Psychology

Two magic mushroom studies suggest psychedelics increase spirituality, decrease criminal behavior

Oh, the irony. While using psychedelics in the U.S. could land you in prison, experiences with… [naturally occurring psilocybin-producing] mushrooms may help keep you out. According to research which suggests that [these mushrooms] may make you less likely to steal or be violent. Other recent research also suggests that psychedelics can increase spiritually significant events…

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Medicine/Healing

When harm reduction expansion stifles activism: A lesson from Europe

In most of Western Europe, as across the world, drug users are still stigmatized, still criminalized, still marginalized, still considered second-class citizens. This will not change without user-led advocacy. “Harm reduction interventions in the main in Western Europe are delivered either by national health services or by non-governmental agencies that focus on health interventions,” said Niamh…

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Medicine/Healing

Oregon lawmakers… [postpone] kratom [regulation]

“This wasn’t quite ready for prime time this year, but I do hope that the advocates continue to work on this issue,” said one Oregon Senator. Kratom can act as… [both a pain reliever and a] stimulant when ingested. It’s made from the leaves of a tree native to southeast Asia, and it’s become popular…

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Medicine/Healing

CBD shows some potential for treating opioid addiction

This anti-addictive effect lasted for a week after the CBD was administered. A study in rats published in the Journal of Neuroscience found that CBD decreased heroin cravings in rats that had previously been trained to self-administer heroin. And a small study conducted in humans, published in the journal Neurotherapeutics, showed that taking CBD seemed…

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Psychology

They broke my mental shackles’: could magic mushrooms be the answer to depression?

If common antidepressants dull emotions to help people cope… psilocybin [containing mushrooms] work… on our serotonin system to heighten emotional responses and encourage people to actively confront their depression, which can prompt enduring shifts in mind-set. Much about the neuroscience of psychedelics remains unknown, but fMRI scans of patients’ brains after taking psilocybin showed reduced…

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Medicine/Healing

Oakland lawmakers advance psychedelic decriminalization measure

More than 60 people signed up to testify at the well-attended Oakland hearing. The City Council’s Public Safety Committee voted—with three ayes and one abstention—to advance to the full Council a measure that would declare enforcement of laws prohibiting the possession of “entheogenic plants” among adults the “lowest priority” for police … “These medicines are safe,” said…

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Medicine/Healing

Oakland could become 2nd U.S. city to decriminalize… mushrooms

Oakland, Calif., could become the second city in the U.S. to decriminalize certain natural hallucinogenics, including “magic mushrooms. The resolution applies only to psychedelics derived from plants or fungi, not synthetic drugs like LSD or MDMA. Original Article (The Hill):Oakland could become 2nd U.S. city to decriminalize hallucinogenic mushroomsArtwork Fair Use: Bob Embleton

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Medicine/Healing

When treatment means punishment

Throughout history and to this day, treatment itself has often meant punishment. Without a careful interrogation of what we mean by “treatment” and the history of coercion, criminal justice reforms will be reforms in name only. Drug courts, which coerce people into treatment under threat of criminal punishment, continue to expand nationally. But three decades…

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Medicine/Healing

Behind… Denver’s journey into… (mushroom) thinking

To be clear, shrooms will not be fully legal here. They will be treated the way marijuana was in Denver after decriminalization in 2005: city cops’ and the district attorney’s “lowest law enforcement priority.” The new ordnance specifies that no city funds are to be used to jail, arrest or even ticket someone for possession…

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