This Week in Psychedelics - 5.1.20

Cannabis

• Marijuana Seems To Reduce Opioid Use Among Chronic Pain Patients, Meta-Study Finds (Marijuana Moment)

• CIA Says Past Pot Use Does Not Disqualify Applicants From Agency Jobs (MERRY JANE)

• Commander-in-Cannabis: How Will Trump and Biden Approach Marijuana Policy? (High Times)

• CBD Can Stop Brain Cancer in Humans and Dogs, Study Finds (MERRY JANE)

• Kansas Governor Says Medical Marijuana Still On The Table In 2020 Despite Coronavirus (Marijuana Moment)

• Could cannabis terpene formulation treat COVID-19? (Health Europa)

• US Marijuana Research Policy Violated International Law For Decades, DEA Lawsuit Memo Reveals (Marijuana Moment)

• Maryland Medical Marijuana Dispensary Opens State's First Weed Drive-Thru (MERRY JANE)

• Lebanon has legalised cannabis growing, but its political class are muscling in on small farmers (The New Arab)

• Why you should read the label on your cannabis product (Leafly)

• Does cannabis use amplify the effect of prenatal alcohol exposure and vice versa? (EurekAlert!)

• Australian study finds vehicle crashes are a common factor in cannabis deaths (The Sydney Morning Herald)

• One doctor vs. the DEA: Inside the battle to study marijuana in America (NBC)

• Grandma gets high: Why seniors are consuming cannabis (Leafly)

• Scientists Create New Method To Store Marijuana Pollen On A Long-Term Basis (Marijuana Moment)

LSD

• LSD "off-switch" developed by psychedelic pharmaceutical company (New Atlas)

• What Happens When You Add Other Drugs To Your LSD Trip? (VICE)

• Bicycle Day 2020 Was Truly Historic, But Not for the Reasons You Think (Psymposia)

• When a Coronavirus Lockdown Resembles an LSD Trip (The New York Times)

Magic Mushrooms

• Oregon Therapeutic Psilocybin Legalization Campaign Has A New Signature Strategy Amid Coronavirus (Marijuana Moment)

• New York Assemblywoman Introduces Measure to Decriminalize Psilocybin (DoubleBlind)

• Compass raises $80M to take magic mushroom drug toward phase 3 (FierceBiotech)

• Oregon psychedelic startup tests nasal spray for PTSD, depression as legislative momentum builds (GeekWire)

• Calls For Australian Government To Allow MDMA And Psilocybin To Be Used To Treat Mental Health (LADbible)

MDMA

• Why MDMA Sex Feels So Good (VICE)

Novel Psychoactive Substances

• Scientists Solve the Crystal Structure of the Freebase of 5-MeO-DALT (Psychedelic Science Review)

Ketamine

• Treating Depression with Ketamine Under Quarantine (DoubleBlind)

• Ketamine and COVID-19 (Forest Bluff Magazine)

Miscellaneous

• Turn On, Tune In, Cash In (New Republic)

• Weed Biotech Partners with US Hospital to Make Psilocybin, MDMA, and DMT (MERRY JANE)

• Dr. Bronner’s Donates $1 Mil to Legalize Medical Psilocybin in Oregon (DoubleBlind)

• This petition to decriminalize psychedelics is causing Canadians to respond in droves (The Growth Op)

• Biden RAVE Act Legislation From 2003 Continues to Impede Risk Reduction Efforts (Lucid News)

• Biotech startup wants to make new short-acting psychedelic drugs more scalable & accessible (The Sociable)

• Field Trip Announces “World’s First” Virtual Psychedelic Therapy, But Forgets To Mention They Aren’t the First and No Psychedelics Are Involved (Psymposia)

• Dax Shepard Explains Why He'd Approve of His Daughters Taking Psychedelic Drugs (E! Online)

• Psychedelics Company Orthogonal Thinker Closes $6M Seed Round (Benzinga)

• Efforts to Legalize Psychedelics is Quickly Picking Up Momentum (Baystreet)

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 Psychoactives - 5.24.19

CANNABIS

• Cannabis Compound Eases Anxiety and Cravings of Heroin Addiction (Scientific American)

• Racial Arrest Disparities Got Worse After Legalization, Study Finds (Leafly)

• Scientists Now Believe That Cannabis Evolved in Tibet Over 28 Million Years Ago (MERRY JANE)

• Presidential Candidates Are Cosponsoring A New Marijuana Descheduling Bill (Marijuana Moment)

• Gun-Related Suicides Fell In California After Medical Marijuana Became Legal, Study Shows (Marijuana Moment)

• NJ Lawmakers Advance Medical Cannabis, Expungement Bills (Leafly)

• Luxembourg Unveils Proposals for Cannabis Legalisation Law (Talking Drugs)

• NFL Teams Up with Players’ Union to Study Weed for Pain Management (MERRY JANE)

• Legalization Gave Police Time to Fight Real Crime (Leafly)

• ‘I Can’t Breathe’: Video Shows Grandmother With Arthritis Arrested For CBD At Disney World (Marijuana Moment)

• As a Deadline for Legalizing Marijuana in Illinois Approaches, a New Poll Finds Strong Public Support (Reason)

• Texas expansion of medical cannabis nears finish line after Senate approval (The Texas Tribune)

• Seven-In-Ten Americans Want Federal Marijuana Convictions Automatically Sealed, Survey Finds (Marijuana Moment)

• Colorado Cops Can No Longer Use Drug-Sniffing Dogs Without Probable Cause (MERRY JANE)

• Study: Presence Of THC In Blood Not Associated With Crash Culpability (NORML)

• CBD Might Help You Cut Back On Drinking Alcohol And Reduce Its Damaging Effects, Study Says (Marijuana Moment)

• Kansas Set to Allow Low-THC Cannabis Oil Beginning July 1 (Leafly)

• Dogs Keep Getting Accidentally High by Eating Human Feces with Residual THC (MERRY JANE)

• A Sniff by a Pot-Detecting Dog Requires Probable Cause and Does Not Justify a Search, Says Colorado Supreme Court (Reason)

• Facebook Is Finally Getting Sued for Its Anti-Weed Policies (MERRY JANE)

• In a World of Legal Weed, Michael Thompson Languishes in Prison for Selling It in 1994 (The Intercept)

• Study: Seniors Report That Cannabis Positively Impacts Their Quality of Life (NORML)

• Thailand Will Now Turn Confiscated Weed into Cannabis Medicine (MERRY JANE)

• Portland’s Cannabis Taxes Were Mostly Used to Backfill Police Budgets (Willamette Week)

• House Committee Approves Immigration Bill With Marijuana Protections (Marijuana Moment)

• UFC Inks Multi-Million Dollar Deal with Canadian Pot Company to Study CBD (MERRY JANE)

• Overpoliced, Underrepresented: Racial Inequality and Cannabis Capitalism (Harvard Political Review)

• Where Presidential Candidate Bill de Blasio Stands On Marijuana (Marijuana Moment)

• Congress Wants To Offer Protections To Universities That Study Cannabis (Big Buds Magazine)

• Nevada County Directs Nearly $2 Million in Pot Revenue to Help the Homeless (MERRY JANE)

LSD

• Repair Of Iconic ’60s Era Synthesizer Turns Into Long, Strange Trip For Engineer (KPIX)

• LSD could help people overcome alcohol dependency (Mixmag)

MAGIC MUSHROOMS

• 'A grand experiment': how 'shrooms made Denver America's most drug-friendly city (The Guardian)

MDMA

• MDMA heads to Phase 3 trials for helping PTSD (Big Think)

• Australian Politician Outs Herself as “Occasional” MDMA User (MERRY JANE)

• Embracing Ecstasy: Can efforts to bottle MDMA’s magic transform psychiatry? (The Verge)

• Losing Religion and Finding Ecstasy in Houston (The New Yorker)

• Mum of teenager who died after taking ecstasy ‘overwhelmed’ by support (Hambleton Today)

AYAHUASCA

• The Church Where It’s Legal to Use Ayahuasca (VICE)

• These Ontario police officers are using ayahuasca to treat their PTSD (Global News)

• Healing Sexual Trauma with Ayahuasca (Chacruna)

• James English set to spend four days taking mind-bending drugs in Costa Rican jungle for new documentary (The Scottish Sun)

NOVEL PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCES

• Emerging threats in addiction: will novel psychoactive substance contribute to exacerbating the ongoing drug overdose epidemic? (Springer Link)

NITROUS OXIDE

• Nitrous oxide users unaware of health risks, nurses warn (The Guardian)

• Vietnam considers adding laughing gas to banned narcotic list (VnExpress International)

KETAMINE

• Study Finds Ketamine Nasal Spray Effective For Treating Depression: What You Should Know (Forbes)

• First Sublingual Ketamine Drug for Treatment of Acute Pain to be Evaluated in End-of-Phase 2 Meeting with FDA (Yahoo! Finance)

OPIOIDS

• How Joe Biden’s Drug Policies Supercharged the Opioid Crisis (Politico)

• Amid opioid crisis, Texas becomes first state where life-saving drug is sold online (Dallas News)

• Fighting Fentanyl (The Washington Post)

• In Cities Where It Once Reigned, Heroin Is Disappearing (The New York Times)

• State Trooper Said Man Took Bag From Fentanyl Supplier, But Video Demonstrated That the Deal Never Went Down (The Appeal)

• Improving the use of methadone for drug users with tuberculosis to prevent withdrawal (Medical Xpress)

• Epic twitter thread from a guy who became an accidental heroin smuggler (Boing Boing)

• State Senate passes amendment to finance Naloxone bulk purchase program (WWLP)

• Drug addicts fear arrest if they are caught with kits of lifesaving naloxone (Evening Telegraph)

COCAINE

• Cocaine use doubles in Britain in five years and purity levels at record high (The Independent)

• How Your Casual Cocaine Habit Is Affecting Your Health (Refinery29)

• ‘Cocaine Mitch’ McConnell’s campaign rakes in $70K by selling ‘cartel member’ shirts (Washington Examiner)

CAFFEINE

• Researchers document impact of coffee on bowels (Science Daily)

• Mom Is Heartbroken After Son Dies From Guzzling 4 Energy Drinks Per Day, Sounds Warning (The Epoch Times)

• Barista causes controversy by trying to refuse a pregnant woman caffeine (Her)

TOBACCO

• Veterans speak out against raising the age of tobacco use to 21 (Washington Examiner)

• Proposed California ban on flavored tobacco products shelved by lawmakers (Los Angeles Times)

KRATOM

• Spreading Awareness About Kratom Risks in Pregnancy (University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences)

KHAT

• Starving Yemen's drug problem (CNN)

MISCELLANEOUS

• How to Legalize Every Drug (VICE)

• The Scientist’s Drug Dealer: How Researchers Get Illicit Drugs (Discover Magazine)

• Indonesia Sentences Frenchman to Death for Drug Smuggling (TIME)

• Getting High Is Damaging the Planet – But Mostly Because of Prohibition (VICE)

• With Denver’s vote on magic mushrooms, will Colorado anchor a psychedelic medicine revolution? (The Colorado Sun)

• Activists plan to set up permanent overdose prevention site (Kitchener Today)

• Drinking Water Should Be Free At All Clubs and Festivals, Here's Why (DJMag.com)

• Joe Biden Killed Rave Culture (The Slot)

• 'Sad, Disgusting and Disappointing.' New Mexico Little League Field Littered With Discarded Syringes (TIME)

• Psychedelics, Sex, and Consent: A Brief History (Chacruna)

• How to Tell Your Doctor You're Using Drugs (VICE)

• What's the next step for hallucinogens as a health cure? (Dazed)

• Dr Richard Evans Schultes’ Explorations with Amazonian Shamans and Medicines (Kahpi)

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 - 10.12.18

Cannabis

• U.K. to Allow Prescriptions for Medicinal Cannabis (The New York Times)

• Pew Poll: 62 Percent Of Americans Want Marijuana Legal (NORML)

• Pennsylvania Lawmakers Approve Marijuana Decriminalization Bill In Committee Vote (Marijuana Moment)

• Support For Marijuana Legalization Grew Again In 2018, Pew Poll Finds (Marijuana Moment)

• 'Women have been saying it works for 10,000 years': 400 women will use marijuana-infused inserts in a groundbreaking study from a Harvard Medical School professor (Business Insider)

• U.S. Government Loosens Border Policy For Canadian Marijuana Industry Workers (Marijuana Moment)

• Trump Plans To Back Legal Medical Marijuana After Midterms, GOP Congressman Says (Marijuana Moment)

• High Schoolers Are Growing More Tolerant Of Peers Who Use Marijuana, Study Shows (Marijuana Moment)

• Survey: Cannabis Use Becoming Common Among Older Adults (NORML)

• Study Reveals How Older People Use And Obtain Marijuana In Colorado (Marijuana Moment)

• New California Law Bans Bars, Liquor Stores from Selling Marijuana-Infused Drinks (Reason)

• Fight To Legalize Medical Marijuana In Missouri Intensifies As Groups Battle Over Tax Rates (Marijuana Moment)

• Walmart Canada Explores Selling Cannabis-Infused Products (Forbes)

• Shopify 'confident' on pot e-commerce because 'cannabis isn't Kylie Cosmetics' (CBC)

• Trump Administration Seeks Public Comments On Marijuana Reclassification (Forbes)

• Toke Up, Eh? Canada Readies for Marijuana to Become Legal Nationwide (TIME)

• Canada’s Liquor Stores Will Heavily Outnumber Marijuana Stores On Legalization’s Launch (Marijuana Moment)

• Marijuana Stores Will Be Hard To Find For Most Canadians On Day One Of Legalization (Marijuana Moment)

• The jury is in on cannabis legalization in North America: it’s been a success. (LSE USAPP)

• WestJet bans staff in 'safety-sensitive' jobs from off-duty cannabis use (CBC)

• THC amounts identical in most cannabis strains, study finds (Phys.org)

• Celebrity Endorsements and Cannabis (The Stranger)

• Cannabis In Space Is Just Around The Corner (Forbes)

• I'm Just a Middle-Aged House Dad Addicted to Pot (The New York Times)

• This Is Where Arizona’s US Senate Candidates Stand On Marijuana (Marijuana Moment)

• The Marijuana Midterms are Heating Up in Nevada (NORML)

• Corporate America is investing in pot because people want to eat and drink it (CNN)

• Why retail is so important to the burgeoning cannabis beauty and wellness market (Glossy)

• Marijuana Licensing Bill Has ‘Negligible’ Fiscal Impacts, Congressional Budget Office Says (Marijuana Moment)

• Coral Cove Cannabis Retreat Is Jamaica's Best Kept Secret (Forbes)

• The Quest to Make California’s Weed the Champagne of Cannabis (WIRED)

LSD

• A Team of European Researchers Is Crowdsourcing the World’s First ‘Self-Blinded’ LSD Microdosing Study (Psychedelic Times)

• ‘The CIA introduced LSD into American society. They weaponised it’ (The Irish Times)

• Nick Kroll Saw The Pattern Of The Universe During An LSD Trip At Burning Man (Marijuana Moment)

• A Playwright's LSD Trip Becomes a Psychedelic Journey (The New York Times)

• That time a legendary Batman editor was dared to put LSD in Stan Lee’s coffee (Polygon)

• From ‘problem child’ to ‘prodigy’? LSD turns 75 (Arab News)

• People Are Microdosing LSD To 'Make Them More Productive' (LADbible)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Psilocybin Initiative Moves to Signature-Gathering Stage for May 2019 (Westword)

• Mushroom legalization effort polling at 39 percent (Rooster Magazine)

• A team of Johns Hopkins researchers is calling for magic mushrooms to be made legally available as medicine (Business Insider)

• “Magic Mushrooms” May Be an FDA-Approved Drug for Anxiety and Depression in the Near Future (Vogue)

• Iceland’s Richest Man Invests in Magic Mushrooms (Guide to Iceland Now)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• $57 million worth of MDMA discovered in sausage-making machines (Mixmag)

• Superstar DJ David Morales 'arrested at Japanese airport over MDMA smuggling claim' (Mirror)

• Use of higher purity ecstasy on the rise among young Australians (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Ayahuasca/DMT/5-MeO-DMT

• Breaking News: The first two ayahuasca convictions in the United States (Chacruna)

• Sexual Seduction in Ayahuasca Shaman and Participants Interactions (Chacruna)

• What ayahuasca — Silicon Valley's latest drug of choice — does to your brain and body (The Hour)

• The DMT drug is not a drug, its much stranger (Kahpi)

• In the mighty jungles (Deccan Herald)

• Multiple (and Subtle) Bodies: Entheogenic Incorporation in the Santo Daime Tradition (Part 1) (Reality Sandwich)

• Nathalie Huerta on Founding The Queer Gym and What Ayahuasca Taught Her (Bon Appetit)

Peyote/San Pedro/Mescaline

• American Indians gather near El Reno to celebrate peyote traditions (Tulsa World)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• Ibogaine Clinics and their Role in Addiction Treatment (The Urban Twist)

• The dangerous hallucinogen opioid addicts use to get clean (Big Think)

Dissociatives

• As ketamine clinics spread, so do start-your-own-business courses, sparking concern (STAT)

• Ketamine infusion for depression requires opioid receptors to be effective (Medical News Bulletin)

• Hope for Victims of Resistant Clinical Depression Now Comes in Pill Form (Breaking Israel News)

• My ketamine infusion for chronic pain (The Fix)

• Police: Naked man possibly on PCP arrested after throwing chairs off Dumfries balcony (WJLA)

• Expert: Teen 'whacked out' of his mind from PCP night of police shooting (Chicago City Wire)

Opiates/Opioids

• Addiction Treatment Gap Is Driving A Black Market For Suboxone (NPR)

• Surgeon General Talks About Need To 'Normalize' Naloxone At N.H. Opioids Forum (NHPR)

• Funeral Homes Stock Overdose Antidote Drug Naloxone Amid Opioid Epidemic (The Inquisitr)

• Mexico defense chief says legalizing opium 'way out' of violence (The Gazette)

• Opioid Bill Shows Congress Can Still Work Together (TIME)

• Prisons Crack Down On An Opioid Treatment Drug, Endangering Lives (The Appeal)

• Medicaid Expansion and the Opioid Epidemic (Penn LDI)

Absinthe

• A Czech Distiller Is Resurrecting Pre-Ban Absinthe, Returning the Green Fairy to Rightful Glory (VinePair)

Kambô

• Get holes burned into your body as sacred tree frog ceremony comes to Cornwall (Cornwall Live)

Kratom

• Ohio Pushes Kratom Ban With Disputed Claims About Deaths, Use Trends (HuffPost)

• Do Drug Addicts Really Shoot Kratom? (Pain News Network)

Kava

• Potential for increased kava exports (The Fiji Times)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• A Big Win – DOJ Affirms Free Water and Drug Education Not a Violation of the RAVE Act! (Amend the RAVE Act!)

• Fingerprint drug screen test works on the living and deceased (ScienceDaily)

• Hospital Data Shows How Britain's Drug Problem Is Getting Worse (VICE)

• Decriminalise drugs, Plaid Cymru says (BBC)

• Philadelphia Pushing Forward with Safe Injection Site Plans (Reason)

• 'Just say no' to drug legalisation: WHO chief (Yahoo!)

• The Psychedelic Film and Music Festival Announces Inaugural Award Winners (Broadway World)

• Can US overdose deaths be stopped? (Drug WarRant)

• Introducing Chacruna’s Psychedelic Therapy Music Forum (Chacruna)

• Reality Is Just a Bunch of Hallucinations We Collectively Agree On (Motherboard)

• Successful Constitutional Case Against Death Penalty Works For War on Drugs, Too (Marijuana Moment)

• Magic Medicine: A Trip Through the Intoxicating History and Modern-Day Use of Psychedelic Plants and Substances by Cody Johnson (Psychedelic Press UK)

• Treating mental disorders with psychedelic psychotherapy (Particle)

• The Business Of Addiction Treatment (INSCMagazine)

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.

DOJ Affirms Free Water and Drug Education Not a Violation of the RAVE Act

Dede, writing for Amend the RAVE Act!:

Dear friends and other steadfast supporters,

I am thrilled to bring you two important updates about our work to amend the RAVE Act.

First, earlier this year, I received a letter from the Department of Justice (DOJ) informing me that free water should absolutely be provided at dance music festivals and concerts!

Then, last week the Justice Department added that fact-based drug education material may be distributed at events! In fact, they said that both of these measures have been deemed to be ‘reasonable and appropriate safety measures.’

Free water at music festivals is an absolute no-brainer, and educating drug users about how to use drugs in the safest manner possible can have a huge impact. Lives will definitely be saved because of these changes. This is excellent news for the harm reduction movement.

---

Post Permalink

The Manual of Psychedelic Support

While perusing the May 2015 edition of Erowid Extracts, I was referred to a website called PsychSitter that has a wonderful guide that gives advice for "setting up and running compassionate care services for people having difficult drug experiences at music festivals and similar events."

The guide was published under a Creative Commons license and is available as a FREE PDF download. It includes a history of psychedelic care services, legal considerations, how to recruit, build, and train a team, the care space, complementary therapies, case studies, and much more.

Having a safe space for people undergoing powerful transformational experiences at multi-day outdoor festivals is extremely important. Unfortunately, because of the RAVE (Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy) Act,  harm reduction services can be interpreted as illegal activity in the United States.

The Act makes it unlawful to "make available for use" any place "for the purpose of unlawfully manufacturing, storing, distributing, or using a controlled substance." This can be broadly interpreted to target festival and event producers who have opted to provide any form of harm reduction services whatsoever. 

This can lead to producers being wary of even providing basic necessities like chillout spaces, available drinking water, drug testing reagent kit sites, and even the allowance of glow sticks, which have been associated in some people's minds with illegal substance use. This creates a situation where an already-difficult experience can turn into a nightmare for the traveler, who may end up in a crowded medical tent or the backseat of a police vehicle.

Groups like PsychSitter, DanceSafe, MAPS' Zendo Project, and the Full Circle Tea House are just a few of care service providers that are out there spreading positive vibes where they are needed the most. A petition has been started at Amend The RAVE Act that might be worth your checking out as well.