This Week in Psychedelics - 7.24.20

Cannabis

• FDA Announces Recall Of Dozens Of Hemp Products For Humans And Pets (Marijuana Moment)

• New York Senate Approves Bill Protecting Medical Marijuana Patients From Eviction (Marijuana Moment)

• Montana County Officials Say Marijuana Legalization Measures Will Qualify For State Ballot, Campaign Confirms (Marijuana Moment)

• NHS planning to manufacture cannabis oil (Yahoo! News)

• FDA Releases Guidelines On Cannabis Research Following White House Review (Marijuana Moment)

• California weighs steep new fines to combat illegal cannabis sellers (Los Angeles Times)

• Congress Approves Measure Allowing CBD Use By Military Service Members (Marijuana Moment)

• Marijuana Legalization Excluded From Draft 2020 Democratic Party Platform (Marijuana Moment)

• Researchers Believe Cannabis Should Be Explored as COVID-19 Treatment Immediately (MERRY JANE)

• Third Party Presidential Candidates Push For Marijuana Legalization And Drug Decriminalization (Marijuana Moment)

• Shepard Fairey’s 76-acre cannabis crop art will blow your mind (Leafly)

• High Times Returns to Colorado with People’s Choice Cannabis Cup (High Times)

• Massachusetts Bill To Use Marijuana Tax Revenue For Police Training Draws Criticism (Marijuana Moment)

• Canada’s cannabis pardon program is failing. Here’s why (Leafly)

• Kanye West Says He Smoked Marijuana On Eve Of His First Presidential Campaign Rally (Marijuana Moment)

• Clint Eastwood sues over false cannabis endorsements (BBC)

• Poll Shows Arizona Voters Back Legal Marijuana Measure As Officials Verify Signatures (Marijuana Moment)

LSD

• LSD packets found attached to doors at four St. Lawrence County police departments (NNY360)

Magic Mushrooms

• Psilocybin & OCD: Can psychedelics treat obsessive compulsive disorder? (New Atlas)

• Red Light Holland Places First Order for Psychedelic Truffles Microdosing Packs (Psilocybin Alpha)

MDMA

• Gwyneth Paltrow advocates ecstasy drug MDMA for use in couples' therapy (Daily Mirror)

DMT

• Meet Viridia, the ATAI unit exploring ayahuasca-based treatments for mental illness (Fierce Biotech)

Ayahuasca

• The Bitter Side of Ayahuasca (Lucid News)

Morning Glory Seeds

• What is LSA? The Trippy Story Behind the Morning Glory (DoubleBlind)

Nitrous Oxide

• Nitrous oxide: MP wants to see tightening of laughing gas laws (BBC)

• Parliamentary briefing on tackling the misuse of Nitrous Oxide (Drug Science)

• Why Is the UK Still Obsessed with Laughing Gas? (VICE)

Ketamine

• Medics In Colorado Dosed 902 People With Ketamine For 'Excited Delirium' In 2.5 Years (KUNC)

Miscellaneous

• Psychedelics Activists Unveil Measure To Legalize Plant Medicine Healing Ceremonies In Oakland (Marijuana Moment)

• 60-Plus Psychedelic Clinical Trials Listed on Online Directory (Lucid News)

• The Second Pandemic: Is Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy the Answer to the Mental Health Crisis Caused by COVID-19? (Psychedelics Today)

• Profitdelic: A New Psychedelic Conference Trend (Chacruna)

• Medical Psychedelics Working Group to campaign for drug rescheduling (Health Europa)

• Minister Open To Examining Drug Decriminalization (CKDR)

• Selecting Music for Psychedelic Therapy (Psychedelics Today)

• The Drug War’s “Science-Based” Training on “Dopers and Parasites” (Filter)

• MagicMed Industries unveils C$1.5 million offering to expand its molecular psychedelic derivatives portfolio (Proactive Investors)

• Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy and Experiential Efficacy (Psychedelic Science Review)

• An Entire Police Station Has Been Arrested for Dealing Drugs and Torturing Suspects (VICE)

• Empower Clinics Served a Cease Trade Order (Psilocybin Alpha)

• The Psychedelic Explorer’s Mindset (Maps of the Mind)

• Psychedelic journeys helped Holocaust survivor George Sarlo. Now he’s helping others on their own journeys. (The Forward)

• How the war on drugs killed Breonna Taylor (Leafly)

• What Does Science Say About Maryland Rep. Andy Harris’s Opposition to Natural Psychedelics? (Psychedelic Science Review)

• Inside Toronto’s Newest Psychedelics Clinic (Investing News)

• Psychedelics are making a wild comeback – let’s not eff it up (NOW Magazine)

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 catalogue how psychedelics are presented by the mass media, which includes everything from the latest scientific research to misinformation.

This Week in Psychedelics - 4.10.20

Cannabis

• Delaware Approves Medical Cannabis Delivery Option (NORML)

• New York Legal Marijuana Push ‘Effectively Over’ For 2020, Governor Says (Forbes)

• North Dakota Activists Say Marijuana Legalization Initiative Unlikely In 2020 Due To Coronavirus (Marijuana Moment)

• Cannabis Workers Claim Unsafe Conditions After Testing Positive for Coronavirus (MERRY JANE)

• Participate in a Confidential Survey Assessing Cannabis Use Patterns During the COVID-19 Pandemic (NORML)

• More People Are Seeking Medical Marijuana Cards Amid Coronavirus Outbreak (WBUR)

• Coronavirus gave cannabis companies a big bump in sales and it wasn’t just for the wake-and-bake set (Fortune)

• DEA loosens rules on prescription CBD drug Epidiolex (Leafly)

• Adult-Use Pot Shops Are Supplying Medical Dispensaries with Weed During Pandemic (MERRY JANE)

• Colorado Girl Who Inspired 'Charlotte's Web' Medical Marijuana Oil Dies at 13 (TIME)

• Legal Marijuana States Had Fewer Vaping-Related Lung Injuries, Study Finds (Marijuana Moment)

• Trump Hires Anti-Marijuana White House Press Secretary (Forbes)

• Legalisation of cannabis in America has led to surge of drug imports to UK, reveals National Crime Agency (The Telegraph)

• DEA continues to make empty promises on clinical cannabis research (The Hill)

• Two Marijuana Magazines Owned By High Times Suspend Publication Due To Coronavirus (Marijuana Moment)

• Septic shock: Did tainted CBD contribute to this woman’s death? (Leafly)

• FBI Policy On CBD Use By Agents Is ‘Under Review’ (Marijuana Moment)

• Ireland's Drug Users Switching From Cocaine to Cannabis Amid COVID-19 Crisis (MERRY JANE)

• Arizona Legal Marijuana Campaign Asks Supreme Court To Allow Electronic Signatures Amid Coronavirus (Marijuana Moment)

• Florida researchers studying COVID-19 impact on marijuana users (KNOE)

• Businesses That ‘Indirectly’ Work With Marijuana Industry Ineligible For Federal Coronavirus Loans (Marijuana Moment)

• Rats develop cannabis-seeking behavior (Medical News Today)

• Cannabis Withdrawal Syndrome Prevalent Among Regular Users (MD Magazine)

Magic Mushrooms

• A single high dose of psilocybin alters brain function up to one month later (PsyPost)

• Psilocybin Is Better at Treating Depression Than Ketamine, New Study Finds (MERRY JANE)

• New Biosynthesis of Psilocybin and Related Tryptamines (Psychedelic Science Review)

• Challenges to a Company’s Psilocybin Patent Highlight Contrasting Business Strategies for Developers of Psychedelic Therapies (Lucid News)

• Psilocybin Superior to Ketamine for Prolonged Antidepressant-Like Effects (Rodent Model) (Psychedelic Science Review)

• Beyond Psilocybe Cubensis: 10 Magic Mushroom Strains You Should Know About (DoubleBlind)

• Treating Trauma with Psilocybin (Oregon Daily Herald)

• How Microdosing Magic Mushrooms Can Change Your Life (VENTS Magazine)

DMT

• This Startup is Developing a DMT-Based Addiction Treatment (DoubleBlind)

Ayahuasca

• The Ultimate Guide to Iowaska (Ayahuasca) (Kahpi)

• Ayahuasca and the Amazon (LIMINAL)

Peyote

• Southern Comfort: Why People in Rural Alabama Are Turning to Peyote Instead of Therapy (MERRY JANE)

Iboga

• Interview about Bwiti initiation and iboga with Nima Grégory Puente (LIMINAL)

Ketamine

• A Disgraced Ex-Doctor Says He's Behind the Use of Ketamine to 'Cure' a Child with Autism (VICE)

• IV Esketamine, Ketamine Equally Effective for Resistant Depression (Medscape)

Datura

• Twelve taken ill after consuming ‘coronavirus shaped’ datura seeds (The Hindu)

Miscellaneous

• We Could Be Taking Psychedelics to Help Treat Mental Illness in Just Five Years (Newsweek)

• Why coronavirus is making people hoard illegal drugs (Citizen TV)

• Amidst Pandemic, Psychedelic Investor Christan Angermayer Can't Imagine Life Beyond Capitalism (Psymposia)

• Psychedelic drugs like LSD and magic mushrooms could help treat mental health issues, study claims (Metro)

• How Israel has become an unexpected leader in medicinal psychedelics (ISRAEL21c)

• How psychedelic clinical trials are being affected by coronavirus (Psymposia)

• National Psychedelics Advocacy Group Takes Next Step In Movement (Marijuana Moment)

• Scientists Discover Intricacies of Serotonin Receptor Crucial for Better Therapeutics (UNC Health and UNC School of Medicine Newsroom)

• If You Can’t Go Out, Go In: How Psychedelics Make Quarantine a Time of Self Renewal (DoubleBlind)

• Why Some People Have Weird Drug Reactions (VICE)

• Life During Lockdown: Psychedelics, Prison and COVID-19 (Scales)

• Field Trip Psychedelics Inc. Announces Creation of Field Trip Discovery, the Company's Drug Development Division (PR Newswire)

• Psychedelics in Addiction Recovery: Taking a Deep Look at “Sober” Communities that Use Psychedelics (Psychedelics Today)

• Integration: The Upside of Coming Down – Debriefing, Disrupting & Dark Journeys (Chacruna)

• Should FDA Fast-Track Psychedelic Treatment Under Coronavirus Pandemic? (The Fresh Toast)

• Magic mushrooms, ayahuasca and LSD can all act as catalysts of connection to the natural world (Ecohustler)

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 catalogue how psychedelics are presented by the mass media, which includes everything from the latest scientific research to misinformation.

Psychedelic History, Shamanic Exploration, and Palenque: An Interview with Matthew Pallamary

Earlier this month I talked with author Matthew Pallamary about his new book, shamanic exploration, and what things were like during the birth of today's modern psychedelic community. Without further ado, here is our conversation:

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Thanks for taking the time to speak with me today. Your most recent book, The Center of the Universe Is Right Between Your Eyes But Home Is Where the Heart Is, came out last November and it covers a lot of ground. How would you summarize it to give the Think Wilder audience an idea of what it’s all about?

Ultimately it’s a study of objective perception. You can’t necessarily control your external environment, which is all the stimulus that comes into you from the world around you, but you are in control of how you choose to create reality with that input. In the book, I explore shamanism and visionary states—primarily with ayahuasca, but also with other substances—to show how you decide to show up, create in the world, and interpret your reality. And I backed it up with a lot of science. Some people say it was a little bit too much, but I was going after the atheists and the intellectuals. From the shamanic perspective, everything is energy. We perceive visually through lightwaves, we listen through sound waves… our brain is filled with multitudes of different waves. Everything around us is composed of vibration in one form or another. When you spend extended time in the jungle, you really tune your brain by altering your consciousness to other realms of perception.

The book is definitely chock full of science, and I can see why you would want to include it. It is written in the same language that atheists and scientific materialists use, which probably makes it easier for them to understand.

One guy who bought the ebook told me that he followed every reference that I included. Every reference. It was a bit crazy!

It's good that they're available, and if people want to explore them then they certainly can. You must’ve worked on the book for quite a while. How long did it take you to do research and write the book?

Interestingly enough, the book kind of wrote itself. But it’s based on a lifetime of research. My first experiences with altered states involved getting dizzy and hyperventilating as a kid. I was about fourteen when I first smoked weed and around that time I was sniffing glue, which was my basic training for altered states. A couple years after that I was turned on to megadose LSD—this was back in like ‘71 or ‘72. I’ve been fascinated with altered states and shamanism for years, and I’ve also been writing about it for years. This book in particular took on a life of its own. It’s always the best when that happens. A lot of this last book was stitched-together research that I found over the course of several months. Years ago, I took an honors course in anthropology called “A Forest of Symbols: Orientation and Meaning to South American Indian Religions”. I started tying that in with my psychedelic experience and the fact that there could be spirituality in psychedelics. In my earlier years that was a totally foreign concept to me. But Terence McKenna’s book Food of the Gods opened my eyes. It was a big influence. When it comes to this book, I was actually getting ready to write another novel and all of a sudden this one started pushing its way to the surface, so I just kind of rolled with it. Next thing you know, I was into the book. And it’s done really well. I’m happy with how it came out.

One of the questions that the reader confronts in the book's introduction is, “Who or what are we really?” How do you define yourself?

In this day and age, I consider myself to be a cosmic citizen. A lot of people over the years have called me a shaman. In the past, I’ve gotten indignant about that and I actually went off one time and felt really bad about it. Are you familiar with the C-Realm Podcast?

Yes—I’ve been a listener for a long time.

One time many years ago, the host called me a shaman, and I went off a bit too much. I actually felt bad afterwards, but I don’t refer to myself as a shaman. There are so many people running around like, “Hey I’m a shaman, here’s my business card,” you know? What I’ve finally come to terms with now is that when I get asked, especially in public, I like to say that everybody is a shaman. Most people just don’t know it and don’t realize it. I studied ayahuasca for 10 years before I found it, and now I’ve been going into the Amazon for close to 20. In my humble opinion, we are far more than we imagine ourselves to be, and we can limit ourselves by our perception. There’s an old American Indian saying that goes, “You really don’t know what another man’s life is like until you walk a mile in his moccasins.” So to me, to be a good writer—and even a good human—you have to have empathy and you have to realize that people have different perspectives and formative influences in their lives. They don’t see things in the same way. At this point in my life I’ve gone beyond that. I’d like to think that my perspective has shifted so I’m not caught in the polarities. The truth is always somewhere in the center, and I’ve worked my entire life to try to find it. When you find the center you transcend duality. You see things from the other guy’s point of view and then you have more compassion and you’re more open. As soon as you start defining things, you’re limiting yourself. The cosmos and reality as we know it is far more complex and multidimensional than most people realize. I spent years pushing the limits as far as I could, in a lot of different directions, to discover the nature of who and what we think we really are. I think that from the perspective of ultimate cosmic reality, we’re a lot more than we give ourselves credit for.

It’s a way bigger world out there than most people imagine and can suppose.

Absolutely. I think that ayahuasca, more than anything else, has shown me that. I’ve done tons of other things too, over the years, but that’s really the one that’s been talking to me the most.

So you studied ayahuasca for 10 years before you started working with it. What was that period of time like for you?

After the honors course in anthropology, I discovered the story of The Land Without Evil, which is my historical novel. It’s about first contact between the Jesuits and the Indians in South America, and it’s told from the Indians’ point of view, so it was all about shamanism. I did a lot of research at the UCSD library. This was before the Internet, so I would log into the UCSD library card catalog via modem and download pages of psychedelic content. A lot of this real groundbreaking stuff that you couldn’t find anywhere back in 1988. I spent $30 on a copy card, gathered books to copy on the machine, and took all the articles home with me. I wasn’t getting high at that time because I took a break for a while, but a few months after that I went into a headshop and there was High Times magazine. I said to myself, “Fucking High Times—that’s still around!?” I had read it back in the ‘70s, when it first came out. When I flipped open the page, there was an ad for the Entheobotany Seminars in Palenque Chiapas.

And that was the origin for the Palenque Norte visionary lecture series, right?

That’s correct. So I opened the magazine, and there were all these people that I had been researching independently on my own. They were going to be presenting! I ended up going to the first event in San Francisco in ‘96, where I met Sasha and Ann Shulgin, Jonathan Ott, Charles Grob, Wade Davis, and several other people. From that point I started going to the Entheobotany Seminars regularly. I went to one in Uxmal in ‘98 and then the next few were at Palenque, which is where I got to meet and hang out with Terence McKenna, Paul Stamets, and Christian Rätsch. I started recorded all the lectures on cassettes, and when Lorenzo Hagerty decided to start the Psychedelic Salon, I gave him a bunch of the lectures that I had recorded to help him get started. I had a lot of good friendships over the years, including one with Terence. He actually got the very first book from the initial hardcover printing of The Land Without Evil. So yeah, I’ve been steeped in this stuff for years.

It sounds like those early experiences played a big role in shaping who you have become. Thank you again for speaking with me.

You're welcome brother—we’ll talk again soon.

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I am very grateful to Matt for sharing his insights and experience. Be sure to check out his website and new book here. If you liked this interview, you might also enjoy reading my review of The Center of the Universe and an excerpt from it that explores the ways that shamanistic cultures revere elemental spirits like the wind.

Image by k_tzito, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

This Week in Psychedelics - 9.15.17

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

• California bans using drones, self-driving cars from delivering weed (The Daily Dot)
• Congress Passes Three Month Budget Continuation – Marijuana Protections Included (NORML)
• Ontario Shocker: Province to Restrict Legal Cannabis Sales to 150 Government-Run Stores and One Website (Leafly)
• International drug treaties need an urgent revamp as more countries legalize cannabis (ZME Science)
• Patients to get easier access to medicinal cannabis under Greens bill (The Guardian)
• Blockchain Company Aims to Transform Australia's Medical Cannabis Sector (Leafly)
• Senator Orrin Hatch introduces medical marijuana research bill (Boing Boing)
• Hawaii Says It's 1st State to Go Cashless for Cannabis Sales (Leafly)
• Canadian Cops Claim They Won't Be Ready for Marijuana Legalization by 2018 (Reason)
• Cannabis Consumption Has Increased, but Not Because of Legalization (Leafly)
• Cannabis Lounges Looking More Likely in Las Vegas (Leafly)
• Charities Just Say No To Cannabis Contributions (Forbes)
• Annual High Times' Cannabis Cup attracts thousands to Clio (Michigan Live)
• California County Calls for State Aid to Combat Cannabis Farms (Leafly)
• Want to Get Into California's Legal Pot Market? Expect a Regulatory Morass (Reason)
• Cannabis advertising takes to the skies (Los Angeles Times)
• Meet Dr. Dina: Pot Doc to the Stars and 'Cannabis Consultant' on 'Disjointed' (Variety)
• Last Week in Cannabis — IRS Abuse, Weed Banks, And Putting Pot Up Your Butt (Psychedelic Times)
• 'Get the Criminal Elements Out of the Sale of Marijuana': The Week in Cannabis Quotes (Leafly)
• Woman, 49, given just months to live claims cannabis oil CURED her brain tumour after chemotherapy failed (Daily Mail)
• City told to say no to cannabis (Taft Midway Driller)

LSD

• Peter Sarsgaard Tackles LSD, CIA Mind-Control and Political Dissent in 'Wormwood' (The Hollywood Reporter)
• Want to, Like, Really Connect With Nature? Try Some LSD (Lifehacker)
• Incredible rare footage shows US soldiers being dosed with LSD in government-sponsored experiments that sparked "chaos" (Mirror)
• Before LSD, I was a militant anti-theist (Psymposia)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Magic mushrooms take a trip into clinical trials (Financial Times)
• Two parents' fight to set up the largest ever magic mushroom trial for depression is nearly over (International Business Times)
• The first time I ate mushrooms a Papua New Guinea shaman showed up (Psymposia)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• FDA Gives Okay For PTSD Sufferers To Start Ecstasy Trials (Inquisitr)
• MDMA and ecstasy deaths on rise in the south east (Get Surrey)
• Teen hospitalised after taking 'Blue Transformer' ecstasy pill - which he swapped for two cigarettes (Liverpool Echo)
• Person from Epsom among nine in South East to die from taking MDMA last year (Surrey Mirror)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• DMT is the Most Unbelievable Psychedelic Drug Known to Man (High Existence)

Salvia Divinorum

• Scientists Want to Synthesize Salvia's Hallucinogenic Molecule for a Surprising Reason (Gizmodo)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Unintentional drug use continues among molly users in EDM party scene (EurekAlert!)

Dissociatives

• Is Cough Syrup Hallucinogenic? Medicine Influenced Man to Kill Wife, Toxicologist Says (International Business Times)
• Intravenous Ketamine Quells Pain in Lyme Disease When Opiates and Other Drugs Fail (ProHealth)
• Mood Effects of Ketamine Linked to Circadian Timekeeping (MD Magazine)
• A notorious party drug from the '60s is quietly becoming a treatment for depression in India (Scroll.in)
• 'A lot of questions about ketamine' - keeping people drug-safe at Electric Picnic's welfare tent (The Journal)
• D.C. Man Gets 7-Year Prison Sentence For Conspiracy To Distribute PCP (Morningside Maryland)
• Report: Man Who Died in Struggle With Deputies Had Taken PCP (U.S. News & World Report)
• Driver Had PCP, Weed & Booze In Her System At Time Of Fatal Crash: Charges (DNAInfo)

Opiates/Opioids

• Synthetic salvia may be an opiate alternative without the addiction (SlashGear)
• 2 scientists are locked in a race to develop a groundbreaking vaccine for heroin, but it might not be a 'magic bullet' (Business Insider)
• U.S. Heroin Deaths Have Increased 533% Since 2002 (Forbes)
• Virginia Department of Health handing out Naloxone for free (WDBJ)
• Is U.S. in Afghanistan because of opium poppies?: Letter to the Editor (Cleveland.com)
• 7 things to know about heroin (Cincinnati.com)

Kratom

• How Long Does it Take to Get Addicted to Kratom? (Kratom Guides)
• Just like heroin and it's legal: DEA taking closer look at kratom (SILive.com)
• Kratom debate reaches new level (Adirondack Daily Enterprise)
• Upstate NY police sergeant died of overdose on legal, controversial drug kratom (NewYorkUpstate.com)

Kava

• Police witness drop in kava thefts (The Fiji Times)

Khat

• The surprising place where cash is going extinct (BBC)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• The First Graduating Class of the CIIS Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research (Psychedelic Times)
• The therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs (The Washington Post)
• Experts Are Hoping to Bring Medical Psychedelics in the Mainstream (ATTN:)
• 10 Reasons to End the War on Drugs and the War on Sex Workers (Psymposia)
• I Spent a Month Testing Comedown Cures (VICE)
• Psychedelic cluster busting headache medication saves me. And it's completely illegal (Psymposia)
• Dutch YouTubers Get High In The Name Of Science – And Clicks (Worldcrunch)
• Can Illegal Drugs Save Lives? Stunning Studies Point Toward Endless Possibilities (The Cheat Sheet)
• Looking back on Silicon Valley in 2016: Unicorns, Psychedelic Drugs, and Disruption (Disinfo)

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.