The governor of Maryland announced that he will allow a bill to create a state fund to provide “cost-free” access to psychedelics like psilocybin, MDMA and ketamine for military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury. Check it out: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/maryland-bill-to-fund-psychedelics-research-and-access-for-veterans-takes-effect-without-governors-signature/

Researchers published a new study entitled: Unraveling the Mysteries of Mental Illness with Psilocybin. Here’s what they concluded …

‍The renewed interest in psychedelic molecules as therapeutic tools for the treatment of mental illness has arisen from a deeper understanding of pharmacological mechanisms and neuroscience at the cellular, molecular, and brain network levels.
In just 10 years, we are moving away from the notion of defective neurotransmitter concentrations at synapses as an underlying etiology. Instead, a newer hypothesis views defective neuronal synaptic connectivity as the primary etiology of mental illness.
Studies with psychedelic molecules have greatly accelerated this contemporary model of mental illness and psilocybin is leading the way as a therapeutic intervention.
Current evidence suggests that one or two doses of psilocybin can result in a significant reduction in depressive symptomatology, perhaps by a mechanism of induced neuritogenesis, leading to increased brain network integration. In short, psilocybin may heal the damaged brain. Should these findings be repeated in future studies and more clinical trials, FDA approval of psilocybin as a treatment for mental illness may: 1) help reduce the prevalence of mental illness and 2) ease the suffering of patients who have experienced repeated treatment failures with the best medications available today.

You can check out the full article here: https://www.cureus.com/articles/97061-unraveling-the-mysteries-of-mental-illness-with-psilocybin

On Tuesday, the Canadian government sanctioned a broad drug decriminalization experiment in one of the country’s largest provinces, making it so police will not be able to make arrests, issue citations or even seize four currently illicit substances - including MDMA - in cases of low-level possession. Here’s more: https://www.marijuanamoment.net/canadian-government-approves-drug-decriminalization-pilot-program-in-british-columbia/

Did you know that a famous Aztec statue is decorated head-to-toe with the carvings of psychedelic plants?
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A 16th-century statue of Xochipilli, the Aztec god of flowers, is currently housed in Mexico City’s National Museum of Anthropology. A masterpiece of Aztec sculpture, it portrays Xochipilli “seated cross-legged upon a throne in a blissful state of intoxicated enrapture,” and is richly decorated with floral designs.
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All but one of these designs was identified by Harvard ethnobiologist Richard Schultes as representing a psychedelic plant. These include a species of psilocybin mushroom, Psilocybe aztecorum, and a variety of morning glory, Ipomoea corymbosa, whose seeds contain ergine, a chemical similar in structure to LSD. These plants are known to have been used in sacred rituals by the Aztecs.

You can read more about Xochipilli here.