Thailand Expects to Legalize Medical Marijuana After Failed Drug War

The Narcotics Control Board of Thailand is pushing forward with a rewritten draft of the country’s drug laws in order to legalize medical marijuana. 

The proposed revision, which is currently going through the parliamentary process, will allow medicinal cannabis to be sold over-the-counter for patients with a valid prescription from their doctor.

The move is expected to pass without opposition. Once adopted, the country will be one of the first in Asia to do so.

Thailand’s public health department and the country’s law enforcement agencies have stated no opposition to the move, which is in stark contrast to previous policy in the Asian nation.

In 2016, previous Justice Minister of Thailand Paiboon Koomchaya declared the war on drugs to be a failure, which opened the door to a conversation about what to do next.

Thailand is Poised to Legalize Medical Cannabis | Marijuana.com

Techniques of Consciousness Change – Robert Anton Wilson (Lecture)

Robert Anton Wilson speaks about the riddle of consciousness and how the human nervous system locks the entire body together, including the mind.

He describes the brain and how it reacts to our cultural programming, our reality tunnel, how our nervous system reprograms itself, and how we can crack our minds open through directed thought.

Lecture Topics Covered:

The Government And Drugs
Yoga And Other Techniques
Timothy Leary’s Eight-Circuit Model Of Psychological Types
Elements Of The First Four Circuits
Techniques For Changing Imprinting
The Top Four Circuits
Programming Your Own Experience
The Church Committee And Space Migration

We live in our fantasies and endure our realities. – Robert Anton Wilson

Researchers Measure Psychedelic Trips with a Mystical Experience Questionnaire (Study)

A team of researchers from the John Hopkins University School of Medicine believe they have developed a method to scientifically study the “mystical experiences” produced by shrooms.

Publishing their findings in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, the team defines “mystical experience” using four central characteristics:

1. A sense of “mysticism,” meaning a sensation of sacredness or unity with all things

2. Positive mood

3. Transcendence of time and space

4. Ineffability, a feeling that the experience is beyond words.

The team of psychiatrists and neuroscientists created a 30-item Mystical Experience Questionnaire, called the MEQ30, which addresses all four of these “mystical experience” elements and can be used to obtain an overall score to describe the intensity of the mystical experience.

This was achieved by analyzing data collected from five laboratory-based experiments, in which a total of 184 participants were given moderate to high doses of psilocybin mushrooms and asked to describe their experience.

The results led to a number of theories. Psilocybin is thought to cause a decrease in brain activity in the parts of the brain typically associated with the “sense of self,” or “ego.” At the same time, an increase in communication between certain other parts of the brain was observed, producing a pattern of activity that resembled “dream sleep.”

> Scientists Can Now Measure The “Mystical” Effects Of Magic Mushrooms | IFL Science

Cannabis CBD For Pets, A Possible Solution to Treat Anxiety and Inflammation

At Colorado State University, the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences is conducting two clinical trials with Cannabis CBD – one involving treatment of arthritis, and the other epilepsy in dogs.

For now, CBD advocates for dogs are spreading the word at ground level. Cannabis at human strengths can be toxic for dogs, so firms are making dog chews, oils and topical creams using cannabis extract.

Alison is the CEO of TreatWell Health, a Californian firm making medical marijuana products for people and their dogs. TreatWell’s cannabis tincture can be dropped straight into an animal’s mouth or on to food

Similar companies include Treatibles, which sells a hemp oil “for animals of all kinds”, and Pet Releaf, whose hemp dog treats look like fancy vegan snack-food.

The compound Cannabidiol (CBD) was discovered by studies to reduce inflammation and combat seizures. Veterinary groups are cautious but a mounting number of dog owners say the Cannabis is easing their animals’ anxiety and chronic pain.

Cinnamon, a portly Beagle cross from Kansas City, Missouri, takes PetReleaf’s hemp oil daily for her bad hips. Her owner Joyce Lattimer claims that after one dose:

She hopped right down from her chair when I called her to go outside. usually I have to call several times and start pushing her off.

She came over just to say hi and lick me on the leg. I almost cried, it’s been so long since she’s done that.

Pot for pets: Could medical marijuana help your dog? | BBC News

Largest Ayahuasca Research Study Confirms Mental Healing Benefits

Ayahuasca has gotten the attention of researchers by demonstrating its critical healing potential for individuals living with psychological issues.

In a study published by the Scientific Reports Journal, specialists at University of Exeter and University College London confirmed results showing that the 527 ayahuasca consumers out of 96,000 surveyed individuals reported higher general well-being, along with less problematic alcohol and drug use, over the previous 12 months than other respondents in the survey.

These findings lend some support to the notion that ayahuasca could be an important and powerful tool in treating depression and alcohol use disorders – Will Lawn, Ph.D., of University College London, Lead Researcher

Biggest Scientific Ayahausca Study Ever Shows Psychological Benefits | Ayahausca Today

Does Cannabis Legalization Decrease Violent Crime? (Study)

The increasing reform of cannabis policies is taking away power from Mexican cartels and reducing violent crime.

In a new research study, Is Legal Pot Crippling Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations? The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on US Crime, when a state on the Mexican border legalized medical use of the drug, violent crime fell by 13% on average.

These laws allow local farmers to grow marijuana that can then be sold to dispensaries where it is sold legally.

These growers are in direct competition with Mexican drug cartels that are smuggling the marijuana into the US. As a result, the cartels get much less business.

Whenever there is a medical marijuana law we observe that crime at the border decreases because suddenly there is a lot less smuggling and a lot less violence associated with that.

-Evelina Gavrilova, Author of the economic journal study

Taking Cannabis Away from Dirty Hands

While the Mexican cartels smuggle other drugs such as cocaine, heroine and meth across the border, the market for cannbis is the largest drug market in the US and the one from which the cartels can make the fattest profit. It costs around $75 to produce a pound of marijuana in Mexico, which can then be sold on for $6,000 depending on the quality.

Gavrilova, along with fellow researchers Takuma Kamada and Floris Zoutman, studied data from the FBI’s uniform crime reports and supplementary homicide records covering 1994 to 2012 to report these findings:

Among the border states the effect of the change in law was largest in California, where there was a reduction of 15% in violent crime, and weakest in Arizona, where there was a fall of 7%.

The crimes most strongly affected were robbery, which fell by 19%, and murder, which dropped by 10%. Homicides specifically related to the drug trade fell by an astonishing 41%.

Mislabeled Drug to Legal Medicine


The authors claim their study provides new insights into methods to reduce violent crime related to drug trafficking. But its publication comes as the US attorney general, Jeff Sessions, is rescinding the Obama-era policy that ushered in the medical marijuana laws.

When the effect on crime is so significant, it’s obviously better to regulate marijuana and allow people to pay taxes on it rather than make it illegal.

For me it’s a no brainer that it should be legal and should be regulated, and the proceeds go to the Treasury.

-Evelina Gavrilova, Author of the economic journal study

As of January 2018, more than 20 states have implemented medical marijuana laws. In those cannabis friendly states, there is now one marijuana dispensary for every six regular pharmacies. The increasing amount of positive medical marijuana stories have convinced many people to use it for their health. Compassionate dispensaries even offer discount programs for low income patients who qualify.

The study suggests that the full recreational legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington will have an even stronger impact on the drug trade as their large-scale cannabis production facilities will push cartels out of the industry.

DISCLAIMER: All Information Displayed In This Post Is For Educational Purposes Only, And Is Not To Be Construed As Medical Advice Or Treatment For Any Specific Person Or Condition. Cannabis Has Not Been Analyzed Or Approved By The FDA. Individual Results May Vary.

Legal marijuana cuts violence says US study, as medical-use laws see crime fall | The Guardian

4 Healthy Benefits of Chanting “Om” Confirmed With Scientific Evidence (Study)

Some scientific studies have explored the many mental, physical, and spiritual benefits to chanting Om. According to the Vedas, the sound of Om evolves on its own, so it is seen as the sound of the universe, made up of all that is.

To chant Om is to represent all of consciousness. – Yogananda, Indian Yogi

The Sanskrit word Om is pronounced like “Aum,” and is said to represent the threefold division of time (waking state, dreaming state, and deep sleep). It is considered the sound of creation, representing all that is in creation, and it allows for its practitioners to cultivate energy that flows upward through the chakras and then outward through the crown chakra which represents one’s connection to Source.

According to yogic texts, Hinduism, and Buddhism, Om is also the mantra related to the third eye chakra, as chanting Om can help cleanse and balance your third eye. 

Reasons to Chant and Heal

Helps Reduce Stress

A study published in the International Journal of Yoga found that Om chanting reduced activity in the limbic system, which is the portion of the brain associated with stress, emotions, learning, and motivation. By monitoring brain activity using a functional MRI machine, researchers found that Om chanting relaxed the brain, and thus could reduce stress. Another study found that it could be used to treat depression.

Improves Concentration

Yogic texts discuss the eight limbs or branches of yoga, and the sixth one is Dharana, the Sanskrit word for concentration. In practicing concentration, one can meditate and chant mantras in order to achieve maximum concentration. In this context, this means that the yogi is fully present and thus able to slow down the mind in order to either concentrate on one subject or to completely silence the mind.

Balance Your Emotions

If you’re ever feeling a little down or slightly off, chanting Om can help you connect to the Self and balance your emotions. You may find that, as you chant, your mind starts to clear. This is because you’re concentrating on one thing: the sound or vibration that Om gives off. Om holds the same frequency as that of everything in nature, allowing you to connect further and look inwards.

Strengthens Spinal Cord

When you pronounce the first part of Om, making the “Aaaa” sound, the vibration is generated in the abdomen, which can help support your spinal cord. It is said that the more often an individual chants Om, the more efficient their spinal cord may become.

Scientifically Backed Reasons to Chant Om | Collective Evolution

Acid Casualty a Myth: No Link Found Between Psychedelics and Psychosis (Study)

Acid Casualty a Myth: No Link Found Between Psychedelics and Psychosis (Study) | Third Monk

Psychedelics and Psychosis

Data from population surveys in the United States challenge public fears that psychedelic drugs such as LSD can lead to psychosis and other mental-health conditions and to increased risk of suicide, two studies have found.

In the first study, clinical psychologists Pål-Ørjan Johansen and Teri Suzanne Krebs, both at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, scoured data from the US National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), an annual random sample of the general population, and analysed answers from more than 135,000 people who took part in surveys from 2008 to 2011.

Of those, 14% described themselves as having used at any point in their lives any of the three ‘classic’ psychedelics: LSD, psilocybin (the active ingredient in so-called magic mushrooms) and mescaline (found in the peyote and San Pedro cacti).

The researchers found that individuals in this group were not at increased risk of developing 11 indicators of mental health problems such as schizophrenia, psychosis, depression, anxiety disorders and suicide attempts. Their paper appears in the March issue of the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

The findings are likely to raise eyebrows. Fears that psychedelics can lead to psychosis date to the 1960s, with widespread reports of “acid casualties” in the mainstream news. But Krebs says that because psychotic disorders are relatively prevalent, affecting about one in 50 people, correlations can often be mistaken for causations.

Psychedelics are psychologically intense, and many people will blame anything that happens for the rest of their lives on a psychedelic experience. – Krebs

The three substances Johansen and Krebs looked at all act through the brain’s serotonin 2A receptor. The authors did not include ketamine, PCP, MDMA, fly agaric mushrooms, DMT or other drugs that fall broadly into the category of hallucinogens, because they act on other receptors and have different modes of biochemical action. Ketamine and PCP, for example, act on the NMDA receptor and are both known to be addictive and to cause severe physical harms, such as damage to the bladder.

Absolutely, people can become addicted to drugs like ketamine or PCP, and the effects can be very destructive. We restricted our study to the ‘classic psychedelics’ to clarify the findings. – Johansen

The ‘Acid Casualty’ Myth: Psychedelics and Psychosis

“This study assures us that there were not widespread ‘acid casualties’ in the 1960s,” says Charles Grob, a paediatric psychiatrist at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has long has advocated the therapeutic use of psychedelics, such as administering psilocybin to treat anxiety in terminal-stage cancer. But he has concerns about Krebs and Johansen’s overall conclusions, he says, because individual cases of adverse effects use can and do occur.

For example, people may develop hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD), a ‘trip’ that never seems to end, involving incessant distortions in the visual field, shimmering lights and coloured dots. “I’ve seen a number of people with these symptoms following a psychedelic experience, and it can be a very serious condition,” says Grob.

Krebs and Johansen, however, point to studies that have found symptoms of HPPD in people who have never used psychedelics.

The second of the new two studies, also published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, looked at 190,000 NSDUH respondents from 2008 to 2012. It also found that the classic psychedelics were not associated with adverse mental health outcomes. In addition, it found that people who had used LSD and psilocybin had lower lifetime rates of suicidal thoughts and attempts.

“We are not claiming that no individuals have ever been harmed by psychedelics,” says author Matthew Johnson, an associate professor in the Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

“Anecdotes about acid casualties can be very powerful — but these instances are rare,” he says. At the population level, he says, the data suggest that the harms of psychedelics “have been overstated”.

> No Link Found Between Psychosis and Psychedelics | Nature

An Educated Society Needs No Control – The Venus Project (Video)

An Educated Society Needs No Control - The Venus Project (Video) | Third Monk

The Choice is Ours is a documentary series presented by the Venus ProjectInterviews by a variety of scientists, media professionals, and other thinkers explores a variety of issues that are of social, economic, and technical interest.

The Venus Project created this informative documentary to compel the viewer into rethinking what’s possible in our world. To question the values, behaviors, origins and consequences of our social structures is of vital importance to our survival as we look to the future.

Part 1 is introduction and discussion of determinants of behavior.

Part 2 is a breakdown of problems in our present system; an obsolete monetary system. It covers the media as a tool of the established political and economic elite, corruption of all politics in all nations, and environmental challenges.

Part 3 will show solutions and proposals and will depict and illustrate Jacque’s Fresco’s life work to redesign the culture.

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The Positive Cannabis Scene in Colorado is Mind Blowing (Video)

The Positive Cannabis Scene in Colorado is Mind Blowing (Video) | Third Monk

The 60 Minutes broadcast crew profiles cannabis tourism in Colorado, one of the first states to legalize pot for recreational use.

In all of our lives, in all of our experiences, marijuana, except in some instances for medical marijuana, marijuana has been illegal.

You go to Colorado now and everything you thought about it is turned upside-down.

It’s legal. It’s mind-blowing.

You go into a warehouse and it’s a huge warehouse full of marijuana plants. And one we visited for our story is right across the street from a police station. You can smell it when you’re driving by.

You can smell the marijuana in the air. And it’s all legal.

– CBS Correspondent Bill Whitaker

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Are You a Prisoner of Society? – Joe Rogan (Video)

Are You a Prisoner of Society? - Joe Rogan (Video) | Third Monk image 3

Life has found many ways to express itself over time. Now we are arriving at a point in our unified existence where many of us are questioning the logic of current societal values.

Do we really need to create a feeling of scarcity that does not exist in order to give false worth to material objects?

Is making money as important as making a creative breakthrough that offers a piece of yourself to society?

The questions go on and the feeling that a major shift in the way we view life is prevalent.

I currently hold a job in order to pay for my way of life and I do wonder if I can find a way to express myself to the fullest and feed myself while doing so, it is a fine line — it is possible! But I haven’t hit that point in my life yet but I move towards it everyday.

This Joe Rogan society trap rant strikes a chord and resonates with my current mentality. He lays it out on the table, simple and clean.

Do you contribute to society or do you merely exist within it?

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