Gloria Indica
Hi! Welcome to the 13th edition of Gloria Indica, our newsletter written specifically for Wednesdays and Thursdays. If you’re reading this for the first time, then welcome. Wherever you’re from, whenever you’ll read this, this is our newsletter when we train our eyes a bit more specifically on the cannabis, business and technology narratives going on around the world of ours today. Narratives that’ll have an impact on all of us, if not immediately, then definitely in a few years.
Let’s start blazing.
Magic Mushrooms in Michigan
Science and technology in general has been late in understanding the benefits of a plant-based lifestyle. Yes, humans knew intuitively that of course, nature’s plants would obviously have uses since all our generations of ancestors of bygone eras used plants for thousands of years to survive and explore places, however that being said, from a health and wellness point of view, we used synthetic sources everywhere, from growing our food to our medicines, the result being the emergence of multiple lifestyle disorders and problems which were rooted in the very substances we expected we had mastery over. But now, plants are making a comeback. There’s no doubt about it.
Here’s Futurism talking about magic mushrooms:
“The City Council of Ann Arbor, Michigan voted unanimously to decriminalize all psychedelic plants and fungi on Monday night. It’s an expansive move that will allow banned substances including ayahuasca, peyote, mescaline, and psilocybin, better known as “magic mushrooms,” in the area — and one that, like the decriminalization of cannabis in a growing number of areas, could potentially spark a showdown with federal authorities.”
“Citing potential medical and spiritual benefits, the Council declared that growing, distributing, possessing, and transporting psychedelics is officially the lowest priority for law enforcement in the area, MLive reports. The City Council also requested that the Prosecutor’s Office no longer pursue cases related to psychedelic plants or fungi.”
Wow. Now that is exactly what is called being progressive.
Let’s keep blazing.
MDMA (Yes, the party drug) For Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
One human being’s recreation is another human being’s medicine.
The full form of MDMA (also known as ecstasy) is 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine. Just for our own information and for our readers’ knowledge, it is necessary to be clear about organic chemistry. MDMA’s molecular formula is C11H15NO2.
Here’s Psychiatry and Behavioural Health Network talking about MDMA:
“The use of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has reached the Phase 3 clinical trial stage and could receive final approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by 2022, Rick Doblin, PhD, founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), told Psych Congress 2020 attendees in a virtual session. Noting an estimate by the US Department of Veterans Affairs that about 8 million people in the United States, including a little more than 1 million veterans, suffer from PTSD, Dr. Doblin chronicled his organization’s work in developing an MDMA-assisted form of psychotherapy.”
This is brilliant. However, given the sensitivity and risk-aversion of government regulators towards synthetic drugs, it is prudent to reason that only well-qualified doctors will be able to prescribe MDMA to patients. It is difficult to even imagine such a scenario even being considered in India. We think India’s drug regulators wouldn’t even consider the topic of using medical cannabis (Thank god cannabis was mentioned in Ayurveda as the king of herbs 2000 years back), let alone MDMA.
“Dr. Doblin proposes four risk evaluation and mitigation strategies:“
- “The treatment should only be given by certified therapists who are trained by the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)
- It should only be administered under direct supervision in a certified clinic.
- It should only be distributed by a centralized pharmacy, with MDMA shipped to prescribers, not patients.
- There will be special safety screenings required for certain patient populations.”
“MAPS is currently engaged in formal dispute resolution with FDA on the risks/benefits of administering MDMA to therapists as part of training, whether the lead facilitator needs to be an MD or PhD, and whether a physician must be on site or just on call during therapy. Dr. Doblin said these issues should be resolved by the end of the year. Should MDMA-assisted get final approval from FDA in 2022, Dr. Doblin said up to 6000 psychedelic clinics could open by 2030.”
Let’s keep blazing ahead.
Wall Street is Being Capitalistic For Water
Trust them to come up with something like this.
The world is likely to face a severe water shortage, with many experts claiming that by 2025 at least two-thirds of the world is likely to face some form of water shortage. And Wall Street is ready with their bets.
“Climate advocates have warned in recent years of the potential of water wars as competition increases between needs from agriculture, energy and growing cities. Food production in particular could be vulnerable as drought makes it increasingly difficult to grow crops in many parts of the world and farmers balance water and land needs with protecting forests in places like Brazil’s Amazon.”
“If the record heat and wildfires ravaging California weren’t a clear enough sign that the climate is changing, then consider this: Wall Street is about to start trading futures contracts on the state’s water supply. The contracts are the first of their kind in the U.S. and are being created by CME Group Inc., the world’s largest futures exchange. They are intended, CME says, to both allow California’s big water consumers — like almond farms and municipalities — to hedge against surging prices and can act as a benchmark that signals how acute water scarcity is becoming in the state and, more broadly, across the globe.”
Hahahahaha.
So, what is happening in essence is this: Just like how the commodity markets work for wheat, corn, coffee, gold, silver etc., we’re going to see a market for Water! Water as a commodity so to speak. If this scares you, then do not worry. You probably need to make sure you save up enough from now itself so that you’ve water for yourself in the future. Remember, Indian readers, we told you so.
“CME’s contract, tied to the $1.1 billion California water market, will launch late this year, pending regulatory review, and will be based on the Nasdaq Veles California Water Index, the bourse said Thursday. In California, about 40% of water currently consumed in the state goes to crop production. The CME contract will help to create a forward curve so users can hedge future price risk, the bourse said. “What we really wanted to be able to do was firstly to provide clear and transparent rules-based information to the marketplace,” said Patrick Wolf, a senior manager for Nasdaq Global Indexes.”
Let’s keep blazing. We’ll need it.
Have a great day 🙂
Marijuana Maharaj 