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Bruce Levine is one of my personal heros.

Interviewed by Mollie Adler on August 22, 2023

I’m not a big fan of the American Psychological Association.

“Doing Harm”: Roy Eidelson on the American Psychological Association’s Embrace of U.S. Torture Program

I have had IFS sessions with one client on multiple occasions with a self-administered psycholytic dose of psilomethoxin (Pm). In addition, I have shared Pm with five people Z, M, W, K1, and K2. What surprised me most from this exploration is that Pm seems to have a built-in exit valve. Or from the opposite point of view, the user only experiences the effects of Pm when focused inside. If you focus outside then you can completely miss the effects. For traditional psychedelics, an exit valve is an aspiration.¹ For Pm, it seems already built-in!

Universal basic income (UBI) is a social and economic policy concept that entails providing all residents of a country with a regular and unconditional financial payment from the government. This payment is designed to cover essential living expenses and ensure a basic standard of living, irrespective of a person’s employment status or income level. The primary aim of UBI is to alleviate poverty, reduce inequality, and provide a safety net in the face of technological advancements that might disrupt traditional job markets.

Response to letter dated 09 Aug 2023 by Jackson County Commissioners CALL FOR THE REPEAL OF THE PROVISIONS ENACTED PURSUANT TO OREGON BALLOT MEASURE 110 (2020) order 192-23.¹

“Since Measure 110 was passed, there has been a dramatic increase in overdose deaths in Oregon. In 2020, there were 585 overdose deaths. In 2021, that number increased to 917.”

• It is too early to evaluate the effect of Measure 110 on overdose deaths. “It wasn’t until September of 2022 that the Oregon Health Authority announced funds had gone out to each county in the state.”²

“Measure 110 has reduced the deterrent effect of drug laws, making it more likely that people would use drugs.”

The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes that day. Why? The answer lies in the very nature of modern federal criminal laws, which have exploded in number but also become impossibly broad and vague. In Three Felonies a Day, Harvey A. Silverglate reveals how federal criminal laws have become dangerously disconnected from the English common law tradition and how prosecutors can pin arguable federal crimes on any one of us, for even the most seemingly innocuous behavior. The volume of federal crimes in recent decades has increased well beyond the statute books and into the morass of the Code of Federal Regulations, handing federal prosecutors an additional trove of vague and exceedingly complex and technical prohibitions to stick on their hapless targets. The dangers spelled out in Three Felonies a Day do not apply solely to “white collar criminals,” state and local politicians, and professionals. No social class or profession is safe from this troubling form of social control by the executive branch, and nothing less than the integrity of our constitutional democracy hangs in the balance.

A drawing of an african woman with dreadlocks, in the style of poodlepunk, luminous shadowing, genderless, anime-inspired, handsome

Abstract: The use of psychedelics in therapy may benefit both the client and the facilitator, and there is a debate about whether facilitators should have personal experience with the substance. While some traditions expect the facilitator to partake in the same dose as the participants, modern medicine expects the facilitator to remain sober. Facilitator sobriety is important to attend to the risks associated with psychedelic use, while communal use of the substance may increase empathy and compassion. Further research is needed to determine the circumstances in which facilitator sobriety or communal use is appropriate.

At the end of 2022, a new psychedelic became available. Psilomethoxin (Pm) offers a subjective experience similar to MDMA, but without MDMA’s stimulant-like effects.

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In 1965, Marc Julia’s group at the Pasteur Institute synthesized psilomethoxin (Pm) from ortho-vanillin extracted from the Mexican vanilla orchid. The molecule was never bioassayed nor preserved as a reference sample, and that is how things stood for decades. The synthesis of Pm is an intricate and time-consuming process, with some chemists claiming that it would take a month. In approximately 2005, Alexander Shulgin published an article on his website Cognitive Liberty wherein he theorized that Pm might be produced by feeding 5-MeO-DMT to Psilocybe mushroom substrates. In late 2021, Ian Benouis discovered the Shulgin article, tried it, and found that it worked. Pm is chemically similar to 5-MeO-DMT, with the mere addition of a 4-hydroxyl group. The psychedelic 5-MeO-DMT is not orally active and is typically vaporized for inhalation. When inhaled, the experience lasts for 10-20 minutes. Pm is thought to be an orally active version of 5-MeO-DMT.¹

In nutrition science, the word fiber refers to the type of carbohydrate that the body can’t digest. This definition of fiber is so different from the kind of fiber found in many plants that they might as well be completely different words.

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Coconut coir fibers are obtained from the outermost layer of the husk. They are typically light brown in color, durable, and resistant to water.