This Week in Psychedelics

A judge upholds a government plan to ban foreign tourists from Amsterdam coffee shops, authorities in New Jersey promise to increase their synthetic marijuana raids, and the Burning Man Organization visits Washington lawmakers in this week's psychedelic news.

• Alternet reports on the return of psychedelic research and its coverage by the mainstream media. It offers 5 examples of ways psychedelics are being explored in medicine today, including treatments for alcoholism, end-of-life anxiety, depression, cluster headaches, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). (Alternet)
• Politic 365 provides an overview of recent psychedelic research, highlighting the promising future of these drugs in improving quality of life and diminishing fears associated with perceived emotional threats. (Politic 365)
• A CNN.com video interviews Norma Loring, a stage 4 cancer patient who underwent treatment for end-of-life anxiety with NYU's psilocybin research project: "More profound…was a feeling of…being connected through time…to a creative force and to a feeling of peace.... A feeling of being connected to people, the universe, the past, the present, that I'm just sort of passing through here." (CNN)
• Two labs manufacturing DMT were discovered by police in Perth, Australia. (Sydney Morning Herald)
• The former Director of Public Prosecutions in New South Wales, Australia argues that the NSW government must take over the illicit drug markets, control the distribution of drugs, and tax the proceeds if it wants to stem turf wars over drug profits. (Lawyers Weekly)
  
• New Zealand has decided not to change its drug testing regime for drivers by adding an additional test for salvia. (Scoop)
  
• The Independent warns about the growth of Britain's private cannabis farms, a "low risk high-profit crime." (Independent)
• Police and health experts in London warned that a "Harry Potter" plant -- Datura Stramonium, which gives an instant high but can also kill -- is gaining a foothold in the British countryside. They express fear that drug gangs will start collecting seeds and cuttings to grow on hidden "farms" to sell it to addicts and "curious youngsters." (Today)
• Cognitive Liberty UK responds to Peter Hitchens' contributions to the recent drug war debate, including the ideas that taking drugs is morally wrong and "muddles the brain." (Cognitive Liberty UK)
  
• A Dutch judge upheld a government plan to ban foreign tourists from buying marijuana from coffee shops in the Netherlands. (RT, West Australia)
  
• A Washington Post editorial argues that the Obama administration has become more hostile to medical marijuana patients than any president in US history. (Washington Post)
• The Weed Blog analyzes the contradictions in Obama's recent interview with Rolling Stone about marijuana legislation. (Weed Blog)
  
• On Friday 5/11, the DEA goes to Federal Court for blocking medical marijuana research. (MAPS)
  
• Natural News reports on the health benefits of juicing raw cannabis leaves. (Natural News)
  
• The New York Times reports that organized marijuana growers are shifting to the suburbs thanks to a glut of affordable, spacious houses caused by the housing crisis. (NY Times)
• A UC San Diego student was left in a DEA holding cell for nearly five days without food or water after a drug raid in an apartment where he was smoking marijuana with friends. (NBC San Diego, Yahoo)
  
• Although ayahuasca may hold a key to breaking addiction, Canada is forcing Dr. Gabor Maté to stop his work with the medicine. (Indian Country)
• Peru's Takiwasi Center uses a medicinal ayahuasca brew to treat addiction. (Indian Country)
• David Jay Brown's latest column profiles four herbs that can enhance sexual experience: damiana, yohimbe, macs, and cannabis. (Santa Cruz Patch)
• In Michael A. Lewis's response to David Jay Brown's column, he criticizes the drive for "enhancement" as an expression constant dissatisfaction with life. (Santa Cruz Patch)
  
• Authorities in New Jersey say that more synthetic marijuana raids are coming to local tobacco shops in the coming months. (Philly Burbs)
  
• 100 Mile House RCMP Traffic Services has trained "Drug Recognition Experts" (DREs) to determine whether drivers are impaired by hallucinogens such as LSD or magic mushrooms. (100 Mile Free Press)
  
• Ben Goertzel of the Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies proposes the construction of a "seastead" - offshore living/working facilities in international waters - focused on creating and experimenting with psychedelics. (IEET)
• Internationally acclaimed video-and-sound artist Gary Hill is featured in a career retrospective, including psychedelic-inspired works like "Beauty Is in the Eye" (with multiple molecular structures of LSD 25) and "The Psychedelic Gedankenexperiment" (with the opening statement: "I am taking the liberty, as artists do, to declare Lysergic acid diethylamide...as the art experience par excellence"). (Seattle Times)
  
• Leaders of Burning Man, the anarchic arts festival seen by some as a haven for drug-taking, met with regulators and lawmakers in Washington, DC to discuss the future of the event. (Politico)
  
• "Jeopardy!" champion Ken Jennings said of a NY state standardized test that "the plot details are so oddly chosen that the story seems to have been written during a peyote trip." (NY Times)
• A pot-themed sub chain features sandwiches like "the White Widow," "Chronic," and "Magic Mushrooms." Desert items ("Munchies") include Rice Krispie Treats and Hemp Brownies. (Bottom Line)
  
• Peter Mehlman entreats baby boomers to quit their food obsession: "Suddenly, we get more joy from shiitake mushrooms than we did from magic mushrooms." (KPCC)
  
• Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger partially blames bandmate Brian Jones's downfall on his excessive use of LSD. (Zee News)
• A 48-year-old Czech businessman was selling the banned Salvia divinorum psychotropic plant on the Internet, promising the same effects as marijuana and methamphetamine. (Ceske Noviny)
  
• An 18-year-old rode a stolen bicycle naked through a Sussex town after eating magic mushrooms. (Argus)
  
• A Waterloo man who dodged bullets during a botched robbery of marijuana and magic mushrooms is seeking a house arrest sentencing. (The Record)
  
• A 19-year-old shoplifter in Ontario bit off part of a security guard's arm while high on LSD. (Peterborough Examiner)

This Week in Psychedelics is 1 year old! TWiP 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.

Disclaimer: "This Week in Psychedelics" does not censor or analyze the "news" links presented here. The purpose of this blog is to catalogue how psychedelics are presented by the mass media, which includes everything from the latest scientific research to misinformation. This presentation format encourages an open dialogue, and allows for misinformation to be noticed and addressed by interested and informed parties. We provide the content; you provide the analysis and debate.

Image by Christopher Martin Adams.