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Psychedelic Use on the Rise As Gen Z Seeks To ‘Enhance Connectedness’

The latest data shows the highest rates of psychedelic use among college students since 1982

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Psychedelic Use on the Rise As Gen Z Seeks To ‘Enhance Connectedness’

The recreational use of psychedelics is on the rise in the US in the wake of COVID-19 and amid increasing acceptance of the drug as a medicine. 

In the last three years the use of hallucinogens such as LSD and magic mushrooms among young people in the US has jumped, according to the latest data from the annual Monitoring the Future survey, carried out by the University of Michigan. 

Last year, when the US went through COVID-related lockdowns, 8.6 percent of US college students and 7.6 percent of young adults said they had used psychedelics in the last 12 months, compared to 4.1 percent and 4.3 percent in 2017. 

The use of hallucinogens, predominantly LSD, is at the highest level since 1982 and more than five times the lowest rates in the mid 2000s.  

“There’s been a huge rise in LSD among younger populations. I think it’s getting more popular due to the macrodosing [taking trip-sized doses] phenomenon and the recent rise in knowledge about the benefits of these medicines, such as cognitive enhancement and personality development,” said Andrew Yockey, Assistant Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of North Texas.

“The pandemic has definitely taken a toll on everyone’s mental health, and traditional modes of therapy are ineffective for some. You see studies showing that psilocybin, for example, is a great alternative to reducing anxiety, compared to pharmacological drugs. People report using psychedelics at home, but more and more are using these in social circles to enhance connectedness.”

Results from a survey that questions the general public on drug use, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, has tracked a similar trend, with 1.2 million 18 to 25-year-olds admitted taking LSD in 2019 compared with 317,000 in 2004 — almost a fourfold increase.

This uptick comes during an era where LSD, psilocybin (magic mushrooms), ketamine and MDMA are being trialed and prescribed to treat a range of medical issues such as depression and PTSD, while the legal barriers to these drugs being used in therapy are falling away.   

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Health

Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, Has Been Diagnosed with Terminal Cancer

This follows his transfer to a medical facility in December

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The new comes from a letter he wrote:

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Politics

Foreign-born population soars to new record under Biden; highest rate of immigrants since 1910

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Foreign-born population soars to new record under Biden; highest rate of immigrants since 1910

The U.S. has had a massive surge in immigration this year, with as many as 1.5 million newcomers and a record 46.2 million foreign-born people, according to a report for the Center for Immigration Studies.

After a deep trough last year, likely because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the travel and migration restrictions imposed to control the spread, the flow of people rebounded around the time President Biden was elected.

In numbers never seen before, they are coming legally through airports and land border crossings and illegally across the Rio Grande and remote regions of Arizona and California.

“There was pent-up demand for legal immigration, and illegal immigration has exploded in one of the greatest surges, if not the greatest, we’ve ever seen,” said Steven A. Camarota, the demographer who was the chief author of the report. “It’s driving the numbers up and up and up.”

As it stands, 14.2% of the U.S. population is foreign-born, or 1 out of every 7 people. That is the highest rate of immigrants in the population since 1910, when the number was 14.7%. At current trends, the government says, the U.S. will break that record well before the end of this decade.

Those numbers are even starker given the reversal of trends.

The data showed a drop of 1.2 million immigrants from February to September 2020, likely the result of coronavirus restrictions blocking new entrants, even as outmigration continued. That left the population of the foreign-born — the Census Bureau’s term — at 43.8 million.

It was up to 45 million by January and marched steadily to the current 46.2 million total shown for last month.

In the year after President Trump’s election, the immigrant population flattened.

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Health

Biden Vaccine Mandate for Contractors Blocked Nationwide

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Biden Vaccine Mandate for Contractors Blocked Nationwide
  • Mandate one of a set of Biden vaccine initiatives
  • States say contractor requirement violates Constitution

The Biden administration’s mandate for federal contractors’ employees to be vaccinated will be halted nationwide, amid a slew of challenges from states that say the president overstepped his authority in requiring the Covid-19 shots.

Led by Georgia, the seven states that challenged the mandate set to take effect on Jan. 4 are likely to succeed in their lawsuits against the administration’s order, U.S. District Court Judge R. Stan Baker of the Southern District of Georgia said in an order issued Tuesday.

The Biden administration mandate applies to roughly a quarter of the U.S. workforce and affects companies that do business with the federal government, including Lockheed Martin Corp., Microsoft Corp., Alphabet Inc.‘s Google, and General Motors Co.

Baker’s order follows a Kentucky federal judge’s grant last week of a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit involving Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio. Baker echoed what his Kentucky counterpart said, that blocking the mandate didn’t indicate that the vaccine wouldn’t be effective to stopping the spread of Covid-19, but rather that Biden didn’t have the power to issue such an executive order.

Representatives from Georgia universities testified during an injunction hearing earlier this month, arguing that implementation of the mandate would be expensive, onerous, and cost them valuable employees who haven’t yet presented proof of vaccination. Those schools receive millions from the federal government.

The court found that the states could likely prove that Congress didn’t clearly authorize the president to issue the mandate, and that it “goes far beyond addressing administrative and management issues in order to promote efficiency and economy in procurement and contracting.” The 2017 nominee of President Donald Trump said, instead, the executive order works as a “regulation of public health.”

Neither the lawyers representing the state coalition nor the U.S. government immediately responded to emailed requests for comment.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little cheered Tuesday’s ruling in a statement. The state is part of the Georgia-led contractor mandate challenge, as well as lawsuits against the Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration’s shot-or-test emergency regulation for large U.S. businesses, and another inoculation rule for healthcare workers.

“Yet another one of President Biden’s vaccine mandates have been temporarily shut down because the states—including Idaho—took a stand against his unprecedented government overreach into Americans’ lives and businesses,” Little said in the statement. “All three mandates are now completely stalled. We will continue to press forward in our fight against the federal government’s bad policies.”

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