Politics

Oregon officials’…

“It’s very offensive that in order to use what we have already been using, I have to go to somebody, pay ten to twenty thousand dollars [for training], and get permission,” said Elan Hagens, a member of the Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board’s Health Equity Subcommittee. “We just need to let the process run,” said Jesse…

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Politics

Emerging non-medical state-regulated path

This path does not [appear to] currently exist in the United States… understanding the current legal status of psychedelics… Though, Oregon is actively in the process of establishing a model for psilocybin that would be like the state’s current medical cannabis system. It would be separate from the existing medical system and subject to an…

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Politics

Canada OKs drug decriminalization test in British Columbia

Dana Larsen, a drug policy reform activist, called the announcement “a step in the right direction,” but said he would prefer to see development of a safe drug supply. “The drugs are still going to be contaminated,” Larsen said. “I think we need stores where you can go in and find legal heroin, legal cocaine…

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Politics

Psychedelic patents are broken…

It’s a common story in the U.S.: An old and cheap drug was transformed into an expensive, inaccessible product. This happened through patents, legally granted rights to exclude others from making or selling an invention.  In the short time that psychedelic drugs have received attention from start-up companies and venture capitalists, there have already been…

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Politics

Rewards for staying off meth…

Oregon is poised to pay for them… …with meth there aren’t highly effective medications people can use to control their cravings like there are for heroin… and the federal government agrees… saying (rewards for staying off meth) is the only approach with strong clinical evidence behind it… (with rewards) people are almost twice as likely…

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Politics

Momentum builds… major cannabis bill

Senators on both sides of the aisle are throwing support behind a proposal to tuck key marijuana banking legislation into a larger package aimed at boosting U.S. competitiveness… conferees are expected to complete a compromise China competitiveness bill… …under conference committee rules, lawmakers cannot modify the SAFE Banking Act to add additional social equity or…

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Politics

Drug policing… impressions

For conventional crime, police activity can actually reduce it. For drugs policing it never does. In fact Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) members and allies all over the world note that, more often than not, drugs policing actually increases crime. Police do not reduce the size of a market, they just change the shape of…

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Politics

…brainstorming the future of psychedelic…

Paul Stamets… chat… about the path toward legalizing various psychedelics, psilocybin in particular. He offers caution around the recent relaxing of laws on psychedelics and suggests that “we don’t box ourselves into something” that doesn’t allow for later modification, especially since the science around psychedelics is rapidly evolving. He critiqued Oregon’s new law, in particular,…

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Politics

…city on earth

“I love how we’ve normalized the idea that people can set up hundreds of booths… selling cannabis and mushrooms in downtown Vancouver while the cops stand around in circles with their hands on their pockets,” says Dana Larsen. Original Article (Dana Larsen):…city on earthArtwork Fair Use: Public domain

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Politics

Oregon’s psilocybin program…

“Like any new program we’re going to have to… revisit and then make changes. I am really optimistic about those changes being made,” says Jessie Uehling, assistant professor of fungal biology at Oregon State University. [Brothers Terence & Dennis McKenna introduced psilocybe mushroom cultivation to Westerners.] Focusing on… one species “will help ensure a safe…

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