As the Solstmas holidays approach, we have a couple of great articles for you to read. We also want to remind everyone that now is the time to make end-of-the-year contributions for the 2009 tax year. Our new Psychoactive Poetry Magnets make great gifts!

Those who get their magnets before January 31, 2010 can participate in the Psychoactive Poetry Contest. Create your poetry or prose masterpiece--whether humorous or serious--and send in a photo of it. Contest winners will get to choose from some great surprise prizes.

Erowid.org/donations/incentives_magnets2.shtml

It's mushroom season on the West Coast of the United States! Both culinary and magic mushrooms are popping up as it rains. Fifty years ago, Albert Hofmann first synthesized psilocybin, the active chemical in magic mushrooms, and soon thereafter Sandoz Pharmaceutical began producing small tablets containing 2 mg of psilocybin each.

Fundamentals of Responsible Psychoactive Use This article highlights eighteen factors to consider when using a psychoactive, regardless of legal status or societal acceptance. Written by Earth and Fire Erowid and originally published in Cato Unbound, these insights have been gleaned from the experiences of thousands.

1960s Media Coverage of Ayahuasca and the UDV The authors comment on a relic in the history of a Brazilian ayahuasca religion, a newly discovered 1968 newspaper article about the União do Vegetal. Includes an English translation of the article, and links to a scan of the original document in Portuguese.

Pablo Amaringo Character Vault A new character vault, including biography and links for the prolific painter and former vegetalista whose visionary works featured in Ayahuasca Visions: The Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman. Amaringo passed away in November 2009.

Oxycodone Vault Additions New Basics, Effects and Chemistry pages have been added to this vault. Oxycodone consistently figures among the top ten most frequently visited substance vaults on Erowid.

Fire & Earth Erowid will be running the Psychoactive Mushrooms table at the Mycological Society of San Francisco's annual fungus fair this coming weekend, December 5-6. Come visit and check out the fair!

http://mssf.org/fungus-fairs/index.html

How Do They Measure Up? Examining Drug Use Surveys and Statistics Where do the statistics that are quoted in the media come from? What do we really know about the rates of drug use in the United States and around the world? This two-part article examines the way source data is gathered and expounds on problems with measuring drug use.

1. Teatime: Towards 2013
   The Teafaerie encourages us to visualize a positive eschaton.
2. Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs (80MB PDF)
   This 468 page book was published in 1967 by the U.S. Dept of Health, Education, and Welfare. It includes a comprehensive look at several psychoactive plants, including ayahuasca, kava, Virola snuffs, and A. muscaria mushrooms. Despite originally selling for $4, it has been expensive to buy in print for many years. Jon Hanna generously sacrificed his copy in order to make it available for everyone.
3. A Bibliography of L.S.D. & Mescaline
   A rare 1971 reference book by Oscar Janiger, MD & Gertrude Paltin, MS offers up another look at early psychedelic research.
4. Ayahuasca Effects
   A new effects page description the duration, as well as positive, neutral, and negative effects of ayahuasca.

• Pure Horror (5-MeO-DMT), by HexagonSun

• Do vaporizers work with Salvia divinorum?
• Is vaginal administration of LSD effective?
• What are the defining characteristics of 5-MeO-DMT?
• Can salvia extract smoked with cannabis cause chest pains?

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