This Week in Psychedelics - 7.6.18

Cannabis

• Luxembourg Is Latest EU Country to Legalise Medical Cannabis (Talking Drugs)
• Vermont: Law Legalizing Adult Marijuana Use Takes Effect Sunday, July 1 (NORML)
• Here’s what’s next now that the FDA has approved a cannabis drug for seizures (The Verge)
• Up in smoke: new California law could send $350m worth of cannabis to incinerator (The Guardian)
• Marijuana Dispensaries Don’t Increase Crime, Study Finds (Marijuana Moment)
• Defying Congress, Jeff Sessions Keeps Blocking Medical Marijuana Research (Reason)
• Toke Up and Chow Down on Netflix’s Pot-Infused Cooking Competition (Reason)
• The US Stopped Other Countries from Legalizing Weed for Generations (VICE)
• Jeremy Corbyn calls for cannabis to be decriminalised for medical use 'as soon as possible' (Mirror)
• The Canadian Conundrum: Legalizing Cannabis Is One Thing, Marketization Is Another (Forbes)
• ‘Keep California Safe’ initiative fails to make the November 2018 ballot (The Orange County Register)
• It Didn't Have To Be This Way: Policy Decisions Led To Delays In Massachusetts' Cannabis Market (Forbes)
• Billy Caldwell licensed for cannabis oil use in Northern Ireland (The Guardian)
• Weighing The Legal Cannabis Industry's Catch-22 Problem (Forbes)
• South Australia's cannabis crackdown based on 'nonsense', experts warn (The Guardian)
• How police are preparing to catch drivers under the influence of cannabis (CTV News)
• If Sacramento's cannabis industry goes corporate, these three men will be to blame (The Sacramento Bee)
• Major study reveals cannabis is not a miracle pain reliever (New York Post)
• The first cannabis lounge in Southern California is coming to Palm Springs, and neighbor isn’t pleased (The Press-Enterprise)

LSD

• Millions in Cryptocurrencies Seized in Biggest LSD Bust in European History (Gizmodo)
• Man found dead in Mississippi River had bad LSD trip during concert, friend says (FOX13)
• Michael Pollan: Why I started taking LSD and what it helped me to do (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Revisiting the Beatles’ Cartoon LSD Utopia Yellow Submarine (Vulture)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Can Magic Mushrooms Treat Cocaine Dependency? (AlterNet)
• Psilocybin and Mental Health–Don't Lose Control (Frontiers)
• Magic Mushroom May Have Cure for Depression (Colorado Daily Ledger)
• Do Magic Mushrooms Work Better Than Prozac? She Aims to Find Out (OZY)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• MDMA strengths surge to 'potentially fatal' levels (BBC)
• Both my sons died after taking ecstasy – that's why I want to legalise it – video (The Guardian)
• Party drug MDMA is likened to 'Russian roulette' after 18-year-old died after taking the Class A on a night out (Daily Mail)
• Cops seize orange ecstasy pills shaped like Donald Trump (New York Post)
• Mum releases shocking photos of her son’s final hours after taking MDMA (Metro)
• How MDMA is leaving a trail of tragedies in Devon and Cornwall (Plymouth Herald)
• ‘MDMA gave me anxiety, depression and panic attacks’ (Zloto News)

Ayahuasca/DMT/5-MeO-DMT

• Ayahuasca: The Spiritual Journey Hollywood Is Talking About. (NewsGram)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• An Almost Unknown Psychedelic to Kick the Habit (ThirdAge)

Dissociatives

• Cops Are Telling Paramedics To Inject Arrestees With Ketamine. Worse, EMS Crews Are Actually Doing It. (Techdirt)
• Minneapolis Investigates Police Use Of Ketamine On Suspects (WHQR)

Opiates/Opioids

• Searching For The Next Naloxone (The Fix)
• Investigation Shows How Florida Sparked U.S. Heroin Crisis (WLRN)
• Overdoses Can Happen Anywhere, So Naloxone Becomes A Part Of First Aid Kits (WESA)
• Link Between Heroin Addiction And Narcolepsy Examined (The Fix)
• Chicago’s Black Communities Hit Hardest In Opioid Overdoses (WBEZ)
• Where Did $8.2 Billion in US Aid to Fight Opiates in Afghanistan Go? (Sputnik International)
• Heroin may be Mozambique’s second largest export—and it’s being disrupted by WhatsApp (Quartz)
• OxyContin, Heroin and the Opioid Crisis (Pain News Network)
• The Opium War and the Humiliation of China (The New York Times)

Kratom

• FDA commissioner says kratom not worth the Salmonella risk (Food Safety News)
• 3 Best Kratom Strains for Opiate Withdrawal In 2018 (Kratom Guides)
• Kratom Supplements Won’t Make You Healthier — They’ll Probably Just Make You Sick (The Cheat Sheet)
• Kratom use spreads in Phuket (Pattaya Mail)
• Kratom And Moisture: What To Do When Kratom Gets Moisture? (Kratom Guides)
• How Can You Mix Kratom And Cranberry Juice? (Kratom Guides)

Kava

• Kava Bar Places "God Hates Beer" Signs in Front of Saltwater Brewery (Miami New Times)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Suicide is on the rise. Depression therapy is limited. Let’s try psychedelics. (The Washington Post)
• First-of-Its-Kind Conference Brings Psychedelics Into the Mainstream (High Times)
• White House lawyer expected to be named new head of DEA (The Washington Post)
• Could psychedelics transform mental health? (BBC)
• Duterte is Assassinating Opponents Under the Cover of the Drug War, Philippine Rights Groups Say (TIME)
• Reclaiming Your Identity As A Drug User (Psymposia)
• Use of ‘smart drugs’ on the rise (Nature) 
• Psychedelics And Cancer (Psychedelic Heaven)
• Hallucinogens and Depression (Psychology Today)
• How To Cope With Anxiety And Paranoia During A Trip (The Third Wave)
• Psychedelics And Schizophrenia (Psychedelic Heaven)
• Drug abuse: how China is fighting the problem (The Telegraph)

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.

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

This Week in Psychedelics - 6.29.18

Cannabis

• Oklahoma voters approve medical marijuana measure (CNN)
• FDA Approves First Marijuana-Based Prescription Drug (TIME)
• U.S. Senate Votes To Legalize Hemp After Decades-Long Ban Under Marijuana Prohibition (Forbes)
• Schumer introduces bill to federally decriminalize marijuana (CNN)
• Cannabis oil: what is it and does it really work as medicine? (New Scientist)
• Legalising cannabis 'would raise £1bn in tax for the UK' (BBC)
• Get Too High? 'Undoo' Inventor Wants to Take Cannabis Consumers Down (Phoenix New Times)
• Mexico opium poppy growers see price drop, turn to marijuana (Tampa Bay Times)
• Durham police chief calls for legalisation of cannabis in UK (The Guardian)
• Meet Colorado’s New Single-Issue Voters: The Cannabis Community (The New York Times)
• For Medical Marijuana, Is it the Whole Plant That Matters? (Undark Magazine)
• Rite Aid poised to sell its first cannabis-derived drug (CNN)
• Medical-Cannabis Extracts Like Vape Pen Oil Are Illegal, Arizona Appeals Court Rules (Phoenix New Times)
• My 10-Year-Old Daughter Takes the First FDA-Approved Marijuana Drug. It's Changed Our Lives (TIME)
• Cannabis growth is killing one of the cutest (and fiercest) creatures in the US (The Guardian)
• Cannabis Businesses Hope To Shed Stoner Stereotype By 'Professionalizing Industry' (WBUR)
• Oklahoma's hypocrites legalize cannabis after suing Colorado for the same (Rooster)
• #PermitPatty Episode Blows Up on California Cannabis Company (Leafly)
• What Recreational Cannabis In Mass. Means For Medical Marijuana (WBUR)
• Cheap cannabis products available before new California rules kick in (San Francisco Chronicle)
• I Want My Weed Coffeehouses (Seattle Weekly)

LSD

• Microdosing with LSD vs. Psilocybin Mushrooms (The Third Wave)
• Johnny Depp Wanted To Take Out Osama Bin Laden By Spraying LSD Over His Compound (Esquire)
• LSD And 'Magic Mushrooms' Can 'Help People Deal With Serious Problems,' According to UC Berkeley Prof (Civilized)
• Rampant LSD Use Sweeps US Colleges (Liberty Nation)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Psychedelic therapy for smoking cessation: Qualitative analysis of participant accounts (SAGE Journals)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• ‘Storm Chasers’ Star Joel Taylor Died from MDMA, Ketamine Poisoning (The Blast)
• MDMA strengths surge to 'potentially fatal' levels (BBC)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• New N-bomb hallucinogenic drug that can bring on ‘extreme paranoia’ sparks cop probe after death links (The Scottish Sun)

Dissociatives

• Rat Study Shows How Ketamine Combats Depression (Psych Central)
• Revisiting the Hallucinogenic Potential of Ketamine (Psychiatric Times)
• Minneapolis Police Order EMS Workers To Sedate Suspected Criminals With Ketamine (Herb)
• Man kills himself in Williamsport apartment after smoking PCP: police (PennLive)

Opiates/Opioids

• Why SITSA Act Will Actually Move the Needle Backward on the Opioid Crisis (Inverse)
• Needle exchanges have been proved to work against opioid addiction. They’re banned in 15 states. (Vox)
• A Gallery Owner Was Arrested After Leaving a 10-Foot Heroin Spoon Sculpture Outside OxyContin Maker Purdue Pharma (TIME)
• Ontario Promotes Free Use of Opioid Antidote (The Wall Street Journal)
• Mexican heroin cannot escape the law of supply and demand (New York Post)
• Tech Companies Deflect Blame for Opioid Crisis Ahead of FDA Summit (WIRED)
• Legal uncertainty surrounds overdose-fighting drug (The Gazette)
• What we know about the crack-fentanyl outbreak in Philly (Philadelphia Weekly)
• When an Iowa Family Doctor Takes On the Opioid Epidemic (The New York Times)

Absinthe

• Booze 101: Absinthe (The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Kratom

• More Kratom Products Recalled Owing to Salmonella Risk (Medscape)
• Kratom Users In States That Ban It Discuss How Prohibition Has Made Life Worse (HuffPo)
• This Bill Could Give Jeff Sessions the Power to Ban Kratom (Tonic)
• FDA Seeks to Curb Kratom Sales (Blue Virginia)
• How To Get Kratom Out Of Your System Fast? (Kratom Guides)
• Meet The “Kratom Warriors” Who Say This Plant Will End The Opioid Epidemic (BuzzFeed News)
• Which Kratom Strains For Sleep You Can Try in 2018? (Kratom Guides)
• What you need to know about Green Thai Kratom before Use (The Bona Venture)
• Can You Buy Kratom On Local GNC, Walmart, Walgreens, And CVS? (Kratom Guides)

Kava

• What Is Kava And Is It Good For You? (Women's Health)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• A Microguide to Microdosing Psychedelic Drugs (WIRED)
• The Dangers and Risks of Microdosing (The Third Wave)
• It may take hallucinogens to get us through the Trump years (Raw Story)
• If America wants to stop the migrant crisis, it should decriminalize drugs (The Week)
• Psychedelics Are Going Mainstream, Because the Mainstream Needs Them (VICE)
• Can Psychedelics Induce Flow States? (The Third Wave)
• Groovy, baby! The renaissance in psychedelic science is here (The Globe and Mail)
• Treating PTSD with a Psychedelic (ThirdAge)
• Information Update - Drug Use During Festival Season (Markets Insider)
• Paul Stamets’ Psilocybin Stories on Joe Rogan Podcast Will Blow Your Mind (Psychedelic Times)
• Taking Psychedelic Drugs to Ease Anxiety Over a Terminal Diagnosis: It’s a Real Option (ThirdAge)
• Study: Can taking a hallucinogen curb cocaine use? (UAB News)
• Different Ways Of Using Drugs (Psychedelic Heaven)

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.

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

This Week in Psychedelics - 6.22.18

Cannabis

• Canada becomes second country to legalise cannabis use (The Guardian)
• Portugal's parliament legalizes cannabis-based medicines (Reuters)
• Oklahoma voted to legalize medical marijuana (Vox)
• Marijuana legalization is having its best year ever (Vox)
• Poll: Record Percentage Of Americans Support Legalizing Marijuana (NORML)
• Texas Republican Party Endorses Marijuana Decriminalization (Forbes)
• Home Office looks at allowing cannabis oil for boy with epilepsy (The Guardian)
• Senate Democratic Leader Introduces Far-Reaching Marijuana Descheduling Bill (NORML)
• New York: State-Commissioned Report Will Recommend Legalizing Marijuana (NORML)
• What Might Medical Cannabis Mean for our Children? (Beckley Foundation)
• Why Are Cannabis Industry Leaders Donating to Anti-Immigration Candidates? (Cannabis Wire)
• Full marijuana legalization up for a vote today in Delaware House (Delaware Online)
• New York State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker to Allow Patients who are Prescribed Opioids to Access the State's Medical Marijuana Program (Drug Policy Alliance)
• Why a Top Conservative Politician Is Calling for Marijuana to Be Legalized in the U.K. (TIME)
• Counting Canada, More Than 100 Million People Live in Places Where Pot Is Legal (Reason)
• Alexander discusses DOH's plans to legalize recreational marijuana (Spectrum News)
• NYPD Will Start Using Summonses, Not Arrests, for Marijuana (The New York Times)
• Legislation To Protect Legal Consumption In Federal Housing Introduced (NORML)
• Massachusetts crafts 'social equity' program to help minorities and drug offenders enter marijuana industry (MassLive)
• Senators Vote To Block Marijuana Banking Amendment (Forbes)
• Pot pros to budtenders: stop telling pregnant ladies to smoke cannabis (Rooster)
• PAX’s ‘Session Control’ helps you control your vape high (Engadget)
• NORML Releases Comprehensive Report Summarizing Local Decriminalization Laws (NORML)
• Sister-in-law of Home Office Minister who banned cannabis oil confesses: I have used it too, so make it legal (Daily Mail)
• Will Marijuana Be Legal in the U.S. Anytime Soon? Canada Law Revives Talk of Weed Legalization Nationwide (Newsweek)
• Denver Contradicts Itself by Targeting Previously Tolerated Cannabis Tour Buses (Reason)
• What is cannabis oil and how does it work? (The Guardian)
• Will Doug Ford change how Ontarians buy legal marijuana? (CityNews Toronto)
• Can cannabis oil really treat epilepsy and what would impact of medicinal reclassification be? (The Independent)
• This New Data Reveals the Scale of the UK's Cannabis Industry (VICE)
• Review needed on medicinal cannabis cases, says May (BBC)
• Cannabis 101: Where Entrepreneurs, Lawyers and Caregivers Go To Learn (Forbes)
• Higher Standards Pop-up Offers Next-Level Cannabis Accessories (Hollywood Reporter)
• Marine veteran gets first look at cannabis products (The Gainesville Sun)

LSD

• Meet the Canadian “Psychedelic Revolutionaries” Who Pioneered LSD Research (MERRY JANE)
• When Timothy Leary Got Artists to Take LSD (Artsy)
• Considering Microdosing LSD for Treatment-Resistant Depression? Read This First (Third Age)
• Johnny Depp Admits He Gets Lines Fed to Him on Set, Believes LSD Would’ve Helped Find Osama bin Laden Faster (Indie Wire)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Psilocybin Mushrooms vs. LSD for Mental Health Issues (Psychedelic Heaven)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Study: Ecstasy could be far less dangerous than past research suggests (Big Think)
• MDMA Being Used in New Trials to Help Beat Alcoholism (Your EDM)
• FDA Moves Closer to Approving Ecstasy (The Beacon)
• Ecstasy-assisted psychotherapy is bringing peace to people with PTSD (Yahoo! News)
• Patrick Coakley died after taking fatal MDMA overdose (Kent Online)
• Student who supplied killer ecstasy to friend says he should not be blamed as taking drugs is university 'culture' (The Telegraph)

Ayahuasca/DMT/5-MeO-DMT

• New Study: Ayahuasca Tea Rapidly Helps Patients Overcome Severe Depression (Kahpi)
• Enhancing Your Ayahuasca Experience: Harnessing the Power of Intention and Belief (Kahpi)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• Gabon's sacred plant 'Iboga' under threat of extinction (Africanews)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Cartoon Dystopia: 25I-NBOMe and Why You Should Test Your LSD (Psymposia)

Dissociatives

• Minneapolis police asked medical workers to use ketamine on suspects (The Seattle Times)
• First Ketamine Guidelines for Pain Released (WebMD)
• Ketamine a safer option for agitated patients and providers (EMS1.com)
• Can Ketamine Cure Depression? (Psychedelic Heaven)
• PD: Man on PCP did pushups in the middle of the road (CT Post)

Opiates/Opioids

• Facebook redirects would-be opioid buyers to crisis helpline (Engadget)
• How legal drug companies helped revive the heroin trade (The Washington Post)
• Afghanistan is producing more opium than ever before (We Are The Mighty)
• Researchers May Have Underestimated the Number of Opioid Overdose Deaths (TIME)
• Many Doctors Give Morphine to Babies Born With Opioid Addiction. A New Study Suggests There's a Better Way (TIME)
• Opiate addiction and the history of pain and race in the US (The Conversation)
• Purdue Pharma, company behind Oxycontin, just laid off its entire sales team (VICE News)
• Heroin use in Pacific Northwest linked to incurable kidney disease (UW Medicine Newsroom)

Kratom

• The House Just Passed a Bill That Could Make Kratom Illegal (Inverse)
• What Is It Like To Be High On Kratom And What It Feels Like? (Kratom Guides)
• 3 Best Kratom Strains You Should Try If You Suffer From Anxiety (Kratom Guides)
• How Much Does An Ounce Of Kratom Cost? (Kratom Guides)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• New law gives critically ill people 'Right to Try' psychedelics (Rooster)
• The DEA Is Worried Sick About Touching Contaminated Drug Money (The Daily Beast)
• Alleged Silk Road Mentor Indicted, Extradited to United States (Reason)
• Can People Who Had a Drug Addiction Ever Drink Alcohol? (Tonic)
• New Study Shows Drug War Sends Users to Dark Web (Reason)
• We need to offer safety drugs testing to users across society, not just at festivals and nightclubs (Metro)
• Psychedelics Are Promising, But Many Psychiatrists Don't Want to Use Them (Tonic)
• Congress Wants To Give Jeff Sessions Unprecedented New Drug War Powers (Reason)
• Staten Island Law Enforcement Won’t Stop Fighting the War on Drugs (The Village Voice)
• Psychedelic Drugs Promote Neural Plasticity (Worldhealth.net)
• While we discuss cannabis oil, we should remember that the government is blocking life-saving research into MDMA and magic mushrooms (The Independent)
• Would psychedelics really lead to democratic transformation? (Open Democracy)
• Mental health of a self-selected sample of psychedelic users and self-medication practices with psychedelics (ResearchGate)
• Psychedelics and Male-Perpetrated Violence (The Third Wave)
• Transformational Festivals and the New Psychedelic Revolution: A Conversation with James Oroc (Psychedelic Times)
• A mind-bending psychedelic art temple is coming to Upstate New York (Time Out)
• The Underground World of Psychedelics and the Potential of Plant Medicine (NYU News)
• Psychonautics: A Comic’s Exploration Of Psychedelics (Film Threat)
• The Power and Promise of Psychedelics: Michael Pollan Show Us How to Change Our Minds (AlterNet)
• Drug Checking in Latin America: the Countries Leading the Way (Talking Drugs)
• How underground groups use psychedelic drugs for healing (Futurity)

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.

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

This Week in Psychedelics - 6.15.18

Cannabis

• Canadian Senate Signs Off On Historic Cannabis Regulation Measure (NORML)
• President Trump Expresses Support For Bipartisan Marijuana Fix (NORML)
• Expect Fully Legal Weed Within 5 Years, Says Former Top Pharma Lobbyist and Congressman Billy Tauzin (Reason)
• Parisians queue for cannabis after softening of drug laws  (The Telegraph)
• Minneapolis cops halt low-level marijuana stings after racial disparity revealed (StarTribune)
• CBD Could Help People Smoke Fewer Cigarettes (Tonic)
• Oklahomans To Decide In Two Weeks On Providing Medical Marijuana Access (NORML)
• Meet the Cannasexuals: Can your vagina get high? (BBC)
• UN Drug Committee Finds Cannabis an Effective, ‘Relatively Safe Drug’ (Leafly)
• Five Danish political parties support legalisation of cannabis (The Local)
• Senators Include Medical Marijuana Protections In Justice Department Bill (Forbes)
• The Pot Industry Is Overwhelmingly White, and One Congresswoman Wants to Change That (Rolling Stone)
• 7 mayors want pot removed from federal list of illegal drugs (Associated Press)
• House Appropriations Committee Blocks Cannabis Banking Amendment (NORML)
• Subjective Reports Positive for Cannabis in MS, but Caution Urged (Medscape)
• Senate Majority Leader Announces Progress On Hemp Reform Legislation (NORML)
• S.C. Democrats overwhelmingly supported medical marijuana on the ballot Tuesday. Experts weigh in on what that really means. (Charleston City Paper)
• How Will Employers Handle Cannabis In The Workplace? (Civilized)
• Congressional Black Caucus Announces Support for Marijuana Law Reforms (NORML)
• Uruguay struggling to meet demand for legal marijuana (Associated Press)
• Using Marijuana to Treat Opioid Addiction (The Fix)
• Can Legal Cannabis Help Slow the Opioid Drug Epidemic in the U.S.? (TheStreet)
• How Mapping Marijuana DNA Could Change the Future of Pot (Rolling Stone)
• Rules around marijuana marketing irk some in the cannabis industry (CBC)
• Marijuana Cultivation Is Where Cannabis Workers Can Earn The Largest Salaries (Forbes)
• How to Throw a Cannabis Dinner Party (High Times)
• Ask a Stoner: What Are Some Good Psychedelic Strains? (Westword)
• Art Of The Deal: Trump Looks To Trade Cannabis Legalization for Justice Department Nominees (Forbes)
• How The Cannabis Industry Became America's Hotbed Of Invention (Forbes)
• U.S. Markets 'Definitively' Missing Out on Capital by Barring Cannabis Companies (TheStreet)

LSD

• Did An Acid Trip Change Your Life? Scientists Want To Know About It (Futurism)
• LSD And Toxic Lies (The Third Wave)
• '70s Flashback: When Howard Stern Took LSD (CelebStoner)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• LSD and magic mushrooms could heal damaged brain cells in people suffering from depression, study shows (The Independent)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Why is Britain suffering from an ecstasy overdose? (ShortList)
• Cannabis and MDMA use is on the rise among Irish young people (Extra.ie)
• This Piece of Art Is Made Out of 4,000 Ecstasy Pills (VICE)
• Warning as deadly blue ‘Punisher’ and ‘Duracell’ ecstasy pills found at Manchester’s Parklife Festival (The Sun)

Ayahuasca/DMT/5-MeO-DMT

• DMT vs. 5-MeO-DMT (Psychedelic Heaven)
• Ayahuasca Healings Is a One Stop Online Destination for All Information Relating to Ayahuasca (Digital Journal)

Morning Glory Seeds

• UAE legal Q&As: What is the punishment for being caught having taken 'Morning Glory'? (The National)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Warning over potent 'fake MDMA' drug which causes psychosis and keeps users awake for three days (The Telegraph)

Dissociatives

• Ketamine is likely one solution to prevent school massacres, doctors agree (Rooster)
• Ketamine and Psychedelic Drugs Change Structure of Neurons (Neuroscience News)
• Hit-and-run suspect ran over Deep Ellum bartender while smoking PCP, passenger says (Dallas News)

Opiates/Opioids

• One easy, cost-free thing Trump can do to ease the opioid crisis (The Washington Post)
• Lack of evidence casts doubt on police claims of officers overdosing after accidental opioid contact (The Star Vancouver)
• Beyond Books: How Libraries Are the Latest Front in the Opioid Fight (Governing)
• Big Opium's fines could approach Big Tobacco's as lawsuits mount (Rooster)
• Afghanistan is producing a lot more opium than before the US invasion. The US just can't stop it (Business Insider)
• Nan Goldin's Misleading OxyContin Story Feeds the Myth of 'Highly Addictive' Pain Pills (Reason)

Absinthe

• What Can We Learn About Moral Panics from Absinthe? (Patheos)

Kratom

• Kratom Advocates Take Their Fight To Washington As Potential Federal Ban Looms (HuffPost)
• Kratom Could Be Illegal Before It Gets a Chance to Solve the Opioid Crisis (Inverse)
• Can Kratom Be Detected In Urine And Drug Test? (Kratom Guides)
• Photos: US hunger for opioid alternative drives Kratom boom in Indonesia (Hindustan Times)
• 5 Kratom Strains to Help Increase Your Productivity At Work (Kratom Guides)
• Edmonton kratom retailer frustrated by 'aggressive' Health Canada raids (CBC)
• Yellow Maeng da Kratom Review: Origin, Benefits and Side Effects (Kratom Guides)

Kava

• Kava is the ‘anti-caffeine’ (Greenville Journal)
• More Improvements Needed In Kava Sector (Fiji Sun)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity (Cell Reports)
• How Big Pharma Hopes to Make Psychedelics Profitable (The Market Mogul)
• Psychedelic drugs promote neural plasticity in rats and flies (EurekAlert!)
• Men who have used psychedelics are roughly half as likely to commit intimate partner violence (PsyPost)
• E3 Attendees Get High on Digital Psychedelics (GlobeNewsWire)
• Can psychedelics help prevent suicide? (Big Think)
• Group Therapy for Psychedelic Integration (Chacruna)
• Balancing Cultural Traditions and Science in Entheogenic Research: A Conversation with Brad Adams, Ph.D. (Psychedelic Times)
• New Resolution Demands Congress Apologize For Failed Drug War (Marijuana Moment)
• Why Is Everyone Into Microdosing Right Now? (Girlboss)
• This Is Why Xanax Is Blowing Up in America (VICE)
• Trump Should Hurt Sessions by Helping Drug Offenders (Reason)
• Can Psychedelics Induce Flow States? (The Third Wave)
• The Holy Trinity of Music, Religion, and Psychedelics: Interview with Tim Ferson of OM Collective (Psychedelic Times)
• I talked with Adam Strauss about Ketamine for OCD, Trip Sitters, and The Mushroom Cure Los Angeles (Psymposia)
• Why Are Rhode Island Democrats Pushing a Bill That Could Send Some Drug Dealers to Prison For Life? (Medium)
• 1 In 3 Adults In The U.S. Takes Medications Linked To Depression (NPR)
• Drug testers at festivals will tell you if that MDMA you bought is actually sugar (Metro)
• As Mind-Altering Drugs Meet The Mainstream, The D.C. Psychedelic Society Is Bringing The City's 'Trippy People' Together (DCist)
• Agony and Ecstasy: Psychedelics as the next big health remedy? (The Irish Times)
• Psychedelic Drugs Can Cure 'The Most Painful Condition Known to Man' (Andrew Joseph)

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.

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Book Review - Dreamland

The United States of America is in the midst of a widespread opiate epidemic that has devastated hundreds of small rural towns and suburbs across the country. The captivating story of exactly how this came to be is expertly told in acclaimed journalist Sam Quinones' fantastic book, Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic, which was published in 2015.

In Dreamland, Quinones magnificently blends together two seemingly-independent narratives: the overly generous prescription of pain medications during the 1990s (including Purdue Pharma's ambitious campaign to aggressively market and sell OxyContin) and the unforeseen—and unprecedented—arrival of cheap, consistent, high quality black tar heroin from one small county in Mexico. According to Quinones, these developments joined forces in a dangerous synergy that ultimately resulted in America's modern-day opiate epidemic.

The book opens with a ridiculously thorough timeline that begins with the distillation of morphine in 1804, moves on to the invention of the hypodermic syringe in 1853 (did you know that the inventor's wife was the first to die of injected drug overdose?), glances at the release of OxyContin in 1996, and ends with the FDA's 2014 approval of Targiniq ER, which combined timed-release oxycodone with naloxone. This timeline, which provides plenty of insight into what went on in between those four events, sets the stage for the book's narrative and successfully primes the reader for the information that follows.

And the actual book doesn't disappoint, either—as the dust-jacket blurb states, it introduces "a memorable cast of characters—pharma pioneers, young Mexican entrepreneurs, narcotics investigators, survivors, and parents, and Quinones shows how these tales fit together." Sure enough, about midway through Dreamland, the reader begins to see the sophisticated web that was woven by several groups of people who were simply following the capitalist dream (operating in their own best interest in an attempt to make as much money as possible), and the once-hidden connections between the people and places involved become as clear as crystal.

When it comes down to it, Dreamland is the best book that I've read so far this year. The story is compelling and unfolds beautifully, in a masterful manner that constantly tempts the reader to read the next chapter. The level of detail that is crammed into each page is truly impressive, but never overwhelming. Simply put—I enjoyed every single word. The topic isn't necessarily the most popular (for the average reader), so I'm not sure that I would recommend this book to someone unless they're already interested in America's opiate epidemic. However, if you are at all intrigued by the topic, then I wholeheartedly recommend this book to you. It will likely take a while to read, because it is packed so densely, but it will be worth your investment of money, time, and energy. And I will keep an eye out for any future books and articles by Quinones, as his writing is an absolute joy to read.

5/5 stars. 385 pages.

Banner image by jplenio, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.