This Week in Psychedelics

Federal agents raid Oaksterdam University, the "Walmart of weed" opens its first store on the East Coast, and the wife of UK's Speaker of the House of Commons contemplates sampling  MXE in this week's psychedelic news.

• Federal agents raided Oaksterdam, a San Francisco Bay area medical marijuana training school, as well as an associated museum and a dispensary. Demonstrators gathered to condemn the action, some smoking marijuana openly. (Huffington Post, LA Times, Santa Cruz Patch) 
• Elected lawmakers in five states signed an open letter calling for the federal government to stop using scarce law enforcement resources against medical marijuana. (Huffington Post)
• Prominent public health experts are warning the Canadian federal government that its way of battling illicit drugs is fundamentally misguided. (Star)
• The BBC asks why ibogaine - a hallucinogen derived from an African plant that seems capable of obliterating withdrawal symptoms from heroin, cocaine, and alcohol - isn't widely used. (BBC)
  
• weGrow, the "Walmart of weed" store catering to medical marijuana growers, is opening its first outlet on the East Coast in Washington, DC. (USA Today)
  
• Police in Victoria, Australia are increasingly arresting drug users rather than dealers, according to figures from the Australian Crime Commission. (The Age)
• The Dutch Cannabis consumer association WeSmoke is appealing for the unique Dutch coffeeshop to appear on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. (PR Newswire)
• After a seven-member town council approved the growing of marijuana to pay off municipal debts, a referendum vote failed to meet the 75 percent necessary to proceed. (Businessweek)
• An article describes the mounting crusade against Kratom, a plant that produces opiate-like symptoms and is touted by some as a "life-threatening hallucinogen."Police in Victoria, Australia are increasingly arresting drug users rather than dealers, according to figures from the Australian Crime Commission. (Stranger)
  
• In a New Statesman article, author Michael Brooks, reviewing the paradigm-shifting power of psychedelics, suggests that evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins "should try mushrooms." (New Statesman)
• Officials in Garland, Texas have drafted an ordinance that would ban the sale and distribution of salvia A and salvia divinorum. (NBC DFW)
• The Fort Drum Army base in New York has banned businesses throughout the North Country who sell salvia and synthetic marijuana. (YNN)
• Although Connecticut passed legislating banning the sale and possession of salvia and synthetic marijuana last year, the state Department of Consumer Protection only adopted the new regulations on March 29, and the implementation of that policy won't officially take effect until later in April. (Norwich Bulletin, The Day)
  
• A report released to Australia's Parliament says the prohibition of illicit drugs is killing and criminalizing Australia's children. (The Age, Canberra Times, SMH, ABC)
• Death & Taxes summarizes Terence McKenna's relationship to psychedelic drug culture and the evolution of consciousness. (Death and Taxes)
• A Boston.com correspondent compares the experience of running a marathon to the psychedelic experience as described by Timothy Leary. (Boston)
  
• A Huffington Post article discusses the possible role of DMT in near-death experiences. (Huffington Post)
• Headstash covers the first day of the recent psychedelic gathering at the Rock n Roll resort in NY, where Dr. Rick Strassman, Mitch Schultz, and Shpongle presided. (Headstash)
  
• Registration for Students for Sensible Drug Policy UK's Third Annual Conference is now online. (SSDP)
• An uncensored retrospective of LSD-inspired artist Robert Crumb is on show until August at Paris' Museum of Modern Art. (Auction Central)
• Olympic gold medalist Amanda Beard recounts her use of drugs including ecstasy, cocaine, and LSD in her new autobiography. (Reuters)
  
• A new jellyfish exhibit in Monterey is described as "an undersea psychedelic experience." (Californian)
• "Cirque Dreams," a psychedelic circus, combines pop and rock songs with with psychedelic spectacle. (News Press)
• Mellow Mushroom, the psychedelic-themed chain of pizza restaurants prevalent in college towns across the Southeast, is negotiating to open a new location in New Orleans. (Uptown Messenger)
  
• The world's quietest place is 99.99 per cent sound absorbent, but stay there too long and you may start hallucinating. (Daily Mail)
  
• One writer describes surrealist artist Salvidor Dali's "fake documentary" of an expedition to Mongolia in search of giant hallucinogenic mushrooms. (Death and Taxes)
• Nutmeg, which can cause "LSD-like hallucinations," is blamed for a Swedish man's aggressive spitting rampage. (Daily Meal)
• Sally Bercow, the wife of UK Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow, tweeted that she was tempted to try the ketamine analog MXE before it is banned. (Daily Mail)
  
• deadmau5 criticized Madonna for "encouraging" ecstasy use at a recent concert. (TMZ)
• The University of Pennsylvania gears up for a spike in ecstasy use at this year's Spring Fling due to electronic music headliners. (DP)
  
• "The Farmer's Market," a sophisticated online drug marketplace that sold everything from marijuana to mescaline to 3,000 people around the world, was shut down by US authorities. (Fox, MSNBC)
• A 73-year-old grandmother was arrested in Oklahoma as the "kingpin" of a lucrative, four-state drug trade. (Daily Mail)
  
• A lawyer representing "Teen Mom 2" star Janelle Evans rejected accusations of LSD use, claiming that the star's former BFF is selling lies to the tabloids to pay for her own legal problems. (MSNBC, Gather)
  
• Parents in Western Australia could be jailed for 12 months and have their children put in state care for growing a single marijuana plant under a new drug law. (Perth Now)
• Arson investigators are trying to determine the cause of a fire that broke out at a home 30 minutes after a raid uncovered a "drug farm" and numerous exotic pets. (NBC Los Angeles, LA Weekly)
  
• A mother, father, and son were arrested for growing mushrooms in their Florida home. (NBC Miami)
• A psychiatrist will evaluate the possible role of intoxication from mephedrine and salvia divinorum in the murder of Cara Marie Holley. (Roanoke)

"This Week in Psychedelics" is a Reality Sandwich column that follows the multifaceted media appearances of this class of chemicals and their effects in popular culture. Share your psychedelic news links on the facebook page or twitter.

Image by Christopher Martin Adams.