Science

Meth use up sixfold, fentanyl use quadrupled in U.S. in last 6 years

Samples testing positive for fentanyl also tested positive for meth rose almost 14-fold… and by more than sixfold for cocaine and heroin. Similarly, the percentage [of] tests coming back positive for the highly potent — and sometimes fatal — opioid fentanyl have more than quadrupled since 2013, the study found. Original Article (UPI):Meth use up…

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Science

Magic Mushroom…

Based on what is known about the cannabinoids in cannabis plants… …it is plausible that there is synergy going on between the multiple active and inactive compounds in these mushrooms. Magic mushrooms contain more than just psilocybin … seemingly minor differences in the chemical structures can have dramatic effects on the cellular and clinical pharmacology of…

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Science

Psychedelic mushrooms have been confirmed as the world’s safest…[psychoactive]

Magic mushrooms are officially your safest [psychoactive], according to… scientists. Only 0.2 percent of users, male and female, who had [consumed psilocybe mushrooms] reported having to undergo emergency treatment. This is compared to a global average of 4.8 percent of meth users, 3.2 percent of synthetic weed smokers and 1.3 percent of [alcohol drinkers]. Original Article…

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Science

Researchers just discovered new psychoactive compounds in magic mushrooms

Scientists highlight a critical factor in the study that the consumption of pure, isolated psilocybin may not have the same effects has mushroomed in their natural form. Cannabis has similar evidence when it comes to consuming the whole plant, which some can create an “entourage effect” that is more potent than consuming any individual cannabinoid in isolation.…

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Can a “trip-free” [un]psychedelic still help people with depression?

They’re not only seeking out non-hallucinogenic psychedelics (after all, the hallucination bit might be crucial) but also analyzing different chemical versions of psilocybin that could “improve” on the original model. They plan to use a sedative drug called midazolam, which has been shown in studies to produce a kind of amnesia that can temporarily prevent…

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Misreporting and confirmation bias in psychedelic research

Let us be clear: we are not suggesting malicious intent. Our point is that paradigmatic expectations can make it all too easy to cherry-pick, misunderstand and then misrepresent results so as to render them consistent with the reigning worldview. And because the community at large shares the same expectations, such errors easily go unnoticed. Perhaps more worryingly, paradigmatic expectations…

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Science

What psychedelic research can and cannot tell us about consciousness

Our study, like all other studies that explore relations between experiential states and brain states (whether about psychedelics or not), is entirely irrelevant to this metaphysical question [about materialism]. …by misrepresenting the explanatory reach of our findings in order to motivate metaphysical discussions irrelevant to our study, they risk undermining the hard-won legitimacy of a neuroscience…

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Scientists want to try using… [synthetic psilocybin] to revive people in vegetative states

Do [synthetic] psychedelics raise any ethical issues that are unique? Andrew Peterson, an assistant professor at the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at George Mason University, said his gut reaction was “‘Are you tripping!?’—pun intended.” But later, he felt it was worth consideration. In the new work, Peterson and his co-author, neuroscientist Enzo Tagliazucchi,…

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Science

…psilocybin producing E. coli

…engineered bacteria to produce psilocybin in their cells and poop it out. This is a biosynthesis process that relies on changing cells so they will produce compounds they don’t naturally produce, or in quantities they don’t naturally produce. Original Article (Science Alert):Scientists Engineered a Bacterium That Poops Out Huge Amounts of Psilocybin Artwork Fair Use:…

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