This Week in Psychedelics - 1.29.21

Cannabis

• Arizona: Adult Use Marijuana Sales Begin (NORML)

• 2 Years After Legalizing Cannabis, Has Canada Kept Its Promises? (The New York Times)

• Alabama Could Legalize Medical Marijuana Under Bill Filed By Republican Senator (Marijuana Moment)

• CBD Destroys Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Such as Gonorrhea, Study Finds (VICE)

• Chuck Schumer Lists Marijuana As A Priority In First Post-Election Cannabis Comments (Marijuana Moment)

• Anti-Marijuana Lawmaker Files Legalization Bill In North Dakota To Avoid Activist Ballot Measure (Marijuana Moment)

• Areas With More Marijuana Dispensaries Have Fewer Opioid Deaths, New Study Finds (Marijuana Moment)

• Opioid Prescriptions Decline in Canada Following Enactment of Adult-Use Marijuana Legalization (NORML)

• Transition From Trump To Biden Impacts Federal Hemp And CBD Rules (Marijuana Moment)

• Michigan testing labs sound warning about contaminated cannabis (Marijuana Business Daily)

• Bill To Allow Medical Marijuana Use At Hotels And Airbnbs Filed In Missouri (Marijuana Moment)

LSD

• LSD breakthrough could enable treatment for autism and social anxiety, research finds (Sky News)

Magic Mushrooms

• Hawaii Could Legalize Psychedelic Mushroom Therapy Under New Senate Bill (Marijuana Moment)

• Kevin Matthews Wants to Decriminalize Mushrooms Across Colorado (Westword)

• Port Townsend woman seeks decriminalization of ‘magic’ mushrooms (Peninsula Daily News)

• UK Regulators Approve Beckley Psytech Study of Psilocybin for Debilitating Headache Condition (Psilocybin Alpha)

• Psyence Group Completes First Cultivation Cycle of Medical Psilocybin Mushrooms at Its Commercially Licensed Facility (Psilocybin Alpha)

• Mydecine Innovations Group Sponsors Study on Neuron Level Response to Psilocybin at University of Maryland (Psilocybin Alpha)

• MagicMed Files For Psilocybin Derived Patents (Green Market Report)

• Is America Ready For Psilocybin Mushroom Retreats? (Benzinga)

MDMA

• Will Australia legalise ecstasy and magic mushrooms to treat mental illness? Here’s why it’s still too soon (The Conversation)

DMT

• Having Sex on DMT: What You Need to Know (Reality Sandwich)

Ayahuasca

• Ayahuasca, Severe Illnesses, and the Mystery of Death (Chacruna)

• Woman, 29, killed herself after ‘suffering psychosis from taking hallucinogenic yoga drugs on spiritual retreat’ (The Sun)

• Ayahuasca’s Role in the Entourage Effect and Depression (Psychedelic Science Review)

• An Ayahuasca Retreat Brings Powerful Changes (Healing Maps)

Peyote

• Let’s Talk About Hikuri: A Peyote Conservation Project by the Wixárika (Chacruna)

Iboga

• How the psychedelic Ibogaine helped a retired Vancouver firefighter treat his depression (The GrowthOp)

Novel Psychoactive Substances

• BetterLife Engages Eurofins Discovery for its Next Generation Psychedelics 2-bromo-LSD FDA IND-enabling Pharmacology Studies (Psilocybin Alpha)

Ketamine

• Champignon Brands’ Canadian Rapid Treatment Center of Excellence Opens First Community-Based Centre in Ottawa to Provide Ketamine Treatment for Adults With Depression (Psilocybin Alpha)

• Ketamine to treat depression and addiction at UK’s first medical psychedelic psychotherapy clinic (iNews)

• Users of ketamine at significantly higher risk of suicide: study (Focus Taiwan)

• A Wall Street banker who made millions in the dot com boom dropped it all to become a 'psychedelics concierge' to the stars. Now he wants everyone to have access to ketamine. (Insider)

• How to Know if Ketamine Therapy Is Right for You (Santa Clarita Magazine)

DXM

• Low-dose dextromethorphan for the treatment of fibromyalgia pain: results from a longitudinal, single-blind, placebo-controlled pilot trial (MD Linx)

Miscellaneous

• New Psychedelics Reform Group Sets Sights On Congress As Movement Builds (Marijuana Moment)

• Atlanta: Mayor Takes Executive Action Abolishing Pre-Employment Drug Screens for Many Public Employees (NORML)

• The Latest on Psychedelics for Treating Dementia (Psychedelic Science Review)

• The world's first psychedelic ETF debuts (Yahoo! Finance)

• Field Trip Health Ltd. Announces Opening of Field Trip Health Center in Atlanta, GA, as it Continues Expansion in the US (Psilocybin Alpha)

• The Cop Who Busted the Beatles Now Wants to Legalise All Drugs (VICE)

• When The Giants Of Indian Classical Music Collided With Psychedelic San Francisco (NPR)

• Mydecine Innovations Group Files Application to list to the NASDAQ (Psilocybin Alpha)

• Biden Ending Federal Contracts With Private Prisons; Private ICE Detention Continues (Filter)

• 5 Athletes Who Healed With Psychedelic Therapy (Benzinga)

• “A ‘Dose’ of Radical Christianity”: Psychedelic Therapy with Dr. Florence Nichols (Chacruna)

• atai Life Sciences to Collaborate with Massachusetts General Hospital to Accelerate Discovery of Mechanisms Underlying Therapeutic Effects of Psychedelic Agents (Psilocybin Alpha)

• Ohio Students Launch Harm Reduction and “Bad Batch” Alerts App (Filter)

• Taking Psychedelics When You’re Not Feeling Good (Maps of the Mind)

• In Brazil, Bolsonaro Continues to Pump Blood to the War on Drugs (TalkingDrugs)

• Inside The Underground World Of Online Psychedelic Support Groups (Benzinga)

• MINDCURE Announces Pre- and Post-Psychedelic Therapy Adaptogen Supplements, Defining New Product Category (Psilocybin Alpha)

• How to Start a Career in the Field of Psychedelic Integration (The Third Wave)

• Field Trip Health Ltd. Common Shares to Trade on the OTCQX Best Market (Psilocybin Alpha)

• Mental Health Issues That Don't Mix Well With Psychedelics (Healing Maps)

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 catalog how psychedelics are presented by the mass media, which includes everything from the latest scientific research to misinformation.

How Psychedelics Transformed Me Into A Better Person

I first encountered psychedelics in 2006. At that time, I was a much different person than I am today. Several issues had plagued my life for a long time, yet I remained unaware of them, caught up in the day-to-day dramas of life.

But things have changed a lot since then, and psychedelics played a significant role in that process.

In this blog post I will share some of the ways that psychedelics helped me become a better person. I hope that sharing my story will help reduce the stigma surrounding these special medicines and show that they are capable of helping with many different things.

Improving My Mental Health

One of the biggest ways that psychedelics helped me was by alleviating a variety of mental health issues that I used to experience on a daily basis. For pretty much my whole life I suffered from depression and anxiety. There were times when I was unable to do anything, paralyzed by fear and hopelessness. It was miserable, to say the least.

I didn’t have much patience and tended to get angry and fly off the handle over the dumbest things. I wouldn’t say that I had a short fuse, but I definitely didn’t have much control over my anger in the past. Working with psychedelics helped me develop more patience and less anger.

While psychedelics haven’t completely eliminated my dark thoughts, they did help me learn how to love and embrace them instead of trying to run from them.

Quitting Bad Habits and Creating Better Ones

Another major benefit that I’ve experienced from working with psychedelics has been stopping the bad habits that weren’t serving me and creating new ones that actually do.

I’ve intentionally used psychedelics to help me work through addictions (tobacco, alcohol, and food) and to stop interrupting other people while they’re speaking.

In place of those bad habits I have created new ones—a daily yoga and meditation practice, weekly journaling sessions, eating a healthy diet, and just taking care of myself better in general. Although I put in a ton of work to get to the place I am now, I have psychedelics to thank for helping me get here.

Increasing My Appreciation for Nature

When I was younger I was always perplexed by people who found joy in simple things like sunsets, flowers, and walks on the beach. As a nerdy kid who just wanted to stay inside and play video games, I just didn’t get it.

It took just one psilocybin mushroom trip to change all that forever.

An hour after eating some mushrooms I found myself absolutely fascinated with the natural environment I was in. I remember being completely entranced by the birds chirping in the trees nearby, bugs whizzing by me, and the clouds floating through the sky.

This recognition of the natural environment has continued to this day. Psychedelics helped me develop an appreciation for nature that was missing prior to my experience with them, and I am eternally grateful to them for that.

Finding Joy in Life

Let’s not forget one of the most important aspects of psychedelics, one that is rarely mentioned due to the effort to legitimize them for the mainstream public—they can be fun too! A lot of folks in the movement try to downplay the recreational side of psychedelics but I think this is a huge mistake.

Just because psychedelics can be enjoyable doesn’t discount their potential for healing, spirituality, or productivity.

The beginning of the word “recreation” is “recreate”, and I have found that recreating myself through my recreational psychedelic trips has been just as transformational for me as the experiences that were intentionally created for healing or spiritual purposes.

And Tons of Other Things

Psychedelics have helped me with so many other things too. Here are some of the ones that made a big impact on my life:

• Increased openness (especially with regard to spirituality)

• More tolerance and acceptance

• Enhanced creativity and ability to enter flow states

• Increased compassion for myself and others

• Understanding better how my actions affect others

• An ability to see the bigger picture

• Highlighting the people I should (and shouldn’t) keep in my life

• Better life satisfaction

• Improved social relationships

• Increased confidence

• Better at dealing with awkward or uncomfortable situations

• Showed me what’s possible (although I still had to do the work to achieve it)

• Helped me find my passions

• Assisted with setting goals

• Learning how to surrender

• Keep my mind young and playful

After spending the last 14 years working with psychedelics, I think it’s fair to say that I’ve become a much better person than I used to be. I owe them a huge debt of gratitude, and I’m proud to be part of the growing movement to show the mainstream public that they have the potential to be agents of positive change in a world that is desperately needing just that.

#ThankYouPlantMedicine

Image by johnhain, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Book Review - MindApps

With an increasing amount of psychedelic research being published each and every year, those of us with an interest in consciousness have found ourselves needing a more specific framework and language that could be leveraged to analyze and discuss altered states of consciousness. MindApps: Multistate Theory and Tools for Mind Design, written by Dr. Thomas B. Roberts and published earlier this year, presents a so-called “multistate theory” as a potential framework to fill that need.

Although a lot of energy being pumped into psychedelic research is focused on finding ways to heal the sick, another equally viable application for these drugs is the betterment of well people and benefit optimization/maximization. After all, why should these powerful plants and chemicals be relegated to only those members of society who qualify as having a condition or disorder? In MindApps, Roberts explores this concept and many others in a unique, innovative, and intriguing manner.

In case you aren’t already familiar with the author, Thomas Roberts is professor emeritus at Northern Illinois University, where he’s been teaching the world’s first catalog-listed psychedelics course since 1981. He is a founding member of the Multidiscipinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a former visiting scientist at Johns Hopkins, editor of Spiritual Growth with Entheogens, and the author of the books Psychedelic Horizons and The Psychedelic Future of the Mind.

After a brief foreword by James Fadiman (author of The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide), Roberts opens the book with a description of his first psychedelic trip, which took place at Lake Tahoe in February 1970. As is the case for many psychonauts, Roberts’ first psychedelic experience had an enormous impact. While it wasn’t his first introduction to psychedelic ideas per se, it did send him further down the psychedelic path, which eventually led to the writing of this revolutionary book.

For those of you who don’t already know, the term “psychedelic” means “mind-manifesting,” and Roberts’ mind has graciously manifested several ideas that are introduced in the book: ideagens, mindapps, multistate theory, mind design, and mindapp artificial intelligences.

Roberts proposes the concept of the “singlestate fallacy,” which is the “hegemonic assumption that all worthwhile thinking takes place only in our ordinary, default mindbody state,” or what most people refer to as our normal waking state of consciousness. This fallacy has as its opposite a framework that Roberts has coined as “multistate theory,” a collection of many different kinds of “mindapps” into one single large, inclusive group.

You might be wondering, “What are mindapps?” Roberts explains them by using a clever analogy: “apps are to devices as mindapps are to minds.” In other words, you can “install” them on your mind for a variety of reasons and benefits. Mindapps include things like exercise routines, meditation, psychoactive plants and chemicals, yoga and the martial arts, sleep and sleep deprivation, chanting, dream work, breathing techniques, and many more like them.

MindApps explores an innovative concept dubbed “MindappAI,” which entails synthesizing new mindbody states and developing them to their highest potential. This will be a task for psychologists and other so-called “mind designers” to tackle, whipping up fresh recipes involving two, three, or even more mindapp ingredients, creating new mind-body states, relating their characteristics, and researching and perfecting them through trial and error.

Mindapps have a myriad of possible use cases—Roberts argues that they can be used to enhance the sciences and save the humanities, and that a newly emerging field of psychedelic philosophy will need to make use of them in order to reach it’s full potential.

The book closes with several points of justification for qualifying multistate theory as a new paradigm, and I have to say that I found Roberts’ argument to be quite persuasive.

But wait, there’s more! Three appendices follow the final chapter, exploring some very intriguing topics—a syllabus for a psychedelic class, how psychedelics can use the corporate system to spread around the globe, and the story of how Roberts created the LSD holiday known as Bicycle Day. These appendices are very thought-provoking and I’m interested to see what a world with widespread psychedelic college classes and psychedelic corporatism might end up looking like.

I found MindApps: Multistate Theory and Tools for Mind Design to be an excellent book. This is the first of Roberts’ books that I’ve read, and I was so impressed with it that I am looking forward to checking out his other works. If you have any interest in psychedelics, consciousness, mind design, or any of the other topics mentioned in this review then you will definitely like this book.

Click here to buy the book.

Disclaimer: Think Wilder is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website.

In addition, the author provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. However, this is not a sponsored post—all thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.

This Week in Psychoactives - 8.23.19

CANNABIS

• Federal Data Shows Youth Marijuana Use Isn’t Increasing Under Legalization (Marijuana Moment)

• Illicit Cannabis Vape Carts Hospitalized 7 in California, Doctors Say (Leafly)

• Maryland Court Rules Marijuana Odor Not Enough To Search A Person (NPR)

• Step Aside, Cannabinoids: Weed’s Flavonoids Fight Cancer, Too (MERRY JANE)

• Marijuana Flower Offers More Pain Relief Than Other Cannabis Products, Study Finds (Marijuana Moment)

• Texas Might Have Accidentally Decriminalized Marijuana (GQ)

• Bernie Sanders Calls For Legalization Of Marijuana And Safe Injection Sites (Marijuana Moment)

• Canadian Men Are Twice as Likely to Use Cannabis as Women, Survey Says (MERRY JANE)

• New Industry-Backed Marijuana Legalization Measure Filed In Florida (Marijuana Moment)

• The FBI Just Launched a Corruption Probe Into the Weed Industry (MERRY JANE)

• No eating, no drinking, and now, no marijuana before surgery, doctors say (The Boston Globe)

• Oklahoma Bans Employment Discrimination Against Marijuana Patients (MERRY JANE)

• Netflix Curbs Tobacco Use Onscreen, But Not Pot. What's Up With That? (NPR)

• Elizabeth Warren’s Criminal Justice Plan Involves Legalizing Marijuana And Safe Injection Sites (Marijuana Moment)

• State shuts down Walled Lake marijuana testing lab for fudging test results (Detroit Free Press)

• Canadian woman faces lifetime ban after getting caught with CBD oil at U.S. border (CBC)

• Credit Unions Can Bank Hemp Businesses, Federal Agency Announces (Marijuana Moment)

• Jacksonville lawyer who claimed marijuana was legal must pay arrested clients $370k (The Florida Times-Union)

• Fatty meal might affect how you absorb CBD (UPI)

• North Carolina House OKs Ban on Smokable Hemp (Leafly)

• Oregon Has Way Too Much Legal Weed. This Is Where It's Going (VICE)

• Colorado man who says he was delivering hemp charged in SD with selling marijuana (Rapid City Journal)

• Nearly every single person arrested for weed in NYC this year was black or Latinx (Queens Daily Eagle)

• CBD Infused Food Products Ruled Illegal in Washington State (Sapling)

• ‘The system is swamped.’ Canada can’t keep up with requests to study cannabis (Science Magazine)

• Marijuana Can Boost Risks of Drinking Alcohol (Psych Central)

• Canadians continue to buy cannabis illegally (Quartz)

• Contrary to widespread belief, cannabis addiction is possible. Here’s what it’s like (Global News)

LSD

• Tripping on Broadway: A New Musical Explores LSD Use by Cary Grant and More (The New York Times)

• How Peter Fonda’s LSD trip with the Beatles produced a classic John Lennon lyric (Los Angeles Times)

MAGIC MUSHROOMS

• Psilocybin-assisted mindfulness meditation linked to brain connectivity changes and persisting positive effects (PsyPost)

• Canada Now Has Psilocybin Dispensaries (DoubleBlind)

• Why Do Magic Mushrooms Cause “The Yawns”? (Psychedelic Science Review)

• The trippier side of fungus (Telluride Daily Planet)

MDMA

• MDMA treatment for alcoholism reduces relapse, study suggests (The Guardian)

• Man dies from 'severe reaction' to MDMA days after the authorities warned of a strong batch of the drug circulating in Jersey (Jersey Evening Post)

• Woman fell off Cornwall cliff and died after quitting social media and taking MDMA pills (Cornwall Live)

• Girl, one, found CHEWING on MDMA capsule she found in dumped in a playground (The Sun)

DMT

• How to Breakthrough on DMT (Greencamp)

AYAHUASCA

• The Ayahuasca Privilege (DoubleBlind)

SALVIA DIVINORUM

• Salvia and “The Wheel” (The Psychedelic Scientist)

SYNTHETIC CANNABINOIDS

• Dangerous Synthetic Cannabinoids Found in Liquid Claiming to be CBD (Cannabis Now)

• Spice crisis deepens as 9 kids collapse after taking zombie drug and deaths surge (Mirror)

NITROUS OXIDE

• Mum died after self-medicating with 100 canisters of laughing gas (Metro)

KETAMINE

• A single ketamine infusion combined with mindfulness-based therapy shows promise in treatment of cocaine addiction (PsyPost)

• Ketamine may not be an actual antidepressant, but may decrease the burden of symptoms (Medical Xpress)

• Boise organization researches ketamine use to treat depression (The Arbiter)

• Donald Trump Thinks He Can Stop Veteran Suicides With Ketamine (Spin)

OPIOIDS

• Wide distribution of Naloxone effective in preventing opioid-related deaths (Medical Xpress)

• ‘Saved from a horrible fate’: Legal heroin prescribed to hundreds of UK drug users, figures reveal (The Independent)

• 76% of opium produced in the world is discovered in Iran (Tehran Times)

• Access to naloxone reduces opioid overdose deaths, saves money, study says (UPI)

• Naloxone, a drug that reverses overdoses, can save lives. Here's why you should learn how to use it. (The Washington Post)

• How often is fentanyl in your drugs? Some hard data (Rooster Magazine)

• Canada Might Have Found a Back Door to End the War on Drugs (VICE)

• How the Shakers Became America’s Best Opium Producers (The Daily Beast)

• Op-Ed: A drug called buprenorphine saved me from heroin addiction. It could save millions more — if we let it (Los Angeles Times)

• People Have Used, Abused Opioids For Thousands of Years (The Fix)

• Opium addiction in Korea's past (Korea Times)

• Babies born after opioid exposure deserve legal recognition, lawyers argue (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

• Wisdom teeth removal is contributing to the opioid crisis, experts warn (CBS News)

• 'What Would You Do?' focuses on the opioid crisis (ABC News)

COCAINE

• Mexico judge approves recreational cocaine for two users (BBC)

• Crack Cocaine Makes a Paris Neighborhood ‘Hell’ for Users and Residents (The New York Times)

METHAMPHETAMINE

• Meth and heart disease correlation not fully understood (Medical Xpress)

• The ‘fourth wave’ of the opioid crisis: Feds warn of a rise in meth use (TribLIVE)

CAFFEINE

• Mormons warn that coffee, vaping are no-nos despite fancy names, alluring flavors (Fox News)

• Is It Better to Drink Coffee Before or After You Exercise? The Answer Might Surprise You (Yahoo! Lifestyle)

TOBACCO

• Tobacco industry anti-smoking ads reached less than half of U.S. adults (Reuters)

• Why US lags behind on graphic cigarette warnings (BBC)

• NYC Is Coming For Your Flavored Juul Pods (Gothamist)

ALCOHOL

• Costa Rica Confirms 2 More Suspected Alcohol Poisoning Deaths, Raising Death Toll to 25 (TIME)

• Why Warning Pregnant Women Not to Drink Can Backfire (The New York Times)

KRATOM

• Kratom would require prescription in Michigan under Senate bill (WJRT)

• Kratom Legality In Texas: Is It Legal To Buy, Carry, and Consume In The State? (Kratom Guides)

• Is It Legal To Carry Kratom Products In Ohio? (Kratom Guides)

• Does Kratom Really Help Athletes in Sports? (The Sports Daily)

• What is kratom and why is its safety being questioned? (Health24)

KAVA

• Kava Consumption Still An Issue Says Methodist Church President (Fiji Sun)

SANANGA

• Sananga: Amazonian Eye Drops That Improves Vision! (The Costa Rica News)

MISCELLANEOUS

• Dozens of People in Multiple States Have Lung Disease Linked to Vaping, and No One Knows Why (Gizmodo)

• Vaping May Harm Your Blood Flow—Even Without Nicotine (WIRED)

• The World’s First Clinical Trials on Microdosing LSD and Psilocybin Are Coming (MERRY JANE)

• Berkeley, CA May Be Next the City to Decriminalize Natural Psychedelics (Filter)

• Synthetic Drugs Will Change the Global Drug Trade Forever (VICE)

• Extinction Rebellion founder calls for mass psychedelic disobedience (New Scientist)

• Pupils who take drugs, drink and smoke more likely to be unhappy (The Guardian)

• Americans spend $150B on cocaine, meth, marijuana, heroin (UPI)

• Use of Marijuana, Meth, Hallucinogens Up in New SAMHSA Survey (Medscape)

• What Science Says About Using Sleep Medications (Discover Magazine)

• Psychedelics and Women’s Health (Psychedelic Science Review)

• Argentina Tries To Stop Synthetic Drug Traffickers Sidestepping Prosecution (InSight Crime)

• Should Psychedelic Therapists Have First-hand Experience with Psychedelics? (Chacruna)

• Safe injection rooms are key to halting rise in drug deaths – expert (The Guardian)

• Psychedelic Yoga (Psychology Today)

• Man Who Died of OD Was Allegedly “Kicked Out of Treatment for Smoking” (Filter)

• Why are stimulant-related deaths spiking in the U.S.? (Salon)

• Turf war between rival drug gangs sparks surge in shootings (Liverpool Echo)

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, which actually covers the past four weeks’ worth of news since I was away on vacation for a few weeks:

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This Week in Psychedelics - 8.24.18

Cannabis

• Study: 1 in 7 Canadian cannabis users admits to high driving (The Mercury News)
• Cory Booker Bill Would Let Students With Drug Convictions Keep Financial Aid (Marijuana Moment)
• Wells Fargo Closes Florida Politician's Account Due To Marijuana Donations (Forbes)
• Senate Amendment Requires Feds To Study Marijuana Legalization’s Impact (Marijuana Moment)
• Here’s How Much Marijuana Costs on the West Coast vs East Coast (Priceonomics)
• Marijuana ‘Farmers Markets’ Won’t Happen In California Yet After Bill’s Failure (Marijuana Moment)
• North Texas Academy Offers First Cannabis Science Class (NBC Dallas-Fort Worth)
• New Jersey Could Legalize Weed Next Month (Reason)
• Baker Who Denied Same-Sex Couple Now Complaining About Marijuana-Themed Cake Requests (Marijuana Moment)
• Cannabis Is Creating A Boom For Biological Pesticides (Forbes)
• Pennsylvania Lawmaker Launches Online Petition To Promote Marijuana Legalization Bill (Marijuana Moment)
• Proximity Of Dispensaries To Schools Not Linked With Teen Use (NORML)
• Ohio Police Plan To Ignore Marijuana Ballot Measure (Marijuana Moment)
• The Next Big Thing In Cannabis: Tourism (Forbes)
• Israeli and Swiss Companies Team Up to Breed Better Cannabis for Patients (High Times)
• Cannabis stocks soar to new highs (CNN)
• Amid Primary Challenge, Democrat Senator Now Supports Marijuana Bill (Marijuana Moment)
• Why you shouldn’t dismiss the risk of marijuana addiction (Vox)
• America’s Invisible Pot Addicts (The Atlantic)
• How Federal Housing Policy Excludes Poor People From Legal Pot (Rolling Stone)
• We Fact Checked an ER Doctor Who Said Weed Edibles Can Kill Kids (VICE)
• U.S. Border Agents Gear Up for Canada’s Marijuana Legalization, Vowing to Enforce Federal Law (Newsweek)
• How Tech Will Drive The Next Stage Of Cannabis Regulation (Forbes)
• Alaska Could Be The First State To Legalize And License Marijuana Lounges (Marijuana Moment)
• The Dark Star of Doobage (Seattle Weekly)
• Meet Bend And Blaze: A Cannabis-Infused Yoga Class You Need To Take (Forbes)
• California: Marijuana Expungement Measure Awaits Governor’s Signature (NORML)
• Big Majority Of Connecticut Voters Support Legalizing Marijuana, Poll Finds (Marijuana Moment)
• California Cannabis Goes Luxury, Plans Appellations Just Like Wine (Forbes)
• Poll: Huge Majority Of Wisconsin Voters Want Marijuana Legalized (Marijuana Moment)
• Meet The Tattooed Branding Bigwig Who Gave Up Couture For Cannabis (Forbes)
• Cannabis Now CEO Says Beer And Marijuana Mergers Are Good For Business (Forbes)

LSD

• From Humble Chemist to Father of the Psychedelic Trip (OZY)
• How To Take LSD (The Third Wave)
• Can LSD help solve mental health issues? (CBS News)
• LSD liberated me from the prison I had built for myself (Psymposia)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

• FDA Approves Psychedelic Magic Mushrooms Ingredient Psilocybin for Depression Trial (Newsweek)
• ‘Microdosing’ is touted by ’shroomers and Reddit users. Science is starting to test their claims — and finding some truth (STAT)
• Can Psilocybin Make People Feel More Empathy to Nature? (Chacruna)
• Psilocybin Proponents Push Medical Benefits of Drug, Ballot Initiative (Westword)

MDMA/Ecstasy

• Veteran Treated PTSD And Suicidal Thoughts With ‘Life-Altering’ MDMA Therapy (Inquisitr)

Ayahuasca/DMT/5-MeO-DMT

• What To Expect When You Drink Ayahuasca (The Third Wave)
• Psychedelic Medicine 101: DMT and the near-death experience (New Atlas)
• Man sentenced to 11.5 years for bringing bottle of Peruvian Ayahuasca drink to Russia (Pravda)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

• Strange Drug Overdoses Are Mystifying Hospitals (Discover Magazine)
• Big Pharma Synthetic Marijuana Leaves 2 Dead, 89 Hospitalized In Illinois (UR Healthinfo)

Dissociatives

• A Doctor Explains How Prescribing Ketamine For Depression Works (Psymposia)
• Driver, 21, found at wheel by police after being more than twice over the limit for ketamine (The News)
• Man high on PCP harasses woman, punches her dad and then slugs a valet at Playhouse Square (News 5 Cleveland)

Opiates/Opioids

• Mexican poppy producing state pushes to decriminalize opium (Star Tribune)
• Dan Bigg, who spent decades fighting heroin crisis in Chicago and saved scores of lives, dies at 59 (Chicago Tribune)
• On fentanyl: Congress must avoid another drug war (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Trump Says Pain Pills Are 'So Highly Addictive.' He's Wrong. (Reason)
• This is what happens to your body during a heroin overdose (Health24)
• Poll: Most Americans Know About Opioid Antidote And Are Willing To Use It (NPR)
• Why Every Connecticut Home Should Have Naloxone (Hartford Courant)

Kratom

• American Kratom Association says forensic pathologist got it wrong in Arvada death (9NEWS.com)
• More than 40,000 Americans Petition DEA in Support of Kratom (Markets Insider)
• Failed NDIs, FDA's Opioid Concerns Don't Stop Kratom Supplement Sales (Rose Sheet)
• FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb Tweets Controversial Statements on Kratom (Inverse)
• FDA recalls Kratom products due to salmonella concerns (News4Jax)
• Rep. Vernon Jones appointed to House Study Committee on Risks with Kratom (On Common Ground News)

Kava

• Kava Controversy (Eugene Weekly)

Miscellaneous Psychedelics/Psychoactives/Drug Policy

• Like Beer, There's Now 'Craft Cocaine' (VICE)
• Proposal seeks to improve assessment of drug risks (Science Daily)
• These Drug Users Don't Want Their Dealer Prosecuted if They OD (VICE)
• Federal officers have established unconstitutional checkpoints on the road to Burning Man (Boing Boing)
• Scientists Dosed an Artificial Brain With Meth (Motherboard)
• Psychedelics Might Be Especially Effective in Treating Depression When Combined With Hypnosis (Tonic)
• Safe injection sites were thought to reduce drug overdoses. The research isn’t so clear. (Vox)
• The Healing Powers of Psychedelics Documentary Series: Interview with Mareesa Stertz (Psychedelic Times)
• Top 3 drugs to use while watching the Trump scandals, and top 3 to avoid (Rooster)
• Psychedelics And Partying (Psychedelic Heaven)
• The Myth Of Good And Bad Drugs (Psychedelic Heaven)

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.