A new report says those favoring safer nicotine products are on “the right side of history.” — On Election Day, California voters approved a law to ban all flavored tobacco products, including e-cigarettes. Yet Marlboros and Camels can be bought at any corner store or gas station. This is, to be blunt, nuts. It makes no sense to ban safer nicotine products, like e-cigarettes, while permitting deadly…

How an anti-smoking group lost its way — The most famous anti-smoking campaign in history was branded, simply, as @truth. It was launched in 2000 by the American Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit organization funded with $1.5 billion from the proceeds of a class-action suit against Big Tobacco companies. …

Scientific research and drug reform are moving forward. The business of psychedelic medicines? Not so much. — The Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics conference, which is now in its 15th year, is one place where all kinds of people involved with psychedelic drugs come together. …

Some lawyers say plant-medicine churches are exercising their freedom of religion. Others advise caution. It’s complicated. — Rabbi Benjamin Gorelick is the founder and spiritual leader of the Sacred Tribe, a community of Jewish seekers in Denver that grows its own psilocybin mushrooms for use in religious ceremonies. He calls himself “the mushroom rabbi,” but law enforcement authorities regard him as a drug dealer. …

A guide for the curious to the best books, writers, filmmakers and talkers about psychedelics — It’s hard to exaggerate the impact that Michael Pollan has had on psychedelics. His book and Netflix TV series, both called How to Change Your Mind, have reached millions of readers and viewers, bringing attention and legitimacy to research into psychedelic medicines. While scientists, philanthropists, entrepreneurs and activists are all…

His philanthropy is helping to drive the psychedelic renaissance — It’s been said, only partly in jest, that the secret to success in life lies in choosing the right parents. If true, that helps explain how Thomas Cody Swift has become a leading philanthropic supporter of research into psychedelic medicines. His grandfather, George Dempster Smith, accumulated a fortune as the…

The #MeToo moment rocked the animal advocacy movement. High-profile leaders were accused of sexual harassment. Women banded together. Heads rolled. The reckoning has had an impact. Today, the most important groups advocating for animals–the Humane Society of the US, Mercy for Animals, The Humane League, Animal Outlook and PETA–are led…

A startup company called Eleusis is exploring the anti-inflammatory properties of psychedelic medicines. Often in the world of psychedelics, what’s old becomes new again. …

The way they invest their endowments demonstrates that — This will be a relatively short rant, er, post because it updates an argument I’ve made before: That foundations are doing no good by trying to outperform the markets when they invest their endowments. As a group, they cannot beat the markets. Herd-like, they keep trying. Worse, they pay their…