It’s a new year, and I’m excited to officially kick-off publication of my new weekly newsletter, buzzed!
If you tuned in to my “coming soon” post before the holidays, you might have a high-level idea of what to expect from buzzed—if this is your first contact with my new project, here’s a little bit about it.
What is buzzed?
buzzed is a weekly newsletter—released every Tuesday—covering the ever-expanding, sometimes wild, and always nuanced realm of cannabis and psychedelics. I’m not the first to do it, and certainly won’t be the last. My hope is that I can provide you with an entertaining, unique, and most importantly, informed, perspective on the happenings of the cannabis and psychedelic spaces.
The media landscape surrounding cannabis and psychedelics is abundant with misinformation, misunderstanding, and outright falsehoods. As the industries and reformed policy models continue to expand in the U.S. and across the world, expert analysis and sensible ideas are critically important. That’s why I created buzzed; to bring you expertly curated and impactful content.
If you’d like to read a bit more about who I am, why you can trust my writing, and what buzzed is all about, check out the soft-launch from a few weeks ago:
Now the important part; with this being the first edition of buzzed, I’m making it a space where you can learn more about the specifics of what’s to come with regular weekly editions in the future: what type of content I’ll be covering, and how I’ll be approaching each topic.
Each newsletter will be segmented into four primary categories: policy and advocacy, industry, science, and society and culture. For each category, I’ll be doing a deep-dive into a newsworthy topic that week, alongside relevant analysis and evidence-based opinion. To further highlight what I see as the most critical developments of each week, these four primary categories will be supplemented with a few additional stories and thoughts that I’ll call Microdoses. Below, you can read more about what each topic area will look like.
1. Policy & Advocacy
Cannabis policy is my profession, so it should come at no surprise that each week’s newsletter will feature important developments from all areas of government, whether they be local, tribal, state, federal, or international. I’ll be highlighting important pieces of legislation, assessing regulatory frameworks, and providing updates on critical policy initiatives taking place in the cannabis and psychedelic world.
I’m also a steadfast advocate for equitable, science-based, and history-informed drug policy reform. This may present itself differently in varying areas of policy, but ultimately, my analyses and prioritization of stories will originate from that baseline of forward-looking advocacy.
2. Industry
The United States is approximately two decades into an increasingly expanding, yet patchwork cannabis industry comprised of state-level markets. In recent months and years, cannabis reform has also gone international, most notably in places like Canada, Germany, and Thailand, for example. The U.S. cannabis industry has proven to be an economic powerhouse, with revenues and employment growth overtaking many long-standing industries such as tourism, healthcare, and transportation in recent years. Now, psychedelic reform seems poised to accelerate, and with it will undoubtedly come some form of commercial activity riding the coat tails of cannabis market evolution.
In many respects, I’m all-in on this commercialization. But, every market has its limitations and drawbacks; cannabis and (soon) psychedelics are no different. Each week, I’ll be approaching industry updates from this perspective. You can expect to find highlights of the latest corporate mergers, interesting product launches, economic analyses, market failures and successes, and much more—all paired with insider insights and important context.
3. Science
Cannabis and psychedelics, and the humans that employ them in a range of fashions, have been subjected to scientific ridicule and propaganda for countless years. Traditionally, mind-altering substances inherently evoke skepticism and rigid stigmas among many members of the scientific community. Meanwhile, the most prominent members of this community have historically partaken in many such substances; take Sigmund Freud, Carl Sagan, and Francis Crick, for example.
However, many members of my own community (drug policy reformers) often take an equally problematic approach with the polar opposite view of drug science and associated health claims. On this note, my prioritizations and assessments of health and science stories will be nuanced, balanced, and honest to the best of my ability. Coverage of scientific developments in cannabis and psychedelics is desperately lacking a critical eye with careful conclusions and meaningful analysis. buzzed will not be a venue for blindly sharing eye-catching headlines without important discussion and scientific literacy.
4. Society & Culture
As cannabis reform has spread across the U.S., so has its modern cultural significance. Cannabis and psychedelic cultures have always been present in a wide host of communities; continued reform has simply fostered the accelerated “outing” of this culture, and it becoming increasingly ingrained into pop culture and entertainment more broadly.
In this portion of the newsletter, I’ll be diving into intriguing and relevant stories where cannabis and psychedelics find their way into celebrity, entertainment, philosophy, sociology, ethics, and more.
In addition to these four primary buckets, I’ll be including two additional segments each week: the Bad Trip—a critique of what I find to be a particularly bad or misinformed idea or statement in the news that week; and The Archive—an exploration of a historical phenomenon, person, event, or story relevant to psychoactive substances. Continue reading for more about each of these segments.
5. This Week’s Bad Trip
I started buzzed, in part, to provide an environment for the exhibition of the best ideas in cannabis and psychedelics. Good ideas move society forward, offer solutions, and anticipate challenges. However, the drug reform space tends to attract quite a few bad ideas, misguided statements, and outright disinformation, to say the least.
Each week, I’ll be highlighting what I’ve dubbed the Bad Trip—the most absurd, least data-informed, blatantly fear-mongering, or simply misguided story for the past week (by my personal assessment, that is). I intend for these critiques to be good natured, coming from a place of well-mannered debate and respect, and not as a hostile attack on the person(s) behind what I deem to be Bad Trips. When bad ideas aren’t adequately countered, they spread like invasive species. In this sense, I hope these tidbits will serve as a sort of ecological management for the landscape of drug reform.
6. The Archive
I’m a history buff, and I think you should be too. That’s why each week, I’ll be capping-off the newsletter with an interesting fact, story, person, or myth from drug history—whether it be ancient or modern. I’m a firm believer in the wise words of Spanish philosopher George Santayana: “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. For those of us in the drug policy space, which is often underscored by the historical baggage of inequities and what I consider, frankly, to be human rights abuses, the words of Santayana should be held close.
While I hope The Archive will provide some important historical context, I also intend for it to be a space for occasional light-heartedness, humor, and good storytelling—something to take you out of the day-to-day newsfeed of whichever sector of cannabis or psychedelics you reside in.
So, that’s buzzed! I’m excited to start this new endeavor and see what it might become with your support. Your readership, social media engagement, and word of mouth means a lot.
This newsletter will be a place to learn, engage with a community of cannabis and psychedelic wonks, and assess innovative ideas.
I hope you’ll join me!
After subscribing, support buzzed by following and sharing on LinkedIn and Bluesky.
And tell your friends and colleagues!
Thanks,
-Keegan
A brief disclaimer about the views expressed in this publication. While I am employed in the cannabis policy consulting space, buzzed is a personal endeavor. The opinions, analysis, critiques, and predictions expressed in this newsletter are mine, and mine alone.