Yes, the world needs more costumed characters crashing their way semi-blindly through grocery stores and pool halls. This prank differs from the trendy flash mob phenomenon in that most flash mobs do not end with the participants being tackled by security.

[Via SLOG]

And now it's time for this public service announcement:

Celebrity pill-poppers captured for posterity by pharmaceutical likeness, by Jason Mecier

Thanks Mason!

Amazing new research on the receptor affinity for many different psychedelic molecules. This will certainly change the literature on this topic.

We currently understand the mental effects of psychedelics to be caused by agonism or partial agonism of 5-HT2A (and possibly 5-HT2C) receptors, and we understand that psychedelic drugs, especially phenylalkylamines, are fairly selective for these two receptors. This manuscript is a reference work on the receptor affinity pharmacology of psychedelic drugs. New data is presented on the affinity of twenty-five psychedelic drugs at fifty-one receptors, transporters, and ion channels, assayed by the National Institute of Mental Health -- Psychoactive Drug Screening Program (NIMH-PDSP). In addition, comparable data gathered from the literature on ten additional drugs is also presented (mostly assayed by the NIMH-PDSP). A new method is introduced for normalizing affinity (Ki) data that factors out potency so that the multi-receptor affinity profiles of different drugs can be directly compared and contrasted. The method is then used to compare the thirty-five drugs in graphical and tabular form. It is shown that psychedelic drugs, especially phenylalkylamines, are not as selective as generally believed, interacting with forty-two of forty-nine broadly assayed sites. The thirty-five drugs of the study have very diverse patterns of interaction with different classes of receptors, emphasizing eighteen different receptors. This diversity of receptor interaction may underlie the qualitative diversity of these drugs. It should be possible to use this diverse set of drugs as probes into the roles played by the various receptor systems in the human mind.

Thanks Johnathan!

On Feb 4th the FDA and local police raided Bouncing Bears Botanicals and arrested its owner Jonathan Sloan. He is currently charged with 8 felonies.

Current charges against Jon are:

- Unlawful manufacturing of controlled substances: Dimethlyltryptamine (DMT)
- Unlawful manufacturing of controlled substances: Mescaline
- Unlawful manufacturing of controlled substances: Lysergic Acid Amide
- Unlawful cultivation or distribution of controlled substances: Mescaline
- Unlawful cultivation or distribution of controlled substances: Dimethlyltryptamine; Chacruna; Illinois Bundleflower; Epena; Cebil Seeds.
- Unlawful cultivation or distribution of controlled substances: Bufotenine, Epena, Chaliponga, Cebil Seeds, Colorado River Toads.
- Unlawful cultivation or distribution of controlled substances: Lysergic Acid Amide, Morning Glory Seeds, Rivea Corymbosa.
- Unlawful possession of certain drug precursors and drug paraphernalia: Plastic jugs and filters used or intended for unlawful use to manufacture, cultivate, plant propagate, harvest, test, analyze or distribute a controlled substance.

A wonderful interview with visionary filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky turned up in Arthur recently. It's an inspirational glimpse into the mind of a truly amazing artist, well worth delving into if you'd like a chance to brush up against a man who clearly has his finger on the pulse of creation.

Q: Can you know that it’s going to happen?

I don’t suffer to write it. But when I need to write a new series, a new album, for three days I do nothing. The only thing I can do is to see movies, see television, read . . . Because I am as if paralyzed! Suddenly, [with relief] the idea comes. I say thank you, because I am grateful. I am really grateful because I received the idea. But I don’t construct the idea. I am not a constructor. I receive the idea.

Q: Where do you think it comes from?

The unconscious. It comes directly from the unconscious. I think the unconscious is a very, very enormous universe, no? And when you open the doors to the unconscious, you start to receive. Sometimes you see a terrible vision of yourself: desires you don’t want to have, ideas you detest, feelings that hurt you. When you open the door, you can see yourself in a very weird way, like a bad trip on LSD. You can have that. You have all the hell, and paradise, no? You need to have the courage to open the doors.

[Via Technoccult]

Bob McDonnell, new governor of Virginia, is pushing to get the state out of the liquor store business. Here's a video piece by Reason's Nick Gillespie examining McDonnell's proposal, privatization of liquor stores in other regions and featuring a $17,000 bottle of 55 year Macallan.

Amanda Fielding writes about the skunk cannabis problem in the UK, and why skunk may be a higher risk factor for psychosis than normal marijuana.

These discoveries about the link between cannabis and psychosis have been widely reported in the media, often accompanied by warnings that street cannabis has risen in strength in recent years and therefore poses a major health risk to the susceptible minority.

This, however, is too simplistic: the type of cannabis taken is an important factor. Street cannabis has indeed changed over the years. So-called "skunk" does contain higher than normal concentrations of the main psychoactive compound, a molecule called delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). What is less well known is that another constituent, cannabidiol (CBD), has been eliminated from skunk through selective breeding to increase the THC content.

The elimination of CBD may play a key role in the development of psychosis. Laboratory studies have shown that pure, synthetic THC causes transient psychosis in 40 to 50 per cent of healthy people. In stark contrast to THC, CBD appears to have an anti-psychotic effect, at least in animals. Studies in humans, though few in number, have produced similar findings.

The elimination of cannabidiol from skunk may play a key role in the development of psychosis

Thanks Sean!

It was not long ago when President Barack Obama's new drug czar, former Seattle police chief Gil Kerlikowske, swept into Washington, D.C. and declared the "drug war" a public policy relic.

The Obama administration, he said, would move toward handling drug addiction as a medical problem, moving away from the brash enforcement tactics that hallmarked prior administrations.

"We're not at war with people in this country," Kerlikowske told The Wall Street Journal in May.

However, if the Office of National Drug Control Policy's (ONDCP) budget for fiscal year 2011 is to be believed, Kerlikowske was full of hot air.

According to 2011 funding "highlights" released by the ONDCP (PDF link), the Obama administration is growing the drug war and tilting its funds heavily toward law enforcement over treatment.

Thanks Vinny!

'Fear and loathing in Las Vegas -- A savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream' originally appeared in two parts, in Rolling Stone magazine, in November 1971. The novel appeared soon afterwards and has been re-printed many times since. Written by self-styled Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, under the pseudonym Raoul Duke, the book follows the journalists search for the American Dream. Illustrated by Ralph Steadman.

Along with other luminaries, like Tom Wolfe, a new type of journalist arose out of the Sixties, as part of a movement unoriginally named New Journalism. Unlike conventional journalism, which sets 'objectivity' as its standard, New Journalism was about 'subjectivity'; the journalist positing themselves within the article.

By involving the journalist, with their emotions, beliefs and opinions it produced a starkly literary flavour in the texts of these writers. Thompson's own brand of New Journalism, Gonzo, typified this literary technique. It is politically and socially charged, full of an individuals excesses, as it rampantly explores the many forces of contemporary culture...