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Joanna AndreassonIn a new online feature, Mike Riggs looks at the decades-long effort to legalize MDMA and other psychedelic drugs for medical use:

In January 1967, roughly 20,000 young people gathered at Golden Gate Park for the Human Be-In, a kind of outdoor conference for hippie counterculture. The event introduced the word "psychedelic" to the American mainstream, and the psychedelic evangelist Timothy Leary to San Francisco.

California and Nevada had banned LSD a year earlier, following New York, which banned it in 1965. Leary, a psychologist who'd recently been canned from his faculty gig at Harvard for sharing psychedelic drugs with undergraduates, believed there was no longer any point in negotiating with the powers that be. His message was blunt: "Drop out of high school, drop out of college, drop out of graduate school."

The Manmostly government, but also society and authority figures of all kindswas attempting to eradicate psychedelic drugs and the liberation they bestowed. That required a proportionately rebellious response: "Turn on, tune in, drop out." Students around the country heard Leary's words, and many did as he exhorted. The Man heard him, too, and doubled down on its efforts to bury the psychedelic drug era under a mound of criminal sanctions and red tape. Within a few years, psychedelic drugs were completely regulated out of recreational settings, then therapeutic settings, and finally research settings.

Fifty years and a few months later, at a Marriott hotel 14 miles from Golden Gate Park, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) hosted nearly 3,000 researchers, students, and enthusiasts for Psychedelic Science 2017, a six-day conference on what's being done to turn illegal psychedelic drugs into legal pharmaceutical products. Once again, the avatars of psychedelic culture had gathered to compare notes, share their experiences, and talk strategy.

This time, the message was different: Stay in school. Apply for research grants. Design clinical trials. Show your work.Evangelize, yes, but with a new audience in mindnot the counterculture, but the Man himself.

"Regulators, governments, health economists, health systems, insurers, health-care professionals, andmost importantlypatients," said George Goldsmith, the former CEO of McKinsey & Company's TomorrowLab, and an advocate for the kind of therapeutic innovation psychedelic researchers are hoping to achieve. "That's the next community that actually needs to be engaged here."

Sitting onstage next to Goldsmith was Thomas Insel, a psychiatrist and former director of the National Institute of Mental Health. Insel, who's spent a lot of time in recent years bemoaning the paucity of effective psychiatric drugs, was blunter still. "I would encourage you to be more Catholic than the Pope. You've got to be more rigorous than the people working in the pharmaceutical industry studying more traditional compounds that aren't controlled [substances]." One adverse patient reaction for which clinical investigators were not prepared, he argued, could "poison the well."

"I know you don't want to hear that," he added. "But it's really easy to mess things up."Today's psychedelic drug community is fiercely committed to avoiding a repeat of the 1960s' culture wars, in no small part because their tie-dyed predecessors lost. Insel and Goldsmith, while not psychedelic researchers themselves, reflect the current movement's willingness to work with more staid actors in the field of medicine.

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New at Reason: Medical Researchers Are Steps From Legalizing Ecstasy. Here's How They Did It. - Reason (blog)

Wikipedia writers in Mangaluru setting up their own library The Hindu The focus of Karavali Wikimedians is to write for Tulu, Kannada and Konkani Wikipedia. According to U.B. Pavanaja, admin of Tulu and Kannada Wikipedia, it is the first such library owned by a body of Wikipedia writers and editors in the country. With ...

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Wikipedia writers in Mangaluru setting up their own library - The Hindu

For 21-year-old Jake Cushman, the drive to be a crime scene investigator starts with his dad.

For 21-year-old Jake Cushman, the drive to be a crime scene investigator starts with his dad.

The recent Portland Community College graduate said that growing up in Vancouver, he was proud of his father, Adam Cushman, who worked as a criminalist for the Portland Police Bureau. The two were close, enjoying the same nerdy interest such as Star Wars and superheroes. Together, they loved watching the show Smallville, a show that depicts a young Clark Kent as he comes to terms with his superpowers.

But one Sunday night in February 2010, Adam Cushman was killed in a crash on his way home from work.

A dump truck driver was driving in the 7300 block of Northeast 182nd Avenue when his engine stalled. His truck was partially in the northbound lanes, and the driver turned off the trucks lights to restart it. The truck was rolling backward when it was struck by Cushmans Honda Accord.

Adam Cushman was pronounced dead at the scene.

He was supposed to be bringing us pizza, and he didnt make it home, Jake Cushman said. Its always been tough to deal with it. Nobody has to be at fault; it was just a fluke.

Jake Cushman, who was 13 at the time, said the loss shut him down. But one of the things that helped him through that time and the next few years was his fathers co-workers. They brought him and his little brother Christmas presents and came out to help with the yardwork.

And because they knew that Jake Cushman wanted to be a criminalist, like his father, they started taking him to the shooting range, something he said his dad would have eventually done with him.

We were just gradually getting him used to some of the skills youre going to need as a police officer, said Paul Ware, a criminalist at the Portland Police Bureau. At the Portland bureau, criminalists or crime scene investigators are also sworn police officers.

Ware worked alongside Adam Cushman for years, sharing an office cubicle and working the same shift. Ware called Adam Cushman competitive, always keeping track of who took the most photographs at crime scenes and who logged the most evidence. He was also into the high-tech tools used to analyze a scene and always wanted the latest and greatest, Ware said.

After Adam Cushman died, including his children in various things was a given, Ware said.

When Jake Cushman got to Union High School, he kept on the path to law enforcement, taking criminal justice courses at what is now called Cascadia Technical Academy. During his senior year, when it came time to do an internship, he called and left a message with Ware to see if he could work with him.

When Ware called back, the first thing he said was: When do you want to start?

So Cushman began working every Saturday, doing the same 12-hour shift as Ware. The schedule allowed him to help instruct some classes for those in their first year at Cascadia Technical Academy.

Within 15 minutes on his first day of the internship, Cushman was told to get ready he was going with Ware to process the scene of a suicide.

I was a little concerned about what I would see, about what I would not be able to unsee, Cushman said.

His emotions were high, he said, while he dealt with the family of the deceased person sitting across the street. At the same time, he was being introduced to other first responders as the Cushman boy, shaking hands and being told things about his father.

All thats going on and Im trying to deal with the sadness, this happiness, he said. Im meeting my dads life, the side I that didnt see of him. I felt closer to him.

While he did see some graphic things, Cushman said, he remembered something his father told him.

My dad always said, When you go into the job, you use God-colored glasses, he said. He explained that you can look at something hideous and morbid and gross and be able to see things through the perspective that youre doing good.

It was a long, tough day, but Cushman said it didnt deter him. He kept the internship going after graduation from Union High School in 2014 and into his time at Portland Community College.

That day I really realized why he did this, he said. Whats so fulfilling about helping somebody who is deceased as opposed to living is that they cant help themselves they cant respond, they cant tell you what happened you have to solve that without their assistance.

Ware said that working with Jake Cushman, he saw some of the same qualities that he saw in his father, Adam Cushman. The son was competitive, paying close attention when learning the many ways you can compare fingerprints.

And while his father was the one who drove him to pursue a career in crime scene investigation, Cushman said that he became enthralled in the behind-the-scenes police work.

Theres a lot of math and science involved, which I never thought that I would love, but now I see theres a reason for some of that stuff, he said. Its just a cool way to help people, using your brain instead of your body. Not every hero punches through walls.

Speaking of heroes, Cushmans interest in Superman never stopped.

In high school, he bought a Spandex Superman suit and wore it to Comic-Con in Portland, where he was spotted by members of the Portland Superheroes Coalition. Hed already been keeping his eye on the organization, which attends fundraiser and community events, so he was thrilled when they asked him to join.

After about a year of playing the part of Superman, Cushman said his favorite part is seeing the children light up when they visit childrens hospitals.

Those kids think that youre the real deal, and theyre not having an easy time if theyre there, he said.

The work is heart-warming, he said, but is also keeping alive another connection to his dad.

Cushman is planning to attend Washington State University Vancouver this fall to continue studying criminal justice, and while he does, he plans to keep doing the volunteer work. He says he sees his career goals and dressing up in spandex and a cape as connected.

At the end of the day, its about letting people know that theyre safe. Its about letting people know that the worlds not bad, he said.

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Son follows late father's footsteps into crime scene investigation - Seattle Times

Delta is putting a cap on its feud with Ann Coulter, offering her $30. Nathan Rousseau Smith (@fantasticmrnate) explains. Buzz60

Delta Air Lines is set to post strong profit growth for the rest of 2017.(Photo: Delta Air Lines)

Corrections & clarifications: Aprevious version of this story misstated Tanya Meck's title.

Airlinesare often targets of angry tweets from passengers, but likemost major brands they typically tread carefully with their responses to complaints on social media.

By shutting down a polarizing figurelike conservative commentator Ann Coulter, Delta Air Lines'response became a political statement,whether that was the intention or not. The airlinepushed back at Coulter after she berated it Saturday on Twitter over getting her seatchanged.

Coulter began tweeting about the episode Saturday in which she said the airline gave away an extra room seat she reserved before a flight from New York to Florida departed. Coulter had booked an aisle seat, but got a window seat.

"Any back and forth with a customer, particularly a political commentatorlike this, is going to be viewed through a political lens." said Tanya Meck, partner and managing director ofGlobal Strategies Group, which specializes in strategic communications.

The company's original tweet has been liked and shared more than 150,000 times, but people are responding in defense of both Coulter and the airline.

Delta offeredCoulter a refund, but also hit back at her criticisms onTwitter saying, Your insults about our other customers and employees are unacceptable and unnecessary.

The airline later put out a statement explaining the confusion that lead to Coulter being moved from her reserved seat, and restating their disappointment with Coulter's comments:

"We are sorry that the customer did not receive the seat she reserved and paid for. More importantly, we are disappointed that the customer has chosen to publicly attack our employees and other customers by posting derogatory and slanderous comments and photos in social media. Her actions are unnecessary and unacceptable.

Just two days earlier, rapper ScHoolboy Q accused United Airlines of putting his dog on the wrong flight, and United's response was much more conventional:

When customers tweet their complaints at most companies, chances are they will get an apology and a request for more information unless of course theyre tweeting at Wendys, in which case theyll get roasted.

Chains like Wendy's and Denny's have mastered building relationships and responding to customers, even complaints, in a lighthearted way.Smirnoff and Reebok have bothtaken the opportunity to poke fun at the Trump administration, much to the delight of social media.

Delta's clapback, however, was met with a mixed response.

"Our response is not that much different than a few days before on another attack," Delta spokesman Anthony Black said in an email, referencing Delta's response to comments made by Qatar CEOAkbar Al Baker's.

Such a strong condemnationcould be viewed as "attacking her and her views simultaneously,"according to Daniel Korschun, an associate professor of marketing at Drexel University in Philadelphia. These views are likely shared by many of their customers.

"Ithink they may have overreacted," he said. "Generally it is in the company's best interest to treat all customers the same."

Korschun said he believes companies can and should be transparent about their political leanings, and that doing so can be great marketing technique. His researchshows that customersexpect companies that prioritize their core values to take a stand on important issues.

The jury is still out on what Delta's response will mean for its image. Meck says that while unpopular stances may incite social media backlash, it doesn't often affect a company's bottom line.

"Americans expect companies to take a stance or respond to an issue or current event, even if the issue is perceived as political as long as the company explains it motivation," Meck said. "In these respects, Delta passed with flying colors."

Contributing: Associated Press

Read more:

'Snakes on a Plane' sequel? Ann Coulter's Delta drama inspires Twitter jokes

Delta passenger charged with assaulting flight attendant

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Delta's response to Ann Coulter doesn't fit its brand - USA TODAY

Delta is putting a cap on its feud with Ann Coulter, offering her $30. Nathan Rousseau Smith (@fantasticmrnate) explains. Buzz60

Conservative pundit Ann Coulter launched into a Twitter tirade against Delta Air Lines after a seating snafu over the weekend.(Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, AP)

Donald Trump is not the only conservative prone to Twitterstorms.

Right-wing columnist and pundit Ann Coulter raised hackles after an outburst of reactive tweets, in her case after a dispute arising from a seat reassignment on a Delta flight from New York City to Florida on Saturday.

Coulters tirade was sparked when the author was asked to move from a seat she had pre-booked in an exit row to a less desirable seat, without explanation, apology, etc. She went on to complain about the woman she said had taken her seat, calling her dachshund-legged, and later posted a picture of her.

Late Sunday, she posted a tweet containing a picture of Delta jet with the words We Suck in a bubble next to it.

Just before, she claimed it had cost me $10,000 of my time to pre-select the seat I wanted, investigate type of plane & go back periodically to review seat options.

Early on Monday morning, Coulter was still complaining, saying that If you thought it was about $30, @Delta, why didn't you give this woman $30 and let me stay in my PRE-BOOKED, ASSIGNED seat?"

The airline hit back at Coulter:

Your insults about our other customers and employees are unacceptable and unnecessary, the airline said in a tweet from its account.

Later, the airline saidthat it would refund Coulter's $30 for pre-booking the seat andissued a statement further criticizing Coulter for her comments:

We are sorry that the customer did not receive the seat she reserved and paid for. More importantly, we are disappointed that the customer has chosen to publicly attack our employees and other customers by posting derogatory and slanderous comments and photos in social media. Her actions are unnecessary and unacceptable, Delta'sstatementsaid.

In apress release accompanying the statement, the airline said that Coulter originally booked seat 15F, which is located by the window in an exit row, however; within 24 hours of the flights departure, the customer changed to seat 15D, which is by the aisle. At the time of boarding, Delta inadvertently moved Coulter to 15A, a window seat, when working to accommodate several passengers with seating requests.

Delta then said that There was some confusion with seating assignments during boarding, and that a flight attendant stepped in and asked that all of the passengers move to the seats noted on their respective tickets and that All customers complied and the flight departed without incident and that crew members reported that there were no problems or concerns escalated.

It was only after the flight landed that Coulter started her social media outburst.

Some of Deltas ire related to a Coulter tweet in which she imagined a Delta employee questionnaire. What is your ideal job: Prison guard? Animal handler? Stasi policeman? All of the above: HIRED!

Coulter was not without support. A person identifying themselveshimself as Eddie Scarrytweeted that "Airlines practically got away with hate crimes against their own customers before social media. Good for @AnnCoulter."

And a man identifying himself as Jonathan Levine declared thathe had never felt more solidarity with @AnnCoulter than I do right now.

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Ann Coulter takes off into a Twitterstorm after Delta asks her to move from seat she had paid extra for - Detroit Free Press