This Week in Psychedelics - 4.6.18

Cannabis

• Congress May Finally Be Ready to Legalize Hemp (Reason)
• Albuquerque City Council Votes to Decriminalize Marijuana Possession (Drug Policy Alliance)
• This State Could Allow Non-Residents Access to Medical Marijuana (High Times)
• CBD is cannabis that won't get you high. So why are so many people using it? (Chicago Tribune)
• Marijuana Dispensaries Are Keeping Cannabis Out Of The Hands Of Minors In Oregon (Forbes)
• Connecticut Legislative Committee Passes Recreational Marijuana Bill (Hartford Courant)
• California Today: In Oakland, a Clash of Artists vs. Big Cannabis (The New York Times)
• Terminal cancer patient claims cannabis has shrunk her brain tumours (Wales Online)
• Cannabinoids 101: What is CBG? (Real Stoned Times)
• Studies: Marijuana Legalization Associated With Reduced Opioid Prescribing Trends (NORML)
• Is it worth investing in Israel’s medical cannabis industry in view of the regulatory fluctuations? (The Times of Israel)
• Cannabis Investors Could Reap A Pot Of Gold, Says Analyst (Forbes)
• New Jersey cops search a man's anus, genitals for weed during traffic stop. See for yourself. (APP)
• Weedmaps: why 'Yelp for pot' is under fire for its Silicon Valley attitude (The Guardian)
• Most support Girl Scout’s right to sell cookies outside of legal marijuana dispensary (YouGov)
• Cheech and Chong get truthy about weed, LSD use 40 years after 'Up in Smoke' (Indianapolis Star)
• Binge Drinking Rates Drop In States With Recreational Marijuana Laws (Forbes)
• Australian cannabis companies are now allowed to export seeds, oil and raw material (Business Insider)
• Paediatricians call for medical marijuana trials for kids with autism, ADHD (The Advertiser)
• Hemp will save us from fire, cockroaches, heat, and microplastics (The Outline)
• Trio taking $5m bet on medicinal cannabis industry that doesn't exist yet (NZ Herald)
• Utah: Proponents Of 2018 Medical Cannabis Ballot Measure Achieve Signature Milestone (NORML)
• Canada’s Proposed Cannabis Packaging Regulations Could Help Move Entire Industry Forward (Cannabis Business Times)
• New Orleans: Marijuana Possession Arrests Plunge Following Enactment Of Decriminalization Ordinance (NORML)
• The Bumpy Road to Becoming the Martha Stewart of Cannabis (Entrepreneur)
• Plunging pot prices force black market growers into real jobs (Rooster)
• How To Treat Psoriasis With Cannabis (High Times)
• NORML Chapters Continue State-Level Push for Marijuana Law Reforms (NORML)
• Six arrested after £1.3m in cannabis seized in Northern Ireland (The Guardian)
• Lamar Odom Getting Into the Cannabis Business, Says Marijuana Helped With Rehab (The Blast)
• Tinley Produces Initial Batch of Cannabis Margarita and Provides Operational Update (GlobeNewswire)
• WeHo Rolls Out Licenses For Cannabis Consumption Lounges (Eater LA)
• Canadian Cannabis Producer Stocks Rise 0.8% in March (New Cannabis Ventures)
• State cannabis regulators to begin accepting commercial bids (WCVB)
• Ancillary carriers shy away from cannabis industry for fear of federal regulatory violations (Employee Benefit Advisor)
• State cannabis services to move into Times-Standard building (Eureka Times Standard)

LSD

• What Happens When a Blind Person Takes LSD? (Discover)
• Is LSD the new middle-class dinner party treat? (The Times)
• Forthcoming Microdosing Study Will Investigate How LSD Affects Insight (Psychedelic Times)
• Anxiety and Acid Flashbacks Made '2001: A Space Odyssey' the Masterpiece for Me (Thrillist)
• LSD, Sade, and more: Kacey Musgraves on the inspirations behind Golden Hour (Entertainment Weekly)
• Omaha Police: 12-year-old hospitalized after admitting to using LSD (KETV)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• Are psychedelic mushrooms the next legalization frontier after cannabis? (Herb)
• A Beaverton Couple Is About to Gather Signatures to Legalize the Therapeutic Use of Psychedelic Mushrooms in Oregon (Willamette Week)
• Individual Experiences in Four Cancer Patients Following Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy (Frontiers)
• Here’s How Magic Mushrooms Probably Became Psychedelic (Seeker)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• The Long Strange Trip to Turn 'Molly' Into a $100 Million Pharmaceutical Medicine (Inc.)
• The 'war on drugs' is not working, says mum whose son died after taking ecstasy (ITV News)
• Instagram model and ex-boyfriend busted over 'MDMA drug-trafficking ring' (Mirror)
• Essex University student collapsed and died at uni party after taking MDMA (The Sun)

Ayahuasca/DMT

• Scientists seeking people with 'encounters' while taking DMT (Spectrum News)
• Ayahuasca, Human Suffering and Our US veterans (Thrive Global)
• Scary, hot new drug called 'spirit molecule' (WND)

Dissociatives

• What Does It All Ketamine? (Discover)
• Man allegedly bit deputy after running away while presumably high on PCP (KVUE)

Opiates/Opioids

• Addiction Rehab is Broken. Can Technology Help? (WIRED)
• The Surgeon General Urges More Americans to Carry Overdose Antidote to Prevent Opioid Deaths (TIME)
• Tackling The Opioid Epidemic: Lessons From Portugal (NPR)
• FDA wants Facebook and Twitter to crack down on opioid sales (Engadget)
• People with Chronic Pain Will Protest the CDC’s Crackdown on Opioids (Tonic)
• Patients in 6 States to Get Free Overdose Antidote (U.S. News & World Report)
• Two Men Convicted in Multi-million Dollar Heroin Smuggling Ring Tied to the Taliban (Newsweek)
• Battling Heroin With A Hearse And A Prayer (NPR)

Kratom

• FDA Orders Mandatory Recall of Kratom-Based Herbal Supplements Over Salmonella Outbreak (TIME)
• Top 10 Reasons Why Kratom Should Be Legalized (Kratom Guides)
• Reader: Kratom Saved My Life From a Heroin Addiction (Westword)

Kava

• This murky tea is nature's Xanax (New York Post)
• Dumpling Duo: We put the the kava tea hype to the test (Daily Titan)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Why the fuck is fentanyl showing up in LSD, meth and cocaine? (Rooster)
• What It's Like for an American Drug Reformer to Go to a Country with a Compassionate System (AlterNet)
• Author Michael Pollan Is Coming to Portland to Speak About Psychedelics (Willamette Week)
• The Hairy Problem With Drug Testing (WIRED)
• Public housing ban on people with drug records likely to do more harm than good, research tell us (The Conversation)
• Former undercover officer on why police should 'declare peace' in war on drugs (ITV News)
• Drug use can have social benefits, and acknowledging this could improve rehabilitation (The Conversation)
• Drug checking: a harm reduction strategy (Alcohol and Drug Foundation)
• Psychedelic Chaos by Rita Kočárová - Beyond Psychedelics (Psychedelic Press)
• Does MoMA Downplay the Influence of Psychedelic Drugs on Adrian Piper’s Work? (Observer)
• We now call ‘bad trips’ ‘challenging experiences’. Here’s why that’s misguided. (Psymposia)
• ACT government, Groovin The Moo promoter in stalemate over pill testing (The Canberra Times)

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 - 10.15.16

Image by bernissimo, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

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

1. Although for many years I strongly preferred physical books to eBook, as a recent Kindle adopter, I've really been enjoying the experience of reading eBooks. New data has come out showing that eBooks will most likely surpass print books in the U.S. over the next couple of years. In fact, while the print industry is currently worth $4.3 million more than the eBook industry, by 2018 the eBook industry is expected to be worth $800,000 more than the print industry. I've been voting in favor of print books in an annually-conducted poll asking whether readers will ever buy mostly eBooks for the past few years, but this will be the first year that I vote in favor of eBooks. Judging by the general trend, it looks like I may not be alone.

2. This article about how police surveillance is being used to target activists starts with a terrifying quote: "It goes without saying that speaking out against police violence or government overreach shouldn’t land you in a surveillance database. But it can, and it does." It turns out that police departments are using a social media surveillance tool named MediaSonar to identify people who are posting hash tags such as #BlackLivesMatter, #DontShoot, #ImUnarmed, #PoliceBrutality, and #ItsTimeForChange. Even more frightening, it seems that there have been no reports of public notice, debate, community input, lawmaker vote, or publicly-presented policies from the police on how they plan to use this technology. The dynamic that makes law enforcement's utilization of social media surveillance tools extremely ironic is that some nonviolent protesters are being labelled as potential threats and receiving violent treatment in response to advocating for peace.

3. When Playboy asked Stanley Kubrick about why life is worth living during a 1968 interview, the interviewer probably wasn't expecting this introspective off-the-cuff existential response regarding the meaninglessness of human life. The primary nut of Kubrick's answer is that since life is meaningless, we are possessed with the privilege and responsibility of creating our own meaning. I especially appreciate this quote that caps off his answer: "The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent; but if we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death — however mutable man may be able to make them — our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfillment. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light."

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