Huge infographic with everything you need to know about smart drugs for students. Don't know why the graphic is so huge, maybe you are supposed to print these out like trading cards?

[thanks jim!]

This 1977 Italian animated musical film was a parody, or perhaps a response to Disney's Fantasia with darker and deeper themes having to do with the dangers of Western industrial society. The clip here is the last part of a sequence set to Ravel's Bolero which is a great piece of music in its own right:

Of course it's The Onion, people. Sheesh. The tell the stories we should be reading, not the ones that actually happen:

"Harvard is proud to honor the tremendous merits of Adderall, without which many of you would not be sitting here today," Faust said in her opening address to the nearly 1,900 unblinking and intensely focused students receiving their diplomas. "I don't think I'm exaggerating matters when I say that Adderall has been an inspiration to us all."

The psychologically addictive drug then received resounding applause from the assembled graduates, with many jumping to their feet, clapping in near unison for 25 straight minutes, temporarily forgetting where they were, and then grinding their teeth in celebration of the well-deserved honor.

You're awfully hung up on 'truth', aren't you? Or as they say at fancy-pants Harvard, 'veritas'...

A controversial anti-medical marijuana flyer forced upon elementary school students in Billings, Montana, is causing an uproar.

About 300 Newman Elementary School students went home with the propagandistic flyer Tuesday afternoon. The flyer asks people to "take action" against the medical marijuana business, reports KAJ18.

With the headline "Medical Marijuana Crisis," the bright-yellow flyers call marijuana a "gateway drug" and urge parents to "take back control" by contacting local officials, attending public meetings or volunteering time, reports the Billings Gazette.

"Our community and our children are at risk," the flyers read in capital letters.

The inaccurate and often alarmist information on the flyers is not credited to any source, and an email address listed at the bottom does not work.

This comes in the wake of the "Not in our town" firebombing a few weeks ago.

A long radio piece on the history a future of psychedelics is available for listening at the WPR website. Listen Here. Here is a short synopsis:

Timothy Leary nearly killed the psychedelic revolution. He did more than anyone to popularize LSD and urged us all to "turn on, tune in, drop out." But Leary's indiscriminate use of mind-altering drugs created a backlash, and made them taboo for serious scholars. Now a new generation of scientists is studying hallucinogens, and finding remarkable effects. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge we'll take you to the cutting edge of psychedelic research.

SEGMENT 1:

When Timothy Leary invited everyone to "turn on, tune in, drop out" in the Sixties, it captured the public's imagination, but it was also bad news for scientists who wanted to study the effects of psychedelics. It's taken decades for study of mind-altering drugs to be taken seriously. Now a handful of scientists are at the forefront of new research. One of them is Roland Griffiths is a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins. He's just turned his attention to psilocybin, a classic hallucinogen commonly known as magic mushrooms. He tells Steve Paulson about his findings. Then, after an excerpt from an interview with Aldous Huxley from 1958 about his use of mescaline, we take a look at other mystical experiences. Stefanie Syman explores how to achieve them without drugs. The author of "The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America" tells Jim Fleming that today's scientific study of psychedelics could lead to new breakthroughs.

SEGMENT 2:

In 1971 Terrence McKenna, a philosopher and ethnobotanist set out with his brother Dennis to travel the Amazon in search of drug-induced visionary experiences. That wild adventure led to a lifelong study of hallucinogens. Though Terrence died ten years ago, Dennis McKenna, now a botanist and lecturer at the University of Minnesota's Center for Spirituality and Healing, continues the quest. He tells Steve Paulson how shamanistic cultures use hallucinogens.

SEGMENT 3:

We hear a clip from Annie Levy who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. In the late stages she took part in an experimental study designed to see if taking psilocybin could help with the fear and panic about dying. In her case, taking a single dose was a life-changing experience in her final months. The groundbreaking study was the project of Charles Grob, a psychiatrist at the UCLA medical school, who tells Anne Strainchamps about his research on psychedelics.

Yep, I know exactly what this feels like:

Possessing an ounce or less of marijuana would go from being a misdemeanor to a simple infraction, eliminating the possibility that such minor cases could end up in court-clogging jury trials, according to Sen. Mark Leno (D- San Francisco), author of SB1449. The penalty would remain the same: a fine of up to $100 but no jail time.

"This is a waste of time and money at a time when we can't afford any more waste, fraud and abuse," Leno said.

Edan is the humble magnificent master of psychedelic distorted sixties hip-hop disco funk noise. I love his music, but this video is on whole 'nother level of awesome weirdness. Echo Party, Five Day Weekend. Edan.

Teafaerie is at it again, with another brilliant essay about ego and the psychedelic experience:

Psychedelics have a way of making philosophers of us all. I just looked up philosophy, and Wikipedia says it's the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Even people who would never think of themselves as philosophical types occasionally grapple with these issues on psychedelic drugs, and those of us who like to over-think things can and often do ramble on about such nonsense late into the night, trying to convey or interpret our unique insights as well as throwing well-worn chestnuts onto the open fire and stirring them around until they pop. One thing that seems to come up again and again is the problem of ego. What the heck is this persistent sense of individual selfness, what does it mean, what is it for, and what (if anything) is to be done about it?

Make yourself a cuppa, sit down, and enjoy.

Infographic showing the most prescribed drugs and symptoms approved for prescription. Anxiety is the number one symptom of our culture.