Thailand has recently legalized marijuana, so Michelle Lhooq, the drug & parties expert had to go visit, with her parents! Small weeds shops have opened all over the place in recent months, but they just might soon get endangered. Hugely popular US weed brand Cookies opened its first dispensary in Bangkok in January, and there are fears the market will soon be dominated by foreign companies that will put small mom-and-pops out of business. Lhooq points out that the current legal uncertainty around Thai cannabis has prevented international interests from entering the scene, however, companies like Cookies are paving the way for a franchise model where US brands team up with local partners to sell name-brand weed.

Drugs and partying specialist Michelle Lhooq is wondering how the eminent psychedelic legalization is going to affect partying in general. She asks three pivotal questions for the emerging era of post-alcohol partying:

"How might the energy of a dancefloor shift if everyone is vibrating on psychedelics?

What new aesthetics emerge from a social space designed for recreational psychedelic use?

Can nightlife be sustainable if its economic model does not revolve around booze?"

Drugs&parties expert Michelle Lhooq shares an interesting invitation to a "sober rave for all the freaks seeking new horizons of holistic hedonism...:

Parties are portals into a new way of being.

The womb is a vortex into what comes beyond.

MUSHWOMB is an alternate reality to a nightlife hellscape infected by the clout matrix.

It is a wormhole where a pussy portal leads you to a sunny dancefloor where the vibes are immaculate, the music is soulful, and toxic substances are abandoned in favor of sparkling shroom candies, botanical booze-free cocktails, and chaga chai teas.

The portal opens on 01.22.23 in a sacred queer space in Los Angeles—a secret yard where the underground’s sweat and joyful tears collect into a pool for baptism and rebirth."

Party and drugs specialist Michelle Lhooq discusses the changing landscape of drugs in the New Models podcast - from legalization grifts to “spectrum sobriety”, They also discuss nü party paradigms, emergent synthetics, and the gentrification of club drugs like K, MDMA, and 3-MMC. Additionally, Lil Internet fills in some context with fascinating explainers on Berlin’s Telegram drug delivery services. Listen to the podcast - https://ravenewworld.substack.com/p/techno-disneyland.

An interesting point by Michelle Lhooq in her latest Rave New World post: "Clearly, we are entering the most absurd era of the pandemic, where ravers are actively trying to catch the virus, the scarcity of COVID testing is a joke, and the President himself is tweeting 'LMFAO IDK just Google it'. As the void closes in, the question lingers: is there any use resisting the nihilism of this moment? Or do you just cross the goddamn Rubicon, and jump into the gabber rave mosh pit?".

Party and drugs connoisseur Michelle Lhooq talked to Jon Hopkins - who produced his last album 'Music For Psychedelic Therapy' while on drugs in a cave in Ecuador - about how do you make music on ketamine, how do you translate music from plants, why DMT elves love synths, why we might be on the precipice of a new genre of music. He talks to Lhooq about his creative process - "In order to write this record, I would go into the psychedelic space every few weeks to experience it, usually through ketamine... There's a lot of weird stuff that happens when you enter into the zone—you switch from thinking you're the creator to realizing you’re a channel".

A lucrative new market is emerging for music designed for therapeutic trips using ketamine, psilocybin, MDMA and other psychotropic drugs. “There’s some amazing synergy between technology and these medicines that wasn’t possible until quite recently. And it seems to be really powerful” - music producer Jon Hopkins tells party-and-drugs chronicler Michelle Lhooq for her interesting Guardian article about music and trips.

"It is impossible not to consider the entangled nature of race and drugs. Despite efforts to rectify the War on Drugs’ disproportionate harm to marginalised groups, the legal cannabis industry has become overwhelmingly white-controlled, while drug law enforcement still disproportionately hurts Black communities... Getting stoned no longer holds any countercultural bite when your weed comes from a SPAC owned by a vertically-integrated cannabis conglomerate, and legal ketamine clinics are a privilege reserved for the most wealthy" - gonzo journalist Michelle Lhooq writes in her new essay. She will try to answer three essential questions: "Is substance use still subversive and emancipatory? Do drugs have any place at protests or in organizing? How can we reimagine nightlife spaces for sober experiences?".

An interesting interview in the Rolling Stone with Bob Dylan manager Jonathan Kaplan, who releases his new book ‘The Magic Years: Scenes from a Rock-and-Roll Life’ May 4. The part about drugs says plenty about his rock years: "Robbie called Eric [Clapton] a 'chicken junkie' because Eric snorted it. He didn’t shoot it in his veins. But he was definitely at loose ends in a way that I hadn’t seen". Kaplan refused to manage Rolling Stones because of drugs: "I had just dealt with Eric, and just the nervousness of trying to get somebody onstage who was wrestling with heroin didn’t seem like it was worth it. Life was too short. I reached that point where I thought, maybe there’s a way to make a living where you don’t have to worry about a call at 3 a.m. because Richard has driven his car into a tree. The only person they call is the tour manager, right?". Slightly better experience with the Band: "Everybody was pretty well behaved from, say, June of ‘69 until June of ’70. Richard [Manuel] wasn’t drinking that much. Levon [Helm] liked sleeping pills, but it didn’t get to the bad spot. Rick [Danko] would snort anything that was put in front of him, but quite frankly, cocaine was not an issue in the late Sixties, and neither was heroin". George Harrison, on the other hand, liked to speed-drive and - meditate!

Recreational marijuana will be legalised in New York state, after officials finalised a deal to permit casual usage and possession of the drug, the New York Times reports. The deal will “allow delivery of the drug and permit club-like lounges or ‘consumption sites’ where marijuana, but not alcohol, could be consumed”. Individuals will also be permitted to legally grow up to six marijuana plants at home for personal use.

United Nations' Commission for Narcotic Drugs made the decision to remove marijuana from the Schedule IV classification of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which deemed it a dangerous drug, next to heroin. The suggestion to remove marijuana came from the World Health Organization, the New York Times reports. The motion passed with a vote of 27 to 25. The removal does not equate to worldwide legalization or decriminalization, but it will allow for more scientific research to be conducted on the plant.

Rolling Stone made a list of 15 best country music songs about drugs, including drug-odes by Willie Nelson, Kasey Musgraves, Waylon Jennings, John and Prine, and Johnny Cash's 'Cocaine Blues' about a man who kills his wife while high on cocaine and tries to escape from the police.

Former Happy Mondays tour manager Anthony Murray was arrested along with 15 others at a port in Istanbul when authorities found 500 pounds of cocaine aboard a ship from Colombia, The Sun reports. Turkish police - who thought his drugs gang was called the Happy Mondays - allege Murray was "management level" in the operation and was known as "Doctor". Murray claims he was "only heading to the country for a nose job". This is not the first major drug arrest for Murray - in 2014, he was sentenced to three years in prison over a 64 pound cannabis deal.

“Drugs can be dangerous but they can also be hilarious” - is the idea behind the new documentary 'Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics' where numerous musicians share stories about taking psychedelic drugs. Among those are Ad Rock (Beastie Boys), ASAP Rocky, The Grateful Dead‘s Bill Kreutzmann, Sting, Donovan, Reggie Watts, Jim James (My Morning Jacket). It was directed by Donick Cary, who is a comedy writer who’s written for 'The Simpsons', 'Silicon Valley', 'Parks & Recreation', 'The New Girl', 'Bored to Death', hence the original idea... Watch the trailer below.

"I thought it was the drugs and the alcohol that made it all work" - Ozzy Osbourne told about his recording career, as Rolling Stone reports. "But it's not true. All I was doing for years is self-medicating 'cause I didn't like the way I felt. But then this ['Ordinary Man'] is the first album I've co-wrote and recorded fucking completely sober". He says he likes having a clear head - - "Cause at least I can remember the fucking thing I did yesterday". In an earlier NME interview, he said he "now rates his greatest achievement as simply 'staying alive'".

"Hip-hop is both a reflection and a force on its environment. Lean, mud, drank—whatever you wanna call it— has been intricately weaved into the cultural fabric and business model. Most don’t realize the full extent of its reach" - Trapital writes about rappers' addiction to cough syrup, in the shadow of Juice WRLD's death.

NPR has an encouraging article about people in Appalachias use instrument building as a way of overcoming opioid addiction. Their approach is occupational therapy - it attempts to engage people in meaningful activities, which helps them think about something else other than addiction, and even recovery. The build wooden string instruments like guitars, banjos, dulcimers, […]

The 1960s counterculture had a great impact on society that lasts to this day, and some remnants are felt this year, literally. Eliot Curtis, the Broadcast Operations Manager for KPIX Television, felt that. He was recently tasked with the restoration of a vintage Buchla Model 100 modular synthesizer - an instrument that had been sitting […]

Rapper Tyler, The Creator refuses to allow marijuana or booze in the recording studio when he's working on new music because he demands everyone has a "clear mind," a lesson learned by one of A$AP Rocky's entourage members over the summer, when the two rappers got together to create their song 'Potato Salad'. After noticing the […]