Just who does take psychedelics in the 21st century, after the lockdown of consciousness post 9/11? What role does the psychedelic community still offer as an activist movement? Psychedelic academic and author Robert Forte cuts to the chase by proposing that the medicinal resurgence of psychedelics obscures their real purpose as an anti-war, expansion of consciousness and creativity movement. Forte explores how psychedelics permit the illusion of America as a free state instead of a failed state, and the origins of the war on drugs and the Nixon-Leary struggle for the soul of a generation... Were avant guard psychologists of the late 50s and early 60s like Frank Barron and Tim Leary "assassin bees of consciousness", aware of the mass mind-control operation on America? And what lessons can we learn from such models, strategically using the mind-expansion psychedelics provide to best re-engineer the psychedelic movement into the future? Be provoked by this controversial discussion with experiential journalist Rak Razam...

In science's struggle to keep up with life on the streets, smoking cannabis for medical purposes stands as Exhibit A.

Medical use of cannabis has taken on momentum of its own, surging ahead of scientists' ability to measure the drug's benefits. The pace has been a little too quick for some, who see medicinal joints as a punch line, a ruse to free up access to a recreational drug.

But while the medical marijuana movement has been generating political news, some researchers have been quietly moving in new directions -- testing cannabis and its derivatives against a host of diseases. The scientific literature now brims with potential uses for cannabis that extend beyond its well-known abilities to fend off nausea and block pain in people with cancer and AIDS. Cannabis derivatives may combat multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease and other inflammatory conditions, the new research finds. Cannabis may even kill cancerous tumors.

Devo have been a hit with the cool kids since their very beginning -- the second time they played in New York the show was attended by David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Brian Eno, Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper and the whole NY art scene. Mothersbaugh was even invited out to Studio 54 on a "double date" with Andy Warhol.

"The only time in my life I smoked angel dust was by accident and it was on a double date with Andy Warhol and Michael Jackson," laughs Mothersbaugh. "We all went to Studio 54 and people were passing drugs all over the place.

"Michael Jackson had just finished doing the movie The Wiz and still looked like Michael Jackson back then -- he had an Afro and he was still black. He passed me a joint and I thought, well OK, we don’t have marijuana in Ohio so I’ll try it."

Minutes later Mothersbaugh found himself on the dancefloor as pillars of light were swirling around "like weedcutters" knocking people over and cutting them up. He turned to his date in horror, only to hear her say: "You didn’t smoke any of that angel dust did you?"

A quick glance back to the party showed that nothing was wrong. "The next thing I know she’s telling Andy she’s got to get me back to my hotel room," he adds with a sigh. "That was my first date with Andy Warhol."

In later years, Neil Young would ask the band to work with him, while Kurt Cobain said: "Of all the bands who came from the underground and actually made it in the mainstream, Devo are the most challenging and subversive of all."

I am a filmmaker that spent six months outside of Iquitos, Peru with Ronald Wheelock, an American born ayahuascero. Outside of working with his medicine which included two plant dietas, I made a film about the man and his work. If you have time to check it out and maybe give a mention on your website that would be great.

[Thanks JRoast!]

Will you take a few moments to write a review of MAPS and help them secure some funding? It's easy. Do it now!

By way of Grey.

State officials plan to hit the airwaves to warn Iowans about the dangers of a legal yet potent substance while seeking a ban.

The substance, sold under the labels "Spice" and "K2", is a synthetic version of marijuana. It's billed as incense and its package warns against human consumption, but it has been linked to the recent death of a Indianola teen.

Gov. Chet Culver announced on Monday that he wants the public health department to start a public information campaign against the substance. It will likely include public service announcements on radio and TV.

Some lawmakers plan to pressure the shops that sell it and then ban the substance in the next legislative session.

[Thanks Nick!]

Alan Brinkley's comprehensive new biography of Time magazine co-founder Henry R. Luce, The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century, has but one flaw. Then again, this "shortcoming" has more to do with my obsessions than it does with any inadequacy on Brinkley's part. My idiosyncratic complaint: Brinkley doesn't spend near enough space on the proselytizing enthusiasm the mogul and his wife, Clare Boothe Luce, had for LSD and how that enthusiasm bled into Luce's Time and Life.

The Publisher limits its discussion of the Luces' personal interest in the hallucinogen to about three pages, noting that Clare's devotion to LSD far exceeded Henry's. He took it just once or maybe twice compared with Clare's multiple trips -- she later claimed it "saved our marriage." But for a deeper look at how Luce's magazines helped popularize the drug, we must turn to scholar Stephen Siff's 2008 paper "Henry Luce's Strange Trip: Coverage of LSD in Time and Life, 1954-68"

Great article with some interesting historical details. Thanks Matt!