Anthropology

Classical music illicit drugs work better with classical

The playlist isn’t based on the musical taste of the subjects or the researchers in the project. We have learned that in high-dose sessions, especially during the onset and intense period of entheogen effects, the supportive structure of the music is more important than either the guide’s or the volunteer’s personal musical preferences. The psilocybin…

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Anthropology

Bountiful Afghan Opium Harvest Yields

“So it was with peace of mind that farmers, and thousands of seasonal laborers who had traveled to Helmand, scraped the gum from the opium bulbs. The skies were generous with heavy rainfall, and the Afghan government with its cancellation of annual eradication campaigns. ” As the opium harvest winds down across Helmand Province, Afghanistan’s…

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Anthropology

U.N. not a place to find good policy

“No, the U.N. leadership is not that open to reform (in 2016)… the U.N. was confiscating copies of the letter calling for the end of the drug war that were being handed out in front of the U.N.” UN Security was apparently ordered to confiscate the letter, and attendees were ordered to hand over their…

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Anthropology

Medical marijuana: What happens next in Pa.?

“The process itself of creating regulations and dispensing licenses is probably going to take; we’re estimating a best case 12 to 13 months and probably 18 months before licenses are issued.” Under the law, anyone seeking a prescription for medical marijuana must be suffering from a “serious medical condition” defined as cancer, HIV or AIDS,…

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Anthropology

Women across the Americas incarcerated for minor, non-violent, drug-related crimes at an alarming rate

“In Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Peru, well over 60 percent of each country’s female prison population is incarcerated for drug-related crimes.” The policies that have led to this surge in imprisonment have torn apart families and crippled women’s abilities to find decent, legal employment once they have been released, perpetuating a vicious cycle of…

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Anthropology

Magic mushrooms in North America before the Wassons?

“Of course, I have no way of knowing if the mushrooms that my great-great Grandfather Daugherty was allegedly harvesting were actually P. cubensis”. Nor do I know if the Choctaw or Chickasaw tribes even possess(ed) a knowledge of the visionary properties of coprophilic psilocybin mushrooms. I recount this anecdote only as a means of raising…

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Anthropology

Finding a new perspective on psychedelics

The reputation of these compounds is undergoing rehabilitation, but we can’t know how long it will take to shrug off the weight of the mischaracterizations that have been heaped on them for years. While the full history of psychedelic research cannot be summarized concisely, it seems to have ended, at least for a time, with…

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