Tag: the war on (some) drugs

A Rabbi, a Minister, a Monk, and a Priest Took Magic Mushrooms. Here’s What Happened

After scientists asked “psychedelic-naïve” professional religious leaders to take psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, most found the experience “religiously significant, meaningful, and generally beneficial.”

Historically, several world religions incorporate psychedelic compounds in their practices. However, this is the first study to examine what impact these experiences would have on the professional work of leaders from Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism, four of the world’s major religions.

Magic Mushrooms and Mystical Experiences

In their published study, the late Roland Griffiths, of Johns Hopkins University, and Stephen Ross and Anthony Bossis, from New York University Grossman School of Medicine, discuss the role of psychedelic compounds like LSD, psilocybin, ayahuasca, and peyote in religious ceremonies. While uses of these substances vary among cultures and religions, the researchers note that they can induce experiences that share similarities to “non-pharmacologically triggered” experiences often described as “religious, spiritual, or mystical.”

“Mystical experiences are characterized by a range of subjective features including a sense of unity, “noetic” quality (e.g., an authoritative sense of truth), transcendence of time and space, a sense of awe or sacredness, intense positive mood, transiency that nevertheless feels timeless, presence in awareness of mutually exclusive states or concepts, and ineffability,” they explain.

The researchers note that such experiences are also sometimes observed in states of consciousness “associated with near-death experiences, meditation, prayer, fasting, breathwork, and music.” Although psychedelics continue to be used in some Indigenous religious contexts, the researchers note “they are generally not used within major world religions (e.g., Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam).”

Curious if these religious leaders would have similar experiences and how these experiences might affect their job performance, the team recruited volunteers from all four major religions. According to the results, the study participants experienced several impacts on their personal and professional lives, including “enduring increases in well-being and spirituality,” that lasted up to 16 months after taking magic mushrooms.

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Texas Governor Signs Bill To Create Ibogaine Research Consortium, Aiming To Develop FDA-Approved Psychedelic Drug

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has signed into law a bill to create a state-backed research consortium to conduct clinical trials on ibogaine as a possible treatment for substance use disorders and other mental health conditions. The ultimate goal of the project is to develop the psychedelic into a prescription drug with U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, with the state retaining a portion of the profit.

“Texas is now leading the way in the United States for the evaluation of ibogaine as a potential medication that can help improve the lives of so many Americans,” the governor said at a signing event on Wednesday. He called the psychedelic “a therapy that has shown great promise in treating” conditions such as depression, PTSD and opioid use disorder.

“I’m about to sign a law that will lead to an FDA-approved drug development clinical trial that will seek approval of ibogaine as a medication for the treatment of opioid use disorder and other behavioral health conditions, especially those suffered by our veterans,” he added. “Texas will invest $50 million to support this research, and these funds can be matched by grants and private investments.”

Under the new law, approved by the state legislature earlier this month, Texas will retain a commercial interest in “all intellectual property that may be generated over the course of the drug development clinical trials,” the legislation says, with an aim of making Texas a hub for “ibogaine-related biomedical research, development, treatment, manufacturing, and distribution.”

A quarter of revenue taken in by the state from any resulting intellectual property would fund veterans programs.

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GOP-Led Congressional Panel Demands Investigation On Biden’s Marijuana Rescheduling Process, Citing ‘Deviations’ And ‘Mental Health Hazards’

A key GOP-led House committee is asking for a review of the cannabis rescheduling recommendation issued under the Biden administration, expressing concerns about “deviations” from a prior review process as well as the “mental health hazards of regular use of high-potency marijuana.”

In a report attached to a large-scale spending bill for the 2026 fiscal year, the House Appropriations Committee included several sections focused on marijuana and hemp—while also encouraging further research into the therapeutic potential of psychedelics. The panel is set to vote on the bill and report language on Wednesday.

For cannabis advocates and stakeholders, however, the report’s marijuana scheduling language is troubling, with members stating that they’re “concerned about deviations from established drug scheduling evaluation standards in the [Food and Drug Administration, or FDA] 2023 marijuana scheduling review.”

Under former President Joe Biden, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommended to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that cannabis be moved from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). That process has since stalled out amid legal challenges from witnesses in DEA administrative hearing proceedings.

“The Committee directs the HHS Inspector General to complete a report on the 2023 marijuana scheduling review including but not limited to: deviations from the established five-factor currently accepted medical use test, justification for a new, two-factor currently accepted medical use test and whether this will be the standard for all future reviews, use of a limited number of hand-selected comparator substances, and inclusion of research results that are not statistically significant or inconclusive,” the report section says.

The flagged issues largely echo concerns raised by prohibitionist organizations such as Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM). And the language is consistent with an earlier version of the agriculture spending legislation that advanced though committee but was not ultimately enacted last session.

“The Committee is concerned about reports of the mental health hazards of regular use of high-potency marijuana, particularly among adolescents,” it says. “The Committee encourages the FDA to support research on high-potency marijuana and its effects on the adolescent brain, specifically regarding addiction and mental illness such as schizophrenia or psychosis.”

“Marijuana Rescheduling.—The Committee is concerned about deviations from established drug scheduling evaluation standards in the FDA 2023 marijuana scheduling review. The Committee directs the HHS Inspector General to complete a report on the 2023 marijuana scheduling review including but not limited to: deviations from the established five-factor currently accepted medical use test, justification for a new, two-factor currently accepted medical use test and whether this will be the standard for all future reviews, use of a limited number of hand-selected comparator substances, and inclusion of research results that are not statistically significant or inconclusive. The Committee is concerned about reports of the mental health hazards of regular use of high-potency marijuana, particularly among adolescents. The Committee encourages the FDA to support research on high-potency marijuana and its effects on the adolescent brain, specifically regarding addiction and mental illness such as schizophrenia or psychosis.”

Elsewhere in the report, the panel also talked about their problem with “the proliferation of products marketed in violation of the [Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA)], including products containing derivatives of the cannabis plant,” which is consistent with provisions of the underlying bill that would ban all hemp items containing “quantifiable” amounts of THC.

“The Committee is aware that non-FFDCA-compliant products pose potential health and safety risks to consumers through misleading, unsubstantiated, and false claims that cannabis and cannabis derivatives can treat serious and life-threatening diseases and conditions, including COVID–19 and cancer,” the report says. “Such products may also be contaminated with harmful substances.”

“The Committee recognizes FDA’s use of existing authorities to undertake cannabis-related efforts, including research, requests for data, consumer education, issuance of guidance and policy around cannabis-based drug product development, and enforcement against wrongdoers,” it continues. “The Committee expects FDA to continue and increase these efforts given the proliferation of non-FFDCA-compliant, cannabis-containing products and the risks they pose to public health.”

“Cannabidiol Oil Enforcement.—The Committee is concerned about the proliferation of products marketed in violation of the FFDCA, including products containing derivatives of the cannabis plant. The Committee is aware that non-FFDCA-compliant products pose potential health and safety risks to consumers through misleading, unsubstantiated, and false claims that cannabis and cannabis derivatives can treat serious and life-threatening diseases and conditions, including COVID–19 and cancer. Such products may also be contaminated with harmful substances. The Committee recognizes FDA’s use of existing authorities to undertake cannabis-related efforts, including research, requests for data, consumer education, issuance of guidance and policy around cannabis-based drug product development, and enforcement against wrongdoers. The Committee expects FDA to continue and increase these efforts given the proliferation of non-FFDCA-compliant, cannabis-containing products and the risks they pose to public health. The Committee also expects FDA to take enforcement action against the manufacturers of any cannabis products marketed with unlawful therapeutic claims to preserve the integrity of the drug development and approval processes, which ensures that products, including cannabis-containing products, marketed as drugs have undergone a rigorous scientific evaluation to ensure that they are safe, pure, potent, and effective for the diseases and conditions they claim to treat. It is also imperative that FDA continue to exercise its existing authorities to preserve incentives to invest in robust clinical study of cannabis so its therapeutic value can be better understood.”

The report further states that members expect FDA to “take enforcement action against the manufacturers of any cannabis products marketed with unlawful therapeutic claims to preserve the integrity of the drug development and approval processes, which ensures that products, including cannabis-containing products, marketed as drugs have undergone a rigorous scientific evaluation to ensure that they are safe, pure, potent, and effective for the diseases and conditions they claim to treat.”

“It is also imperative that FDA continue to exercise its existing authorities to preserve incentives to invest in robust clinical study of cannabis so its therapeutic value can be better understood,” the committee said.

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies advanced the underlying bill last week, stirring controversy over provisions to prohibit cannabis products containing any “quantifiable” amount of THC or “any other cannabinoids that have similar effects (or are marketed to have similar effects) on humans or animals” as THC.

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Marijuana Companies Are Blocked From COVID-Era Employee Retention Tax Credits Under 280E Penalty, Federal Court Says

In yet another wrinkle stemming from the ongoing federal prohibition on marijuana, a U.S. district court has ruled that an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax rule prevents state-legal cannabis companies from being eligible for refunds of employee retention credits (ERCs), which helped businesses continue to pay workers during early COVID-era shutdowns.

In the decision, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington ruled that “nothing in the plain text of [IRS code] Section 280E limits its application to income tax credits,” rejecting arguments from plaintiffs.

The government, meanwhile, contended that the Section 280E prohibits any and all tax credits, including refunds of the COVID-era ERCs, which are typically refundable for other businesses.

On May 9, the court granted the government’s motion to dismiss the the case, Solstice Holdings v. U.S.

Section 280E disallows standard tax deductions and tax credits for businesses that traffic in Schedule I or II substances. It applies even in cases where businesses are operating in compliance with state law.

The law firm Holland & Hart said in a post about the new ruling that it appears to be “the first case where a court has addressed the application of IRC § 280E to ERC.”

Another law firm, GreenspoonMarder, noted in post about the district court opinion that many cannabis businesses applied for the ERC during the pandemic—and many received it.

“Some were deemed ‘essential’ and had to stay open during the pandemic despite the higher costs associated with continued operations during the pandemic and various restrictions that rendered it much more difficult to visit their stores,” attorneys Nick Richards and Sabrina Strand wrote recently.

“When the ERC first came out, there was a question as to whether it was available to cannabis companies because it creates a tax credit that Section 280E may disallow,” the post points out. “There was also an argument that it didn’t apply to the ERC, because Section 280E is part of Section A of the [Internal Revenue Code], which concerns income rather than employment taxes. At least one court now disagrees.”

Both law firms suggest the case out of Washington State creates a standard across all states within the jurisdiction of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. GreenspoonMarder, for example, says the ruling “technically only applies to companies located in the 9th Circuit.”

“That said, as the only opinion on this subject,” lawyers wrote, “the IRS may look to it as authority regardless of whether taxpayers are in one of the nine states located in the Circuit.”

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Missouri AG Sends Cease And Desist Letters To 18 Hemp Companies, Warning More Are On The Way

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R) has sent several cease-and-desist letters to companies selling a hemp product called THCA flower that looks exactly like marijuana flower sold at dispensaries.

Bailey’s letters threaten legal action, including injunctions, civil penalties and attorney’s fees if the companies continue to sell the products.

“When purchasing products, Missourians deserve to know if they are being exposed to dangerous side effects like psychotic episodes, hallucinations or other life-threatening risks,” said Attorney General Bailey in a statement to The Independent. “We have issued 18 cease and desist letters so far, and more are forthcoming.”

Cannabis lobbyist Eapen Thampy said about a dozen smoke shops in St. Louis received the letters, and in some cases, THCA flower makes up 60 percent to 80 percent of the companies’ inventories.

Thampy said he’s working with the companies to put together a response to the letters and preparing for potential litigation.

The action is the first major move since Bailey created a new specialized unit last fall, with the aim to assist the state’s alcohol and tobacco regulators in cracking down on intoxicating hemp products.

In September, Bailey vowed his new unit would work with the Missouri Alcohol and Tobacco Control (ATC) Division to bring legal action against licensees selling unregulated psychoactive cannabis products that violate the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act.

“The ATC will assist by making its investigators available as witnesses for legal proceedings resulting from actionable referrals,” Bailey said in September. “Our enforcement toolkit will be robust from cease-and-desist letters and investigations to subpoenas and lawsuits to referrals for criminal prosecution where appropriate.”

The letters that went out last month state that the companies are “directed to cease and desist from selling” hemp products that contain more than 0.3 percent THCA on a dry weight basis. THCA is a naturally abundant cannabinoid that transforms into Delta-9 THC when smoked or heated.

However, this is not what an official cease and desist order looks like, said Jefferson City-based attorney Chuck Hatfield.

“It is an informal cease and desist,” Hatfield said. “It is not a letter that has the force and effect of law. It’s more in the nature of a request to stop.”

Under state law, if Bailey wanted to issue an official cease and desist order—as he did for Planned Parenthood in March—Hatfield said Bailey would have to issue a notice of intent first. The company would have the right to appeal through an administrative hearing, as well as challenge the order in court.

“But he hasn’t done any of that,” Hatfield said.

Bailey could also file a lawsuit under Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, and that doesn’t require a cease and desist order, he said.

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Trump’s Federal Budget Cuts Could Boost Marijuana Legalization Efforts As States Seek New Revenue, Congresswoman Says

A Democratic congresswoman says the Trump administration’s push to make states pay a larger share for public services such as food assistance and health care amid his efforts to cut federal spending might ultimately “push them in the direction of legalizing marijuana” so they can offset those costs with cannabis tax revenue.

In an interview on the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) Voice of Cannabis podcast that was released on Thursday, Congressional Cannabis Caucus co-chair Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) commented on a wide range of marijuana policy issues—including bipartisan legalization legislation, stalled action on federal reform and the destigmatization of cannabis use in her state after enacting an adult-use marijuana market.

One of the “only good things that comes out of the policy of the White House is that they are pushing more things to the states to pay for—like [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)] and like Medicaid—and so states may be looking for additional sources of revenue,” Titus said. “That may push them in the direction of legalizing marijuana, to some extent, so they can get that tax revenue generated.”

Titus said the lawmakers who back reform were initially “optimistic” about the prospects of a federal policy change under President Donald Trump because of comments he made on the campaign trail in favor of rescheduling, industry banking access and a Florida adult-use legalization ballot initiative left the impression “he was going to be supportive.”

“Now we’ve seen that kind of stall, and we have this crazy secretary of [the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)] that I think is on drugs,” the congresswoman said, referencing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “I don’t know where he’s coming from, and so it’s hard to read what the administration is going to do and if they’re going to make it a priority and if they’re going to weigh in. So that’s another element of the politics that we have to keep in mind.”

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FDA Approved Hundreds of Drugs With No Evidence They Work

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved hundreds of drugs over the last several decades with little to no evidence that they work, according to a new investigation by The Lever.

Many of the drugs are permitted to stay on the market, despite ample evidence that they don’t work and that they cause serious and irreparable harm.

The Lever’s two-year investigation into the FDA-approved drugs analyzed government reports, internal FDA documents, investigators’ notes, congressional testimony, court records and more than 100 interviews with researchers, federal officials and patients.

The investigation found that from 2013 through 2022, 73% of drugs approved by the FDA didn’t meet the agency’s four foundational standards required to show the drugs work as expected. Fifty-five of the approved drugs met only one of those four standards, and 39 met none of them.

More than half of drug approvals were based on preliminary data, which meant the pharmaceutical companies didn’t submit evidence that patients had fewer symptoms, showed improvement or had their lives extended.

The approval rate of such drugs has accelerated over the last decade, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.

Cancer treatments, in particular, raised serious red flags. Only 2.4% of the 123 cancer drugs met all of the criteria, and 29 met none. The FDA approved 81% of cancer drugs based on preliminary data.

The report did not evaluate any vaccines.

The Lever wrote:

“These statistics come after billions of dollars and years of lobbying by the pharmaceutical industry and patient advocacy groups pressuring Congress to loosen the FDA’s scientific standards.

“The resulting seismic shift from proving drugs work before they are approved to showing they work only after approval — if ever — has been quietly accomplished with virtually no awareness by doctors or the public.

“Insurers and taxpayers effectively pay for research after drugs hit the market as pharmaceutical companies reap the profits. Patients serve as the unwitting guinea pigs — with very real consequences.”

The outlet also reported that an estimated 128,000 people are killed each year by side effects from prescription drugs prescribed as indicated.

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Marijuana Users Are Nearly 5 Times As Likely To Regularly Exercise Than Eat Fast Food, Stereotype-Busting Survey Shows

Marijuana consumers are more than three times more likely to regularly exercise than drink alcohol—and they’re nearly five times more likely to routinely work out than eat fast food—according to another stereotype-defying survey.

The poll from the cannabis telehealth platform NuggMD looked at the habits of cannabis users, who were asked about the frequency they engage in seven different activities—from alcohol consumption to movie theater attendance.

One of the takeaways was that marijuana consumers reported regularly engaging in exercise (27.4 percent daily and 34.9 percent multiple times per week) significantly more often than using alcohol (6.1 percent daily and 11.3 percent multiple times per week).

Another finding from the survey was that cannabis consumers are 4.8 times more likely to regularly exercise than to eat fast food (1.5 percent daily and 11.5 percent multiple times per week).

“This finding is yet more evidence that today’s cannabis consumers defy the prohibitionist stereotype of layabouts munching Doritos and then crossfading with booze to get their fix,” Andrew Graham, head of communications at NuggMD, told Marijuana Moment.

“The data shows that cannabis consumers self-report several healthy lifestyle habits. When compared with federal data on exercise and fast food consumption, our poll shows that cannabis consumers are in fact more likely to exercise and less likely to eat fast food than the average U.S. adult,” he said. “Previous polling we’ve done shows cannabis has a distinct replacement effect on alcohol use, and this poll charts a similar direction.”

“For millions of wellness-focused Americans, cannabis is simply part of the routine. It’s kind of mind-blowing how wrong the prohibitionist crowd is about everything,” Graham said.

Several other studies have similarly found that cannabis users exercise at average or above-average levels compared to non-users, bucking the long-held stigma that marijuana makes people lazy. This is one of the latest data points to show the same.

Notably, the new poll also found that relatively few marijuana consumers frequently use food delivery services, with just 3.3 percent reporting that they order delivery daily and 8.3 percent saying they use such services multiple times a week.

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250,000 Texans Voted to Decriminalize Marijuana, So Why Are Politicians Trying To Override Them?

As the executive director of Ground Game Texas, I lead a team organizing working-class Texans to pass movement-driven local policies at the ballot box. In a state where our elected officials are openly hostile to justice, and voter suppression is rampant, we take the fight directly to the people. And the people are showing up.

Through our local campaigns, we’ve gathered hundreds of thousands of petition signatures and earned a quarter of a million votes to decriminalize marijuana across Texas—from Austin to Killeen, Lockhart to Dallas. In a state with low voter turnout, marijuana decriminalization has earned a supermajority of the vote in every city, and over-performed compared to the rest of the ballot. But instead of respecting the will of the voters, politicians in this state are doing everything they can to overturn these democratically elected policies.

We are fighting locally, fighting statewide, and fighting crony courts. Last year in Lockhart, the city attorney tried to split our single policy into 13 separate ballot items to bury it in bureaucracy. We stopped them. A state appeals court just upheld a lawsuit designed to stop our cities from implementing our marijuana decriminalization. And at the legislature, five separate bills were introduced this session to gut local control and block citizens from changing the law through ballot initiatives.

This is about more than plants with healing properties. It’s about power. It’s about democracy. And it’s all connected.

The war on drugs isn’t a failed policy—it’s a successful tool of oppression. A tool used to criminalize poverty. A tool used to lock Black and Brown Texans into cycles of incarceration. A tool used to destabilize families, punish veterans and disabled people and make survival a crime.

And when we rise up to change those laws, the people in power rewrite the rules to keep control. That’s not new. It’s a familiar playbook.

From Jim Crow poll taxes to modern-day gerrymandering and felony disenfranchisement, this country has always created new systems to block the people most impacted by oppression from changing it. What’s happening in Texas right now is just the latest chapter.

Let’s be clear: The issue isn’t that Texans don’t care. The issue is that the system was designed to keep most Texans out.

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Liver Injuries Reportedly on the Rise: Common, FDA-Approved Meds Linked to Alarming Trend

As more people find themselves using more vitamins, supplements, and everyday medications, more related health issues keep cropping up.

And a recent spate of reports highlights a particular danger for one part of your body: the liver.

“As cases of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) are on the rise, experts are warning of the hidden dangers associated with some common medications and supplements,” Fox News reported Monday.

The outlet added, “Statistics show that DILI, also known as toxic hepatitis or hepatotoxicity — which is known to be a significant cause of acute liver failure — has been growing in Western countries since the 1960s.”

“Even medications that have been tested for safety and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can potentially cause liver injury in rare cases,” Fox reported.

Just days earlier, on May 27, NBC News had posted a similarly alarming report regarding these health ramifications.

The outlet spoke to Robert Grafton, a former medical technologist who noticed signs of liver failure in himself and largely traced it back to various supplements and vitamins he had been taking.

“I stopped taking everything, thank goodness,” Grafton said. “If I hadn’t known, if I was not in the medical field, I might have thought, ‘Oh, I think I’m getting sick. I need to take some more of these supplements to help me feel better.’”

Despite stopping, symptoms worsened and test results pointed toward devastating liver failure.

It turned out to be a case of DILI.

“It is estimated that between 13.9 and 19.1 cases of DILI occur for every 100,000 people, according to recent research published in the journal Toxicology Reports,” Fox noted.

The triggers of DILI can vary, from the vitamins and supplements that Grafton had been taking, mentioned above, to aspirin, the common over-the-counter painkiller.

Those with health conditions are more susceptible to DILI, but as Grafton — someone who began taking his health seriously after having children — shows, it can hit very healthy people, too.

Fox News medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel told his network that the unregulated nature of supplements could betray some of their purported health benefits.

“The biggest problem with herbal supplements is that the amount you are taking of active chemicals isn’t strictly regulated, so you don’t know exactly what you are getting,” he said. “And since several of the supplements are metabolized through the liver, there is now an increasing incidence of liver toxicity in users.”

According to the National Institutes of Health, “nearly all classes of medications” can cause DILI.

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