This Week in Psychedelics - 8.7.15

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Image by Dahtamnay, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Cannabis

  • Exclusive: Justice Department Admits Misleading Congress on Marijuana Vote (Marijuana.com)
  • 2016: The Marijuana Election (Newsweek)
  • Congress' Summer Fling With Marijuana: How Congress turned on the DEA and embraced weed. (Politico)
  • Marijuana: From Demonization to Legalization to Celebration (Nation of Change)
  • New York State Awards 5 Medical Marijuana Licenses (The New York Times)
  • 1st legal medical pot sold in Nevada 15 years after approved (WBNS 10TV)
  • Is it time to legalize marijuana in sports? (The San Diego Union-Tribune)
  • Budding Movements in Canada and US Vow to Bring 'Sacrament' of Cannabis to the Masses (VICE)
  • DEA Destroyed Medical Cannabis (Santa Fe Reporter)
  • Big Pharma-Produced Cannabis Is Likely Coming To The U.S. (Huffington Post)
  • Research Shows CBD Combats Social Anxiety (Collective-Evolution)
  • Pot legalization defies party lines (Burlington Free Press)
  • Federal bankers: No account for Colo. cannabis credit union (USA Today)
  • Medicinal cannabis likely in New Zealand by 2016 (Stuff.co.nz)
  • Teen Marijuana Use Not Linked to Later Depression, Lung Cancer, Other Health Problems, Research Finds (American Psychological Association)
  • Massachusetts marijuana groups seek pot legalization vote (Reuters)
  • Philly420: Marijuana, PTSD and Pennsylvania (Philly.com)
  • Portland's World Famous Cannabis Cafe opens to packed house (Oregon Live)
  • Free cannabis handed out to veterans at Denver rally (KDVR Fox 31 Denver)
  • The Register's Editorial: Law creates cannabis oil craziness (The Des Moines Register)
  • Michigan Medical Marijuana Panel Approves Autism, A Step Closer To Cannabis For Autistic Kids (Inquisitr)
  • Experts Predict Oregon Cannabis Industry Will Be Worth Nearly $500 Million in Five Years (MarketWatch)
  • Bud and Breakfasts and 420 Tours: Denver sees a cannabis 'gold rush' (The Guardian)
  • Memphis Cop Was Killed After Interrupting $20 Pot Deal (Alternet)
  • Woman Successfully Treats Stage 4 Kidney Cancer And Celiac Disease With Cannabis Oil (Reset.me)
  • Cannabis ban bends under corporate, congressional and medicinal pressure (The Telegraph)
  • Texas cannabis capitalists are ready to seed the soil (Sharon Herald)
  • MP Tathagata Satpathy's pitch: Make cannabis legal, why ban porn (The Indian Express)

LSD

  • Why Did My Grandmother Try LSD For Multiple Sclerosis In The 1960s? (Forbes)
  • Boulder Police Fear LSD Use Rising (MSN)
  • 20-year-old man fighting for life after 'accidental LSD drugs overdose' (Lancashire Telegraph)
  • Young man in 'LSD coma' after being rushed to hospital suffering from hallucinations and seizures (Mirror)
  • Man left fighting for life after suspected LSD overdose as popularity of hippy acid soars (Daily Star)
  • Colorado man mailed LSD-infused candy to customers in N.J., cops say (NJ.com)
  • Narcotics Cell baffled as LSD flows into city (The Hindu)
  • Mood glasses designed by Bence Agoston simulate psychedelic hallucinations of LSD (Daily Mail)

Psilocybin/Magic Mushrooms

  • Psilocybin Switches Off Part Of Brain That Causes Depression — But Current Laws Interfere With Research (Reset.me)

MDMA

  • From Gary to Molly: The Feminization of Ecstasy in Popular Culture (Thump)
  • The Agony Of The Ecstasy (Science 2.0)
  • No place for Ecstasy at music festivals: Cops (Toronto Sun)
  • Ban on Raves Proposed After Teens Die at HARD Festival (Los Angeles Weekly)
  • Ban on Raves to Be Studied by L.A. County (Los Angeles Weekly)
  • Top Italian nightclub closed for four months after 'ecstasy death' (The Guardian)
  • Toby Fairclough, 17, dies of ecstasy overdose during exam celebrations (Daily Mail)
  • The trouble with Molly: thought safe, but can be risky (Delaware Online)

Ayahuasca/DMT

Peyote/Mescaline

  • Huachuma (San Pedro Cactus) — Healing The Spirit And Body (Reset.me)
  • Should inmates be allowed to use peyote for religious purposes? (Indy Star)

Salvia Divinorum

  • Harper Government Moves Forward to Regulate Salvia (Pharmi Web)

Synthetic Cannabinoids/Psychoactive Research Chemicals

  • At Her Majesty's pleasure: Legal highs are rife in jails; new laws won't help much (The Economist)
  • New menace on campus: Cheap and 'effective' Meow Meow keeps cops on their toes (Firstpost)
  • New Jersey legislator pushes to outlaw emerging synthetic drug (Newsworks)
  • NYPD video on fake pot effects showed man on PCP: ex-cop (New York Daily News)

Dissociatives

  • Depression researchers halt ketamine clinical trial amid funding battle (ABC.net.au)
  • Protesters mass inhale nitrous oxide outside Parliament in demonstration against Psychoactive Substances Bill (International Business Times)
  • Banning laughing gas is a serious matter. The balloon protest treats it as a joke (The Guardian)
  • Burnt ketamine new go-to for drug-test dodgers - study (Bangkok Post)
  • Lockbox Full of Drugs Missing From Irving Animal Services (NBC 5 Dallas-Fort-Worth)

Opiates

  • How opium poppies process morphine revealed for the first time (Digital Journal)
  • New DEA Chief: 'Heroin Is Clearly More Dangerous Than Marijuana' (Huffington Post)
  • 'Fair trade' cocaine and 'conflict-free' opium: the future of online drug marketing (The Hamilton Spectator)
  • Coroner warns of poppy dangers after opium tea kills Dane in Tasmania (The Guardian)
  • Gov. council member proposes decriminalizing heroin (Boston Herald)
  • Washington County judge says heroin addicts fare better in treatment than prison (Tribune-Review)
  • Tainted heroin increasing across St. Louis area (KMOV)
  • Perfect storm rains heroin, pain pills onto Mon Valley (Tribune-Review)
  • Hassan, Shaheen, judges, police gather to discuss heroin issue in NH (WMUR)
  • Combating the Rising Use of Heroin in City, Suburbs (WTTW Chicago Tonight)
  • Portland mobilizes as opiate abuse, overdose cases grow (Portland Press Herald)
  • Sandy heroine becomes latest victim of heroin overdose (USA Today)

General Psychedelics

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 (and other psychoactives) are presented by the mass media, which includes everything from the latest scientific research to misinformation.