This Week in Psychoactives - 6.21.19

CANNABIS

• New York’s Adult-Use Cannabis Legalization Bill Is Dead (Leafly)

• Gene Increases Risk for Pot Addiction (Scientific American)

• Public Cannabis Consumption Now Allowed In Colombia: Is Full Marijuana Legalization Next? (Forbes)

• Congress Votes To Block Feds From Enforcing Marijuana Laws In Legal States (Forbes)

• Beijing says US legalization of marijuana is a 'threat to China' (CNN)

• Three New Studies Explore Link Between Medical Marijuana Dispensaries And Youth Use (Marijuana Moment)

• Study: Cannabis Safe and Effective in Fibromyalgia Patients (NORML)

• Maryland Regulators Warn of Possible Lead Contamination in Weed Vape Pens (MERRY JANE)

• 57% of Arthritis Patients Have Tried Cannabis. 90% Found It Helped (Leafly)

• House Passes Amendments Stripping DEA Funding And Pushing FDA To Regulate CBD (Marijuana Moment)

• Marijuana Study Finds CBD Can Cause Liver Damage (Forbes)

• Public Sewage Revealed Shift Away From Illegal Weed After Legalization (Inverse)

• From Shortage to Surplus: Canada Could Have Too Much Weed by the End of the Year (MERRY JANE)

• Texas Governor Signs Bill To Expand State’s Medical Marijuana Program (Marijuana Moment)

• New Study Finds Cannabis May Be 'Unsafe' For Pregnant Women (WBUR)

• Ex-Novartis Pill Factory Gets a New Life Making CBD Products (Bloomberg)

• Cannabis Use Doubles Among Pregnant Women In The U.S., Study Finds (WBUR)

• Americans Want CBD Available Over-The-Counter, Poll Finds (Marijuana Moment)

• Cincinnati: Council Members Vote to Eliminate Marijuana Possession Penalties (NORML)

LSD

• First controlled study of LSD microdosing finds few benefits — and some downsides (PsyPost)

• How long is acid detectable in the body? (Medical News Today)

MAGIC MUSHROOMS

• Efforts To Decriminalize Magic Mushrooms Beginning To Sprout Nationally (Forbes)

• Replication and extension of a model predicting response to psilocybin (Springer Link)

• Can a psychedelic drug save the terminally ill from their deepest fears of death? (The Age)

NITROUS OXIDE

• Liverpool's streets are littered with laughing gas canisters: the truth about nitrous oxide (The Sun)

KETAMINE

• The controversial ketamine-like drug that Trump is pushing on veterans (The Guardian)

• Why the New Ketamine-Like Nasal Spray Is Worrying Some Physicians (Healthline)

• Imports of ketamine into the Netherlands up to 800 kilograms from 2.6kg in two years (Mixmag)

• Ketamine center aims to help those with depression, PTSD, chronic pain (The Durango Herald)

PCP

• Woman shot at, stabbed after man becomes irate after smoking PCP, police say (KMOV)

OPIOIDS

• Drug addicts to be given free heroin as Home Office awards first licence (The Telegraph)

• Opiate addiction in UK in the over-40s triples in 12 years (The Independent)

• Cops bring addiction counselor on drug raids to fight opioid crisis (CBS News)

• Pharmacists hand out free naloxone spray on Edmonton's Whyte Avenue (CBC)

• Pharmacies may not stock naloxone, despite statewide orders (Reuters)

METHAMPHETAMINE

• Alabama Man On The Lam Insists He Didn’t Give Meth To ‘Attack Squirrel’ (HuffPost)

• Meth In The Morning, Heroin At Night: Inside The Seesaw Struggle of Dual Addiction (NPR)

• Arrested While “Panicking on Meth”—An Hour Later, He Was Dead (Filter)

• Wexford deputy hospitalized after exposure to crystal meth (Cadillac News)

CAFFEINE

• Can You Drink Coffee While Doing Intermittent Fasting? (Healthline)

• Is decaf coffee harmful to health? (Medical News Today)

TOBACCO

• Global Forum on Nicotine Asserts Urgency of Tobacco Harm Reduction (Filter)

• CVS Shifts Anti-Tobacco Fight To E-Cigarettes (Forbes)

ALCOHOL

• The mysterious deaths in the Dominican Republic reportedly may be linked to illicit alcohol, and it wouldn’t be the first time (Business Insider)

• Women not aware enough of breast cancer link to alcohol (BBC)

• Germans thirsty for alcohol-free beer as brewers boost taste (The Guardian)

NOOTROPICS

• What Is The Effect Of Nootropics On Brain Health? (The Frisky)

KRATOM

• Oregon Lawmakers Decide Not To Regulate Kratom, For Now (Jefferson Public Radio)

• Kratom Dosage For Stimulating Energy (MyMMANews)

KAVA

• Auckland city set to get its first kava bar at Victoria Park Markets (Stuff.co.nz)

MISCELLANEOUS

• Movement To Decriminalize Psychedelics Spreads Nationally (Marijuana Moment)

• AOC's Amendment to Expand Psychedelics Research Shot Down by House of Reps (MERRY JANE)

• The Feds Want To Subject Every Burning Man Attendee to a Warrantless Drug Search (Reason)

• Woody Harrelson to play LSD guru Timothy Leary, a Springfield native and Holy Cross alum (MassLive)

• Evidence is mounting that psychedelic drugs can help treat diseases. Here are the most promising uses. (Business Insider)

• Cory Booker Proposes Thousands of Drug War Commutations If Elected President (Reason)

• How Portugal tackled its addiction epidemic to become a world model (CBC)

• 'I would put the son of a gun in jail': Joe Biden said in a 2001 hearing that he wanted to criminalize raves and 'lock up' rave promoters (Business Insider)

• Drugs are decriminalised in the UK—if you are a white, privileged MP (The BMJ)

• The Canadian revival of psychedelic drug research (University Affairs)

• A Change in Russia’s Draconian Drug Laws Could Be on the Horizon (The Moscow Times)

• Psychedelic Masculinities: Reflections on Power, Violence and Privilege (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.

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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:

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This Week in Psychoactives - 5.17.19

CANNABIS

• Two Tiny Caribbean Islands Legalized Cannabis for Private and Adult Use (MERRY JANE)

• Arkansas: Licensed Medical Cannabis Sales Begin (NORML)

• Washington: Governor Signs Marijuana Expungement Bill Into Law (NORML)

• Alabama Senate Passes Medical Marijuana Legalization Bill (MERRY JANE)

• Nebraska Lawmakers Approve Bill To Legalize Medical Marijuana (Marijuana Moment)

• New Jersey Voters, Not Lawmakers, Will Decide On Marijuana Legalization In 2020 (Marijuana Moment)

• Leafly Study Debunks Dispensary Myths Around Crime & Teen Use (Leafly)

• Illegal Marijuana Grows In Pacific Northwest Declined After Legalization, Study Finds (Marijuana Moment)

• Can CBD Really Do All That? (The New York Times)

• Legalized ‘Light Cannabis’ Linked With Drop In Pharmaceutical Sales, Study Finds (Marijuana Moment)

• Grandmother arrested for CBD at Magic Kingdom hires Ben Crump, threatens lawsuit against cops and Disney (Orlando Sentinel)

• Gov. Cuomo Bails on New York Cannabis Legalization (Leafly)

• Serious Injuries From Domestic Violence Dropped After Marijuana Decriminalization, Study Finds (Marijuana Moment)

• America’s Longest-Serving Marijuana Prisoner Released After 39 Years (MERRY JANE)

• Joe Biden Endorses Marijuana Decriminalization And Rescheduling—But Not Legalization (Marijuana Moment)

• Half A Million Canadians Are Getting High at Work, According to New Report (MERRY JANE)

• Detroit Will Pay Out $60,000 to Woman Whose Dogs Were Shot on a Marijuana Raid (Reason)

• Texas Senate Unanimously Approves Hemp Legalization Bill (Marijuana Moment)

• No More Horsing Around: CBD Now Banned in Equestrian Competitions (MERRY JANE)

• New Congressional Bill Aims To Resolve Marijuana Industry Border Issues (Marijuana Moment)

• Cannabis Study of Expecting Mothers Causes Social Media Controversy (Forbes)

• Canada Is Seeing Its Fair Share of Dab Lab Explosions, Too (MERRY JANE)

• Cannabis kombucha, gluten-free edibles: weed companies jump on wellness trends (The Guardian)

• Oregon Senate Votes To Legalize Interstate Marijuana Imports And Exports (Marijuana Moment)

• Doctors and Teachers in Utah Can Now Smoke Medical Marijuana Without Fear (MERRY JANE)

• Where Presidential Candidate Steve Bullock Stands On Marijuana (Marijuana Moment)

• Illinois Survey That Supposedly Shows Support for Legalizing Marijuana Is 'Dwindling' Actually Shows It Is Rising (Reason)

• Medicinal cannabis users focus of new research (Scoop)

LSD

• Jeopardy Contestants Are Getting Tested On Their Marijuana And LSD Knowledge (Marijuana Moment)

• Inside the first placebo-controlled studies testing if microdosing LSD actually works (WIRED)

• The Sad Tale of Frank Olson, the US Government's Hallucinogen Fall Man (Pacific Standard)

• How LSD May Facilitate Communing With Nature (Medium)

MAGIC MUSHROOMS

• Michael Pollan: Not So Fast on Psychedelic Mushrooms (The New York Times)

• Denver Psilocybin Decriminalization Activist Pushes Back Against Michael Pollan’s Criticism (Marijuana Moment)

MDMA

• Yorkshire police issue MDMA warning after death of 15-year-old girl (The Guardian)

5-MEO-DMT

• A statement regarding the misinterpretation and misrepresentation of the study of 5-MeO-DMT (Psychedelics Today)

MESCALINE

• The Fascinating History of Mescaline, the OG Psychedelic (VICE)

SYNTHETIC CANNABINOIDS

• Canada Is Giving Prisoners Synthetic Weed, Not Real Medical Marijuana (MERRY JANE)

• Synthetic cannabinoid alert system to be in place by end of year (Newsie)

OPIOIDS

• Only One Major Ontario City Refuses to Let Police Carry Life-Saving Naloxone (VICE)

• 5 More States Sue Purdue Pharma and Other Drugmakers Over the Opioid Epidemic (TIME)

• Heroin Overdose Parties Are a Dehumanizing Myth (VICE)

• A new study backs up a lifesaving approach to the opioid epidemic (Vox)

COCAINE

• Global Drug Survey: Large Majority of Cocaine Users Would Pay More for Safer, “Fair Trade” Supply (Filter)

• Study may help prevent relapse in cocaine use disorder patients (EurekAlert!)

• Canada ranks second in the world for cocaine use (but feels conflicted about it): Report (National Post)

• 'The cocaine trade is booming': 54% of Irish people who use cocaine want to cut down (TheJournal.ie)

• Top health experts warn cocaine is ‘absolutely rampant’ in Ireland as Health Minster Simon Harris launches plans to tackle epidemic (The Sun)

METHAMPHETAMINE

• The Many Health Benefits of Meth (Pacific Standard)

CAFFEINE

• How Much Coffee Is Too Much? Drinking 6 Cups In A Day Is Bad For The Heart, Study Shows (Study Finds)

• This Cup of Joe Costs $75 and Is Being Touted as the World's Most Expensive Coffee (TIME)

TOBACCO

• Maryland raises legal tobacco purchasing age to 21 (The Hill)

• Campaign to raise minimum smoking age to 21 finds unlikely supporter: Big Tobacco (CNBC)

ALCOHOL

• Psychedelic Drugs Can Help Alcoholics Stop Drinking, According To New Study (IFLScience)

• Britons get drunk more often than 35 other nations, survey finds (The Guardian)

• Doctors turn to alcohol, food and drugs to cope with work stress (The Guardian)

• OU approves alcohol sales at sporting events (KTUL)

NOOTROPICS

• The Majority Of People Are Fine With Brain Doping, As Long As You Don't Call It That (Forbes)

KHAT

• New study shows chewing miraa bad for mental health (Tuko.co.ke)

MISCELLANEOUS

• Leading U.S. Prosecutors Visit Portugal To Learn About Drug Decriminalization (Marijuana Moment)

• Joe Biden once said a fence was needed to stop 'tons' of drugs from Mexico (CNN)

• Elizabeth Warren Knows What It Will Take to End the Drug War (The Slot)

• The Ethics of Taking the Drugs You Study (VICE)

• Bolsonaro Cuts Harm Reduction, Escalates Drug War (Filter)

• Queering Psychedelics conference aims to expand definitions, minds (48 Hills)

• Number of Women Arrested for Drugs Increases at Four Times the Rate of Men (Filter)

• Seeking a safe place: Vancouver’s story (The Boston Globe)

• Magic Mushrooms, Psychedelics and Chronic Pain (Pain News Network)

• Booker Bill Would Protect Students With Drug Convictions From Losing Federal College Aid (Marijuana Moment)

• How the War on Drugs Kept Black Men Out of College (The Atlantic)

• Lawmakers Schedule Psychedelic Decriminalization Hearing In Oakland (Forbes)

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.

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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:

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This Week in Psychedelics - 11.2.18

Cannabis

• Mexican Supreme Court Strikes Down Marijuana Prohibition (Marijuana Moment)

• Thailand Mulling Becoming the First Country in Asia to Legalize Medical Marijuana (TIME)

• NORML Submits 10,000+ Written Comments to the FDA for the Reconsideration of International Marijuana Prohibition (NORML)

• Blood-Sucking Flies Love Marijuana, New Study Finds (Marijuana Moment)

• Legal Marijuana Helps Reduce Opioid Harms, Two More New Studies Reveal (Marijuana Moment)

• 4 More States Could Legalize Medical or Recreational Marijuana Next Week (Reason)

• Marijuana In The Governor's Mansion: Record Number Of Candidates Say Legalize It (Forbes)

• Coca-Cola CEO says company has no plans for cannabis drinks (CNN)

• Vancouver, Canada’s Marijuana Capital, Struggles to Tame the Black Market (The New York Times)

• Medical cannabis products available on prescription (BBC)

• New Study Shows How Opinions On Marijuana Shift Based On Who Endorses It (Marijuana Moment)

• Cannabis oil: Why it could really be the miracle sleep saver (The Telegraph)

• Australia’s cannabis industry set to boom: report (news.com.au)

• Kansas Finally Admits It's Okay to Put Hemp in Beer (Reason)

• Young Advocates Launch Marijuana Legalization Phone Bank To Get Out The Vote (Marijuana Moment)

• Pot never should have been illegal in the first place (USA Today)

• Paul Ryan Touts The Benefits Of A Marijuana Ingredient And Industrial Hemp (Marijuana Moment)

• Quitting cannabis could lead to better memory and cognition (The Guardian)

• Utah Medical Marijuana Campaign Funding Mainly Slows Down Following Compromise Deal (Marijuana Moment)

• Everything you need to know about CBD, the cannabis elixir that doesn’t get you high (MarketWatch)

• Mother says cannabis oil has been saviour for epileptic son Alfie (The Guardian)

• Advocacy Groups Push Colorado To Make Legal Marijuana Market More Equitable (Marijuana Moment)

• With pot legalized, job openings surge in Canada’s cannabis industry (The Washington Post)

• Marijuana Campaign Ads Are Flooding Airwaves Ahead Of The Election (Marijuana Moment)

LSD

• Yale scientists have new insight on how LSD works in the brain (Quartz)

• U of A student who stabbed 19-year-old to death while on LSD wins shorter sentence on appeal (Edmonton Journal)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Psilocybin Study Shows Beneficial Effects of Microdosing "Trip Truffles" (Inverse)

• Is Medicalization the Only Way to Legalize Psilocybin and Ibogaine? (Chacruna)

• Shroom for improvement: FDA lists psychedelic drugs as ‘breakthrough therapy’ for depression (RT)

• These folks used to raise money for the planet, now psychedelic mushrooms (Rooster Magazine)

• A handful of psychedelic "Atlantis" mushrooms in Amsterdam (Boing Boing)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• MDMA-Assisted Therapy For PTSD Edges Closer To FDA Approval After Largest-Ever Trial (IFLScience)

• DJ David Morales released without charge after ecstasy arrest at Japanese airport (The Sun)

• Mum recalls heartbreaking moment daughter, 15, died after taking ‘dark web’ MDMA pill (The Sun)

Ayahuasca/DMT/5-MeO-DMT

• DMT Is the Drug for Our Collective Crisis of Meaning (Medium)

• Ayahuasca For the First Time at 64 Years Old: Interview with Rhea Consalvo (Psychedelic Times)

Dissociatives

• Ketamine trial suspended following concerns around informed consent (Outsourcing-Pharma.com)

Opiates/Opioids

• Opioid Antidote Can Save Lives, But Deciding When To Use It Can Be Challenging (NPR)

• Poppy farmers seek comprehensive solution to illicit drug problem (Myanmar Times)

• Can you grow opium poppies in New Zealand? (Stuff.co.nz)

• Giant heroin spoon left outside Massachusetts Statehouse (StarTribune)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• What Psychedelic Research Can and Cannot Tell Us about Consciousness (Scientific American)

• The fix is worse than the problem: A reply to psychedelic researchers (Metaphysical Speculations)

• Why did shamanism evolve in societies all around the globe? (Aeon)

• Portugal’s drug policy shows what common-sense approach looks like (San Francisco Chronicle)

• psychedelic.support creates a network for psychedelic therapists (Psymposia)

• The Ideal Society In Terms Of Psychoactive Substances (Maps Of The Mind)

• Psychedelics and Witchcraft — The Truth About Hallucinogenic “Hexing Herbs” (Psychedelic Frontier)

• “Zombies” and Rotting Flesh: The Media Just Loves Halloween-y Depictions of People Who Use Drugs (Filter)

• DEA Says Meth Use Has Never Been Higher; Survey Data Say Otherwise (Reason)

• Horizons: The Psychedelic Conference Where Old Meets New (The Third Wave)

• It’s Time for the Psychedelic Renaissance to Join the Harm Reduction Movement (Chacruna)

• Global Drug Survey 2019: Kiwis urged to get frank about their drug use (Stuff.co.nz)

• Wave of Burning Man-Related Drug Arrests Won't Go to Trial (Reason)

• 5-Year-Old Has Meth Poisoning After Trick-or-Treating. It Probably Wasn't the Halloween Candy. (Reason)

• Evidence is mounting that psychedelic drugs can help treat diseases. Here are the most promising uses (Pulse)

• Drugs: Perspectives in Social Sciences (Chacruna)

• Setting the record straight with Robin Carhart-Harris and Enzo Tagliazucchi (Metaphysical Speculations)

• Further Response to the Psychedelic Neuroimaging Researchers (Metaphysical Speculations)

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.

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Weekend Thoughts - 8.1.15

Image by Francois de Halleux, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. California's Press Enterprise's editorial board penned an excellent editorial marking the 14th anniversary of Portugal's decision to decriminalize all drug use and possession. The article details the overwhelmingly-positive results of the country's harm reduction model. Portugal is the first nation to undergo an experiment like this. We can only hope that other nations will follow and reap the same benefits that Portugal has: declining rates of drug use, lower numbers of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV, a reduction in drug-induced deaths, etc. 

2. On Last Week Tonight, John Oliver spoke out against mandatory minimum prison sentences for certain crimes. He explains why we treat turkeys better than some low-level offenders. In a lot of these cases, the judges want to be able to hand out a softer sentence, but these laws prevent them from doing so. Definitely worth a watch.

3. I enjoyed this positive article from High Existence on how your spiritual growth is shaping human evolution. The general argument of the piece is that the individual actions we make have a significant impact on the overall evolution of the human species. There are some references to Rupert Sheldrake's morphic resonance theory, which has interested me for a long time. I have been really enjoying browsing High Existence the past week or so, which is a new website to me that has a lot of articles about topics that interest me, and would most likely interest the Think Wilder audience.

4. The issue of Performance-Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) in sports and e-sports has been in the news this week, and I was interested to read an article on how research chemicals have made their way into the professional cycling world. Cyclists are purchasing PEDs from Chinese laboratories (similar to the psychoactive research chemical market) that are so new that the drug tests the World Anti-Doping Agency uses won't be able to identify them. It just goes to show that you cannot eliminate drug use—there are always going to be minor structural changes that can be made to the molecules that will produce a similar effect (or completely different effect, if that's what you're into) and won't be testable. This is a totally new application of research chemicals that is innovative and mischievous, and I am fascinated to see what happens next.

5. I never thought I would see something like the editorial arguing for cannabis legalization on the D.A.R.E. website earlier this week. It has been taken down, but here is a snapshot of the original page. The original piece talked about how criminalization has actually made it easier for children to obtain illegal substances (which has been a long-standing argument in the drug policy reform movement) and explains how a system that would actually control the substances is a better option. The tides are definitely turning.

6. Due to the recent passing of the USA Freedom Act, the NSA has agreed to no longer analyze call metadata obtained under the Patriot Act from November 29, 2015 onward. This won't prevent the agency from  continuing its mass surveillance, but it will prevent the NSA from digging through any data obtained before that date, which many critics believe should have never been collected in the first place. 

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