Oakland California Decriminalizes Magic Mushrooms, Other Natural Psychedelics

“Oakland, California has become the second city in the United States to decriminalize the use and possession of psychedelic mushrooms, The Associated Press reports. The Oakland City Council unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday night, just weeks after Denver voters narrowly approved a similar measure. Along with mushrooms containing psilocybin, the resolution also decriminalizes other psychedelics naturally derived from plants or fungi, such as ayahuasca, peyote and DMT. Synthetic psychedelics like LSD and MDMA, are still illegal…”

DMT, Psychedelics, PoliticalArtful AlchemyFebruary 24, 2020DMT, Psilocybin, Peyote, MDMA, Ayahuasca, LSD, legalisation, Laws, America, Politics, Drugs, Depression, PTSD, Mental Health

What’s DMT and Why are Techies and Entrepreneurs Secretly Taking it?

“This probably isn’t a shock to anyone following trends in tech and startups, particularly the glorification of the 8-trillion hour workweek (#hustle). But business owners, entrepreneurs, and technologists are also turning to other hallucinogens to awaken higher levels of consciousness in hopes of influencing favorable business results…”

DMTArtful AlchemyJuly 10, 2019DMT, Rick Strassman, Microdosing, LSD, Ayahuasca, Experiences, Purging, Ego Death, Studies, Healing

Can a Psychedelic Drug Save the Terminally Ill from their Deepest Fears of Death?

“Ross and Dwyer are at the centre of the country's first clinical trial of psychedelic drugs for treating severe depression in the terminally ill. Within a month, they will begin recruiting 40 depressed and incurable patients in an attempt to relieve their distress with a novel treatment: between one and two 25-milligram doses of synthetic psilocybin, the psychedelic ingredient found in "magic mushrooms", accompanied by intensive psychotherapy sessions…”

Psychedelics Change How You Read Faces, Which May Help Anxiety and Depression

“A new systematic review states that serotonergic hallucinogens help users recognize emotions in facial expressions. Sufferers of anxiety and depression often only read negative emotions in other people's faces, adding to their malaise. While more research is needed, psychedelics could prove to be a powerful agent in battling mental health disorders…”

Imperial College London Launches World’s First Centre for Psychedelics Research

“The first formal centre for psychedelic research in the world will launch at Imperial College London today. Funded by more than £3 million from five founding donors, the new Imperial Centre for Psychedelic Research will build on over a decade of pioneering work in this area carried out at Imperial, including a clinical trial that has kick-started global efforts to develop psilocybin therapy into a licensed treatment for depression…”

Scientists Microdosed Rats With DMT, and It Was Both Good and "Concerning"

“People who experiment with microdosing claim that it can help a person to think more creatively, feel less anxious, and sharpen focus. But despite plenty of anecdotal evidence and Silicon Valley’s ample claims that these positive effects are real, scientists still can’t definitively say that microdosing actually works. Bringing us closer to a clear answer is a new study showing that microdosing can indeed have beneficial effects — but not without potential downsides…”

DMTArtful AlchemyMarch 5, 2019DMT, Science, Microdosing, Research, Studies, Psychedelics, Psilocybin, LSD, PTSD, Neuroscience, Anxiety

Psychedelic Afterlife: Researchers Determine Which Hallucinogenic ‘Trip’ is Most Similar to the Near-Death Experience

“A new study – “Neurochemical models of near-death experiences: A large-scale study based on the semantic similarity of written reports” – has set out to quantify the possible links by comparing a bunch of NDE accounts (625) with a huge number of ‘trip reports’ (more than 15,000) “spanning experiences with 165 psychoactive substances of ten different pharmacological classes”…”