This Week in Psychedelics

More than 90 people are arrested in a nationwide crackdown on the synthetic drug industry, an archivist rediscovers the lost tape of Timothy Leary's visit with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and a marijuana legalization measure qualifies for the Oregon state ballot in this week's psychedelic news.

• Grateful Dead Archivist and Psychedemia presenter Nicholas Meriwether unveiled the opening exhibit of "Dead Central" at UC Santa Cruz. (SF Gate)
  
• Timothy Leary archivist Michael Horowitz discovered the lost tape of Leary's visit with John Lennon and Yoko Ono during their 1969 Bed-In. (Celeb Stoner)
• 11 years after Portugal decriminalized drugs, data shows a 50% decrease in the number of drug addicts, drug usage rates are among the lowest in the EU, and drug-related diseases including STIs and overdoses have significantly decreased. (Business Insider)
• Uruguay considers creating a legal, state-mandated monopoly for marijuana, which is prohibited by the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. (NY Times)
  
• Law enforcement officers arrested more than 90 people, seized $36 million in cash, and confiscated more than 4.8 million packets of synthetic cannabinoids and 167,000 packets of of "bath salts" in the first-ever nationwide crackdown on the synthetic drug industry. (NBC News)
  
• A study with mice and marijuana on working memory is one of the first studies to suggest that glial cells in the brain play a role in conscious thought. (Scientific American)
• Natural News reports that cannabinoids, like those found in marijuana, occur naturally in human breast milk. (Natural News)
  
• New research in "Experiential and Clinical Psychopharmacology" indicates no evidence of enduring negative effects from cannabis use. (PubMed)
• The Washington Times describes LEAP's (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) support of legalizing marijuana and ending the war on drugs. (Washington Times)
  
• A marijuana legalization measure qualified for the Oregon state ballot this November. (Oregon Live)
• Police in New Zealand estimate that "$350 million worth of harm was prevented" with the seizure of 130,000 cannabis plants. (3 News)
• A new study in the journal "Addiction" suggests a link between ecstasy use and memory loss. (Live Science)
  
• The Star explores the state of psychedelic use in Costa Rica, where a government survey revealed only 0.1% of the population had heard of the LSD. (Costa Rica Star)
  
• A new study suggests that long term drug abuse is more likely to occur based on prior alcohol use, rather than marijuana, as a "gateway." (Medical Daily, Weed Blog)
• A judge in England cited marijuana as a "gateway drug" in a case involving cocaine dealing at the University of Kent. (Daily Mail)
  
• A declassified Department of Defense report probes the use of "mind-altering drugs" during the interrogation of war on terror detainees. (Truthout)
• A new regulatory regime for "legal highs" has been announced in New Zealand. The approval process will be similar to that of other medicines, and costs will be borne by suppliers who have to prove safety of product prior to selling it. (Ministry of Health)
  
• Veterinarians in New Zealand have been treating dogs stoned on marijuana or tripping on magic mushrooms. (Yahoo New Zealand)
  
• MAPS is seeking volunteers (especially doctors, nurses, and emergency medical technicians) to provide support for a psychedelic harm reduction services space hosted by the Fractal Nation theme camp at Burning Man 2012. (Fractal Nation)
• An IndieGoGo campaign is raising funds for an upcoming documentary about a band of war veterans who will head into the Peruvian jungle for three weeks of ayahuasca ceremony. (IndieGoGo)
• A new review of published medical research demonstrates that ayahuasca use is safe and may be beneficial. (Wiley)
  
• Care2 delves into the history of MDMA and its place in science and medicine in honor of its 100th birthday. (Care2)
• The Brazilian magazine Época summarizes the history of LSD. (Época)
• Skip Eisheimer, collector of retro classroom and educational films, screened a special collection of "hallucinogenic school films" in "The Psychedelic Classroom." (Montreal Gazette)
• Patch describes how researchers are giving LSD a second look in recent years. (Patch)
• David Jay Brown reviews scientific evidence suggesting that LSD and other psychedelics can significantly enhance creativity and inspire novel thought. (Santa Cruz Patch)
• The Huffington Post describes 11 science & tech luminaries who used illicit drugs, including Sigmund Freud, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs. (Huffington Post)
  
• Business Insider asked Steve Wozniak why the Apple co-founder never tried LSD. Wozniak said he accepted drug use in others, just as he respects people's choice of computer and smart phone platforms. (Business Insider)
• "The Jeffersons" star Sherman Hemsley, who passed away at the age of 74, was alleged to have an LSD lab in his basement earlier in life. (Yahoo)
• Tom Davis, the longtime stand-up comedian who conceived of the "Coneheads" sketch for Saturday Night Live while on LSD, died from cancer at the age of 59. (Washington Post)
  
• In an interview with the Quietus, musician and artist Konx-Om-Pax argues that psychedelic art is more fun than psychedelics. (Quietus)
• National Geographic spotlights a "psychedelic image" of the sun from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. (National Geographic)
  
• A retrospective at Sonos Studio presents a collection of art by Marijke Koger-Dunham, who has been hailed as "the mother of psychedelic art" and helped shape the iconic imagery of the sixties. (Huffington Post)
• Musical group Primus announced that it will be embarking on the "first-ever traveling 3-D-enhanced live musical performance," guaranteeing a "one-of-a-kind psychedelic experience." (International Business Times)
  
• An excerpt from a collection of autobiographical short stories about San Francisco in the Sixties was published in the Huffington Post. (Huffington Post)
• Andy Roberts released a revised version of the book "Albion Dreaming," which examines the significance of acid in the UK. (Guardian)
  
• Headstash features Baltimore's "Psychedelic Art Exchange," one of the country's top sources for vintage rock art. (Headstash)
• Auctioneer Paul "Pash" Pashibin will hold an auction of posters from the psychedelic rock era on August 11. (Live Auctioneers)
  
• The new field of archaeoacoustics provides evidence that ancients priests of Peru included psychedelics like mescaline in their religious practices. (Pacific Standard)
  
• An investigative-fictionalized biography of Jean Paul Sartre and Simone De Beauvoir includes Sartre's mescaline experiences. (Metapsychology)
• "The Tribe and Big Cats!", a Minneapolis-based rap group, released the video for their song "DMT flow." (Altsound)
  
• A special issue of the scientific journal "Drug Testing and Analysis" features several articles on the clinical use of psychedelics and cannabis. (Drug Testing and Analysis)
• Daily Rx reports that drug-related ER visits have increased significantly in recent years, based on a new government report. (Daily Rx)
• Two dozen people were arrested at Kentucky's 10th annual Forecastle Festival on drug charges. One festival attendee said that "contact highs" were less of a concern than with indoor venues. (WLKY)
  
• A woman charged with providing LSD to a University of Montana student who ended up in the hospital received a six-year deferred sentence. (Missoulian)
  
• Four teenagers were hospitalized after ingesting magic mushrooms they had picked in Australia. (Advocate)
• The sentencing of a 16-year-old New Zealand girl for dealing LSD to classmates reflects a "recent increase" in the circulation of "serious drugs" like LSD, ecstasy, and methamphetamine. The judge said that LSD was a "highly addictive" drug with potentially catastrophic consequences. (Stuff)
  
• A teenage boy was apprehended by police in British Columbia as allegedly attempted to fight a mailbox while under the influence of LSD. (Huffington Post)
• A teenager was arrested in NY after stealing religious texts from a church while high on LSD. (Times Union)
  
• A 17-year-old teenager was arrested in Detroit after attacking a police car while under the influence of LSD. (SFGate)
• An Ohio man pled guilty to slipping LSD into a woman's drink durning a concert in 2011. (10 TV)
  
• An autopsy report for a University of South Florida student who died after driving a Toyota into Hillsborough Bay revealed LSD in his system. (TBO)
• Described in terms of "half naked, weapon-wielding drug users who see things that aren't there" and "growling suspects whose superhuman strength makes them hard to restrain or sedate," one journalist describes that the use of synthetic "bath salts" has recently "exploded" in Central New York. (Observer-Dispatch)
• Miami-Dade commissioners gave preliminary approval to outlaw the sale of synthetic "bath salts" in Florida. (CBS Miami)
• A "fully functional DMT laboratory," described by the Narcotics Task Force Commander as "a rarity," was discovered by authorities in California along with stocks of opium, ecstasy, and marijuana. (Sierra Sun)
  
• A Houston paper describes 25i-NBOMe as a dangerous, LSD-like drug being sold at rave parties in the region. (Friendswood Journal)
• Two people died and 20 fell ill from drug-related issues at the Identity Festival in Massachusetts. (Boston)
  
• Undercover investigators in New York found head shop employees selling mislabeled bath salts and other synthetic drugs along with instructions on how to use them, leading to a lawsuit by the Attorney General's office. (Times Union) 
• A four-month investigation of alleged drug activity resulted in eight arrests for possession of "just under a half pound of marijuana, several amounts of LSD and crack cocaine, several items and drug paraphernalia and Ecstasy" in New York. (Olean Times Herald)

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.

"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.