Daily Archives: July 7, 2022

LETTER: Thank cadre deployment and BEE for the mess – BusinessLIVE

Posted: July 7, 2022 at 9:21 am

When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing; when you see that money is flowing to those who deal not in goods but in favours; when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work; and your laws dont protect you against them but protect them against you; when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice; you may know your society is doomed. Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957.

Stage 6 load-shedding has been forced on us by workers who are entitled, overpaid, underworked but have seen power abused everywhere else and have taken their monopoly position to extort an unaffordable increase. Never in the pre-1994 history of Eskom (formed in 1928, 60 years ago) did this happen. What changed? The only significant change was government policy cadre deployment, affirmative action and BEE.

Eskom has 10,000 too many employees; Transnet, the company that barely runs trains, employs 45,000 people. Most of these employees produce very little, a lot of them dont go to work, and when they do, they are disruptive and poorly managed by people who, like our president, cannot make a hard decision. They walk all over everything, and when things dont go their way, they throw their power around, because they can.

The leadership, institutional knowledge, work ethic and skills that carried these organisations has gone, retired or where made unwelcome just left. The ANC government has cut itself off from the skills that could help it implement its stupid policies, and now we all suffer.

I dont see private companies acting like this. Why? Because they have to compete and produce to survive.

Rob TiffinCape Town

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Psychedelics gave me the courage to take charge of my romantic life – Mic

Posted: at 9:19 am

Being in love is fun. But once the infatuation stage fades, those of us who want a long term relationship have to ascertain whether its actually a possibility. Realizing that youre not compatible with someone deep into a situationship is pretty shitty, and it can be very easy to ignore our intuition when the sex is great or the fun is all that matters. It can take months, or even years, to be really honest about our feelings and break free from relationships that arent serving us anymore.

This happened to me once, and it led to a psychedelics-assisted moment of clarity. I had been dating someone for months when I decided to go on a solo mushroom trip in my bedroom, because we were all in quarantine and I was feeling depressed. That trip changed the course of that relationship.

It all started with a water stain on my ceiling that began to dance, then rearranged itself into the form of a man who kind of resembled my partner. The walls began to close in on me. I spoke to the stain, which was really myself, and broke down. At some point during the three-hour trip, I realized I was very lonely in my relationship with a person who couldnt make me happy and that probably wasnt going to change. I broke up with him shortly after, and my mood improved almost overnight. That shroom-induced realization took me out of a months-long slump, giving me immense clarity and the courage to take charge of my romantic life.

Had I not sought solace in the shrooms, I know for a fact it would have taken me longer to realize I was in an unhappy relationship. And its not just me. It turns out Im one of many people who find relationship lucidity after taking recreational drugs. So what is it about psychedelics that seem to help so many of us clear up our murky relationship waters? I spoke with an expert to find out.

But first, a bit of background. Here, Ill use the term psychedelics as a stand-in for hallucinogens, which are drugs that affect neural circuits in the prefrontal cortex, or the part of the brain that regulates mood. There are many types of psychedelics, but the most common in recreational drugs tend to be LSD, DMT, and Psilocybin, the latter of which is found in shrooms and likely catalyzed my own revelation. Although research in this field is still relatively new, there are some signs that psychedelics can actually improve quality of life, especially for people with mood disorders like depression or PTSD. Bad trips can definitely happen especially if you take too much of a drug, the drug is laced, you dont hydrate, or youre in a negative environment but theres also a lot of exciting research out there about the potential health benefits of psychedelics.

But can those personal benefits change the way we relate to each other in intimate relationships? Less is known about this particular topic, but a 2016 Canadian study on the link between domestic violence and psychedelics, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology offers some insight. Researchers at the University of British Columbia examined whether former inmates who took psychedelics were less likely to be violent toward their romantic partners than those who abstained. They found that 42% of inmates who did not take psychedelic drugs were arrested within six years for domestic battery after their release, compared to just 27% of those who had taken drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA. One of the researchers, Peter Hendricks, had an interesting theory for why that was: One explanation is that [psychedelics] can transform people's lives by providing profoundly meaningful spiritual experiences that highlight what matters most," he said in a news release about the study.

This answer resonated with my own experience of taking shrooms and making big relationship decisions; maybe the drugs helped me prioritize my own happiness in a way I didnt know how to do in my everyday life. Buoyed by this take, I decided to interview Zachary Walsh, one of the studys authors and the co-director for the University of British Columbias Okanagan Centre for the Advancement of Psychological Science and Law, to find out if I was on the right path.

Walsh says his research suggests that psychedelics are great at helping us regulate our emotions by allowing us to notice feelings wed usually gloss over and channel them in a way thats consistent with our values. Its why he thinks inmates who previously struggled to regulate their emotional reactions were newly able to avoid engaging in intimate partner violence after they took psychedelics. In other words, theres a good chance that psychedelics help give us more clarity on situations before we act on them. I think [those realizations] may be about having a different relationship to your thoughts, Walsh says.

I initially thought my shroom trip gave me more insight on the person I was dating, but its more likely that the psychedelics just gave me more clarity on my own feelings. I was able to observe myself and my situation from a totally different vantage point, one that allowed me to access much more empathy toward myself and others. Before shrooms, I didnt know how to articulate my feelings: I was afraid of hurting my partner, and it felt inconvenient to break up when so much of our lives were intertwined. (Plus, I loved his apartment.) But the drugs helped me realize that no amount of comfort was ultimately worth that unhappiness and that the kindest thing I could do for my partner was to break up with him, rather than prolong a relationship I now knew was destined for failure.

Just as I was feeling really solid in this assessment, though, Walsh threw me a minor curveball, recapping an unpublished study hes currently working on that looked at couples who took psychedelics together. He says the preliminary results, which have not yet been peer-reviewed, suggest that couples actually grew closer and reported higher levels of willingness to compromise because, as Walsh explains, psychedelics might have helped give them insight into each others feelings. Meanwhile, the study participants who took psychedelics alone or didnt take psychedelics at all didnt seem to have tangible changes in their relationships, although its difficult to give a definitive reason why. I know there's a bit of a concern about the study, because it could be that people who are comfortable enough with each other to take psychedelics together already have a certain type of relationship, right? Walsh says. Its a chicken or egg question, but I think it's somewhat interesting when you compare it to other drugs, particularly alcohol, which is associated with worse relationship outcomes.

Perhaps I should have taken shrooms with my ex one last time before we broke up to really see if things were salvageable. Ill never know if it would have changed the outcome but regardless of what might have been, Im grateful for that trip I did take, because it helped me realize that things feel much scarier when they live inside our heads. It also taught me to trust my gut feeling about situations, whether or not Im high. Pursuing happiness, no matter how uncomfortable it can get, is a worthwhile endeavor and thats a lesson Ill carry with me in future relationships.

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Meet the Married Couple Trailblazing the Development of Psychedelic Therapies – PR Newswire

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Career brain researchers launch innovative drug development company to advance psychedelic therapies

INTRODUCING TESSELLATE

LAS VEGAS, July 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Meet Dr. Rochelle and Dr. Dustin Hines, the husband and wife team trailblazing the future of mental health therapeutics from their lab located at The University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV). Both armed with PhD's (University of British Columbia) and extensive post- doctoral training (Tufts University School of Medicine) in neuroscience, Dustin and Rochelle have worked at the interface of academia and industry over their combined 40 plus year careers.

Dustin and Rochelle operate 'The Hines Group Laboratory' at UNLV, a state of the art, fully staffed, pre-clinical research facility, and one of the most advanced and accredited psychedelic research facilities in the world. Rochelle holds a license from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, allowing for the handling of controlled substances for accredited research purposes. With the broad goal of advancing novel therapeutics, Dustin and Rochelle have worked on several industry sponsored research projects, and recently launched 'Tessellate', a next wave pharmaceutical company, to further the development and commercialization of novel therapeutics for an array of mental health conditions. Tessellate is working to advance the clinical applicability of psychedelics through rigorous, evidence-based discovery, with the goal of improving the efficacy and personalization of psychedelic therapies, while also mitigating the possible risks stemming from these therapeutics.

6 LIBRARIES IN DEVOLOPMENT INCLUDING 4 SETS OF MODULATORS

Tessellate has developed and rigorously tested multiple lead synthetic psychedelic molecules in the novel chemical space of substituted phenethylamines (PEA). Tessellate's PEA libraries consist of a total of 30 candidates in pre-clinical development for the treatment of major depressive disorder and PTSD. Dustin Hines commented that 'PEA psychedelics, which bear structural similarity to mescaline, are less explored in the psychedelic space and offer several possible advantages including increased specificity for the common target of psychedelics, known as the 5HT2A receptor.'

MODULATION A KEY TO EFFICACY

Tessellate's most valuable I.P. may involve it's unprecedented discoveries and insights into understanding the psychedelic experience, known as the "trip". Based on a deep understanding of the architecture of brain activity that underlies the trip, Tessellate has developed a sequence of four distinct classes of trip modulators, which can be taken during psychedelic administration, as well as before and after a therapeutic session, to 'modulate' both the patient experience as well as the therapeutic outcome. Paul Rosen, President of Tessellate, commented 'we perceive this as game changing technology and essential for the development of the entire psychedelic industry. Modulators address several concerns and anxieties that eligible patients may have regarding these disruptive therapeutic modalities. With one modulator a patient can access an offramp during a trip should they wish to stop. With another modulator a patient can remove the need to stop their current SSRI therapy before initiating psychedelic treatment. With a modulator taken pre trip the patient may enhance the efficacy of their trip, and with a modulator taken post trip the patient may solidify the psychoplastogen effects that psychedelics cause in the days following a trip, which Tessellates research has corroborated are when the long- term therapeutic benefits of psychedelics are most likely to occur'.

Tessellate is currently preparing to initiate Phase One clinical trials on its two current lead candidates, the novel PEA Tsl8 108 and the modulator Tsl8 303, while also continuing to advance preclinical validation of both its novel modulator libraries and additional PEA leads.

For inquires please contact:

Tessellate Therapeutics[emailprotected]416-728-1295

SOURCE Tessellate

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Goodbye Weed and Acid, Hello Magic Mushrooms – Psychedelic Spotlight

Posted: at 9:19 am

Its 4 am. My roommate and I are tripping on LSD, still awake after trying three times to fall asleep. We toss and turn, and each time we come out of our rooms we are in sync. We wander into the hallway, stare at one another, and laugh. We are making pancakes, leaning in with our ears perched just above the frying pan listening to the sizzle. My roommate realizes how silly we look, Hopefully our roommates dont come out and see this, he says. They wouldnt understand. And all I can say is, I just want to come down. Maybe we should have tried magic mushrooms instead.

Many have started their psychedelic journey by dropping a tab of acid, very often adding cannabis to the trip. Acid is great, Ive personally laid tabs on numerous newcomers tongues. While LSD and marijuana have their place in the psychedelic scene, they are not as popular as they once were. In recent years there has been a noticeable trend away from cannabis and LSD towards our fungi friends. With recent decriminalization in places such as Denver, DC, and Seattle, psychedelic mushrooms have become easier to obtain. And with broad mainstream exposure through advocates like Michael Pollan, mushroom use is becoming de-stigmatized. For all of these reasons, magic mushrooms are quickly becoming the mainstream psychedelic of choice.

For many people the ingestion of THC causes feelings of elation, but for others it can cause anxiety and paranoia, my partner and myself included. In high doses THC can create psychedelic experiences, but many people also experience anxiety at this dose level. It is also possible to build up a tolerance to THC, so over time even the biggest bong hits might not get you high. But THC reacts with the endocannabinoid system in our brains, whereas classical psychedelics react with the serotonin receptors. So if marijuana doesnt agree with you, or if youve found yourself developing a tolerance, then maybe a classical psychedelic is worth a try.

LSD, often labeled as the most potent psychedelic of all, was discovered by chemist Albert Hofmann in the late 1930s. A friend and fellow psychonaut named Lorenzo has described his experiences as the most intense and some of the most meaningful in his psychedelic journey. His first foray in psychedelics was with the blotter, and Lorenzo initially enjoyed acid. The electric feeling drew him in, and he stayed for the beauty, music, and revelations. But ultimately that electric feeling lingering for twelve hours was too much, and the initial joyful energy turned into comedown blues. Hes had five experiences with acid and isnt sure when or if he will try it again. For many like him, the length of the trip and intensity can be a turn off. Now, instead of LSD, he enjoys a quiet mushroom trip about three times a year.

Another problem with LSD is that it is impossible to tell what substance might be on that blotter paper. Mitchell, another seasoned psychonaut, says he no longer partakes of LSD because of inconsistencies in batches. When handed a tab (or candy, or dropper bottle) he could never tell what substance he was taking or what the dose was. It can be difficult to know if what you are obtaining is LSD or an adjacent research chemical, and there can be huge discrepancies in dosage on blotters. A small amount of LSD goes a long way, and a little too much can make the difference between a good trip and a bad trip. When buying LSD it is always wise to go through a trusted source, but ultimately you can never be sure if what youre taking is pure.

Like many people these days, Lorenzo and Mitchell have made the switch from LSD to mushrooms. With mushrooms, they feel like they know what they are getting and can dose more accurately. While every fungi will contain different levels of psilocybin, there are steps one can take to ensure an accurate dose, such as grinding and encapsulating or making a tea. With LSD there is always the potential to take too much, even on a single tab of blotter paper. However, with mushrooms, you can dose lightly at first and then eat more to adjust the dose as you go. According to Lorenzo and Mitchell, LSD seems like an all or nothing scenario.

But not everyone agrees with this trend. Perry, who can frequently be found at bluegrass music festivals, has been an avid psychonaut for the past ten years. He is a recreational tab dropper who enjoys LSD for that same electric feeling and doesnt mind how long it lasts. For him, the duration is a benefit. He can enjoy live music for hours on end, take an all day hike, or just spend a relaxing day off exploring his mind. Though Perry remains loyal to LSD, he has also noticed the recent trend towards mushrooms.

Thanks to decriminalization efforts across the country, the general publics view on psilocybin mushrooms has been trending upwards. Closest to home for myself, Washington DC decriminalized psilocybin mushrooms with a whopping 76% percent of people voting in favor of the measure. This movement has caused a ripple effect with a resurgence of interest and greater availability of magic mushrooms within DC and the surrounding areas. And this mainstreaming effect has been showing up all over the country as more cities and states vote to become decriminalized mushroom zones. With new magic mushroom ballot measures popping up in different states every month, this trend is only going to continue.

Choosing which psychedelic is right for you can be difficult, but many people are making the switch to mushrooms. LSD can be hard to find, it can be a challenge to know exactly what you are taking, and many people just dont have the time to commit twelve hours to a psychedelic trip. In contrast, the general public seems to view mushrooms as a safer and gentler option for people who are curious to try it or are just starting out. This shift in public opinion combined with the effect of decriminalization movements has led to a great resurgence of interest in fungi. So while you may prefer one psychedelic over the other, there is no denying that magic mushrooms are rapidly becoming the preferred trip of the day.

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Berkeley’s psychedelic rebbe is ready for the first Jewish cannabis retreat – The Jewish News of Northern California

Posted: at 9:19 am

A few years ago, Rabbi Zac Kamenetz of Berkeley was a novice to psychedelic substances. But after a life-changing experience as a subject in a Johns Hopkins study of psychedelic experiences in clergy, hes now a leading voice in a growing movement to normalize the use of psychedelic substances such as psilocybin (aka magic mushrooms) in the practice of Jewish spirituality.

In 2019, he told J., Someday, I see a space, maybe in the East Bay, where people can have safe and supported psychedelic experiences individually, and then integrate those experiences in a community that is invested in the application of mystical experiences with other people. This is total science fiction because it doesnt exist.

It does now. Or at least, it will for a few days later this month. Kamenetz is seeking applicants to participate in a trial run of what such a space would look like the first Jewish psychedelic cannabis Shabbaton, to take place July 22-24 at Urban Adamah, the Jewish farm in Berkeley.

The Shabbaton is a program of Shefa, the organization Kamenetz founded in the early days of the pandemic to advocate for the use of psychedelics to heal personal and intergenerational trauma in the Jewish people.

Cannabis isnt usually thought of in the same category of psychedelics as LSD or psilocybin, but it does have the benefit of being legal in California.

There are questions of what is a psychedelic, Kamenetz told J. In this instance its a shorthand for not only the substance but the setting.

In psychedelic parlance, the setting refers to the physical and social environment in which an experience takes place.

The event will begin Friday night with Shabbat candle lighting and a breath work ceremony to ease people in, Kamenetz said. Working with breath can be psychedelic itself, mood and mind altering.

The participants up to 25 of them will then spend the rest of Shabbat together on Saturday. After Shabbat ends on Saturday evening, they will begin a cannabis ceremony that will last five to six hours. Its BYO weed, but Kamenetz and his collaborators who include experienced facilitators from the Center for Medicinal Mindfulness are offering suggestions of strains available from your local dispensary.

Were being thoughtful about this. Its not like just smoking a joint on your couch and watching TV, Kamenetz said. And afterward, on Sunday, people will start talking in groups about what they encountered and experienced. Were hoping that the Jewishness of the setting and the programming will have some impact or shift on peoples desire to make their psychedelic experience or life more Jewishly rich.

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CaaMTech Collaborates With the Alexander Shulgin Research Institute to Study Shulgin Compounds – Newswire

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CaaMTech will help carry on Dr. Alexander Shulgin's legacy by developing ASRI's novel compounds

Press Release - Jul 6, 2022 10:00 PDT

LAFAYETTE, Calif., July 6, 2022 (Newswire.com) - CaaMTech, Inc. and theAlexander Shulgin Research Institute, Inc. (ASRI) jointly announced an agreement today to carry out structural and chemical analyses of previously unreported compounds designed and synthesized by the late Dr. Alexander Shulgin.

ASRI is a psychedelics discovery, development, and educational organization dedicated to continuing and extending the work of Dr. Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin.Known as "the Godfather of psychedelics," Dr. Shulgin was a biochemist and pharmacologist known for his documented synthesis - and personal testing - of hundreds of novel psychoactive compounds. Alongside his wife Ann, Dr. Shulgin published "PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story" in 1991 and "TiHKAL: The Continuation" in 1997 (Phenethylamines andTryptamines I Have Known and Loved, respectively) documenting his synthesis and testing of novel psychedelics. Dr. Shulgin's groundbreaking research into novel psychoactive compounds was foundational to psychedelic chemistry and the CaamTech-ASRI research collaboration is a continuation of that legacy.

Several hundred compounds, collectively known as theShulgin Vault, were created by Dr. Shulgin at his famed laboratory in Lafayette, California. Many of these compounds have not yet been characterized and some may have therapeutic value, although their effects remain unknown. As a first step, compounds will be transferred to CaaMTech to be crystallized and analyzed using X-ray crystallography to determine their crystal structures.

"We are excited to discover what surprises Dr. Shulgin has left behind for us," said Dr. Nicholas Cozzi, President and Co-Founder of ASRI. "We anticipate that some of these compounds will eventually be evaluated in humans for possible therapeutic benefits, while others may be useful as tools to deepen our understanding of neuropharmacology, brain function, and consciousness itself."

Dr. Shulgin was able to design, synthesize, and test hundreds of compounds in his lab in Lafayette, California, but he did not have the benefit of modern equipment, such as X-ray diffractometers. Since that time, X-ray crystallography has become the gold standard of chemical characterization. Compounds supplied by ASRI to CaaMTech under the agreement will be transferred to the Manke Lab at UMass Dartmouth where they will be purified to yield single crystals.The compounds will then undergo X-ray powder diffraction analysis to determine their crystal structures so that future research can be conducted with rigorously pure, well-characterized molecules.

"It is an honor for us to carry on Dr. Alexander Shulgin's legacy," said Dr. Andrew Chadeayne, CEO of CaaMTech. "The current state of this industry is possible only because we're standing on the shoulders of giants such as Alexander Shulgin."

About CaaMTechCaaMTech is the foremost drug discovery and lead optimization company focused on engineering psychedelic drugs that meet the standards of modern medicine. CaaMTech is improving the health and happiness of humankind by creating and optimizing psychedelic compounds and formulations through rigorous science and continuous innovation.

About ASRIASRI is a world center for conducting scientific research into the chemistry and pharmacology of psychedelic drugs. Research activities involvede novochemical synthesis, natural product isolation, and basic chemical and pharmacological testing of newly discovered substances.

Media ContactDavis Wuolle, CaaMTechdavis@caam.tech+1.510.747.9001

Source: CaaMTech, Inc.

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Origin Therapeutics adds Clairvoyant Therapeutics to its Portfolio – GlobeNewswire

Posted: at 9:19 am

Vancouver, B.C., July 07, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Origin Therapeutics Holdings Inc. (CSE:ORIG) (the Company or Origin Therapeutics), an actively managed, psychedelics industry-focused investment issuer, is pleased to announce that it has added Clairvoyant Therapeutics (Clairvoyant) to its portfolio.

Clairvoyant is a Canadian biotech company developing psychedelic drug therapy with a focus on treatments for addiction and the clinical validation of psilocybin in the E.U., the U.K., and Canada. It is proceeding with a Health Canada-approved Phase 2 clinical trial for the clinical validation of psilocybin for the treatment of alcohol use disorder (AUD). This randomized, controlled, clinical trial will evaluate the safety and efficacy of a 25mg synthetic psilocybin capsule versus placebo, delivered in conjunction with Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET).

Fifteen clinical trial sites are planned for Clairvoyants Phase 2 clinical trial. The first site in Canada was initiated in June. Regulatory submissions have also been submitted in the E.U. for Clairvoyant to initiate clinical trial sites.

Psychedelic medicine delivered in conjunction with therapy has been demonstrated by compelling clinical research to have potentially profound positive effects on those suffering from substance use disorders, said Alexander Somjen, CEO of Origin Therapeutics. Clairvoyant has a unique speed-to-market strategy for psilocybin therapy and an experienced drug development team. We believe that Clairvoyant makes an excellent addition to our portfolio.

According to the World Health Organization, 283 million1 people aged 15 years and older live with AUD, accounting for 5.1% of the global adult population. Alcohol dependence, the most severe form of AUD, affects 2.6% of the worlds adults, or 144 million people. The economic, healthcare, and social costs associated with alcohol in Canada alone in 2014 were estimated at $14.6B.2 Alcohol use disorder is a serious medical condition for which novel therapies are urgently needed.

We are in the midst of a substance abuse crisis, and psychedelic therapies have the potential to provide patients with a new therapeutic intervention rather than having those patients be limited to options that often do not work or that may have unpleasant side effects, said Damian Kettlewell, CEO of Clairvoyant. We are pleased to be working with the Origin Therapeutics team to drive our vision forward.

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About Clairvoyant Therapeutics

Clairvoyant Therapeutics is a Canadian biotechnology company changing the face of psychedelic therapy with a speed-to-market clinical strategy designed to enable psilocybin therapy in the E.U., the U.K., and Canada to treat patients living with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) beginning in 2026. The companys exceptional team, with a proven clinical track record and deep drug development experience, has made Clairvoyant the most advanced company globally developing psilocybin therapy for the treatment of AUD. Clairvoyant is committed to meeting the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose and is a pending B Corporation Certification. Clairvoyant is a member of Life Science BC and Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO).

Learn more at http://www.clairvoyantrx.com and follow the Company on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Origin Therapeutics

Origin Therapeutics Holdings Inc (CSE:ORIG) (the Company or Origin Therapeutics) is an actively managed investment issuer focused on making equity investments in psychedelics industry-related companies to provide investors with diverse exposure to the sector. The Company, led by a team of industry experts, leverages its management expertise, professional network, and due diligence process to identify and invest in leading and emerging companies focused on the emerging psychedelics sector.

Learn more at http://www.originpsychedelics.com and follow the Company on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram

For Further Information:

Alexander SomjenChief Executive Officer and DirectorOrigin Therapeutics Holdings Inc

http://www.originpsychedelics.cominfo@originpsychedelics.com

For media inquiries, please contact: Brittany@Exvera.com

Cautionary Note

All information contained in this news release with respect to Clairvoyant was supplied by Clairvoyant for inclusion herein, and Origin Therapeutics directors and officers have relied on Clairvoyant for such information.

Forward-Looking Information and Statements

Certain statements in this news release related to the Company are forward-looking statements and are prospective in nature. Forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts, but rather on current expectations and projections about future events, and are therefore subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from the future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as may, should, could, intend, estimate, plan, anticipate, expect, believe or continue, or the negative thereof or similar variations. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements regarding the closing of the Offering, the intended use of proceeds of the Offering, the filing of the Prospectus and the obtaining of receipts for the Prospectus. There are numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and the Companys plans and objectives to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information, including: (i) adverse market conditions; (ii) risks inherent in the Companys business in general; (iii) that the proceeds of the Offering may need to be used for purposes other than as set out in this news release and other factors beyond the control of the Company. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. These and all subsequent written and oral forward- looking information are based on estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are made and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice. Except as required by applicable law, the Company does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.

The Canadian Securities Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release and accepts no responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy hereof.

1 World Health Organization. Global alcohol action plan 2022-2030 to strengthen implementation of the Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol. First Draft. June 2021 2 BC Centre for Substance Abuse. Provincial Guideline for the Clinical Management of High-Risk Drinking and Alcohol Use Disorder December 2019

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The Highland Park suspect falls within a new violent extremist culture. – NPR

Posted: at 9:18 am

Law enforcement personnel secure the scene after a mass shooting Monday at a Fourth of July parade in downtown Highland Park, a Chicago suburb. Nam Y. Huh/AP hide caption

Law enforcement personnel secure the scene after a mass shooting Monday at a Fourth of July parade in downtown Highland Park, a Chicago suburb.

Moments after law enforcement authorities disclosed the name of a "person of interest" in the deadly shooting at a July 4th parade in Highland Park, Illinois, extremism researchers, journalists and some members of the public rushed online. They discovered an extensive trail of digital activity believed to be linked to Robert "Bobby" Crimo III, now the named suspect in the mass shooting. But sifting through the trove of memes, photos, music, rap videos and more, extremism experts agree: There is no clear political or ideological motivation.

Instead, many experts on extremism and technology say this suspect's activity fits with a still-emerging profile of mass shooter. Rather than falling neatly into categories familiar to law enforcement and the public, such as white supremacists, radical Islamists or antigovernment militants, it requires an understanding of dark, online subcultures that overlap and feed into each other in ways that glorify violence and foster nihilism. Alarmingly, these experts say these online milieus have been tied to an increasing number of mass shootings over time.

"I've described this as sort of like a mass shooter creation machine," said Alex Newhouse, deputy director of the Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. "A lot of these communities are designed to spin out mass shooters over time, over and over and over."

Researchers who've combed through Crimo's digital footprint say the content is strikingly unoriginal.

"It's just like a zoomer spin on zoomer trends and mass murders that have already been done before," said Sarah Hightower, using a term that refers to members of Generation Z. Hightower is an independent researcher focused on the extreme far right and online cultic movements.

For example, Hightower noted one video that shows a cartoonized version of the suspect with a long gun in a bloody confrontation with law enforcement officers.

"He's not the first mass shooter to animate himself into a Columbine massacre-type animated music video," she said. Hightower said a man who committed a mass-murder/suicide at a grocery store in Pennsylvania in 2017 did the same.

Extremism researchers said the suspect's online content offers to the public a carefully curated persona that fits with an image of mass shooters, styled on the killers in the 1999 Columbine school massacre. They said this image has come to hold a portion of young people in certain online communities in thrall.

"It's actually very comparable to Hillary Clinton referring to Trump supporters as 'deplorables,' and the thing that happened was that they then chose to embody that label and wore it on hats and T-shirts and it became a proud in-group label," said Emmi Conley, an independent researcher of far-right extremist movements, digital propaganda and online subcultures. "Similarly, the way that we have previously talked about lone actor violence in that they are 'mentally ill,' they're confused, they aren't part of anything, they are 'schizophrenic young men' off doing their own thing, distinct from any other groups or actors they started to embody that."

Conley said this purposeful embodiment of an almost cartoonized version of a mass shooter is intended to play to a "known aesthetic" of what such an individual looks like in the popular imagination, and also to claim the brand of being a mass shooter.

"[Crimo] doesn't fit into an individual ideology, because ideology is irrelevant in this case," said Conley. "The thing that starts to tie this type of violent actor to other types of violent actors is not ideological, it is aesthetic. "

The visual language that Crimo used in his curated online presence included elements that researchers say is common with a particular young, online subculture. It includes neon or strobe lights and quick cuts between video scenes, accompanied by techno lo-fi music. Newhouse also noted that Crimo's seemingly chaotic and random selection of memes and images echoed what he's seen with suspects in other mass shootings, such as the ones in Uvalde, Texas and Oxford, Michigan.

"It is all designed to be, one, shared; two, completely incomprehensible to anyone like us who are looking onto it; and three, to be a way of breaking down a person's natural reluctance to commit violence," said Newhouse. "It is designed to break a person's brain."

Conley added that the fixation on aesthetics also extends to how would-be shooters in these online milieus consider the optics of their attacks.

"Every mass shooting that's been committed with an AR 15, somewhere it was a little bit about doing a mass shooting with the AR 15 because that is the 'mass shooter weapon' not just because it is the most effective weapon," she said. "There have been so many mass shootings now that it is a performance art. There is a particular way you do it. There's a particular way you look."

The aesthetic has tied together a web of different digital subcultures which are deeply nihilistic, which use dehumanizing language, and which glorify violence. Often originating on the website 4chan, they include fan communities devoted to mass shooters and serial killers, and online forums devoted to sharing gory content. While experts noted that most people who participate in these fringe communities do not go on to commit mass shootings, they said these are spaces that produce conditions for violence.

"Understanding these things as loosely knit ecosystems [and as] more nebulous culture movers, rather than a groups of memberships, is going to be the first step to getting better at visualizing this threat," said Conley.

Bad actors seeking to nudge others toward real-life violence have been known to participate in these spaces, said Conley and Newhouse. Additionally, horror and dark alternate reality game and immersive fan fiction communities are also part of this complex web of subcultures.

"The idea is that everyone within these communities sort of lose track of what is real and what is fake," said Newhouse, "and they start fantasizing about and fetishizing violence as sort of this end all be all of the essence of existing."

The cartoonized video of an armed Crimo in a bloody standoff with police is one example that researchers point to when explaining how some violent, fringe online communities come to influence users' behavior.

"There's this kind of tendency to 'gore-post,' which is essentially to post shocking, graphic, violent imagery in an attempt to draw some kind of camaraderie between the users in these spaces," said Melanie Smith, head of research at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue US. Crimo appears to have been active in at least one large so-called "gore forum."

Experts agree that it's impossible to determine Crimo's mental health condition from his online content. Newhouse said that the darker alternate reality communities and gore forums are designed to plant the seeds of hopelessness, nihilism and lower one's natural reluctance to commit violence. He said he noted an inflection point on Crimo's timeline that may indicate he had fallen farther away from real-world interaction and further into these online subcultures.

"From what we can tell, he became extraordinarily alienated from both his music audience and his in-person social networks, but clearly began exhibiting the signs of being immersed in these much much deeper Internet communities," he said.

Crimo was a rap artist who released music online. Newhouse said the style of Crimo's latest album was also markedly different from earlier ones.

"Something was going on in that period of time," he said.

But Hightower noted that a key element of these communities is also performance.

"It's like he was going out of his way to sound like he had been detached from reality," she said. "I don't know whether or not this is an affectation that he was putting on or he actually does have a genuine psychotic disorder."

Regardless, Conley said once individuals are exposed to this particular genre of online communities, it can be difficult to return to healthier online habits.

"If you are kind of going down that spiral deeper and deeper into really, really fringe, really violent spaces, there is some point on that spiral where you can't just go back to being normal now," she said. "You've invested too much in this. Too much mental health, too much time, energy. You can't just be like, 'Well, this has crossed the line for me, I'm going to go back now.' It traps you there."

Experts worry that gaps in understanding the conditions that contribute to this kind of mass shooting, as well as legal limitations, could hinder efforts to prevent future, similar attacks.

"It's not hard to to figure out where different violent spaces are," said Conley. "What's hard is what do you do once you find one, if the red flag still falls within free speech territory. Because currently we have no intervention abilities, we only have law enforcement."

The complexity and nuance of these subcultures, and how they interact with each, other also presents a challenge for parents who are eager to keep their kids from falling into these online activities. The age group at particular risk, said Newhouse, are 13- to 24-year-olds, primarily male.

"If someone doesn't even understand the subculture, how are they going to effectively intervene?" Hightower asked.

Still, Newhouse said he believes technology companies, working with journalists, experts and the public, can mitigate the problem through content moderation. He and other experts agreed that Crimo should not be viewed as an outlier, and that need for common understanding of this mass shooter profile will only be more urgent.

"He's not going to be the only one, I can tell you that right now," Hightower said. "You'll see more and more of young boys [and men] like [Crimo] popping off. It's not just going to be neo-Nazis and terrorists."

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The Highland Park suspect falls within a new violent extremist culture. - NPR

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Democrats have a month to revive the climate deal our planet needs – The Guardian

Posted: at 9:18 am

On Thursday, the supreme court of the United States struck down the EPAs Clean Power Plan, sharply limiting the federal governments ability to fight climate change.

With Earths temperature rising steadily, with the scientific community shouting at the top of its lungs for more aggressive action, with fires and hurricanes pushing entire regions beyond the bounds of human habitability, the courts Republican-appointed supermajority has chosen to actively inhibit our ability to respond to the crisis. The decision was in keeping with the Republican partys deepening climate nihilism: as the train careens off the rails, they strangle the conductor, destroy the brakes.

Though its been subtext since the advent of Maga, it is worth stating plainly what this ruling makes obvious: there is a death drive animating the modern conservative movement. It is merciless and strange and remarkably consistent. It stands on the side of whatever makes our country poorer, greedier, less safe and more desperate. It deregulates firearms after a massacre at an elementary school. It deregulates carbon after experts issue a code red for humanity. It forces mothers to bring their children to term, and then abandons those children to bullets, to wildfires, to grinding, generational poverty. Its pro-life policies seem to reverse precisely at the moment of birth. When it comes to living children, conservatism is a pro-death movement.

After the court gutted the EPA, conservative leaders celebrated it as a win for democracy. Mitch McConnell argued that it had given power back to the people by wresting climate policy from the hands of unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats and investing it in Congress alone. The irony could not be more acute. Nevermind that the people 60% of Americans by one recent estimate actively support the EPA regulating carbon emissions. Never mind that the decision was issued by an unelected, unaccountable court with no claim to democratic legitimacy (the Republican supermajority having taken shape over an era in which Democrats won the popular vote in eight of nine presidential elections).

The point is that Mitch McConnell has spent decades systematically eroding Congresss ability to legislate not just on climate, but on almost anything at all. With the court deferring to Congress, Congress hog-tied by the filibuster and the White House stripped of its main administrative recourse, control of our nations climate policy falls to exactly those conservative donors many with ties to the fossil fuel industry who helped drive the nomination and confirmation of the current Republican bench. They are the only people on the planet who profit from seeing it burn. Their interests are in perfect opposition to those of the public. And when it comes to the most consequential challenge of the 21st century, the supreme court they hired is clearing a path for them to rule by default.

It would be a mistake to dismiss this as pure, self-dealing avarice. To at least some of the conservative stalwarts who spent decades orchestrating the decision, it represents a sincere vision of the good. The richest people in the world, loosed from the bounds of expertise, oversight or electoral accountability, imposing their will on a prostrate public. It is a clean, satisfying system. It activates something deep in the amygdala, a slavering, animal need for dominion.

This is the animating spirit of the courts decision: an old ethic of might makes right, something much closer to Friedrich Nietzsche than to Jesus Christ. Nietzsche memorably referred to Christianity with its exhortations to mercy and selflessness as a slaves religion. Justices Alito, Barrett, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Roberts and Thomas appear to have agreed. Why let the meek inherit the Earth, when you can make so much money burning it?

Their nihilism has left the rest of us, the proverbial meek, increasingly desperate. Our ability to maintain a safe climate now rests on the Democrats passing clean energy investments through congressional budget reconciliation. They only have about five weeks left to do it. This will be the defining moment of Joe Biden and Chuck Schumers political careers. They cannot waffle. They cannot get distracted. They cannot take two weeks to digest the ruling. Their best people should be working around the clock to land a climate deal that can pass the Senate.

In the glare of history, failure on climate will overshadow any other fact about their tenure. Lets hope they feel the heat as much as we do.

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Democrats have a month to revive the climate deal our planet needs - The Guardian

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The Persistent Reign of White Terror (OPINION) – Latino Rebels – Latino Rebels

Posted: at 9:18 am

HOUSTON The United States of America is a society built on myriad cultures, identities, and languages. Its a purposeful concept that has been part of the countrys foundation since its earliest days. And despite what a white person may say about white culture, the truth is that the U.S. is not a monolithic civilization. Whats true for people on the West Coast isnt always true for people in the South, the Midwest, or the East Coast. Consequently, there can be no single American culture.

Differences in needs and wants vary considerably and are not always divided by vast distances but by state and county lines. This is largely why hate groups and extremists can never establish cohesion among their various movements. Some extremist groups like the Proud Boyseven portray an image of diversity and are willing to accept non-white people as long as theyre promoting white supremacist ideology.

But, as has been made clear time and again, alliances with Black people and Latinos are contingent on achieving what is often referred to as Western chauvinism, which promotes the colonialist ideology of oppressing non-white people. With groups like the Proud Boys, Three Percenters, and the Oath Keepers, it doesnt take long to expose the motivating factors behind their coded language (dog-whistles). Behind closed doors, the truth comes out rather quickly.

There is no question that the political right has embraced extremism. The current wave of hate in politics began after Barack Obama was elected president in 2008. What started as the Tea Party formed out of disdain for Obama and Republican establishment politics has morphed into the embrace of alt-right political ideologythe path Donald Trump exploited to eke out a victory in the 2016 presidential election.

Trumps campaign and his ensuing presidency were heavily influenced by the hateful ideology of the extreme right. By employing the language of David Dukes KKK and the dog-whistle attacks on non-white communities popularized by Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, Trump was able to take things a step further. He directly attacked minority communities based on the knowledge that hate had long been normalized by past administrations.

Trumps campaign and presidency exploited racial tensions in the country and amplified those beliefs on the worlds stage. Even now, after leaving office, Trump remains a real and present danger to non-white people. Consistently more dangerous are those in corporate media who downplay his influence on extremists and hate groups. Weve seen the influence of his words over and over as countless lives have been lost because of what he says and does.

The job of a journalist is now more critical than ever. Attacks on reporters and news outlets, in general, have increased while trust in media has plummeted. This is unquestionably dangerous for society. The media, however, particularly corporate-driven news, should not be above criticismespecially when talking about the explosion of hate and extremism in the U.S., what is driving such high recruitment numbers, and the disguising of domestic terrorists motivations.

Too many journalists are driven by ego over facts. They focus more on being the first to publish something over the veracity of their source material so they can lock down those TV spots and portray themselves as experts. This leads not only to pundits getting it wrong but also to them promoting false narratives. Far too much of what is seen on cable news is speculative at best. The most recent mass shootings are the best proof of that.

On cable news, weve seen national security experts suggest the number 47 tattooed on the Illinois terrorists face could be gang-related while abundantly mentioning Chicago despite the shooting occurring in Highland Park, about 30 minutes outside of the city. Weve also heard so-called experts claim the shooters motivations were not based on hate but nihilism, presumably using it as a catch-all term so they cant be called out later for being wrong.

Similarly, many of us heard the nonsensical theory that the Buffalo terrorists motivation was related to bad dentistry work performed by a Jewish dentistdespite his manifesto, the fact that he killed 10 Black people, and had the n-word scrawled on his riflean idea that was proposed, with little basis, by a prominent reporter on social media and shared by his colleagues.

As self-proclaimed experts continue to ensure that they get the TV spots while confusing the public and media producers who dont know any better, a deeper investigation shows that the Illinois terrorist didnt just attend Trump rallies. His social media is harrowing, bigoted, and deeply anti-Semitic.

He was in possession of insignias that resembled the logo of a far-right Finnish group called Suomen Sisu an ultra-nationalist movement thats been accused of xenophobia and anti-Semitism in the past. (Read their English introduction here.)While the symbol is more broadly used and could potentially be associated with various movements, the content of the terrorists social media and his music narrow its use down to all but two things: far-right ideology and/or numerology.

Other evidence regarding the shooter should not be overlooked either. In April, he attempted to enter the Chabad synagogue during Passover and was immediately removed by the congregations security director.

He also entered the synagogue at a different time during Passover and sat in the sanctuary for 45 minutes.

As we wait to hear if the shooter reveals his motivation, it serves no purpose to speculate using dismissive tones and hypothetical tales that only serve to deceive the public. We also cant ignore what the evidence suggests. Extremism and hate are growing, and understanding motivations is high-value knowledge that provides us with information to better address the issues. Exposing how young white men are becoming radicalized is crucial.

Simply writing extremists off as nihilist is lazy and misinformedas is citing mental health issues immediately after acts of white terror occur. During the synagogue visit where the Highland Park shooter sat for 45 minutes, he wore all Black goth style clothes and Black gloves, according to the Chabad synagogues security director. In a city with a population that is 30 percent Jewish, this is alarming evidence that has so far been overlooked or outright dismissed by media pundits.

In addition, its been reported that the shooter was the administrator of a Discord chat channel named SS, a shortened acronym for the Nazi paramilitary group, the Schutzstaffel, which committed innumerable atrocities during the Holocaust. And while many point to only three Jewish people counted among the dead, theyre not discussing the other victims or the fact that a shooter could not differentiate who is Jewish or not because of crowd density.

If he were targeting the Jewish community, the terrorist would know that the likelihood of killing a Jew is very high in a community like Highland Park.

While this information is likely not enough for hate crime charges, what the authorities know in conjunction with this information suggests they are likelyin addition to attempted murder charges and aggravated assault on top of the seven murder charges. That the terrorist admitted to the attack and is talking to police is promising when it comes to finding out what his motivations truly were.

What is certain is the radicalization of young white men beginning with seemingly innocuous memes that lead to more extremist content is growing. As hateful ideas and the accompanying language that inevitably lead to anti-Black, anti-Semitic, and outright bigotry become normalized, so do thoughts of committing acts of terror in hopes of starting a civil ethnic war.

It may be difficult to determine which groups are responsible for radicalizing individuals who commit acts of terror. But, in the U.S., over 1,000 hate groups promote this ideology online, shutting down any talk of lone wolves. Meanwhile, after cable news promoted the ideas of potential gang-related activity and that the shooter was simply a nihilist, there are no retractions or corrections as to his potential motivation.

When it comes to terrorist attacks, journalists who are more concerned with being the first to report something rather than being correct in their reporting are dangerous. Using broad language like nihilism and blackpilling, which the general public struggles to understand, only serves to bury the reality of what is happening regarding extremism in the United States.

***

Arturo Domnquezis a first-generation Cuban American father of three young men, an anti-racist, journalist, and publisher ofThe Antagonist Magazine. If youd like to learn more about the issues covered here, follow him onTwitter,Facebook, andInstagram. You can also support his workhereandhere.

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The Persistent Reign of White Terror (OPINION) - Latino Rebels - Latino Rebels

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