Modern Culture

The public’s perception of the harms of magic mushrooms is in line with science – but not with the law

February 2, 2021By

The study, which appears in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, found that psilocybin-containing mushrooms are considered less dangerous than alcohol, tobacco, and other substances. For their study, the researchers asked 151 participants to rank the dangerousness of ten different substances: alcohol, tobacco, prescription opiates, heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, magic mushrooms, cannabis, LSD, and GHB… participants considered magic…

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Science

An elusive pathogen is damaging cannabis crops…

February 2, 2021By

Viroids are not viruses but, rather, a plant-specific pathogenic RNA. HpLVd was first publicly announced in cannabis in California in 2019… testing for HpLVd is still not common practice in the marijuana or hemp industries. The biggest challenge in controlling hop latent viroid is the “latent” nature of the viroid. It is possible for the…

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Science

Is hempcrete the future of construction?

February 2, 2021By

Hemp insulation is a special niche in the construction market that is yet to be fully maximized. A meager 0.5% of the whopping 3.3 million tons of insulation done each year pertains to hemp. For the future of hempcrete to grow in the industry, players in the construction industry must be educated on the material.…

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Science

…study shows cannabis reduces inflammatory ‘storms’…

January 23, 2021By

…offers data that some cannabis strains help reduce a specific type of inflammatory distress – called a “cytokine storm” – that proceeds severe cases of acute respiratory distress… One of the studies’ main researchers, University of Lethbridge’s Department of Biological Sciences’… team has studied the anti-inflammatory potential of cannabis for years. Were they surprised by…

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Science

When getting high is [adult] hobby, not a habit

January 12, 2021By

…offers the information in a spirit of radical transparency because he believes that if “grown-ups” like him would talk freely about the role of drugs in their lives, we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in… [Dr. Carl Hart, a tenured professor of psychology at Columbia University, an experienced neuroscientist, a father] argues that…

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Science

CDC [United States Centers for Disease Control] recommends drug-checking services

January 11, 2021By

The CDC appears to be moving, at least in part, past a major barrier currently obstructs local harm reductionists interested in providing drug-checking and similar services: drug paraphernalia criminalization.  Currently, the range of institutionalized US drug-checking services pales in comparison to what’s offered by organizations in Canada and some western European countries. The Centre for Drug Policy…

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Science

…DMT trials to take place…

December 18, 2020By

DMT is a naturally occurring molecule which is found in hundreds of plants… secured approval to begin clinical trials with DMT. Research has suggested that people who’ve taken DMT, along with other psychedelics, can enjoy a long-lasting sense of connection with nature. A study that gave DMT to rats, meanwhile, found that it made them less anxious.…

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Science

DMT alters cortical travelling waves

November 10, 2020By

These results support a recent model proposing that psychedelics reduce the ‘precision-weighting of priors’, thus altering the balance of top-down versus bottom-up information passing. The robust hypothesis-confirming nature of these findings imply the discovery of an important mechanistic principle underpinning psychedelic-induced altered states. The present analyses were applied to the first EEG data on the…

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Science

Psychedelics… face-to-face…

October 28, 2020By

“It is a misnomer to say that all drugs are equally dangerous and hedonic”, says Andrew D. Penn, RN, MS, NP, CNS, APRN-BC, a Psych Congress Steering Committee member, associate clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and attending nurse practitioner at the San Francisco Veterans Administration. “It’s quite clear that these are…

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