This Week in Psychoactives - 4.19.19

CANNABIS

• Study Finds Marijuana Motivates People To Exercise, Smashing Lazy Stoner Stereotype (Marijuana Moment)

• Report: Adult Use Legalization Associated With Increased Home Values (NORML)

• Dogs Treated With Cannabis Oil Experience Less Frequent Seizures, Study Finds (Marijuana Moment)

• In the age of legal marijuana, many employers drop ‘zero tolerance’ drug tests (Los Angeles Times)

• Georgia: Governor Signs Law Licensing Low-THC Oil Production (NORML)

• Another Federal Agency Wants You To Stop Calling About A Marijuana-Related Job (Marijuana Moment)

• Where the war on weed still rages (The Washington Post)

• Missouri Lawmakers Unanimously Approve Marijuana Decriminalization Bill In Committee (Marijuana Moment)

• Alabama Lawmakers Unanimously Approve Marijuana Decriminalization In Committee Vote (Marijuana Moment)

• Marijuana legalization is very popular (Vox)

• Alabama Police Ruined a Couple’s Lives Over $50 of Weed. Now the Charges Against Them Have Been Dropped (Reason)

• Unlicensed LA Dispensary Sold Pesticide-Tainted Cannabis, City Says (Leafly)

• Illinois: Cook County State’s Attorney To Expunge Thousands Of Low-Level Cannabis Convictions (NORML)

• Why Carl's Jr. is testing out a CBD burger (CNN)

• Joe Biden Applauds Anti-Marijuana Speech At Opioid Forum (Marijuana Moment)

• How Cannabis Prohibition Is Harming Veterans With PTSD (Forbes)

• Mitch McConnell Touts Hemp Legalization Achievement In Reelection Campaign Ad (Marijuana Moment)

• Doctors Have a Cannabis Problem, and It’s Harming Patients (Leafly)

• Mental illness implications of cannabis use must not be ignored (CALmatters)

• People Could Use Marijuana In Public Housing Under New Congressional Bill (Marijuana Moment)

• Roadside drug-testing flaws exposed in local court case (Echonetdaily)

• How to Be an Ethical Weed Consumer (Lifehacker)

• Can Cannabis Help You Get off Xanax? (Civilized)

• Where Presidential Candidate Eric Swalwell Stands On Marijuana (Marijuana Moment)

• Don't expect your doctor to prescribe CBD, says physicians' college (CBC)

• Meet the ‘Bliss Molecule’ Anandamide, a Cannabinoid Your Body Produces (Leafly)

LSD

• Study: Microdosing LSD for 1 month was followed by improved mood, productivity (Big Think)

MAGIC MUSHROOMS

• The First Vote To Decriminalize Psychedelic Mushrooms Is Happening Right Now (Marijuana Moment)

• What is Denver Initiative 301: Psilocybin mushroom decriminalization (The Denver Post)

MDMA

• Professor in western Japan allegedly made students produce MDMA (The Mainichi)

• The Push To Legalise MDMA In Australia (10 daily)

• MDMA Study Shows Promise In Fighting Brain Disease (EDMTunes)

• Psychedelic renaissance: could MDMA help with PTSD, depression and anxiety? (The Guardian)

• Teen who died at Kelowna festival last summer was given MDA instead of MDMA (Vancouver Sun)

• “I Think I Can Leave Afghanistan in the Past”: Interview with a Military Psychologist about MDMA Therapy for PTSD (Psychedelic Times)

• Liverpool teenager dies after suspected MDMA overdose (Milbank Monitor)

• Mum of schoolboy, 13, who died in park ‘after taking homemade ecstasy pill’ makes Facebook plea for help finding dealer ‘who sold my son these drugs’ (The Sun)

AYAHUASCA

• Do Ayahuasca Shamans See Microbial Worlds in Their Visions? (Kahpi)

• Eleven Otherworldly Visionary and Ayahuasca Artists You Probably Don’t Know (Kahpi)

• How Ayahuasca Taught Me Gratitude And Pulled My Life Together (Reset.me)

• Ayahuasca Spirits Are Special Because They Are Not Real (Kahpi)

5-MEO-DMT

• A single inhalation of vapor from dried toad secretion containing 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) in a naturalistic setting is related to sustained enhancement of satisfaction with life, mindfulness-related capacities, and a decrement of psychopathological symptoms (Springer)

SYNTHETIC CANNABINOIDS

• New York launches new effort to fight synthetic cannabinoids (WNYT)

• The Study of “Synthetic Cannabinoids” Condemns Punitive Marijuana Laws (Filter)

• Flood of synthetic cannabinoids threatens to undermine CBD market, experts say (NutraIngredients-USA)

• Why Synthetic CBD Is (Probably) the Future of Cannabis Pharma  (Green Entrepreneur)

NITROUS OXIDE

• Laughing Gas to Be Used as Antidepressant in Australian Medical Trial (VICE)

KETAMINE

• J&J’s new ketamine-like depression drug Spravato off to ‘very, very strong start,’ company says (CNBC)

• Researchers Are Unraveling How Ketamine Works as an Antidepressant in the Brain (Discover Magazine)

• What Is Ketamine And Should It Be Used For Addiction? (Psychology Today)

PCP

• Lakewood man was high on PCP when he attacked man with ax before escaping police custody, police say (News 5 Cleveland)

• Six Onondaga County deputies treated for possible exposure to PCP (WSTM)

OPIATES/OPIOIDS

• Exclusive: DHS is considering classifying fentanyl as a 'weapon of mass destruction' (Task and Purpose)

• Andrew Yang’s plan to take on opioids: decriminalize heroin and fentanyl (Vox)

• Life-saving opioid addiction treatments get a negative slant (Columbia Journalism Review)

• "Narcansas" app developed to combat the opioid crisis (KATV)

• Maine Pursues Plan To Stock Schools With Naloxone And Expand Drug Prevention Efforts (Maine Public)

• New York Heroin Use Figures Higher Than US Average (Tech Times)

• One Doctor’s Answer to Drug Deaths: Opioid Vending Machines (WIRED)

• Vermont State Police issue update on trooper who experienced serious medical event (Vermont Biz)

• 60 People Charged For Roles in Illegal Prescription Opioid Crackdown (TIME)

• The DEA announces new strategy to fight against opioid and heroin abuse (WGNO)

• Southern States Slowly Embracing Harm Reduction to Curb Opioid Epidemic (The Pew Charitable Trusts)

• HUHS Rejects Student Proposal to Make Naloxone Publicly Available on Campus (Harvard Crimson)

• Indivior Case: Don’t Throw Out the Buprenorphine With the Bathwater (Filter)

• Saving lives with Naloxone shouldn’t cost you life insurance (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

COCAINE

• Study: US Cocaine Interdiction Efforts Just Spread More Cocaine Around (Observer)

CAFFEINE

• Switzerland to reconsider emergency coffee stockpiles, says it’s not 'vital' for survival (Fox News)

• Does Caffeine Help A Headache Or Not? Here's What Experts Say. (HuffPost)

• Caffeine content of different types of coffee (Medical News Today)

TOBACCO

• FDA threatens to fine Walmart, Kroger and convenience store chains for selling tobacco to minors (CNBC)

• Sacramento city council bans flavored tobacco products (KCRA)

• American Cancer Society opposes Iowa bill to raise tobacco use age (WQAD)

• The Percentage of Americans Who Understand That Vaping Is Less Dangerous Than Smoking Continues to Fall (Reason)

• In Approaching Nicotine, Let’s Learn From Past Harm Reduction Victories (Filter)

• House Dems unveil legislation aimed at curbing youth tobacco use (The Hill)

• Snowmass Village set to raise tobacco age limit (Aspen Daily News)

• Mitch McConnell Wants to Raise Tobacco Purchasing Age From 18 to 21, Including for Vaping Devices (TIME)

• How Changing Tobacco Laws Can Save Thousands Of Lives, Billions Of Tax Dollars (Forbes)

• Ohio could raise tobacco, e-cigarette and vape purchase age to 21: Five things to know (Cincinnati Enquirer)

ALCOHOL

• Heavy drinkers consuming more than half of all alcohol (Medical Xpress)

• Child and Adolescent Anxiety May Be Associated With Later Alcohol Use (Psychiatry Advisor)

• Can you drink alcohol with antibiotics? (Medical News Today)

• 10% of 8th graders in U.S drank alcohol in the past 30 days (WICS)

NOOTROPICS

• This Powerful Nootropic Is the Perfect Start to Your Morning (and Afternoon, And…) (Inverse)

• Are Silicon Valley’s brain-boosting 'smart drinks' as clever as they seem? (The Telegraph)

KRATOM

• Opioid Users Call Kratom a Godsend. The F.D.A. Says It’s a Menace. (The New York Times)

• Kratom is all the rage, but this natural supplement can be dangerous (Popular Science)

KAVA

• Abuse of Kava at workplaces an issue: Minister (FBC News)

• CBD Vs. Kava Kava: Two More Natural Remedies Compared (Ministry of Hemp)

MISCELLANEOUS

• Silk Road 2 founder sentenced five years after the site was shut down (Engadget)

• An algorithm is attempting to block drug deals at UK WiFi kiosks (Engadget)

• Chemsex: a dangerous shortcut to intimacy (The Independent)

• Can the Psychedelic Movement Learn from the Movement for End of Life Liberty? (Chacruna)

• Locking Up Drug “Dealers” to Save Users Doesn’t Make Anyone Safer (Truthout)

• Why block the promise of a psychedelic renaissance? (openDemocracy)

• Proposal for decriminalizing drugs could be tabled for debate in Saeima (LSM.lv)

• Our Irrational Cruelty to Pregnant or Parenting People Who Use Drugs (Filter)

• Hallucinogenic Healing: Could Psychedelics Cure Toxic Masculinity? (Playboy)

• Dark Web Drug Seller Sinmed Goes Down—Thanks to ATM Withdrawals (WIRED)

• Don’t Have a Bad Trip with the Police: Know your Rights with Police and Psychedelics (Chacruna)

• What Is Psychedelic Integration? (Maps Of The Mind)

• My Life in Two Parts of Texas Illustrates Our One War on Drugs (Filter)

• Needle exchange program pioneered in Miami-Dade may soon grow to other Florida counties (Miami Herald)

• Plant medicines in indigenous cultures (The Psychedelic Scientist)

• Why We’re Starting the Conversation Around Queerness and Psychedelics (Chacruna)

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:

---

This Week in Psychedelics - 12.25.15

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.