Biography/Memoir

Wheeler’s call to reconsider Measure 110 would cost Multnomah county millions, advocate says

Like many critics, Wheeler is scapegoating Measure 110 for Portland’s problems, Hurst alleges.  Repealing Measure 110, an option Mayor Ted Wheeler suggested at a town hall on Saturday [3/25/2023], would cost Multnomah County $58 million in drug treatment funds in the two years ending in December, says Tera Hurst, executive director of the Oregon Health Justice Recovery…

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Politics

…a law to cap the costs of MDMA therapy

Bay Staters for Natural Medicine, a grassroots community group with more than three thousand volunteers across New England, has worked with five city councils to pass measures decriminalizing psychedelic plants, including psilocybin mushrooms. Now the group has set its eyes on another goal: ensuring that psychedelic treatments are kept affordable for residents in the future.…

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Anthropology

…psychedelic origins of indigenous mystical rites – as revealed by archaeology

…things about our relationship with visionary drugs: it’s incalculably old, globally pervasive, and rich with meaning… in 2005, two peyote “buttons” (the crown of the peyote cactus) recovered from Shumla Cave in southwest Texas were radiocarbon dated to 3780-3660 BC. Later analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry detected the naturally occurring psychedelic compound mescaline in both…

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Politics

Decriminalization of entheogenic plants and substances (sacraments)

Our mission: decriminalize fungi and plant medicines for home growing, group healing, and ceremonial and religious purposes. Working initially in Portland… this resolution declares that the investigation, arrest, and prosecution of anyone engaging with entheogenic substances shall be among the City of Portland’s lowest enforcement priorities and recognizes the right to cultivate, prepare, possess, or…

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Biography/Memoir

A nuanced reflection on Maria Sabína

One cannot talk about María Sabína’s public memory without talking about the impact of colonization and patriarchy. In many cultures under colonized rule, syncretism is the practice of an attempted amalgamation of different religions. In Sabina’s case, she took the religion of the Spaniards, Catholicism, and used that to mask their Indigenous practices. Original Article…

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Modern Culture

Do psychedelics actually make you more creative?

Natasha Mason of Maastricht University in the Netherlands investigated how psilocybin – the active psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms – impacts creative cognition. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, the researchers found that a moderate dose of psilocybin improved spontaneous creative insights but decreased deliberate, task-specific creativity. They also found that the frequency of novel ideals…

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Psychology

The three types of psychedelic high

The Ohio State University College of Social Work conducted a study where they asked 1,000 participants to report the types of high some psychedelics gave them. They experimented with the effects of LSD, psilocybin… mescaline, ayahuasca, and 5-MeO-DMT (a close relative of DMT)… the research yielded 3 distinct types of psychedelic highs. (High scoring) –…

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Medicine/Healing

Can psychedelics save a failing relationship?

…psychedelics, such as magic mushrooms, 2CB, LSD or MDMA.  Juan-Carlos had been violently abused by his father and… realised that it had led him to become absent, jealous and insistent that Sophie was unfaithful. Their marriage had been on the brink, but now — following further psychedelic therapy sessions and structured psychiatric integration – it has…

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