This Week in Psychoactives - 10.11.19

CANNABIS

• California vape maker Kushy Punch caught making illegal products (Leafly)

• Mexican Senate Leader Says Marijuana Will Be Legalized This Month (Marijuana Moment)

• 9 States That Could Vote to Legalize Marijuana in 2020 (The Motley Fool)

• Study Funded By Feds Debunks Myths About Marijuana Legalization’s Alleged Harms (Marijuana Moment)

• California Bill Will Allow the Use of Medical Marijuana in Hospitals (MERRY JANE)

• Pilot Study Shows Marijuana Can Help Chronic Pain Patients Stop Taking Opioids (Marijuana Moment)

• Texas Officials Suddenly Shut Down Medical Marijuana Dispensary Licensing Process (Marijuana Moment)

• California's Massive Power Shut-Off Is Jeopardizing the State’s Weed Industry (MERRY JANE)

• Inventors File Patent Application For Scratch-And-Sniff Marijuana Packages (Marijuana Moment)

• Cannabis stocks have flamed out this year (CNN)

• This Michigan City Will Now Allow Cannabis Cafes and Outdoor Weed Festivals (MERRY JANE)

• Maine on track for legal marijuana sales by spring 2020 (Bangor Daily News)

• Number Of Banks Accepting Marijuana Business Grew Again Last Quarter, Feds Report (Marijuana Moment)

• The budding industry of cannabis tech (TechCrunch)

• Can Cannabis Treat Dementia? New Australian Study Aims to Find Out (MERRY JANE)

• Majority Of New Yorkers Say Marijuana Should Be Legalized, Poll Shows (Marijuana Moment)

LSD

• Beatles: ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ About LSD? (Showbiz Cheat Sheet)

MAGIC MUSHROOMS

• Psychedelic drug to be tested for treatment-resistant depression in Houston (Medical Xpress)

• The Psilocybin Mushroom Story Could be the Next Big Investment Boom (PR Newswire)

• Canada’s Risky Online Mushroom Dispensary: Savior or Saboteur? (Psychedelic Times)

• Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy Showing Promise, but More Research Needed (Psychiatry & Behavioral Health Learning Network)

MDMA

• Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy: How MDMA Is Changing Treatment for PTSD (Psychiatry Advisor)

• Teen who died at Leeds Festival had MDMA, cocaine and ketamine in her system (ExaminerLive)

• Listen In concert: MDMA linked to hospitalisations, four arrested for climbing marquee (Stuff.co.nz)

AYAHUASCA

• Rythmia Scholarship Program Democratizes Access to Life-Changing Retreat (Yahoo! Finance)

• How I Lived Twelve Years in a Colombian Ayahuasca Cult Led by a Sexual Abuser (Chacruna)

• Montreal conference will put spotlight on hallucinogenic ayahuasca (CTV News)

• I have HIV and ayahuasca and psilocybin have saved me (Chacruna)

5-MEO-DMT

• Toad Venom May Be The Next Psychedelic Frontier (The Fix)

• Naturalist and Artist Team Up to Save Sonoran Desert Toads (Psychedelic Times)

PEYOTE

• Ultimate Peyote Guide: Effects, Common Uses, Safety (Reality Sandwich)

SAN PEDRO

• Ultimate San Pedro Cactus Guide: Effects, Common Uses, Safety (Reality Sandwich)

IBOGA

• Ibogaine: Promising Addiction Treatment or Snake Oil? (The Fix)

NOVEL PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCES

• Scottish prisons 'awash' with synthetic drugs linked to violence (BBC)

SYNTHETIC CANNABINOIDS

• Florida Prison Neglect Contributes to Synthetic Cannabinoid Deaths (Filter)

• The shocking number of Birmingham people hospitalised by spice and cannabis last year (Birmingham Live)

KETAMINE

• Ketamine infusion therapy: A promising way to treat mental illness (News8000.com)

OPIOIDS

• Sesame Street takes on opioids crisis as muppet's mother battles addiction (The Guardian)

• Addicts will get heroin twice a day under pioneering crime-slashing plan in town where the killer class A drug is cheaper than cigarettes (Daily Mail)

• Addiction Experts Are Outraged A Pharma Lobbyist Is On A Federal Drug Abuse Panel (BuzzFeed News)

• Community responders more likely to seek help during overdose when naloxone does not work (Medical Xpress)

• Kenya struggles to cope with growing number of heroin users (Reuters)

• Washington health officials suggest everyone carries Naloxone as fentanyl use rises (KING5.com)

• Beyond the Sacklers: Free-trade policies contributed to the opioid epidemic (STAT News)

• Police oppose naloxone overdose kits: 'not our job to save lives' (The National)

COCAINE

• Tulsi Gabbard Says Country Should Move To Legalize Drugs Like Cocaine And Heroin (Marijuana Moment)

• Face to face with a cartel assassin: 'I'll never do cocaine again after realising the human cost of the drug' (iNews)

METHAMPHETAMINE

• Home buyers, beware: Contamination from cooking meth can linger for years (Ars Technica)

• Party drug, LSD prices remain flat in contrast to meth mayhem (Stuff.co.nz)

CAFFEINE

• Study finds the differences between coffee and tea drinkers (New York Post)

• What Rising Temperatures Mean for Coffee-Bean Farmers (The Wall Street Journal)

• Does caffeine have an effect on your sex life? (MDLinx)

TOBACCO

• E-Cig Vaping May Cause Lung and Bladder Cancer, Study Finds (MERRY JANE)

• Smoking Fewer Than 5 Cigarettes a Day Damages Your Lungs Almost as Much as Smoking a Whole Pack, Study Says (TIME)

• Schools Across the Country Are Installing Vape Detectors to Sniff Out Students (MERRY JANE)

• 'We Vape, We Vote': How vaping crackdowns are politicizing vapers (CNN)

• Oregon and Rhode Island Have Joined the Flavored Vape Ban (MERRY JANE)

• New York’s Vape Flavor Ban Has Been Blocked—For Now (Filter)

• Juul Is the New Big Tobacco (Bloomberg)

• How tobacco smuggling costs Minnesota hundreds of thousands of dollars a year (TwinCities.com)

• India Banned E-Cigarettes — But Beedis And Chewing Tobacco Remain Widespread (NPR)

ALCOHOL

• Are Whiskey Pods A Stealth Way For Teens To Get Alcohol? (Forbes)

KRATOM

• Coroner: Garden City inmate dies from meth, kratom in his cell (Idaho News)

• Kratom, the herbal supplement from Indonesia that has US drug agencies worried (South China Morning Post)

• Does Kratom Help Treat Arthritis Pain? (Kratom Guides)

KAVA

• Australia to ease kava import limits as part of Pacific diplomacy push (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

MISCELLANEOUS

• The Future of Drug Education Is So Much Better than D.A.R.E. (VICE)

• Is it time you got yourself a shaman? (London Evening Standard)

• Parents Are Using Magic Mushrooms, LSD To Be Better Parents, Be More ‘Present’ For Their Kids (The Inquisitr)

• SNP set to back decriminalisation of drugs in bid to tackle death toll crisis (Daily Record)

• How the Drug War Blob Took Over The Washington Post (New Republic)

• Regulatory Hurdles Facing Psychedelics (Psychedelic Science Review)

• An open letter to the newly founded Center for Psychedelic Research at Johns Hopkins (Psymposia)

• Drug dealers get rich and stay legal by outsourcing to China (Rooster Magazine)

• Nothing has changed since I was sacked. Drugs policy still doesn’t work (The Guardian)

• Binghamton Group Gets Grant For Substance Abuse Policy Change (News Break App)

• Florida Student Gets Suspended for Handing Out “End the Drug War” Flyers (MERRY JANE)

• Amanda Feilding has spent 54 years experimenting with psychedelics — for the sake of science (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

• The War on Drugs Is a War on the Climate (Gizmodo)

• We need a more nuanced discussion about drugs and suicide (iNews)

• Trippy Talk with Psychedelic Legend Dennis Mckenna (Reality Sandwich)

• Psychedelics and the Workplace (Medium)

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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.

Why You Should Keep A Journal

Image by Joel Montes de Oca, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

In today's busier-than-ever world, it is common to experience weeks, months, or years of life without realizing that time is flying by. The practice of keeping a journal can provide a log of your events throughout life as well as offer a cathartic release that comes from the act of recording your thoughts. Today's post will cover the benefits of journaling, various types of journals, journaling mediums, and how to start a journal.

I have kept a journal off and on since elementary school, although it wasn't until my years at university that I developed a more focused approach and found the inspiration to keep a regular journaling practice. I have found that my practice has generated many benefits for me, and no obvious negative side effects. In a sense, Think Wilder is an extension of my own personal journal in blog form. Without further ado, let's jump right into the main subject matter.

The Benefits of Journaling

Keep a record of life experiences and track your development: Writing about events that have already occurred gives you the chance to process them and find closure when it is needed. It's easy to get to the end of a month or year and have trouble recalling the events that happened. While it may be possible to look through photographs or another medium of record-keeping, I have found that writing a journal means that I will always have a record of the most important events that have occurred in my life. An additional benefit of record-keeping is that it is easier to identify the improvements that you have made over time.

Improve mental clarity, more effectively solve problems, and increase focus: It's easy to get caught up in thinking that has nothing to do with what you are trying to focus on, but it can be difficult to send those thoughts packing. By recording your thoughts in a journal, you are effectively transferring them from your head to the page. This helps clear the mind so that you can focus on the things that are important in your life, whether they are outstanding problems that need to be solved or a time-sensitive task at hand.

Inspire personal growth: If you are feeling stuck in a rut, finding it difficult to progress in life, I would highly recommend taking up a journaling practice. Consistently writing down our thoughts encourages self-development, because it gives us an opportunity to review our previous entries and identify times that we made mistakes. Once you identify a mistake, you are less likely to make that mistake in the future, and you can brainstorm alternative behaviors that more honestly reflect the person you want to become.

More fully connect with your values, emotions, and goals: It can be hard to be honest with ourselves concerning how we feel about relationships, work, or our true passions in life. Yet over time, you will find out what is truly important to you through your writing. It took many journal entries about my desire to keep up a regular writing practice before this blog was born, but through my experience with journaling I finally realized that I needed to get started with my writing projects instead of procrastinating any longer. I am sure that there are things that you want to improve on in your life, or work through your feelings on a tough issue, and journaling is a great way to facilitate that work.

Cultivate your creativity: Just like anything else, a journaling practice becomes better with time. In addition to becoming a better writer, you may also improve your abilities to process and communicate complex ideas, memorize important information, and brainstorm more effectively. I find that writing, or even thinking about what I will write later, helps me think of new ideas and projects to work on.

Types of Journals

There are several types of journals, which are not limited to those listed below. Use your imagination and think of specific types of journals that could help you on your path!

Food journal: Many of us are unaware of our dietary lifestyles. I know that I was before I started a food journal several years ago, and I was shocked to see what I was eating (and drinking!) on a regular basis. Keeping a food journal can be as simple as compiling a daily list of foods in a Fields Notes memo book, or you can take a more advanced approach, like using an application like MyFitnessPal to get a more thorough breakdown of your daily nutritional intake.

Work journal: A written record of your work performance can be a very useful thing. How often does a yearly performance review come around and leave you wondering, "What exactly did I do the past 12 months?" By keeping track of the day's events at the office, you will have a log of the things that went well, mistakes you made and how you addressed them, and successes worth highlighting in your next performance review or job interview. By recording your mistakes, you will be able to adapt so that you won't make the same mistake twice.

Dream journal: This type of journal is designed around capturing as many details about your dreams as you can remember upon first waking up. You can use the dream contents to look into their imagery and suggested meanings, or you could use them as inspiration for a new work of fiction! By writing down the contents of your dreams, you can review them later and see if there are any patterns that reoccur.

Gratitude journal: Sometimes we are so busy with all the things in our lives that we forget the good things that happen every day. A gratitude journal helps you focus on the positive aspects of life, which will shift your focus away from negative things and allow you to start appreciating even more positive things that you are grateful to have in your life.

Miscellaneous activities: All sorts of activities can benefit from keeping a log of their progress. Fitness, gardening, traveling, reading, meditation, and yoga are just a few to get you started. It can be helpful and extremely rewarding to see where you are headed and how far along you have come.

Journal Mediums

Journals were traditionally written on paper, but today's technologies have allowed additional mediums for you to record your thoughts. Some mediums will appeal to certain types of people, and other mediums will be attractive for the rest. I have firsthand experience with myriad journaling mediums, and will explore some of the options below.

Paper journals: If you like the feeling of physically writing down your thoughts, like I do, then a paper notebook may be the most appealing option for you. There's nothing quite like setting pen to paper, which gives you physical control over your writing, and there is no chance that your journal will disappear or be leaked when an online service shuts down or is compromised. However, there are no backups of paper journals, and it is possible that someone will find your journal in its hiding place and read it without your permission.

Digital journaling: Using a computer, tablet, or mobile phone to write your journal may appeal to you. Something as simple as Apple's Pages or Microsoft Word can be used, or you can try your hand at many journaling apps found online. Digital journals have the benefit of password protection, and people typically type faster on a keyboard than they can write by hand. I have tried many journaling apps and have come to the conclusion that I prefer paper journals, but your experience may be different.

Blogging: An extension of journaling, blogging is essentially a published online journal medium. This is a great option to reap the benefits of journaling, while providing an opportunity to make yourself heard all around the world. Keeping a public blog means that you have a wide audience, but this comes with the sacrifice of privacy. There are many different blogging platforms to choose from, but they all have one thing in common—the ability to share your message with the world.

How to Start A Journal

Getting started with journaling is pretty easy. You just need to pick a medium and journal type, and start writing! I would advise starting as soon as possible—even if you're not completely sure what you want to write about. One of the things that writing for many years has taught me is that you will gradually find your voice in your writing over time, but you will never find it if you don't get started. Now that you know the basics of journaling, I encourage you to start one as soon as possible!