This Week in Psychedelics - 6.11.21

Cannabis

• Nevada: Governor Signs Bill into Law Regulating Cannabis Consumption Lounges (NORML)

• Senate Votes to Legalize Recreational Marijuana in Conn. (NBC Connecticut)

• Washington state offers ‘joints for jabs’ to boost vaccination rates (The Guardian)

• Louisiana lawmakers pass bill to decriminalize marijuana (The Hill)

• Biden Administration Wants to Uphold Ban on Adult-Use Cannabis Sales in DC (MERRY JANE)

• Testing People For Marijuana Impairment Based On THC Levels Is ‘Not Reliable,’ Federally Funded Study Finds (Marijuana Moment)

• Study: Enactment of Adult-Use Marijuana Laws Doesn’t Encourage Drugged Driving Behavior (NORML)

• Medical Cannabis Users Are More Likely to Cut Back on Cigarettes, Study Finds (MERRY JANE)

• NFL Funds Marijuana Research As Federal Prohibition ‘Adversely’ Impacts Studies Into Opioid Alternative For Players (Marijuana Moment)

• Virginia: Marijuana Arrests Fall Dramatically Following Enactment of 2020 Decriminalization Law (NORML)

• Bill Would Finally Let Researchers Obtain Marijuana From Dispensaries (Filter)

• LA Is Literally the Worst Place to Buy Legal Weed, Thanks to Exorbitant Sales Taxes (MERRY JANE)

LSD

• Susi’s Tram Ride: Recognizing the First Woman to Take LSD (Chacruna)

• Deepak Chopra did LSD for the first time in a lab and felt his consciousness shift while staring at a photo of Mother Teresa (Insider)

• Blotter paper part of LSD mixture, must be weighed too (The Times of India)

• LSD and the Anarchic Brain (Psychedelic Science Review)

• LSD for Bipolar Disorder: Is LSD the Answer? (The Third Wave)

Magic Mushrooms

• Silo Pharma Announces Collaboration with University California San Francisco to study Psilocybin as an Anti-Inflammatory agent in Parkinson’s and Bipolar Patients (Psilocybin Alpha)

• Psilocybin Oral Strips: Benefits and Drawbacks (Truffle Report)

• Mydecine Discovers Over 40 Groundbreaking Potential Pharmacologically Active Novel Compounds in Mushrooms (Psilocybin Alpha)

MDMA

• Pill-iD App Lets Users Scan MDMA Pills To See What They Contain (LADbible)

• MDMA soaring in popularity in New Zealand, making its way into high schools (Newshub)

• MDMA, Water, Seizures, and Death: Interview with Gabriel Kearns, M.D. and Founder of Elevation Chemicals (Psychedelic Times)

Ayahuasca

• Is Ayahuasca Legal? (DoubleBlind)

5-MeO-DMT

• A hallucinogenic toad in peril (High Country News)

Iboga

• Iboga Conservation (Chacruna)

Nitrous Oxide

• Can Laughing Gas (Nitrous Oxide) Help People With Treatment-Resistant Depression? (Forbes)

Ketamine

• Colorado bill to restrict ketamine use outside of hospitals close to passing (Colorado Newsline)

• Deaths Resulting from Ketamine Injection Rare, Study Indicates (JEMS)

Miscellaneous

• Connecticut Governor Signs Psychedelics Study Measure As He Awaits Marijuana Legalization Bill (Marijuana Moment)

• The FBI Secretly Ran an Encrypted Messaging Service To Conduct the Same Old Drug War Stings (Reason)

• Aphrodite Health Is Here To Shift The Narrative: The First Psychedelics Company ‘For Women, By Women’ (Forbes)

• Poll Shows Huge Public Opposition to “War on Drugs,” After 50 Years (Filter)

• Seattle City Council Signs Letter Proposing Psychedelic Use in Opioid Addiction Treatment (Truffle Report)

• Field Trip Health Ltd. Applies to List Its Common Shares on the NASDAQ Stock Market (Psilocybin Alpha)

• Over One Third of US Voters Know Psychedelics Have Valid Medical Use, Poll Says (MERRY JANE)

• Psychedelics For Frontline Clinicians With Covid-Related Burnout? A Study Is Looking Into It (Forbes)

• Accountability & Transformative Justice in the Psychedelic Space: A Roadmap for Change (Psychedelics Today)

• Study Links Hallucinogen Use to Emotional Dysregulation, Risk Taking Among Youth (Psychedelic News Wire)

• Life Sciences Announces Launch of Initial Public Offering (Psilocybin Alpha)

• Are Psychedelics the Next Big Cure? (Good Housekeeping)

• Is Absinthe an Hallucinogen? Debunking the Green Fairy (Truffle Report)

• Tolerance, Tachyphylaxis, and Psychedelic Drug Action (Psychedelic Science Review)

• Basics for Tripping in Nature (Maps of the Mind)

• Psychedelic Cartoons: Through the Decades (Reality Sandwich)

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 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.

This Week in Psychedelics - 3.9.18

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• Marijuana for Moms (The Atlantic)
• Study: Cannabis Effective At Treating Symptoms Of Fibromyalgia (NORML)
• Cannabis Activism Group Selling 'Jeff Sessions' Rolling Papers (High Times)
• Former Congressional Aide Convicted of Taking Cannabis Bribe (Leafly)
• New studies show that legal cannabis access reduces opioid abuse (The Hill)
• The Beginner's Guide to Cannabis Lingo (Lifehacker)
• Home Pot Delivery Is Cool, but California's Taxes and Regulations Are Still Onerous (Reason)
• Cannabis and Schizophrenia: Do THC and CBD Affect It Differently? (Leafly)
• How Cannabis Entrepreneurs Feel About Sessions' Reversal Of The Cole Memo (Forbes)
• This Country Bans Cannabis While Exporting The Most In The World (High Times)
• California: Sonoma County District Attorney To Vacate Thousands Of Past Marijuana Convictions (NORML)
• Israeli medical cannabis company announces record $110 million deal (The Times of Israel)
• Michigan: Voter Support Grows For Proposed Adult Use Initiative (NORML)
• How does resolving cannabis problems differ from problems with alcohol or other drugs? (Science Daily)
• Part 2, Is Cannabis Legal in New York City? Well... it's Complicated (Leafly)
• Female Cannabis Users Fear Judgement From Others (Green Market Report)
• UK world's largest producer of legal cannabis, finds UN body (The Independent)
• Raid at 'Cannabis Church' Prompts Lawsuit (NBC)
• Cannabis Producer Canopy Bids for Spain's Alcaliber (Bloomberg)
• When It Comes to Pot, Pain, and Cancer, Jeff Sessions Is An Idiot (Reason)
• Better Marijuana Stock: Aurora Cannabis vs. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (The Motley Fool)
• Driving and Cannabis Hit the Skids (SF Weekly)
• 10 Things You Should Know About Aurora Cannabis (The Motley Fool)

LSD

• LSD Can Treat Mental Disorders By 'Harmonizing' The Brain (Newsweek)
• LSD alters the neural response to music in a number of brain regions, study finds (PsyPost)
• Tripping on LSD Really Is Like Lucid Dreaming (Live Science)
• Deepak Chopra has tried LSD and pot (Page Six)
• Politics and LSD On the Brain (The Georgetown Voice)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Denver May Get To Vote On Whether To Make Magic Mushrooms Legal (Colorado Public Radio)
• Advocacy groups fight for your right to do magic mushrooms (Salon)
• Stand-Up Comedy on Shrooms (OZY)
• Scientists have uncovered an amazing mystery of hallucinogenic mushrooms (The Bobr Times)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• MAPS Researchers Explore the Potential for Psychedelic Drugs to Treat PTSD (The Runner)
• MDMDA Research Group Now Accepts Monero (XMR) Donations (The Market Mogul)
• Study says Amsterdam's wastewater has highest ecstasy concentration in Europe (Dancing Astronaut)
• Warnings have been made about blue 'Punisher' ecstasy pills (Mixmag)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Scientists Gave Monkeys Ayahuasca and It Helped Their Depression (Discover Magazine)
• Four weekly ayahuasca sessions lead to increases in "acceptance" capacities: a comparison study with a standard 8-week mindfulness training program (Frontiers)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

• Costa Rica Warns of New Drug Used in Concerts (Prensa Latina)

Dissociatives

• Getting the Inside Dope on Ketamine's Mysterious Ability to Rapidly Relieve Depression (Scientific American)
• Ketamine Infusion May Be Effective for the Short-Term Relief of CRPS-Associated Pain (Clinical Pain Advisor)

Opiates/Opioids

• FDA Chief Wants to Increase Package Inspection to Combat Opioid Crisis (TIME)
• Medical Examiner Exchanged Opioids for Sexual Favors, Prosecutors Say (TIME)
• Trump wants to end the opioid crisis. But what if he is himself its prime symptom? (Spectator)
• The 'moral hazard' of naloxone in the opioid crisis (The Washington Post)
• A New Study Says Naloxone Might Cause More Opioid Deaths. I'm Skeptical. (Mother Jones)
• Are We Reviving Too Many Opioid Overdoses? Is This Really a Question? (Slate)
• Childhood Opioid Overdoses Nearly Doubled in Last 10 Years (TIME)
• The New Opium War (The Signal)
• 'Heroin(e)': The Women Fighting Addiction In Appalachia (NPR)
• Opioid addicts are turning to a clinic in Mexico to break their addiction, but there's a catch. The treatment is illegal in the US. (PRI)
• Record Afghan Opium Crop Signals Violent Year for U.S. Forces (Consortium News)
• Florida Lobbyist Says There's No Data on Opioid Trafficking Laws. There Is. Reason Published It. (Reason)
• Are We Finally Doing Something About the Opioid Crisis? (Disinfo)

Absinthe

• It's National Absinthe Day! Here's How to Enjoy the Potent Green Drink (Parade)
• Absinthe is having a moment in Baltimore. Here's what to know about the mythical green spirit (The Baltimore Sun)
• Dancing With the Green Fairy: 4 Absinthes to Try Right Now (The Manual)

Kratom

• Salmonella Found In Kratom Samples As Multi-State Outbreak Expands (Forbes)
• Kratom: Why Did the FDA Declare the Herbal Supplement an Opiate? (Rolling Stone)
• Nine Leading Scientists Support The Safe Use Of Kratom In The US (Kratom Guides)
• Four Leading Kratom Researchers Urge FDA To Focus On Science Rather Than Rhetoric (PR Newswire)
• Wash. State Health Dept. Says Do NOT Consume Kratom (Sky Valley Chronicle)
• Kratom For Stress Relief (Reports Healthcare)
• Why the Asian Herb Kratom is all over the news? (Kratom Guides)

Kava

• Flavoured kava for NZ market (The Fiji Times)

Khat

• Khat consumption induced chronic liver disease; is it all autoimmune? (MedCrave)
• Kwale bans sale and consumption of miraa (Citizen TV)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Just One Psychedelic Drug Trip Can Cause Changes In Personality That Could Last Years (Newsweek)
• The Eleusinian Psychedelic Psychedelic Rebirth Rites of Ancient Greece are Making a Comeback (Ancient Origins)
• Mother Nurture: Female Shaman Defines Girl Power in Male-Dominated Culture (Pulitzer Center)
• Report: Imprisoning Drug Users Doesn't Stop Drug Use or Prevent Overdoses (Reason)
• The changing political realities of drug policy (Drug WarRant)
• Benzo Conversion Tool Updates and Discussion (TripSit)
• Unifying Theories of Psychedelic Drug Effects (Frontiers)
• Have a Safe Trip: The Zendo Project Guides Festivalgoers Through Bad Drug Experiences (Dope Magazine)
• Hundreds of drug-fuelled soldiers facing the boot after testing positive for cocaine, ecstasy and ketamine in just four months (Mirror)
• Zig Zag Zen: An Interview with Author Allan Badiner (Psychedelic Frontier)
• Oslo is among Europe's worst for drug use (The Nordic Page)

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 - 12.12.15

Image by Hartwig HKD, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. The FBI is going to expand its system for tracking police-caused deaths by 2017—however it will still rely on local police departments to voluntarily provide this data, rather than make it mandatory. This has been something I have covered for several months on Think Wilder, and I'm happy to see that it is an issue that is getting more attention, even though it seems that local police departments will still decline the opportunity to provide this data to the FBI. This just means that pressure and incentives matter—law enforcement heads in favor of this new system will most likely lobby others to participate as well, and community interest will come into play too. If a local community truly cares about police conduct in its neighborhoods, it will encourage its local police department to pony up this data. I suppose that time will tell how successful this program expansion will be, but I do hope that in a few years' time we find ourselves in a position where we can reliably research how many police-caused deaths there have been nationwide.

2. The founder of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin has been identified solely by the pseudonym "Satoshi Nakamoto" for the past several years, but Gizmodo and Wired identified Australian man Craig Wright as the brain behind the operation. Australian police raided Wright's home this week to seize computer equipment in an effort to assess these claims. There is still plenty of speculation that this could be a hoax, but as someone who has followed news about Bitcoin for several years, it is fairly exciting to have some new material to read about it.

3. Have you ever been waiting on edge for days or weeks at a time for mail to arrive? Well, the United States Postal Service plans to roll out Informed Delivery, a service designed to email you pictures of your mail so that you know what to expect when you get home. At least for the time being, this will only include letter-sized mail, not packages. We'll have to see how well this works out as the USPS doesn't have a great track record when it comes to technological advances.

4. According to a study utilizing 280 Amazon Mechanical Turk workers, lots of people are susceptible to believing pseudo-profound bullshit. The study simply required participants to rate randomly-generated statements on a scale of profundity from 1 to 5. The statements were constructed from the website Wisdom of Chopra, which is a site that scrubs the tweets of alternative medicine advocate Deepak Chopra, and uses them to construct the random sentences. The study claims that participants who rated random statements containing new-agey buzzwords as "profound" (therefore "being more receptive to bullshit") may lack critical thinking skills, exhibit lower cognitive abilities, are less reflective, more prone to conspiracy theories, more likely to subscribe to religion and belief in the paranormal, and more likely to be fans of alternative medicine. I'm not sure what to make of this study. It seems very anti-Chopra, which (in my experience) most scientific materialists are, there is a small sample size, and it is highly subjective. Take the results for what you will. My main goal in sharing this is to remind the community to be wary of buzzwords and question everything—even articles covering "scientific studies". (And yes, that means you should be wary of Think Wilder as well!)

5. In the wake of so many mass shootings that have happened this year, police in South Carolina unearthed one man's treasure trove including thousands of firearms and ammunition. This may have been the largest firearm seizure in history, and it's definitely worth taking a look at the pictures and videos in the linked article.

6. And finally, some humor for you this week: #GOPdildos is an effort to replace the guns in Republican's gun-toting photos with dildos. Enjoy.

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

Mantras - An Introduction

Image by mailumes, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

This is the first post in a series featuring helpful meditation techniques.

In a previous post, I explained the benefits I have experienced by committing to a regular meditation practice. One of the techniques that can be used during a meditation session is the recitation of mantras. In this post I will introduce mantras and give you some advice on how best to use them in your own meditation practice.

What Are Mantras?

Mantras are essentially words or phrases that are repeated many times, over and over again. The symbol in the image shown above is the Sanskrit text for the mantra Om, which is perhaps the most well-known mantra, and often what a novice meditator assumes he or she will be chanting during every meditation session. However, Om is not the only mantra available to a meditator, nor is it the only aspect of meditation.

As described on Deepak Chopra's webpage about mantras:

"The word mantra has two parts: man, which is the root of the Sanskrit word for mind; and tra, which is the root of the word instrument. A mantra is therefore an instrument of the mind, a powerful sound or vibration that you can use to enter a deep state of meditation."

Taken from the Wikipedia article on mantras:

"'Mantra' means a sacred utterance, numinous sound, or a syllable, word, phonemes, or group of words believed by some to have psychological and spiritual power. A mantra may or may not have syntactic structure or literal meaning; the spiritual value of a mantra comes when it is audible, visible, or present in thought."

My personal take on mantras is that using them in a meditation practice helps calm the mind and focus attention. There have been times during my own meditation sessions that reciting mantras has led me to another state of consciousness. These experiences are difficult for me to describe, but the important message I would like to share is that using mantras can be an effective meditation technique.

How Do Mantras Work?

Repeating a mantra allows the mind to focus wholly on one particular sound or meaning. When we practice mantra repetition during meditation, we allow the vibration and meaning of the mantra to meld with our subconscious mind while also detaching from the racing thoughts that often fill our mind. This leads to myriad positive results, including altering the brain's chemical balance, freeing the mind from injurious thoughts, identifying negative habits, elevating our spirituality, and healing diseases.

The practice of repeating a mantra over and over again replaces the normal thought processes that we experience. It is really easy to get caught in our thoughts without even realizing it, and mantras can help us break that pattern by refocusing our attention on one specific word, sound, or phrase. After all, it is difficult to think about one thing while focusing your attention on another!

Three Mantras for Beginners

Included below are three mantras that are excellent for novice meditators. I have included each mantra's respective meaning and pronunciation that will help you started with incorporating mantras into your meditation practice. Please note that executing the correct pronunciation of a mantra is not as important as cultivating an honest intention while reciting the mantra. In addition, there are debates about the correct pronunciation of mantras. When in doubt, just do your best.

1) Om

• Translation: Om is said to be the sound of the universe. It is generally understood to be the original vibration, representing the birth, death, and re-birth process of Samsara.

• Pronunciation: Om has an alternate spelling of Aum, which is the sound that is made when the mantra is pronounced correctly. Position your mouth as you would say the vowel "U". Start vocalizing "Aum" and finish with "M" in the form of a deep hum. Another way to recite Om is to open your mouth, begin to utter "Aahh", slowly close your mouth as it becomes "Ooh", and when you close your mouth the sound becomes "Mmm".

2) Om Namah Shivaya

• Translation: Also known as Panchakshara, the "five-syllable" mantra Namah Shivaya is a holy salutation to Shiva. Shiva is understood to be the supreme deity of transformation who represents the truest, highest self. When an Om is included at the beginning of the mantra, the phrase translates to "I bow to Shiva". When I first started using this mantra, I imagined the meaning to be "I bow to myself", which helped me dedicate myself to my then-new meditation practice and thus, to myself.

• Pronunciation: When the beginning Om is included, this mantra is simply pronounced "Aum-Nah-Mah-Shee-Vah-Yah". I found this video from Yoga Vidya to be very helpful when learning to pronounce this mantra.

3) Om Mani Padme Hum

• Translation: This mantra loosely translates to "The jewel is in the lotus" or "Praise to the jewel in the lotus". It is said that all the teachings of the Buddha are contained in this mantra, and it cannot really be translated into a simple phrase or sentence. If you are interested in further reading, this explanation on Dharma Haven gives a thorough explanation of the meaning behind the mantra.

• Pronunciation: This mantra is pronounced "Aum-Mah-Nee-Pahd-May-Hum". The vowel in they syllable "Hum" is pronounced as in the English word "hook". The final consonant in that syllable is often pronounced "ng" as in "gong".

How to Recite Mantras

Learning to recite mantras is fairly straightforward. It is important to find a physical space that is pleasant to be in for an extended period and a time of day when you will not be interrupted by others. To begin, simply sit in a comfortable meditation pose with either closed or open eyes and repeat the mantra.

A mantra is traditionally repeated 108 times, the same count as the number of beads on a mala. There are many reasons given for the number 108, ranging from numerological theories to metaphysical explanations of the amount of energy lines there are in the human body. A more thorough examination of the reasons behind the number 108 can be found at SwamiJ.com. I have found using mala beads to be extremely helpful when first learning to recite mantras.

It is okay to begin by reciting mantras out loud, however the goal in many spiritual traditions is to arrive at the point where you can recite the mantra silently in your mind. The idea behind this is that once you are able to recite the mantra silently, you are fully entering the silence of the mind. While you repeat the mantra, the process generates a conscious vibration that carries the mind into deeper levels of awareness. As you continue with your meditation, the mantra becomes less prominent in your mind, and eventually you are led to the realm of pure consciousness from which the vibration arose.

Now that you have a basic understanding of what mantras are, how they work, some mantras to begin with, and how to recite them, I invite you to give the technique a try during your next meditation session.

Namaste.