I pulled a black eye mask over my eyes and placed a pair of sound-canceling headphones over my ears. The sound of rain falling over piano notes and a sporadic symbol rang in my ears as a nurse practitioner at Field Trip Health, a legal ketamine clinic in Los Angeles, injected 35 milligrams of FDA-approved ketamine into my left arm. The sensation of moving backward on a slow roller coaster consumed my body, as I descended to the bottom floor of a black abyss. I entered the upside-down.

If you attend music festivals regularly (or used to in the Before Times), you've likely witnessed someone get hassled for drugs. Getting coerced by a plainclothes officer and quickly surrounded by a group of cops salivating for evidence as they search your pockets and through your bag will ruin any weekend — and possibly your life. But even the threat of these policing tactics may cause harm to attendees, according to researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW).

The Feds are in favor of descheduling a cocaine-derived drug that treats Parkinsonian syndromes, all while cannabis remains locked up in Schedule I jail. What gives?

The pandemic put Kermit Warren, a shoeshine man from New Orleans, out of work. He planned for his savings to float him until business picked up again. But plans took a horrifying turn last November when federal drug agents stopped him in the Columbus airport in Ohio while he was carrying $30,000 in cash.

An Indiana man may go to prison for 33 years on two felony drug counts for dealing cannabis and mushrooms, according to reports. Kansas City Police say that 30-year-old Adam Davis also faces a misdemeanor count of possessing a controlled substance, which is cannabis in this instance. He was booked into jail on October 21st. It all went down in February 2021, when Kansas Highway Patrol pulled Davis over. Police say they found 147 grams of psilocybin mushrooms in vacuum-sealed bags inside his veh

Jacek Olczak, the CEO of massive tobacco enterprise Philip Morris, just urged the UK government to ban all cigarettes — yes, including its own Marlboro brand — within a decade. This seems sus, no? Olczak believes that cigarettes should be treated like gasoline-burning cars, which are slated to be banned from 2030 onwards in the UK in an attempt to cut greenhouse gasses. “[I] can see the world without cigarettes… and, actually, the sooner it happens, the better it is for everyone.”

That’s the tweet Sha’Carri Richardson, a 21-year-old American track and field sprinter known as the “fastest woman in the world,” left us with on the morning of Thursday, July 1. The tweet preceded news that set the internet aflame: Richardson will not run in the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, because the International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended her after testing positive for THC.

Mushrooms are en vogue. In fact, they’ve pretty much become the emblem of the psychedelic revolution. But, they’re not the only natural and widely accessible entheogen that’s capable of bringing us eye-level with the mysteries of the universe. On par with psilocybin or ayahuasca, several types of succulents also have the power to lift reality’s veil and connect us to the divine, through naturally-occurring mescaline, 5-MeO-DMT, and DMT.

Captain Jack Sparrow, the rum-drunk pirate made famous by Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean, is probably who you think of when you hear the name “Captain Jack.” But there’s actually a Captain Jack who exists IRL and is way more rock n' roll than the fictional Disney character. The real Captain Jack was the go-to weed dealer for the original cast of Saturday Night Live. His weed ushered in a beloved era of '70s pop culture. He grew and sold Afghanica flower, a mystical landrace strain grown in Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush mountains that, according to Jack, yields an incredibly euphoric, creative high. SNL's writers and cast members were so enamored with the strain that they regularly hotboxed their offices in 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The building always stunk of Afghanica, which quickly became known as the “smell of SNL.”

Whereas once the darknet was the go-to place for buying illicit substances on the internet, now many vendors have taken to "clearweb" platforms like Instagram. Orange County seems to have an ever-revolving conveyor belt of white powders and pills flowing through it. But shrooms? Not so much. When they come around, it’s always brief. Connects are never consistent, ounces are overpriced, and when the well runneth dry, it could be months before they’re back. The dry spell of 2017 was particularly bad...

Weed is the only thing getting me through 2020 — and I know I’m not the only one. According to a survey conducted by the California cannabis brand Goldenseed, more than 73 percent of U.S. adults cited stress and anxiety relief as their primary motivation for getting high. Whether you were — or weren’t — getting stoned before our reality began mirroring the Book of Revelation, smoking weed has become the standard for coping with the palpable anxiety, depression, and angst triggered by this wretched year.

Zide Door, an entheogenic church that recognizes cannabis and psilocybin as sacraments, was raided last Thursday—evoking questions about religious protection, decriminalization, and cannabis and psychedelic retail.

The psychedelic experience typically isn’t what most people would consider “grounding.” In fact, it’s usually the opposite. While trips are different for everyone, psychedelics tend to evoke profound, ineffable experiences that can dissolve the ego and your sense of self.

Psychedelics are en vogue. It seems like studies on the clinical value of psilocybin mushrooms, MDMA, LSD, and even cannabis regularly pump through the veins of the internet. It’s thrilling because people who otherwise write-off these substances as dangerous, life-ruining drugs are now confronted with data proving their efficacy as treatments for mental health conditions...

Can trees talk? What should you know when taking psychedelics? Are they a legitimate treatment for depression? These equally important questions are tackled in Donick Cary’s Have A Good Trip, a Netflix documentary featuring stories about tripping from A-list actors, comedians, and musicians. Carey, the former lead writer for The Late Night Show with David Letterman and co-executive producer for The Simpsons, breathes life into the weird and enlightening elements of psychedelic experiences throug

2019 will go down in history as the year the pendulum swung toward psychedelics. In May 2019, residents of Denver, Colorado, made history by voting in favor of Initiative 301, which effectively decriminalized the use, possession, and personal cultivation of psilocybin mushrooms within the city. Nearly a month later, another grassroots outfit known as Decriminalize Nature, swayed the Oakland City Council to pass a resolution preventing law enforcement from using funds to persecute people for the cultivation, possession, and use of naturally occurring entheogens, or psychedelic plants and fungi.

As one of the world's oldest inhabited regions, Africa is home to a variety of plant medicines, so why don't we know more about this kingdom of ceremony? Africa is one of the oldest inhabited regions in the world, so, why don’t we know more about its indigenous plants? When you think of plant medicine (including fungi, though mushrooms aren’t technically plants), ayahuasca, peyote, San Pedro, and psilocybin cubensis are probably the first that come to mind—and tend to dominate the conversation.

The women behind Success Centers in San Francisco are taking it upon themselves to ensure that the cannabis space and multiple other industries are equitable for people of color. Everyone loves the idea of making the cannabis industry a more equitable place. But there seems to be a disconnect when it comes to putting equity in motion. Some believe this has to do with the United States never being equitable in the first place — literally since its inception as a country.