http://www.realitysandwi...com/week_psychedelics_13

A dozen Latin American countries call for an alternative to the drug war, the "chemical genius" behind Hamilton's Pharmacopeia is profiled in the NYTimes, and a new first-person shooter game hunts for magic mushrooms in this week's psychedelic news.

A dozen Latin American countries issued a joint statement on organized crime and drug trafficking, calling for alternatives to the drug war such as regulation. (Transform)
Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina said that U.S.'s inability to cut illegal drug consumption leaves the country with no option but to consider legalizing the use and transport of drugs. Perez said he will try to win regional support for drug legalization at an upcoming summit of Central American leaders next month. (Star Tribune)
Four former B.C. attorneys-general are calling for the legalization of cannabis, declaring that the 89-year-old marijuana prohibition has failed. (Vancouver Sun)
Amanda Feilding describes the Beckley Foundation's efforts to promote health-oriented drug policies by combining rigorous scientific research with detailed policy analysis. (Guardian)
A Telegraph blogger accuses UK Prime Minister David Cameron of cowardice for knowing that drug laws aren't working and failing to change them. (Telegraph)
An article in the Guardian profiles recent research demonstrating that magic mushrooms shut down parts of the brain that normally filter information. Despite a positive overview, the author ends by asserting that "mushrooms were, and still are, a dangerous way of tinkering with brain chemistry." (Guardian)
Pulse writes that even though "magic mushrooms look like button mushrooms which broke free from the pack and rolled to the back of the fridge four months ago," they "apparently can help the mental health of people with depression." (Pulse)
A BBC video addresses recent research into the potential psychological benefits of magic mushrooms and the government regulations that are inhibiting further research. (BBC) [video]
The Daily Mail reports that a clinical trial of "magic mushroom therapy" could take place in the UK within a year. (Daily Mail)
Researchers at McLean Hospital and Harvard are working on an LSD pill they believe will help those suffering from cluster headaches, which are so painful that they are otherwise known as "suicide headaches." (Boston Channel)
Israeli researchers say more doctors should recommend marijuana to cancer patients in light of a comprehensive study showing that two-thirds of cancer patients who were prescribed medical marijuana were satisfied with the treatment. (Haaretz)
The New York Times profiles "chemical genius" Hamilton Morris of Vice.com's "Hamilton's Pharmacopeia," where he explores the stories and science behind psychedelics and other methods of altering consciousness. (NY Times)
Following the New York Times' profile on Vice's in-house drug aficionado/chemist Hamilton Morris and his original web series Hamilton's Pharmacopeia, Vice premieres the latest episode where Hamilton travels to Amsterdam to discover "the Philosopher's Stone of psychedelics": the psilocybin-containing truffle. (boingboing) [video]
Hamilton Morris interviews an underground medicinal chemist who has singlehandedly discovered and popularized numerous gray-market drugs, most recently methoxetamine, a dissociative anesthetic. (Vice)
David Jay Brown reports that a number of recent studies have demonstrated the potent, quick-acting and long-lasting antidepressant effects of the dissociative anesthetic ketamine. He suggests that methoxetamine (MXE), a new designer drug with many of the same psychoactive properties as ketamine, might be even more effective. (Santa Cruz Patch)
The Independent reports that Methoxetamine (MXE) is a popular new "legal high" that is being misleadingly marketed as a safe substitute for ketamine. (Independent)
Police in the UK issue a warning following the deaths of two people who may have ingested Methoxetamine (MXE) that they believed was Mephadrone (MCAT). (Leicestershire Constabulary)
In an ongoing study into the connection between ancient sacred spaces and ceremonial sounds, some researchers suggest that conch shell trumpet calls might have been heightened by the psychoactive effects of the San Pedro cactus in a pre-Inca site in Peru. (MSNBC)
An FBI report on Steve Jobs, linking Jobs's use of LSD and marijuana to his "questionable moral character," depicts his "tendency to 'twist reality in order to achieve his goals.'" (Daily Mail, Wired, NY Times, Politico, ABC News, NY Daily News, Sydney Morning Herald, Telegraph, Atlantic)
Officials in Virginia say that salvia has been gaining more attention due to recent associations with celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Demi Moore. They claim that "the target market is teenagers." "One said that he thought he was an ice cream cone, floating across the field chasing other ice cream cones." (WSET)
Senator John Flanagan announced that legislation he sponsored to ban the sale of salvia divinorum throughout New York State has passed the Senate. The Senator has been lobbying for a statewide ban since 2005. (News LI, Northport Patch)
A special feature on the Daily Beast examines "seven of the most dangerous legal drugs," including "bath salts," salvia, synthetic marijuana, cough syrup, "poppers," nitrous oxide, and paint thinner. (Daily Beast)
Louisiana state senator Almond Gaston Crowe is trying to ban the sale psychoactive kratom tea, which may have medicinal properties. (Santa Cruz Patch)
As its first entry in a new series of travel diaries, NYU Local compiled a list of suggestions for things to bring along while tripping on magic mushrooms in a "Mushroom Dopp kit." (NYU Local)
A new company in California is helping parents discover whether their children are secretly taking drugs by bringing trained sniffer dogs into clients' homes. (BBC) [video]
At a pre-Grammy gala where Whitney Houston had been scheduled to perform, Tony Bennett asked every person in the room to campaign to legalize drugs in light of Houston's recent death. (Hollywood Reporter)
Arianna Huffington appeared on CNN to elaborate on Tony Bennett's recent call to legalize drugs. (Huffington Post)
In light of Whitney Houston's recent death, a New York Times editorial laments that we tend not to attribute the same destructive powers to alcohol that we do to powders, capsules and vials. (NY Times)
The Huffington Post profiles Jim Fadiman's Psychedelic Explorer's Guide and the inquiry into the optimal use of psychedelics. (Huffington Post)
Rupert Sheldrake's new book, The Science Delusion, questions the dogmas inherent in contemporary scientific thought. Describing the evolution of his ideas, Sheldrake remarks that "I had some exposure to psychedelics, and that opened me up to the idea that consciousness was much richer than anything my physiology lecturers had ever described." (Guardian)
An article profiles the Eleusinian Mysteries, the "psychedelic cult" that thrived for nearly 2000 years. (io9)
A new art installation called Lucia No. 3 triggers strange visions while participants sit in front of a lamp surrounded by LEDs: "The device works by affecting alpha brain waves and stimulating something called the pineal gland, which…responds to both the intensity and rhythms of the light, triggering a visionary reaction in the person's brain." (Vice)
A six-minute-long gameplay trailer for Ubisoft's upcoming first person shooter Far Cry 3 is mostly dedicated to a quest to harvest hallucinogenic mushrooms from an island cave. (Game Spy)
A TIME article suggests that with medical marijuana available in 16 states, decriminalizing marijuana for recreational use might be around the corner. (Time)
Michael Elliott, executive director of the Medical Marijuana Industry Group (MMIG), writes in an editorial that the marijuana industry welcomes regulation as the most effective way to limit unauthorized access and abuse. (ED News Colorado)
The San Jose City Council voted unanimously to rescind an ordinance passed in September that limited the number of marijuana collectives in the city to 10 and required dispensaries to grow all medicine on site. (KGO-TV) [video]
KSRO reports that New York City police arrested more than 50,000 people on low-level marijuana charges in 2011 despite a drop off after officers were told to abandon aggressive tactics. (KSRO)
Canadian researchers from Dalhousie University determined that people who drive high are slightly more than twice as likely to be involved in a fatal crash, based on analyses of nine previous studies. (Chicago Tribune, MSNBC)
While 250 former psychiatric patients are suing psychiatric hospitals throughout New Zealand for their treatment and use of electroconvulsive (shock) therapy (ECT), one woman assumes ECT was in her best interest, although she preferred LSD therapy. (Stuff)
A typical pub menu for Australian tourists in Laos features magic mushrooms, cannabis, and opium. (Nine MSN)
A report published by the Centers for Disease Control indicates that falsely identified "2C-E" was sold by a vendor in Nanjing, China, which subsequently poisoned some users. From the report, "Blood drawn for laboratory testing was chocolate-brown" and they ingested "4 mL of a bitter, yellow-tinted liquid." (CDC)
Debate surrounds the decision by Reed College to call police after campus security officers found two to three pounds of marijuana and a small amount of ecstasy and LSD, which lead to the arrest of two students. (Oregon Live)
A letter sent to parents of students at a middle school in Maine informed them of a "recent drug incident" at the school involving 2C-E. (Seacoast Online)
An eighth-grade girl was discovered selling "psychedelic sweets" (marijuana-infused brownies) to her classmates in New York City. Twenty students were caught snacking and getting stoned. (Queens Courier)
A Nebraska couple accused of giving their 12-year-old daughter hallucinogenic mushrooms for religious purposes have been given five years of probation. (KGWN)
A freshman at SUNY New Paltz "under the influence of an unknown hallucinogen" faces kidnapping and assault charges after he briefly took several students hostage in a college residence hall with a Japanese katana sword. (Times Herald-Record)
Police and EMTs came to the aid of Dillinger Escape Plan frontman Greg Puciato last month following a bad experience with magic mushrooms. Reflecting on the experience, Puciato remarked that "I felt that consciousness wasn't something that comes from inside us, that it's somehow a universal thing that we must be harnessing...as if we are living antennae." (Anti Music)
A man abducted from a Greyhound bus terminal appears to have been involved in "a drug deal involving magic mushrooms gone bad." (TB News Watch)
Michael Fagan speculates that he wandered into the Queen of England's Buckingham Palace bedroom in 1982 because he put too many magic mushrooms in his soup five months earlier: "I forgot you are only supposed to take a little handful. I was high on mushrooms for a long, long time." (Mumbai Mirror)
Police in Illinois have charged a resident with two felonies in connection with an explosion and fire that burned him. Steven Hughes, 47, was allegedly trying to manufacture dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in his kitchen. (Deerfield Patch, Lake County News-Sun)
Finding dimethyltryptamine (DMT) was a "first" for Martin County Sheriff's investigators in Florida. (TCPalm)
A California driver was arrested with DMT after being reported for driving recklessly. (San Jose Mercury News)
Green Answers profiles the Santo Daime, a syncretic religion characterized by the sacred tradition of ayahuasca drinking. (Green Answers)
E! asks Jennifer Aniston how she prepared for a scene where she's tripping on LSD in the upcoming film Wanderlust: "I've actually never done LSD so I just imagined every greatest fear I could have, which is what happens." (E! Online) [video]
The proposed Haight-Ashbury Museum of Psychedelic Art and History is raising funds via IndieGoGo. (SFist)
A new Meetup group, the Psychedelic Society of San Francisco, aims to create safe spaces to foster psychedelic discussion and community in the bay area. (Meetup) (Meetup)
Martin Witz's recent documentary "The Substance: Albert Hofmann's LSD" was featured in San Francisco's IndieFest. (Mission Local)
A new psychedelic conference will be held in a tropical rainforest in northern Australia before the full solar eclipse this November. (Facebook)
The creative band of innovators and evolutionaries behind Elevate have released a documentary on ayahuasca. (Elevate) [video]
An online petition is requesting that Major League Baseball (MLB) Network rebroadcast the infamous game where Dock Ellis pitched his LSD no-hitter against the San Diego Padres. (San Diego)
More than half-a-million people were drawn to the Luminaire De Cagna LED-light display at the 2012 Light Festival in Ghent, Belgium. (Yahoo)
A photographer uses a macro lens to capture the "psychedelic" patterns that form in soapy water. (Daily Mail)
One writer at Vice explains that if you break a digital camera in a certain way, your photographs start looking pretty psychedelic. (Vice)
Diana Melfi's shoot Granny Takes a Trip uses crocheted "granny squares" as the backdrops to a psychedelic series of photos. (Style Bistro)
Alejandro Jodorowsky wanted his Dune film to induce LSD-like hallucinations; he originally wanted to include music by Pink Floyd, designs by Moebius and HR Giger, and Salvador Dali, Orson Welles, and Gloria Swanson in the cast. (io9)
Austin's 5k "Color Run" is compared to "a 1969 tie-dyed psychedelic trip gone peacefully haywire." (Examiner)
The cover of the The Advocate's March 2012 issue features Madonna as the "Psychedelic Queen of Pop (Art)." (Advocate)
In a farcical post on the Huffington Post, cartoon character Roger Smith lays out his presidential platform, which he arrived at following a "beautifully disorienting mescaline haze" with "a bunch of [yammering] clowns". (Huffington Post)
SPIN describes the music video for Zambri's "ICBYS" as the Blair Witch Project "after a healthy dose of psychedelic drugs." (SPIN) [video]
Prefix accuses the "psychedelic" in Flying Nun's greatest hits release "Time to Go: The Psychedelic Moment 1981-1986" of being a misnomer. (Prefix)
"Dead Mantra," NPR's song of the day by Dead Skeletons, "springs through psychedelics, refrains and long sections of meditative repetition." (NPR)
In an interview, famed Montreal singer Nanette Workman recalls an encounter with department store water beds during her first LSD trip with Pink Floyd. (Montreal Gazette)
The lead singer of the 1960s rock band The Morning Glory -- which performed alongside The Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, and Jimmy Hendrix -- spoke at a Christian Science Church in California about "overdosing on LSD and overcoming it after finding the Lord." (Lodi News-Sentinel)
A Christian author writes that despite the naive '60s enthusiasm for the "cheap transcendence" of psychedelics, the path to God is found through prayer in combination with "diet, exercise, meditation, education and hard work" and "not through medicine cabinets." (Penn Live)
In an examination of the Obama administration rule guaranteeing women access to birth control pills and other contraception in employee health insurance plans, Linda Greenhouse counters claims that religious institutions have the right to special exemption by offering a parallel to peyote churches: "[T]hat is not a principle that our legal system embraces. Just ask Alfred Smith and Galen Black, two members of the Native American Church who were fired from their state jobs in Oregon for using the illegal hallucinogen peyote in a religious ceremony and who were then deemed ineligible for unemployment compensation because they had lost their jobs for 'misconduct.'" A Supreme Court ruling in 1990 upheld the decision. (Arkansas Times)
An author describes debt in developed nations by analogy to the amount of LSD it would take to kill an elephant. (Global Economic Intersection)
Trooper Michael Robertson is named Tennessee's Interdiction Trooper of the Year, in part for making significant traffic stops that resulted in the seizure of several pounds of marijuana, hash oil, 15 "blotters" of LSD, and four grams of ecstasy. (Clarksville Online)
Only months after Edmond, OK had its largest marijuana bust, the city has made its largest ever seizure of LSD. An 18-year-old Oklahoma City suspect faces an anticipated aggravated trafficking complaint after 1,041 doses of LSD were found during a traffic stop. (Edmond Sun)
A 17-person drug bust at Texas Christian University involved LSD, cocaine, and marijuana. (SB Nation, Pegasus News, Star-Telegram, MSNBC)
Eight people were arrested for the sale of cocaine, LSD, and marijuana after a several-month investigation into a local drug ring in Massachusetts. (Needham Patch)
Five people are arrested in connection with an "acid ring" on the Drexel University campus in Philadelphia. (6ABC, DP)
The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office is processing the largest psychedelic mushroom operation the state has ever seen. (wjactv)
A Pennsylvania man is accused of selling fake LSD, a "non-contraband look-alike," which is still considered a felony. (Trib Live)
Two months after a criminal case against her husband was thrown out, the wife of a Chelan medical marijuana provider faces a charge of possessing magic mushrooms after their home was raided on a search warrant. (Wenatchee World)
A father's anonymous letter to the police led to the arrest of a 22-year-old dealer in Aspen, CO. Chief Deputy District Attorney Arnold Mordkin remarked that "If more people came to us and talked about drug dealers, we might be able to apprehend more people who need apprehending." (Aspen Times)
A clemency hearing has been set for two days in early May for the only Canadian on death row in the United States. Ronald Smith was drunk and on LSD when he shot two men in the woods at the age of 24. (Yahoo)
The 19-year-old driver of a pickup truck involved in a deadly head-on collision with a limousine in British Columbia was allegedly drunk and on LSD at the time of the crash. (CBC)
A man wielding an axe threatened to kill his wife and their baby after he took magic mushrooms. (This is Jersey)
A teenager who stabbed his mother to death in an LSD-fueled attack in late 2010 pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. (Fredericksburg)

This Week in Psychedelics is a Reality Sandwich column that follows the multifaceted media appearances of this class of chemicals and their effects in popular culture. Share your psychedelic news links on the facebook page or twitter.

Image by Christopher Martin Adams.

Thanks allot for posting this. Good reads!

Once upon a time I frequented Reality Sandwich, not so much any more. The Nexus is about it for me.

Thanks again, nice to have some info from the outsid world. lol

"The outside world"

Wow a lot of good stuff thanks.

I pulled this one out.
A Nebraska couple accused of giving their 12-year-old daughter hallucinogenic mushrooms for religious purposes have been given five years of probation.

This is something i considered if i had a child, but very low doses of coarse.