Biography/Memoir

Jury holds pharmacies responsible for role in opioid crisis

The committee of lawyers for the local governments suing the drug industry in federal courts called Tuesday’s verdict [11/23/21] “a milestone victory” and “overdue reckoning.” Not only were the drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.)… but the D.E.A. also set the annual limit on how many opioids could be produced in the…

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Biography/Memoir

…provide psychedelic… to marginalized communities

“It’s time for psychedelic medicine to climb down from the ivory tower and into the community,” said Dr Belser. A recent survey… of adults in Oregon – the first state in the United States to legalize the therapeutic use of psilocybin mushrooms – found that on average, people would be willing to pay $100 for a psilocybin therapy…

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Science

The most common pain relief drug in the world induces risky behavior, study finds

Despite the seriousness of those findings, acetaminophen nonetheless remains one of the most used medications in the world, considered an essential medicine by the World Health Organization, and recommended by the CDC for pain relief at home… the findings are reported in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. “Acetaminophen seems to make people feel less negative emotion when they…

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Science

Psychedelic use is associated with reduced daily opioid use among people who use illicit drugs…

Among 3813 PWUD at baseline, 1093 (29%) reported daily use of illicit opioids and 229 (6%) reported psychedelic use in the past six months. Over study follow-up after adjusting for a range of potential confounders, psychedelic use remained independently associated with a significantly reduced odds of subsequent daily opioid use (Adjusted Odds Ratio: 0.45; 95%…

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Politics

D.C. hearing… marijuana… anticipation of end to federal ban

D.C. voters legalized the possession, home cultivation and gifting of adult-use cannabis in 2014, a congressional rider has blocked the District from using its tax dollars to implement a regulated system of sales. They heard numerous recommendations on the legalization proposal, ranging from enhancing social equity provisions to ensuring that medical cannabis patients continue to…

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Modern Culture

Are we being exposed to psychedelics more…

…study published in The Journal of Psychedelic Psychiatry has attempted to measure the change in public sentiment regarding psychedelics and the frequency of their mentions over time in American newspapers… …the decriminalization movement across the United States, particularly Oregon decriminalizing drug possession and legalizing supervised psilocybin sessions, has allowed people to speak more openly about psychedelics… narrative and…

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Science

Adults who microdose psychedelics report health related motivations and lower levels of anxiety and depression compared to non-microdosers

This examination of a large international sample of adults highlights the prominence of therapeutic and wellness motivations for microdosing psychedelic drugs and identified lower levels of anxiety and depression among microdosers relative to controls.  Comparisons of psilocybin to LSD microdosers indicated no differences on measures of Depression, Anxiety and Stress from the DASS-21 (all values for F (1, 827) < 1.0, p > 0.50). The inclusion of…

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Anthropology

[Oregon] Measure 110…

Oregonians voted Measure 110 into law, passing it by a 17-point margin and sending the strong message that we want drug use treated as a health issue — not a crime. The measure passed in communities both large and small, urban and rural, progressive and conservative. The law decriminalized all drugs For more than 50…

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Science

Using marijuana with psychedelics intensifies the mystical experience, study finds

Researchers at Imperial College London [report]… Use of cannabis together with psychedelics was “associated with higher scores of mystical-type experience, ego-dissolution and visual alterations,” the study, published last week in the journal Psychopharmacology, states. And in general, the more marijuana a person said they used, the more intense the psychedelic effect… there was a unique…

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