Biography/Memoir

Santa Cruz has decriminalized magic mushrooms, ayahuasca, and peyote

Margolin says that advocates believe that selling mushrooms like any other crop will help prevent hiccups that have occurred in the recreational marijuana industry. “Activists so far prefer that the mushroom industry be ‘abrogated into already existing industries’ … so as to avoid some of the pitfalls that we’ve experienced already with cannabis legalization, where…

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Biography/Memoir

…Michael Pollan changes his mind

As Michael Pollan steps into the role of psychedelic gatekeeper, we critically examine his recent NYT op-ed on slowing down psilocybin decriminalization … both the narrative presented in How to Change Your Mind as well as the narrative presented in his op-ed, it all feels to me to be a part of what I would consider to be prohibition-lite…

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Politics

This is what psychedelic mainstreaming looks like…

It’s not the Hokey Pokey… …but psychedelic mainstreaming seems to be what it’s all about. We explore some of the realities and questions of what it means to take psychedelics “mainstream.” Original Article (Psymposia):This is what psychedelic mainstreaming looks like #1Artwork Fair Use: Raki_Man

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Modern Culture

The psilocybin movement is like the cannabis movement…

There is a bona fide movement underway with psilocybin. Decriminalization occurred last year in Denver, Oakland and Santa Cruz, and that was just a start: nearly 100 other cities are looking at decriminalizing psychedelics. On the first track, psilocybin is moving ahead via initiatives and initiated ordinances, just like marijuana from 1996 to the present. The scope…

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Politics

…revolutionize [universal access to basic] mental health care

When I ask about the rationale for patenting something that grows freely out of wood chips, Compass Pathways CEO George Goldsmith [responds] “Well, the synthesized psilocybin is the highest levels of purity, so it doesn’t grow out of wood chips. The wood chips and the mushrooms are free.” There are… activists railing against anyone perceived…

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Biography/Memoir

…psychedelic companies are about to go public

Compass Pathways declined to comment on whether it’s planning a public listing, but the company is “always looking at options to ensure continued growth and funding,” chief communications officer Tracy Cheung said in an email. The FDA has “given clearance for a variety of trials at this point and it looks like they are going…

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Science

Psychedelics linked to persisting reductions in cannabis, opioid, and stimulant use

Those who reported taking a higher dose, and experiencing more insight and mystical-type effects, tended to report greater reduction in drug consumption.  Johnson and his colleagues found that most of the participants reported using LSD or psilocybin to induce the psychedelic experience in question. Approximately 79% of participants met the DSM-5 criteria for severe substance…

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