After three years on YouTube, the monthly video psychedelic news recaps are coming to an end. In this video I explain why:
This Week in Psychedelics - 4.16.21
Cannabis
New Mexico Legalizes Adult-Use Cannabis (Forbes)
69 Percent Of Americans Now Support Legalizing Marijuana—An All-Time High, Quinnipiac Poll Finds (Marijuana Moment)
Marijuana legalization has won (Vox)
Four More States Could Still Legalize Marijuana This Year After New Mexico, New York And Virginia (Marijuana Moment)
Nevada Lawmakers Approve Marijuana Bill To Allow On-Site Consumption Lounges (Marijuana Moment)
Alabama Medical Marijuana Legalization Bill That Already Passed The Senate Heads To House Floor (Marijuana Moment)
Women Paved the Way for Mexico’s Cannabis Legalization Movement, and Here’s How They Did It (MERRY JANE)
Limited Tennessee Medical Marijuana Bill Heads To Senate Floor (Marijuana Moment)
Sixth Minnesota House Committee Approves Marijuana Legalization Bill On Its Path To The Floor (Marijuana Moment)
Texas Lawmakers Approve Marijuana Decriminalization Bill In Committee (Marijuana Moment)
With Virginia moving forward, state Democratic leaders want NC to be next to legalize marijuana (Fox 8)
Magic Mushrooms
Psilocybin Therapy May Work as Well as Common Antidepressant (Scientific American)
Denver pursues further decriminalization of magic mushrooms (Axios)
Psychedelic Experience May Not Be Required For Psilocybin’s Antidepressant-Like Benefits (Neuroscience News)
Psilocybin Mushrooms Greatly Enhance Creative Thinking, New Clinical Study Confirms (MERRY JANE)
Silo Wellness Announces Intellectual Property Licensing Agreement of Psilocybin Nasal Spray in Colombia and Brasil (Psilocybin Alpha)
Wood Lover’s Paralysis: Psilocybin’s Rare Sickness (Truffle Report)
5-MeO-DMT
The Story Behind a 1984 Hallucinogenic Pamphlet From Denton Is Just as Trippy as Its Subject (Dallas Observer)
Mescaline
Keepers of the Matrix: A Beginner’s Guide to Understanding Sacred Cacti (DoubleBlind)
Peyote
Peyote Conservation Group Asks to Include Cultivation in California Decrim Bill (Truffle Report)
Synthetic Cannabinoids
Why Synthetic Cannabinoids Can Be a Good Thing (Green Entrepreneur)
Miscellaneous
Psychedelics In Groups? First Study Of Its Kind Shows Potential For Collective Settings (Forbes)
California Bill To Legalize Possession Of Psychedelics Clears Second Senate Committee (Marijuana Moment)
Drug-testing to be made permanent at music festivals (Newshub)
Oregon Legislature Adds Changes to Drug Decriminalization Law (Truffle Report)
COVID-19 and Psychedelic Group Work: It’s Still Too Soon (Psychedelics Today)
Washington State’s Drug Policies: Weighing Methods to Decriminalize Possession (Truffle Report)
Plant Medicine Coalition Launches Grants For Community Healing Hubs in D.C. (Truffle Report)
Ex Gov. Perry Backs Texas Psychedelics Study Bill (Truffle Report)
UCSF Launches Translational Psychedelic Research (TrPR) Program (Lucid News)
YouTube Loosens Restrictions, Expands Monetization for Drug Content (Truffle Report)
Fireside Project: The 21st Century’s First Psychedelic Peer Support Hotline (Lucid News)
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 - 7.19.19
CANNABIS
California Claims the Crown for the Nation’s First Recreational Pot Cafes (MERRY JANE)
Australian Researchers Say You Can Treat Cannabis Dependency with... Cannabis? (MERRY JANE)
Senate Schedules Hearing On Marijuana Business Banking Access (Forbes)
That Alarming CBD Liver Damage Study Is Bunk—And the Media Should Know Better (Leafly)
Were Vikings POTHEADS? Archaeologists uncover evidence of cannabis at 1,000-year-old settlement (The Sun)
Legalizing Marijuana Leads To Fewer Illegal Grow Sites In National Forests, Study Finds (Marijuana Moment)
Pennsylvania Adds Anxiety as Medical Marijuana Qualifying Condition (MERRY JANE)
New Roadside Cannabis Test Approved for Use in Canada (Leafly)
Marijuana Legalization Associated With Decreased Interest In Alcohol, Study Finds (Marijuana Moment)
New Hampshire: Governor Signs Marijuana Annulment Measure (NORML)
As More States Legalize, DEA Chops Down Fewer Marijuana Plants, Federal Data Shows (Marijuana Moment)
Pot-smoking parents are harsher with discipline: study (New York Post)
Marijuana Legalization Could Be On The Horizon For British Virgin Islands (Marijuana Moment)
Recent cannabis use tied to memory deficits, slowed mental processing (Reuters)
Kamala Harris Evolved Slowly on Legalization, but She’s All About It Now (Leafly)
Thousands Of Comments Urge FDA To Allow CBD In Foods And Supplements (Marijuana Moment)
Three Republicans Stand in the Way of Federal Weed Legalization (Rolling Stone)
Medical cannabis is gaining momentum in Asia (CNBC)
THC Testing is Bullshit and You're Getting Screwed (Beard Bros Pharms)
Sound Garden owners plan Maryland’s first medical cannabis lounge in Fells Point (The Baltimore Sun)
LSD
Kid Cudi reveals iconic Coachella jam was the result of an LSD trip (Dancing Astronaut)
Everything We Know About The YouTube Engineer Who Injured 8 People On LSD Rampage (YourTango)
MAGIC MUSHROOMS
What Psilocybin Could Mean for End-of-Life Care (Psychology Today)
MDMA
REPORT: First MDMA/Psychotherapy Trial Successful In Combatting Alcoholism (Your EDM)
Breakthrough PTSD treatment using party drug MDMA coming soon to Philly region (PhillyVoice)
Hamilton schoolboy dies after ‘ecstasy’ horror as three more teens rushed to hospital (The Scottish Sun)
Will MDMA Show Up On a Drug Test? (VICE)
Mum's unusual pledge after daughter dies from MDMA overdose at festival (Yahoo! News)
AYAHUASCA
Olivia Newton-John proposed to boyfriend after taking hallucinogen drug! (All4Women)
Yopo
An Introduction to Yopo in the Venezuelan Piaroan Tradition (DMT Times)
5-MEO-DMT
Upcoming World Bufo Alvarius Congress Looks to Nurture Global 5-MeO-DMT Community (Psychedelic Times)
SAN PEDRO
Man selling giant hallucinogenic cactus says he's not a drug dealer (Newshub)
SYNTHETIC CANNABINOIDS
Kids thought this was 'natural cannabis' vape juice... it was Spice. Nine people who ended up in hospital could have died (Manchester Evening News)
KETAMINE
Ketamine-like drug for depression could get UK licence within the year (The Guardian)
Ketamine for Depression: Clinical Evidence and Concerns (Psychiatry Advisor)
OPIOIDS
"We Didn't Cause the Crisis": David Sackler Pleads His Case on the Opioid Epidemic (Vanity Fair)
Delta to carry Narcan on planes after passenger ‘carried out in body bag’ following overdose (The Independent)
Media Frame: Fentanyl Panic is Worsening the Overdose Crisis (The Appeal)
The Louvre Removed the Name of OxyContin-Linked Sackler Family From Its Walls (TIME)
States Are Making Progress on Opioids. Now the Money That's Helping Them May Dry Up (The New York Times)
Opioid Shipments Increased by Over 50% as Addiction Crisis Grew, Federal Data Shows (TIME)
What to call someone who uses heroin? (ScienceDaily)
COCAINE
Passenger from Colombia fails to fool Spanish police with his cocaine-under-the-toupee trick (CBS News)
What Does Cocaine Do to the Heart? (VICE)
METHAMPHETAMINE
Asia's meth trade is worth an estimated $61B as region becomes 'playground' for drug gangs (CNN)
How Myanmar Became A Global Center For Meth & Other Synthetic Drugs (The Fix)
Police Warn Flushing Drugs Could Create Terrifying 'Meth Gators' (People)
CAFFEINE
Under 16s set to be 'banned' from buying caffeine-filled energy drinks (Edinburgh Live)
Hot coffee or iced? Study says higher temp provides more health benefits (KABC)
Daily coffee doesn't affect cancer risk (Medical Xpress)
TOBACCO
New York Raises Statewide Smoking Age to 21 (TIME)
Raising tobacco sales age to 21: Ohio becomes latest state in national trend (Cincinnati.com)
Tobacco Plants Made to Produce Useful Compounds (Scientific American)
ALCOHOL
Study Suggests Alcohol Causes Skin to Sunburn Faster (Paste Magazine)
KRATOM
Drug Researchers Raise Concern Over "Misleading" Evidence in Kratom Studies (Inverse)
What to know about kratom for depression (Medical News Today)
Kratom Ban Back on the Table in Oxford (Hotty Toddy)
KHAT
Miraa farmers mull tough sanitary laws with eyes fixed on new export markets (The Star)
MISCELLANEOUS
Berkeley City Council Considers Decriminalizing Psychedelics This Week (Marijuana Moment)
Science of microdosing psychedelics 'remains patchy and anecdotal', says review (Imperial College London)
El Chapo, the Notorious Drug Kingpin, Has Been Sentenced to Life in Prison in the U.S. (TIME)
New data shows drug overdose deaths fell in 2018. But there’s a big catch. (Vox)
Scotland drug deaths – 1,200 deaths recorded in 2018 as worst ever figures released (The Sun)
People who microdose psychedelic substances report improved mood and focus (Medical Xpress)
New Bill Ensures Some Retroactive Drug War Justice for New Hampshire (High Times)
Future of drug-sniffing dogs uncertain after Colorado Supreme Court ruling (The Coloradoan)
Microdosing has a critic — one of its pioneers (Rooster Magazine)
Police Thought They Beat the Darknet Drug Markets – They Didn't (VICE)
Nutrition Is an Overlooked Aspect of Harm Reduction (Filter)
Framing addiction as a disease: Research shows that message might backfire (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Survey reveals extent of music festival drug use (The Australian)
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Problematic Process for Religious Exemption for Use of Prohibited Psychoactive Substances (Chacruna)
The Risky Business of Psychedelic Therapy (Medium)
How Congress can expand access to addiction treatment — immediately (The Hill)
Inside the Philippines Prison That Sparked Duterte’s Murderous Drug War (Filter)
Mother of festival drug death victim says Gladys Berejiklian needs to show courage (The Guardian)
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:
YouTube Software Engineer Arrested After an LSD Rampage
David Mack, writing for BuzzFeed News:
It began with a group of friends renting a seaside home in California for the Independence Day holiday weekend.
It ended with one of the men arrested and in a hospital, fighting for his life, after he was shot by sheriff's deputies following what authorities say was an LSD-fueled rampage that left eight people injured.
Betai Koffi, a 32-year-old San Francisco software engineer at YouTube, was arrested Thursday by Sonoma County sheriff’s deputies after he allegedly punched, choked, and stabbed friends, strangers, and authorities, and rammed them with a vehicle, during his bad trip.
What a horrific tale. I feel terrible for everyone involved, and it’s scenarios like this one that highlight why accurate drug education and psychedelic harm reduction are of utmost importance as drug use continues to become less taboo and more people start experimenting with powerful psychoactive substances like LSD.
Introducing the Think Wilder YouTube Channel
After thinking about it for a couple years, I’ve finally made the plunge and started the Think Wilder YouTube channel today. This channel will be used to explore psychoactive drugs, spirituality, technology, and personal development in a video format. I have essentially zero experience with producing videos but I’m looking forward to learning the ropes and hope that after some time and effort I’ll be producing the quality of content that I am striving to send out into the world. At any rate, I’ve commemorated the launch of my YouTube channel by launching two videos:
In this first YouTube video I cover the intentions behind my decision to start this channel and what I hope to accomplish with it.
And the second video is the first in a weekly video series where I highlight a few of the most important stories in psychoactive drug news. “Last Week in Psychoactives” as a video companion piece to supplement the “This Week in Psychoactives” weekly column on this blog.
Please check them out and share my channel with a friend if you think they might enjoy it. Thanks for your support!
Image by slightly_different, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.