This Week in Psychedelics - 4.27.18

Cannabis

• Top Democrats Embrace Marijuana Reform Ahead of Midterm Elections (Truthout)
• Dr. Sanjay Gupta to Jeff Sessions: Medical marijuana could save many addicted to opioids (CNN)
• NEW POLL: 63% of Americans Believe “Marijuana Should Be Made Legal” (NORML)
• Sessions Admits There ‘May Well Be Some Benefits From Medical Marijuana’ (Marijuana Moment)
• Marijuana Legalization Will Be on Michigan's Ballot in November (Reason)
• Cannabis is having its 'smartphone' moment (Engadget)
• How activists are fighting for full cannabis legalization in Washington, D.C. (Psymposia)
• The End of the Joint As We Know It (The Ringer)
• NORML Delivers Over 10,000 Citizen Comments To The FDA Calling For The Reconsideration of Cannabis Prohibition (NORML)
• The best way to fight illegal pot is with legal cannabis (The Hill)
• Why Are Marijuana Policies So Behind in 4/20-Heavy Places Like New York? (Rolling Stone)
• How Seniors Joined the Cannabis Craze (The New Yorker)
• Cannabis Flowers Are Legal in Italy. You Just Can’t Eat or Smoke Them. (The New York Times)
• How 'dank' became a compliment for both beer and marijuana (Detroit Free Press)
• Greens' cannabis plan could raise $3.6bn (9NEWS)
• Isle Of Man Could Be The First Place In The British Isles To Decriminalise Cannabis Possession (HuffPost)
• These Five States Lead the Nation in Marijuana Arrests (AlterNet)
• Miracle drug or the devil's lettuce? (The Washington Post)
• The Complicated History of Cannabis in the US (History)
• FDA Rejects Anti-Legalization Pharma Co’s Cannabis Drug Request (Marijuana Moment)
• Legalising marijuana is a lot more complex than you might think (The Age)
• 4/20 Special: How Advocates and Entrepreneurs of Color Are Fighting for Equity in the Legal Weed Business (Colorlines)
• Liberal party members overwhelmingly vote for decriminalizing drugs while Trudeau repeats opposition (The Georgia Straight)
• Assemblyman introduces bill that would allow vets to prescribe cannabis for pets (KABC-TV)
• Utah Medical Marijuana Measure Has Enough Signatures For Ballot (Marijuana Moment)
• Is marijuana decriminalization possible in the Middle East? (The Washington Post)
• Anxiety Relief Without The High? New Studies On CBD, A Cannabis Extract (NPR)
• YouTube Continues Its Cannabis Purge and Nobody Knows Why (Leafly)
• Facebook Has a Cannabis Problem That ‘Community Standards’ Don’t Solve (Leafly)
• Two Cannabis Entrepreneurs Share Their Secrets For Success (Forbes)
• Police Department Offers Prize For Possessing The Most Cannabis (High Times)
• Medical cannabis oil is legal in Texas, but epilepsy patients still struggle (The Texas Tribune)
• A Multibillion-Dollar Cannabis Company Has Announced Its Asia-Pacific Headquarters In Australia (BuzzFeed News)
• Senator Wants Jeff Sessions To Meet With Drug War Victims (Marijuana Moment)
• Psychedelic Rapper Challenges New Jersey's Cannabis Laws In New 420 Song (PR Newswire)
• 'The Truth About Cannabis': Inside New Pro-Pot Web Doc (Rolling Stone)
• Cannabis Cultivation Will Be A Race To The Bottom (Forbes)
• 'Women of Cannabis' Cultivate Ideas and Relationships (Seven Days)
• Cannabis and psychosis: what is the link and who is at risk? (The Conversation)
• Marijuana moguls optimistic about legalisation of recreational cannabis in Australia (ABC)
• Can Cannabis Make You Sick? (The Stranger)
• Is This The Most Expensive Marijuana In The World? (Forbes)
• Could 'one puff' of cannabis ease depression? (Medical News Today)
• Understanding Terpenes: Linalool (Cannabis Now)
• Harvard Medical Students Say Schools Need to Teach More About Medical Marijuana (Civilized)

LSD

• LSD Provokes Synesthetic Hallucinations in a Congenitally Blind Man (Psychedelic Times)
• Couple drop LSD to see if it makes them better at assembling IKEA furniture (Metro)
• Psychedelic Cyclists – An Irishman’s Diary about Albert Hofmann and Flann O’Brien (The Irish Times)
• St. Pete man on LSD punches 13-year-old girl in face, knocks her out (WFLA)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• The Man Who Treated His OCD with Magic Mushrooms (VICE)
• Inside Jamaica's magic mushroom retreat for women (The Independent)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Can MDMA Treat Alcoholism? Scientists Begin First Clinical Trials (Newsweek)
• MDMA research meets Australian antipathy (Cosmos Magazine)
• An Amsterdam house had so much MDMA discovered inside it's been locked down (Mixmag)
• Teen dies after taking 'Netflix and Chill' ecstasy pills (New York Post)
• Melissa McCarthy Snorts Ecstasy With Sex Crazed Puppets in ‘Happytime Murders’ (Variety)
• Gardaí fear 'bad batch' of MDMA may have killed teen (17) (Independent.ie)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Canadian Lynched by Mob After Being Accused of Killing Shaman at Ayahuasca Retreat (VICE)
• UN condemns murder of Peruvian indigenous leader (Andina)
• A Judge Has Ordered Arrests Over Killing of a Canadian in the Peruvian Amazon (TIME)
• Effects and risks of ayahuasca, the hallucinogen sought after by Canadians travelling to the Amazon (CBC)
• How Did Avicii Die? Details On The Artist's Sudden Passing (EDM Sauce)
• Doctor sees healing power in psychedelic plant as Peru investigates deaths (The Reminder)

Iboga/Ibogaine

• Why opioid addicts desperate to quit are turning to this risky treatment (New York Post)

Dissociatives

• Ketamine Nasal Spray May Help Reduce Depression Symptoms, Study Says (The Fix)
• Oral ketamine does not ease cancer-related neuropathic pain (medwireNews)
• Beneficial effects of ketamine in a chronic pain state with allodynia, possibly due to central sensitization (Science Direct)
• Document: Hagerstown man smoked PCP before shooting woman (Herald-Mail Media)
• Boyfriend of Morgan Freeman's slain kin knew what he was doing despite being in PCP haze (New York Daily News)

Opiates/Opioids

• New York Could Open the First Safe Injection Site in the US (The Nation)
• asha bandele: Prince could still be alive today if America didn’t shame people for using drugs (Mic)
• Google uses its search skills to help fight opioid addiction (Engadget)
• The New York Times Suggests Opioids Should Be Reserved for Terminal Patients (Reason)
• Will Getting Tough on Dealers Curb the Opioid Crisis? (The Crime Report)

Kratom

• Leading Scientists Say Salmonella Outbreak Tied To Kratom May Be Side-Effect Of FDA Crackdown & Underscores Need For Regulation … Not A Ban (PR Newswire)
• Kratom Products Recalled for Risk of Salmonella (Coherent Chronicle)
• Kratom Wars: FDA, Proponents Square Off on Controversial Opioid-Like Plant (Pain Medicine News)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Lessons from Portugal: The Case for Drug Policy Reform (Beckley Foundation)
• Becoming a Psychedelic Researcher: Alan Kooi Davis (Psymposia)
• Are psychedelics the answer to depression and addiction? (Salon)
• Not all drug dealers are the same – it’s time to ditch outdated stereotypes (The Conversation)
• Harm Reduction: More than just clean needles (Julian Buchanan)
• A Survey Shows The Most Used Drugs At Music Festivals: Here’s What We Learned (Dance Music Northwest)
• Antidepressants and Withdrawal: Readers Tell Their Stories (Mad in America)
• A revolution in teen drug education (New York Daily News)
• Police chiefs studying decriminalizing drugs as possible solution to opioid crisis (CBC)
• Just Because You Can't Stop Taking Antidepressants Doesn't Mean You're Addicted (VICE)
• Pill-testing trial approved for Groovin the Moo festival in Canberra (ABC)
• Why we should test drugs for safety (Virgin)
• The Best Drug Documentaries On Netflix Right Now (HotNewHipHop)
• 'Archaic and harmful': report condemns strict handling of student drug takers (The Guardian)
• Psychedelic Scholar Robert Forte Talks Conspiracy Theories and Consciousness (Santa Barbara Independent)
• New Research Provides First Peek at Ancient Mesopotamian Drug Use (Ancient Origins)

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 - 12.9.17

Image by Vitamin, 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 concept of a speaker that listens to and interacts with its users is still fairly new, but they are becoming more common with each passing day. However, there are still reasons why you should not buy a smart speaker. It seems odd to me that we as a society are reaching a point where, just like in Orwell's 1984, being constantly surveilled by technology is becoming commonplace. Even if you trust companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft to not intentionally spy on you via smart speakers, smart cameras, and the like, these devices are certainly hackable and susceptible to bugs, which means that the data they obtain may eventually get into the wrong hands. Maybe I'm alone here, but I don't want every snippet of the private conversations I have in my home to be shared with others just because of vulnerabilities in these "smart" devices (and yes, that includes smartphones!). I'd suggest reading through this article carefully because it's worth considering whether you are willing to put your privacy (and the privacy of others in your home) on the line for the sake of convenience.

2. Although I went to a Chess Club meeting or two in middle school, I wouldn't consider myself to be a very strong chess player. However, I do enjoy playing the game from time to time and find it to be an interesting—albeit endlessly intimidating—game of skill. Now it turns out that a new artificial intelligence known as AlphaZero has handily beaten the previously highest-rated Chess engine known as Stockfish. Perhaps most impressively, AlphaZero taught itself how to play in just four hours. At the end of the day, the final tally (out of 100 matches) was 28 wins, 72 draws, and zero losses. In other words, the chess engine that human chess players have been using to train has been bested so badly by this new AI that it didn't even win a single game—against an opponent that didn't even know how to play chess four hour prior to the first match.

3. Modern burials (at least in the Western world) typically involve toxic chemicals that are used to preserve the human body as well as coffin materials that do not break down quickly, harming the Earth and causing trouble for the surrounding environment and wildlife. A new burial technique involves a mushroom spore death suit that detoxifies the corpse and turns them into nutrients for plants. It's an innovative concept and one that may help preserve future life on Earth.

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

Weekend Thoughts - 7.29.17

Image by Greg Walters, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. Going through airport security is already annoying, and soon the TSA will separately screen all devices larger than a mobile phone for those flying within the country. The program has already been piloted at 10 airports and is now being implemented nationwide. Devices like laptops, tablets, e-readers, and handhold game consoles will fall under this category, but the TSA has not defined what "larger than a cell phone" actually means. As mobile phones increase in size, what will the TSA consider to be the upper limit on size? Although the definition is still not clearly defined, you can still expect to see this extra security theater in your local airport within the next few weeks and months.

2. Imagine Nietzsche, Epictetus, Buddha, and Schopenhauer playing a game of Sorry!, and you may arrive at the same conclusion as this comic. Remember: the roll of the dice you receive is not what's important; it's how you choose to react to it. In your own approach to life, which character do you most closely resemble?

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

Weekend Thoughts - 7.1.17

Image by Jody McIntrye, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. This week marked the 10-Year Anniversary of the release of the original iPhone, and John Gruber at Daring Fireball wrote a short piece that explored some of the various ways that the iPhone changed the world. Among some of the things to consider:

"The iPhone’s potential was obviously deep, but it was so deep as to be unfathomable at the time. The original iPhone didn’t even shoot video; today the iPhone and iPhone-like Android phones have largely killed the point-and-shoot camera industry. It has obviated portable music players, audio recorders, paper maps, GPS devices, flashlights, walkie-talkies, music radio (with streaming music), talk radio (with podcasts), and more. Ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft wouldn’t even make sense pre-iPhone. Social media is mobile-first, and in some cases mobile-only."

As usual, it's an extremely well-written piece and I'd like to suggest that we take some time to think about all of the things that the iPhone (and other smartphones) catalyzed over the past decade that are taken for granted nowadays.

2. Speaking of Uber and Lyft, the surge pricing model that those companies employ may start coming to your local parking meters soon. Imagine pulling up to a parking space on a Saturday night—the same one that you parked in earlier the same day for one dollar—and being charged eight dollars instead. It definitely seems like this is plausible and I wouldn't be surprised to experience this in the next few years.

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

Weekend Thoughts - 6.6.15

Image by Holger Ejleby, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. A great article from iRunFar that focuses on the health benefits and overall importance of ensuring that runners get sufficient sleep each night. Sleep is something that I really need to focus on, myself. This article was a great reminder that it is extremely important.

2. A fairly thorough guide for referring to transgender people, which is timely due to Caitlyn Jenner's announcement of her gender transition that was published this week. This certainly isn't one of my most knowledgeable topics, but I've been interested with the language that is used in the trans community for a few years after listening to several episodes on the C-Realm Podcast that cover this topic.

3. Although I'm getting to this one a week late, the United States Justice Department has indicted 14 FIFA soccer officials with accusations of rampant corruption. It really makes you wonder if the matches themselves are fixed, as well...

4. Jay Michaelson at The Daily Beast published a fairly decent piece titled "Can Ecstasy Replace Xanax?" that discusses the potential for using MDMA as a replacement for common pharmaceuticals used to treat health issues ranging from PTSD to social anxiety. A good overview for someone unfamiliar with the topic, although I was surprised that it didn't mention the hard work that MAPS has been doing with regard to MDMA research.

5. An internal investigation has reported that undercover investigators were able so smuggle mock explosives or banned weapons through TSA checkpoints 95% of the time. That means the organization is only catching 5% of truly dangerous items at the security gate. My opinion? Shut them down. They're not effective at their jobs, so why should we still be dealing with them?

6. A somewhat provocatively-titled article on The Atlantic, "Why Pot Smokers Are Skinnier" examines the results from research at the University of Nebraska that analyzed participants' fasting insulin and glucose levels, insulin resistance, cholesterol levels, and waist circumference. The results show that current cannabis users sported significantly smaller waist circumference than participants who had never used cannabis and had higher levels of HDL, also known as "good cholesterol". Although it's not exactly clear how this happens, the findings suggest that cannabis may improve insulin control and regulating body weight, which may explain why cannabis users have a lower incidence of diabetes.

7. From Re/code, AT&T Says Subsidized Phones, 2-Year Contracts Going Away. From the article: "Like unlimited data plans, the two-year contract and the subsidized cellphone are on the endangered species list." If this signals an overall trend in the mobile phone industry, we may be paying much higher prices up-front for our devices, but less money in the long run.

8. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) published an article detailing its opinion about the passing of the USA Freedom Act that is worth a read.

9. An interesting bit of research on disinfo about how plants know when they are being eaten. As a member of the vegan community, one of the things that frustrates me is when fellow vegans get on their high horses about how morally superior eating plants is over an omnivorous diet. I'm glad that research is being done to determine how much harm we are causing to the plants that we consume. My personal take is that all life must consume other forms of living (or dead) matter to survive, and while it is nice to be in a camp that strives to minimize the harm that we are causing to other life forms, I find it foolish to think that eating a vegan diet is completely harmless.

10. I also really enjoyed this article from disinfo about how pseudoscience and conspiracy theories are not victimless crimes against science. It served as a good reminder for myself to judge the sources of my information. There is an explanation of the efficacy of the scientific method, and I really enjoyed this quote: "Science might not be perfect but it is the best tool mankind has developed to understand itself and the world around us."

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