Officials at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado announced last week that the college will offer a minor in psychedelics studies to prepare students for careers related to the class of drugs, which show great therapeutic potential. The new program, which is slated to launch in the fall, is designed to give students a humanities and social science approach to studying psychedelics.

The new minor was created for students who wish to study the historical and current applications of psychedelics and other natural medicines. The program will also explore the growing field of psychedelic therapy, which has the potential to treat a number of serious mental health issues including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and substance misuse disorders. 

The Bachelor of Arts minor in Psychedelics Studies entails a total of 12 course credits earned from classes such as Herbal Medicine and Theories of Psychedelic Assisted Therapies. In addition to exploring the clinical applications of psychedelic medicines, the curriculum “emphasizes religious and ceremonial contexts, cultural practices, policy implications and healing justice frameworks,” the university explained last week.

“Psychedelic minor graduates will be well prepared for a career in psychedelic-assisted therapy, with both Naropa University’s rigorous academic education and our singularly unique contemplative pedagogy woven throughout the curriculum,” Naropa University president Charles G. Lief, J.D. said in a statement about the new program. “Naropa is a higher education leader when it comes to incorporating justice, equity, anti-oppression, and understanding lineage and indigenous community relationships with plant medicines.” 

Naropa University was founded in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. The institution’s name and inspiration are derived from the teachings of the 11th-century Indian Buddhist sage Naropa. The university is internationally known for its unique educational program, which integrates Eastern knowledge and traditions with traditional Western scholarly pursuits.

“This minor will integrate well with the range of undergraduate majors offered at Naropa including Psychology, Interdisciplinary Studies, Art Therapy, Religious Studies, Creative Writing and Literature, Yoga Studies or Visual Arts,” Lief added. “Several of these majors have an online option, making the new minor very accessible to students in North America and beyond.”

New Opportunites for Careers in Psychedelics Therapy

The new minor in Psychedelics Studies will serve as a foundational curriculum for undergraduate students to learn and apply the mindfulness and compassion skills that are key to successful psychedelic therapy. Scholarships are available to support equitable access for students with fewer economic resources to increase opportunities for those who may be from marginalized communities or underserved geographic locations in order to create a more diverse field of practitioners.

“The emerging field of legal psychedelic-assisted therapy will require trained facilitators to meet the demand for these services,” said Joseph Harrison, M.S., executive director of the Naropa Center for Psychedelic Studies (NCPS). “Naropa’s psychedelic studies minor will provide primary education for students interested in working in this emerging field. We are creating a pathway for students that begins with the BA Psychedelic Studies Minor. Serious students can further their learning through Naropa’s Graduate School of Counseling Psychology and then our postgraduate training programs to become licensed practitioners in states such as Colorado and Oregon.”

Clinical research and other studies into psychedelics such as LSD, psilocybin and MDMA have shown that the drugs have potential therapeutic benefits, particularly for serious mental health conditions such as depression, PTSD, substance misuse disorders and anxiety. Early last year, a California biopharmaceutical company announced positive results from a clinical trial testing MDMA as a treatment for PTSD. Research published in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Psychiatry in 2020 found that psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy was an effective and quick-acting treatment for a group of 24 participants with major depressive disorder. A separate study published in 2016 determined that psilocybin treatment produced substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services projects that the Food and Drug Administration will eventually approve MDMA and psilocybin mental health treatments, according to a letter from the department in May 2022. In 2017, the FDA granted MDMA-assisted therapy Breakthrough Therapy designation, indicating that the therapy is a significant improvement over existing treatments. Last month, the agency took similar action with an LSD drug that is being studied as a treatment for anxiety.

“The minor in psychedelic studies integrates existing contemplative coursework across diverse disciplines with the latest scholarship on psychedelic studies,” said Betsy Gonzalez Blohm, dean of Naropa College and the Graduate Collective. “Contemplative pedagogy centering diverse perspectives to support inner and outer transformation is core to Naropa’s mission, and offering academic study about the history, policy and current research on psychedelics supported by our unique approach to education is an extension of that mission.”

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Upgraded Points, a travel information site, released a data report on Oct. 24 detailing which U.S. states are best and worst for a “canna-cation.”

For the top best places, the first three included Colorado cities of Denver, Boulder, and Colorado Springs; followed by Oakland and San Jose, California; Henderson and Las Vegas, Nevada; and lastly, Portland, Maine (the only east coast state to make the list). “In these states, economies of scale have been built over the last decade, bolstered by a booming weed market that includes dispensaries, farm tours, and cannabis lounges,” said Alex Miller, Upgraded Points founder. “The industry supports over 83,000 jobs in California alone.”

Upgraded Points analysts based their report on a four-day cannabis vacation for one person. They based their results on numerous averages, such as roundtrip airfare, fast food meats and other meal prices, nightly lodging, local rideshare rates, the current price of 1/4 ounce of weed, and the cost of a 100 mg pack of edibles.

The report shows that in western states, cannabis flower prices are more affordable than eastern flower, and northern states also have a higher price for vacation factors as well. The top most expensive states include Burlington, Vermont; Bridgeport, Connecticut; and Boston, Massachusetts. “Canna-cations in eastern states like Connecticut, Vermont, and Massachusetts can be much pricier… as the infrastructure for using, purchasing, and producing cannabis is far less established in these areas,” Miller said.

The most cost-efficient locations were Oakland, California ($1,068 per day) and Spokane, Washington ($1,135 per day). Both of these locations were noted as 22% cheaper than the national average, which is $1,262.

Unsurprisingly, Denver was at the top of the list because of its many cannabis-related attractions, such as bus tours and a plethora of licensed dispensaries. Other more affordable locations include states on the west coast, especially those with an adult-use market that has been in place for anywhere between 6-10 years.

Locations such as Washington, D.C., Illinois, and Vermont record some of the highest flower prices, such as $590.50 for one ounce.

According to Miller, the U.S. cannabis tourism industry will only continue to grow. “Cannabis tourism is flourishing. The U.S. cannabis industry now supports more than 428,000 jobs and is anticipated to exceed $72 billion in sales by 2030. Recreational marijuana is currently legal in 19 states, Washington, D.C., and Guam, and weed tourism will only grow as more states are poised to legalize recreational retail sales of marijuana later this year. If you’re looking for the ideal destination for your ‘canna-cation’ this year, the grass is greener in cities like Denver, Oakland, Boulder, and Portland.”

A report released in June 2022 projected that the U.S. cannabis tourism industry could be valued at $17 billion. “By 2025, 50% of travelers in the U.S. are going to be millennials,” Cannabis Travel Association Founder Brian Applegarth. “And their relationship to cannabis consumption is extremely normalized compared to the stigmatized industry leaders of today.”

On an international scale, the tourism industry is beginning to open up. While Canada’s adult-use program is thriving, bringing cannabis over the border was prohibited, as of July 2021. In Amsterdam, cannabis tourism is being discouraged. However, in November 2021, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates ended jail time for travelers with THC.

Aside from the usual cannabis attractions, such as grow tours and having multiple dispensaries to choose from, cannabis-themed museums have continually begun to grow. In June, a hemp museum opened in Spain, and continues through February 2023. A Croatian museum also opened up back in April in the city capital of Zagreb. In 2019, the University of California, Berkeley had a limited exhibit called “Pleasure, Poison, Prescription, Prayer: The Worlds of Mind-Altering Substances.” Of course, Las Vegas will soon become home to a museum called the Cannabition Cannabis Museum, and the city council also recently approved consumption lounges in September which is expected to boost tourism numbers.

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Should pot really be considered a “performance-enhancing substance”? A “first-of-its-kind study” at the University of Colorado in Boulder aims to find out. 

When American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson was denied a chance to compete at the Tokyo Olympics this summer due to testing positive for marijuana, it brought attention—and plenty of skepticism—to the reasoning behind the prohibition of cannabis in the world of competitive athletics. 

The so-called SPACE study (“Study on Physical Activity and Cannabis Effects”), announced on Monday, “will enlist more than 50 paid adult volunteers who already mix cannabis and exercise for a study involving three sessions,” the university said in a press release.

“In the first, researchers measure heart rate, have subjects answer a questionnaire and take some baseline fitness measurements. Then, participants are assigned to go to a local dispensary and pick up either a specific CBD-dominant strain or THC-dominant strain,” the announcement said. “On one follow up visit, they return, sober, to run on the treadmill for 30 minutes, answering questions every 10 minutes to assess things like their perception of the passage of time, how hard the workout feels, what they’re thinking about, and how much pain they’re in. On another visit, they do the same, only they get high before they come.”

Laurel Gibson, a PhD student in the University of Colorado’s Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and principal investigator of the study, said that the study will help fill in a gap in cannabis research. 

As the university’s announcement explained, due to a dearth of research in the area, “scientists are unsure just how Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD)—the two primary active ingredients in marijuana—influence physical activity.”

“To date, there are no human studies on the effects of legal market cannabis on the experience of exercise,” Gibson said. “That’s where we come in.”

“Cannabis is often associated with a decrease in motivation—that stereotype of couch-lock and laziness,” Gibson continued. “But at the same time, we are seeing an increasing number of anecdotal reports of people using it in combination with everything from golfing and yoga to snowboarding and running.”

The federal prohibition on weed has prompted the researchers to make certain accommodations with their subjects. 

Due to the law, which “prohibits the possession or distribution of marijuana on college campuses,” the press release explained, the subjects will consume the pot at home “before a researcher picks them up in a mobile laboratory—a white Dodge Sprinter van sometimes referred to as the ‘cannavan’—and brings them safely to the lab.”

The runners will also don a safety belt around their waist while using the treadmill, as an extra precautionary measure.

Angela Bryan, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Colorado who is serving as the faculty advisor on the study, said that the research could yield a breakthrough for older individuals for whom exercise is too painful.

“If cannabis could ease pain and inflammation, helping older adults to be more active, that could be a real benefit,” Bryan said.

Gibson, meanwhile, said that the research could shed light on the link between cannabis use and the “runner’s high” that has been romanticized by joggers the world over.

“It is possible that exogenous cannabinoids like THC or CBD might activate the endocannabinoid system in a way that mimics the runner’s high,” Gibson said.

Richardson failed a drug test less than a month before the Olympics kicked off in Tokyo, keeping her out of the summer games. Marijuana is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, as well as the United States Anti-Doping Agency and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee.

In September, the World Anti-Doping Agency said that it would reconsider its ban on cannabis. 

The USADA has said that pot is banned both because it could present a safety risk to athletes, and that it could potentially enhance performance. 

The latter explanation was widely mocked, including by Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen, who came to Richardson’s defense.

“Marijuana is not a performance-enhancing drug unless you’re entered in the Coney Island hot dog eating contest on the Fourth of July,” Cohen said at the time. “To take her right to appear, her dream, away from her, is absurd.”

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