Latest news with #Grieco
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
DeSantis poised to sign legislation banning psychedelic mushroom spores in Florida
Psilocybin via Drug Enforcement Administration website Gov. Ron DeSantis said last week that he will soon sign legislation that, among its provisions, would ban trafficking in psychedelic mushroom spores. That measure is part of an omnibus 'Florida Farm Bill' (SB 700) sponsored by Central Florida Republican Keith Truenow that is best known for including a ban on certain additives like fluoride in the drinking water supply. Psilocybin mushrooms are illegal in the United States for possession and sale, because psilocybin is considered a controlled substance. Psilocybin spores, the small reproduction units that get dispersed by fungi, are legal, however, because they don't contain psilocybin, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. As the bill's House analysis says, 'Certain mushroom spores and mycelium, which is a type of fungi, can be propagated and grown into mushrooms that have psilocybin properties. But the spores do not contain any psilocybin properties themselves and therefore could be considered legal under current law.' A violation of the new ban would be a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of $1,000. The decision is disappointing to those who believe the use of psychedelic mushrooms can help people experiencing treatment-resistant depression. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2018 bestowed a 'breakthrough-therapy' designation to a British life sciences company for its psilocybin therapy for treatment-resistant depression. The FDA designates a drug as such if preliminary clinical evidence shows it may demonstrate substantial improvement over available therapy. Small clinical trials have shown that individual doses of psilocybin, given in a therapeutic setting, can make major changes in people suffering from treatment-resistant major depressive disorder, CNN reported in 2022. That's what led former Miami Beach Democrat Mike Grieco to introduce legislation back when he served in the Florida House of Representatives a few years ago to direct the Florida Department of Health and the Board of Medicine to study the therapeutic efficacy of alternative therapies like psilocybin. That legislation didn't advance. 'Despite my legislation from a few years ago not gaining traction, we have seen throughout the country and internationally expanded acceptance of psilocybin and other psychedelics in the mental health and the therapeutic space,' Grieco told the Phoenix. 'It's a shame that Florida has not taken advantage of the psilocybin redesignation by the FDA that allows for research and clinical studies. I would love to see our state make these therapies available to our veterans and first responder organizations.' Grieco's bill called for the Department of Health, in collaboration with the Board of Medicine, to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of alternative therapies, including the use of MDMA (a/k/a ecstasy), psilocybin, and ketamine in treating mental and other medical conditions, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, bipolar disorder, chronic pain, and migraines. A significant setback for the movement to bring psychedelics into the mainstream of mental health care took place last summer after the FDA opted not to approve MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD. Instead, the agency asked Lykos Therapeutics to further study the safety and efficacy of the treatment, according to CNN. As the House bill analysis says, 'psilocybin, also known as 'magic mushrooms,' are naturally occurring and consumed for their hallucinogenic effects.' Under Florida law, psilocybin and psilocyn are classified as Schedule I substances. Possession of psilocybin in Florida is a third-degree felony. Those who work in the psychedelic space think it's a poor move by the Legislature. 'Florida is trying to outlaw the literal roots of the psychedelic renaissance — the mycelium that connects hope, healing, and nature itself,' said Peter Sessa, a lead organizer for Cannadelic Miami, a cannabis and psychadelics expo that will take place later this month at the Miami Airport Convention Center. 'This bill doesn't just ban mushroom spores – it bans connection, curiosity, and the future of mental health.' Carlos Hermida owns Chillum Mushrooms and Hemp Dispensary, which has locations in Tampa and St. Petersburg. 'I don't think lawmakers should be making the potentiality of something illegal,' he contends. 'Are we going to start making it illegal because we think someone could grow up to rob a liquor store or something like that?' Hermida adds that Mycelium is a fungus that grows in the ground. 'This particular fungus grows in manure. Is manure now illegal in Florida? Is rotting manure now illegal. Is that what's going on?' There was no public debate on the provision during discussion of the farm bill in the Legislature. It consists of just eight lines in the 111-page bill. In recent years, Oregon and Colorado passed legislation decriminalizing psilocybin and legalizing its supervised use. Cities like Berkeley, Seattle, and Detroit have also decriminalized the psychedelic mushrooms. Calls to U.S. poison centers involving psilocybin among adolescents and young adults rose sharply after several U.S. cities and states began decriminalizing the substance, University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers found in a 2024 study. Ellen Snelling of the Hillsborough County Anti-Drug Alliance said that she wasn't that familiar with the measure banning psilocybin spores, but had a bigger concern about alternatives to psilocybin. 'A variety of psychedelic mushroom products are sold in smoke shops in Florida. An emergency room doctor told me he's seeing more people coming in after using mushrooms,' she said. Once the measure is signed by DeSantis, Florida will join states like Georgia and Idaho in tightening regulations on psychedelic mushroom spores. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Local Italy
07-03-2025
- Politics
- Local Italy
Are Europe's ties with United States set to worsen?
Europeans have been caught off guard under a tirade of insults, the threat of steep customs duties and notably disagreements on the war in Ukraine. But the wind was blowing in that direction even before Donald Trump's return to power. The world's leading superpower believes it has better things to do than to keep paying for a Europe in economic decline, seeing it as freeloading on defence and not doing much for it commercially in return. Since Trump's re-election, the tectonic shift has become an earthquake, particularly over Europe's exclusion from peace talks on Ukraine between Washington and Moscow. The Republican leader has said the EU was "formed in order to screw the United States" while his Vice President JD Vance has plunged the future US military presence in Europe into doubt. At the same time, Trump acolyte Elon Musk called German Chancellor Olaf Scholz "an incompetent fool". "There was already a trajectory of distancing that (Joe) Biden embodied politely and (Kamala) Harris would have embodied politely," said historian Frederic Fogacci, from the Charles de Gaulle Foundation in Paris. "Trump's approach is more brass, more abrasive," added Kelly Grieco, a US foreign and defence policy specialist at the Stimson Center think-tank in Washington. 'Frustration' in Washington "There's enormous frustration on this side of the Atlantic about (defence) because there's repeatedly been a warning that Europe needs to step up and prepare for this kind of moment," she said. "They haven't prepared anything." Europeans only began the debate about security without US support under pressure, and are still trying to keep Washington on-side. "It's no wonder that Americans look down on Europeans as dependents," said Stephen Wertheim, from the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "Europeans present themselves as dependents. If Europe provides for its essential defence needs, that might just breed self-respect and inspire a new respect in Washington and the wider world," he added. On Ukraine, the European approach is "not necessarily helpful", said Grieco. "It seems to be still very focused on some kind of US security guarantee for Ukraine and pushing the administration for that," she said. "The more they're pushing the administration in that direction, the more it is creating more of a widening gap between the two sides." 'Freedom fries' Tensions between the two allies are not new. In 2018, during Trump's first term, the New York Times mused: "Is the Trans-Atlantic Relationship Dead?" "Let's not forget 'freedom fries'," said Grieco, recalling the time in 2003 when the US Congress renamed French fries because of France's refusal to back the war in Iraq. There was also friction during the Cold War, with the Suez Crisis a symbol of "geopolitical schooling" by Washington, said Fogacci. The United States and the Soviet Union demanded the withdrawal of French, British and Israeli troops from the Suez Canal, weakening the influence of London and Paris in the Middle East in the process. "During the Cold War, we operated in exactly this way. Moscow and Washington, in the end, settled the issue between themselves," said geopolitics scholar Frederic Encel. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, "the Americans were wary of a Europe that was integrating too widely towards the east", said Fogacci. "With the war in the former Yugoslavia, they took precedence over Europeans divided by old historical interests and without sufficient military capacity." Europe and US are 'natural allies' In his book "The Grand Chessboard", published in 1997, former US president Jimmy Carter's national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski said: "Europe is America's natural ally. "It shares the same values; partakes, in the main, of the same religious heritage; practices the same democratic politics." Nearly 30 years later, the waters are more muddied. "Across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat," Vance said in February, citing as an example the refusal of Germany's mainstream parties to govern along with the far-right. Grieco said there was now a clear difference between the two sides on values and the way to express them. That contrasted the situation in the 1980s, said Fogacci, when "the neoconservatives had an idea of democracy quite compatible with the European one, their equation being that political liberalism leads to economic liberalism and vice versa". For Trump, "a country has weight through what it knows how to do, what it can offer or its capacity to cause harm," he added. "It's an 'ahistorical' vision, reducing democracy to decontextualised principles." Trump, he added, "does not look at states but land and resources". Convergence is still possible on the question of China, said Grieco. "In many ways, Europe still remains a natural ally of the United States in the sense that our interests are aligned on many issues. There's a potential alignment on China," she said.
Local Norway
07-03-2025
- Politics
- Local Norway
Are Europe's ties with United States set to worsen?
Europeans have been caught off guard under a tirade of insults, the threat of steep customs duties and notably disagreements on the war in Ukraine. But the wind was blowing in that direction even before Donald Trump's return to power. The world's leading superpower believes it has better things to do than to keep paying for a Europe in economic decline, seeing it as freeloading on defence and not doing much for it commercially in return. Since Trump's re-election, the tectonic shift has become an earthquake, particularly over Europe's exclusion from peace talks on Ukraine between Washington and Moscow. The Republican leader has said the EU was "formed in order to screw the United States" while his Vice President JD Vance has plunged the future US military presence in Europe into doubt. At the same time, Trump acolyte Elon Musk called German Chancellor Olaf Scholz "an incompetent fool". "There was already a trajectory of distancing that (Joe) Biden embodied politely and (Kamala) Harris would have embodied politely," said historian Frederic Fogacci, from the Charles de Gaulle Foundation in Paris. "Trump's approach is more brass, more abrasive," added Kelly Grieco, a US foreign and defence policy specialist at the Stimson Center think-tank in Washington. 'Frustration' in Washington "There's enormous frustration on this side of the Atlantic about (defence) because there's repeatedly been a warning that Europe needs to step up and prepare for this kind of moment," she said. "They haven't prepared anything." Europeans only began the debate about security without US support under pressure, and are still trying to keep Washington on-side. "It's no wonder that Americans look down on Europeans as dependents," said Stephen Wertheim, from the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "Europeans present themselves as dependents. If Europe provides for its essential defence needs, that might just breed self-respect and inspire a new respect in Washington and the wider world," he added. On Ukraine, the European approach is "not necessarily helpful", said Grieco. "It seems to be still very focused on some kind of US security guarantee for Ukraine and pushing the administration for that," she said. "The more they're pushing the administration in that direction, the more it is creating more of a widening gap between the two sides." 'Freedom fries' Tensions between the two allies are not new. In 2018, during Trump's first term, the New York Times mused: "Is the Trans-Atlantic Relationship Dead?" "Let's not forget 'freedom fries'," said Grieco, recalling the time in 2003 when the US Congress renamed French fries because of France's refusal to back the war in Iraq. There was also friction during the Cold War, with the Suez Crisis a symbol of "geopolitical schooling" by Washington, said Fogacci. The United States and the Soviet Union demanded the withdrawal of French, British and Israeli troops from the Suez Canal, weakening the influence of London and Paris in the Middle East in the process. "During the Cold War, we operated in exactly this way. Moscow and Washington, in the end, settled the issue between themselves," said geopolitics scholar Frederic Encel. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, "the Americans were wary of a Europe that was integrating too widely towards the east", said Fogacci. "With the war in the former Yugoslavia, they took precedence over Europeans divided by old historical interests and without sufficient military capacity." Europe and US are 'natural allies' In his book "The Grand Chessboard", published in 1997, former US president Jimmy Carter's national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski said: "Europe is America's natural ally. "It shares the same values; partakes, in the main, of the same religious heritage; practices the same democratic politics." Nearly 30 years later, the waters are more muddied. "Across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat," Vance said in February, citing as an example the refusal of Germany's mainstream parties to govern along with the far-right. Grieco said there was now a clear difference between the two sides on values and the way to express them. That contrasted the situation in the 1980s, said Fogacci, when "the neoconservatives had an idea of democracy quite compatible with the European one, their equation being that political liberalism leads to economic liberalism and vice versa". For Trump, "a country has weight through what it knows how to do, what it can offer or its capacity to cause harm," he added. "It's an 'ahistorical' vision, reducing democracy to decontextualised principles." Trump, he added, "does not look at states but land and resources". Convergence is still possible on the question of China, said Grieco.
Local Sweden
07-03-2025
- Politics
- Local Sweden
Are Europe's ties with United States set to worsen?
Europeans have been caught off guard under a tirade of insults, the threat of steep customs duties and notably disagreements on the war in Ukraine. But the wind was blowing in that direction even before Donald Trump's return to power. The world's leading superpower believes it has better things to do than to keep paying for a Europe in economic decline, seeing it as freeloading on defence and not doing much for it commercially in return. Since Trump's re-election, the tectonic shift has become an earthquake, particularly over Europe's exclusion from peace talks on Ukraine between Washington and Moscow. The Republican leader has said the EU was "formed in order to screw the United States" while his Vice President JD Vance has plunged the future US military presence in Europe into doubt. At the same time, Trump acolyte Elon Musk called German Chancellor Olaf Scholz "an incompetent fool". "There was already a trajectory of distancing that (Joe) Biden embodied politely and (Kamala) Harris would have embodied politely," said historian Frederic Fogacci, from the Charles de Gaulle Foundation in Paris. "Trump's approach is more brass, more abrasive," added Kelly Grieco, a US foreign and defence policy specialist at the Stimson Center think-tank in Washington. 'Frustration' in Washington "There's enormous frustration on this side of the Atlantic about (defence) because there's repeatedly been a warning that Europe needs to step up and prepare for this kind of moment," she said. "They haven't prepared anything." Europeans only began the debate about security without US support under pressure, and are still trying to keep Washington on-side. "It's no wonder that Americans look down on Europeans as dependents," said Stephen Wertheim, from the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "Europeans present themselves as dependents. If Europe provides for its essential defence needs, that might just breed self-respect and inspire a new respect in Washington and the wider world," he added. On Ukraine, the European approach is "not necessarily helpful", said Grieco. "It seems to be still very focused on some kind of US security guarantee for Ukraine and pushing the administration for that," she said. "The more they're pushing the administration in that direction, the more it is creating more of a widening gap between the two sides." 'Freedom fries' Tensions between the two allies are not new. In 2018, during Trump's first term, the New York Times mused: "Is the Trans-Atlantic Relationship Dead?" "Let's not forget 'freedom fries'," said Grieco, recalling the time in 2003 when the US Congress renamed French fries because of France's refusal to back the war in Iraq. There was also friction during the Cold War, with the Suez Crisis a symbol of "geopolitical schooling" by Washington, said Fogacci. The United States and the Soviet Union demanded the withdrawal of French, British and Israeli troops from the Suez Canal, weakening the influence of London and Paris in the Middle East in the process. "During the Cold War, we operated in exactly this way. Moscow and Washington, in the end, settled the issue between themselves," said geopolitics scholar Frederic Encel. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, "the Americans were wary of a Europe that was integrating too widely towards the east", said Fogacci. "With the war in the former Yugoslavia, they took precedence over Europeans divided by old historical interests and without sufficient military capacity." Europe and US are 'natural allies' In his book "The Grand Chessboard", published in 1997, former US president Jimmy Carter's national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski said: "Europe is America's natural ally. "It shares the same values; partakes, in the main, of the same religious heritage; practices the same democratic politics." Nearly 30 years later, the waters are more muddied. "Across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat," Vance said in February, citing as an example the refusal of Germany's mainstream parties to govern along with the far-right. Grieco said there was now a clear difference between the two sides on values and the way to express them. That contrasted the situation in the 1980s, said Fogacci, when "the neoconservatives had an idea of democracy quite compatible with the European one, their equation being that political liberalism leads to economic liberalism and vice versa". For Trump, "a country has weight through what it knows how to do, what it can offer or its capacity to cause harm," he added. "It's an 'ahistorical' vision, reducing democracy to decontextualised principles." Trump, he added, "does not look at states but land and resources". Convergence is still possible on the question of China, said Grieco.
Local Germany
07-03-2025
- Politics
- Local Germany
Are Europe's ties with United States set to worsen?
Europeans have been caught off guard under a tirade of insults, the threat of steep customs duties and notably disagreements on the war in Ukraine. But the wind was blowing in that direction even before Donald Trump's return to power. The world's leading superpower believes it has better things to do than to keep paying for a Europe in economic decline, seeing it as freeloading on defence and not doing much for it commercially in return. Since Trump's re-election, the tectonic shift has become an earthquake, particularly over Europe's exclusion from peace talks on Ukraine between Washington and Moscow. The Republican leader has said the EU was "formed in order to screw the United States" while his Vice President JD Vance has plunged the future US military presence in Europe into doubt. At the same time, Trump acolyte Elon Musk called German Chancellor Olaf Scholz "an incompetent fool". "There was already a trajectory of distancing that (Joe) Biden embodied politely and (Kamala) Harris would have embodied politely," said historian Frederic Fogacci, from the Charles de Gaulle Foundation in Paris. "Trump's approach is more brass, more abrasive," added Kelly Grieco, a US foreign and defence policy specialist at the Stimson Center think-tank in Washington. 'Frustration' in Washington "There's enormous frustration on this side of the Atlantic about (defence) because there's repeatedly been a warning that Europe needs to step up and prepare for this kind of moment," she said. "They haven't prepared anything." Europeans only began the debate about security without US support under pressure, and are still trying to keep Washington on-side. "It's no wonder that Americans look down on Europeans as dependents," said Stephen Wertheim, from the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "Europeans present themselves as dependents. If Europe provides for its essential defence needs, that might just breed self-respect and inspire a new respect in Washington and the wider world," he added. On Ukraine, the European approach is "not necessarily helpful", said Grieco. "It seems to be still very focused on some kind of US security guarantee for Ukraine and pushing the administration for that," she said. "The more they're pushing the administration in that direction, the more it is creating more of a widening gap between the two sides." 'Freedom fries' Tensions between the two allies are not new. In 2018, during Trump's first term, the New York Times mused: "Is the Trans-Atlantic Relationship Dead?" "Let's not forget 'freedom fries'," said Grieco, recalling the time in 2003 when the US Congress renamed French fries because of France's refusal to back the war in Iraq. There was also friction during the Cold War, with the Suez Crisis a symbol of "geopolitical schooling" by Washington, said Fogacci. The United States and the Soviet Union demanded the withdrawal of French, British and Israeli troops from the Suez Canal, weakening the influence of London and Paris in the Middle East in the process. "During the Cold War, we operated in exactly this way. Moscow and Washington, in the end, settled the issue between themselves," said geopolitics scholar Frederic Encel. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, "the Americans were wary of a Europe that was integrating too widely towards the east", said Fogacci. "With the war in the former Yugoslavia, they took precedence over Europeans divided by old historical interests and without sufficient military capacity." Europe and US are 'natural allies' In his book "The Grand Chessboard", published in 1997, former US president Jimmy Carter's national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski said: "Europe is America's natural ally. "It shares the same values; partakes, in the main, of the same religious heritage; practices the same democratic politics." Nearly 30 years later, the waters are more muddied. "Across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat," Vance said in February, citing as an example the refusal of Germany's mainstream parties to govern along with the far-right. Grieco said there was now a clear difference between the two sides on values and the way to express them. That contrasted the situation in the 1980s, said Fogacci, when "the neoconservatives had an idea of democracy quite compatible with the European one, their equation being that political liberalism leads to economic liberalism and vice versa". For Trump, "a country has weight through what it knows how to do, what it can offer or its capacity to cause harm," he added. "It's an 'ahistorical' vision, reducing democracy to decontextualised principles." Trump, he added, "does not look at states but land and resources". Convergence is still possible on the question of China, said Grieco. "In many ways, Europe still remains a natural ally of the United States in the sense that our interests are aligned on many issues. There's a potential alignment on China," she said.
