Reader Kit writes:

This is passing around the net. Its really disturbing to me that the govt is patenting any aspects of a plant's action, but doubly so that it is cannabis, one which they have great need to suppress.

Here's a snippet from the patent summary:

Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia. Nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidoil, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present invention.

Not sure what it all means. I'm thinking that this patent only applies to the use of cannabinoids as an antioxidant therapy, but maybe I am missing something. Patent law is a bit beyond my expertise.

From a new column at Erowid,org:

A toast (throws toast) originally composed in March of Aught Seven, for my frequent co-pilot, second, and most excellent good friend Seuss Dean upon the occasion of a 5-MeO-DMT experience on the island of Koh Chang, Thailand:

To those who have gone before!
To the explorers of the last Great Sea; true heroes all, sink or swim.
To the self-elect: shamans, adventurers, visionaries, and madmen alike.
To the courageous and to the curious.
To the persecuted and to the lost.
To all of the exiles who have dared to climb the garden wall.
To the holy fools, the seekers, the ambassadors, and the pioneers.
To those who have had the temerity to storm Heaven and Hell,
and who have returned with the Secret Fire to light our way.
To those who can never remember, and to those who can never forget.
To all of the intrepid and extraordinary spirits who have played at the edge,
We, who prepare to confront the Mystery, salute you.

Thanks Teafærie!

Some of you may be wondering what skating has to do with psychedelics, other than the fact that skaters are usually ADHD compulsive danger freaks who like drugs among their many other vices. However, there is one skater who has taken the psychedelic vibe to a whole new level, Richie Jackson from Australia. Here is a clip from a recent interview from Transword Skateboarding:

I believe in psychedelicism. Not just psychedelic music, but everything. A psychedelic experience is characterized as the unveiling of perceptions previously unknown -- the brain unfettered from its usual constraints. To me, it's all there is, and certainly all that's worth doing. I find no worth in that which doesn't surprise. Anomalies, irregularities, deviation from the common rule -- that is all I will ever care for.

How does this come through in his skating? In a world of young turks hurling kickflips and 360 flips down stairs like robots, Richie Jackson comes up with some new and unique tricks. Varial kickflip hippie jump? Double foot-plant down a stair well? Kickflip foot-plant to finger-flip? For those of you who don't know, that's just insane.

When I see a headline about the US Air Force trying to put "comfort capsules" in all their planes to let top brass sleep better on flights, I immediately think "Here's an item for DoseNation!" Unfortunately, they're talking about modular luxury accommodations, which could be swapped into planes carrying officers of high enough rank that their hineys have become too soft for normal USAF seats. Amusingly, this has created controversy, because they've been skimming anti-terrorism funds to do it... God bless America!

Also note that the link at "chron.com" is not a drug reference, either; it's the Houston Chronicle.

Apparently butt hurt about their tasers being taken, the police in Nashville have jumped the gun on police state style tactics and decided to start administering anesthetic doses of Versed to unruly individuals:

For almost two years, Metro police have had the option of calling for a needle loaded with a strong sedative to control the most unruly people they encounter on the street.

One of the doctors who came up with the protocol said it's the safest option out there and that it is used all over the country.

But many people said that the injection was news to them, and a top medical ethicist said it's a troubling precedent.

Yeah, troubling. I think the police should just start using roofies.

Big WOW! Who whould have thought that any government would ever release statements like these: "the effects produced by its consumption are equivalent to entering the secrets of the spiritual world..." and, "knowledge of ayahuasca states is required for all members of Amazonian societies at some point in their lives, and is essential for assuming the role of privileged individuals..."

No english news source for this yet, but these two articles Portuguese-to-English via Google Translate are quite usable:

The government of Peru said as the cultural patrimony of the nation's traditional knowledge and practices of ayahuasca practiced by indigenous communities in the Amazon Forest. The ayahuasca is better known in Brazil as Santo Daime. The decision of the Peruvian government, signed by the director of the National Institute of Culture, Javier Ugaz Villacorta, was published in the Saturday edition of El Peruano, the official daily of the country.

In the statement of recognition, the Peruvian government maintains that the ayahuasca has psychotropic qualities, namely that act on the psyche, the mental activity, behaviour, perceptions and is known worldwide as a plant indigenous to transmit wisdom for the beginner on the very foundations of the world.

It also states that the effects produced by its consumption is equivalent to entering the secrets of the spiritual world. According to the National Institute of Culture, the ritual of ayahuasca is setting as the center of traditional medicine and is one of the pillars of the identity of Amazonian peoples, and its use necessary and indispensable for all members of society Peruvian Amazon.

...

According to the Peruvian government, ayahuasca has extraordinary cultural history because of its psychotropic qualities. The National Institute of Culture notes that the use and results obtained with ayahuasca are required for all members of societies Amazon at some point in their lives and essential to assume the role of privileged individuals, either through communications with the spiritual world or [dream visions?]"

Some strangeness in the translations, but you can probably figure them out. Thanks for the tip Snow!

• Link - Translation: Blog da Amazonia
  
• Link - Ayahuasca in Peru: Altino Machado
  

I know you are all on the edge of your seat for the next Oasis album (satire), but there is something interesting you should know:

Noel Gallagher says his songs on the next Oasis album will be inspired by acid trips from the past.
...

"I've literally got nothing left to write about: I've wrote about being a youth, and I've wrote about being a rock star, and I've wrote about living life in the big city.

"I've been re-visiting some of my more psychedelic trips of a younger man, because I remember them all you see...putting them to music."

Some of the track titles include, "The tiny world under my fingernail", "How the carpet creeps", and "Mate, I think I've left my body".

The NewScientist has an article about Ravers - seems like just the thing to post to DoseNation. It's about a party where lasers that should have been pointed at the sky were setup inside, and caused some people to get blinded. That's like totally lame. Since everybody knows that party goers are also some of the world's best and brightest, hopefully this will be inspiration for people to learn to repair retinal damage - and to not use frickin' laser beams indoors - no matter how badass they are.

If you haven't seen or heard, the stoner movie of the season is out. I think Apatow said this script is based on the wasted Brad Pitt character from 'True Romance', the one that smokes weed through a plastic honey-bear bong all day. What would happen if *that guy* were the lead in an action/thriller. Yeah, it might be funny, but 'Big Lebowski' funny? Who knows...

Browsing digital graffiti I occasionally come across something that undermines the same old tired paradigms. This storybook goon coming out of a wall of standard throw-ups says, "Turn the page on the old style!" quite literally. Plus he has a lit joint and is walking through a field of mushrooms...

This is supposed to be in Montreal somewhere.