FDA Approves Early-Stage Trials of Psychelic "Moxy," Oregon Study on Decrim and Overdoses, More... (9/5/24)

Wisconsin tribes are mobilizing for medical marijuana, the Tennessee Supreme Court rules that even though drug dogs can't distinguish hemp from weed, a sniff can still be probable cause for a search, and more.

The Tennessee Supreme Court upholds a search based on a drug dog's hit on a backpack, even though the dog can't tell weed from hemp. (Creative Commons)

Marijuana Policy

Tennessee Supreme Court Clarifies Probable Cause for Search in Case with Drug Detecting Dog and Legal Hemp. The state Supreme Court has clarified that an alert from a trained drug-sniffing dog can be part of law enforcement's probable cause for a search even though the dog cannot tell the difference between illegal marijuana and legal hemp.

The case derived from a 2020 traffic stop where a drug dog alerted on a backpack in a car that was found to contain marijuana and a pistol, among other items. The defendant was charged with marijuana possession and unlawful possession of a firearm. Before his trial, he filed a motion to suppress, that is, he asked the trial judge to bar prosecutors from using evidence at his trial from the search of the backpack, arguing that the trained drug-detecting dog could not tell the difference between illegal marijuana and hemp.

The trial court granted the motion to suppress the evidence, but the State appealed and the Court of Criminal Appeals reversed. The intermediate appellate court held that an alert from a trained drug-detection dog, by itself, is sufficient to provide probable cause, which does not require absolute certainty, and the Tennessee Supreme Court agreed.

Medical Marijuana

Wisconsin Tribes Announce Push for Medical Marijuana. On Tuesday The Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association (ICIA) and the Wisconsin Tribal Task Force on Cannabis announced a Wisconsin Wellness campaign to legalize medical marijuana in the state.

"Right now, there's no bill for legalizing cannabis in our state," Wisconsin Tribal Task Force on Cannabis founder Michael Decorah said during a press conference Tuesday. "Our citizens are having to make a choice of whether to really commit a crime to go get their medicine and bring it back to the state."

"I have a personal story of my own grandfather, who was a prisoner of war in the Korean War and also did two tours in the Vietnam War, and I feel that this would have been maybe his lifesaver for not only his relationships and his family but in his own state of mind and wellness," said Rep. Kristin White Eagle (D), who represents the Ho-Chunk Nation, which decriminalized marijuana on tribal lands in April.

"There's businesses out there that are really doing the due diligence to create good, viable medicine, and we want to make sure that those businesses are protected as well," ICIA founder Rob Pero said. "Whatever sort of legislation does roll out, we are not for criminalization, we are for regulation."

Psychedelics

FDA Approves Early-Stage Clinical Trial for Obscure Psychedelic Compound. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an early-stage clinical trial for the psychedelic compound 5-MeO-MiPT, an entheogen known among psychonauts as "moxy." It is related to the more popular compound 5-MEO-DiPT, which is nicknamed "foxy methoxy." Both compounds are tryptamines discovered by legendary researcher Alexander Shulgin.

The biotech firm Mindstate Design Labs is set to announce Thursday that it will conduct the study. It will look at whether the substance can treat depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health conditions.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) tried two years ago to designate moxy and four similar compounds as Schedule I controlled substances but backed down in the face of severe backlash from researchers. Instead, it asked the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to do a scientific review of typtamines.

Mindstate CEO Dillan DiNardo called moxy "the tofu of psychedelics" because in clinical doses, it has a more muted effect on users than mind-benders such as LSD.

Recreational users normally pair moxy with other substances. DiNardo said the company is researching how moxy affects the brain when combined with mainstream drugs that target brain function. Researchers will test those combinations on people in clinical trials, he said.

"Moxy is not the entire medicine," DiNardo said. "Moxy is the first part of a number of different medicines that we’ll be making."

Drug Policy

Oregon Republicans Keep Blaming Decriminalization for Overdose Deaths Even as New Research Shows It Was Not Responsible. State House Republican leader Jeff Helfrich continues to demagogue against decriminalization even as scientific research shows that it was not the cause of the state's overdose surge early in this decade. Under pressure from business leaders and the public, the Democratic-controlled legislature reversed the voters' 2020 decision to decriminalize drug possession. Recriminalization went into effect this week.

"You saw overdose deaths, you saw drug usage on the street, crime, homelessness all soared after Democrats put this policy in place. And they could have stopped it, but they didn't," Helfrich said Tuesday. "Unfortunately, because we decriminalized it for those few years, we've lost a generation, I believe, of people because of these drugs. And you don't get to have those times anymore," Helfrich said. "People can't even go into public and take their kids to the park because they're dealing with the death, they're dealing with drug use, dealing with all those bad things that are happening. And this is just horrible policies."

But an article published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network, Drug Decriminalization, Fentanyl, and Fatal Overdoses in Oregon undercuts Helfrich's argument.

In it researchers found that "In this cohort study of fatal overdose and fentanyl spread through Oregon's unregulated drug market, decriminalization of drug possession was not associated with an increase in fatal drug overdose rates in Oregon in the 2 years after its enactment." Instead, the researchers point the finger at fentanyl, which belatedly arrived in the Pacific Northwest at about the same time decriminalization went into effect: "The findings of this study suggest that when evaluating the association of public policies with overdose mortality, it is critical to account for the role of fentanyl as the principal driver of the overdose mortality epidemic in the US."

In conclusion, the researchers found that "In this analysis, rapid spread of fentanyl in Oregon's unregulated drug supply occurred in the first half of 2021, contemporaneous with enactment of M110. A positive crude association was found between drug decriminalization and fatal overdose rate per 100,000 per half year. After adjusting for the spread of fentanyl as a confounder, the effect size changed signs and there was no longer an association between decriminalization and overdose mortality in Oregon."

Making laws based on evidence instead of demagoguery would be a pleasant change.