Biography/Memoir

How the American Right learned to love psychedelics

Rick Doblin… now his organization’s corporate spinoff, Lykos Therapeutics, may soon be acquired by Antonio Gracias, a billionaire private equity investor and close friend of the richest man in the world, Elon Musk.  The planned acquisition of Lykos is an example of how tightly entwined a once left-wing psychedelic movement has become with the Trump administration and the tech right.…

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Biography/Memoir

Can psilocybin save a troubled marriage?

What before seemed like an insurmountable problem, now seems manageable… …are doing better… both less anxious and more present, yes, they had different experiences… but both say it changed their perspective in life in general… I don’t feel like I have to push my conditions on things anymore in the relationship… I had preconceived notions…

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Biography/Memoir

Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read yanks controversial cannabis audit

Former Secretary of State Shemia Fagan resigned in disgrace in May 2023 after reporting from Willamette Week revealed she had taken a $10,000-per-month consulting gig for the cannabis company La Mota while her office’s Audits Division reviewed the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission. Secretary of State Tobias Read on Wednesday [3/12/25] announced that he has withdrawn an Oregon Liquor and…

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Biography/Memoir

Ex-Rep. Kinzinger on GOP’s internal war over drug policy, cannabis, psychedelics – ‘Quite likely legal in 5-10 years’

Adam Kinzinger has never been one to toe the party line. As a former Republican congressman, he has seen his party shift over the years, growing more divided on key issues – including drug policy. “There is a group within this kind of new whatever-we-want-to-call-it Republican Party, I guess, that is very hardcore anti-drug,” Kinzinger says.…

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Biography/Memoir

Shrooms on Main…

…night at Shrooms Cafe at 139 E. Main Street, [Ashland, Oregon] next door to O’Ryans Irish Pub… a large open room filled with music and colored lights.  “We want to be an example that casual dosing is an experience that is light, fun and social. We’ve been conditioned that it’s bad, or is a drug that’s manufactured.…

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Biography/Memoir

Biotech company testing psilocybin pill requests preemptive change in Kansas law

A lobbyist requested House Bill 2218 on behalf of Compass Pathways… “This bill does not decriminalize or legalize psilocybin or any other psychedelic substance, nor does this bill allow access to drugs that have not been FDA-approved,” said Tess Bettler, a representative from Compass Pathways, in written testimony to the House health committee. The bill would specifically legalize…

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Biography/Memoir

Psilocybin treatment for cancer patients rejected by court

A Seattle doctor lost his legal bid to use psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, to treat terminally ill cancer patients under a… ruling by the country’s largest federal appeals court. The US Drug Enforcement Administration acted within its authority in barring Sunil Aggarwal from prescribing the psychedelic, a three-judge panel for the US…

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Biography/Memoir

Inside… psychedelic…

Tara Austin… an expert in behavioural science and a self-described “psychedelic utopian”… calls psychedelics a frontier in “the new civil rights movement” for what many call “cognitive liberty”, or the right to explore and perturb inner space as much as our exterior lives. They might seem eccentric, but in many ways it is Paul Stamets…

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Biography/Memoir

…Vancouver drug activist targeted

The B.C. government says more than $100,000 seized in police raids of Vancouver mushroom dispensaries should be forfeited as the proceeds of crime. …activist Dana Larsen, who is named as a defendant in the civil forfeiture lawsuit, said he will fight to get the cash returned… Larsen said his lawyer suggested they have a good…

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Biography/Memoir

Biden commutes sentences of nearly 2,500 people in prison for drug offenses, including some who are locked up on marijuana charges

Sarah Gersten, executive director and general counsel at [LPP] Last Prisoner Project, said… “historic decision offers hope – not just for those freed today, but for all the individuals still incarcerated for cannabis and their families that have been impacted by the War on Drugs. President Biden’s actions remind us that meaningful change is possible when…

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