captagon

This Week in Psychedelics - 1.8.16

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

  • The Federal Ban on Medical Marijuana Was Not Lifted (Reason)
  • Marijuana Legalization in U.S. Cuts Mexican Pot Profits by 70 Percent (Breitbart News)
  • Canada and Mexico Must Prove Case With United Nations Before Legalizing Marijuana (High Times)
  • How Does Depression Impact Your Sex Life, and Can Cannabis Help? (Leafly)
  • Drug Investigator Caught Smuggling $2 Million Worth of Pot (TIME)
  • Study: Consumers Infrequently Combine Marijuana And Alcohol (NORML)
  • Sister Act-ivists: Cannabis-growing 'nuns' campaign to save their crop (RT)
  • First Medical Marijuana Dispensaries in New York Are Poised to Open (The New York Times)
  • Cannabis Industry Working to Become More Energy Efficient (High Times)
  • Dog Sniffs Out $400,000 Worth of Marijuana Hidden In Broccoli Shipment (TIME)
  • Georgia Lawmaker Files Medical Cannabis Cultivation Bill (Fox 5)
  • NY Patients Can Now Register For Medical Marijuana Program, But Good Luck Finding A Recommendation (Reset.me)
  • Cannabis church holds job fair for medical marijuana industry (News3LV)
  • The Benefits Of Medical Cannabis: An Interview With Dr. Allan Frankel (Reset.me)
  • Mental Health Practitioner says marijuana helps symptoms of PTSD (KOB4)
  • 'Cannabis for kids' legislation filed (Indianapolis Star)
  • Judge Dismisses Lawsuit by Credit Union Trying to Serve the Marijuana Industry (Reason)
  • Colorado Celebrates Pot Legalization Anniversary: Massive Drop in Arrests and Millions in Revenue (Truthout)
  • Ben Carson Wants Rescheduling but Not Marijuana Legalization (ATTN:)
  • World Famous Cannabis Cafe stays open despite new clean air provisions (The Oregonian)
  • New PSA urges action on growing medical marijuana in-state (11 Alive)
  • Cannabis Credit Union Loses Case Against Fed Reserve Bank (Forbes)
  • Calm Down, East Coast: Cannabis "Shatter" Media Coverage Woefully Overstates Its Dangers (Leafly)
  • A Look at Georgia's Proposed Medical Marijuana Law and How Things Will Change if it is Passed (GeorgiaCannabis)
  • All Smoke Is Not Created Equal (NORML)
  • Inside NYC's First Medical Marijuana Dispensary (Gothamist)
  • 10 Ways to Use Cannabis for Better Health in the New Year (High Times)
  • How I Recovered From A Head Injury With The Help Of Cannabis Oil (Reset.me)
  • Alaska Groups Give Free Cannabis to Severely Ill and Veterans (High Times)
  • Continuing Efforts to Legalize Marijuana Lounges in DC (Marijuana.com)
  • An Australian Family Rents an Airbnb That Turns Out to Be a Drug Den (TIME)
  • One Mom's Race to Legalize Medical Cannabis in Her State and Potentially Save Her Daughter's Life (AlterNet)
  • NORML's Legislative Roundup January 8th, 2016 (NORML)
  • Mexican Marijuana Farmers Are Losing Profits in Light of U.S. Legalization (ATTN:)
  • Canada Needs Permission From International Treaties to Legalize Marijuana, Says New PM Justin Trudeau (Reason)
  • Despite Tight Timeline, New York's Medical Cannabis Industry Launches on Schedule (Marijuana Business Daily)
  • Trudeau Warned That Marijuana Legalization Would Violate Global Treaties (Right Relevance)
  • Step inside New York City's marijuana black market in the era of legalization (Crain's New York Business)
  • These Nuns Are Growing Marijuana for the Best Reason (ATTN:)
  • Christmas Island medical cannabis plan: community expresses concern (The Sydney Morning Herald)
  • How cannabis farms are becoming the criminals' drug trade of choice (Liverpool Echo)
  • The Best Cannabis Strains for Wintertime Activities (Leafly)
  • Police: Fire in Berlin flat uncovers 160 cannabis plants (News24)

LSD

  • The man who took LSD – and didn't come down for 30 years (Metro)
  • First LSD scene in cinema, the Tingler 1959 (The Daily Psychedelic Video)
  • Hashish trail leads Delhi cops to international LSD cartel (The Economic Times)
  • Man Arrested After Police Says He Was Attempting To Sell LSD (WBIW)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

MDMA/Ecstasy

  • What's Actually in the Ecstasy Sold in Your Country (ATTN:)
  • How MDMA Affects the Brain (ATTN:)
  • Five U.K. Ravers Hospitalized After Taking Lethal Ecstasy Pills (Your EDM)
  • Kids Company psychologist admits taking MDMA while with vulnerable children (ITV News)
  • Agony and ecstasy: the war veterans trying MDMA treatment (The Guardian)
  • Field Day Sydney: Party girl out of danger after suspected drug overdose (The Daily Telegraph)
  • Ecstasy coma girl Amy Thomson battles through severe pain as she tries to walk again (Scottish Daily Record)
  • Mum of Ecstasy teenager who died after New Year's Eve party said he'd never done drugs before (Mirror)
  • Friends of MDMA death teenager took his friends to hospital bed (STV)
  • Man, 36, arrested in Darwin after police uncover ecstasy parcel (NT News)
  • Ecstasy teen's death second tragedy for friends two years after pal killed in bus accident (Mirror)
  • Teenager, 16, left brain damaged after taking just one Ecstasy pill takes first painful steps out of her wheelchair (Daily Mail)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

  • An Interview with Maxwell Wieland: The Power of the Psychedelic San Pedro Cactus and Wachuma (Psychedelic Times)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

  • ISIS Terrorists Did Not Take Captagon or Any Other Drugs Before the Paris Attacks (Reason)
  • 'Liquid ecstasy' drug hospitalizes two people in Auckland brothel incident (AucklandNOW)
  • Kennewick man gets 8-month sentence for mailing psychedelic drug to friend (Tri-City Herald)

Dissociatives

  • WHO Opposes Global Control of Ketamine (The Horse)
  • The Club Drug Ketamine Might Be the Ultimate Anti-Depressant (Inverse)
  • How Ketamine Infusions Saved My Life (Motherboard)
  • Woman Shares Her Experience Undergoing Ketamine Injections for Depression (MSN)
  • Police: One man accused of nudity, another had suspected PCP (NWI Times)
  • Police: Man high on PCP caused crash on I-70, fought troopers at hospital (Frederick News Post)
  • DRI busts party drug factory; seizes contraband worth Rs 2.5 cr (The Chandigarh Tribune)
  • Thatcham man's face was caked in ketamine, court told (Newbury Today)
  • Can Ketamine Injections Cure Treatment-Resistant Depression? (MSN)

Opiates/Opioids

  • This Drug Can Reverse Heroin Overdoses – & It's Now Over The Counter (Refinery29)
  • Republicans in Congress ended the decades-long funding ban on needle exchange programs (Vox)
  • Heroin-related deaths were 'still rampant' during 2015 (Reading Eagle)
  • 'Hollywood' heroin is a lethal batch (Boston Herald)
  • Could accused "Hollywood" heroin dealers face manslaughter charges? (WWLP)
  • How to Survive the Heroin Epidemic (The Daily Beast)
  • Florida Man Delivers Heroin-Stuffed Burrito to Hospital (Eater)
  • Police investigating heroin death of 1-year old girl in Provo (KSL)
  • Maine governor blames heroin epidemic on men named 'D-Money,' claims his theory has nothing to do with race (New York Daily News)
  • Vancouver opium dealer sentenced to three years in prison (The Georgia Straight)
  • After Decades, Congress Effectively Lifts Ban On Federally Funded Needle Exchanges (BuzzFeed News)

Absinthe

  • Absinthe now available at P.E.I. distillery for adventurous drinkers (CBC)

Kratom

  • Kratom, an Addict's Alternative, Is Found to Be Addictive Itself (The New York Times)
  • Why Do We Use Kratom? Kratom Effects at Higher and Lower Doses (Kratom Guides)
  • Heroin Addicts are Flocking to Controversial Treatment (ATTN:)
  • A Testimonial about Kratom (Cato Institute)
  • US Marshals seize dietary supplements containing kratom (FDA)
  • People are flocking to Florida bars for a legal but dangerous drug (Business Insider)
  • Popular Legal High Kratom Helps Addicts Treat One Addiction By Replacing It With Another (Medical Daily)
  • Kratom, legal in Texas, seized by feds in Illinois (KXAN)
  • The government just seized 90,000 bottles of a supplement containing a legal heroin-like drug (Business Insider)
  • Choice for addicts can supply aid, and typically a relapse (The Times)
  • Boyer to New York Times: Beware of kratom (News from the University of Massachusetts)
  • Bali Kratom – A Wonderful Mental Strain (Kratom Guides)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

  • How the DEA Profits off the War on Drugs (ATTN:)
  • The most convincing argument for legalizing LSD, shrooms, and other psychedelics (Vox)
  • Surgeon General Announces Review of Federal Drug Policies (Marijuana.com)
  • 7 of 2015's Most Outrageous Killings by the Drug War Police (AlterNet)
  • More Than 47,000 Americans Died of Drug Overdose in 2014, Setting Record (Partnership for Drug-Free Kids)
  • Drugs policies and electronic music culture (Resident Advisor)
  • Mexico's drug war reverses trend of rising male life expectancy, study finds (The Guardian)
  • How to Make Drug Taking Better in 2016 (VICE)
  • Research into psychedelics, shut down for decades, is now yielding exciting results... (Ukiah Community Blog)
  • Yale Medical School Professors Are Starting a Psychedelic Meetup (Motherboard)
  • Psychoactive Soundscapes: The Trippiest Albums of 2015 (Disinformation)
  • Should Tea Leaves Give Probable Cause for Drug Raids? (Reason)
  • Illicit drugs work better with classical (San Diego Reader)
  • New psychedelic science group forms at Yale (Yale School of Medicine)
  • Drug Paraphernalia Laws in the U.S. (ATTN:)
  • GAO: Army should monitor PTSD prescriptions more carefully (Stars and Stripes)
  • Jeb Bush Pens an Emotional Essay on His Family's Struggle With Drug Addiction (TIME)
  • A Book of Art and Essays Explores Psychedelics as a Spiritual Technology (Hyperallergic)
  • Psychedelic Spiritual Experience—An Integral View (Reality Sandwich)
  • William A Richards, Sacred Knowledge: 'Turn on, tune in, see God', book review (The Independent)
  • Visit to Godenholm by Ernst Jünger: A Story of Esoteric Psychedelic Initiation involving Albert Hofmann (Psychedelic Press UK)

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.

This Week in Psychedelics - 12.25.15

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

  • DEA Eases Cannabis Study Requirements (Forbes)
  • Australia anti-cannabis 'stoner sloth' campaign backfires (The Independent)
  • Did the White House Just Save Colorado's Marijuana from the Supreme Court? (Reason)
  • A Cannabis Tax Can Help Cities Pay For New Infrastructure (The Huffington Post)
  • Pot and Senior Citizens: It's a Natural Fit (NORML)
  • Colorado Marijuana Tourism: Cannabis Tours, Bud Hotels Popular with Visitors, But State Won't Market Legal Pot to Travelers (International Business Times)
  • Illinois' medical cannabis pilot program in trouble because of low patient numbers (Belleville News-Democrat)
  • Medical Marijuana 'Cease Fire' Begins (Disinformation)
  • Canada Plans to Use Its Marijuana Revenue in the Best Possible Way (ATTN:)
  • Colombia To License Medical Cannabis Use (NORML)
  • NTRR: Demand for Cannabis Topicals Booms as Legalization Spreads Across North America (Business Wire)
  • Kansas Couple Whose Tea Was Mistaken for Marijuana Loses Suit Over Fruitless Raid (Reason)
  • Syrian refugees farm cannabis in Lebanon (Reuters)
  • 5 Hot Cannabis Trends from 2015 (Leafly)
  • One Common Anti-Marijuana Argument Just Took a Blow (ATTN:)
  • Do Cannabis Entrepreneurs and Big Business Actually Need Each Other? (Inc.)
  • Uttarakhand To Become First Indian State To Legalise Cannabis Cultivation (India Times)
  • For the First Time, D.C. Residents Can (Legally) Give Cannabis for Christmas (Leafly)
  • Anti-Pot Group Blames 'Big Marijuana' for Possibly Nonexistent Increase in Adolescent Cannabis Consumption (Reason)
  • Why Does Cannabis Make You Laugh? (Leafly)
  • Cannabis opponents take a hit as top ethicist calls for legalization (The Times of Israel)
  • NORML's Weekly Legislative Round Up (NORML)
  • Snoop Dogg Will Get a $5,000 Marijuana Gift From Oregon Pot Community (TIME)
  • Police discover nearly 300 cannabis plants in Berri; man charged with trafficking (ABC News)
  • Cannabis Craftsmanship: How to Make Hash with Funky Skunk Extracts (Leafly)
  • The Top 5 Christmas Cannabis Gifts (Forbes)

LSD

  • Star Wars animator Phil Tippet: 'I took LSD when I was working on Return of the Jedi' (The Telegraph)
  • Meth Will Fry Your Brain, but LSD Could Make Your Steve Jobs (Clapway)
  • Two Irishmen caught with €143k of LSD and cannabis plead guilty to global drug dealing on Dark Net (Irish Independent)
  • Man Allegedly Sold LSD To Lansdale Cop (Patch)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

  • Researchers Find the Active Ingredient in 'Magic Mushrooms' Can Help You Quit Smoking (GOOD)
  • 5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week (Newser)
  • Cuyahoga Falls man busted for psychedelic mushroom grow (Fox 8 Cleveland)

MDMA/Ecstasy

  • Mind-Altering Drugs Could Cure PTSD (Popular Science)
  • MDMA researchers testing how drug can be used to treat mental illness raise $22000 (The Independent)
  • Police warn of dangerous MDMA tablets circulating in Warwickshire (Kenilworth Weekly News)
  • Naked Toys R Us thug who abducted young boy and attacked grandmother after taking ecstasy to be jailed (Mirror)
  • SA court suspends jail terms of Nicola Jay Vermey, Alexandra Rodriguez and Sarah Louise Mudge for ecstasy trafficking (The Advertiser)
  • A New-Louvain ecstasy dealer arrested at a Brussels party (The Brussels Times)
  • Teen caught with drugs twice at Dunsborough leavers (Busselton-Dunsborough Mail)

Ayahuasca/DMT

  • Ayahuasca may have fast-acting and sustained anti-depressive properties (Gran Fondo Online)
  • Ayahuasca Murder Threatens to Set Back Critical Psychedelic Research (Inverse)
  • The profound power of an Amazonian plant - and the respect it demands (The Globe and Mail)
  • Cambridge University graduate killed in psychedelic ceremony in Peruvian Amazon (The Telegraph)
  • Briton killed in Peru ayahuasca ceremony texted girlfriend about 'bad experience' in Amazon (The Telegraph)
  • 'Spiritual tourist' killed during Peruvian ayahuasca ceremony (Latin Correspondent)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

  • ISIS Is Literally on Drugs (ATTN:)
  • What Is MDA, or Sally, One of the Drugs Scott Weiland Overdosed On? (Rolling Stone)

Dissociatives

  • Scientists a Step Closer to Treating Depression with Ketamine (Psychiatry Advisor)
  • Man arrested for driving under the influence after telling cops 'I lace my blunts with PCP' (New York Daily News)
  • Depression Tied to Overeating can be Reduced by Ketamine, Study Reveals (Latinos Health)
  • Lincolnshire drug dealer caught with more than £1400 worth of ketamine (Lincolnshire Echo)
  • Ketamine Effects Include Antidepressant Properties, And Researchers Have Identified The Brain Circuit Involved (Medical Daily)
  • Yale study: Ketamine may reverse depression in some patients (CT Post)
  • Ketamine may reverse symptoms of depression (University Herald)

Opiates/Opioids

  • One type of legal drug is killing far more people than heroin — and deaths just hit record numbers (Business Insider
  • Here's What Might Explain Why Afghanistan's Opium Production Dropped by Half This Year (VICE News)
  • Heroin trade continues to claim lives as UK drug gangs compete for power (The Guardian)
  • New Hampshire heroin crisis leads presidential candidates to tackle drug abuse (Los Angeles Times)
  • Bernie Sanders Calls Drug Addiction a 'Disease' Not a Crime (TIME)
  • Florida pill mill crackdown also may have curbed heroin deaths, researchers find (The Washington Post)
  • Naloxone for Opioid Overdoes: New Questions Arise in 2015 (MedPage Today)
  • 'Not many people just aspire to become heroin addicts. It just happens.' (Chicago Tribune)
  • Turkish labs turn Afghan opium into heroin for shipping to Europe-Russian anti-drug agency (RT)
  • Afghanistan can't control the Taliban since the Taliban controls the drug trade (PRI)
  • U.S. starts pilot program to prevent overdoses on Native American lands (American Pharmacists Association)

Kratom

  • With Mounting Pressure From FDA, Vivazen Removes Kratom in Product Reformulation (Bevnet)

Kava

  • Divisadero's Kava Lounge Set To Open Jan. 21st (Hoodline)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

  • There's a big problem with the way we study psychedelic drugs (Business Insider)
  • We Are All Drug Users (Reset.me)
  • The University of Alabama Has Begun "Quietly" Drug Testing Fraternity Members (Cosmopolitan)
  • Psychedelics and Sacred Frequencies: Meet Lovelution, The Ontario Dance Party That's Better Than Therapy (Thump)
  • There's A Hidden Network Of Psychedelic Temples Under The Alps (Collective Evolution)
  • The Scary Reality Behind Sex Pills We Aren't Talking About (ATTN:)
  • ACLU to appeal court ruling in Missouri drug testing case (SFGate)
  • The Five Best Drug Scares of 2015 (Reason)
  • NASA releases a colorful, psychedelic video of Pluto (The Verge)
  • The Sacred and Psychedelic Multimedia Art of Lala Abaddon (The Creators Project)
  • Psychedelic Artist Peter Max in Multi-Million Family Dispute Over Paintings (Artlyst)
  • Finding a new perspective on psychedelics (OUPblog)

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.