Tag: psychedelics

UN Body Reaffirms That Marijuana Legalization Violates International Treaties, While Addressing Germany Cannabis Reform And U.S. Psychedelics Movement

The United Nations’s (UN) drug control body is reiterating that it considers legalizing marijuana for non-medical or scientific purposes a violation of international treaties, though it also said it appreciates that Germany’s government scaled back its cannabis plan ahead of a recent vote. The global narcotics agency is also taking note of the psychedelics policy reform movement in U.S. states.

This is mostly par for the course for the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), which has routinely criticized countries for allowing the enactment of cannabis legalization due to their obligations under various Single Convention treaties going back to 1961. But as Germany entered the fold, and the U.S. has continued to move toward marijuana and psychedelics reform, the body is again making its disappointment known.

INCB’s 2023 annual report, which was published on Tuesday, “underscores” that member nations are required to “take such legislative and administrative measures as may be necessary” to criminalize “the production, manufacture, export, import, distribution of, trade in, use and possession of drugs” such as marijuana under decades-old treaty agreements.

“The Board continues to reiterate its concern regarding the legalization of the use of cannabis for non-medical and non-scientific purposes in several jurisdictions, with other jurisdictions considering similar action,” it said.

To that point, INCB also included a recommendation in the latest report to recall an analysis from its 2022 report that, at one point, suggested that the U.S. is out of compliance with drug treaty obligations because the federal government is passively allowing states within the country to legalize marijuana.

“The apparent tension between these provisions and the trend towards legalization must be addressed by the signatories to the three drug control conventions,” it said.

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Copper Age Settlement Shows Evidence of Accidental Ritual Mercury Abuse

Getting high off toxic insolvents and chemicals to induce mind-altering effects, is a public health concern today. Dial back 5,000 years ago, in the Iberian Peninsula, groups of women adorned in immaculate ceremonial attire would participate in a ritual dance before an audience, inhaling a vibrant red powder, or mixing it an elixir. This powder, derived from the mineral cinnabar, induced a fevered trance accompanied by tremors and delirium, and its users, visited different astral planes. But the dark side of this tradition was it necessitated a lifetime of dangerous and lethal mercury abuse.

What the users were unlikely to be aware of was that the ‘trip’ was a byproduct of the toxic metal mercury, today one of the most widely banned substances by public health departments all over the world. This usage and more have been wonderfully documented in a study published in late 2023 in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory.

“Western medicine has basically banned mercury … [like] public health enemy No. 1,” says Leonardo García Sanjuán, the study’s lead author and an archaeologist at the University of Seville in Spain. “But the truth is, the history of the relationship of humans with mercury has been quite complex.”

Repeated exposure to these rituals led to the accumulation of mercury in the women’s bodily tissues over their lifetimes. Millennia later, archaeological analysis revealed significantly elevated levels of mercury in the bones of these women and others from their community, far surpassing modern health tolerances.

It appears that at the Copper Age settlement of Valencina, between approximately 2900 and 2650 BC, ritual leaders purposefully ingested mercury-rich cinnabar for ceremonial or magical purposes. Meanwhile, other community members may have inadvertently consumed it while working with the pigment or through environmental contamination.

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Activists Renew Effort To Use Opioid Settlement Funds To Study Ibogaine For Addiction In Ohio After Kentucky Plan Falls Through

Psychedelic medicine proponents are redirecting their efforts to use millions in opioid-related state settlement money for ibogaine research from Kentucky to Ohio.

The original plan to use $42 million from Kentucky’s opioid settlement fund for psychedelics research fell through late last year after the state’s new attorney general replaced then-Kentucky Opioid Commission Chairman Bryan Hubbard, who was spearheading the ibogaine initiative, with a former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) official.

Now Hubbard has joined ResultsOHIO, a division of the Ohio Treasurer’s Office, where he will be partnering with the Reaching Everyone in Distress (REID) Foundation in hopes of securing a portion of that state’s opioid settlement funds to promote psychedelics clinical trials for substance misuse treatment.

“I’m honored to work with the REID Foundation and the people of Ohio to bring hope and healing to veterans and families being torn apart by the opioid crisis,” Hubbard said in a press release. “The development of ibogaine as a treatment option for opioid-dependent individuals is a moral imperative.”

A Kentucky commission focused on opioid overdose abatement held several meetings last year to go over the ibogaine initiative that’s since fizzled out in that state under the new attorney general. Members heard testimony from military veterans, parents, psychologists and other advocates—including former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R)—about the therapeutic potential of the psychedelic.

Like Kentucky, Ohio has been hard hit by the opioid overdose crisis. And under the settlement agreement, the state is expected to receive about $1 billion that could be used for various programs and services to help mitigate the public health issue.

The plan for the ibogaine effort is to seek funding for the research through a public-private partnership, while also exploring the creation of a specific program under ResultsOHIO to facilitate the partial settlement distribution, Psychedelic Alpha reported.

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FDA Grants Priority Review Of MDMA-Assisted Therapy For PTSD, Psychedelics Drug Development Company Says

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has agreed to review MDMA-assisted therapy as a potential treatment option for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and the application has been granted priority status, according to the psychedelics-focused drug development company that’s leading the effort.

About two months after Lykos Therapeutics (formerly MAPS Public Benefit Corporation) submitted the new drug application (NDA) for MDMA in combination with psychotherapy, FDA granted it priority review last week and has set a target date for determination by August 11, the company announced on Friday.

If the NDA is ultimately approved, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) would then need to reschedule MDMA accordingly. It would become the first psychedelic in history to be approved as a pharmaceutical, to be administered in tandem with talk therapy and other supportive services.

“Securing priority review for our investigational MDMA-assisted therapy is a significant accomplishment and underscores the urgent unmet need for new innovation in the treatment of PTSD,” Lykos CEO Amy Emerson said in a press release. “We remain focused on working with the FDA through the review process and preparing for a controlled launch with an emphasis on quality should this potential treatment be approved.”

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Margaret Mead’s LSD Memo

With her paper-cluttered desk spotlit underneath a pendant lamp, Margaret Mead’s office in the western turret in the American Museum of Natural History resembled a Broadway theater set. All around her in the shadows hung masks and carved figures, as if the museum dioramas from the floors below had begun to creep into her workspace.

Back in her spiritual home after spending the last six months of 1953 in Manus, she felt refreshed, confident. She was already thinking through her book about her experience; New Lives for Old would be the title, and it would describe the Noise, an apocalyptic religious movement which spread through the island of Manus, which lies northeast of New Guinea, in the aftermath of World War II. In 1947, a prophet had emerged on Manus who predicted a coming age of abundance, even immortality. But first, the old ways had to be cast out. Reports poured in of visionary experiences, trance states, even seizures. Hats of colonial officials were ritually burned, and a coming age of abundance was proclaimed. Mead found the Noise fascinating because she saw it as a prelude to other new cultural forms which she believed would appear elsewhere as a response to the rapid changes of the 20th century—including in the United States. She saw the movement in relatively benign terms. True, it really was an apocalyptic cult, she wrote, complete with mystical “prophetic dreams” and the promise of “a utopia to be immediately established on earth.” But who said utopian dreams were entirely bad?

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THE WEIRD AND WONDERFUL WORLD OF LSD

LSD is a drug which has had a bizarre inception and nuanced history. What began as a pharmacological experiment rapidly evolved into a substance which was used for a wide range of uses. From groundbreaking psychiatric work all the way to abuse in mind control military projects, let’s dive into some of the most significant examples of psychedelics’ use in society since its creation.

Hofmann’s Accidental Ingestion

Dubbed as the father of the psychedelic movement due to his work on the synthesis of LSD, Albert Hofmann was the first to produce and ingest LSD. Albert Hofmann first synthesised Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) in November 1938 when studying the medicinal properties of the ergot fungus and the Mediterranean squill. Ergot is a fungus which grows on rye and can infect the grain causing muscle spasms, delusions, hallucinations, gangrenous symptoms and ultimately death to those who consume it. This process has been linked to plagues and famines which have killed hundreds of thousands of people in the past. 

Hofmann’s boss, Arthur Stoll, managed to isolate the toxic compounds in ergot: ergotamine and ergobasine. By utilising Aotamine, the medicinal compound in ergot, Stoll was able to produce medicines for his Swiss pharmaceutical company Sandoz. 

Hofmann originally intended for LSD to be used as a respiratory and circulatory stimulant. However, when he accidentally absorbed the drug in his lab in 1943, he discovered that it had a far more powerful impact on his state of consciousness. Hofmann originally was unsure of how he had experienced the effects, and believed that LSD couldn’t have been the cause for his symptoms as he had been meticulous in avoiding contamination due to his knowledge of the lethality of ergot. However, he attempted to reproduce his effects by consuming what he believed to be a miniscule dose of LSD to test whether it was the cause.

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Psilocybin, LSD And Other Psychedelics Improve Sexual Satisfaction For Months After Use, New Study Finds

Psychedelic substances, including psilocybin mushrooms, LSD and others, may improve sexual function—even months after a psychedelic experience, according to a new study.

The findings, published on Wednesday in Nature Scientific Reports, are based largely on a survey of 261 participants both before and after taking psychedelics. Researchers from Imperial College London’s Centre for Psychedelic Research then combined those responses with results of a separate clinical trial that compared psilocybin and a commonly prescribed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRIs) for treating depression.

Authors say it’s the first scientific study to formally explore the effects of psychedelics on sexual functioning. While anecdotal reports and and qualitative evidence suggest the substances may be beneficial, the study says, “this has never been formally tested.”

“It’s important to stress our work does not focus on what happens to sexual functioning while people are on psychedelics, and we are not talking about perceived ‘sexual performance,’” said Tommaso Barba, a PhD student at the Centre for Psychedelic Research and the lead author of the study, “but it does indicate there may be a lasting positive impact on sexual functioning after their psychedelic experience, which could potentially have impacts on psychological wellbeing.”

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Romans may have used a poisonous plant as a hallucinogenic drug 2,000 years ago, study finds

The Romans are known to have been one of the world’s most influential civilisations.

But even they may have enjoyed a little escapism – in the form of powerful hallucinogens, a study suggests.

Archaeologists have discovered hundreds of black henbane seeds in a hollowed bone at the rural Roman settlement of Houten-Castellum in the Netherlands.

These seeds originate from a poisonous plant, which is part of the nightshade family, and have been used as both a medicine and a narcotic.

Until now, no conclusive evidence of the use of black henbane has been discovered from Roman times.

But experts said the placement of seeds inside a hollowed-out sheep or goat bone, sealed with a black birch bark tar plug, indicate the seeds were stored there intentionally around 2,000 years ago.

Historic texts suggest that henbane may have been used as a painkiller and sleep remedy.

But others warn it can also have strong hallucinogenic effects – causing loss of muscle control, dilation of pupils, visions and even induce a sense of flying.

While this is the first example of black henbane being found in a container from the Roman period, it is not clear exactly what its intended use was, the researchers said.

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Rhode Island House Panel Weighs Bill That Would Temporarily Legalize Psilocybin

Lawmakers on Rhode Island’s House Judiciary Committee considered a bill on Thursday that would effectively legalize psilocybin mushrooms in the state, temporarily removing penalties around possession, home cultivation and sharing of psilocybin until mid-2026.

The proposal, H. 7047, from Rep. Brandon Potter (D), would not establish a commercial retail system around the psychedelic—at least until after federal reform is enacted. Until then, it would exempt up to an ounce of psilocybin from the state’s law against controlled substances provided that it “has been securely cultivated within a person’s residence for personal use” or is possessed by “one person or shared by one person to another.”

The measure is identical to a bill passed 56–11 by the House last year, though that matter did not move forward in the Senate before the end of the session.

“I don’t think it was that long ago that if you were to put a proposal like this forward, it would be thought of as very controversial,” Potter told the panel on Thursday. “But I think it’s become much more popularized and people are well aware of it, especially when you see just like the abundance and overwhelming amount of clinical research and medical science that is promoting the effects this has had on people.”

“These are not, you know, small, low-budget operations,” he added of emerging scientific research indicating the therapeutic potential of psilocybin. “These are leading medical institutions like Johns Hopkins and Yale and Stanford and so on and so forth—NYU, Columbia.”

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The Very Illegal Cafe Where You Can Take Shrooms and Chew Coca

“Cops and raids can’t keep us down,” reads a sign outside of the Coca Leaf Cafe and Medicinal Mushroom Dispensary in downtown Vancouver, Canada. In November last year, the emporium – which sells not just Bolivian coca (from which cocaine derives) and hallucinogenic mushrooms, but all manner of psychedelics – was raided by the police for the first time since opening in 2020, along with two other dispensaries under the same ownership. Thousands of dollars in cash and drugs worth tens of thousands were seized.

Owner Dana Larsen was arrested and held in custody for seven hours, but he reopened the cafe the next day after being released without any immediate charges. Staff at his other two outlets greeted psychonauts, microdosers and the psychedelic-curious once more a few days later. The immediate reopening was a brazen move, even for Larsen, a 52-year-old veteran of entrepreneurial drug law reform activism, who was chewing coca leaves when we first met. His next play was even more audacious.

For Christmas, he sent festive cards to the addresses of all 87 members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, and gifted each of the politicians a coca leaf and one gram of Golden Teacher magic mushrooms. In the card, he wished them “the happiest of holidays”, lauded the plants’ “beneficial therapeutic properties”, and included a membership form for the dispensary. Larsen told local media: “I encourage them to try the mushroom in a safe and responsible setting and to have that experience – it can be very beneficial.” It’s unclear whether any of them took him up on the offer; in fact, some of them called the police.

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