Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon announced the members of the state's newly formed Psilocybin Advisory Board this week. Why does Oregon need an official board to offer advice about the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, you ask? Because Oregon is about to become the first state in the country to try to build a support infrastructure through which psychedelic mushrooms can be woven into everyday life. This framework is different from what we've seen before: not legalization, not medicalization, but therapeutic use, in licensed facilities, under the guidance of professionals trained to guide psychedelic experiences. Whoa.

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For decades, nitrous oxide has been widespread at raves and music festivals, used as a quick buzz. The drug doesn't have the death toll of the opiate disaster or the widespread popularity of marijuana, but it's widely sold - legally - all over the country, though its consumption outside medical facilities is illegal in many states.

But the inhalant's use and misuse seems to be on the rise, fueled by the stress and isolation of the coronavirus pandemic. It's also in the spotlight this week after the death of Tony Hsieh at 46, the former chief executive of the online shoe empire Zappos, in a house fire in November.

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Since childhood, Rachael Petersen had lived with an unexplainable sense of grief that no drug or talk therapy could entirely ease. So in 2017 she volunteered for a small clinical trial at Johns Hopkins University that was testing psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, for chronic depression.

"I was so depressed," Ms. Petersen, 29, said recently. "I felt that the world had abandoned me, that I'd lost the right to exist on this planet. Really, it was like my thoughts were so stuck, I felt isolated."

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The announcement on Wednesday that Johns Hopkins Medicine was starting a new center to study psychedelic drugs for mental disorders was the latest chapter in a decades-long push by health nonprofits and wealthy donors to shake up psychiatry from the outside, bypassing the usual channels.

"Psychiatry is one of the most conservative specialties in medicine," said David Nichols, a medicinal chemist who founded the Heffter Research Institute in 1993 to fund psychedelic research. "We haven't really had new drugs for years, and the drug industry has quit the field because they don't have new targets" in the brain. "The field was basically stagnant, and we needed to try something different."

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It can seem as though everyone in Silicon Valley is either heading to or coming back from a psychedelic trip, and it is probably Michael Pollan's fault.

He did after all write a best seller, "How to Change Your Mind," about how healthful psychedelics can be. His neighbor Ayelet Waldman, whose memoir "A Really Good Day" recounts how taking acid helped her mood and marriage, has something to do with it, too. And now, inspired by Pollan, the writer T.C. Boyle has a new novel, "Outside Looking In," about Timothy Leary, the charismatic Harvard professor turned psychedelics pied piper of the 1960s.

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The Oakland City Council passed a resolution Tuesday night that decriminalizes certain natural psychedelics, including mushrooms, a move that makes Oakland the second city in the nation to do so.

The resolution instructs law enforcement to stop investigating and prosecuting people using the drugs. It applies to psychedelics that come from plants or fungi, not synthetic drugs like LSD or MDMA, also known as ecstasy.

After the vote, nearly 100 supporters rose from their chairs, clapped and cheered loudly.

"I don't have words, I could cry," said Nicolle Greenheart, the co-founder of Decriminalize Nature Oakland. "I'm thrilled. I'm glad that our communities will now have access to the healing medicines and we can start working on healing our communities."

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UCSF psychiatrist Brian Anderson is studying an experimental therapy to help long-term AIDS survivors - people who were infected with HIV in the 1980s and never expected to live this long - who are feeling sad and demoralized.

In a clinic outfitted with a comfortable couch, soft lighting, throw pillows and blankets, the participants of his study are given psilocybin, the hallucinogenic compound found in magic mushrooms. They lie down for a few hours, a mask over their eyes and soothing music playing in the background, and experience a psychedelic trip.

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WASHINGTON - One airman said he felt paranoia. Another marveled at the vibrant colors. A third admitted, "I absolutely just loved altering my mind."

Meet service members entrusted with guarding nuclear missiles that are among the most powerful in America's arsenal. Air Force records obtained by The Associated Press show they bought, distributed and used the hallucinogen LSD and other mind-altering illegal drugs as part of a ring that operated undetected for months on a highly secure military base in Wyoming. After investigators closed in, one airman deserted to Mexico.

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In Oregon and Denver, where marijuana is legal for recreational use, activists are now pushing toward a psychedelic frontier: "magic mushrooms."

Groups in both states are sponsoring ballot measures that would eliminate criminal penalties for possession of the mushrooms whose active ingredient, psilocybin, can cause hallucinations, euphoria and changes in perception. They point to research showing that psilocybin might be helpful for people suffering from depression or anxiety.

"We don't want individuals to lose their freedom over something that's natural and has health benefits," said Kevin Matthews, the campaign director of Denver for Psilocybin, the group working to decriminalize magic mushrooms in Colorado's capital.

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Former GOP House speaker John A. Boehner, a longtime opponent of marijuana legalization, is joining a company that grows and sells cannabis, he announced Wednesday.

He has been appointed to the board of advisers of Acreage Holdings, which operates in 11 states, Boehner said in a statement.

Acreage Holdings was formerly known as High Street Capital Partners. The company is a financial backer of Prime Wellness, which owns a permit to cultivate medical marijuana in South Heidelberg near Reading.

"I have concluded descheduling the drug is needed so that we can do research and allow [the Department of Veterans Affairs] to offer it as a treatment option in the fight against the opioid epidemic that is ravaging our communities," Boehner said.

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Plenty of hard work goes into training police service dogs to sniff out illicit substances

For the vast majority of the dog population, sitting, shaking their paw and possibly rolling over is more than enough to get a treat, or some time with their favourite toy.

For police service dogs Astor and Flint, some of the highest praise comes after sniffing out drugs hidden in a home or a vehicle.

The Medicine Hat Police Service is two weeks into training PSD Astor to detect drugs and to notify his handler of any illegal substances he may sniff out.

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Alleged local international crime cartel had United States, Mexican connections

Calgary school buddies came together to form their own drug trafficking gang, with links to murder, money laundering and vicious Mexican cartels, say city police.

The group was allegedly responsible for millions of dollars in international drug imports and exports, and has been tied to a brazen Calgary shooting that left two dead in a south Calgary Superstore parking lot.

Calgary police say the group now faces dozens of charges, from drug importation to money-laundering to murder.

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Sometimes so little is going through my head that if Ralph were to say something, I'd actually have room to listen to him.

Those few times that's happened also seems to be my week to write an article which then leaves me scrambling.

Other times, I start the article only to be sideswiped by some event making me set it aside and start over. Such as todays.

I am an old fogey when it comes to the decriminalization of marijuana.

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A day after what would have been her son Ashley's 38th birthday, Betty Niemi told the story of her only child's losing battle with addiction to a rapt audience Thursday night.

Niemi, who has started a local chapter of Grief Recovery After Substance Passing (GRASP), took to the podium at the fourth Not My Kid: Adolescents and Addictions seminar before a crowd of about 300 at the Caboto Club.

"Losing a child is like having an arm or leg amputated, but no one can see it," Niemi told the crowd.

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Decades after Canada abandoned the field, the B.C. Centre on Substance Use is investigating the benefits of drugs like MDMA and psilocybin

In 2011, Gerald Thomas was invited to an Indigenous community in a remote area of British Columbia. Working for the Centre for Addictions Research of B.C., he was one of a small team of scientists who observed 12 people take ayahuasca, an Amazonian mixture that induces vivid visual and auditory hallucinations as well as deep emotional and intellectual reflection.

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Researchers gear up for last stage of testing before legalization

Ed Thompson remembers the helplessness he felt each of the thousands of times his twin daughters would turn blue and go lifeless in his arms. The young girls suffered from acute breath-holding spells, an involuntary condition that causes children to pass out, in their case up to 40 times a day.

"Having your kids die in your arms 7,500 times kind of sucks," he said.

The girls' conditions eventually improved, but the experience compounded earlier trauma Thompson had witnessed as a firefighter in South Carolina, sending him into a spiral of post traumatic stress, substance abuse and thoughts of suicide.

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In the hope of spreading awareness of the therapeutic benefits of MDMA, commonly known as ecstacy, one local psychotherapist is encouraging Kingstonians to explore and discuss the opportunities of psychedelic drugs.

"MDMA is an empathogen, it gives you more empathy and self-compassion, and so when you're in therapy with it you can look at your trauma with a little bit more openness," Richard Tyo, a registered psychotherapist and member of the Kingston Psychedelic Society, said on Wednesday. "It can really accelerate a lot of therapy."

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Vancouver is one of 16 locations where clinicians hope to use the drug to transform trauma treatment

Ed Thompson remembers the helplessness he felt each of the thousands of times his twin daughters would turn blue and go lifeless in his arms.

The young girls suffered from acute breath-holding spells, an involuntary condition that causes children to pass out, in their case up to 40 times a day.

"Having your kids die in your arms 7,500 times kind of sucks," he said.

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ALERT boss says officers will focus on keeping up with tech-savvy bad guys

Disarming and dismantling the upper echelon of organized crime groups in Alberta is in the sights of the province's dedicated guns and gang investigators in 2018, says the province's integrated law enforcement boss.

But in order to disrupt the complex networks of drug-running and gun-toting criminals in Alberta, officers will need to stay ahead of the technology curve as these groups - which include some of the province's most notorious outlaw motorcycle gangs - are becoming increasingly tech savvy.

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Most Albertans support the provincial government's proposed regulations for legalized marijuana, according to a new Insights West poll.

Almost two-thirds of respondents to the online poll agree with the decision to prevent pot stores from selling alcohol, tobacco or pharmaceuticals, while 77 per cent favour setting 18 as the legal age for buying marijuana.

While 60 per cent of Albertans support legalization, up five percentage points since a national poll done in October 2016, the poll found a split along party lines.

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