Medicine/Healing

Hopkins launches clinical trial for psilocybin mushrooms

Psilocybin is a naturally occurring compound… it is found naturally in several species of mushrooms, it has been widely documented in a variety of cultures. [Reporters] reached out to the lead researchers [at Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness, which collaborates with the non-profit, Unlimited Sciences] of the clinical trial, but the institutional review board…

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Science

The secondhand harms of drinking impact 1 in 5 adults [53 million Americans], study says

Katherine Karriker-Jaffe, a senior scientist with the Alcohol Research Group at the Public Health Institute in Emeryville, California, who was an author of the study. “So it might be an underestimate of the negative impacts of alcohol on people other than the drinker,” she said. Aesoon Park, an associate professor of psychology at Syracuse University in New York noted…

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Science

Effects of ‘secondhand drinking’ hurt 53 million Americans: study

The most common type of harm reported was threats or harassment. Forget secondhand smoke. Now you have to worry about the secondhand drinking. One fifth of adults — or an estimated 53 million people in the United States — suffer from other people’s boozing annually, making this “a significant public health issue,” according to a new…

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Psychology

Why cocaine turns people… [socially inept], a simple explanation

A single dose of coke—so a bump, or a little line—can impair your ability to recognize negative emotions in other people, which is why you’re under the impression everyone is eternally interested in what you have to say, when, really, they are not. “[Cocaine]… targets three psychological mechanisms in your brain. With cocaine, you’re effectively…

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Medicine/Healing

[Australian] hospital will trial magic mushroom therapy for dying patients

…[the] study has finally been approved by ethics committees and state and federal authorities, and will see a number of terminally ill patients being given a single dose of synthetic psilocybin—the psychoactive ingredient in mushrooms—under the supervision and guidance of psychiatrists to help them come to terms with their own mortality.  Dr Margaret Ross [says],…

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Medicine/Healing

Sure, cannabis is a “gateway drug”, leading toward less use of other drugs

A number of studies, including two published just last month, have also found that cannabis can impact a person’s use of benzodiazepines. One found that 45 percent of participants ceased their benzo use by the end of the study period; the other saw 22 percent of participants substituting weed for benzos. As more and more prohibitionist cannabis policies are reversed…

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