Free Republic

On Tuesday, California moved another step closer to decriminalizing psychedelic drugs amid a debate over whether their prohibition is an outdated remnant of the “War on Drugs.” The bill cleared the Assembly Public Safety Committee 5-3, with proponents touting the benefits to military veterans and others they say can benefit from the use of psychedelics to treat trauma. The measure already passed the state Senate on a 21-16 vote and now heads to the health committee before it can go to the full Assembly, NBC Bay Area reports. If passed, Senate Bill 519 would allow those 21 and older to...

Today's hipster creatives and entrepreneurs are hardly the first generation to partake of ayahuasca, according to archaeologists who have discovered traces of the powerfully hallucinogenic potion in a 1,000-year-old leather bundle buried in a cave in the Bolivian Andes. Led by University of California, Berkeley, archaeologist Melanie Miller, a chemical analysis of a pouch made from three fox snouts sewn together tested positive for at least five plant-based psychoactive substances. They included dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and harmine, key active compounds in ayahuasca, a mind-blowing brew commonly associated with the Amazon jungle... Miller's analysis of a scraping from the fox-snout pouch and...

Journalist Michael Hastings, who was killed in a fiery Los Angeles crash in June, died of "traumatic injuries" as a result of the accident and had traces of drugs in his system, Los Angeles coroner's officials said Tuesday. Hastings, 33, died June 18 in a single-vehicle accident. His car burst into flames and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Coroner's officials said Hastings had traces of amphetamine in his system, consistent with possible intake of methamphetamine many hours before death, as well as marijuana. Neither were considered a factor in the crash, according to toxicology reports.

Tracy James knew the drug she'd just swallowed was working when her old injuries from high school started twitching with new life. Pressure throbbed from a forgotten busted knee. Her ankle tingled. The fingers she'd sprained roller-skating decades back began to ache. Whatever the 37-year-old had just taken, it shot feeling back into the long-gone ailments. "When I did vomit, it was one of the most amazing moments of my life." For the past 45 minutes, the hut had been dark and silent, the air dripping with jungle moisture. James and nearly 20 others were sitting cross-legged on ornate rugs....

Authorities have seized the first distribution-sized package of "processed DMT" in New Jersey and warned Thursday that the hallucinogenic drug once popular in the '60s could be making a comeback. The drug, dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, differs from other hallucinogens because its powerful effects are relatively short-lived, about 45 minutes to an hour, giving rise to its street-name as the "businessman's trip," authorities said. Two state troopers seized 1 1/4 pounds of the processed DMT — valued at $127,000 — during a traffic stop on the New Jersey Turnpike in Secaucus, state police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes said. The troopers were...

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday that a small congregation in New Mexico may use hallucinogenic tea as part of a four-hour ritual intended to connect with God. Justices, in their first religious freedom decision under Chief Justice John Roberts, moved decisively to keep the government out of a church's religious practice. Federal drug agents should have been barred from confiscating the hoasca tea of the Brazil-based church, Roberts wrote in the decision. The tea, which contains an illegal drug known as DMT, is considered sacred to members of O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal, which has...