This Week in Psychedelics

Mounting evidence demonstrates cannabinoids slow cancer growth, a new procedure detects the presence of mescaline in hair samples, and Oliver Sacks describes how drugs increased in insight and empathy in this week's psychedelic news.

• Psychedemia, the upcoming psychedelics conference at the University of Pennsylvania, released a new video with its fundraising campaign. (IndieGoGo)
• The Huni Xui tribe from Amazonia is displaying its "visual encyclopedia" of images drawn to ayahuasca songs at the Cartier Foundation's exhibition "Histoires de voir: Show and Tell" in Paris through October 21. (Indian Country Today)
• Mounting scientific evidence demonstrates that cannabinoids in marijuana slow cancer growth, inhibit the formation of new blood cells that feed tumors, and help manage pain, fatigue, nausea, and other side effects of cancer. (Daily Beast)
• In a New York Times editorial, Mark Wolfe, describes how medical cannabis has helped make him a better father. (NY Times)
• In conversation with the New Yorker, Oliver Sacks describes how his drug experiences increased his empathy, insight, and openness to others' experiences. (New Yorker)
  
• The Huffington Post cites four major factors behind the Psychedelic Renaissance: new therapies, control and predictability, emerging markets, and good science. (Huffington Post)
  
• Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), believed that LSD had helped him overcome depression and that it could also give alcoholics insight to aid their recovery. The discovery was made by Don Lattin, author of "Distilled Spirits," which will be published in October by the University of California Press. (Guardian)
• NPR describes a new documentary, "How To Make Money Selling Drugs," which is both a satirical instructional film and a comprehensive argument against existing drug policies. Featured guests include 50 Cent, Eminem, Susan Sarandon, Woody Harrelson, and David Simon. (NPR)
  
• A long-term study by researchers from King's College and Duke University suggests a correlation between adolescent cannabis use and lower IQ. The same study reports that the highest IQ group was of people who had used cannabis but had not been dependent at an early age. (Guardian, BBC, Huffington Post)
• Kevin A. Sabet promotes a "balanced and nuanced" approach to drug policy based on "evidence, common sense, public health and public safety" rather than legalization.(Huffington Post)
• A vote in the Netherlands might repeal laws banning the sale of weed to foreigners. (Guardian)
• Russ Belville offers counterarguments to Dr. Kevin Sabet's opinions against drug legalization. (Huffington Post)
• An Australian national report into illicit drugs recommends decriminalizing ecstasy and cannabis under a government-controlled program to help curb addiction and criminal assets. (ABC, SMH)
• Greg Barns writes about Australia's "pointless and deadly" crackdown on drugs. (ABC)
  
• David Jay Brown describes Burning Man as "our planet's first truly psychedelic society." (Santa Cruz Patch)
• David Jay Brown reviews scientific research that suggests psychedelic medicines have great potential to ease the dying process. (Santa Cruz Patch)
  
• A Dutch iboga practitioner is being held in police custody, charged with manslaughter, after a 28-year-old man was hit by a truck on a highway 56 hours after he had taken the African plant hallucinogen. (Psychedelic Press UK)
• Rastafarian elder King Frank-I said that the Rastafarian communities of Antigua and Barbuda want authorities to pattern marijuana decriminalization on the model established by Belize. (Antigua Observer)
  
• A federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled that police did not have a proper warrant when they arrested nearly two dozen people on drug charges at "Funk Fest," an outdoor music festival. The warrant was unconstitutional because it wasn't supported by probable cause. (Sacbee)
• A new procedure for detecting the presence of mescaline in hair samples is a candidate for routine forensic toxicology testing. (Separations Now)
• Scientists at the University of Southern California claim to have detected a link between recreational marijuana use and a greater chance among males of developing a dangerous form of testicular cancer. (NBC)
• A four-part television series examining narcotics will follow several "human guinea pigs" who have taken MDMA under laboratory conditions. (London Evening Standard)
  
• The Huffington Post provides a roundup of classic drug trips on television. (Huffington Post)
• "The Invisibles Omnibus," a collection of the psychedelic comics by hyperspace superstar Grant Morrison, is No. 1 on the NY Times hardcover graphic books best-seller list. (NY Times)
• The Marquette Tribune describes Animal Collective's new album as a "bad psychedelic trip" with "the power to paralyze and confuse the listener in the unhealthiest way." (Marquette Tribune)
  
• A Beverly Hills home The Beatles rented for a LSD party is now on sale for more than three million dollars. (Classic Hits and Oldies, Daily Mail)
• Elijah Wood's character Ryan in the TV show "Wilfred" takes ayahuasca in a bid to ease his frequent panic attacks. (Celeb Stoner)
• The next project from British director Ben Wheatley will be a period piece set in the English Civil War, in which a jaunt through a mushroom field results in "a psychedelic trip into magic and madness." (Indie Wire, Inside Movies)
  
• Actor Shia LaBeouf claims that in order to get into character for a new movie (The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman), he actually dropped LSD because his character does so in the film. (Popbytes)
• A Policy Mic editorial spotlights Terence McKenna's views the crucial role magic mushrooms have played in the evolution of human consciousness. (Policy Mic)
• A blogger for the Boston Phoenix describes his acid trip during the Democratic National Convention. (Boston Phoenix)
  
• An Australian high school is at the center of a drug scandal after two senior figures, including its former drug awareness teacher, were convicted of drug offenses. (Yahoo)
• Parents in Horthcliffe, Australia are rallying behind a school principle who stood down "amid shock revelations" of drug charges against a staff member and the school council's chairman. (West Australian)
• The Himachal Pradesh High Court in India cancelled the bail of an Israeli who was arrested for possessing cannabis, opium, hashish oil, MDMA, and LSD, declaring the lower court's decision as "wrong, illegal and suffer[ing] from material irregularity." (Two Circles)
  
• A deadly batch of ecstasy pills imprinted with the Louis Vuitton symbol was suspected in the death and hospitalization of several young adults in Australia. Users who checked the tablets with home testing kits claimed that rather than MDMA they contained the drug PMA, which can be lethal in high doses. (news.com.au)
• A judge rejected a plea deal for Valentina Hubsch, a former model, for a hit-and-run accident resulting in the death of a 21-year-old University of Miami student who was high on LSD. (Palm Beach Post)
  
• A 22-year-old from Georgia was arrested after undercover police purchased marijuana and "a large number of sugar cubes laced with LSD" on multiple occasions.
  (Savannah Now)
• Three people face felony charges in Sand Springs, OK for manufacturing DMT, which the paper dubs a "new drug" that goes by the name "Elf Spice." (Sand Springs Leader)
• A TV spot in Indianapolis refers to the phenethylamine 2C-I as a "new synthetic drug" called "smiles" that "has doctors and parents on high alert." (Wave 3)

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.