This Week in Psychedelics - 10.12.18

Cannabis

• U.K. to Allow Prescriptions for Medicinal Cannabis (The New York Times)

• Pew Poll: 62 Percent Of Americans Want Marijuana Legal (NORML)

• Pennsylvania Lawmakers Approve Marijuana Decriminalization Bill In Committee Vote (Marijuana Moment)

• Support For Marijuana Legalization Grew Again In 2018, Pew Poll Finds (Marijuana Moment)

• 'Women have been saying it works for 10,000 years': 400 women will use marijuana-infused inserts in a groundbreaking study from a Harvard Medical School professor (Business Insider)

• U.S. Government Loosens Border Policy For Canadian Marijuana Industry Workers (Marijuana Moment)

• Trump Plans To Back Legal Medical Marijuana After Midterms, GOP Congressman Says (Marijuana Moment)

• High Schoolers Are Growing More Tolerant Of Peers Who Use Marijuana, Study Shows (Marijuana Moment)

• Survey: Cannabis Use Becoming Common Among Older Adults (NORML)

• Study Reveals How Older People Use And Obtain Marijuana In Colorado (Marijuana Moment)

• New California Law Bans Bars, Liquor Stores from Selling Marijuana-Infused Drinks (Reason)

• Fight To Legalize Medical Marijuana In Missouri Intensifies As Groups Battle Over Tax Rates (Marijuana Moment)

• Walmart Canada Explores Selling Cannabis-Infused Products (Forbes)

• Shopify 'confident' on pot e-commerce because 'cannabis isn't Kylie Cosmetics' (CBC)

• Trump Administration Seeks Public Comments On Marijuana Reclassification (Forbes)

• Toke Up, Eh? Canada Readies for Marijuana to Become Legal Nationwide (TIME)

• Canada’s Liquor Stores Will Heavily Outnumber Marijuana Stores On Legalization’s Launch (Marijuana Moment)

• Marijuana Stores Will Be Hard To Find For Most Canadians On Day One Of Legalization (Marijuana Moment)

• The jury is in on cannabis legalization in North America: it’s been a success. (LSE USAPP)

• WestJet bans staff in 'safety-sensitive' jobs from off-duty cannabis use (CBC)

• THC amounts identical in most cannabis strains, study finds (Phys.org)

• Celebrity Endorsements and Cannabis (The Stranger)

• Cannabis In Space Is Just Around The Corner (Forbes)

• I'm Just a Middle-Aged House Dad Addicted to Pot (The New York Times)

• This Is Where Arizona’s US Senate Candidates Stand On Marijuana (Marijuana Moment)

• The Marijuana Midterms are Heating Up in Nevada (NORML)

• Corporate America is investing in pot because people want to eat and drink it (CNN)

• Why retail is so important to the burgeoning cannabis beauty and wellness market (Glossy)

• Marijuana Licensing Bill Has ‘Negligible’ Fiscal Impacts, Congressional Budget Office Says (Marijuana Moment)

• Coral Cove Cannabis Retreat Is Jamaica's Best Kept Secret (Forbes)

• The Quest to Make California’s Weed the Champagne of Cannabis (WIRED)

LSD

• A Team of European Researchers Is Crowdsourcing the World’s First ‘Self-Blinded’ LSD Microdosing Study (Psychedelic Times)

• ‘The CIA introduced LSD into American society. They weaponised it’ (The Irish Times)

• Nick Kroll Saw The Pattern Of The Universe During An LSD Trip At Burning Man (Marijuana Moment)

• A Playwright's LSD Trip Becomes a Psychedelic Journey (The New York Times)

• That time a legendary Batman editor was dared to put LSD in Stan Lee’s coffee (Polygon)

• From ‘problem child’ to ‘prodigy’? LSD turns 75 (Arab News)

• People Are Microdosing LSD To 'Make Them More Productive' (LADbible)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Psilocybin Initiative Moves to Signature-Gathering Stage for May 2019 (Westword)

• Mushroom legalization effort polling at 39 percent (Rooster Magazine)

• A team of Johns Hopkins researchers is calling for magic mushrooms to be made legally available as medicine (Business Insider)

• “Magic Mushrooms” May Be an FDA-Approved Drug for Anxiety and Depression in the Near Future (Vogue)

• Iceland’s Richest Man Invests in Magic Mushrooms (Guide to Iceland Now)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• $57 million worth of MDMA discovered in sausage-making machines (Mixmag)

• Superstar DJ David Morales 'arrested at Japanese airport over MDMA smuggling claim' (Mirror)

• Use of higher purity ecstasy on the rise among young Australians (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Ayahuasca/DMT/5-MeO-DMT

• Breaking News: The first two ayahuasca convictions in the United States (Chacruna)

• Sexual Seduction in Ayahuasca Shaman and Participants Interactions (Chacruna)

• What ayahuasca — Silicon Valley's latest drug of choice — does to your brain and body (The Hour)

• The DMT drug is not a drug, its much stranger (Kahpi)

• In the mighty jungles (Deccan Herald)

• Multiple (and Subtle) Bodies: Entheogenic Incorporation in the Santo Daime Tradition (Part 1) (Reality Sandwich)

• Nathalie Huerta on Founding The Queer Gym and What Ayahuasca Taught Her (Bon Appetit)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

• American Indians gather near El Reno to celebrate peyote traditions (Tulsa World)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• Ibogaine Clinics and their Role in Addiction Treatment (The Urban Twist)

• The dangerous hallucinogen opioid addicts use to get clean (Big Think)

Dissociatives

• As ketamine clinics spread, so do start-your-own-business courses, sparking concern (STAT)

• Ketamine infusion for depression requires opioid receptors to be effective (Medical News Bulletin)

• Hope for Victims of Resistant Clinical Depression Now Comes in Pill Form (Breaking Israel News)

• My ketamine infusion for chronic pain (The Fix)

• Police: Naked man possibly on PCP arrested after throwing chairs off Dumfries balcony (WJLA)

• Expert: Teen 'whacked out' of his mind from PCP night of police shooting (Chicago City Wire)

Opiates/Opioids

• Addiction Treatment Gap Is Driving A Black Market For Suboxone (NPR)

• Surgeon General Talks About Need To 'Normalize' Naloxone At N.H. Opioids Forum (NHPR)

• Funeral Homes Stock Overdose Antidote Drug Naloxone Amid Opioid Epidemic (The Inquisitr)

• Mexico defense chief says legalizing opium 'way out' of violence (The Gazette)

• Opioid Bill Shows Congress Can Still Work Together (TIME)

• Prisons Crack Down On An Opioid Treatment Drug, Endangering Lives (The Appeal)

• Medicaid Expansion and the Opioid Epidemic (Penn LDI)

Absinthe

• A Czech Distiller Is Resurrecting Pre-Ban Absinthe, Returning the Green Fairy to Rightful Glory (VinePair)

Kambô

• Get holes burned into your body as sacred tree frog ceremony comes to Cornwall (Cornwall Live)

Kratom

• Ohio Pushes Kratom Ban With Disputed Claims About Deaths, Use Trends (HuffPost)

• Do Drug Addicts Really Shoot Kratom? (Pain News Network)

Kava

• Potential for increased kava exports (The Fiji Times)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• A Big Win – DOJ Affirms Free Water and Drug Education Not a Violation of the RAVE Act! (Amend the RAVE Act!)

• Fingerprint drug screen test works on the living and deceased (ScienceDaily)

• Hospital Data Shows How Britain's Drug Problem Is Getting Worse (VICE)

• Decriminalise drugs, Plaid Cymru says (BBC)

• Philadelphia Pushing Forward with Safe Injection Site Plans (Reason)

• 'Just say no' to drug legalisation: WHO chief (Yahoo!)

• The Psychedelic Film and Music Festival Announces Inaugural Award Winners (Broadway World)

• Can US overdose deaths be stopped? (Drug WarRant)

• Introducing Chacruna’s Psychedelic Therapy Music Forum (Chacruna)

• Reality Is Just a Bunch of Hallucinations We Collectively Agree On (Motherboard)

• Successful Constitutional Case Against Death Penalty Works For War on Drugs, Too (Marijuana Moment)

• Magic Medicine: A Trip Through the Intoxicating History and Modern-Day Use of Psychedelic Plants and Substances by Cody Johnson (Psychedelic Press UK)

• Treating mental disorders with psychedelic psychotherapy (Particle)

• The Business Of Addiction Treatment (INSCMagazine)

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.

DOJ Affirms Free Water and Drug Education Not a Violation of the RAVE Act

Dede, writing for Amend the RAVE Act!:

Dear friends and other steadfast supporters,

I am thrilled to bring you two important updates about our work to amend the RAVE Act.

First, earlier this year, I received a letter from the Department of Justice (DOJ) informing me that free water should absolutely be provided at dance music festivals and concerts!

Then, last week the Justice Department added that fact-based drug education material may be distributed at events! In fact, they said that both of these measures have been deemed to be ‘reasonable and appropriate safety measures.’

Free water at music festivals is an absolute no-brainer, and educating drug users about how to use drugs in the safest manner possible can have a huge impact. Lives will definitely be saved because of these changes. This is excellent news for the harm reduction movement.

---

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This Week in Psychedelics - 9.11.15

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Here's Why We Hear So Many False Claims About Cannabis (Independent Scientific Committee On Drugs)
• Study: Young People Are Smoking Less Tobacco, More Marijuana (ATTN:)
• I Went to a Cannabis Salon to Taste Farm-to-Table Weed (Munchies)
• Israel Could Grow Into A Global Cannabis Startup Superpower (TechCrunch)
• We Have No Idea What Kind Of Cannabis We're Buying (Discovery News)
• How Marijuana Affects Your Workout (ATTN:)
• Parliament to debate cannabis legalization next month (The Independent)
• Marijuana Will Be Tax-Free for a Day in Colorado (Time)
• Vaping: The latest scourge in drug abuse (CNN)
• Deer Devour Hemp Crops At Southern Oregon Farm (The Associated Press)
• Southwest Cannabis Conference Coming to Phoenix Next Month (Phoenix New Times)
• Proponents want Pa. to legalize medical cannabis, farmed hemp (The Standard Speaker)
• High School Kids Use E-Cigarettes to Smoke Cannabis: Study (NBC)
• Cannabis farms in Reading drop by half in the last year (Get Reading)
• Middle School And High School Students Use E-Cigarettes To Vaporize Cannabis: Study (Medical Daily)
• Cannabis compliance: Why good books, solid security and great tech are key (Upstart)
• N. Texas cafe will sell cannabis drinks and snacks (Chron)
• Could Cannabis Be Decriminalized in the UK? (Vice News)
• Twisted Sister Leads a Yoga and Cannabis Retreat (Westword)

LSD

• Oliver Sacks Used LSD Legally. Is the Drug War Preventing Great Discoveries? (The Huffington Post)
• Treatment For Anxiety May Be Found Using Mood Enhancing Drug LSD, According To A New Report (Inquisitr)
• Other Colours: Rob Chapman On Psychedelia And LSD (The Quietus)
• Music sounds better on LSD, study finds (ZME Science)
• This YouTuber Taken on Acid (LSD) vs. Alcohol Challenge - Find Out What Happened! (Food World News)
• The era of love-ins, light shows and LSD (Halifax Courier)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• This Is What It Feels Like to Treat Depression with Magic Mushrooms (Vice)
• Terence McKenna Had a Bad Trip in the Late 80's and Never Took Mushrooms Again (Disinformation)
• Doctor enjoyed 'shrooms and ecstasy' (San Diego Reader)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• The "Amend The RAVE Act" Petition is Going to Congress (Dance Music Northwest)
• MDMA (Ecstasy) Can Accelerate Personal Growth (Reset.me)
• DEA Approves Ecstasy For Anxiety, MDMA Trials Begin In California (Practically Viral!)
• MDMA 'could be used to treat mental illness', scientists say (Metro)
• What Exactly is MDMA (Ecstasy)? (Press Rocket Release)
• A Little 'Molly' and then 'She Was Gone' (CBN News)
• Nearly 200 People Arrested On First Two Days Of Nocturnal, Mostly For Trespassing (Your EDM)
• 'This is what one tiny pill can do to you': Teen who was left in a wheelchair with slurred speech after taking ecstasy releases video of how her life has changed (Daily Mail)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Ayahuasca IN the USA UPDATE! Ayahuasca church opening soon! (YouTube)
• Personal Story: How Ayahuasca Helped Me Defeat A Demon Called Fear (Reset.me)
• Ayahuasca & Relationships (Jayson Gaddis)

Peyote/Mescaline

• Kim Davis and the Freedom of Religion (The Huffington Post)
• Orentlicher: RFRA poses little threat (Indy Star)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• How iBogaine Fights Stubborn Prescription Painkiller Addictions (iBogaine-Thailand)

Salvia Divinorum

• 5 Drug Scares vs. Reality (Reason)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Psychedelic drug emergency at seminar near Hamburg (Deutsche Welle)
• Homeopathy conference ends in chaos after delegates take hallucinogenic drug (The Independent)
• Synthetic cannabis dealing 'an issue throughout the community' (The Timaru Herald)
• Editorial: NBOMe — a nasty designer drug that parents know too little about (The Dallas Morning News)
• Drug in teen's system rarely seen by DFW law officers (Star-Telegram)

Dissociatives

• Baltimore drug startup Cerecor launches new study of antidepressant as it plans stock sale (The Baltimore Sun)
• Bring Me The Horizon's Oil Sykes on drug addiction: 'Ketamine made me want to die' (NME)

Opiates/Opioids

• The stigma against people who use heroin makes it harder for them to get help (The Conversation)
• The Fantasy of Stopping the 'Heroin Epidemic' by Stopping the Heroin (Reason)
• Pill crackdown may boost heroin sales (El Paso Times)
• Thailand's Northern 3rd Army Destroys Thousands of Opium Poppy Fields (Chiangrai Times)
• Price Soars For Key Weapon Against Heroin Overdoses (National Public Radio)
• KPD officers now have Naloxone to help overdose victims (WBIR-TV)
• With rising heroin use, Peninsula doctor lobbies for an antidote (Alaska Public Media)
• Naloxone prescriptions creating hurdles (Victoria News)
• As Heroin Epidemic Grows, So Does Rehab Wait (NBC)
• A new practice (The Times-News)
• Scituate officials call for action in wake of opiate crisis (Scituate Mariner)
• Ohio Couple Calls Out Heroin Overdose in Teen Daughter's Obituary (NBC)
• Naloxone Hydrochloride: An Antidote to Drug Overdose (The Science Times)
• Tatamy police receive life-saving atomizers for overdose victims (Lehigh Valley Live)
• In Myanmar's Opium-Rich Shan State, Addicts Without Options (Voice of America)
• 'Reopening of opium vends in Rajasthan unfortunate' (Times of India)
• Naloxone reverses effects of drug overdose, experts say (Fox 13 Salt Lake City)
• As Overdose Deaths Climb, So Does Demand For Their Antidote (Bloomberg)
• The new war on heroin has only just begun (Business Insider)
• Families open up about the changing face of heroin addiction (CBS News)
• Littlest victims of America's heroin epidemic (CBS News)
• All-Time High: The Narcan/Heroin Complex (Delaware County News Network)
• Heroin epidemic hits Vermont community hard (CBS News)
• Illinois Senate rejects Rauner's veto of anti-heroin bill (The Hawk Eye)
• Heroin Fatalities in Hartford County: 'These Are Not Just Numbers' (Bel Air Patch)
• Cumberland County police officers to begin carrying Naloxone (The Sentinel)

Kambô

• Kambô: Nature's Vaccine For The Mind And Body (Reset.me)

Kratom

• Experts Speak Out on Benefits of Kratom: Why it Would be a Mistake to Ban It (Business Wire)
• Kratom leaves: Are they really a dangerous drug? (Bangkok Post)
• Man Claims His Wife's Odd Addiction Is Destroying Their Marriage (The Huffington Post)

Kava

• I drank kava -- the trendy, non-alcoholic beverage that's supposed to make you feel high -- but it just made me sick (Business Insider)
• Kava ruling (The Fiji Times)

Khat

• Mo Farah admits he did take drug Khat - but says he only wanted to try it and used it before it was banned by the authorities (Daily Mail)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Psychedelics Promise a 'Paradigm Shift' in Treating Mental Illness (Newsweek)
• Susan Sarandon carried LSD guru Timothy Leary's ashes in a Burning Man ceremony (USA Today)
• Psychedelic drugs could treat several mental conditions (Pulse Headlines)
• Use of LSD, MDMA and magic mushrooms aid treatment of anxiety, addiction and PTSD (International Business Times)
• Experts call for study of possible therapeutic uses of psychedelic drugs (The Globe and Mail)
• Could these psychedelic drugs be making the trip to a B.C. doctor's office near you? (The Province)
• Psychedelic drugs as treatment for anxiety, addiction (CBS News)
• Psychedelics Promising for Anxiety, Depression, Addiction, and PTSD (Psychiatry Advisor)
• LSD, magic mushrooms and ecstasy could be used to treat mental health disorders (Northern Californian)
• Attend LA's Psychedelic Conference And Learn From The Leading Healers And Experts (Reset.me)
• How to Change the World review - the psychedelic birth of Greenpeace (The Guardian)
• 'Ingenious' dark web drug network run from Irish bedroom (Independent.ie)

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.

The Manual of Psychedelic Support

While perusing the May 2015 edition of Erowid Extracts, I was referred to a website called PsychSitter that has a wonderful guide that gives advice for "setting up and running compassionate care services for people having difficult drug experiences at music festivals and similar events."

The guide was published under a Creative Commons license and is available as a FREE PDF download. It includes a history of psychedelic care services, legal considerations, how to recruit, build, and train a team, the care space, complementary therapies, case studies, and much more.

Having a safe space for people undergoing powerful transformational experiences at multi-day outdoor festivals is extremely important. Unfortunately, because of the RAVE (Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy) Act,  harm reduction services can be interpreted as illegal activity in the United States.

The Act makes it unlawful to "make available for use" any place "for the purpose of unlawfully manufacturing, storing, distributing, or using a controlled substance." This can be broadly interpreted to target festival and event producers who have opted to provide any form of harm reduction services whatsoever. 

This can lead to producers being wary of even providing basic necessities like chillout spaces, available drinking water, drug testing reagent kit sites, and even the allowance of glow sticks, which have been associated in some people's minds with illegal substance use. This creates a situation where an already-difficult experience can turn into a nightmare for the traveler, who may end up in a crowded medical tent or the backseat of a police vehicle.

Groups like PsychSitter, DanceSafe, MAPS' Zendo Project, and the Full Circle Tea House are just a few of care service providers that are out there spreading positive vibes where they are needed the most. A petition has been started at Amend The RAVE Act that might be worth your checking out as well.