This Week in Psychoactives - 6.14.19

CANNABIS

• Oldest evidence of cannabis smoking found in ancient Chinese cemetery (Ars Technica)

• Nevada bans employers from refusing to hire those who fail marijuana tests (CNN)

• Maryland Legalizes Medical Marijuana Edibles, With Caveats (Reason)

• Drivers With Common THC Limit Are Not More Likely To Cause Accidents, Study Finds (Marijuana Moment)

• Oregon: Governor Signs Law Prohibiting Landlords From Discriminating Against Medical Marijuana Patients (NORML)

• Texas governor signs law legalizing hemp, CBD products (The Hill)

• Court squashes Colombia’s ban on smoking pot and drinking beer in public (Colombia Reports)

• Coroner claims woman overdosed on cannabis, scientists call bullshit (The Next Web)

• Illinois Cancer Patient Sentenced to Four Years in Jail Over Cannabis Edibles (MERRY JANE)

• Study: Veterans Often Substitute Medical Cannabis for Alcohol, Prescription Drugs (NORML)

• U.S. Postal Services Unveils New Policy On Mailing Hemp-Derived CBD Products (Marijuana Moment)

• Recreational Weed Hurts Medical Cannabis Programs, Study Finds (MERRY JANE)

• Huge Cement Blocks Bar Access to Illicit Toronto Dispensaries (Leafly)

• Poll Reveals Top Reasons People Support Or Oppose Marijuana Legalization (Marijuana Moment)

• Nearly All Hospice Professionals Support Medical Marijuana Access, Study Finds (MERRY JANE)

• Las Vegas OK’d Cannabis Lounges but Nevada Just Said No (Leafly)

• Marijuana arrests target mostly blacks and Hispanics in region (Times Union)

• Baby Boomers Are Consuming Pot at Ten Times the Rate of Past Senior Generations (MERRY JANE)

• Ohio board rejects adding insomnia, depression as conditions for medical pot; tables autism, anxiety (WBNS)

• California Appeals Court Rules Cannabis Possession in Prison Legal (Courthouse News)

• Legal Cannabis May Not Lower Opioid Overdose Deaths After All (Gizmodo)

• Ontario Law Now Prevents Pot Shops From Showing Vape Pens to Customers (MERRY JANE)

• Oregon Is About to OK Cannabis Exports. What’s Next? (Leafly)

• Alabama Bucks Its History of Prohibition, Plants First Hemp Crop Since 1937 (MERRY JANE)

• Federal Employment Protections Demanded In Appropriations Bill (NORML)

• Oklahoma’s Medical Marijuana Industry Sold $23 Million Worth of Weed in May (MERRY JANE)

LSD

• The U.S. Army Once Kept $1 Billion Worth of LSD in a Maryland Office for Some Reason (Gizmodo)

• The Highs and Lows of LSD Literature (The New York Times)

MAGIC MUSHROOMS

• Magic mushrooms could replace antidepressants within five years, says new psychedelic research centre (The Independent)

• 'They broke my mental shackles': could magic mushrooms be the answer to depression? (The Guardian)

• I Took Magic Mushrooms To Treat The World’s Worst Headaches... And Got Arrested For It (HuffPost)

MDMA

• Ecstasy warning over high strength MDMA pills at Parklife (Daily Star)

• More than 2000 children need help to ditch ecstasy problem (Mirror)

DMT

• What’s DMT and why are techies and entrepreneurs secretly taking the drug? (The American Genius)

AYAHUASCA

• Psychedelics, dance steps and giant snakes: inside the ayahuasca show (The Guardian)

5-MEO-DMT

• Mike Tyson Says Smoking Toad Venom Cured His Addictions (Civilized)

SYNTHETIC CANNABINOIDS

• Synthetic Marijuana Is Making People Bleed From Their Eyes and Ears (Cosmopolitan)

• Milton teens found in medical distress didn't overdose on opioids, police say (CBC)

KETAMINE

• FDA Overlooked Red Flags In Testing of New Depression Drug (Daily Beast)

PCP

• 'It's an evil drug': Authorities see increase in demand of PCP (KTUL)

OPIOIDS

• Naloxone nasal spray is more available in Philly neighborhoods with more white residents, study finds (Philly Voice)

• Drug Users Armed With Naloxone Double As Medics On Streets Of San Francisco (California Healthline)

• Free heroin? Unusual clinic offers 'chance at being human again' (CBC)

• Insys, the Opioid Drug Maker, Files for Bankruptcy (The New York Times)

• Former champion MMA fighter describes battle with heroin addiction (WKRC)

COCAINE

• Michael Gove: Cocaine 'mistake' a 'deep regret' (BBC)

• Plumbers, builders and cabbies are doing it in the local pub – stop calling cocaine a middle class drug (The Sun)

• Why Peruvian wellness and a 'cocaine massage' could change your life (The Independent)

• Teens with prenatal cocaine exposure exhibit altered patterns of amygdala functional connectivity (PsyPost)

CAFFEINE

• Algorithm provides customized caffeine strategy for alertness (ScienceDaily)

• If We Wrote About Caffeine Like We Do Other Drugs… (Filter)

TOBACCO

• Texas Raises Age To Buy Tobacco To 21 (Inquisitr)

• A Flurry of States Have Raised Their Smoking Ages. But Big Tobacco's Involvement Has Some Health Groups Uneasy (TIME)

• E-cig companies use cartoon characters as logos, and new study shows it works (The Conversation)

• FDA finalizes guidance for premarket tobacco product applications for electronic nicotine delivery systems as part of commitment to continuing a strong oversight of e-cigarettes (FDA)

• Tobacco 21 to take effect June 24 in Mankato (Mankato Free Press)

ALCOHOL

• A Ten-Year Plan To Reduce Global Alcohol Consumption Is Showing Results (Forbes)

• Prohibition worked better than you think (Vox)

• Alcohol main cause of substance-related deaths in hospital (CBC)

• Drinking alcohol at conception shown to harm rats – new study (The Conversation)

• We Drink Basically The Same Wine As Ancient Romans — And That's Not So Great (NPR)

NOOTROPICS

• The Truth About Nootropics and What They Do to Our Brains, According to a Neuroscientist (Good Housekeeping)

• 10 Modafinil Myths You Can’t Afford To Believe (Dreamland Magazine)

KRATOM

• Kratom: A Legal Drug That’s Dangerously Addictive (Child Mind Institute)

KAVA

• Australia’s discussion of kava imports reflects lack of cultural understanding (The Conversation)

• Crackdown on health standards at Vanuatu kava bars (Radio New Zealand)

DATURA

• Dentist Arrested for slow poisoning her brother, niece (Medical Dialogues)

MISCELLANEOUS

• AOC Pushes To Make It Easier To Study Shrooms And Other Psychedelic Drugs (Forbes)

• Seven Tory leadership candidates admit they’ve dabbled in drugs after Gove shock coke revelation (The Sun)

• Say "High" to the World's First Venture Fund Exclusively for Psychedelics (MERRY JANE)

• Drugs expert barred from policy panel after criticising Home Office (The Guardian)

• Rhode Island Senate Approves Bill Allowing Supervised Consumption Sites For Illegal Drugs (Marijuana Moment)

• Fashion is having a seriously psychedelic moment (Los Angeles Times)

• I Think I Hated This Tech Conference on Psychedelics (WIRED)

• New Government Estimates Offer Early Hope That Drug Overdose Deaths Are Waning (TIME)

• Harm Production: Ontario’s Brutal Cuts Add Fuel to the Overdose Fire (Filter)

• El Chapo: what the rise and fall of the kingpin reveals about the war on drugs (The Guardian)

• Dark Web Drug Sellers Dodge Police Crackdowns (The New York Times)

• Palm Beach County wants to start Florida’s second needle exchange program (The Palm Beach Post)

• What to do when your friend gets too high (The Tab)

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:

---

Book Review - Getting Higher

Whether you are an experienced psychonaut or a first-time tripper, absorbing understandable and accurate advice about the psychedelic experience before embarking on an entheogenic journey can be extremely valuable. Although I have several years worth of personal experience and tips and tricks that I have picked up from many sources along the way, I was pleasantly surprised to find Julian Vayne's book Getting Higher: The Manual of Psychedelic Ceremony to contain plenty of suggestions and ideas that were new to me, which I will gladly be able to bring to my own psychedelic practice.

A section titled "Setting Out" describes a variety of things that someone may consider doing before embarking on a psychedelic journey, including cleansing the body with a bath or shower, fasting or making other intentional dietary changes, carefully choosing the clothes they are going to wear, cleaning and decorating the physical space, saying prayers or setting an intention, and lighting candles or incense. Additionally, choosing a group of people to trip with that have mutual trust and respect should be a priority. The end of a psychedelic ceremony can involve a formal conclusion to the session. For example, you could give thanks to the spirits of the medicine, extinguish a fire that has been burning through the night, or open the curtains to let the light in, if the experience has happened inside.

The next chapter introduces the concept of practices that can be done outside of psychedelic ceremony that will help you navigate the psychedelic experience. These include breathwork, meditation, various activities involving sound (such as listening to pre-recorded music, making music, drumming, singing, chanting mantras), and a vast array of different types of movements (synchronized or freeform spontaneous dancing, checking in on one's posture and balance, gestures, sensual and sexual activities, etc.).

Another chapter focuses on activities that can be done while high that will guide or intensify the experience for the psychonaut, such as artistic explorations like drawing or painting, consciously consuming content, holding or observing objects that are significant to the tripper, playing games, going on a journey in nature, venturing into a museum on a "museum level" dose, participating at a rave or music festival, experimenting with divinatory practices like tarot or the I Ching, and creating an environment of sensory deprivation like with a float tank. Vayne also goes into great detail about how to plan, organize, and execute an effective medicine circle, which is a way to have a structured—yet highly meaningful—psychedelic experience in a group setting. In fact, there are several descriptions of ceremonies scattered throughout the book that are provided so the reader can gain ideas and inspiration for creating their own unique practice.

Although there can sometimes be a feeling in the psychedelic community that it is imperative to the success of the movement for its members to approach and speak about psychedelics exclusively in a serious manner, Vayne suggests that strict divisions between the concepts of using psychedelics for spirituality, play, and enjoyment are not needed. I tend to agree.

While it is not a primary focus of the book, it does include some scientific research. For example, there is a small section regarding the effects that psychedelics have on the physiological health of the human brain. Research has shown that psychedelics may enhance organic brain processes such as neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain cells to form new connections), and the compounds found in some psychedelics have been demonstrated to cause neurogenesis (the formation of neurons from neural stem cells) in vitro. There are a few more scientific snippets in the book, but it mainly looks at what one can do to create the most optimal conditions for a psychedelic experience.

I was ultimately extremely impressed by Getting Higher, which contains plenty of legitimate advice for psychonauts wishing to take their trips to new levels of intensity or learn how to move through the psychedelic space more effectively. This book is certainly worth reading, regardless of one's skill level with psychedelics, but I do feel like it may be appreciated more by people who have had a few trips under their belt than by complete novices. Perhaps this will even increase the re-readability of this book—for me at least. Only time will tell. However, I am confident that the suggestions in Getting Higher that I highlighted and/or wrote down in my own notes will be helpful for my own psychedelic practice for years to come.

4/5 stars. 135 pages.

This Week in Psychedelics - 1.12.18

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Vermont State House Passes Marijuana Legalization (NORML)
• More Americans Want to Legalize Marijuana Than Ever Before (TIME)
• New Hampshire House Votes to Legalize Marijuana Possession and Cultivation (NORML)
• Australia to Allow Export of Cannabis-Based Medicines (Voice of America)
• A Top Cannabis Lawyer on What Losing the Cole Memo Means (Leafly)
• 'Sorry Bro.' Coachella Bans Marijuana Even Though California Just Made it Legal (TIME)
• Democrats and Republicans Reject Recent Action by AG Sessions (NORML)
• Kansas Rep. Steve Alford Apologizes for Racist Comments Linking Black People to Marijuana (TIME)
• Fear of Mexicans, Not Blacks, Led Kansas to Ban Marijuana (Reason)
• Will New York Finally Consider Legalizing Cannabis This Week? (Forbes)
• The challenge of showcasing weed tech at CES (Engadget)
• CHP Seizure of Legal Cannabis Outrages California Farmers (Leafly)
• Oklahoma: Voters To Decide In June On Sweeping Medical Marijuana Ballot Initiative (NORML)
• 4 Things Congress Can Do to Stop a Cannabis Crackdown (Reason)
• Here's Why a Marijuana Crackdown Could Spell Disaster for Republicans (TIME)
• This Marijuana Reform T-Shirt Cost Iowa Taxpayers Half a Million Bucks (Reason)
• Cannabis Crunch Monthly – What's In Store For Marijuana In 2018 (Psychedelic Times)
• Unregulated sales of cannabis oil spike in Iowa (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Light-sensitive THC: Intoxicatingly light-sensitive (ScienceDaily)
• NORML Endorses SQ 788: Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Access Initiative (NORML)
• Canopy Growth: Best Way To Play The Cannabis Industry (Seeking Alpha)
• Federalists Can't Support a Cannabis Crackdown (Reason)
• In the Fight Over LA Weekly, Cannabis Companies Are Caught in the Middle (Leafly)
• SF cannabis stores open for city's first day of recreational pot sales (SFGate)
• Cannabis Insiders Share 2018 Industry Wishes (Forbes)
• 'Breeding Is an Art Form': An Interview with Cannabis Cup Champion, Exotic Genetix (Leafly)
• California Cannabis Rush May Not Bring A Fortune For Stock Investors (Seeking Alpha)
• Elderly Christmas Cannabis Couple Arrested Again, Facing New Drug Charges (NPR)

LSD

• Wormwood review – LSD, the CIA and the mysterious death of an army scientist (The Guardian)
• Nixon's Manhunt For The High Priest Of LSD In 'The Most Dangerous Man In America' (NPR)
• Kacey Musgraves Says a Moving LSD Trip Inspired New Song (Wide Open Country)
• California Man's Plot To Dump Tons Of LSD In L.A. Water Supply Thwarted By Police Is Fake News (Business 2 Community)
• Viktor Ivanelo death: Former Croydon student was found hanged in tunnel after taking LSD (Croydon Advertiser)
• Man who was Tasered while on LSD in 2012 loses lawsuit against Harris County (Chron)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Magic mushroom compound might treat depression by reviving emotional responsiveness in the brain (PsyPost)
• A Spore No More: Magic Mushroom Use Reveals Effective Clinical PTSD Treatment (Sputnik International)
• Hunting for Hallucinogenic Mushrooms in Eastern Europe (VICE)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Quarter of 'MDMA' pills tested turn out to be something else (Newshub)
• Secret bitcoin philanthropist backs research of ecstasy as treatment for PTSD (Stripes)
• Dangerously strong batch of ecstasy going around (Newshub)
• Bank clerk, 29, who 'rarely went out drinking' died from an Ecstasy overdose after mixing the drug with alcohol, inquest hears (Daily Mail)
• Tragic teenager died after taking ecstasy at Leeds Festival: Coroner warns taking illicit drugs like playing 'Russian roulette' (Yorkshire Evening Post)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• How Ayahuasca Made This CEO Unplug from the Matrix (High Existence)
• I Took Ayahuasca and It Did Nothing (Tonic)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• The Ibogaine Conversation Pt 11: Is ibogaine the cure for opioid addiction? It's not that simple. (Psymposia)

Salvia Divinorum

• Salvia Leads Chemists on a Psychedelic Existential Journey (Wired)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Drugs tested at festivals found to be 'much more potent' (Radio New Zealand)
• More festival-goers testing drugs as MDMA substitutes plague black market (TVNZ)

Dissociatives

• Ketamine May Represent an Effective Treatment for the Management of Chronic Noncancer Pain (Clinical Pain Advisor)
• Ketamine shots are a 'powerful' treatment for depression, doctor says (Metro)

Opiates/Opioids

• Scientists Just Solved a Major Piece of the Opioid Puzzle (Wired)
• Could Prescription Heroin And Safe Injection Sites Slow The Opioid Crisis? (KAZU)
• Doctor Had Wife Killed to Keep Her Quiet About Opioid Drug Ring, Police Say (TIME)

Kratom

• Using Kratom To Get Off Alcohol And Withdrawal Symptoms (Kratom Guides)
• CBD Kratom's Customers Swear By Its Product. The Feds Want to Make It Illegal (Riverfront Times)
• Kratom And 5-HTP: Best Supplements To Use For Your Positive Mood And Relaxation (Kratom Guides)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Continuing Further Education with Psychedelics (Psychedelic Times)
• Google makes millions from plight of addicts (The Times)
• The Joy of Psychedelic Healing: Interview with Julian Vayne (Psychedelic Times)
• Hamilton's back to use his body as a test subject for the world's craziest drugs (SBS)

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.

Weekend Thoughts - 7.30.16

Image by Matt, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. From beanies to capes, man shorts to leggings, hipster clothing carries with it a bit of nostalgia. Why is that? Well, it turns out that the origins of today's hipster clothing trends has its roots in colonial times. For a brief history of the influence that colonialism had over today's hipster fashion sense, take a look at the linked article.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.