Biography/Memoir

…on magic mushrooms arrested…

…Sevilla said that he took psilocybin, a psychedelic known as magic mushrooms, at Miami International Airport before boarding the flight, authorities said. Sevilla was arrested for assaults within maritime and territorial jurisdiction as well as interference with flight crew members… refused to take his seat when asked by flight attendants, opting to lay on the…

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Biography/Memoir

Meet the Colorado moms who microdose mushrooms

Tracey Tee had never experimented with illicit drugs, but from what she had heard, the experience of taking a small dose of a psilocybin mushroom seemed different from the ‘60’s-style psychedelic trip the substance is best known for. Once she took the plunge and swallowed her first capsule of a ground-up mushroom, Tee knew she’d…

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Politics

Federal cannabis policy…

“As I’ve said before, no one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana. Today, I’m taking steps to end our failed approach. Allow me to lay them out… We classify marijuana at the same level as heroin – and more serious than fentanyl. It makes no sense. I’m asking Secretary Xavier Becerra…

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Biography/Memoir

America’s exit drugs

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Director, Dr. Nora Volkow, and former National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director and recently named “Science Advisor to the President,” Dr. Francis S. Collins recognized in 2017, America’s gateway drugs are pharmaceutical opiods. With millions of Americans struggling with opioid use disorder and thousands overdosing on fentanyl every year,…

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Medicine/Healing

Psychedelic retreats offer healing only for the wealthy

Equal access is taking a back seat to exotic psychedelic retreats with exuberant price tags. Here’s why that’s a big problem… This is not opinion, but empirical fact…. after all, the luxury psychedelic retreat “eco-system” is that it offers “healing” only to those with the means and opportunity to safely consume psilocybin, ayahuasca, etc. without…

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Psychology

…entrepreneurs and the resistance to old-school psychedelia

If strong psychotropic effects are edited out of the process – as [some of] these new companies are attempting to do – then the old-school psychedelic experience has been pre-empted as unnecessary… [some] entrepreneurs have pledged allegiance to… [some version of this] thinking. The resistance to ‘psychedelic’ goes beyond mere semantic squeamishness. Johnson and Johnson,…

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Biography/Memoir

DEA admits ‘racial, ethnic and class prejudice’ led to drug criminalization and the agency’s own founding

DEA Museum officials talked about the origins of federal drug prohibition and explained how the agency was ultimately created in conjunction with punitive policies… during the latest edition of its… video series… Library of Congress… …the history is being recounted by the archival arm of DEA itself, even as the agency continues to enforce criminalization…

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Psychology

Why taking psychedelics is a lot like scuba diving…

…how about the mental healthcare therapists and psychiatrists who work with psychedelics, in clinical trials and beyond – shouldn’t they also be experienced psychedelic divers before they work with these substances? Well. This is a sensitive question, I’ve come to realize. I have been hesitant to speak my mind about it… There are many parallels…

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Politics

[In Oregon] …expect with… shrooms

Oregon voters actually approved two very different ballot measures in 2020 that both technically affect how… mushrooms are treated in the state… it does not allow dispensing psilocybin for use outside licensed facilities or for home cultivation… Measure 110 decriminalized [personal possession of] small amounts of [some] drugs, including [less than 12 grams of] psilocybin,…

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Politics

Psychedelics face corrupting influence of financial interests

In a peer-reviewed essay published in the journal Anthropology of Consciousness… corporations should respect Indigenous, counterculture traditions… University of Cincinnati postdoctoral researcher Neşe Devenot says the field is fraught with ethical concerns and financial interests. The researchers said the irrational exuberance over the prospects of creating psychedelic treatment monopolies are incongruous with “the 6,000-plus years…

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