How Does Cannabis Create the Munchies? (Study)

Researchers from the Université De Bordeaux suggest that the desire to consume food after ingesting cannabis stems from how THC, the herb’s psychoactive compound, meshes with the olfactory bulb in the brain.

Weed magnifies our sense of smell, which in turn stimulates the appetite (munchies) and makes food more attractive – a major benefit for those patients suffering from eating disorders.

Marijuana can be salvation’s wing for people inflicted with conditions like anorexia nervosa, which has a tendency to contribute to the perception that food is evil.

However, by using cannabis to put a patient’s sense of smell into overdrive, they experience an increased appreciation for food that is typically lost with these types of disorders.

– Lead Researcher Giovanni Marsicano, Marijuana and Food – Nature Neuroscience

The study monitored several groups of stoned and sober mice by watching how they reacted to the presence of almond and banana oils. The stoner mice consumed a lot more oil than their sober counterparts.

In a special group of stoner mice genetically engineered without olfactory bulbs, THC did not cause them to crave food anymore than the sober mice.

> Why Does Pot Make Food Smell and Taste Better? | High Times

Oct 15, 2014Jun 17, 2016

The Policy on Cannabis is Bad Science – Letters from Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan never got to see the day when people could go to a store and purchase weed without fear of the law. But thanks to a collection of his papers recently made available by the Library of Congress, we now have Sagan’s personal writings on cannabis.

This 1988 Sagan letter shows why a government-funded scientist might be reluctant to draw too much public attention to his views about marijuana in the midst of President Reagan’s drug war.

Writing to Dr. Grinspoon (editor of Sagan’s famous essay on the benefits of cannabis), Sagan expressed outrage about language in a congressional funding bill for NASA that required contractors like him to adopt written anti-drug-use policies:

The oath required seems to smack of prior restraint and is unsymmetrical with respect to other crimes.

Annie Druyan confirmed Sagan enjoyed marijuana “frequently.” She made it clear just how important cannabis was in their life together: “We smoked the way other American families would have wine with dinner. For us, it was our sacrament. It was something that made a great life sweeter in every possible way.”

Druyan also described how Sagan utilized marijuana’s medicinal properties to experience a measure of relief. He used cannabis to treat “not only the lack of appetite and the nausea [from chemotherapy]but to refocus on the beauty of life in the midst of such torture.”

The plant’s effects directly impacted the couple’s work over their decades of collaboration on everything from “Contact” to the 1980 PBS series “Cosmos” that Sagan hosted and that they wrote together. The 2014 Fox reboot of “Cosmos” — hosted this time by Neil deGrasse Tyson and again co-written by Druyan — not only took home four Emmys, but made mention in one episode of 17th Century scientist Robert Hooke’s use of cannabis while describing him as “possibly the most inventive person who ever lived.”

War on Drugs or War on Consciousness?

This disconnect from science was among Sagan’s chief concerns about the criminalization of marijuana. It was “something that particularly infuriated Carl as a scientist,” Druyan says. He was troubled by not only the “bad civic engineering but the very bad science behind prohibition.”

In 1990, Sagan wrote to leading drug policy reform campaigners suggesting they organize a rebuttal to the propaganda being spread by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America:

In another letter from 1990 Sagan laid out these fundamental philosophical questions underpinning America’s drug war:

Why are all “drugs” lumped together in American rhetoric and public policy questions?

Why are hallucinogenic drugs so widely distributed among the cultures of the Earth?

Do research findings that indicate a given drug to be safe get as much public attention as those that indicate it to be dangerous?

How do social and economic inequities drive the underprivileged to drug use?

With the success the Cosmos reboot and with more states voting on legalizing marijuana in November, the newly unearthed Sagan documents add to the growing consensus that marijuana prohibition is not grounded in science and is not supported by leading thinkers and prominent people.

“We are going at warp speed toward getting rid of that prohibition now,” says Grinspoon.

> Carl Sagan’s Long Lost Deep Thoughts On The War on Drugs | Marijuana News

Sep 9, 2014Jun 17, 2016

Hotboxing Caves – Oldest Evidence of Cannabis Use Discovered

Archeologists working at 120,000 year old cave in the Hindu Kush mountain range have unearthed the most ancient evidence of cannabis use to date.

A team from Quad-i-Azam University in Pakistan discovered a cave containing ancient Indica seeds along with various other objects belonging to a cave dwelling, cannabis-loving shaman.

According to the location and context in which the cannabis was found, leads us to believe it was used for ritual purposes.

It seems that the occupants of the site threw large quantities of leaves, buds and resin in the fireplace situated on the far end of the cave, filling the entire site with psychotropic smoke. – Professor Muzaffar Kambarzahi, World News Daily

The discovery of resin inside a jar found on site confirms the fact that our stone age ancestors were not so different from us after all. They were hot-boxing their cave, a practice that is alive and well in contemporary culture.

While this may be the oldest known case of ritual cannabis use, it’s far from unique. Cannabis has a well documented history in ancient culture: Aryans, Scythians, Thracians, even the Dacians used Cannabis to induce trance-like states of altered, if not heightened consciousness.

Cannabis Sativa also served more practical purposes in ancient cultures. Hemp cord was found in some 10,000 year old pottery unearthed in what is now Taiwan, suggesting that it may have been one of the first crops grown in the early days of agriculture.

Moreover, such evidence inspired Carl Sagan to speculate on the possibility that marijuana cultivation may have been instrumental in the development of agriculture and, consequently, civilization as we know it.

> Archaeologists Discover Marijuana in 120,000 Year-Old Prehistoric Site | Marijuana News

Aug 31, 2014Jun 17, 2016

An Introduction to Cannabis Edibles (Guide)

With all the options available to medical marijuana patients today, many are choosing to explore methods of medicating beyond the traditional pipe or paper.

Edibles Provide a Safer Alternative to Smoking

Many patients believe that ingesting their cannabis is a healthier alternative to inhaling it because there is no exposure to carbon-rich smoke.

Some patients, such as those on supplemental oxygen, turn to edibles when smoking is no longer an option. For patients with eating and digestive disorders, edibles are not only a great source of nausea-reducing CBD, but also a vital source of nutrients and calories. The same is true for cancer patients suffering from nausea caused by their treatments, and expecting mothers dealing with hyperemesis (morning sickness).

A few patients choose edibles because they are a more discreet way to medicate, while others simply prefer the effects of ingesting cannabis to the effects of smoking.

What Conditions are Edibles Recommended For

The cooking process, as well as the high levels of THC found in edibles, work together to create the perfect treatment for many disorders.

Chronic pain
Muscle inflammation and spasms
Autoimmune disorders
Nervous system disorders
Insomnia
Nausea

While anyone can enjoy the benefits of edibles, patients suffering from Crohn’s disease, an autoimmune disorder of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract that affects as many as 700,000 Americans, find this method of medicating extremely beneficial. Because Crohn’s Disease occurs in the GI tract, edibles distribute useful active and inactive cannabinoids at the root of the problem, instead of having to rely on the bloodstream to carry them from the lungs.

Does Ingesting Cannabis Affect You Differently Than Smoking?

Yes, without a doubt. However, exactly what effect edibles will have on you depends on several factors: the type and potency of the edibles you are using, your tolerance, your body chemistry, and even how much you’ve had to eat. Because the effects of eating an edible differ greatly from the effects of smoking, many first time users are caught off guard by the stronger potency and long-lasting effects.

Despite CBD’s anxiety relieving properties, many people experience a heightened sense of anxiety and paranoia when they initially ingest an edible.

When you smoke marijuana you only receive a small amount of the cannabinoids in each hit, although it’s felt instantly. Where as, edibles tend to hit you much more slowly. This allows the cannabinoids to be released in waves, as they are processed by the stomach and digested.

Two Different Types of Edibles

Though there are untold varieties of edibles available on the market today, they can all be split into three basic categories: those geared towards gastrointestinal uptake (digested through stomach), those geared towards oral uptake (through saliva), and a few that fit into a hybrid category that targets both.

The most common edibles are geared towards gastrointestinal absorption. Any edible where the cannabinoids are absorbed through the stomach, like a brownie, cookie, cashew bar, or crepe falls into this category. These edibles tend to take longer to activate within the body (sometimes as long as two hours), but produce a longer-lasting effect (up to eight hours of relief).

On the flipside, edibles geared towards oral uptake can affect a patient almost immediately, but tend to wear off faster (within two to three hours). Edibles that you hold in your mouth for an extended period of time like suckers, lozenges, or tincture, fall into this category.

Some items, such as drinks and chocolates fall into a hybrid category, because they are designed to be absorbed in both the mouth and the stomach. These edibles are a middle ground between oral and intestinal absorption, offering fast-acting relief (patients usually feel this type of edible within a half hour) that can last for four hours or more.

> What You Should Know About Ingesting Cannabis | Medical Jane

Aug 28, 2014Jun 17, 2016

Properly Attune Your Body & Mind Before Using Psychedelic Plant Medicines

Before incorporating the knowledge of advanced plant medicines, properly attuning one’s body and mind through diet and exercise is essential.

What goes into the body determines what the body will be composed of physically, mentally, and spiritually. The vessel must be adequately equipped to handle whatever may occur while in the spiritual realms. Body and mind exist in a symbiotic relationship, where the effects on one reflects on the other. Depending on which plant medicine you use, the intensity and length of body preparation varies accordingly.

Click here for our article on Shroom Consumption.

Ayahuasca

Many traditional diets share common similarities, but each initiate will know what they need to abstain from to gain the greatest knowledge possible from the experience.

Common themes include abstinence from alcohol, sugar, salt, oils, meat and certain spices. Consumption of raw foods is also highly recommended as processing diminishes the nutritional content of the food. It is also common in some locales for initiates of ayahuasca to stop sexual thoughts and activities during the course of the diet and experience. There are reasons for this abstinence that are highlighted in greater detail here. For plant teachers such as Peyote and Psilocybin, a similar diet should be applied.

Exercises Before Consumption

A short fast before engaging in any plant medicine is recommended, aim for anywhere from 8-24 hours. Attempting to digest a plant teacher with other foods in the stomach can cause the initiate to undergo physical stress.

It is recommended that initiates disengage from the integration of meat and animal products into their bodies for weeks before, during and after the spiritual journey. It is also recommended that initiates let go of whatever it is they may be struggling with in their lives.

Temporary separation from those attachments which we feel we cannot live without will serve to enlighten us. If one struggles with addictive behavior, one should surrender that behavior before encountering the plant medicine if they wish to maximize their knowledge from the plant.

Anything one can do to purify and cleanse both thoughts and action – before and after the experience – will serve to increase penetration and understanding.

Psychedelic Spirituality Podcast – Proper Diet and Exercise for Spiritual Experience

With Kundalini Yoga Teacher Mehtab Benton

> Ways to Spiritually Cleanse Before Using | Time Wheel Net

Aug 27, 2014Jun 17, 2016

Legal Marijuana is Making Streets Safer

During debates over whether or not marijuana should be legalized, safety was one of the biggest talking points on both sides.

From a pro-legalization perspective, advocates noted that full legalization would bring transactions off the streets — often dangerous for many reasons — and into safe, responsibly run retail environments.

From an anti-legalization view, some of the major concerns regarding cannabis included the actual effect of the plant on people’s health, the prospect of people driving under the influence, and of course, what would happen to the children if legislation was allowed to pass.

Well, nearly a year since Colorado initiated legal marijuana sales to the general public, it appears that legalization has indeed made the streets safer. In fact, marijuana use among teenagers has actually dropped in Colorado.

Survey results released by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment indicate that kids of high school age are less likely to view marijuana as risky than they were before, and that overall, the number of teens who have used it has dropped.

One in five high school kids used cannabis within the past 30 days, the survey found. Thirty-day use rates took a drop from 22 percent in 2011 to 20 percent last year, while over the same time lifetime use — which measures how many teens had actually tried marijuana at some point in their lives — dropped from 39 percent to 37 percent. While not a significant shift, it is indeed a drop, instead of the supposed increased many assumed.

What About Driving…

One of the other chief concerns about legalization would be that it would encourage drivers to get behind the wheel while under the influence. A worthy concern, yet traffic data from Colorado has proven that traffic fatalities have actually declined since prohibition was ended in Colorado.

Fatalities in Colorado peaked in 2002, one year after Colorado’s medical marijuana law went into effect, and has since dropped by more than a third. Also, since legal sales began in January, traffic fatalities for the year are down as compared to 2013.

While there really can’t ever be anything directly linking legal cannabis to safer roads, the data does show marked improvement. Some experts believe that fewer fatalities and legal cannabis can be linked, as some people may decide to substitute the act of marijuana use in place of drinking.

Ultimately…

For the majority, legal marijuana doesn’t necessarily change their behavior. If they smoked before, they still do. And if the law was the only thing holding them back, chances are they still aren’t smoking now.

For now, it appears that the streets, at least in Colorado, are a bit safer. At the very least, people no longer need to be worried about engaging in sketchy black market drug deals in parking lots, and can instead engage in commerce like adults in retail stores.

Larry David Buys Weed

> Is Legalized Marijuana Making Steets Safer? It Appears So | Wall St. Cheat Sheet

Aug 24, 2014Jan 24, 2018

High Culture in Spain – Cannabis Social Clubs and Hemp Museum (Video)

While the Spanish culture certainly embraces their buds, it’s become clear that they do so in subtle and elegant ways.

Barcelona Hemp Museum

The Barcelona Hemp Museum presents valuable paintings and prints depicting cannabis use throughout history and rare antiques, such as the various tools and implements used to make hemp into rope, paper and fabrics.

A medicinal section representing one of the world’s largest collections of medicinal cannabis bottles dating back to the 19th Century testifies to the widespread use of medicinal cannabis in the past.

Cannabis Social Clubs in Spain

Cannabis Social Clubs are private places where the social side of cannabis is encouraged since it is illegal in Spain to profit directly from it.

The clubs are formed by thousands of members, creating a strong pressure group supported by professionals and legislators as well as large plaintiffs firms and specialized doctors. A CSC is a social meeting place, a catalyst for art and culture in general, a “fix” on the loopholes to grow and use cannabis at a private place.

Aug 21, 2014Jun 17, 2016

Aldous Huxley on Psychedelics and Creativity (Interview)

Aldous Huxley interviewed for The Paris Review (1960), reprinted in Moksha: Aldous Huxley’s Classic Writings on Psychedelics and the Visionary Experience, edited by Michael Horowitz and Cynthia Palmer (Park Street Press, 1999)

PDF version of this document

Huxley on Psychedelics and Creativity

Interviewers: Do you see any relation between the creative process and the use of such drugs as lysergic acid [diethylamide]?

Huxley: I don’t think there is any generalization one can make on this. Experience has shown that there’s an enormous variation in the way people respond to lysergic acid. Some people probably could get direct aesthetic inspiration for painting or poetry out of it. Others I don’t think could. For most people it’s an extremely significant experience, and I suppose in an indirect way it could help the creative process. But I don’t think one can sit down and say, “I want to write a magnificent poem, and so I’m going to take lysergic acid [diethylamide].” I don’t think it’s by any means certain that you would get the result you wanted — you might get almost any result.

Interviewers: Would the drug give more help to the lyric poet than the novelist?

Huxley: Well, the poet would certainly get an extraordinary view of life which he wouldn’t have had in any other way, and this might help him a great deal. But you see (and this is the most significant thing about the experience), during the experience you’re really not interested in doing anything practical — even writing lyric poetry. If you were having a love affair with a woman, would you be interested in writing about it? Of course not. And during the experience you’re not particularly in words, because the experience transcends words and is quite inexpressible in terms of words. So the whole notion of conceptualizing what is happening seems very silly. After the event, it seems to me quite possible that it might be of great assistance: people would see the universe around them in a very different way and would be inspired, possibly, to write about it.

Interviewers: But is there much carry-over from the experience?

Huxley: Well, there’s always a complete memory of the experience. You remember something extraordinary having happened. And to some extent you can relive the experience, particularly the transformation of the outside world. You get hints of this, you see the world in this transfigured way now and then — not to the same pitch of intensity, but something of the kind. It does help you to look at the world in a new way. And you come to understand very clearly the way that certain specially gifted people have seen the world. You are actually introduced into the kind of world that Van Gogh lived in, or the kind of world that Blake lived in. You begin to have a direct experience of this kind of world while you’re under the drug, and afterwards you can remember and to some slight extent recapture this kind of world, which certain privileged people have moved in and out of, as Blake obviously did all the time.

Interviewers: But the artist’s talents won’t be any different from what they were before he took the drug?

Huxley: I don’t see why they should be different. Some experiments have been made to see what painters can do under the influence of the drug, but most of the examples I have seen are very uninteresting. You could never hope to reproduce to the full extent the quite incredible intensity of color that you get under the influence of the drug. Most of the things I have seen are just rather tiresome bits of expressionism, which correspond hardly at all, I would think, to the actual experience. Maybe an immensely gifted artist — someone like Odilon Redon (who probably saw the world like this all the time anyhow) — maybe such a man could profit by the lysergic acid [diethylamide] experience, could use his visions as models, could reproduce on canvas the external world as it is transfigured by the drug.

Interviewers: Here this afternoon, as in your book, The Doors of Perception, you’ve been talking chiefly about the visual experience under the drug, and about painting. Is there any similar gain in psychological insight?

Huxley: Yes, I think there is. While one is under the drug one has penetrating insights into the people around one, and also into one’s own life. Many people get tremendous recalls of buried material. A process which may take six years of psychoanalysis happens in an hour — and considerably cheaper! And the experience can be very liberating and widening in other ways. It shows that the world one habitually lives in is merely a creation of this conventional, closely conditioned being which one is, and that there are quite other kinds of worlds outside. It’s a very salutary thing to realize that the rather dull universe in which most of us spend most of our time is not the only universe there is. I think it’s healthy that people should have this experience.

> Huxley on LSD and Creativity | MAPS Org

Aug 14, 2014Jun 17, 2016

Enemies of Peace – Law Enforcement, Private Prisons, Alcohol and Pharmaceutical Companies Spend Against Cannabis Legalization

Some of the most lucrative and powerful industries in America oppose marijuana decriminalization because it threatens their financial bottom-line.

Four different interest groups form the backbone of the anti cannabis legalization campaign, according to OpenSecrets.org, which tracks political spending.

Alcohol Companies

First, there’s the spirits, wine and beer companies. Legalized marijuana represents a direct threat to this industry’s business model. The more people can legally smoke a bud, the less need they’ll have to buy a Bud.

In 2010, the California Beer and Beverage Distributors contributed $10,000 to help defeat California’s Proposition 19, which sought to legalize recreational marijuana in the state.

Law Enforcement

Law enforcement groups also want to maintain criminal penalties for pot possession. If the country stops waging its war on drugs, including marijuana, fewer government dollars will flow to police efforts to address this public policy issue. Municipalities will also receive less money from property seized in drug raids.

Prison System

Others in the criminal justice world that want to keep the status quo of locking up marijuana offenders are private prison operators and prison guard unions. States that legalize marijuana use are likely to experience a decline in prison populations—and that will reduce the need for government to hire private prison companies and correctional officers.

Another example is the Golden State’s mighty prison guards union, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA), a major player in state politics for decades. CCPOA contributed $1 million in 2008 to defeat Proposition 5, which sought more drug treatment and rehabilitation programs for inmates.

Pharmaceutical Industry

Finally, there’s the legal drug industry: Big Pharma. It opposes marijuana decriminalization because it could mean people spend less money on painkillers and anti-inflammatory remedies like ibuprofen.

Its primary lobbying group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), has loads of money to spend. Two years ago, it dropped nearly $22 million on congressional races, demonstrating how big a war chest it can muster.

> Who’s Funding the Anti-Marijuana Movement? Private Prisons, Prison Guards, Police and Alcohol, Beer and Pharmaceutical Companies | AllGov

Aug 11, 2014Jun 17, 2016

A Gourmet Cannabis Dinner Celebration at Hunter S. Thompson’s Ranch (Video)

To celebrate marijuana legalization in Colorado, Munchies columnist David Bienenstock traveled to Aspen, to attend a legal seminar hosted by the NORML —America’s largest group dedicated to legalizing cannabis.

And since the late Hunter S. Thompson was one of NORML’s earliest and most consistent supporters, what better way to embrace the sweet smell of herbal liberation in the Colorado than by throwing a small victory party at Owl Farm—the author and advocate’s home and “fortified compound” in Woody Creek—featuring an appropriately over-the-top pairing of fully legal cannabis and high-end cuisine?

To handle the culinary and scientific feat of preparing a multi-course marijuana-infused meal of the highest order, Munchies partnered Chef Chris Lanter of Cache Cache with cannabis-infusion expert Tamar Wise, former head of science at the world’s largest marijuana edibles company.

In all, the dinner infused four different oils, using four different ganja strains, for use in four different preparations (three savory and one dessert), with a joint of each strain set aside for smoking.

Jul 31, 2014Jun 17, 2016

Cannabis Around the World: 8 Countries That Embrace Marijuana (List)

Unlike the United States’ arcane Cannabis policies, these 8 countries actually take facts into account when classifying and regulating Marijuana.

8 Countries That Embrace Marijuana

Spain

In Spain personal marijuana has been legal for decades. Today Barcelona is en route to challenge Amsterdam as the world center of pot tourism. In Spain, anyone is allowed to grow the herb for personal use, and – echoing California’s rules for medical marijuana use – growers can form collective, nonprofit, members-only cannabis clubs.

Barcelona officials have given their blessing to this new phenomenon. … The number of cannabis clubs that have opened in Barcelona recently has some experts saying this city will soon challenge Amsterdam as the go-to destination for vacationers who want to get high in peace. – Suzanne Daley New York Times

Daley reported that the pot clubs provide an economic boost.

Though they are nonprofits, advocates say the clubs are generating thousands of jobs and tax revenues for the state. In addition to selling a wide array of cannabis products and hashish, many of the clubs also sell food and drinks and offer extras to their members, like live music nights and Pilates classes.

Portugal

Portugal has enjoyed the benefits of all-out drug decriminalization for over a decade. Portugal became the first nation in Europe to decriminalize personal possession of drugs – including marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine – in 2001.

Decriminalization means those drugs remain illegal, but instead of throwing people in jail for their use, the country imposes a fine similar to a traffic ticket and provides addiction treatment options. By removing criminal penalties for drug use, the nation was able to fund the resources necessary to treat drug addiction as the health crisis that it is.

Today in Portugal if you’re convicted of possessing small amounts of drugs, you visit a psychologist, social worker and legal advisor who determine what kind of treatment you need. Prior to decriminalization, Portugal had a serious drug problem, but over the last decade the nation has seen a decline in drug use.

While critics of the law warned that drug use would swell, it has not risen. We have seen significant reductions in H.I.V. infections and in overdoses, as well as a substantial increase in new patients seeking drug treatment. – João Castel-Branco Goulão, Portugal’s national Drug Coordinator & Chairman of the European Monitoring Center on Drugs and Drug Addiction

Canada

While the Great White North does not allow marijuana for recreational purposes anywhere, it has a nationwide government-sanctioned medical marijuana program. About 20 companies are licenced to mass-produce cannabis in Canada for medical purposes.

In addition to the substantial economic boost that comes from the new market, the Canadian government probably took the stacks of convincing research on cannabis’s potential health benefits into account in its decision to allow large scale medical marijuana production and distribution.

Israel

In Israel a $40-million-per-year medical-marijuana industry is thriving.

The Israeli government is funding and supporting breakthrough research on the many healing potentials of the cannabis plant – from cancer, to addiction, to psychological traumas. Israel’s federal government sanctions their national medical marijuana program.

Iceland

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Iceland smokes the most weed in the world, on average. The report, which included a breakdown of illegal drug use per country, found that 18.3% of the Icelandic population smokes weed. The United States ranked fourth in the report, with 14.8 percent of the population using pot.

Whatever the reason for their infatuation with cannabis, Icelanders were also found to be one of the happiest populations on the planet.

Netherlands

Surprisingly, cannabis remains illegal in the Netherlands.

The Dutch government and law enforcement are extremely tolerant of the herb and possession of small amounts is decriminalized nationwide. Two million tourists per year visit the city of Amsterdam for its legendary “coffee shops,” which are licensed to sell weed. You’re not allowed, however, to buy your bud on the streets, and coffee shops do card.

Uruguay

In response to increasing drug trafficking activity and violence, Uruguay became the first nation to legalize marijuana across the board, in December 2013. It did so in an effort to undermine the powerful cartels that have ravished much of the rest of Latin America. The plan in Uruguay is to set government weed prices extremely low so that cartels will be forced out of business.

While many had hoped to see Uruguay’s pot sales start already, President Jose Mujica announced that complications have delayed sales until 2015.

North Korea

While not officially confirmed, according to Open Radio North Korea, as well as other news outlets and visitor reports, marijuana has never been controlled in the country and is not considered to be a drug. While the North Korean penalty for hard drugs like meth is severe, people are allowed to smoke pot without regulation – it even grows freely on the side of the street.

NK NEWS receives regular reports from visitors returning from North Korea, who tell us of marijuana plants growing freely along the roadsides, from the northern port town of Chongjin, right down to the streets of Pyongyang, where it is smoked freely and its sweet scent often catches your nostrils unannounced. Our sources are people we know who work inside North Korea and make regular trips in and out of the country.

There is no taboo around pot smoking in the country—many residents know the drug exists and have smoked it. In North Korea, the drug goes by the name of ip tambae, or ‘leaf tobacco.’ It is reported to be especially popular amongst young soldiers in the North Korean military. Rather than getting hooked on tar and nicotine like servicemen in the West, they are able to unwind by lighting up a king-sized bone during down time on the military beat. – VICE

> 9 Marijuana Policies From Around the World That Are Way Ahead of the U.S | Waking Times

Jul 30, 2014Jun 17, 2016

An Index of Psychedelic Medicines and the Disorders They Cure (Video)

This video produced by Reset.me highlights how psychedelic medicines are saving lives worldwide.

Numerous studies show these substances are non-neurotoxic, non-addictive and are having profound medicinal effects curing some of the most stubborn mental health disorders by helping people purge bottled up trauma:

MDMA is curing debilitating PTSD in veterans.

Psilocybin, the psychedelic compound in shrooms, is alleviating anxiety and depression.

LSD was used successfully for decades to combat alcohol addictions and anxiety.

Ayahuasca is helping people purge traumatic memories while increasing serotonin levels in the brain.

Video Sources

UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances which made Psychedelics Illegal worldwide
http://www.unodc.org/pdf/convention_1…

Study: Alcohol is Most Dangerous drug
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeve…

Alternet: The Hardest Drugs to Kick
http://www.alternet.org/10-hardest-dr…

Ranking of Drug Harm
http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/vi…

CDC: Tobacco Mortality Rate
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_stati…

Psychedelics Don’t Cause Mental Health Problems—And They Might Keep You Sane
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/psyched…

MAPS.org MDMA PTSD Research:
http://mdmaptsd.org/research-category…

Veterans Suicide Data Report:
http://www.va.gov/opa/docs/Suicide-Da…

Magic Mushroom Toxicity
http://www.erowid.org/plants/mushroom…

Caffeine or cannabis — which drug is more dangerous?http://www.cannabisculture.com/node/1…

Safety, Tolerability, and Efficacy of Psilocybin in 9 Patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder,http://article.psychiatrist.com/dao_1…

TEDx: Roland Griffiths on Psilocybin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPLim…

Magic mushrooms’ psychedelic ingredient could help treat people with severe depression
http://www.theguardian.com/science/20…

“Magic Mushrooms” Show Signs of Helping in Addiction, Cancer Anxiety
http://reason.com/blog/2012/12/07/mag…

‘Magic Mushrooms’ Can Improve Psychological Health Long Term,http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/16…

‘Magic Mushroom’ Drug Shows Promise in Treating Addictions and Cancer Anxiety, http://healthland.time.com/2012/12/07…

Psilocybin and neurogenesis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRNSE…

LSD vs. Alcoholism, Neurons to Nirvana
http://www.mangu.tv/node/1945

LSD could help alcoholics stop drinking, AA founder believed
http://www.theguardian.com/science/20…

Peyote: Psychological and cognitive effects of long-term peyote use among Native Americans
http://nierika.info/castellano/wp-con…

DMT The Spirit Molecule Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiqzH…

Maps Ibogaine Research
http://www.maps.org/research/ibogaine/

A New Ayahuasca Study
http://www.singingtotheplants.com/201…

Personality, Psychopathology, Life Attitudes, and Neuropsychological Performance among Ritual Users of Ayahuasca: A Longitudinal Study
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:d…

Human Psychopharmacology of Hoasca, A Plant Hallucinogen Used in Ritual Context in Brazil
http://www.udv.org.br/arquivos/Human_…

Potent Jungle Vine Brew Has Potential to Treat Addiction
http://www.voanews.com/content/potent…

How Psychedelics unlock traumatic memories, Ayahuasca vs. PTSD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYYqf…

Integrating the Modern Practice of Traditional Ayahuasca Shamanism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukzVN…

Tag: Cannabis Endorsement