Biography/Memoir

Why a federally licensed marijuana researcher is suing the DEA

…claims that the DEA has created a monopoly around federally licensed marijuana research. …[Dr. Sue Sisley’s] concerned that her study’s results may have been compromised by poor cannabis quality, explaining that the marijuana is far less potent than strains available in dispensaries or on the black market; the limited strains from Mississippi are also mixed…

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Politics

Psychedelic medicine is coming. The law isn’t ready

The prospect of psychedelic drugs gaining approval as treatments will force a reckoning for our existing system of drug control. While current policies characterize any use of these substances as illicit abuse, acknowledging that these drugs may offer meaningful benefits will require more flexible approaches. Psychedelic medicine may prove to be the thin end of…

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Science

Cannabis and magic mushrooms – a near perfect analogy

Famous author Michael Pollan succinctly summarized this apparent lack of incentive for developing psilocybin “technology”: “there’s no IP here. There’s no intellectual property.” Both Cannabis and Psilocybin Mushrooms are naturally occurring organisms. They live and grow in nature. Each plant or mushroom produces its own cocktail of chemical compounds — cannabinoids, terpenes, psilocybin [mushroom containing bioactive compounds], etc… Why…

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Biography/Memoir

The trip of a lifetime: women across the country are self-treating their depression and anxiety with mushrooms

Just as the majority of the country [in particular the women featured in this article] has begun to embrace medical and recreational marijuana, though, the tide may be shifting for psilocybin-containing mushrooms. 1. Amy Jackman, co-owner of a cannabis consulting business in Alaska, isn’t waiting around for a scientific seal of approval. She takes a…

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Biography/Memoir

…psychedelic activists… after decrim wins

Jag Davies, a drug policy consultant with many years of experience in psychedelic policy at Drug Policy Alliance and MAPS, told Filter that decriminalization of psychedelics is a small step towards ensuring the safety—and legal rights—of people who use drugs in general.  The organizers behind both the Denver and Oakland initiatives have publicly stated that they hope these efforts can…

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Medicine/Healing

When harm reduction expansion stifles activism: A lesson from Europe

In most of Western Europe, as across the world, drug users are still stigmatized, still criminalized, still marginalized, still considered second-class citizens. This will not change without user-led advocacy. “Harm reduction interventions in the main in Western Europe are delivered either by national health services or by non-governmental agencies that focus on health interventions,” said Niamh…

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Biography/Memoir

Prescription opioid overdoses drop, as fentanyl deaths skyrocket

“It’s important that the public and policymakers recognize that the addiction crisis is unfortunately still alive and well. It’s just shifting.” – Adam Leventhal, director of the University of Southern California’s Institute for Addiction Science. Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid often sold as a street drug, surpassed prescription opioids in 2015 as the most lethal overdose…

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Politics

Will Oakland lead the psychedelic revolution?

Movements don’t happen in places where people are comfortable with the way things are happening around them. Movements do happen in Oakland, where people aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo. That’s been the case time and again, including Oakland’s treatment of marijuana, as it was one of the first places to decriminalize it long…

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Biography/Memoir

DEA… a psychedelic plant, and a controversy… at Miami University

“Instead of placing arbitrary restrictions on conservatory holdings, we should be making sure that conservatories are sensibly and knowledgeably curated,” Executive Director of the American Anthropological Assiciation, Ed Liebow said. Since it’s not feasible for every researcher to travel to West Africa, Liebow said the most suitable approach was to establish conservatories where key specimens…

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