This Week in Psychedelics

"This Week in Psychedelics" is a new Reality Sandwich column that follows the multifaceted media appearances of this class of chemicals and their effects in popular culture.

• The UK's Channel 4 to broadcast controversial series "Live Drugs" showing live footage of ecstasy use (Telegraph)
• David Jay Brown discusses the FDA's approval of MAPS's PTSD study with medical marijuana (Santa Cruz Patch)
• Sarah Silverman supports LSD for baseball pitchers on Fox news (Huffington Post)
• Author writes that Christopher Hitchens should promote "psychedelic end-of-life therapy" (AlterNet)
• DMT considered an "emerging threat" in New Zealand (TVNZ)
• Johnny Depp remarks that "playing Jack Sparrow is a psychedelic experience" (M&C)
• Honor Thy Daughter, memoir about psychedelic therapy for cancer patients, is published by MAPS (SFGate)
• Denouncing therapeutic label, article links ayahuasca use to mental illness and suicide (The Argus)
• Interview with Shpongle's Simon Posford on DMT and how he owes his music career to psychedelics (The RFW)
• Under consideration in the UK, bill 62-EN would allow politicians to decide drug laws without scientific input (CannaZine)
• A 20-year-old was spared jail time for possession of marijuana and ketamine by telling a judge he plans to do aid work in Cambodia (BuryFreePress)