Category Archives: Psychedelics

It may be legal to experience a spiritual or healing journey on magic mushrooms sooner than you thinkif you live in the right part of America. A group called the Oregon Psilocybin Society is pushing for a 2020 ballot measure that would make the Beaver State the first in the nation to legalize psilocybin, the primary active ingredient in numerous species of psychedelic mushrooms, in a therapeutic setting.

Psilocybin is currently listed on Schedule I under the federal Controlled Substances Act, which means it's supposedly got no medical value and is ripe for abuse. Advocates who say the substance is safe and, in some cases, medically useful hope that in the absence of federal movement, states can start loosening restrictions on their own, just as many have for weed.

Oregon's Psilocybin Society is led by Tom and Sheri Eckert, a husband and wife team who runs a therapy practice in the Portland area. The Eckerts say they believe psilocybin could be beneficial to their own patients, particularly those who have been victims of domestic violence. "Both of us have had interesting psychedelic experiences in the past and saw their power," Tom told me.

"We put the dots together, realized this is relatively safe, certainly when done in the right way and following research protocol," he added. "Seeing the incredible outcomes of research really motivated us."

In recent years, research on psilocybin and other psychedelics has been ramping up, producing results that show potential for treatment of disorders such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD, addiction, and more. Psilocybin in particular has been the subject of a series of studies performed at Johns Hopkins University, the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, and New York University, which have found that it helped reduce anxiety in some individuals facing terminal illness, while increasing feelings of well-being and gratitude.

However, even as attitudes toward pot have continued to warm up, the appetite of the American public for legal psychedelics remains skeptical. A 2016 Vox/Morning Consult poll found only 22 percent of respondents in support of psilocybin decriminalization, with 68 percent opposed. Even fewer thought the substance should be legal for medicinal purposes: just 18 percent. On the other hand, a poll published by YouGov last month found 53 percent of respondents in support of research on potential medical benefits of psychedelics, despite their legal status, with 21 percent opposed. If the substances were proven safe, a whopping 63 percent of respondents said they would personally consider treatment with psilocybin, ketamine, or MDMA, most commonly known as a component in many forms of ecstasy.

The potential for the Oregon psilocybin measure to have a domino effect is real. Voters in California made the state the first to legalize marijuana for medicinal uses via ballot measure, voting yes on Proposition 215 in 1996. Over the ensuing decades, 28 other states plus Washington, DC, authorized medical marijuana either by ballot or legislation, while seven states plus DC have legalized cannabis outright, despite ongoing federal prohibition.

That said, the founders point out there are important differences between the Psilocybin Society's campaign and medical marijuana programsmirroring some of the differences between the two drugs. For one thing, the initiative would not allow for personal possession of psychedelic mushrooms or psilocybinrather, patients could only take it at licensed centers under supervision of a certified facilitator. Facilitators would not necessarily have to be doctors, to avoid conflicts with insurance and nationally recognized accreditation bodies.

And while medical marijuana states usually stipulate a list of conditions that qualify patients for eligibilitycancer, HIV and AIDS, chronic pain, or othersthe psilocybin measure would open the doors of therapy to any adult not contraindicated for safety reasons, without requiring a particular diagnosis. "It's not only amazing for mental health, there's also a lot of potential for self-development and creative work," Tom said. "We're trying to put forth the most reasonable thing we can without undue restrictions."

The Eckerts say they haven't experienced much in the way of blowbackyet. "Hopefully when backlash does come, we can consistently address the subject matter through science and studies to reduce any fear that is there due to stigmatization," Sheri told me.

Concerted opposition is sure to emerge sooner or later. "This type of drug legalization is the snake oil of the 21st century," Scott Chipman, Southern California chair of the group Citizens Against Legalizing Marijuana, wrote in an email to VICE. "The movement to 'medicalize' and 'legalize' 'psychedelic' drugs is just one more attempt to move our society toward legalization of all drugs," he says, calling the industry "a dangerous threat to public health and safety."

"We must use the FDA process to determine what is or is not a medicine and not rely on drug dealers, legislators or even public votes to determine medical efficacy," Chipman added. "We call on all citizens to reject drug legalization in all forms."

Meanwhile, as activists like the Eckerts make their move in Oregon, federal change is looking at least somewhat less implausible than it once did. The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is in the midst of clinical studies on MDMA-assisted psychotherapy as a tool to combat PTSD, with a goal of obtaining prescription approval by the FDA in 2021.

"We support any efforts that are educating the public about the beneficial uses of psychedelics as long as the conversation is rounded out with discussion of their risks," MAPS communication director Brad Burge said about the proposed Oregon ballot proposal, adding that "we feel clinical trials and a scientific approach is more likely to create wider acceptance."

While the Oregon measure is focused on therapeutic use, some advocates aren't shy about hoping medical acceptance leads to more widespread legalization. "I'm a believer we need to have a larger conversation about drug prohibition in general," said Mitchell Gomez, executive director of DanceSafe, a group that promotes best practices and harm reduction at electronic music festivals. "Medical use is great because it opens the door for those conversations."

"If you're going to look at the relative risks of classic psychedelics versus the relative risks of hundreds of other things society lets people do, the risk is lower than driving a car, skydiving, swimming, cheerleading, horseback riding," Gomez added. "Mushrooms are much safer to hand to strangers than a peanut."

The Eckerts would love to see a loosening of federal restrictions on psilocybin, but for now are happy to serve in the vanguard of a state-by-state effort. Their group is currently laying the groundwork for a signature campaign to qualify for the ballot, working with the Oregon Legislative Counsel to create sound language for the initiative and beginning educational outreach around the state.

"We're convicted about it, willing to take the challenge and stand up for what we think makes good sense and helps people," Tom said, adding that they've had a lot of contacts by people around the state who are interested in the cause. "We're strengthening our networks, doing more events, developing organization and outreach programs such that it will move into campaign apparatus2020 is shaping up to be a very interesting year."

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Shrooms Could Be Legalized Sooner Than You Think - VICE

The Telegraph (blog)

Parliament George and the Psychedelics? Mayor gets playful lesson on hipness The Telegraph (blog) But when he called the band Parliament George and the Psychedelics and then George and the Psychedelic Parliament, it elicited chuckles Wednesday from those in the crowd and some of the mayor's colleagues. After Commissioner Gary Bechtel ...

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Parliament George and the Psychedelics? Mayor gets playful lesson on hipness - The Telegraph (blog)

A hub for new developments in the science and application of psychedelics for healing and therapy

Our mission at Psychedelic Times is to share the latest news, research, and happenings around the study of psychedelics as tools of healing, recovery, and therapy. We are passionate about the incredible potential that psychoactive substances such as marijuana, ayahuasca, MDMA, LSD, iboga, psilocybin, and DMT present to humanity, and are excited to share that passion with you.

Psychedelic substances, also known as entheogens, are intimately linked with human culture. From the dawn of human civilization and up to the present, psychedelics have been used and celebrated across the globe as agents of healing, spiritual realization, and personal transformation. There are countless works of art, sculpture, literature, and culture that relate to psychedelic substances, and even today there are native cultures that continue to practice their ancient psychedelic rituals of healing and initiation. Psychedelic experiences have helped to inspire some of the worlds most iconic figures, from Plato, to Steve Jobs, to Kary Mullis, the Nobel Prize-winning chemist who invented the method to replicate DNA, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and attributes his creative insights in part to LSD and marijuana.

Joseph Gabriel Mattia III and Lana Baumgartner are a husband and wife team who work as recovery coaches and agents of growth, health and transformation. They have firsthand experience with the struggles and tragedies of addiction, as well as the hugely beneficial role that psychedelics can play in turning peoples lives around. Their own marriage was strengthened by therapeutic psychedelic experiences on Ibogaine and 5meoDMT that they undertook together at a healing center, an event that inspired them to be trained as recovery coaches and promote the use of psychedelics in healing and therapy.Joe and Lana each have over fifteen years of experience with psychedelics and three years of studying psychedelic therapy. When theyre not working to bring the latest and most noteworthy news about psychedelic therapy here at Psychedelic Times, Joe and Lana offer psychedelic consulting and coaching services including psychedelic integration and referrals for treatment centers and recovery coaching.

Joseph Gabriel Mattia III

Josephs drive to seek deeper meaning and the expansion of consciousness began at a very young age, spurred on by tragic life events including the loss of his father and brother to addiction. As a young adult, experimentation with LSD led him to the revelation that all living beings are sublimely connected, and yet, modern culture promotes separation from nature rather than harmony with it. This led to many years of studying yoga and various other personal development disciplines.

A later encounter with Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) founder Rick Doblin was hugely influential in showing Joe that psychedelics were being studied by leading scientists and their therapeutic uses were increasingly celebrated and understood. This inspired him to embrace his own lessons on psychedelics, to help facilitate therapeutic psychedelic experience for others, and share this knowledge with the world.

Lana Baumgartner

Like her husband, Lana also experienced the destructive powers of addiction when she lost her closest family member to a drug overdose. This loss and a series of transformative experiences including her psychedelic sessions with Joe have catalyzed her lifelong journey as a healer, teacher, and recovery specialist.

Lanas mission to help people find health and wholeness is informed by a diverse set of passions including dance, massage, Reiki, yoga, meditation, and nutrition. Her food healing work as a Sensual Foodist has been featured in major media news outlets such as ABC News, Business Insider, and The Huffington Post. With expertise in many alternative healing fields, her approach to health, empowerment and recovery has a broad and multidimensional scope.

Wesley Thoricatha

Wesley Thoricatha is a writer, visionary artist, permaculture designer, and committed advocate for a more meaningful and harmonious world. Introduced to Eastern spiritual traditions in his teenage years by his grandmother, Wesley would go on to experiment with psychedelics as an adult and have life-changing revelations that brought his philosophical understandings into crystal clear, direct experience. Over the last decade, Wesley has studied indigenous shamanic traditions, exhibited his artwork alongside the worlds leading visionary artists, and been a regular volunteer for psychedelic harm reduction at art and music festivals.

Wesleys goal as an advocate for psychedelics is to help build our cultural aptitude surrounding psychedelic medicines in the same way that indigenous cultures around the world understand and use them for healing, rites of passage, and therapeutic release. He believes that psychedelics are a key leverage point in changing the consciousness of the western world from a paradigm of materialism, distraction, and separation to an interconnected, meaningful, and collaborative one.

We are at an exciting time in history where the stigma surrounding psychedelics is beginning to fade and the realization of their healing properties are being embraced by mainstream science. Scientific research into these substances began in the early and mid 20th century but was halted in the later half of the century due to politics, propaganda, fear, and the War on Drugs. Many of these substances remain illegal and scheduled among the most dangerous drugs, yet that classification and the surrounding stigma is being quickly eroded by the scores of scientific studies that are proving again and again that the benefits that psychedelics offer far exceed the dangers. By and large, they are safe, non-addictive, and have profound benefits that can save and transform lives when used responsibly.

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Editor's note:In this special contribution to The Texas Tribune, Austin writer Ben Hartman tells the story of his search for the truth about his late grandfather, a prison psychiatrist on Texas' death row who performed little-known medical experiments on inmates in the 1960s.

Eusebio Martinez was polite even happy as he entered the death chamber that August night in Huntsville in 1960. He may not have understood his time was up.

A few years earlier, Martinez had been convicted of murdering an infant girl whose parents had left her sleeping in their car while they visited a Midland nightclub. Hed been ruled feeble-minded by multiple psychiatrists and had to be shown how to get into the electric chair.

As he was strapped in, a priest leaned in and coached him to say gracias and a simple prayer. Just before the first bolt knifed through his brain, Martinez grinned and waved at the young Houston doctor who would declare him dead a few minutes later.

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That doctor was my grandfather.

For three years at the end of his life, Dr. Lee Hartman worked as a resident physician and psychiatrist at Huntsvilles Wynne Unit. From 1960 to 1963, he witnessed at least 14 executions as presiding physician, his signature scrawled on the death certificates of the condemned men. All of them died in the electric chair Ol Sparky a grisly method that left flesh burned and bodies smoking in the death chamber as my grandfather read their vital signs.

I had always known from my father that his dad, who died before I was born, worked for the prison system as a psychiatrist.

But I had no idea that hed worked in the death chamber, witnessing executions. Or that hed been involved in testing psychedelics on prisoners to see if drugs like LSD, mescaline and psilocybin could treat schizophrenia. Or that hed been hospitalized repeatedly during his lifelong struggle with depression.

And I didnt know the truth about his death at age 48, when he was found on the staircase of his house in Houstons exclusive River Oaks neighborhood.

My obsession with my grandfathers life grew from my fathers sudden death from a stroke at his Austin home in 2014. Last summer, I came back to Austin after 14 years overseas and began searching for clues about my grandfather in the state archives, in Huntsville and in boxes of old family keepsakes kept by my aunts.

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I reported on crime and police and prisons for several years as a journalist in Israel, and now I wanted to investigate a mystery in my own family tree. I wanted to learn about the man whose story had always seemed more literary than real a Jewish orphan from the Deep South who fought in World War II, sang in operas and became a successful doctor before tragedy cut the story short.

I wanted to know the man my father was named for, and to use the search as a way to beat a path through my grief over my own fathers death.

Through my grandfathers personal papers, newspaper clippings and long-buried state records, I found a man brilliant, thoughtful and sensitive who witnessed great human drama and suffering in the Death House, and in the process became a determined opponent of capital punishment. He outlined his thoughts in a collection of diary entries and a 19-page handwritten treatise I found in my grandmothers old keepsakes.

The death penalty, he wrote in 1962, is irreparable.

My grandfather was born in Greenville, Miss., in 1916, one of two twin boys placed in foster care after their father died of yellow fever and their mother moved away.

The boys ended up at the New Orleans Jewish Childrens Home and attended the elite Newman School down the street, just like hundreds of other Jewish orphans of their day.

My grandfather and his brother went on to graduate from Louisiana State Universitys medical school. Along the way, my grandfather trained as an opera singer, met my grandmother, started a family, served in the Army Air Corps as a flight surgeon during World War II, then returned home to his family and started his medical career. For a decade he worked as a small-town general practitioner in Louisiana and East Texas.

In 1957, he moved to Houston and enrolled in the Baylor College of Medicine to study psychiatry, a major mid-life career move that, according to my father, was partly motivated by my grandfathers desire to understand his own battles with depression.

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Within a few years, he had gone to work inHuntsvilleas part of a contingent of Baylor College of Medicine psychiatrists sent to the Wynne Treatment Center, a diagnostic unit for mentally ill inmates that had opened the previous year.

It was part of an agreement between Baylor, the Houston State Psychiatric Institute and the state prison system: The schools provided psychiatrists who could treat and counsel troubled inmates, and the prison supplied inmates for experiments.

For three years my grandfather shuffled back and forth betweenHuntsvilleand Houston, where hed established a part-time psychiatry practice in Bellaire and in his spare time sang on stage as part of the chorus of the Houston Grand Opera.

Early in my research, I was searching an online newspaper archive for my grandfathers obituary when an unrelated article stopped me.

The United Press International wire report from May 1962 is headlined: Stickney Dies In Electric Chair.

At 12:26 a.m. Stickney was strapped into the chair. He made no last statement, so to speak. Three charges of 1,600 volts charged through his body. At 12:30 a.m. Dr. Lee Hartman, the prison doctor, pronounced him dead.

Twenty executions were carried out inHuntsvillein the three years my grandfather worked there, and he wrote about the 14 he presided over.

He has the same erudite, wordy writing style of my father, peppered with historical references and written in handwriting eerily similar to that of his son. Each entry begins with the date and the dead mans name, race, crime and victim. In small print above the list, he wrote 1500 volts X 15 sec 200 volts X 30 sec 1000 volts X 15 sec 200 volts X 30 sec a morbid list of the fatal series of shocks in the death chamber.

All 14 of them seem to have had an effect on him, but none more than the execution of 24-year-old Howard Stickney, charged in May 1958 with the murder of Clifford and Shirley Barnes in Galveston. Stickney fled the country, only to be arrested the next month in Canada and extradited to Texas, where his youth, his flight from justice and his fight to clear his name made him an instant cause clbre.

His death row file at the state archives is testament to his celebrity letters and postcards from admirers, clergymen and students at the University of Texas Law School who filed appeals on his behalf.

My grandfathers diaries are full of entries about Stickney. On Nov. 10, 1961, he wrote Howard Stickney tonite followed by an entry further down the page detailing the throng of reporters crowded outside the death chamber.

Stickney in shroud before door to execution room and we were all on our way to execution chamber when phone rang, the entry reads. Apparently a complete surprise to Stickney, who broke down, prayed and wept.

The call, at 12:32 a.m., came from a judge who had granted a 10-day stay of execution.

My grandfathers diary entries at times combined the grisly and the mundane. On April 18, 1962, he detailed the execution of Adrian Johnson, a 19-year-old black man convicted of murder who asked Is there a hood for my head? before he was strapped in.

Johnson said Hi, how ya doin to one of the prison guards in the room before the first shock came through, causing his head to smoke and leaving 3rd degree burns on his leg, the entry says.

Above this entry he wrote in all caps SEDER? perhaps remembering plans for the Passover meal that night.

The horrors of execution by electric chair dart across his pages in language that is sparse and direct. Such as in the case of Howard Draper, Jr. Negro rape of white woman - heart beat 5 min. after final shock, or George Williams, a young black man executed for murder, whose heart beat two minutes after the last shock.

In November 1961, he witnessed the execution of Fred Leach a 40-year-old schizophrenic who he examined and diagnosed as severely disturbed. My grandfathers assessment of Leachs sanity appears on a bench warrant contained in the condemned mans file in the state archives, but it wasnt enough to spare Leachs life.

He witnessed back-to-back executions in 1962 on frozen January nights. And the entries in his diary and the treatise became longer and more detailed, revealing a sense of growing anger and distress.

First came Charles Louis Forgey (only white man I know of executed for rape rare) put to death on Jan. 10, 1962, on a 14-degree night that saw Huntsvilles streets covered in ice and sleet.

My grandfather wrote that Forgey was hyperventilating so greatly that he staggered before sitting in chair Few tears on face as he entered room. Said wait a minute before gag placed in mouth and then said God bless you all after being strapped into chair. 1st shock at 12:02 pronounced dead (by me) at 12:06 very livid 2nd and 3rd degree burns on scalp and left leg and much smoke, more than usual from crown (of head) possibly due to cold. Crown still hot on roller after death. Everyone in good humor and rather jocular.

The next was Roosevelt Wiley, a 29-year-old black man convicted of murder, who was electrocuted on the coldest day in 25 years.

Lord bless all these men, Wiley said, as he prayed while being strapped into the chair, and moments later: Forgive them God for what they are doing, and God I pray that someday this will be over.

Finally, in late May 1962, comes the diary entry on Stickneys last night on earth. The newsmen were kept outside the chamber; my grandfather was one of several men inside with Stickney, including a priest who visited with the condemned man as he smoked a cigarette in his final moments.

I kidded about tranquilizers I had in my packet and he asked for some if I make it. At 12:24, warden returned no stay, Stickney quietly sat in chair. 1st shock at 12:25 dead at 12:30.

In a margin above the entry, he wrote: Dignity and grace, shook hands with several guards while waiting, didnt want to take coat off.

After the execution, my grandfather consented to interviews by TV and radio stations before making his way home to try and sleep, with the aid of a sedative.

Very shook up and angry over whole cruel mess, he wrote.

In the 19-pagetreatise, my grandfather laid out arguments for and against the death penalty and made it clear where he stood.

The death penalty has a brutalizing and sadistic influence on the community that deliberately kills a member of its group, he wrote, adding that it allows law-abiding citizens to vicariously indulge in vicious and inhumane fantasies under socially-acceptable guises.

The death penalty is not applied impartially. There is such surfeit of these cases that to mention them would be redundant. The poor defendant is obviously at a disadvantage and frequently receives the extreme penalty while the wealthier accused escapes a prison term. There is well known discrimination on racial or class lines.

He ends with a rhetorical flourish: It behooves us all to remember that we are all singly and collectively responsible for the execution of capital offenders and we should solemnly ponder the striking words of [English poet] John Donne Any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.

In the photo, a man lies strapped to a gurney, with wires running from his head and body to a large, table-sized machine covered in knobs and switches. A heavyset doctor with glasses stands next to the foot of the gurney, observing the readings on the machine.

The caption reads: Bodily functions of insane convict are measured. Dr. Lee Hartman, Baylor Psychiatrist, injected inmate with LSD.

The photo accompanied a Houston Chronicle article from May 15, 1960, headlined, New Drug That Causes Insanity Used on Prisoners Who Volunteer.

The article is a fascinating window into a time before LSD became synonymous with hippies, when it was being explored as a boon to mankind in the words of the newspaper reporter and even the Texas prison board apparently saw potential therapeutic benefits to using hallucinogens on problematic and troubled inmates.

Dr. C.A. Dwyer, a prison psychiatrist atHuntsvilleand a colleague of my grandfathers, is quoted in the article saying that the tests were meant to figure out what part of the brain LSD affected, in hopes that it would lead them to the location where mental illness also resided. If LSD mimicked mental illness, the doctors reasoned, then finding a drug to counteract its effects might also lead to what Dwyer described as a vaccine for schizophrenia. They used a machine called a physiograph, which recorded prisoners brain waves, heartbeat, electrical skin resistance, pulse, blood pressure and respiration.

Dwyer said they would need tests from thousands of subjects to complete their work, and while the inmates who volunteered received no credit on their sentence or monetary reward, a letter, detailing their efforts, is made a part of their records, and will be considered, I am sure, by the pardons and paroles board.

Details on the extent of the program or the results of the testing appear nowhere in my grandfathers papers. In fact, the only mention of it amid his voluminous accounts of the death chamber is a one-line diary entry: Go to Huntsville tomorrow Bring LSD.

Around the same time that he wrote that, he submitted an application to join the Texas Medical Association in October 1962. On the line for research activity, he wrote: clinical investigation of new drugs for the treatment of mental and emotional illness.

An open records request I filed with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice seeking more information about the LSD tests and other experiments in Texas prisons was answered with a letter saying there was no information responsive to your request.

In the end, it turned out almost everything I was looking for was at the state archives in Austin and in boxes of family keepsakes.

In the state archives, I found the minutes of a prison board meeting held on May 9, 1960, at the Rice Hotel in Houston just six days before the article about the LSD program appeared in the Houston Chronicle.

The document is titled Experiment: Baylor School of Psychiatry, and describes how Dr. Marvin Vance of the Baylor program presented a plan to use four inmate volunteers to test LSD. The Baylor doctors have stated that there is no organic or physiological danger in using the drug, the minutes note. The board approved the hallucinogen experiments which eventually involved giving inmates LSD, psilocybin and mescaline.

My aunt and my father both told me my grandfather sampled drugs before he gave them to his patients to gauge their safety though I suspect this was also a means of self-medication. My aunt told me that after my grandfathers death in 1964, she and my grandmother disposed of the medications he kept at home including a vial of liquid LSD they poured down the sink.

Over the past several months Ive tried to find people who worked with my grandfather in Huntsville, or descendants of those people who may have records. Ive come up empty, save for one man who made a passing acquaintance with him at the prison, an encounter that left a powerful impression.

Dr. Kanellos Charalampous was a psychiatrist and professor at Baylor in the early 1960s who worked at the Wynne Unit with my grandfather and authored a large number of psychiatric studies, including several dealing with hallucinogens and illicit drugs and their potential as therapeutic agents.

When I called him at his home in Houston, the 86-year-old doctor said he only remembered meeting my grandfather once, when Charalampous first arrived in Huntsvilleone night in January 1962. They stayed up late at my grandfathers house, drank a beer and visited some, but the next day Charalampous left for Houston and said he never saw my grandfather again.

His memory seemed spotty, but he told me my grandfather was a manic depressive. It was obvious if you were around him, he said. Then he pointed me to his biography, which had been published online in 2015.

Halfway through the book, Charalampous recalls his first night in the Wynne Unit and his visit with the psychiatrist in residence at the prison.

We had a pleasant visit, enjoying a beer until, at midnight he explained he did rounds on the inmates at 2 am; during the day the temperature rose making the place unbearable. Obviously, I did not accompany him and going to the prison only once a week I did not meet him again until the trustees told me a few weeks later that he had stopped making rounds. I learned this talented man, also a great musician and vocalist, was a manic-depressive who injected himself with large doses of Thorazine to achieve a euthymic state in the days before lithium. A year later, this unfortunate colleague committed suicide.

There has always been uncertainty about my grandfathers death. He had suffered from heart problems earlier in his life and my aunts had always blamed heart disease for his death. My aunt, Marie Geisler, remembers very clearly watching the Beatles American debut on the Ed Sullivan Show the night before my grandfather died, and how cold and weak he seemed.

It had only been a year since he finished his stint at the prison, and a few months since his stay at a mental institution in Galveston one in a series of hospitalizations for the depression that haunted him.

My aunt told me she came home from school to find him lying dead on the landing of the stairs in their River Oaks home, a bottle of morphine on the floor next to him. A few days before, he sang in a performance of Verdis Otelo.

I dont know what role his time in Huntsville played in my grandfathers death. On his headstone in Austin are four simple words: scholar and compassionate healer. That was the man I set out to find after my fathers death, and what Ive pieced together is a picture of a troubled, brilliant man who showed great care for others if not always for himself.

My grandfathers obituary in the April 1964 Journal of the American Medical Association cites acute myocardial failure. His Harris County death certificate tells a different story: It lists the cause of death as barbiturate poisoning (pentobarbital) decedent took an overdose of pentobarbital.

Decades later, that very drug would be used in lethal injection executions in Texas and more than a dozen other states.

Ben Hartman is an American-Israeli journalist originally from Austin. Twitter: @BenHartman

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The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against a Texas death row inmate, making Erick Davila's case ineligible for review in federal court. [link]

For the second time in a week, a Texas death row inmate had his sentenced tossed out. Robert Campbell, 44, has been on death row for nearly 25 years in a Houston kidnapping and murder. [link]

Texas has executed hitman Ronaldo Ruiz 25 years after he killed a San Antonio woman for $2,000. [link]

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My grandfather was a death row doctor. He tested psychedelic drugs on Texas inmates. - Texas Tribune

Research has shown that some psychedelics can help treat certain mental health conditions, but stigma is stopping the drugs from doing any good for mental health care in Asia.

Despite research showing that psilocybin and MDMA can alleviate PTSD, clinical depression, substance addiction and end-of-life anxiety, the social stigma around illegal drugs is simply too strong for even researchers to look into the drugs as treatments.

"In Asia, the stigma against psychedelics is so strong that few, if any, researchers have asked for government permission to explore their therapeutic potential," says Brad Burge of MAPS, a US-based nonprofit that advocates for MDMA research in psychotherapy.

However, Forbes reports that some experts warn against what they believe is fighting fire with fire.

"There is little to no evidence that those substances in particular would be more effective than more traditional psychopharmacology, and they come with significant risk," said Brian Russman, deputy clinical director of The Cabin Chiang Mai, a Thailand drug rehab center. "As there is no money in experimental or hallucinogenic drugs and it would be fairly unpopular from a political or public standpoint, I can't see those type of drugs gaining much traction."

But places like South Korea, home to the second-highest suicide rate in the world, needs new solutions soon. China, Japan and South Korea regularly rank poorly in global wellbeing and happiness indexes.

Psilocybin has been shown to alleviate symptoms of major depression, particularly relief from cancer-related depression and existential anxiety. The drug is also being explored as a possible treatment for alcohol addiction.

Studies on MDMA suggest that it can help treat patients disturbed by severe trauma or PTSD, including military veterans and victims of sexual assault. New experimental studies are underway to examine if MDMA can improve the lives of autistic adults suffering from social anxiety.

The stigma of these drugs prevent any bold researchers in Asia from carrying out studies on a large scale, which disallows the studies from meeting clinical standards. This perpetuates these drugs public perception as illegal vices rather than legitimate treatment tools. While using narcotics to treat the mentally vulnerable is risky, advocates say that earnest efforts must be made to support mental health care in Asia.

Excerpt from:

Psychedelics Could Help Asia's Mental Health Care, But Stigma Remains Roadblock - TheFix.com

Story Highlights

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings caused a flutter last year when he said that in the future, entertainment could be replaced by pharmacological substitutes (read pills). Why make visual and auditory stories when they can be generated directly in your head?

Anyone who has tuned into Silicon Valleys heartbeat wouldnt be surprised. In the recent past, the collective gaze of the Valley has fallen on a new platform to play around with: the human body and mind, and pharmacological tools are a big part of it.

Unlike Reed Hastings vision of recreation, Silicon Valleys chemical obsession is in pursuit of hacking the mind beyond its limits. Startup warriors in the Valley are wielding pharmacological weaponry in their battle for supremacy in the domain.

The newest trend, however, involves chemistry with a coloured past psychedelics. This time around, psychedelics may have less to do with astral planes and more to do with the mundanity of work. Is this the beginning of a new trip for all of us?

They call it microdosing. Reams have been written about it, but herere some basic facts:

LSD, psilocybin (street name: magic mushrooms) and marijuana are the usual weapons of choice. A microdose is about 15-20 micrograms, about a fifth of the recreational dose that causes you to trip. It doesnt stop you from engaging in your daily routine. You dont switch off from reality. Instead, you become sharper, creative and more social.

At least, thats how the anecdotes go.

A microdose is about 15-20 micrograms, about a fifth of the recreational dose that causes you to trip. It doesnt stop you from engaging in your daily routine. You dont switch off from reality. Instead, you become sharper, creative and more social

If all this sounds extremely unscientific, it is. Today, microdosing is more a fad but its fast becoming a reality. Startup founders, CEOs, programmers, designers, etc are all taking little doses of psychedelics, some daily and others once in a few days, and claiming positive results. Stories from microdosers claiming that it has helped them solve a difficult problem or crack a complex game level are common.

Interest in the trend is on the rise. The microdosing subreditt today has more than 17,000 subscribers compared to a couple of thousands back in 2015. A search for microdosing books on Amazon throws up more than 20 results with titles such as The New Psychedelic Revolution: The Genesis of the Visionary Age and A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life.

One of the more popular books is The Psychedelic Explorers Guide: Safe, Therapeutic, and Sacred Journeys by James Fadiman, the man who may have laid the roots of the current microdosing trend.

Fadimans history with psychedelics is long. In 1966, he published a study linking creative thinking and hallucinogens. But what kickstarted the current trend was his microdosing cheat sheet a manual for interested users that he created in 2010. And his book documenting the benefits.

He was peeling off from the suggestion of Albert Hoffman, the father of LSD who lived to a prime age of 102 years, that small doses of the substance have a positive impact on mental health. Fadiman has since been building an informal study group and receiving user reports documenting the effects of microdosing since.

Claims such as lost my usual anxiety and more focused and in tune are common to find in forums discussing the experience of microdosing

The majority of the feedback from his study is positive. Users report an uptick in performance and mood. Blogs and tech media are filled with magical stories of improvement in mental alertness and happiness levels. Claims such as lost my usual anxiety and more focused and in tune are common to find in forums discussing the experience of microdosing.

Its part of a larger trend. A trend of using nootropics, biohacking and numerous other calibrated lifestyle hacks in an attempt to achieve an ideal physical and mental state. Can this bring psychedelics out of the shadows and into the mainstream?

Humans and psychedelics go back a long way. Our history of the last 10,000 years is dotted with close contact with psychedelics like opium, mescaline, cannabis and magic mushrooms. They were cultivated and used everywhere from South america to Europe to Asia.

Some even believe that psychedelics could have aided in some major cognitive milestones in culture, society and religion. Closer home, the Vedas contain copious references to the sacred, ritualistic soma, a potion that can provide a lightness of being, wisdom and happiness (in some cases immortality). Psychedelic-led transcendence have been part of spiritual experiences around the world.

Also read: Boheco wants to weed out the stigma around this cannabis cousin

But in the modern era, psychedelics exploded into our consciousness in the mid-nineties after Albert Hoffman synthesised LSD in his lab in 1938. After two decades of gestating in research labs and in elite homes, psychedelics flamed out into the world in the early sixties.

In the counter-culture era, psychedelics became a way of life. Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream, sang John Lennon, cajoling his listeners to cut the cord with the boring reality. Writers, singers and musicians exhorted the capability of the drug to produce revelations. Rock n roll put psychedelics on steroids.

It escalated quickly and occasionally things went wrong. The public panicked. Governments reacted with bans and strict regulations. But despite the controls, psychedelics continued influencing art and music. They became synonymous with breaking the shackles of big government, big military and big corporates.

But, they had a huge brand problem as they came to be linked with the strange, excessive culture of the 60s and 70s. That was, until, they found their way into a new cult that was (perhaps unknown then) designing more powerful addictions for the coming millennia using technology.

People are organic machines that can be fine-tuned for magical perfection. This is the thought process that drives Silicon Valleys persistent attempts at pushing the limits of its own mental prowess

Thus began the revival of brand psychedelics in the circuits of Silicon Valley.

People are organic machines that can be fine-tuned for magical perfection. This is the thought process that drives Silicon Valleys persistent attempts at pushing the limits of its own mental prowess. Its position as the dispenser of world-changing innovations has amped up the intellect as the most-valued resource of the modern era.

The rock stars of the modern age wore turtlenecks and hoodies, built personal computers and eclipsed even the Beatles in their fan following. For these demi-gods and those working with them, expanding the mind became a necessity and they turned to chemistry. Steve Jobs spoke in glowing terms about how LSD helped open up his mind and improve thinking.

Slowly, but surely, psychedelics are shuffling from the cord-cutting-with-reality recreational camp into the personal improvement camp. Theres increasing evidence that LSD and some other psychedelics may be less dangerous than cigarettes and alcohol.

Over the last 20 years, the US Food and drug administration (FDA) has approved research on the medical and therapeutic effects of psychedelics with promising results. LSD could have a positive impact in treating anxiety in patients with terminal illness, post-traumatic stress disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorders. One study found that psychedelics could help reduce domestic violence among those with substance abuse problems. Another medical trial study in the UK is attempting to understand if LSD in small doses can cure depression.

Slowly, but surely, psychedelics are shuffling from the cord-cutting-with-reality recreational camp into the personal improvement camp. Theres increasing evidence that LSD and some other psychedelics may be less dangerous than cigarettes and alcohol

Yet, evidence is thin and dosing psychedelics for cognitive enhancements is even less understood. The fact that the Fadimans unscientific study based on self-reported results may be the largest body of research on this subject says something.

Governments and corporates have been largely unwilling to fund research even from a clinical benefits point of view. When the UK governments chief advisor on drugs, David Nutt, spoke positively about drugs and their clinical benefits, he was fired, leading him to claim that the way governments ban research on drugs is akin to the wrath Galileo faced from Catholic church for his research.

Read other FactorFuture articles

But dramatics aside, theres been a steady chipping away of the taboos surrounding mind-altering substances. The legalisation and regulation of cannabis in the US is a case in point. UK, Thailand, New Zealand, Canada and more countries are soon to follow.

Could the microdosing movement reframe the world view on psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin? Will it become as common as sipping on coffee for stimulation?

When it comes to psychedelics, its the fear of the unknown that keeps us circumspect. And theres only one place thats made an attempt to imagine a future with them: science fiction.

Weve obviously got to talk about Brave New World. Aldous Huxleys nightmarish future where drugs and technology make us all sheep to be controlled by the powerful elite resonantes with possibility. Soma, the happiness drug in the story, disconnected people from reality, poisoned them and softened critical thinking.

Yet, a couple of decades after he wrote the novel, Aldous Huxley himself got sucked into the world of psychedelics (first mescaline, then LSD). He wrote about his experiences in the book The Doors of Perception where his tone had changed into one of appreciation of the ability of psychedlics to offer new insights. Huxley became such a proponent of the substance that he requested he be injected with LSD on his death bed.

Does this mean his dystopian imagination was unfounded? Or was it an ironic display of the very dystopia with Huxley becoming a slave to the drug?

The spectre of a Brave New World rises whenever we hear about using drugs for moral improvement. Prozac is known to reduce aggression and oxytocin increases empathy. If drugs could reduce deviant behaviour like violence, racism, etc, and governments get increasingly interested in them, will they be used as a tool of control? Perhaps they can start by chemically correcting those in the prison system.

Other writers have written about drugs causing altered world views. Philip K Dick, who employed psychedelics personally and as a plot device, often painted mind-bending escapes that hopped between transcendental knowledge to revelation of dark and decayed emotional states. His book, A Scanner Darkly, however, is a descend into the hell caused by drugs a dire warning on what substance abuse could cause.

Prozac is known to reduce aggression and oxytocin increases empathy. If drugs could reduce deviant behaviour like violence, racism, etc, and governments get increasingly interested in them, will they be used as a tool of control

Frank Herbert, the American science fiction writer best known for Dune, employed drugs as powerful tools that could generate prophetic visions and bend space-time in the series. He too, was not restricting psychedelics to just his novels.

Which of these worlds will psychedelics help create? A dark, dystopian one where were without control or one that provides us with elevated perceptiveness.

Stanislaw Lem, who outdoes Philip K Dick in mind-bendery in his book The Futurological Congress: From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy, paints a world thats solved most of its problems with pharmacology. It feels utopian and dystopian at the same time. Which is the point Lem makes.

Imagine if someone from the past gets a glimpse of the things we do in the modern era. Theyd see us driving around poison-spewing, people-crushing metal monsters that zip on our roads. Or, look at us staring into screens all day long, lost and hooked. It may well seem like a complete dystopian nightmare. Yet, for those living it, it wouldnt nearly be as frightening.

We have some way to go before well all be shooting down smoothies laced with LSD. Could such small sub-psychoactive doses even make a difference? It is all just a placebo effect? What if we develop tolerance for small doses, leading to escalated dosing? Could we develop an addiction from prolonged use, leading to dependence?

Science needs to catch up and give answers. Given our long history with psychedelics, perhaps it is time.

Lead visual: Angela Anthony Pereira

Original post:

Is LSD the new coffee? - FactorDaily

In popular culture, LSD calls to mind stoned hippies, surrealist art and a Zen-inspired life philosophy. But for the Psychedelic Club at the University of Colorado at Boulder, psychedelics are more than just recreational drugs; they are a solution to mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety and PTSD.

Through weekly meetings, the club promotes awareness about the therapeutic uses of psychedelics, which include LSD, shrooms and ecstasy. Speakers are invited to present on a variety of topics related to psychedelics, from their effects on the brains chemistry to strategies to reduce bad trips. The club also does outreach, including handing out leaflets about the positive effects of LSD.

We go up to anyone from a family with two young kids all the way up to people in their nineties, Nick Morris, founder of the group, says. We think its a universal message that shouldnt be age, race or gender discriminated. People are generally receptive, but not everyone shares the Psychedelic Clubs enthusiastic attitude towards these controversial drugs. Every once in a while you get someone who tries to argue with you, Morris says. Honestly, if you just listen to them and hear out their viewpoints, you can give them a little reassurance that [psychedelics] are not nearly as bad as they think.

Morris saw first-hand how psychedelics can change peoples lives for the better. One of his close friends, after unsuccessfully trying conventional therapies to treat his combat-induced PTSD, finally found relief in ecstasy. It basically gave him his life back, says Morris. Witnessing his friends positive experience with psychedelics, as well as wanting to dive into activism around a controversial topic, inspired Morris to start the club. Though most psychedelics are illegal in the United States, the club focuses on education and community rather than consumption. This focus has helped them avoid conflict with the administration and local law enforcement.

However, the university shut down some of the clubs initiatives, including a trip-sitting program, where people trained in psychedelic harm-reduction watched over others as they took psychedelics, and a drug testing program, which provided people with kits to test their drugs to make sure they were consuming what they thought they were. The group prohibits transactions during meetings, but, even so, it is not uncommon for students to come asking to buy or deal drugs. These students are always turned away. According to Morris, If something were to happen, we would get shut down.

The Psychedelic Club sustains interest in the group by changing up their events each year. We dont want people to think were predictable, so that keeps people coming back, Morris says. The club has gotten so popularsome meetings number over a hundred people, while the average meeting has thirtythat its leadership started a non-profit centered around psychedelic awareness, which has branches on college campuses at the University of Georgia and the University of North Dakota, as well as other non-university affiliated chapters in Denver, Chicago, Sacramento and New Mexico.

Getting a 501(c)3 status was a major achievement for the group, Morris said. Though he and the staff managing the non-profit arent paid, they believe so strongly in its mission that they do it on their own time. In Morris words, the best thing about being involved in the Psychedelic Club is the people who come up and thank them for what theyre doing. Honestly, thats what keeps us going, he says.

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Tune in, Turn on, Stay in School - Study Breaks

N, N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is famous for producing one of the most intense psychedelic experiences possible, catapulting users into a series of vivid, incapacitating hallucinations. But despite the kaleidoscope of variation on offer, the enduring mystery of DMT is the encounters it induces with 'entities' or 'aliens': "jewelled self-dribbling basketballs" or "machine elves", as the psychedelic missionary Terence McKenna described them.

McKenna, not really a scientist so much as a roving DMT performance poet, helped popularise the drug in the 70s, along with his own intuitive theories that the entities were evidence of alien life, or that DMT facilitated trans-dimensional travel.

Theyre really amazing, spine-tingling ideas, says Robin Carhart-Harris, head of psychedelic research at Imperial College, London. But, you know, arguably theyre bullshit.

Carhart-Harris is part of a team of researchers at Imperial College London on a mission to trap the machine elves. Two years after conducting the worlds first fMRI scan of volunteers that had ingested LSD,the results of which are still being pored over, the Imperial team is now performing a similar experiment with DMT. In the process, they are targeting the pseudoscientific ideas that envelop and overwhelm any discussion of the so-called spirit molecule.

What may be glamour for some people or may be baffling, such as 'machine elves' for us is an opportunity, said Chris Timmermann, a PhD candidate conducting the research. It wont be mundane, says Carhart-Harris. I dont think it kills the magic.

The researchers have already given 12 volunteers DMT in a pilot EEG study. In a matter of weeks, they will begin the first ever fMRI scan of DMTs effect on the brain, in research that is expected to continue for at least six months.

The primary goal is to map brain activity during the experience. But Carhart-Harris and Timmerman hope they will be able to draw some conclusions from the research one of which will rationalise psychedelic encounters with entities.

Perhaps [entity encounters] relate to the fact that, certainly throughout our lives, but especially early on in our lives, were surrounded by entities as in people, says Carhart-Harris, who has a background in psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychology.

The first thing that we manage to focus our gaze on are people, and their eyes, usually. So it just follows that this will be a major part of the human psyche, and likely a major part of the unconscious.

Carhart-Harris hopes to show that an encounter with an entity may show a similar pattern of brain activity to an encounter with a person.

Its not a bulletproof approach, he says. But were working on the hypothesis that the experience of entity encounters rests on brain activity. And if it does, then why dont we look at the neural correlates of some elements of encounters [with] entities off the drug, and get a sense of where peoples brains are sensitive.

The researchers will also be paying close attention to the transcendental qualities of the DMT experience. By asking participants to rate the intensity of experience, they hope to capture, potentially, that leap into another world which characterises a trip.

The experiment is the latest from Imperial Colleges neuropsychopharmacology unit. Professor David Nutt is overseeing the study, Carhart-Harris and others designed it, and Timmerman is carrying it out.

They have a formidable record of safe experimentation with psychedelics, thanks to previous high-profile work with LSD and psilocybin. So securing permission to do the study was quite a smooth process, according to Carhart-Harris. Particularly when it came to the Ethics Review Committee.

They were quite warm really to us. We even had someone on the panel whose eyes were really lighting up, basically volunteering to be part of the study, he said. (The unnamed panel member was sadly not eligible to participate).

To make sure they get it right, the team has also called on the godfather of DMT research: Rick Strassman, clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.

Strassman gave advice on dosage and administration. He gave several hundred doses of the drug to volunteers between 1990-95, famously coining DMT the spirit molecule because of the wide range of mystical experiences participants reported.

Carhart-Harris is less enamoured by the use of non-secular, unscientific language to describe the DMT experience.

Its quite easy to hear a lot of pseudo-scientific musings and this idea of the spirit molecule is in that space, he said, later adding that psychedelics researchers worry that they, as individuals, will be stigmatised and thought of as not serious scientists.

DMT is best understood as a tool that can be used to understand consciousness, says Timmerman.

Its hard to find other tools out there that can alter consciousness so dramatically and so reliably, says Carhart-Harris.

The dosage the researchers have settled on is 20mg a quantity that is significantly more potent than it would be if smoked (the usual route of administration) due to its intravenous administration.

I would characterise it as a moderate-high dose of DMT, says Timmerman.

Participants will lie in the fMRI with an EEG cap on and their eyes closed. The whole experiment takes 20-30 minutes (the duration of a DMT trip), with researchers interjecting every two minutes to ask them to rate the intensity of the experience.

Were mostly looking at spontaneous brain activity, or resting brain activity, says Carhart-Harris. Because resting, especially under DMT you wouldnt really call it rest.

People are not able to do a task or engage with the external world in that state, agrees Timmerman.

Afterwards, the researchers will record the experience and how it unfolded over time from the participant in very fine detail a kind of peer-reviewed trip report.

12 people have already gone through the pilot, which involved just an EEG scan. A further 20 will go through the full EEG and fMRI scan.

One question that they do not expect to answer is why DMT exists in nature. The DMT question is more for DMT enthusiasts, perhaps, says Carhart-Harris.

But the question of why humans possess a specific serotonin receptor that DMT binds to is a big one, he says.

As far as we know its one particular serotonin receptor thats key to how these drugs work in the brain. Its a big curiosity and a question that is unanswered in science. What are these receptors for, and what do they do?

The answer may provide clues to the ability of psychedelic drugs to facilitate behavioural change. Studies have shown that they can be useful in the treatment of addictive or compulsive behaviours.

Finding a clinical application for DMT is not the primary outcome, however, says Timmerman. These are all completely healthy people. So its hard to draw a direct inference on mental health, because theyre all well."

But preliminary results from the pilot suggest that DMT improves mood. There is a significant drop in the depression scores, says Timmerman.

And ultimately the team at Imperial, like scientists from all over the world making discoveries in the so-called psychedelic renaissance, envision a future when psychedelics can be prescribed by doctors and made available in a therapeutic setting.

In many ways thats the ultimate aim, says Carhart-Harris.

If Imperials research already has the drug prohibitionists hyperventilating, the model Carhart-Harris proposes for the NHS will send them into an altered state of consciousness. It is the administration of psilocybin and DMT (not, it should be stated, at the same time) in a series of therapeutic treatments, for those conditions where they are shown to be effective.

People will realise that its quite expensive to develop this kind of treatment, he says. Because its a treatment model that requires some psychological preparation, quite a few hours of staff time to look after this patient, and ward space.

And how is this possible in the shell of the National Health Service that we have?

The advantage of DMT is its short acting time. Several short DMT treatments, which last under an hour, could be used to supplement psilocybin treatments, which would have effects that last for several hours.

Carhart-Harris and the rest of the team may be calling out the falsehoods people project onto the DMT experience. But they are not the only myths to ruin. He is just as comfortable providing the science that underpins the advocacy of psychedelic drugs in a therapeutic context.

Done right, with all the appropriate caveats and safeguards, it could be a revolution in psychiatry, he says. Its quite a reasonable thing to say.

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The brain on DMT: mapping the psychedelic drug's effects - Wired.co.uk

Published: Jun 30, 2017, 3:34 pm Updated: Jun 30, 2017, 3:34 pm

By The Cannabist Staff

Featured guest is hallucinogen- and psychedelics-loving comedian Shane Mauss, host of the Here We Are podcast.

LOTS TO TALK ABOUT

Mixing standup and science talks, A Good Trip brings intelligent talks about psychedelics on the road.

A hallucinogenics pro weighs in on the question: Is marijuana a gateway drug?

People are flocking to 420-friendly states and some are talking of religious experiences from cannabis. So, where is the best psychedelic tourism?

TOP MARIJUANA NEWS

Chris Christie calls legal marijuana hearing a dog-and-pony show: New Jersey lawmakers effort to legalize marijuana has failed to convince Gov. Chris Christie to get behind the change, meaning it will be on the states next governor to decide the issue. Christie ridiculed a hearing last week in the Democrat-led Senate on new legislation making its way through the statehouse to legalize marijuana as a dog-and-pony show. Im not changing my mind on that, said Christie. Report by The Associated Press Michael Catalini

Colorado Supreme Court: Man who caused explosion while making hash oil not covered by legalization: A 21-year-old Colorado Springs man who blew up his homes laundry room after brewing hash oil with a butane burner still needed a license to manufacture the oil after Colorado legalized recreational marijuana, the Colorado Supreme Court has ruled. The Colorado Supreme Court decision reversed a district court ruling that dismissed a pot manufacturing criminal charge against Austin Joseph Lente on the basis that he was protected under Colorados Amendment 64, which legalized recreational marijuana. Report by The Denver Posts Kirk Mitchell

Special delivery: Postman allegedly delivered weed along with mail: A U.S. Postal Service mail carrier is in jail after authorities discovered he was allegedly delivering a lot more than letters and magazines on his Chicago route. Report by The Associated Press

Toby Keith gets high with Willie Nelson in new Wacky Tobaccy video: Toby Keith swore hed never smoke weed with Willie Nelson again. Back in the 2003 tribute Weed With Willie, a toke of the Red Headed Strangers top-shelf herb had Keith crooning, My partys all over before its begins Ill never smoke weed with Willie again. Fast-forward to Summer 2017, and Saudi Arabias fave country music artist is back to smoking marijuana with Willie in his new party song, Wacky Tobaccy. Report by Cannabist staff

POT OR NOT

The record before this week was 7-out-of-10 can Shane beat Amandas high score?

Read more here:

Cannabist Show: He's psychedelic comedian Shane Mauss - The Cannabist

After the 1970s Controlled Substance Act criminalized all psychedelics, there was a long period of silence in US psychedelic research. That has changed in the last 20 years; since 2002, as many as 26 studies were approved, including landmark research on MDMA-assisted therapy for veterans suffering PTSD. But with President Donald Trump in office, is the resurrected research movement in danger?

The people really calling the shots are those far closer to Trump than those running the FDA.

It depends. Two agencies are crucial for the burgeoning field: the US Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Agency. Some researchers see the Trump FDA as potentially helpful, since new commissioner Scott Gottlieb has made statements in favor of scaling back regulations. Other researchers are leery of the DEA. Thats because the DEA is overseen by the Department of Justice under the supervision of Jeff Sessions, who has requested that Congress allow him to prosecute marijuana cases in states that have legalized medical marijuana. Its not yet clear which agency will set the psychedelic agenda, and increased enforcement action from the Justice Department could scare scientists away from the field.

I do feel very optimistic," says Rick Doblin, executive director of psychedelic research nonprofit MAPS, a leading funder of psychedelic research. "One of the Trump administration's main things is lower regulation. They're pro business and pro making it easier for Big Pharma to get drugs through the FDA. And that benefits us."

But the FDA isnt as far up the food chain as other influential agencies. DEA licenses are required for psychedelic research. And Trump has given Attorney General Sessions plenty of leeway in drug policy, says Erik Altieri, executive director of marijuana-focused nonprofit NORML. It seems that the people really calling the shots are those far closer to Trump than those running the FDA, says Altieri. The proof will be in the pudding here about who actually sways Trump's opinion, and what he will be willing to tolerate.

Psychedelics remain Schedule 1. They are categorized among a class of substances purported to have no medical application and high risk of abuse, and bearing the harshest penalties for recreational use. Any clinical use of psychedelics in the US must go through a rigorous DEA licensing and FDA approval process.

Many researchers hope that the FDA will maintain the framework developed by a unit called Pilot Drug Evaluation Staff, which first greenlit pilot studies with psychedelics in the early 1990s. Before, the FDA had denied approving or shelved research protocols with psychedelics. But in large part because of practices established by Pilot Drug, like expedited drug review and direct scientist-to-scientist communication between researchers and the FDA, psychedelic research restarted, and has only gained momentum since.

The FDA is fairly apolitical, says psychedelic research chemist and pharmacologist David Nichols. He is the president of the Heffter Research Institute, which has funded 12 FDA-approved clinical psychedelic studies since Pilot Drug. Congress would have to push to change that, and he doesnt believe that will happen. We're just a flea on the back of this dog.

Though the FDA is more friendly to psychedelics than ever before, getting the approval to test compounds is a long and complicated process. Doblin hopes that Trumps FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb will simplify it, thanks to a key Trump administration talking point: deregulation. Gottliebs public statements endorse cutting regulatory processes in favor of quickened drug approvals though he hasnt specifically addressed psychedelic research.

But deregulation has risks. Regulations are not arbitrary rules; each is set in place for a specific reason. They are designed to reduce risk during studies and prevent harm to patients after drugs go to market. The unintended consequences [of deregulating] would require so much wisdom on the part of the people making the changes to be staggering, says Dan Spyker, a former medical officer for the FDAs Pilot Drug and deputy division director. You can't just say, 'Well, I'm going to cut the regs.' It's complicated.

Jag Davies, director of communications strategy at Drug Policy Alliance, agrees. Overall I would be more concerned about the danger of erasing our food and drug safety standards than excited about the possibility of easier psychedelic research, says Davies. I don't think ultimately that's a good thing.

Another federal department has begun to set an increasingly conservative tone towards illicit drugs under Trump: the Department of Justice, which oversees the DEA.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions renewed drug war highlighted by his two-page memo ordering DOJ staff to pursue harsher sentences for drug offenders, and by his pitch to Congress that the DOJ should be allowed to prosecute medical marijuana providers has already given drug reform advocates new reason to worry. We've really stepped into mass mobilization of preparing for the worst, quite frankly, says NORMLs Altieri.

Marijuana is not a psychedelic, and yet its subject to even stricter research regulation. In addition to the requisite DEA and FDA sign-offs, the National Institute on Drug Abuse must supply the cannabis for all studies. Marijuana is legal in eight states and permitted for medical use in 30, so a hardline stance on marijuana is likely to chill all research on illicit drugs, says Altieri. Psychedelics arent legal anywhere, so getting approval for a drug like psilocybin might seem like a bigger ask to regulators, he says.

Historically, Health and Human Services which supervises FDA defers to the DOJ when it comes to drug policy, says Davies. For instance, during Bill Clintons presidency, HHS secretary Donna Shalala proposed federally funded needle exchanges a harm-reduction program. Drug czar Barry McCaffrey overruled her. Psychedelics researchers must obtain DEA licenses to conduct their studies; if Sessions wants to block drug research, he can make the license application process harder, Davies says.

Though researchers know more than ever about psychedelic drugs and some studies have found promising potential uses for them none of the research renaissance has translated into law enforcement policy. These laws target people of color and low-income communities, and mandate incarceration for possession. Sessions is unwilling to consider research suggesting medical marijuana may actually help some people; it is unlikely hell push for any kind of reform for psychedelics, either. And hes taken a hard line on sentencing.

MAPSs Doblin thinks MDMA will be made legal for prescription use, in tandem with psychotherapy, by 2021. But, he adds, I can feel both optimistic, and it's still a long road ahead. He views Sessions hard line on sentencing as the other sort of counterpoint to his optimism.

Despite their working relationship with the FDA, researchers are fearful that a Sessions-led Justice Department might undo all the progress made since the 90s.Its just so scary Jeff Sessions and the drug war, and that we would go backwards after all this work and money, says Ann Mithoefer, co-therapist on the ongoing MDMA-assisted psychotherapy and PTSD studies funded by MAPS, alongside her husband Michael. Even Doblin acknowledges that the overarching political climate is very negative.

Mithoefer and Doblin continue to place their trust in the FDA, even though the DOJ is becoming more hostile. A May 11th meeting with the FDA about the Mithoefers MAPS-funded MDMA Phase 3 protocol was beyond positive, Doblin says. We came to an agreement on all the elements of the studys design.

The biggest challenge for the study right now isnt federal regulation. Its fundraising. Most US voters dont support legal medical use of most illicit drugs, so funding is difficult. And thats one final place where Trump administration policy may bog down psychedelic research.

The Trump administration tends to make decisions about mental health care and substance abuse treatment without consulting the body of scientific literature thats built up over the decades. Trumpcare restricts access to mental health care and substance abuse treatment programs. Thats because the highest priority appears to be budget cuts. So Gottliebs hands-off rhetoric might not mean much, since HHS secretary Tom Price is more interested in defunding his department than deregulating it. Trumps proposed budget for 2018 has a 16.2 percent cut for HHS.

Psychedelic research has never received government grants from HHS departments, relying instead on donors to nonprofits like MAPS and Heffter. So, the current administrations intent to slash the US science budget wont matter there. But if more scientists have to find private funding to continue their work, psychedelics may no longer be a priority for donors.

Thats a setback. In fact, Heffters Nichols had hoped the recent surge in compelling clinical data would encourage HHS to lend its funding support to psychedelic research. The studies are expensive; they can cost more than a million dollars. But if independently funded work had shown enough benefits, Nichols thought, it seemed possible that government funding might be forthcoming. That hope died when Trump took office.

"The funding will be the biggest problem, Nichols says. I don't see legal problems, I don't see clinical problems so much. The real problem I see is what the proposed Trump budget would do, not just to psychedelic research, but to biomedical research in general. And it would be a real disaster."

Stephie Grob Plante is the daughter of Charles Grob, a clinical psychedelic researcher and Heffter board member. He was not consulted for this story.

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The war on drugs is back. Will psychedelic drug research survive? - The Verge