Anthropology

An Amazonian religion on New Mexico’s high desert

“The sacramental use ofayahuasca is on the cusp of becoming a permanent part of the colorful religious landscape of northern New Mexico”. After years of litigation, it now seems likely that União do Vegetal (UDV)–or more formally, O Centro Espirita Beneficente União do Vegetal–will build a temple in Arroyo Hondo, just outside Santa Fe. UDV…

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Anthropology

Magic mushrooms in North America before the Wassons?

“Of course, I have no way of knowing if the mushrooms that my great-great Grandfather Daugherty was allegedly harvesting were actually P. cubensis”. Nor do I know if the Choctaw or Chickasaw tribes even possess(ed) a knowledge of the visionary properties of coprophilic psilocybin mushrooms. I recount this anecdote only as a means of raising…

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Biography/Memoir

United States in the grips of a heroin epidemic

“Estimates on the number of U.S. Herion Addicts Range from 300,000 to 500,000.” The resurgence of the deadly drug has sparked a flurry of action from governors’ mansions and statehouses across New England and the Midwest to small-town police stations from northern Kentucky to Wisconsin. “It’s really on the top of everyone’s radar from a…

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