Anthropology

How stigma created Japan’s hidden drug problem

In Japan, public shaming and stigma of those suspected of taking drugs has developed into a useful tool for the authorities to remind citizens of the country’s strict moral code on drug use: If you get high you are not just letting yourself down, you are also letting society down. “While Japanese society has changed…

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Anthropology

Power… responsibility… psychedelic

For centuries, psychedelic substances have been used by Indigenous communities for community… purposes that continue in the present day. In 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act… When colonizers reached the North and South American continents, they demonized the use of plant medicines. “The strategy and tactics of European colonizers … was based…

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Anthropology

Healing… with psilocybin [mushrooms]

The bill would just allow the drug to be administered inside these facilities during guided treatment sessions. The bill was revised last year to be more focused on therapy, a move Carolyn Garcia doesn’t agree with. “There’s too many people involved here who’ve been handling mushrooms for a long time all over the world, and to try…

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Anthropology

Marijuana revenue would be stripped from Seattle-Area sheriff’s department under new budget proposal

“As my proposed budget took shape, our anti-racism priorities and criminal legal system transformation coalesced around three principles: Divest, invest, and re-imagine,” Constantine said in the budget announcement. “By divest, I mean stopping current practices that cause harm and diverting the savings to serve a greater good.” Constantine’s office said the $4.6 million that would be divested…

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Anthropology

…tribe… cannabis on largest reservation in State

Both Native tribes will cultivate cannabis flower for medicinal purposes, in opposition to Minnesota’s existing restrictive medical marijuana program. …which only allows for certain cannabis products to be sold in the state – smokeable products, and THC-edibles and drinks are not permitted. Minnesota’s medical marijuana regulations rank among the nation’s toughest, but as a sovereign…

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Anthropology

Ann Arbor OKs move to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms, plants

City Council voted unanimously… in favor of a resolution declaring it’s the city’s lowest law enforcement priority to investigate and arrest anyone for planting, cultivating, purchasing, transporting, distributing, engaging in practices with or possessing entheogenic plants or plant compounds. The resolution defines “entheogenic plants” as the full spectrum of plants and fungi that contain indole…

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Anthropology

City council votes to make psychedelic mushrooms, [ayahuasca, cacti, etc.] legal in Ann Arbor, Michigan

In the 1970s, it was among the first to decriminalize marijuana. Now, it’s doing the same thing with mushrooms and other entheogenic plants [and fungi]. The Council voted 11-0, saying Ann Arbor police should stand down enforcing possession. In its resolution, the Ann Arbor City Council also asked the… County Prosecutor’s Office to cease prosecution…

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