Medicine/Healing

When treatment means punishment

Throughout history and to this day, treatment itself has often meant punishment. Without a careful interrogation of what we mean by “treatment” and the history of coercion, criminal justice reforms will be reforms in name only. Drug courts, which coerce people into treatment under threat of criminal punishment, continue to expand nationally. But three decades…

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Politics

‘Legalization 2.0’: social equity becomes a key question

Some veterans of early state legalization campaigns have reckoned with their limitations. “We were overly cautious at the time, looking back,” said Art Way, the Drug Policy Alliance’s director in Colorado. “But it didn’t feel that way” when legalizing marijuana and ending many arrests were unprecedented goals in themselves. Original Article (Leafly):‘Legalization 2.0’: social equity…

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Politics

A Psychedelic Renaissance

While most studies have been small, and the understanding of how psychedelics operate on the brain remains limited, those driving the research can barely contain their excitement. Uncertainty about how drugs like psilocybin and MDMA actually work is one reason to avoid irrational exuberance about the healing power of psychedelics. Original Article (Chronicle of Philanthropy):A…

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Medicine/Healing

Inside… studies testing if microdosing… actually works

Now, several research groups… are trying to gather some… data on what, if anything, microdosing actually does. Up to now, however, most evidence for microdosing is purely anecdotal or based on surveys and self-reporting … as they wait to complete their data collection and analyses, the microdosing researchers currently running studies say they are not…

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Politics

Lawmakers schedule psychedelic decriminalization hearing in major city

…a major city (Oakland) in California is moving to consider a measure that [is calling] for an end to arrests and prosecutions of people for possessing additional psychedelic drugs such as mescaline cacti, ayahuasca and ibogaine. The investigation and arrest of adults for using, cultivating or distributing the psychedelics—sometimes referred to as entheogens—would be classified as “amongst the lowest law enforcement priority” for…

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Anthropology

Oregon Senate takes steps to allow marijuana exports

The Oregon Senate passed a bill Wednesday (5/15/2019) that would allow Oregon-grown marijuana to be exported and sold in other states. “It is just one of the best places to grow this [cannabis]. It’s like Pinot Noir.” … Adam Smith [of Craft Cannabis Alliance] said … Senate Bill 582 still needs to pass the House…

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Politics

What decriminalizing [psilocybin mushrooms] actually means

The win also maybe, possibly, clears the way for people to grow shrooms without concern for legal repercussions, but only for their own personal use… “One of the more innovative aspects of… [Initiative 301] is at the point where the supply equals the demand. [When] the consumer is also the producer—that form of production here…

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