LSD Tested on Cancer Patients in Maryland
November 14th, 2008 by PerryDr. Roland Griffiths, a Maryland area doctor, got rare government permission to test whether psychedelic drugs could aid cancer patients.
He conducts research at John Hopkins not with the goal of making patients physically better, but mentally better.
This is not a cure for cancer, but it is an intervention that back in the 60s people found very helpful for terminal cancer patients. [...] These are not drugs that can be used lightly.
In this video, Dr. Derek Valcourt examines whether drugs that cause hallucinations could actually make a difference.
If unsupervised, hallucinations can be an obvious danger. To some, they may induce acute flashbacks, intense fear and panic that in the worst case lead to suicide. On the flip side, 60% of Dr. Griffiths patients reported an almost spiritual feeling and said these mental trips brought on long-lasting positive changes.
The second part of “LSD Medical Research Used For Terminal Cancer,” after the jump.
Toxicity of Illicit Substances
March 30th, 2007 by Alex
An interesting article from the American Scientist was published that discusses the ratio of a fatal does to effective dose of almost all the illicit drugs on the market today.
It’s a thought-provoking concept that gives you a visual understanding of the toxicity of many of the drugs we consume today.
As you can see, alcohol is a lot more toxic than most people realize, while marijuana is as non-toxic a substance as you’ll ever come across.
Let’s see what the article has to say on this subject:
The least physiologically toxic substances, those requiring 100 to 1,000 times the effective dose to cause death, include psilocybin mushrooms and marijuana, when ingested. I’ve found no published cases in the English language that document deaths from smoked marijuana, so the actual lethal dose is a mystery. My surmise is that smoking marijuana is more risky than eating it but still safer than getting drunk.
A simple ratio such as this exposes a large problem in the United States, the least toxic substance know to man is now illegal, and the major cause behind the imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
I wonder how long simple, scientific evidence such as this is going to be ignored?
[via The Daily Dish]
New Frightening Findings
January 2nd, 2007 by Alex
First reported by a woman with no sense of satire Benita, this scientific report should definitely put an end to pot consumption nation-wide.
Here’s an excerpt:
According to researchers at the, Shingle Hollar Institute Of Technology; POT SMOKING PERMANENTLY DECREASES YOUR INTELLIGENCE!In one, notable study; two female roommates, who had never smoked or consumed marijuana, were the focal subjects, for this ground breaking report.
The two women,(Mary and Jane) both in their twenties; were followed closely, during the 20 year study.
Both, orginally were given pot to smoke in a clinical situation; 5 times a day, for 6 months.
Mary never smoked again and Jane turned into a habitual smoker.Results of IQ tests, given initially to both, before the study and subsequently once a year, for the following 20 years; shows markedly lower results for both women.
As you can tell, this is some pretty amazing stuff. I can’t wait to see the full report, detailing the scientific data on Mary/Jane. I might even do my own research on the subject tonight.
Study Confirms Marijuana is No Gateway Drug
December 5th, 2006 by Alex
Books like this belong in a landfill.
A complex study has just been wrapped up at the University of Pittsburgh. Researchers gathered 12 years worth of data on 214 boys, all of whom eventually used some type of drug (legal or illegal). Ranging from ages 10-12 all the way until age 22, you can imagine the wealth of information that was cultivated from this study.
The overall goal was to determine whether marijuana was a gateway drug and to also chart the patterns of different types of drug usage. The result? Marijuana is no more of a gateway drug than cigarettes or alcohol. The interesting thing is what’s called the ‘Gateway Sequence’ and ‘Reverse Sequence’. Meaning, boys who started out drinking or smoking cigarettes were just as likely to move on to marijuana and other drugs as boys who started with marijuana before anything else.
Here’s a quote from Ralph Tarter, Ph.D., lead author of the study:
The gateway progression may be the most common pattern, but it’s certainly not the only order of drug use. In fact, the reverse pattern is just as accurate for predicting who might be at risk for developing a drug dependence disorder.
The belief that marijuana is a gateway drug to much worse substances has been a corner-stone of governmental policy towards narcotics. Hopefully, the continuing amount of hard data that disproves politicians half-baked theories will start to alter the playing field.
So what is the most important deciding factor towards progression of drug use and what types of drugs are used? Your neighborhood. Your parents. Your peers. These are the real things that dictate who does drugs. If kids in the neighborhood smoke crack, there’s a higher chance you will too. If parents aren’t involved in a child’s early life, they’ll turn to other sources for comfort.
This all comes back to the broken windows theory. If the little problems are dealt with first, and a good environment is provided, non-recreational drugs will be avoided. People don’t just magically start smoking rock because it exists and now’s the time for society to address the base problems of usage instead of the assumed problems.
[via University of Pittsburgh - School of Pharmacology]
Cannabis Testing Against MS
August 11th, 2006 by Alex
The trials are being funded by a $3.8 million grant that specifically targets the effect of THC and its role in protecting nerve cells. Professor John Zajicek, of the Peninsula Medical School had this to say:
This trial will build on our previous study which, coupled with our work in the laboratory, suggested that THC could have a protective effect on nerves.Multiple Sclerosis is a very unpredictable disease. Currently there are few medicines which are effective in treating MS and none have been shown to have any effect in the progressive stages of the disease.
The further implications of this trial, if they prove to be effective, will have far reaching implications for anyone with nuerodegenerative conditions. This hits especially close to home for me, as my Godmother has been confined to a wheelchair for over 4 years due to this disease. Anything that improves her (and many others) ability to live a fuller, happier life is something worth looking into.
[via BBC]
