijuana (ATTN:)
• MassRoots applies to be first cannabis company listed on Nasdaq (MarketWatch)
• Missouri Man Sentenced To Life in Prison Over Marijuana Is Set Free (The Huffington Post)
• 5 Countries Where Marijuana is Cheapest and Most Expensive (ATTN:)
• The Green Rush: Finding Tech Business Opportunities Within The Cannabis Sector (TechCrunch)
• Legal Cannabis Creates Yet Another Spinoff Industry—Wall Street-Style Data Analytics (The Stranger)
• Canadian Cannabis Firms Close Merger (24/7 Wall St.)
• Denver Initiative Allowing Marijuana Use in More Settings Is Nixed (Reason)
• Sports Pain Management Panel Presented At Cannabis World Congress In L.A. (The Weed Blog)
• Do Alaska cannabis regulations allow for chefs to get in the game? (Alaska Dispatch News)
• How taking cannabis harms fertility: Smoking pot more than once a week 'lowers sperm count by a third - and adding cocaine and ecstasy to the mix cuts it in half (Daily Mail)

LSD

• Buddhism Meets Freud and LSD (The Huffington Post)
• Man on LSD makes case for LSD over booze with help of very patient friends (The Verge)
• Boulder DA: Officer justified in shooting of CU student on LSD (Boulder Daily Camera)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Ecstasy May Benefit Veterans, Rape Victims And Others With PTSD (Colorado Public Radio)
• Out of Sight, Not Out of Mind (Emergency Medical News)
• The Dangerous Perceptions of MDMA, or More Commonly Known as "Molly" (Press Release Rocket)
• 'Pure' cocaine and super-strong ecstasy fuel rise in drug deaths (Evening Standard)
• Paradiso music fest death caused by MDMA (KOIN)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Ayahuasca Provided Deep Insight into My Most Compelling Questions About Existence (Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies)
• Miley Cyrus: Drug was 'healing' (TV3)
• Surreal Scenes as Ayahuasca Goes Global (Ancestral Seeds)
• Under the Texan Sun (Roads and Kingdoms)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• Conference To Explore The Proven Addiction Busting Power Of Ibogaine (Reset.me)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• 2C-I & 2C-B: Research Chemicals Before it Was Cool (Burners.me)
• Users Say the 'Smart Drug' Modafinil Is the New Adderall — Only Better (Vice News)
• K2, a Potent Drug, Casts a Shadow Over an East Harlem Block (The New York Times)
• MTV is Looking For A Few Good Flakka Addicts (Forbes)
• There's No Such Thing as Synthetic Marijuana (ATTN:)
• Inside the chemical underground: the truth about legal highs (Herald Scotland)
• LSD In Newfoundland And Labrador Fake, Dangerous: Police (The Huffington Post)
• Township program highlights dangers of synthetic LSD (Houston Chronicle)
• Autopsy: Marijuana, synthetic psychedelic found in Christian Taylor (Fox 4 News)
• RCMP Warning of NBome, Dangerous Drug Entering Province (VOCM)

Dissociatives

• R-ketamine: a rapid-onset and sustained antidepressant without psychotomimetic side effects (Nature.com)

Opiates/Opioids

• Young Hands in Mexico Feed Growing US Demand for Heroin (The New York Times)
• Philistines brought opium to Israel during Iron Age (The Statesman)
• Mexican opium production rises to meet heroin demand in US (The Independent)
• The new face of heroin calls for compassion, but the old was a scourge (The Washington Post)
• Could new synthetic opioid one day lead to home-brew heroin? (CNN)
• AG Announces $325000 Agreement with Naloxone Manufacturer (Patch)
• Opium Harvest More Profitable for Mexican Children than School (Breitbart News)
• ACT drug overdose reversal program should be rolled out nation-wide, expert panel says (ABC)
• San Francisco Police Officer Uses Naloxone Anti-Overdose Kit To Save Man's Life (CBS)
• First Missouri Naloxone Program Up and Running (KBIA)
• Law enforcement officers as medical first responders can save lives (EMS1.com)
• Rand Paul: 'If you work all day long, you don't have time to do heroin' (CNN)
• Can synthetic narcotics lead to heroin? (WESH)
• Doctors reminded its okay to prescribe Naloxone for drug users (WTTV CBS4 Indy)
• Heroin kills, says Effingham woman eight months sober (Effingham Daily News)
• Illinois House Leaders Override Governor's Veto On Heroin Addiction Bill (NPR)
• Naloxone can save someone (Blue Ridge Now)
• Editorial: Does US pill crackdown help Mexican heroin sales? (Redding Record Searchlight)
• UK sees huge rise in heroin and morphine-related deaths (The Guardian)
• Pa: Police using heroin antidote have saved 289 lives across the state (LancasterOnline)
• Baltimore just got a massive donation of overdose-reversing naloxone (Baltimore Business Journal)
• Drug raids highlight geographic reach of heroin problem (WISH-TV)

Absinthe

• Gears, Gadgets And Goggles: The Springfield Steampunk Festival (Vermont Public Radio)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Oliver Sacks: Psychedelic drugs 'taught me what the mind is capable of' (The Washington Post)
• Psychedelic Society Revisited: On Reducing Valves, Reality Tunnels and the Question of Psychedelic Culture (Psychedelic Press UK)
• Photographer captures drug users on cocaine, LSD, ketamine and MDMA (Metro)
• Survey Data Highlight The Tenuous Relationship Between Drug Panics And Reality (Forbes)
• Psychedelic Swirls Show Algae Bloom from Space (Yahoo! News)
• Less than a month until Plant Consciousness in London (Psychedelic Press UK)
• Miley Cyrus Ditches Pop for Lesbian Sex and Psychedelics on 'Dead Petz' (Out Magazine)

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.