Medicine/Healing

DC Lawmaker wants to let people get medical marijuana without doctor approval

Under the Medical Marijuana Improvement Amendment Act of 2017, patients would be allowed to self-certify as qualifying for medical cannabis …The bill would also allow medical cannabis dispensaries to open areas where patients could consume marijuana together socially … Separately, he wrote to District health officials asking that they examine allowing safe injection facilities where…

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Medicine/Healing

9 of 10 Docters unprepared to prescribe marijuana

“Medical education needs to catch up to marijuana legislation,” said senior author Dr. Laura Jean Bierut, a professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. ​ Curriculum deans at 101 medical schools completed surveys about marijuana education. Just over two-thirds said their graduates weren’t prepared to prescribe medical marijuana. One-quarter said…

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Science

With a new designation for ecstasy [sassafras], the US government is finally acknowledging its potential to treat PTSD

At present, it’s difficult to treat PTSD with psychotherapy alone because often the underlying trauma is too difficult for people to relive with a therapist. But previous work suggests that MDMA helps get PTSD patients to a psychological state where they are comfortable working through those memories. In MAPS-sponsored phase II trial including 107 PTSD…

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Medicine/Healing

Your new anti-depression medication: LSD

This study is particularly interesting in that it investigates the role of the human brain’s default-mode network in mental time travel. As it turns out, those of us with an active DMN are more likely to reflect on the past and hence wax romantic about what is not present, a reliable marker of depressed states.…

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Medicine/Healing

Are psychedelics the new medical marijuana?

“The major benefit seems to be that there’s an improved equilibrium of systems throughout the body, which is why it seems to affect so many different systems,” he said… but for addicts, vets, and people suffering from disorders who could find help in these drugs, the stakes are as high as their very survival. LSD…

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Medicine/Healing

The high road to health : new research on psychedelics shows they are helpful in treating numerous afflictions

*age of consent in the United States – green=18 grey=17 blue=16 “People are using psychedelics not to drop out of, but to engage with mainstream society.” -Jag Davies (Drug Policy Alliance) A growing number of people are taking psychedelics for healing. Advocates say drugs like LSD, psilocybin, MDMA, DMT, ayahuasca and ketamine provide a kaleidoscopic array of potential applications,…

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Medicine/Healing

Will new laws punish pain patients?

The American Kratom Association (AKA) sent an action alert to members warning that a bill introduced by Sen. Chuck Grassley and Sen. Dianne Feinstein could be a “backdoor way” of banning kratom — an herbal supplement that millions of people use as an alternative to opioid painkillers. ​ But reform advocates are worried that the…

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