This Week in Psychedelics - 2.26.21

Cannabis

• Murphy signs N.J. legal weed bills, ending 3-year saga (NJ.com)

• North Dakota House votes to legalize recreational marijuana (KXNet.com)

• Alabama Senate passes medical marijuana legislation (WTVM)

• South Dakota: House Members Approve Legislation to Delay Implementation of Voter-Approved Medical Cannabis Law (NORML)

• Virginia OKs smokable flower in move that could spur medical marijuana sales (Marijuana Business Daily)

• Marijuana legalization passes in Minnesota House Committee vote (KIMT)

• Cannabis legalization bill headed to House floor (Albuquerque Journal)

• FDA to include cannabis on essential drugs list (Bangkok Post)

• Virginia Conference Committee Faces Saturday Deadline To Finalize Marijuana Legalization Proposal (Marijuana Moment)

• Pa. lawmakers introduce bipartisan bill to legalize recreational marijuana (WHTM)

• Marijuana legalization proposed in Maryland Legislature (The Washington Post)

• Kansas Governor’s Medical Marijuana Bill Introduced As Lawmakers Take Up Separate Legalization Proposal (Marijuana Moment)

• Colorado families ask for statewide school cannabis access (The Colorado Sun)

• Study: Enactment of Marijuana Legalization Laws Associated with Reductions in Opioid Prescribing Patterns (NORML)

• Legal Marijuana States See Reduced Workers’ Compensation Claims, New Study Finds (Marijuana Moment)

• Missouri pushes back deadline for medical cannabis businesses to open (Marijuana Business Daily)

• Study: Cannabis Mitigates Symptoms in Patients with Treatment-Resistant Fibromyalgia (NORML)

• South Carolina Voters Support Legalizing Medical Marijuana By A Five-To-One Ratio, New Poll Finds (Marijuana Moment)

Magic Mushrooms

• Aion Therapeutic Opening the First International Treatment Center for Psychedelic Psychiatry in Jamaica; Hires Leading Psychiatrist as Medical Director (Psilocybin Alpha)

• Penis Envy Mushrooms: Murder & Conspiracy Behind the World’s Trippiest Shroom (DoubleBlind)

• Red Light Holland, the First Public Candian Psychedelics Company, Is Ready To Sell You Magic Truffles (Lucid News)

MDMA

• MDMA proves a promising alcoholism treatment in world-first trial (New Atlas)

• The Effects of Antidepressant Discontinuation on MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy (Psychedelic Science Review)

• Root Beer and MDMA: Degrees of Separation (Truffle Report)

DMT

• PharmaDrug Files For FDA Orphan Drug Designation For DMT In Kidney Transplantation and Expands on Its Psychedelics Strategy (Psilocybin Alpha)

• The Ultimate Guide to DMT Pricing (Reality Sandwich)

Iboga

• Ibogaine Addiction Therapy: Then and Now (Truffle Report)

Morning Glory Seeds

• Microdosing LSA: People are Microdosing Acid’s Less Known, Legal Cousin (DoubleBlind)

Synthetic Cannabinoids

• Synthetic cannabis: an unknown gamble with potentially fatal consequences (Stuff.co.nz)

Ketamine

• Elijah McClain's mother relieved he 'is no longer labeled a suspect' after investigation into officers' actions (CNN)

• Aurora, Colorado, to hire independent police monitor after investigation into Elijah McClain's death (KDRV)

• What To Look For When Searching For A Ketamine Clinic (Healing Maps)

PCP

• Rochester police officers involved in suffocation death of Daniel Prude will not face charges (KTLA)

Miscellaneous

• Norway seeks to decriminalise recreational drug use (RTÉ)

• Vermont Introduces Bill to Decriminalize Entheogenic Plants (Truffle Report)

• NYU Langone Health Establishes Center for Psychedelic Medicine (NYU Langone Health)

• Missouri Bill Would Add MDMA, Psilocybin Mushrooms And LSD To Right-To-Try Law (Marijuana Moment)

• Psychedelic Therapy Needs to Confront the Mystical (VICE)

• After a Year of Controversy, MAPS Canada Executive Director Mark Haden Announces Resignation (Psymposia)

• Washington Supreme Court Strikes Down Criminalization Of Drug Possession (Marijuana Moment)

• Casey William Hardison: A Clandestine Chemist’s View on Cognitive Liberty (Filter)

• Why the US Has Embraced Drug Law Reform, But the UK Won't (VICE)

• The Guardian view on illegal drugs: the laws don’t work (The Guardian)

• An Urgent Plea to Users of Psychedelics: Let’s Consider a More Ethical Menu of Plants and Compounds (Tim Ferriss Blog)

• What If We Pay People to Stop Using Drugs? (The New Republic)

• Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin: A Retrospective (Truffle Report)

• The Farmer and The Cowman Should Be Friends: Why the Pharmaceutical Industry and Grassroots Reformists Should Join Forces (Psychedelics Today)

• Microneedle patches for microdosing psychedelic pharmaceuticals (EurekAlert!)

• Meet the Psychedelic Rapper Running for New York City Mayor (DoubleBlind)

• The Case For Psychedelic Couples Counseling (GQ)

• Love and Psychedelic Psychotherapy: Bridging the Divide (Chacruna)

• How Psychedelics Impact Startle Response (Truffle Report)

• The Problem and Paradox of Bad Trips, Part 2 (Psychedelic Science Review)

• Joe Rogan: Dedemonizing Psychedelics (Reality Sandwich)

• Psychedelics, Capitalism, and the Commodification of the Sacred (The Third Wave)

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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.

More Drug Policy Reform Bills Pass Committee

Several drug policy reform bills passed committee last week. This week the initiatives in Minnesota and New Mexico both passed their second rounds and will definitely be heading to each state’s House for further consideration.

Virginia’s lawmakers are facing a Saturday deadline to reconcile conflicting House and Senate cannabis legalization bills and things are tense.

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Marijuana Reform Bills Pass in North Dakota and Alabama

Nikiya Carrero, writing for KXNet.com about North Dakota’s House greenlighting legal cannabis:

North Dakota Representatives gave the green light to recreational marijuana.

The House voted Tuesday morning to legalize marijuana for recreational use for adults 21 years or older.

This bill would also allow people to be able to possess up to “twenty-one grams of adult-use cannabis” every two weeks. It would not allow North Dakotans to grow their own cannabis. […]

The bill ultimately passed 56 to 38.

To become law, it needs to also get the approval of the Senate and a signature from the governor.

Meanwhile, WTVM reported on the passing of a medical marijuana bill in Alabama’s Senate:

The Alabama Senate has again voted to pass a medical marijuana bill, this time by a vote of 21 to 10.

The pending legislation would allow patients to legally use the drug if they’ve been diagnosed with one of about 20 medical conditions including cancer, chronic pain, and anxiety. […]

The legislation now moves to the House for consideration where supporters are more likely to face some heavy challenges.

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A Couple More Psychedelic Research Centers

Last week I linked to an announcement of COMPASS Pathways’ new virtually-distributed Drug Discovery Center, and this week two additional new psychedelic research centers were announced. Before I get to them, allow me to sneak in a link to yet another psychedelic research center that was launched early this month that I forgot to link to before—Massachusetts General Hospital’s new Center for Neuroscience of Psychedelics.

This week’s new psychedelic research centers will be based in New York and Jamaica. Here’s the press release from NYU Langone Health about the first one:

When fully developed, the NYU Langone Center for Psychedelic Medicine, under the auspices of NYU Langone’s Department of Psychiatry, will support health-focused research across the translational spectrum, from basic science to phase III clinical trials. Principally, it will have three transdisciplinary areas of focus: psychiatry, medicine, and preclinical research.

In addition, a robust training program, the Psychedelic Medicine Research Training Program—which differentiates this center from others—will support the development of early career faculty members and postdoctoral fellows to become independent investigators in the field of psychedelic medicine.

And here’s the press release in Psilocybin Alpha about Aion Therapeutic’s new Jamaica-based center:

Aion Therapeutic Inc. (CSE: AION) (“Aion Therapeutic” or the “Company“) announced today the opening of the Aion International Center for Psychedelic Psychiatry in Jamaica. The Center will initially specialize in the use of psilocybin for the treatment of addiction (tobacco, alcohol, and other drug misuse), depression and anxiety associated with life-threatening illnesses, treatment-resistant depression, and major depressive disorder (MDD). In addition, the Center will be studying the effectiveness of psilocybin as a new therapy for opioid addiction, Alzheimer’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and anorexia nervosa.

Just last month I mentioned that since there weren’t a plethora of psychedelic research centers that I would continue to highlight new ones when they open, and now it’s starting to appear that—just like pretty much everything else involving psychedelics over the past few years—these research centers went from few-and-far-between to ubiquitous and common in no time flat. At this point I will probably continue to highlight new research centers in my weekly roundups and monthly recaps here on Think Wilder, but from here on out I’m not sure it’s worth pointing out every single new center in link posts like this one.

This is following an overall trend in psychedelic news that I’m starting to really feel and am trying to figure out how to address. Essentially I have to ask myself the following question every time I come across a new psychedelic news story—is this a newsworthy event? Things that are considered newsworthy now are completely different than what would have been considered newsworthy a few years (or even a few months) ago. I see it as part of my job to highlight newsworthy items as they pop up, but I’m starting to get psychedelic news whiplash so I’m trying to re-calibrate what should be shared, and when and where to share it. Eventually I’ll strike the right balance, so thanks for bearing with me until then.

At any rate, I’m excited to see all four of these new psychedelic research centers this month and I’m looking forward their future contributions toward the body of psychedelic science.

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Psychedelic Policy Reform Bills Submitted in Vermont and Missouri

Two new bills were submitted this week that would increase access and reduce penalties for possessing psychedelics in Vermont and Missouri.

Ritika Dubey, writing about Vermont’s decriminalization bill for Truffle Report:

Vermont lawmakers introduced a bill in the state legislature on Tuesday, decriminalizing a range of entheogenic plants and fungi that are used for medicinal, spiritual, or religious purposes.

Rep. Brian Cina (P/D), Selene Colburn (P/D) and eight other co-sponsors backed the bill H-309, which is aimed at decriminalizing ‘certain chemical compounds found in plants and fungi’ including psilocybin, psilocin, ayahuasca, peyote and mescaline. If passed, the act will come into effect on July 1, 2021.

And Ben Adlin, writing about Missouri’s right-to-try bill for Marijuana Moment:

Missouri residents with debilitating, life-threatening or terminal illnesses could gain legal access to an array of psychedelic drugs under new legislation aimed at expanding the state’s existing right-to-try law.

A bill introduced last week by Republican Rep. Michael Davis of Kansas City would allow seriously ill people to use substances such as MDMA, psilocybin mushrooms, LSD, DMT, mescaline and ibogaine with a doctor’s recommendation after exhausting all other approved treatment options. It would also remove felony penalties statewide for simple possession of the drugs, reclassifying low-level offenses as misdemeanors.

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