A city councilmember in Atlanta has proposed a measure that could open the door for both psilocybin and ketamine treatments.

The councilmember, Liliana Bakhtiari, believes that health plans for city workers should include the treatments, which research has shown to be effective in combating mental health disorders such as PTSD.

“We should be offering our employees — and especially our first responders, who are expected to be superhuman — the same amount of grace and providing them with a tool set to essentially overcome this issue,” Bakhtiari said in an interview with Axios.

Per Axios, the proposal “tasks the city’s HR department with studying the pros and cons of ketamine and psilocybin to treat mental health issues and whether the employee health plan could cover the treatments.”

The outlet adds that “ketamine can be taken under the care of a psychiatrist” in Georgia, and that Bakhtiari “says she has used ketamine therapy to treat past trauma,” and that “some sessions can cost roughly $350 out of pocket.”

As a councilmember, Bakhtiari has been a vocal champion of the treatment and drug reform.

In 2022, Bakhtiari introduced a resolution that would have “formally request[ed] that police make it ‘the lowest law enforcement priority’ to investigate or arrest people for ‘planting, cultivating, purchasing, transporting, distributing, engaging in practices with, or possessing Entheogenic Plants, Fungi, and Spores or plant compounds,’” Marijuana Moment reported at the time.

With a growing body of research on the efficacy of psychedelics as a mental health treatment, more lawmakers across the country have pushed for reform.

Earlier this year in Vermont, lawmakers passed a measure to set up a working group to look into psychedelics and their application in therapy.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed a similar bill into law earlier this month. The measure will create the “Task Force on Responsible Use of Natural Psychedelic Substances,” a 17-member panel that will make recommendations designed to “[enable] broad, equitable, and affordable access to psychedelic substances.”

The law requires the task force to make the recommendations “regarding any changes to State law, policies, and practices needed to create a program that enables broad, equitable, and affordable access to psychedelic substances; and requiring the Task Force to report its findings to the Governor and the General Assembly on or before July 31, 2025.”

Meanwhile, a bill recently introduced in the New York Assembly would legalized psilcoybin service centers.

The proposal would change the existing law “in relation to promoting the health and well-being of the citizens of the state of New York by establishing a comprehensive framework supporting public health and safety through regulated adult use, support services, and cultivation of psilocybin-containing fungi.”

Additionally, the bill would seat up the “Regulated Psilocybin Advisory Board,” comprised of 13 members who would be charged with studying laws and policies pertaining to psilocybin, and then provide recommendations to the state’s Department of Health. Per the text of the bill, the board would “develop a long-term strategic plan for ensuring that psilocybin services in the state will become and remain a safe, accessible and affordable therapeutic option, including in therapeutic and medical treatments, for all persons eighteen years of age and older for whom psilocybin services may be appropriate.”

A study published earlier this year revealed that individuals with major depressive disorder experienced improvement in their symptoms following intravenous ketamine infusion therapy.

The report, based on a clinical trial involving 75 patients across four sites in the United States, was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

The patients “received 3 IV ketamine infusions over an 11-day period.” 

“Key exclusion criteria were psychotic symptoms, significant substance abuse, unstable medical conditions, and any use of cannabis. Pre-existing antidepressant medication was maintained. Primary outcome was remission as measured by Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS), with secondary outcome of 50 % reduction in Beck Suicide Scale score. Safety monitoring and varying durations of infusions were also key parameters,” the authors of the study wrote. 

“The consistency of outcomes across 4 clinical sites and across multiple instruments, suggests high acute efficacy and safety of IV ketamine for serious depressive episodes. Duration of infusion did not alter outcomes,” the authors wrote in their conclusion. 

“Meaningfully, 40 % of non-responders after a single infusion did reach remission subsequently, while only 20 % of non-responders after 2 infusions achieved remission, suggesting early response is suggestive for eventual remission. Our data on varying ketamine infusion duration adds novel insights into the clinical administration of this new treatment for refractory and severe patients. Our limitations included a lack of a control group, necessitating caution about conclusions of efficacy, balanced by the utility of reporting “real-world” outcomes across multiple clinical sites. We could also not separately analyze results for bipolar disorder due to small numbers. Together, the Bio-K clinical results are promising and provide significant sample sizes for forthcoming biological markers analyses.

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Thursday evening, Donald Trump’s mug shot was released to the public after he was booked at an Atlanta, Georgia jail on more than a dozen felony charges. The jail that booked him, Fulton County Jail, has a long rap sheet of smuggled drugs, constant violence, and notorious murderers and serial killers through the decades.

ABC 7 reports that Trump’s mug shot was a historic first: the first former U.S. president to have his mug shot taken. (Nixon came close but was given a full and unconditional pardon by Gerald Ford on September 8, 1974.)

It’s the culmination of a wide-ranging criminal case surrounding the former U.S. president’s alleged attempts to overturn his 2020 election, particularly in Georgia which was vital to win the votes needed.

Trump—aka inmate No. P01135809 according to Fulton County Jail records—was photographed with a stern look and the photo instantly went viral. Eighteen other defendants are facing charges for their alleged roles in overturning the 2020 election. Trump was indicted four times this year, but this is the first time he’s facing RICO charges and the first time his mug shot has been taken.

District Attorney Fani Willis oversaw the investigation and the racketeering charges against Trump and 18 co-defendants. Others include Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani and chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Thursday also marked Trump’s less triumphant return to X, formerly known as Twitter, where he posted his own mug shot along with the message in all caps: “ELECTION INTERFERENCE. NEVER SURRENDER!”

Trump only spent around 20 minutes at the Fulton County Jail, however, before returning to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to fly back to Bedminster, New Jersey. 

For most other inmates at the jail, many on drug-related charges, the realities are a lot harsher with hard time. RICO or racketeering charges are among the most severe. In the cannabis world, RICO charges have been used for and against numerous cannabis companies. Cases against state-legal cannabis activities are based on the allegation that such activities violated the federal Controlled Substances Act and thereby satisfied the predicate act requirement under RICO, the firm Duane Morris explains.

Fulton County Jail and its History of Drugs

Some people speculate how easy it is to obtain drugs in jail. The “never-ending drug hustle behind bars” never stops at jails in America, wrote Olivia Fields of The Marshall Project. It’s one of the core reasons the War on Drugs failed.

Fulton County Jail is also plagued with insider drug trade. Other inmates at Fulton County apparently had access to weed, cigarettes, and drugs, which were being smuggled in by at least one prison contractor.

Fox 5 reported on June 22, 2022 that TreQuera Lashell Ford was a contracted medical assistant for the Fulton County Jail who was arrested for smuggling pot into the jail. Officials said Ford was stopped on May 14, 2022 because she smelled like weed, and admitted to smoking in her car before coming to work. 

Police began to routinely search her bag and she panicked, grabbed her keys and ran, walked through the parking lot, jumped in her car and left. Deputies reportedly found 6.8 ounces of cannabis, 20 grams of crack cocaine, 200 cigarettes, and loose tobacco.

“Let me be clear, if you attempt to smuggle anything into the Fulton County Jail, you will be caught, and you will be arrested,” Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat said. “Our deputies and investigators worked relentlessly to bring this fugitive to justice.”

Police didn’t stop there: They tapped her phone and recorded conversations proving she was smuggling drugs into the jail. Ford was contracted to work at the jail for only a few months before she was busted.

The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office said an extensive search spanning multiple jurisdictions finally found her and arrested her in Grenada, Mississippi. 

Fulton County Jail and Violence

USA Today reports that the jail has been built a total of four times, and the first opened in 1904, and was rebuilt as Atlanta City Jail on Peachtree Street in 1927. In 1961, a third facility was built on Jefferson Street.

Ten years later, the Jefferson Street jail was home to the 1971 riots. In 1971, inmates at the jail protested poor living conditions and overcrowding, erupting in a riot that led to extensive property damage and injuries. (The same year the larger Attica Prison riot in New York turned out to be worse.)

In 1984, voters approved a $44.3 million bond for a new county jail, running a tab of upwards of $50 million, and that’s the modern facility that Trump was booked into.

Producer-turned-murderer Phil Spector and serial killer Wayne Williams also did time at Fulton County. Trump, however, is probably the most high profile figure to be booked at Fulton County.

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Weed plants sandwich a stop sign in the center of the Brooklyn Made stage. The DJ is playing a random assortment of half-decent rap music while Tony Shhnow is on stage pouring a drink into a red Solo cup. It’s Tony’s first tour with Cousin Stizz, and it’s his first time in Brooklyn this past April. The Cobb County rapper sports eyeglasses that have gold semi automatic guns on the sides, a green army jacket, a black Louie Vuitton belt, and a pair of clean white Air Force 1s. Tony opened with “EVEN ON A SUNDAY,” a track built entirely by plug-in style beats. When asked to define plug on a Zoom call, Tony replied, “It’s player ass trap music. It’s a player ass hustle Music. Getting money music. Sometimes your girl don’t want to hear you playing gangsta ass shit all the time. Sometimes she wants to be serenaded.” With plug, the instruments are synthetic and digital with compositions of tinkering bells, woozy flutes, and slow drums. “Plug is super chill, relaxed stoner-type stuff. But also super street Atlanta turnt. I feel like there’s a duality,” ATL producer Popstar Benny says over the phone.

Plug music results from Atlanta street tapes bootlegged on peer-to-peer sharing sites like Limewire and Frostwire and hosting sites like Datpiff and LiveMixtapes. “It was built on traditional Atlanta. It was mixing traditional Atlanta with the internet age,” Benny adds. Taking inspiration from the elegance of Zaytoven’s piano work, Plug adds a pop spin jam-packed with explosive digitized synths and video game sound bites. 

Plug Motivation is Tony’s new project, 24-tracks of money hustling, designer flexing, and drugs come entirely produced by the most prolific producers of the plug sub-genre: Big Emm, Cashcache, DJ YoungKash, Fashion Kor, GameBoomin, IceWater Black, JBand$, Mexikodro, Polo Boy Shawty, Popstar Benny, StoopidXool, and Youngstill. Plug Motivation is hosted by DJ Yung Rell, returning the days of vintage Gucci Mane in ‘08. Tony carries the spirit of old Atlanta with tracks like “Dats Me” and “Work Like This.” Flutes and snares come together with dreamy synths on the latter, with Tony showing pride in his swag and coming clean about his “bad bitch problem.” The entirety of Plug Motivation was recorded in Tony’s kitchen, no fancy studio equipment required. Tony takes inspiration from Gucci Mane’s Bird Flu 2, Lil Wayne’s No Ceilings and Carter III projects, as well as Zelda: Breath of the Wild while making the tape.

He seems excited to talk about the making of Plug Motivation over our Zoom call. For High Times, Tony discusses plug music, its purpose, the songs of his new project, and the difference between mixtapes and albums in 2022. Throughout the call, he smokes Metro Bloomin’ branded flower in a blunt, puffing between responses. 

High Times: Last week you just dropped Plug Motivation. When did you start recording that?

Tony Shhnow: I started recording what I felt as soon as I got off tour. Because Reflextions was damn near done when I got off tour. So Plug Motivation was definitely music I had fresh off tour trying to go into transition to the next project.

HT: Plug Motivation is a play on Jeezy’s Thug Motivation. What made you want to use that as the theme?

Tony Shhnow: Well, Mexikodro came up with the title. I got to attest that to him. I just applied my own style to it. I applied the theme to it. He picked the title and I just made it, I brought it to life.

HT: What I like about the tape a lot is that it brings back that old ATL mixtape aesthetic. What’s the difference now between a mixtape and an album? And I feel like Plug Motivation distinguishes that.

Tony Shhnow: For sure. I feel like a mixtape is raw music. It’s raw. It’s not really looking to be polished type shit. It can be, it’s music recorded in a kitchen or it can be in the trap. It could be, it’s something that it’s not meant to be pop or be on the billboards, necessarily. I’m not looking to be on the radio. I’m looking to be in the trap. I’m looking to be in the streets. It’s not a project aimed to please the average listener. Mixtapes aren’t aimed to please your fans. That’s what I feel like the major difference is.

HT: You also dropped the ShadowBanned mixtape before Plug Motivation. Rappers don’t do that anymore where they rap on each other’s beats for a whole project. It’s a lost art. 

Tony Shhnow: Yeah. That’s why… It’s hip hop to me though. That’s why I did the BBC project. I ain’t going to lie to you. I’ve been one to do the rapping on other people’s beats that were my peers. But I felt like I had to wait a second until it was the right moment. And right now I feel like it was definitely a good moment to do it.

HT: Do you think this whole streaming era ruined the identity of mixtapes nowadays?

Tony Shhnow: Yeah. It did a little bit. It did a little bit. But I still feel like there’s a space for it. I feel like just people have to, we got to adapt to it type shit. You don’t really see the premier artists doing that. People, the rap game normally imitates whatever the premier artist is doing at the time type shit. At the time when Lil Wayne did that, Tyga was doing that or Jacquees was doing that or Young Dro was doing that. It was multiple artists doing that at a time. But you don’t see the premier artists, which is Drake or Kendrick or J. Cole, you don’t see them doing that. They’re not going to imitate it.

HT: What is the big significance of having someone host your mixtapes? Because DJ Yung Rell hosted a few of your tapes.

Tony Shhnow: Yeah. I feel like that role is a lost art form in hip hop. So it’s important to me to keep pushing him or keep pushing that narrative type shit because I feel like hip hop needs that. That’s what I grew up on. That’s what a lot of these kids don’t get to see. You know what I mean? It’s almost like a narrator.

HT: I think it definitely is a lost art form because you don’t hear DJ Scream or Evil Empire as often anymore.

Tony Shhnow: Because a lot of them guys that’s older, they’re successful as fuck now, they not doing it no more, they just successful as fuck. So they don’t have time to do it. They changed ventures. They might have a label now or they might have a clothing line now. They just aren’t into it. Because like I said before to go back into the main, nobody’s calling them to come do something. You feel me? Tyler was the last big dude I saw doing it.

HT: On Plug Motivation, you kept the sound with strictly plug producers. So why’d you keep it so inclusive? What inspired that?

Tony Shhnow: I was already planning on making a plug project. Nah. When ‘Dro gave me that title, I feel like I had to keep it true to being plug. I had to keep it true to that. I feel like it’s a misconception about plug music. I just made the project to clarify what it is. I even used the old plug. I tried to show y’all exactly what plug was and what plug is now.

HT: How important was it to get everyone’s contributions for this project?

Tony Shhnow: I feel like it was very important on the producer end to make sure I tapped in what each producer that was a part of the Beats Plugs type shit and as far as the new culture. I feel like I can do the rapping. So I leave everything else to them, I try to make sure I work with the best producers, or the best DJ, the best director.

HT: One of my favorite songs is “Hell’s Hot” because I never heard you so angry before. Why were you so mad?

Tony Shhnow: I was dealing with this girl and really, it was a response to her. She just text me, “Hell is hot. I hope you burn, nigga.” I was like, “All right. Bitch, fuck you.

HT: That’s a mean text.

Tony Shhnow: On God. So I responded. I just use music as my therapy sometimes. So that’s just what that was. I honestly didn’t even know I was going to keep that song. People just started liking it.

HT: Based off the few drill songs you have on the ShadowBanned mixtape, how do you feel about drill music and how do you feel about the culture?

Tony Shhnow: It’s cool. I like it a little bit. I ain’t going to lie to you like I’m a super big fan of it because I’m not really into rap that talks too much about guns or violence type shit. I’m just super not heavy on it. The drill wave in Chicago was cool to me but I didn’t look at it that much. I just ain’t, I’m more of a fan of just player music. Talking about getting money or smoking weed. I like Wiz Khalifa and Curren$y or Lil Wayne. I like Gucci but I don’t like his songs when he talking about just shooting shit up all the time.

HT: That’s understandable. I can tell you’re on the fence with drill music.

Tony Shhnow: Yeah. I’m like, eh. Like I said I want to do it but just a little more player. I really fuck with, I fuck with, what’s that dude name? Damn, what’s that dude name? They dropped the Too Slizzy Too Sexy tape.

HT: Cash Cobain and Chow Lee.

Tony Shhnow: Yeah, bro. I’m fucking with them. Something that make the hoes move. Don’t get me wrong. The drill shit is cool. But I like the songs that the hoes get to moving with the girls. You know what I mean? I want girls to dance. I don’t want to shoot; I don’t have a stand-off [laughs].

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Meet the CEOs behind the dirty south’s dankest cannabis brands. For the ‘28 grams of game’ series, these Atlanta weed pioneers show Leafly how they went from underground legends to legal operators.

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Atlanta joins a number of US cities ready to act on the decriminalization of psychedelics and mushrooms with a new bill.

The post Atlanta is considering the decriminalization of magic mushrooms and other psychedelics appeared first on Leafly.

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