Champignons of Freedom are battling the blues, the bulge, and the boffins

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IN THIS BULLETIN:
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* Boris’ ban to battle the bulge
* Digital dynasty: webinars, podcasts, and videos
* Mushrooms creating magic in your mind


** BUT FIRST...
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Rishi Sunak seems to be buying his way into our hearts. Not content with distributing 30m free flu jabs to the oldies and free school meals to kids, in his latest wheeze to lavish cash on us, the early middle aged can now claim a £50 voucher to repair our rusting bikes. (Which sounds like good news to all you lycra louts and geardos, until you realise it’s £50 of our own money. Plus Whitehall's costs and expenses, of course.) Mind you, normally the economy growing by 1.8% in the single month of May would be fantastic news for any Chancellor. But sadly it had already slumped more then 20% in April. Ho, hum.

The virus episode has led to 140 new words (such as Coronafeirws) being added to the Welsh language. (Unfortunate: now Welsh windbags like Matt Kilcoyne will be even windier.) And epidemio-boffins say we could have 251,000 second-wave deaths this winter. (Unfortunately, like the Chinese and Russian governments, you can’t believe a word they say.)

Boris’s new campaign is to save us from obesity by preventing Mr Kipling advertising cakes before 9pm. I am just trying to anticipate the punchy three-word slogan that ’Take Back Control’ Cummings is going to devise for this operation. I toyed with ‘Don’t. Over. Eat’ but thought that pedants might claim it was only two words. ‘Watch. Your. Weight’ doesn’t really work because you might be watching it rise. My best effort is ‘Lose. Flab. Now’ or ‘Fat. Really. Sucks’, but if you can think you can do better, hit reply and tell me. The winning slogan will be sent to Downing Street Command & Control Centre for consideration.

But I digress...


** RESEARCH!
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Psilocy-what?

This week our Head of Research Matthew Lesh really hopes we'll have a best-seller on our hands with our new report Medicinal Use of Psilocybin: Reducing Restrictions on Research and Treatment ([link removed]) . Catchiest title on the subject by far, I’d say. All written by three docs, one prof and a couple of other eggheads. But despite the pop-culture sensationalism of the report, it actually has a deep message. Psilo-whatsit is a psychoactive drug derived from fungi (oh, it’s magic mushrooms; why didn’t you say?—Ed.). It can also be used in the treatment of depression, which affects 1.2m people and costs the economy about £10bn a year. Trouble is, even testing the stuff is a no-no because it’s listed on some government Schedule instead of some other government Schedule. Want our advice? Stuff your Schedule in your pipe and smoke it.
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** WEBINARIUM!
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Upcoming webinar! You guessed it, we’ve got a webinar scheduled for 6pm UK time on Tuesday. This week, our Daniel Pryor will host leading scientists, professors and drug policy experts to discuss the use of novel treatments for mental health issues.

The ASI and Conservative Drug Policy Reform Group recently released a major new report ([link removed]) on the promise of psilocybin research (you may have just read about it above––Ed.). Researchers would like to use an active hallucinogenic compound to treat mental illness but red tape is getting in the way. For this webinar, we’re thrilled to be joined by three of its co-authors to discuss the medical potential of psilocybin and the need to reduce restrictions on research and treatment.

Daniel Pryor (Head of Programmes, Adam Smith Institute) (Host)

Professor Joanna Neill (Professor of Psychopharmacology, University of Manchester)

Dr. James Rucker (Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist and Senior Clinical Lecturer, King’s College London)

David King (Director of Research, Conservative Drug Policy Reform Group)
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Click to Register ([link removed])

At last! We’ve warmed up the valves, tuned the signal, tweaked the vertical hold and done all the other things we had to do to get our lockdown webinar series upline, online, inline and generally all in one place. So you can get into them with a single click ([link removed]) . (Well, quite a number of clicks, actually, as there’s quite a few of them.). We’ll tell you the best ways to cancel the cancel culture, how to create sound money, what the super-rich really think, how and why we need to save Hong Kong, what we need to do to promote invention—and innovation, which is different (Really? Never knew that—Ed.), and much more. Just to make it extra easy I've popped our most recent webinar below.

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Can we cancel cancel culture? Join John Macdonald in conversation with Mike Graham, Rebecca Lowe, and Konstantin Kisin


** PODCAST!
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Our podcast is operating at full steam ahead. We’ve put out 5 episodes now, with topics covering everything from working from home, Hong Kong, cancel culture, lockdown measures and much more. Star guests include Kate Andrews of the Spectator, Sam Bowman, Tom Harwood of Guido Fawkes, Stephen Bush of the New Statesman and Chris Snowdon of the IEA.

Our newest episode is out today! Matt Lesh is joined by Allie Renison (Head of EU and Trade Policy, Institute of Directors) and Victoria Hewson (Head of Regulatory Affairs, Institute of Economic Affairs) to discuss globalisation after COVID, China trade, and Brexit talks. Listen here! ([link removed])
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You can find The Pin Factory on all your podcast providers (iTunes ([link removed]) , Spotify ([link removed]) , Stitcher ([link removed]) , Google Podcasts ([link removed]) or Podbean ([link removed]) ). Remember to download, rate, and subscribe!
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** YOOF
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We’ve just notified the winners of this year’s John Blundell Studentship grants, which help promising graduate students in their efforts to advance personal and economic freedom. This year had hundreds of applicants and our judges had a difficult time narrowing it down to the final four, so a huge congratulations to Yao Wang, Jorge Miguel Teixeira, Iqan Shahidi and Vera Kichanova!

This year’s Blundell scholars will be delving into topics as wide-ranging as classical liberalism in Iran and privately-run migrant schools in China so watch this space for more on their work!


** DONATE!
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Though half the civil service seem to be at home not doing very much, we’re at home doing a lot. Like making sure that young people get to hear the arguments for personal freedom rather than state control, and how free markets enrich societies and relieve poverty. You know you should support that. So do! Now! It’s easy! Click here ([link removed]) !
Donate to the Adam Smith Research Trust ([link removed])


** MEEJA
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We’ve had bumper coverage of our newest report, Medicinal Use of Psilocybin. On release day, we appeared on the front page of The Telegraph, ([link removed]) and in The Guardian ([link removed]) , The Independent ([link removed]) , The Sun ([link removed]) and The Scottish Sun ([link removed]) , The Daily Mail ([link removed]) , as well as The World News
([link removed]) and Head Topics ([link removed]) . One of the paper co-authors, Professor Joanna Neill, appeared on Sky News ([link removed]) to discuss the report and our Dan Pryor promo-ed the paper on a spot with BBC West Midlands. Finally, an op-ed covering the paper also featured in CapX ([link removed]) .

Remember the summer budget fiscal event economic update? Well, since we’re living in dog years now, we’d forgive you if not. At the time we preempted the statement with a few wish list items in CapX ([link removed]) and The Daily Mail ([link removed]) . Following the statement, our response ([link removed]) featured across the papers. You can read our comments in Sky News ([link removed]) , Guido Fawkes ([link removed]) , Conservative Home
([link removed]) , The Telegraph, Brinkwire ([link removed]) , and Wired ([link removed]) .

It’s deja vu all over again as we’re again fighting back against the government’s nanny statism. This time, it’s BoJo’s broadcast ban to battle the bulge. In response to news that this government hopes to ban ‘unhealthy’ food advertising before the 9pm watershed, we stepped up to remind everyone that advertising bans are ineffective and illiberal. You can find our comments in The Sun ([link removed]) , the Evening Standard ([link removed]) , and Brinkwire ([link removed]) . John’s written an op-ed for CapX ([link removed]) and Matt K features in The Spectator ([link removed]) on the topic. We’ve also had to counter the proposal that beer, wine and
spirits should be slapped with calorie labels in The Sun ([link removed]) and Brinkwire ([link removed]) .And in a continuation of our campaign against quangocracies we’ve been pointing out the deficiencies running deep in PHE (how much time do you have? –– Ed.). First, Matt Lesh is in

And in a continuation of our campaign against quangocracies we’ve been pointing out the deficiencies running deep in PHE (how much time do you have? –– Ed.). First, Matt Lesh is in CapX ([link removed]) explaining how the fiasco surrounding government advice on masks shows the dangers of a noble lie. Then, when it was revealed that ministers blew £10 million on their bungled track and trace project (if only someone had told them ([link removed]) they had the wrong idea –– Ed.) our comments on the matter featured in the Telegraph ([link removed]) , Daily Mail ([link removed]) , Mirror ([link removed])
, Daily Star ([link removed]) , Brinkwire ([link removed]) , and The Week ([link removed]) .

Finally in assorted news! Morgan is inThe Telegraph ([link removed]) explaining why, as defenders of freedom and liberty, we should be worried about Trump’s tweets. Dan is in ConservativeHome ([link removed]) making the conservative case for reforming the asylum system and our campaign on the matter featured on Politics.co.uk ([link removed]) . And our social care paper ([link removed]) was cited again in a new article in The Telegraph
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** INTERWEBBERY!
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**
Home on the Blog
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How Innovation Works ([link removed]) . ASI WAG Elliot Keck reviews Matt Ridley’s best selling new book on how hot new stuff happens and why it’s important. As Ridley explains: “innovation is the most important fact about the modern world, but one of the least well understood.” Innovation happens when people are “free to think, experiment and speculate” and prospers in an environment with investment, free trade, and relatively prosperous citizens.” So what most gets in the way of innovation and progress? Hint: state regulation.

Happy birthday, Milton Friedman! ([link removed]) Oliver Riley explains how the son of unskilled Hungarian Jewish immigrants to the US ended up saving the world from inflation and getting a Nobel Prize for it. Though it’s a subject he seemed to light on almost by accident. As a mathematical whizz-kid, says Riley, he just got interested in all sorts of economic models and monetary policy happened to be one of them. His update on the ‘quantity theory’ (basically, the more banknotes you print, the less people value any of them) led to some interesting forecasts (like stagflation) that the prevailing Keynesians just couldn’t explain. And then there was all his public-intellectual stuff in Newsweek and on TV—which brought market economic ideas to the newly-opening Eastern Europe and many other places.

Taxing online companies. ([link removed]) Why do governments always assume that the way to level up between traditional and online traders is to up the taxes on the latter rather than down the taxes on the former? Tim Worstall looks at the issue of business rates. It’s not businesses that pay business rates, he says: it’s the landlords (as the august IFS itself confirms). So a reduction in business rates ultimately benefits landlords, not traders. While a levy on online transactions hits consumers. Do we really want to benefit landlords and hit consumers?


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Out on the web
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UK’s world-beating virus strategy. ([link removed]) With everyone praising Korea, Taiwan and the rest for their somehow sailing largely unscathed through the corona-waters, it’s refreshing to have the distinguished American economist Tyler Cowen waving a small Union Jack (only the BBC calls it a ‘flag’) in our support. Sure, UK has one of the higher death rates and the initial response to the virus was faltering. But we beat the pants off most others in the sort of bio-research that seems to be getting to grips with the problem—and for the long term.

In bad news for our Daniel Pryor (aka lanky lover of liberty) it appears that tall people are more at risk for Covid-19. ([link removed]) Turns out, this leads scientists to believe that coronavirus is transmitting through the air because height would not make a difference if people were contracting it exclusively through droplets. On the other hand, Morgan must be happy (clocking in at 5’3).

Journalist Ned Donovan wonders,Why Does Monaco Exist? ([link removed]) Besides the literal reasons why it exists, Ned says he’s fascinated by microstates; “microstates are survivors of the otherwise forgotten nations that once littered Europe and the world.".


** AND I QUOTE...
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It being Milton Friedman’s birthday, here’s one of his. And I guess it’s relevant to our magic mushroom obsession too:

"Whatever happens to the total number of addicts – and the possible increase of that number – the individual addict would clearly be far better off if drugs were legal. Today, drugs are both extremely expensive and highly uncertain in quality. Addicts are driven to associate with criminals to get the drugs, and they become criminals themselves to finance the habit. They risk constant danger of death and disease….Legalize drugs, and street crime would drop dramatically and immediately.” --Milton & Rose Friedman, Tyranny of the Status Quo, Ch 7


Bye…

E

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