Research

Cannabis and older adults: Poll shows current use patterns, beliefs and risks

Among people age 50 and up, 21% used cannabis in the past year and 12% partake at least monthly; signs of risky driving, potential addiction seen

Michigan Medicine – University of Michigan – September 12th, 2024

Whether they’re using it for recreational or medical reasons, a sizable percentage of people in their 50s and older have smoked, eaten, drunk or applied to their skin at least one form of cannabis in the past year, a new poll shows.

In all, 21% of people age 50 and older said they used a form of cannabis that contains the psychoactive compound THC at least once in the past year, according to new findings from the University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging. The poll report focuses on use of cannabis products with psychoactive amounts of THC, not CBD-only products.

More than half of those who used a cannabis product did so frequently: 12% of adults aged 50 and older said they did so at least once a month. Those aged 50 to 64, and those who are in fair or poor physical health, or in lower income households were more likely to report using cannabis at least monthly.

As for the reasons older adults use cannabis, many cited sleep (68%), help with pain (63%) or mental health (53%), and/or to relax or feel good (81%).

The poll also reveals potential risky behaviors related to cannabis use.

Among those who use cannabis at least once a year, 20% said they had driven a vehicle within two hours of consumption; many experts recommend waiting two or even three times that long. And the rate of such driving was even higher – 27% – among those who use cannabis at least once a month.

In addition, nearly half of older adults who use cannabis products at least monthly had not discussed their use with their health care provider. And more than 20% reported at least one sign of potential dependence on cannabis.

The poll is based at the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, and supported by AARP and Michigan Medicine, U-M’s academic medical center.

Erin E. Bonar, Ph.D., a U-M addiction psychologist who worked with the poll team on the report, says the findings suggest a need for action at the policy, clinical and community levels to identify those who may need treatment for cannabis addiction and to discourage driving or other risky behaviors after consumption.

“With some form of cannabis use now legalized in 38 states and on the ballot this November in several others, and the federal rescheduling process under way, cannabis use is likely to grow,” she said. “But as this poll shows, it is not risk-free, and more attention is needed to identify and reduce those risks.”

Bonar is a member of IHPI, the U-M Addiction Center and the U-M Injury Prevention Center as well as a professor in the Medical School Department of Psychiatry.

In addition to the national poll report, the team compiled data for Michigan adults age 50 and older compared with those in other states; a summary is available at https://michmed.org/JYJer and an interactive data visualization is available at https://michmed.org/4e2KW.

Cannabis potency and addiction: Views of all older adults

The poll team also asked all older adults – including those who don’t use cannabis – about their views of cannabis. The results suggest a need for more public awareness efforts, Bonar says.

People in their 50s and beyond may have familiarity with cannabis from decades ago, whether through direct use or indirect knowledge during a time when it was illegal for any use in all states. Because of this, the poll team asked whether they believe cannabis is stronger today than it was 20 to 30 years ago.

The vast majority – 79% — of older adults said they thought this was true. But Bonar notes that this means 21% aren’t currently aware of the major increases in THC levels found in cannabis available today, compared with levels in the 1990s and before.

Meanwhile, 72% of all older adults said they believe people can become addicted to cannabis. But, Bonar notes, this means more than a quarter of older adults aren’t currently aware that research has shown conclusively that cannabis addiction is real and can affect someone’s life and health just as addiction to other substances can.

Importance of discussing with health care providers

For those who use cannabis, especially those who use it often, poll director Jeffrey Kullgren, M.D., M.P.H., M.S. says the poll findings show the importance of communicating with their health care provider about their use.

In all, 56% of those who use cannabis with THC at least monthly said they had spoken with their regular health care provider about their use. Most of them said they had brought the topic up.

Talking openly with a provider about use could help identify risky drug interactions, and spot those experiencing signs of cannabis dependence or addiction.

In all, 22% of those who use cannabis at least monthly said in the past year they had had to use more cannabis to feel the effect they wanted, and 21% said using the same amount of cannabis had less of an effect on them than it had before, while 17% said they had increased the amount or frequency of their cannabis use. Another sign of potential addiction – strong desires or cravings to use cannabis with THC – was reported by 13% of those who use cannabis at least monthly.

“Even if your doctor, nurse practitioner or pharmacist doesn’t ask if you’re using cannabis products, it’s important to offer this information, no matter whether you’re using it to address a physical or mental health concern, or simply for pleasure,” says Kullgren, a primary care physician at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System and associate professor of internal medicine at U-M. “Many prescription medications and over-the-counter drugs, as well as alcohol, can interact with cannabis and cause unexpected or unwanted effects. And there are only a few conditions where we have good evidence of a medical benefit from cannabis, though this could change with time.”

The current process at the federal level to change how cannabis is listed on the schedule of controlled substances may free more researchers to do studies of cannabis-derived products in clinical trials involving human volunteers. Right now, such research is very limited because of federal restrictions.

The poll report is based on findings from a nationally representative survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for IHPI and administered online and via phone  n February and March 2024 among 3,379 adults ages 50 and older. The sample was subsequently weighted to reflect the U.S. and Michigan populations. Read past National Poll on Healthy Aging reports and about the poll methodology.

Story from – EurekAlert News

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Medical Marijuana Helps Depression, Pain And Anxiety Patients While Reducing Prescription Drug Use, New Study Shows

By Ben Adlin – Published August 13, 2024

A new study finds that medical marijuana is associated with reduced prescription drug use and improved well-being and symptom intensity among Appalachian adults who suffer from anxiety, depression, insomnia and chronic pain. The researchers behind the paper are urging more cannabis education for healthcare providers, who they says are the main source of information for patients.

“Prescription medication use decreased significantly after medical cannabis use,” says the new report, published in the Journal of Nurse Practitioners. “Health characteristics and symptom intensity improved significantly after medical cannabis use.”

The researchers, who are two nurse practitioners associated with Clinic 420 as well as an eminent scholar at Old Dominion University and a nurse scientist at the school, surveyed 31 patients at a medical marijuana center located in rural Virginia. Patients were limited to adults 18 and older in federally designated Appalachian counties and cities, the team said, and included only patients using cannabis for chronic pain, insomnia, anxiety or depression.

“Prescription medication use decreased significantly after medical cannabis use.”

Respondents were scored on six measures of prescription medication use, general health, quality of life, medical cannabis knowledge, condition severity and general health beliefs.

Subjective feedback from those surveyed also indicated perceived relief, researchers wrote:

The study suggests that the benefits of medical marijuana might be of particular significance in Appalachia—where, it notes, about 20 percent of residents live in poverty and about 20 percent of households lack access to the internet.

“In 2021,” it points out, “the mortality rate for diseases of despair in Appalachia (ie, suicide, liver diseases, and overdose from alcohol, prescriptions, and illegal drugs) was 43% higher than non-Appalachian regions of the US.”

Medical marijuana was legalized in Virginia in 2014 exclusively for patients with epilepsy. In 2018, the program expanded to allow healthcare providers to recommend cannabis for any condition it might benefit.

“Quality of life and symptom intensity improved significantly.”

The patients surveyed for the new study reported that nurse practitioners, family and doctors were main sources of medical marijuana information, with 55 percent, 45 percent and 42 percent of respondents saying they were moderately or very likely to obtain information from those sources, respectively. Only 13 percent said they were moderately or very likely to get such information through social media.

“Improved provider knowledge about medical cannabis use and benefits may increase their willingness to provide access for patients managing chronic conditions in the Appalachian region of Virginia,” it says.

It also notes that obtaining a medical cannabis certificate in Virginia “requires significant out-of-pocket expense for patients”—especially those Appalachia, where the average household income is about $10,000 less than in other rural areas of the country.

“Medical cannabis, as an alternative treatment for patients who suffer from anxiety, depression, insomnia, or chronic pain, may reduce dependency on prescription medications for symptom relief,” authors wrote—which means “the concentration of prescription drugs within the Appalachian region might be reduced, which is a goal of local community health departments.”

A study of more than 500 military veterans published last year, for example, found that more than 90 percent who used medical marijuana said it improved their quality of life. Many also reported used cannabis as an alternative to over-the-counter and prescription medications.

And just last month, a new federally funded study found that marijuana helps people with substance misuse disorders stay off opioids or reduce their use, maintain treatment and manage withdrawal symptoms.

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‘Usual suspect’ lesions appear not to cause most severe disability in MS patients

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Psychedelic experience dose-dependently modulated by cannabis: results of a prospective online survey

Joanna Kuc, Hannes Kettner, Fernando Rosas, David Erritzoe, Eline Haijen, Mendel Kaelen, David Nutt & Robin L. Carhart-Harris
Psychopharmacology (2021)

VIEW or Download PDF here

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Facial Neuralgia May Be Linked to Vitamin B12 Deficiency

Neurology Reviews – November 17, 2009

Some patients with facial neuralgia respond favorably to vitamin B12 injections.

Jitendra K. Baruah, MD, and Gita R. Baruah, MD, presented a review of 17 patients (10 women; mean age, 55.4) who experienced frequent episodes of isolated unilateral facial neuralgic pain not typical of trigeminal neuralgia. A neurologic examination revealed that corneal and facial sensation, along with the strength of both facial and trigeminal nerve innervated muscles, were normal.

All patients reported a decrease in touch and pain sensation, as well as numbness on the affected side. The blink reflex and trigeminal nerve–evoked response were abnormal, and all subjects had low levels of serum B12 (average, 186.7 pg/mL; reference range, 300 to 900 pg/mL) and high levels of methylmalonic acid, indicating defective gastrointestinal absorption of vitamin B12, the researchers noted.

The patients received intramuscular or subcutaneous injections of 1,000 mcg vitamin B12, once a week for four weeks. The dose was subsequently tapered down to two-week intervals for eight weeks, and then once a month for a year, at which point patients will be re-evaluated.

Identifying and Treating Patients With Facial Neuralgia

The researchers observed the vitamin B12 deficiency during clinical evaluations of patients in their respective practices. “It was somewhat unexpected that vitamin B12 deficiency can cause isolated facial neuralgia,” Dr. Jitendra K. Baruah, a neurologist based in Milwaukee, told Neurology Reviews. “Treatment for facial neuralgia is sometimes very difficult, and patients may often go into multimodalities treatment without much success. Knowing that this condition is remediable with vitamin B12 therapy, it is important to identify these patients and treat them accordingly.”

The investigators also found that many patients with facial neuralgia also developed cold sores (herpes simplex labialis) on the site of the facial neuralgia, and the cold sores also responded to vitamin B12 treatment. “It may be possible that having cold sores means there is an active herpes simplex virus located in the gasserian ganglion, indicating that there may be some compromise of that particular side and these trigeminal nerves are found to be more susceptible to deficiencies to vitamins, such as B12,” Dr. Baruah explained.

—Rebecca K. Abma

Article from – MD Edge

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The Canadian revival of psychedelic drug research

In the 1950s, the Prairies were a hub for psychedelic science. Some 60 years later, Canadian researchers are showing a renewed interest in the therapeutic use of psychedelics.

By Kerry Banks – June 14, 2019

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Penn State research shows medical marijuana may stop cancer cell growth

By Michelle Drapac – February 13, 2019

New research from Penn State College of Medicine shows medical marijuana may stop the growth of colon cancer cells.

According to the National Cancer Institute, colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers diagnosed in the U.S. The research looks to change the outcome for patients.

“Colorectal cancer is the third most common cause of cancer in the United States and it’s also the third most common cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S.,” said Wesley Raup-Konsavage, the research project manager.

The researchers looked at synthetic derivatives of the compounds found in medical marijuana and how they interacted with cancer cells in test tubes.

“Of the 370 compounds, it turns out that 10 were fairly effective against all colon cancer cell lines,” said Kent Vrana, chair of the Department of Pharmacology at Penn State College of Medicine.

Researchers will next look at making these compounds more potent and effective against cancer cells.

“The possibility for medical marijuana is immediate because that can be used now in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” said Vrana. “We just don’t know what it’s doing. In terms of these specialized chemicals, they probably wouldn’t become true drugs for another five to 10 years.”

While this research was focused mainly on colon cancer cells, it could impact other cancer cells as well.

“We have a sense for what works there. We suspect it will work for other things,” said Vrana. “We’re actually trying it for neuroblastoma right now.”

The National Institutes of Health helped support the study, which took about a year and a half. Right now in Pennsylvania, there are about 20 qualifying conditions to become a medical marijuana patient, which include cancer, autism, epilepsy, and HIV.

Story from WKBN News

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Psilocybin, the Active Ingredient in ‘Magic Mushrooms,’ Could Treat Depression: Study

DECEMBER 14, 2019, By CNN WIRE

“Magic mushrooms” may have moved one step closer to becoming a treatment for depression.…

The study, conducted by King’s College London and mental healthcare company Compass Pathways, administered psilocybin to 89 healthy adult volunteers.

The study compared the effects of 10mg and 25mg doses of psilocybin, and a placebo.

There were “no serious adverse events” and “no negative effects” on cognitive and emotional function among the volunteers that took psilocybin, according to a Compass Pathways press release. Instead, the volunteers experienced “changes in sensory perception and positive mood alteration” — typical effects of psychedelic drugs.

“The results of the study are clinically reassuring and support further development of psilocybin as a treatment for patients with mental health problems that haven’t improved with conventional therapy, such as treatment resistant depression,” said James Rucker, one of the lead researchers from King’s College London, in the press release.

This is just the first of two phases in their testing — the second phase trial will involve over 200 patients with depression across Europe and North America.

More than 264 million people worldwide are affected by depression, according to the World Health Organization. The most common pharmaceutical treatment is to take antidepressants like Prozac, which increase levels of serotonin in the brain to improve mood.

But this type of antidepressant doesn’t work for everyone, and is generally prescribed as a long-term treatment to maintain effectiveness.

By contrast, psychedelic drugs quickly alter our brain function, and could therefore potentially treat patients in just a few doses when combined with therapy, researchers have suggested. Though research remains in the early stages, such a treatment could target a range of mental health conditions, including anxiety, addiction, and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).

Here’s how it works: theoretically, psilocybin helps “loosen” the deeply-rooted patterns of thinking and behavior behind many of these mental disorders, according to King’s College London. It could “relax” the parts of our brain that control these behaviors, thus allowing old patterns to change or fade. Patients who have received psilocybin have described coming down from the high with “new insights” and changed perspectives on their difficulties, said the university.

A 2014 Imperial College London study supports this theory. After volunteers were injected with psilocybin, the parts of their brain associated with emotional thinking became more active, while the introspective, self-conscious part of their brain became less active.

But psilocybin and other pschedelics are likely still a long way to being approved, developed, and rolled out as treatments. Only recently have US cities like Denver and Oakland moved to decriminalize psilocybin; nationwide, it’s still listed as a Schedule 1 controlled substance, meaning it has no medicinal properties under official US federal policy.

Story from KTLA

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Why Doctors Are Turning to Psychedelics to Treat Depression and Addiction

Men’s Journal – by Julia Savacool- December, 2019

FOR DECADES, mental health experts have amassed anecdotal evidence that psychedelics could help people with intractable diseases like addictionOpens in a new Window., depressionOpens in a new Window., and PTSDOpens in a new Window.. Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness ResearchOpens in a new Window. in Baltimore, which opened in the fall, plan to test these drugs rigorously so that one day they could be prescribed. We talked with two of the center’s founding members, Alan Davis and Albert Garcia-Romeu, who are seeking out mental health and addiction treatments, to find out more about their research and how they plan to change our lives.

MJ: A lot of your focus is on psilocybin—the psychedelic agent in magic mushrooms. How does it help people suffering from depression or addiction?

DAVIS: There are a couple of ways we believe it works. First is the experience itself. People who take psilocybin report having a deeply positive, mystical experience that seems to help them alter their perspective on their situation. More specifically, people with depression tend to feel isolated and disconnected from their daily lives. The experience of taking psilocybin makes them feel an intense interconnection that stays with them after the experience is over. People also report gaining insight on their depression, like they suddenly have an awareness of what they want to change in their life to help them move forward. That awareness, coupled with this mystical-like experience, serves as the catalyst for change.

ALBERT GARCIA-ROMEU: It helps people change their perspective, which is really useful for someone who is depressed or dealing with addiction. On the physical side, psilocybin disrupts patterns in the brain—patterns of negative thinking that become entrenched over time.

How does it do that?

GARCIA-ROMEU: In a nutshell, psilocybin and other psychedelics like LSDOpens in a new Window. bind to serotonin 2A receptors, creating mood-altering effects and changes in brain function. We know psilocybin decreases amygdala blood flow in people with depression, which is associated with better antidepressantOpens in a new Window. effects. This is important because depressive symptoms seem to be associated with over-reactivity in the amygdala. Keep in mind that the data for psilocybin brain mechanisms in depression is very limited, from fewer than 20 people total. We are only starting to scratch the surface of how this works.

When people hear psychedelics, they picture mushrooms growing in the back of their college roommate’s closet—not the stuff of scientific rigor.

GARCIA-ROMEU: Honestly, it’s closer to a dorm room than a science lab. Our study setting looks like a therapist’s office: sofa, chairs, soft lighting. The most clinical item is a blood pressure monitor, which we use to keep track of physiological measures at 30- to 60-minute intervals throughout the sessions. One of the strongest predictors of a challenging experience or “bad trip” can be an overly cold and clinical setting, so we do our best to make it a place that feels warm and safe. Volunteers usually spend around eight hours here before any drug is administered, with the two people who monitor them after they’ve taken the drug.

“ONE MISCONCEPTION AROUND THIS WORK: THIS IS NOT A TAKE-TWO-AND-CALL-ME-IN-THE-MORNING TYPE OF TREATMENT.”

Where do you get the drugs?

DAVIS: The psilocybin is made for us by an academic chemist and put into a capsule that’s taken orally. This isn’t microdosingOpens in a new Window.. A dose is moderate to high—more than recreational doses in a festival environment, for example.

How are the results looking?

DAVIS: We just wrapped up the main portion of the depression study, and now we’re doing follow-ups and preparing the data for publication. We had 24 participants—all studies here are done on people, not animals. Preliminary findings show approximately half of the participants had complete remission of depression at one month after the intervention of psilocybin plus psychotherapy, which is very promising.

When will potential treatments be available to the public?

DAVIS: We expect the full study to be published this coming year. After that, it can take several years before the treatments are approved by the FDA and made available to the public.

What has been the biggest challenge you’ve encountered in your research?

DAVIS: Funding. The government hasn’t been backing this kind of work. So to get $17 million in private money [donors include entrepreneur Tim Ferriss, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, and the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation]—that goes a long way to getting the quality of studies we need to move the therapeutic research forward.

A psychedelic experience lasts a few hours, but depression can haunt a person for years. How can a single dose of psilocybin have such a lasting effect?

DAVIS: A couple of days after use, the person experiences a halo effect. Their mood improves, and they may be more open to suggestion. We use that time to help them make lifestyle changes to alter their outlook. It’s not like the person just takes psilocybin, and that’s it. We still use a full therapyOpens in a new Window. approach, and we’re optimistic this may lead to greatly improved outcomes in people who have not found success in traditional treatment in the past.

So it’s 10 years from now, and psilocybin has been approved for medical use. How will it work, practically speaking? Will a person get a prescription for psilocybin?

GARCIA-ROMEU: That is probably one of the greatest misconceptions around this work. This is not a take-two-and-call-me-in-the-morning type of treatment. Nor is this like cannabis dispensaries where patients pick up the medication and take it at home, unsupervised. Psychedelics have the potential for much more intense and unpredictable psychoactive effects, so it’s best to administer them under carefully controlled conditions, in conjunction with intensive psychological support. Probably the best parallel in current medical care would be getting general anesthesia before surgery—this only happens at a medical facility under the careful supervision of a specially trained doctor and support staff.

Even so, this sounds life-changing for some people.

DAVIS: Absolutely. We see a future where we can actually heal these problems instead of simply trying to reduce symptoms. Our results point to a potential neurological and psychological basis from which we can understand this healing potential, and that could revolutionize our understanding of what “treatment” actually means. No longer would we be trying to help people get by, but they might actually heal and then thrive.

Story from Men’s Journal

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Health Canada says it hasn’t tested health effects of cannabis vaping but will release new products anyway

‘There has been no analysis done,’ agency says, because products not yet on market

Addiction Treatment Gets Psychedelic With ‘Shark Tank’ Investor-Approved Startup

By Harmon Leon – December 17, 2019

We all know the lore of LSD microdosing in Silicon Valley. It’s been hailed as a job-enhancer in the tech industry. A very small dosage, around 10-15 micrograms, has been noted to lift energy and creativity—without the “trippy” effects. Let’s just say it really helps your focus.

Needless to point out, there’s so many mysteries to unlock about psychedelic drugs. This is due to the incredibly little scientific research that has been done on the topic since psychedelic, such as LSD and mushrooms, have been classified as Schedule 1 drugs.

SEE ALSO: Could Legal Cannabis Upend the $41 Billion Sleep Aid Market?

We don’t know, over a long period of time, if microdosing actually has true positive or negative benefits, largely because of how hard it is to get funding for research.

A big reason why psychedelic drug research got side-railed in the ’60s was primarily because it became intertwined with the hippie movement. Unless, of course, it was the CIA doing top secret LSD “mind-control” experiments under the code name: MK-Ultra.

Acid guru Timothy Leary, whose mantra was “tune in, drop out,” became a target of the establishment and the man. During that era, LSD was seen as the horrific drug that crazed hippies dropped right before they committed the Manson murders. That pretty much nixed all medical research into the potential benefits of psychedelics. In fact, public schools at the time were shown “educational” films, in which those who dropped acid would surely encounter the screams of talking hot dogs.

Smash cut to 2019: Hallucinogenic drugs are now seen as a potential cure for depression, alcoholism and a means to get people off opioids.

Thus, startup company, MindMed, is getting some (get ready for a pun) buzz.

And there are no screaming hotdogs here; MindMed’s mission statement is to discover and develop medicines based on psychedelics. The company’s main priority is “to address the opioid crisis by developing a non-hallucinogenic version of the psychedelic compound ibogaine.”

“There’s a lot of untapped value in psychedelic substances because they’re [illegal],” JR Rahn, founder of the Toronto-based startup, told The Globe and Mail.

The company is less than a year old. And already investors are listening. MindMed announced in November that it had raised $15 million in pre-public financing from Canaccord Genuity, an investment bank which was heavily involved in financing the Canadian cannabis sector. Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary was also part of an investment round of $6.2 million. Yes, something must be up—if MindMed got one of TV’s longest standing “sharks” to invest in the venture.

O’Leary explained to Fast Company: “This could save lives, cure depression, help alcoholism, get people off opioids—why wouldn’t I want to be invested?”

The compound, 18-MC (which is based on the natural psychedelic substance ibogaine), has yet to undergo human efficacy trials, but it’s been trumpeted as potentially reducing a person’s addiction to cocaine, methamphetamine, morphine, alcohol, and, not to mention, sugar.

MindMed came about while Rahn was living in San Francisco, working for Uber, where he found inspiration from the Silicon Valley microdosing trend; not only were tech workers using it to get a focused edge, but they were also implementing usage to wean themselves off of stimulants, such as Adderall. His mission, then, became to focus on psychedelics as medicine—that wasn’t based on tripping.

“We feel psychedelics are moving into a high value creation period that is starting to attract institutional investors and not just retail investors,” Rahn said. “You can point out the studies to regulators and say ‘this works.’ That’s a defensible business,” he added, pointing out the wealth of psychedelics-related clinical trials.

MindMed’s endgame is to have patients suffering from addiction be able to pick up these medicines from their local pharmacy with a prescription.

Rahn feels that if MindMed can prove its ability to produce results with these drugs, the laws will change and allow them to push forward.

It’s good to see that research on the beneficial effects of hallucinogens has evolved beyond the scare tactics of the ’60s.

“We feel there is an immense opportunity to create next-gen versions of psychedelics for approval as FDA drugs,” said Rahn. “We believe that hallucinogenic therapies have great merit and benefits for treating addiction.”

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Three quarters of teens who vape report using nicotine, marijuana, or multiple substances

A new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine provides data that highlight disturbing trends in teen e-cigarette use

ELSEVIER – December 16, 2019

Ann Arbor, December 16, 2019 – More teens who vape are using addictive or mind-altering substances than previously believed, according to a new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier. The data paint a different picture than previous research because of the significantly higher proportion (75 percent) of teens who vape using nicotine, marijuana, or multiple substances and not just flavoring. These findings add to growing public health concerns about youth vaping.

“Our study provided a more nuanced view of youth e-cigarette use behaviors than earlier studies. We found that youth were more likely to report vaping nicotine and marijuana than ‘just flavoring’ only, and that cigarette smoking intensity was associated with an increasing proportion of students reporting vaping nicotine only,” explained co-investigator Hongying Dai, PhD, Associate Professor, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA.

This study examined patterns of youth vaping nicotine, marijuana, and just flavoring in the past 30 days by analyzing data from the 2017 Monitoring the Future (MTF) cross-sectional study. Of the 14,560 teens participating in that study, 12 percent reported vaping within the prior 30 days, with 7.4 percent using nicotine and 3.6 percent, marijuana. Of that group, only 24.9 percent reported vaping just flavoring only, while a majority (75.1 percent) reported vaping nicotine, marijuana, or multiple substances.

Current cigarette smoking intensity was associated with an increased risk of reporting vaping all three substances. Compared with 8th graders, more 10th and 12th graders reported vaping nicotine, marijuana, and just flavoring during the study period. Female students were also less likely to report vaping these three substances than male students. Fewer non-Hispanic blacks reported vaping nicotine and just flavoring than non-Hispanic whites. Hispanics were also less likely to report vaping nicotine.

The prevalence of e-cigarette use among US youth increased dramatically during 2017-2019, partly due to the rising popularity of products with nicotine salt and pod-based products like JUUL, and a large number of flavors appealing to adolescents. The nationwide increases in use led the US Surgeon General to issue an advisory about the epidemic in 2018, but much more needs to be done to reverse the upward trend. Due to the recent spate of vaping-related lung injuries, calls for restrictions on flavored vaping products and e-cigarette use have become more urgent. Identifying substances vaped by youth is critical to formulating, implementing, and evaluating population-wide strategies and interventions to curb youth use of these products.

“Continuous surveillance of youth behaviors and strategies and interventions to reduce youth e-cigarette use are needed. The truth is that no form of tobacco is safe,” added co-investigator Mohammad Siahpush, PhD, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA.

Story From EurekAlert

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Psychedelics: The Next Wave For Investors?

Magic mushrooms, LSD, MDMA and the like could be game-changers for mental health.

Garyn Angel

 Published December 5, 2019

It’s a wild time to invest in alternative medicine — just think about how much wealth has come from the widespread legalization of CBD and expanded access to full-spectrum cannabis in recent years. As we observe the successes and failures from these first-wave ventures, investors are now identifying a natural link to the early (yet potentially explosive) world of commercial psychedelics.

Why? Similarly to how people are using cannabis and CBD to treat themselves, these compounds are positioned to become the next big thing in mental health treatment.

Psilocybin, LSD and MDMA are being recommended as potential treatments for anxiety, depression and C/PTSD by a growing number of reputable institutions, with research indicating that these compounds could also have far-reaching effects for people struggling with substance abuse, smoking addiction or processing grief. The psychedelic-psychiatric breakthrough happens when you take one of these drugs, resulting in a dissolution of the ego, which can lead to a new perception of reality and one’s place within it.

Wherever You Go, There You Are 

Scientist Albert Hofmann, the first known person to synthesize LSD (and several other powerful psychedelic compounds), argued passionately against the public’s casual recreational use of these drugs during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Hofmann’s initial discovery of LSD was set aside for five years until April 1943, when he returned to his earlier therapeutic research on the compound.

At the core of Hoffmann’s theory is the idea that psychedelics can aid an individual in readjusting their perspective, ultimately leading them to the realization that they are a small part of something much, much bigger than themselves. Side effects of this experience can include feeling deeply connected, an increase in empathy, confidence to approach situations in a new way and a reinvigorated sense of purpose. This reframing can be a powerful tool in the psychological treatment process. Similar to CBT or EMDR, psychedelics are being looked at as a kind of hard reset for patients living with a wide variety of complex mood disorders. For many people, the “trip” can be a life-changing experience.

A Long, Strange Trip Begins

Researchers are already discovering the great potential psychedelics have for public health.

Rick Doblin, Ph.D., founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (or MAPS), has been working the line between psychedelics and psychotherapy since 1986. Doblin’s team is focused on advancing critical professional dialogue around the study of psychedelics as a treatment aid for trauma, PTSD, schizophrenia, depression and more. It’s essential to support research from institutions like MAPS to help legitimize, understand and properly apply psychedelic treatments in psychotherapy.

Johns Hopkins University recently opened a new Center for Psychedelic Research thanks to a $17 million gift from donors. Paul B. Rothman, Dean of the Medical Faculty at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and CEO of John Hopkins Medicine, is optimistic about this new field of medical, psychiatric and pharmaceutical research. “Our scientists have shown that psychedelics have real potential as medicine,” he said, “…and this new center will help us explore that potential.”

More Questions Than Answers

It’s natural at this stage to feel apprehensive in regards to investment in a new pharmaceutical sector. Is it legal? Does the industry have financial backing? How do you even begin to find a scientist to work on a project like this? Let’s take a look at where we are in North America today.

Denver, Co. and Oakland, Ca. both recently decriminalized possession of psilocybin, and legislation has already been drafted in many other locations across the United States.

Canada’s first psychedelic VC fund, FieldTrip Ventures, recently launched. The goal of a fund like this is to have products ready to launch in the days and weeks leading up to legalization, proving that the “early days” of this emerging market are already here.

Pharmaceutical companies are already actively developing psychedelic patents. Earlier this year, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration approved Johnson & Johnson’s ketamine-derived nasal spray, Spravato, for treatment-resistant depression.

ATAI Life Sciences is an interesting case, as the founder’s family offices (Apeiron Investment Group, HCS, Galaxy Financial) seed funded the start-up in 2018. ATAI recently closed a Series B financing, and has raised $80 million to continue research and development within the space.

RELATED: There Is A Lot To Learn Before Investing In Cannabis

Minimize Risk When Investing In Futuristic Technology

Think Clinically. Governments will likely try to keep experimentation limited to highly controlled, supervised scientific environments. To make the case for effective treatment of extremely complex psychiatric disorders, it’s critical to couple psychedelic drug therapy with talk therapy or professional therapeutic guidance, so it’s also likely that states will have to require a kind of rehab-like protocol for administering the drug to collect research. These in-patient facilities (or maybe even an on-call shaman), will become the dispensaries and delivery services of the psychedelic realm.

Embrace Science. Scientists and researchers are the most necessary element in building a case for the legalization and commercialization of psychedelics. Many cultures over thousands of years have created supervised ritual journeys based on the psychedelic journey, yet one common truth remains: scientific regulation is a very necessary step on the industry’s trip to success. Even as we speak, scientists are engineering bacteria to produce biologically-derived, lab-grown psilocybin, and there is a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs to improve upon the delivery method of these compounds.

Only Invest In Brands And People Who Execute. Talent matters more than the idea. Early entrants in the psychedelic capital game are fortunate to have proven business models from the recent commercialization of the cannabis industry to work from, and shouldn’t be afraid to hire talent from the cannabis industry. If investing, find a team or project that is mission-aligned, loves the work and is committed to building successful ventures in this new industry; even if it’s from the ground up.

Story from Greenwichtime.com

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Chart – Cannabis and Psilocybin

“#Cannabis & #Psilocybin Inducing #Metastatic #Breast #Cancer #remission” @CannMedEvents in Pasadena sept 23/24. Authors @Lindslulu21 @jagpauldeol @tomfolanmd @healercom_

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The top 4 health benefits of magic mushrooms

Story from Ecohustler

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Multiple sclerosis genomic map implicates peripheral immune cells and microglia in susceptibility

International Multiple Sclerosis Genetics Consortium
Science 27 Sep 2019:

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Psilocybin Sessions: Psychedelics could help people with addiction and anxiety

Study participants at some of the country’s leading medical research centers are going through intense therapy and six-hour psychedelic journeys deep into their minds to do things like quit smoking and worry less

October 13, 2019 – Anderson Cooper

For most of us, psychedelic drugs conjure up images of the 1960’s. Hippies tripping out on LSD or magic mushrooms. But these powerful, mind-altering substances are now being studied seriously by scientists inside some of the country’s foremost medical research centers. They’re being used to treat depression, anxiety and addiction.

The early results are impressive, as are the experiences of the studies’ volunteers who go on a six-hour, sometimes terrifying, but often life-changing psychedelic journey deep into their own minds.

Carine McLaughlin: (LAUGH) People ask me, “Do you wanna do it again?” I say, “Hell no. I don’t wanna go do that again.”

Anderson Cooper: It was really that bad?

Carine McLaughlin: Oh, it was awful. The entire time, other than the very end and the very beginning, I was crying.

Carine McLaughlin is talking about the hallucinogenic experience she had here at Johns Hopkins University, after being given a large dose of psilocybin, the psychedelic agent in magic mushrooms, as part of an ongoing clinical trial. 

Roland Griffiths: We tell people that their experiences may vary from very positive to transcendent and lovely to literally hell realm experiences.

Anderson Cooper: Hell realm?

Roland Griffiths: As frightening an experience as you have ever had in your life.

That’s scientist Roland Griffiths. For nearly two decades now, he and his colleague Matthew Johnson have been giving what they call “heroic doses” of psilocybin to more than 350 volunteers, many struggling with addiction, depression and anxiety.

Anderson Cooper: Can you tell who is going to have a bad experience, who’s gonna have a transcendent experience?

Roland Griffiths: Our ability to predict that is almost none at all.

Anderson Cooper: Really?

Matthew Johnson: About a third will– at our– at a high dose say that they have something like that, what folks would call a bad trip. But most of those folks will actually say that that was key to the experience.

Carine McLaughlin was a smoker for 46 years and said she tried everything to quit before being given psilocybin at Johns Hopkins last year. Psilocybin itself is non-addictive.

Anderson Cooper: Do you remember what, like, specifically what you were seeing or?

Carine McLaughlin: Yes. The ceiling of this room were clouds, like, heavy rain clouds. And gradually they were lowering. And I thought I was gonna suffocate from the clouds.

That was more than a year ago; she says she hasn’t smoked since. The study she took part in is still ongoing, but in an earlier, small study of just 15 long-term smokers, 80% had quit six months after taking psilocybin. That’s double the rate of any over-the-counter smoking cessation product. 

Roland Griffiths: They come to a profound shift of world view. And essentially, a shift in sense of self that I think–

Anderson Cooper: They– they see their life in a different way?

Roland Griffiths: Their world view changes and– and they are less identified with that self-narrative. People might use the term “ego.” And that creates this sense of freedom.

And not just with smokers.

Jon Kostakopoulos: Beer usually, cocktails, usually vodka sodas, tequila sodas, scotch and sodas.

Jon Kostakopoulos was drinking a staggering 20 cocktails a night and had been warned he was slowly killing himself when he decided to enroll in another psilocybin trial at New York University. During one psilocybin session, he was flooded with powerful feelings and images from his past.

Jon Kostakopoulos: Stuff would come up that I  haven’t thought of since they happened.

Anderson Cooper: So old memories that you hadn’t even remembered came back to you?

Jon Kostakopoulos: I felt, you know, a lot of shame and embarrassment throughout one of the sessions about my drinking and how bad I felt for my parents to put up with all this.

He took psilocybin in 2016. He says he hasn’t had a drink since.

Anderson Cooper: Do you ever have a day where you wake up and you’re like, man, I wish I could have a vodka right now or beer?

Jon Kostakopoulos: Never.

Anderson Cooper: Not at all?

Jon Kostakopoulos: Not at all, which is the craziest thing because that was my favorite thing to do.

Using psychedelic drugs in therapy is not new. There were hundreds of scientific studies done on a similar compound – LSD – in the 1950’s and 60’s. It was tested on more than 40,000 people, some in controlled therapeutic settings like this one. But there were also abuses. The U.S. military and CIA experimented with LSD sometimes without patients knowledge.

Fear over rampant drug use and the spread of the counterculture movement, not to mention Harvard professor Timothy Leary urging people to turn on, tune in and drop out, led to a clamp down.

In 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the controlled substances act and nearly all scientific research in the U.S. Into the effects of psychedelics on people stopped. It wasn’t until 2000 that scientist Roland Griffiths won FDA approval to study psilocybin.

Roland Griffiths: This whole area of research has been in the deep freeze for 25 or 30 years. And so as a scientist, sometimes I feel like Rip Van Winkle.

Anderson Cooper: And once you saw the results…

Roland Griffiths: Yeah. The red light started flashing. This is extraordinarily interesting. It’s unprecedented and the capacity of the human organism to change. It just was astounding.

Anderson Cooper: It sounds like you are endorsing this for everybody.

Roland Griffiths: Yeah, let’s be really clear on that.  We are very aware of the risks, and would not recommend that people simply go out and do this.

Griffiths and Johnson screen out people with psychotic disorders or with close relatives who have had schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Study volunteers at Johns Hopkins are given weeks of intensive counseling before and after the six-hour psilocybin experience; the psilocybin is given in a carefully controlled setting one to three times. To date, they say there’s not been a single serious adverse outcome.

We were told we couldn’t record anyone participating in the study while they were on psilocybin because it might impact their experience, but we were shown how it begins – without the psilocybin.
 
You lay on a couch, with a blindfold to shut out distractions and headphones playing a mix of choral and classical music – a psychedelic soundtrack with a trained guide, mary cosimano, watching over you.

Everything is done the same way it was for the LSD experiments scientists conducted in the 1950s and 60s. Some of the most dramatic results have been with terminal cancer patients struggling with anxiety and paralyzing depression.

Kerry Pappas: I start seeing the colors and the geometric designs and it’s like ‘oh this is so cool, and how lovely’ and, and then, boom. Visions began.

Kerry Pappas was diagnosed with stage III lung cancer in 2013. During her psilocybin session, she found herself trapped in a nightmare her mind created.

Kerry Pappas: An ancient, prehistoric, barren land. And there’s these men  with pickaxes, just slamming on the rocks. So…

Anderson Cooper: And this felt absolutely real to you?

Kerry Pappas: Absolutely real. I was being shown the truth of reality. Life is meaningless, we have no purpose. And then I look and I’m still like a witness, a beautiful, shimmering, bright jewel. And then  it was sound, and it was booming, booming, booming. Right here right now.

Anderson Cooper: That was being said?

Kerry Pappas: Yes. “You are alive. Right here right now,  because that’s all you have.” And that is my mantra to this day.

Michael Pollan: It seemed so implausible to me that a single experience caused by a molecule, right, ingested in your body could transform your outlook on something as profound as death. That’s– that’s kind of amazing.

Author Michael Pollan wrote about the psilocybin studies in a bestselling book called “How to Change Your Mind.” As part of his research, he tried psilocybin himself with the help of an underground guide.

Anderson Cooper: The kind of things that cancer patients were saying, like, “I touched the face of God.” You were skeptical about when you hear phrases like that?

Michael Pollan: Yeah. Or, “Love is the most important thing in the universe.” When someone tells me that I’m just like, “yeah, okay.”

Anderson Cooper: So you don’t go for some of the phrases that are used?

Michael Pollan: No. It gives me the willies as a writer. And I really struggled with that cause during one of my experiences I came to the earth-shattering conclusion that love is the most important thing in the universe. But it’s, that’s Hallmark card stuff, right? And um, so…

Anderson Cooper: And yet while you were on it and afterward…

Michael Pollan: It was profoundly true. And it is profoundly true. Guess what? Um…

Anderson Cooper: There’s a reason it’s on a Hallmark card.

Michael Pollan: There is a reason. And one of the things psychedelics do is they peel away all those essentially protective levels of irony and, and cynicism that we, that we acquire as we get older and you’re back to those kind of “Oh, my God. I forgot all about love.” (Laugh)

Pollan said he also experienced what the researchers describe as ego loss, or identity loss – the quieting of the constant voice we all have in our heads.

Michael Pollan: I did have this experience of seeing my ego– burst into– a little cloud of Post-It notes. I know it sounds crazy.

Anderson Cooper: And what are you are without an ego?

Michael Pollan: You’re, uh… (Laugh) You had to be there.

Researchers believe that sensation of identity loss occurs because psilocybin quiets these two areas of the brain that normally communicate with each other. They’re part of a region called the default mode network and it’s especially active when we’re thinking about ourselves and our lives.

Michael Pollan: And it’s where you connect what happens in your life to the story of who you are.

Anderson Cooper: We all develop a story over time about what our past was like and who we are.

Michael Pollan: Right. Yeah, what kind of person we are. How we react. And  the fact is that interesting things happen when the self goes quiet in the brain, including this rewiring that happens.

To see that rewiring, Johns Hopkins scientist Matthew Johnson showed us this representational chart of brain activity. The circle on the left shows normal communication between parts of the brain, on the right, what happens on psilocybin. There’s an explosion of connections or crosstalk between areas of the brain that don’t normally communicate.

Anderson Cooper: The difference is just startling.

Matthew Johnson: Right.

Anderson Cooper: Is that why people are having experiences of– seeing you know, repressed memories, or past memories, or people who have died or?

Matthew Johnson: That’s what we think.  And even the perceptual effect, sometimes the synesthesia, like, the– the seeing sound.

Anderson Cooper: People see sound?

Matthew Johnson: Yeah, sometimes.

Anderson Cooper: I– I don’t even know what that means.

Matthew Johnson: Right, yeah. (LAUGH) It’s– it’s–

Michael Pollan: Maybe the ego is one character among many in your mind. And you don’t necessarily have to listen to that voice that’s chattering at you and criticizing you and telling you what to do. And that’s very freeing.

It was certainly freeing for Kerry Pappas. Though her cancer has now spread to her brain, her crippling anxiety about death is gone.

Kerry Pappas: Yeah, it’s amazing. I mean, I feel like death doesn’t frighten me. Living doesn’t frighten me. I don’t frighten me. This frightens me.

Anderson Cooper: This interview frightens you, but death doesn’t?

Kerry Pappas: No.

It turns out most of the 51 cancer patients in the Johns Hopkins study experienced “significant decreases in depressed mood and anxiety” after trying psilocybin. Two-thirds of them rated their psilocybin sessions as among the most meaningful experiences of their lives. For some, it was on par with the birth of their children.

Kerry Pappas: To this day, it evolves in me.

Anderson Cooper: It’s still alive in you–

Kerry Pappas: It’s still absolutely alive in me.

Anderson Cooper: Does it make you happier?

Kerry Pappas: Yeah. And– and I don’t necessarily use the word happy.

Kerry Pappas: Comfortable. Like, comfortable. I mean, I’ve suffered from anxiety my whole life. I’m comfortable. That, to me, okay. I can die. I’m comfortable. (LAUGH) I mean, it’s huge. It’s huge.

Produced by Sarah Koch. Associate producer, Chrissy Jones

Story from 60 Minutes CBS News

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Why Do Magic Mushrooms Cause “The Yawns”?

The serotonin 5-HT2C receptor may play a key role.

AUGUST 16, 2019 – BARB BAUER

Excessive yawning is a side effect many people experience when they ingest psilocybin mushrooms (aka magic mushrooms). For some, it’s just annoying. For others, it’s a real distraction from their experience. In contrast, some people anticipate yawning and look forward to it because it lets them know the compounds in the mushrooms are coursing through their veins. But, what is it about magic mushrooms that cause yawning in some people?

What is a Yawn and Why Do People Do It?

Before delving into yawning and magic mushrooms, it’s best to understand what yawning is and why people yawn at all. Various research papers define yawning something like this; a long inspiration and rapid expiration that is accompanied by a “coordinated motor pattern” of opening of the jaw, closing the eyes and contracting the muscles in the face. Yawns sometimes include stretching of the neck arms and trunk.

The exact location of a yawning center (also called the yawing network or yawning zone) in the human brain has not been experimentally proven. Current theories suggest that the areas involved include parts of the cortex, limbic system, hypothalamus, and brain stem.¹ Scientists have learned from malformations and lesion studies that the core of the yawning center is located in the brain stem. Contagious yawning may arise from external pattern recognition in the neocortex, limbic system, and thalamus. Interestingly, several neurotransmitters and peptides have control over yawning. They include acetylcholine, dopamine, oxytocin, nitric oxide, excitatory amino acids, opioid peptides, and serotonin.^1,2

Over the years, scientists have developed four main hypotheses (in addition to contagious yawning, see below) to explain why people yawn.¹ They are the respiratory hypothesis, communication hypothesis, arousal hypothesis, and the brain-cooling hypothesis. More than one of these reasons may be at work in a given situation, and there are likely more yet undiscovered.

The respiratory hypothesis was first posed by the Dutch author Johannes de Gorter in 1725.³ He attributed the need for yawning “to a need for faster blood circulation and to cerebral anemia.” Other writers and scientists from that time until today have speculated that yawning was due at least in part to anemia and poor circulation in the brain, or as one early writing put it, “bad air in the lungs.” ¹ Several modern-day studies support the idea that yawning is caused by a low oxygen level in the brain (cerebral hypoxemia) or excessive carbon dioxide in the blood (hypercapnia). Krestel et al. reviews and discusses these studies in a 2018 paper in Progress in Neurobiology.

The communication hypothesis is basically what it says. Yawning is a means of communicating tiredness and boredom between humans which synchronizes group behavior.⁴ It is interesting to note that people who view uninteresting and repetitive stimuli have been shown to yawn more frequently.⁵

According to experts, the arousal hypothesis and the brain-cooling hypothesis need more research to determine their validity.¹ The arousal hypothesis contends that yawning is a biological response that helps regulate the waking state and activity level. Currently, the brain-cooling hypothesis of yawning is thought to be more valid in cats and dogs who do not exchange heat as effectively as humans via their body surface.

And, yes, scientific studies have shown that not only is yawning is contagious, but some people are more susceptible than others to contagious yawning. How it works in the brain is not completely understood, though. One study using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) found that trying to resist yawning increases the urge to yawn. However, it doesn’t change a person’s propensity for contagious yawning.⁶ From these behaviors and the TMS data, the authors hypothesized that cortical excitability and physiological inhibition in the primary motor cortex may be the areas of the brain that control a person’s propensity for contagious yawning.

Is Yawning a Good or Bad Side Effect?

The term “side effect” carries with it connotations of unpleasantness and potential negative consequences. Although some magic mushroom users find yawning annoying or distracting or both, others anticipate and welcome it as part of the whole psychedelic experience. Here are some examples of comments from sites like Bluelight, Erowid, Shroomery, and Reddit.

“I find it’s really therapeutic. The yawning, crying, sweating etc… on shrooms. Its feels like all the pressure and energy is being released.”

“Some trips you get normal yawns, some you get the crazy long psychedelic yawns, I personally love that feeling intense yawns are the best.”

“Yeah I have yawns that like stretch my jaw when I’m tripping balls, weird feeling, doesn’t feel like a normal yawn. One time I thought I got possessed by mushrooms because of this.”

Interestingly, information from experience reports and online discussion boards indicates that yawning often occurs on the “come up.” This observation could be important for understanding the pharmacology of magic mushroom components. Here are some examples:

“That’s [yawning is] always the sign for me that things are setting into waking dreamworld.”

“I have noticed a pattern that [yawning] happens more often than not when I ingest shrooms, where an exponential increase in the amount of yawns I experience occurs as I approach the peak of the trip. The closer I get to the peak, the more im yawning, and the less I am able to control it.”

“I’m kinda used to it, but I know when the come-up is about to start because I get the yawns.”

“Yeah, on the come-up and the first hour or so it’s yawn city.”

“I yawn a lot during the come up of tryptamines (especially psilocybin and 4-aco-mipt), but once through the come up, the yawns stop.”

Magic Mushrooms and Excessive Yawning

There are no scientific studies directly examining why magic mushrooms or the compounds in them cause some people to yawn excessively. However, revealing some hints may be possible by extrapolating what is known about the physiology of yawing to the compounds found in magic mushrooms, particularly psilocybin analogs like serotonin and other derivatives, and how well they bind to serotonin receptors.

The involvement of serotonin in causing yawning was first proposed in 1979 in studies using rats.⁷ Since that time, additional research has found that serotonin binding to 5-HT_2C receptors is likely the conduit that results in yawing in humans.⁸ The binding of agonist compounds to 5-HT_2C has been found to increase yawning in a dose-dependent manner, and the binding of antagonists to the receptor reduces yawning.

The next piece of information needed for this analysis is data indicating if and how well compounds in magic mushrooms bind to the 5-HT_2C receptor. The PDSP Ki database maintained by the US National Institute of Mental Health contains binding affinity data for hundreds of compounds and molecular targets. In particular, the binding inhibition constant, K_i indicates how strongly a compound binds to a receptor. Lower K_i values indicate less binding inhibition and higher binding affinity for a receptor.

For example, the K_i for serotonin on the human 5-HT_2C receptor is anywhere from 2.0 – 56.0 nM depending on the test conditions. Psilocybin’s K_i value at 5-HT_2C is >10,000 nM. This makes sense based on what is known about psilocybin being a prodrug of psilocin, meaning psilocybin should have a higher K_i and hence a less affinity for the receptor. And then there’s psilocin. It’s K_i at 5-HT_2C is around 97.0 nM, meaning it has a greater affinity for the receptor than psilocybin, which also makes sense. But back to the point of yawning, these data indicate that psilocin could cause yawning even though its affinity for the 5-HT_2C receptor is less than that of serotonin.

Scientists know that different compounds can have different effects when binding to the same receptors. For example, the neurotransmitter serotonin elicits feelings of well-being and happiness when it binds to the 5-HT_2A receptor. Serotonin also modulates learning, memory, and a myriad of physiological processes.⁹ In contrast, the magic mushroom agonist compound psilocin (the active dephosphorylated version of psilocybin) causes the psychedelic effect when it binds to 5-HT_2A.¹⁰ However, it is conceivable that the binding of magic mushroom agonist compounds to serotonin receptors could elicit a response similar to serotonin, e.g., causing yawning by binding to 5-HT_2C. Another intriguing fact to ponder in this context is that all known psychedelic compounds are agonists at both the 5-HT_2A and 5-HT_2C receptors.¹¹ Searching through discussion boards and experience reports reveals that yawning is also a side effect reported by people using LSD and 4-AcO-DMT.

It’s important to note that there are scattered reports on discussion boards of people yawning after ingesting a species of magic mushrooms but not the next time. This could be due to the chemical variability between batches of mushrooms that is brought on by soil conditions, climate, and other variables. It could also be related to the physical health and metabolism of the user.

The Bigger Picture – What Does This Mean?

The side effects of magic mushrooms such as yawning pose issues when using whole extracts from the plant flesh or the mushrooms themselves for therapeutic use. Granted, yawning is not a serious side effect and may be more of an annoyance for most people. However, any side effect could be better understood and possibly controlled by studying the individual compounds in magic mushrooms along with the entourage effect between the components.  It’s also important to know from a physiological standpoint why magic mushrooms cause yawning and some people. What it comes down to is formulations containing precise amounts of certain compounds may prevent many side effects and may also result in more effective therapies and user experiences.

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One Mystical Psychedelic Trip Can Trigger Lifelong Benefits

New research corroborates how taking psilocybin once forever changed my outlook.

Apr 28, 2019

As a science reporter and blogger in the digital age, I keep my antennae up for research trends and look for patterns that capture the zeitgeist of this era and reflect our collective unconscious. One noteworthy parallelism I observed this month is between two research papers that address religion, spirituality, and life satisfaction from different angles—but reach similar conclusions.

The first paper, “Oneness Beliefs and Their Effect on Life Satisfaction,” was written by Laura Marie Edinger-Schons of the University of Mannheim in Germany and published April 11 in Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.

The second paper (that in my opinion complements Edinger-Schons “oneness beliefs = greater life satisfaction” hypothesis) is by researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, “Survey of Subjective “God Encounter Experiences”: Comparisons Among Naturally Occurring Experiences and Those Occasioned by the Classic Psychedelics Psilocybin, LSD, Ayahuasca, or DMT,” and was published April 23 in PLOS ONE.

The chronological timeline of these two April 2019 papers from peer-reviewed journals and my reportage on their empirical findings has evolved over the past two weeks. On April 13, I wrote a post about Edinger-Schons work, “Does ‘Flow’ Open Our Minds to Believing in ‘Oneness’?”

My initial post on this topic framed her findings on increased oneness beliefs being linked to greater life satisfaction through the lens of flow. In her paper, Edinger-Schons speculates that losing oneself in an ego-dissolving state of flow may be a secular way for each of us to nourish stronger “oneness beliefs” over time, regardless of someone’s religion. I concur. (See, “What Driving Forces Help Us Go From ‘Flow’ to Superfluidity?”)

After digesting the Edinger-Schons paper, I realized that the triad of (1) manifesting a state of flow/superfluidity regularly through sports, (2) experiencing sublime awe in nature, and (3) a mystical psilocybin trip during adolescence had cemented my lifelong oneness beliefs. Over Easter Weekend, I wrote a post, “Psilocybin, Sublime Awe, and Flow Made “Oneness” My Religion,” that unpacked the genesis of my lifelong oneness beliefs based on these three interconnected factors. I published that post on April 20.

Serendipitously, my faith in Carl Jung’s concept of synchronicity and “meaningful coincidences” was corroborated on April 23, when, out-of-the-blue, I received an email blast from the Johns Hopkins University newsroom, “Experiences of ‘Ultimate Reality’ or ‘God’ Confer Lasting Benefits to Mental Health.” In a woo-woo, Twilight Zone kind of way, reading this study (Griffiths et al., 2019) about the long-term psychological benefits of having “ultimate reality” or so-called “God encounter experiences” (with or without psychedelics) gave me goosebumps because it provided evidence-based affirmation of so many things I’d tried to articulate a few days earlier based solely on my anecdotal, autobiographical experiences.

The new research by Roland Griffiths and colleagues at Johns Hopkins reaffirms the universal ability of one mystical psychedelic trip or having a profound “God encounter” without drugs to improve life satisfaction and psychological well-being for an indefinite amount of time.

Interestingly, Griffiths and colleagues found that over 66 percent of people who self-identified as atheists before having an “ultimate reality” or “God of your understanding” experience (with or without the use of psychedelics) no longer considered themselves atheists after having some type of “God encounter experience.”

“Experiences that people describe as encounters with God or a representative of God have been reported for thousands of years, and they likely form the basis of many of the world’s religions,” lead researcher Roland Griffiths, who is a professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in a statement. “And although modern Western medicine doesn’t typically consider ‘spiritual’ or ‘religious’ experiences as one of the tools in the arsenal against sickness, our findings suggest that these encounters often lead to improvements in mental health.”

Griffiths and his Johns Hopkins co-authors explain the design and terminology of their “Survey of Subjective ‘God Encounter Experiences'” in the paper’s introduction:

“The present study was undertaken to advance our understanding of both naturally occurring and psychedelic-occasioned religious experiences that are interpreted as an encounter with God (e.g., the God of your understanding), Higher Power, Ultimate Reality, or an Aspect or Emissary of God (e.g., an angel). [Nota bene: To simplify the writing of the present report, the term “God encounter experience” will be used as a label to refer to all four descriptive variants of these experiences. We have chosen to capitalize the word “God” to be consistent with the survey instructions and question wording.]

Most participants reported vivid memories of the encounter experience, which frequently involved communication with something having the attributes of being conscious, benevolent, intelligent, sacred, eternal, and all-knowing.”

Taken together, my interpretation of the latest empirical evidence on “Oneness Beliefs” and the four categories under the umbrella of “God Encounter Experiences” is that all of this terminology is using different words to describe the same phenomenon.

In my opinion, the main takeaway of these two April 2019 research papers by Edinger-Schons and Griffiths et al. is that psychedelic substances and flow states are both tools we can use to nourish our belief and connectedness to something much bigger than “I” or “me”—while simultaneously counteracting the global epidemic of “us” against “them” divisiveness that is often driven by religion.

There is an important caveat: Mystical psychedelic experiences can be extremely difficult. In a sub-section of their paper titled “God encounter experiences are not infrequently psychologically challenging” Griffiths et al. write:

“That such experiences may be both attractive and extremely difficult is consistent with the classic description of the dual nature of encounters with the “Holy” both as “mysterium tremendum” (referring to its awfulness and absolute overpoweringness) and “mysterium fascinans” (referring to its fascinating and attractive nature) by the theologian Rudolf Otto [48]. Likewise, that psychedelic experiences can involve both positive emotion including transcendence as well as highly distressing feelings such as fear and insanity have been well-documented [29,49,50].”

As Edinger-Schons (2019) posits, flow is a universally accessible, drug-free way to open our eyes to the power of “oneness” and our human commonality in ways that transcend religious differences. Psychedelic substances can also facilitate this process, but come with many more risks and, in my opinion, are not a sustainable way to tap into a sense of connectedness on a daily basis—even when taken in “microdose” quantities. (See, “Psychedelic Microdosing: Study Finds Benefits and Drawbacks” and “This Is Your Brain on Microdoses of Psilocybin.”)

For their recent study, the Johns Hopkins researchers conducted international online surveys that asked a total of 4,285 people around the globe to recall their most memorable encounter with a “higher power,” “ultimate reality,” “God of their understanding,” or “an aspect or representative of God, such as an angel.” They also asked survey respondents how they felt this experience had changed their lives.

There were two different 50-minute surveys. One survey was filled out by participants who had used psychedelics in the past; the other “non-drug” survey was for respondents who hadn’t ever tried psilocybin, ayahuasca, LSD, or DMT.

A total of 3,476 people responded to the psychedelics survey and 809 responded to the non-drug survey. Those who reported having a “God encounter” experience on psychedelics tended to prefer the term “ultimate reality” experience. Below is a bullet point list of other findings from this study provided in the Johns Hopkins press release:

• About 75 percent of respondents in both the non-drug and psychedelics groups rated their “God encounter” experience as among the most meaningful and spiritually significant in their lifetime, and both groups attributed to it positive changes in life satisfaction, purpose, and meaning.
•  Independent of psychedelics use, more than two-thirds of those who said they were atheists before the experience no longer identified as such afterward.
•  Most participants, in both the non-drug and psychedelics groups, reported vivid memories of the encounter experience, which frequently involved communication with some entity having the attributes of consciousness (approximately 70 percent), benevolence (approximately 75 percent), intelligence(approximately 80 percent), sacredness (approximately 75 percent) and eternal existence (approximately 70 percent).
•  Although both groups reported a decreased fear of death, 70 percent of participants in the psychedelics group reported this change, compared with 57 percent among non-drug respondents.
•  In both groups, about 15 percent of the respondents said their experience was the most psychologically challenging of their lives.
•  In the non-drug group, participants were most likely to choose “God” or “an emissary of God” (59 percent) as the best descriptor of their encounter, while the psychedelics group were most likely (55 percent) to choose “ultimate reality.”

Reading the final bullet point on this list is a reminder of the innumerable minefields surrounding the word “God.” Back in October of 1959, Carl Jung got into some hot water when he was asked during a “Face to Face” interview on the BBC with John Freeman, “Do you now believe in God?” After a thoughtful pause, Jung famously responded, “It’s difficult to answer. I know. I don’t need to believe. I know.”

C.G. Jung’s “I know. I don’t need to believe. I know.” response to whether or not he believed in God ruffled a lot of feathers in the religious community.

As someone who has had “God encounter” experiences both with and without psychedelics and under both secular and religious circumstances, I understand what Jung is trying to say on an intellectual and intuitive level. Once you’ve had any type of “conversion experience” that opens your eyes to the existence of Something (with a capital “S”) mystical and understand “oneness” as the interconnectedness of everything—you “KNOW” that there is some type of “God-like” existence in the universe.

Unfortunately, the semantics of finding appropriate language to describe these agnostic or religious “God” experiences often opens up a controversial can of worms. C.G. Jung addressed the backlash from referencing “God” the way he did during the BBC interview in a lengthy November 16, 1959 letter to a pastor named Valentine Brooke. In an excerpt from this letter published in The New God-Image: A Study of Jung’s Key Letters Concerning the Evolution of the Western God-Image, (p. 136 ) Jung writes:

“When I say that I don’t need to believe in God because I “know,” I mean I know the existence of God-images in general and in particular. I know it is a matter of universal experience and, in so far as I am no exception, I know that I have such experience, which I call God. So I say: “I know Him.” But why should you call this something “God”? I would ask: “Why not?” It has always been called “God.” An excellent and very suitable name indeed. Respice finem! I know what I want, but am doubtful and hesitant whether the Something is of the same opinion or not. Hoping I have succeeded in elucidating the puzzle. Sincerely yours, C.G. Jung”

Since temps immémorial, people from diverse worldwide cultures have described having profound mystical and religious “God” experiences while under the influence of psychedelic substances such as psilocybin-containing “magic mushrooms” or the Amazonian brew known as ayahuasca. There is growing evidence that these deeply meaningful encounters with “God” or an “ultimate reality” have healing properties that can last a lifetime after one “conversion” experience.

That being said, as a public health advocate: I do not condone the recreational use of psychedelic drugs. If you are considering trying any psychedelic substance, please make sure you’re in a safe place with a trustworthy support network and that you know exactly how many milligrams you’re consuming in relation to a “hallucinogenic dose” vs. “microdose” of that drug in relation to your body weight and how much food is in your stomach.

Although I had one mystical experience on psilocybin as an adolescent that hardwired my “oneness beliefs” and concepts of an “ultimate reality” in ways that I am eternally grateful to have encountered; I also had one terrifying “bad trip” that left some psychological scars and PTSD. Having one colossally bad trip (after ingesting a mega-dose of 5+ grams of dried magic mushrooms on an empty stomach) makes it impossible for me to even consider ever experimenting with psychedelic substances again.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever had a bad trip, but it feels like all the tumblers in your brain are turning and re-configuring; unlocking doors that should stay shut, closing windows that should stay open, all the while re-etching the blueprints of your psyche and the foundation of your soul. Psilocybin fuses your synapses into new configurations, permanently rearranging the architecture of your mind.” —Christopher Bergland in The Athlete’s Way: Sweat and the Biology of Bliss, 2007

Based on my life experience with accidentally ingesting way too many grams of psilocybin when I was still in high school, I agree that drug-based experiences with “Something Holy” can trigger both “mysterium tremendum” and “mysterium fascinans.” (See: “Psilocybin May ‘Reset’ Brain Circuitry of Depressed Patients” and “The Neuroscience of LSD Unlocks the Doors of Self-Perception.”)

You may be asking: “Based on the potential risks of ingesting psychedelic substances, is it worth it?” I cannot answer that question for you, but would recommend reading a highly informative April 25 post, “Your Questions About Psychedelics, Answered,” by fellow blogger Tom Shroder, author of Acid Test: LSD, Ecstasy, and the Power to Heal.

Psychology Today

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Doctors could tap ‘shrooms to relieve pain

Kim Painter, Special for USA TODAYPublished 12:05 a.m. ET Dec. 1, 2016

Psychedelic medicine, long taboo, is moving toward the mainstream: Two new studies show the hallucinogenic drug psilocybin might relieve anxiety and depression in cancer patients.

Dozens of distressed patients, treated under controlled conditions at two prestigious medical centers, saw spirit-lifting effects that lasted at least several weeks after taking the “magic mushroom” drug, according to results published Thursday in The Journal of Psychopharmacology.

In an unusual move, the journal also published 10 commentaries from experts in psychiatry, end-of-life care and drug policy. The experts said the studies were small and preliminary, but all supported continued research. They suggest psilocybin, while still illegal outside of studies, is “well within the accepted scope of modern psychiatry,” said an editorial by David Nutt, a professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College, London.

But the benefits remain unconfirmed and largely unexplained, commentators said. Just how a hallucinogenic experience might lift anxiety and depression over weeks or months is “the $64,000 question,” said Jeffrey Lieberman, a past president of the American Psychiatric Association and chair of psychiatry at Columbia University.  He co-wrote one of the commentaries calling for more studies.

The studies were conducted with 29 patients at New York University Langone Medical Center and 51 patients at Johns Hopkins University. All had advanced cancers and were anxious or depressed.

The research teams set up cozy living-room style clinics, where the patients were treated twice — once with a synthetic psilocybin dose strong enough to produce an hours-long hallucinogenic trip, and once with either a very low dose of psilocybin (at Johns Hopkins) or niacin, a vitamin that can cause warm, tingling sensations (at NYU).  Some got the real thing first; others got the substitute first.

The treatments were five to seven weeks apart, allowing the researchers time to compare the first patients to get the real treatment with those who waited. Then they gave the hallucinogenic dose to the rest, and followed everyone for another six months.

During their psilocybin experiences, the patients wore eye masks and headphones and were urged to lie back, listen to soothing music and “direct their attention inward,” said research leader Roland Griffiths, a professor of behavioral biology at Johns Hopkins. Therapists sat nearby, ready to comfort those who became briefly anxious or afraid, which happened in about one-third of cases, he said.

Patients reported the dream-like visions and heightened emotions typically produced by psilocybin. In the days and weeks afterward, therapists helped them sort through what many saw as “mystical experiences” of connection and love, Griffiths said.

The reported result: immediate sharp declines in anxiety and depression in patients treated first, when compared with initially untreated patients. Those who got delayed treatment also improved, and up to 80% were less distressed at the end of the studies than at the beginning. However, because all patients eventually got the drug, there were no comparison groups after the first few weeks — making it impossible to say whether the drug deserved credit for the prolonged improvements.

But, in results from the first weeks, “the overall effect sizes are really quite startling relative to what you would expect with other interventions,” such as antidepressants, Griffiths said.

“These are some very rich, powerful, experiences,” said Stephen Ross, an associate professor of psychiatry who led the NYU study.

New York participant Patrick Mettes gained “a tremendous insight into his own personal journey” and came away feeling that “love was the most important thing,” said his wife, Lisa Callaghan. Mettes died of his cancer in 2012. In a journal entry written shortly after his psilocybin dose, he said that at the peak of his experience, he became “one with everything in the universe. It was simply, perfection.”

Don’t expect your average local hospital or hospice to be offering hallucinogenic trips any time soon.  Any studies will require the permission of the Food and Drug Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration and local review boards.

And you should not try this at home, researchers stressed — distancing themselves from a history in which psychedelic advocates such as Timothy Leary urged widespread use of LSD, psilocybin and other hallucinogens. Leary, a Harvard psychologist, started out using the drugs in legitimate studies but grew inpatient to spread them to the masses, urging young people to “turn on, tune in, drop out.” Widespread reports of dangerous reactions led to criminalization of the drugs and a decades-long pause in research.

“These are drugs that have real dark sides,” Ross said. Griffiths agreed. “These experiences can be dangerous for some vulnerable individuals,” including those with a history of psychosis, he said. Cases of “people jumping out of windows or running into traffic and getting run over,” do happen, he said.

But, he said, “we can administer these drugs safely to people who are carefully screened and supported before, during and after.”

Researchers have already started studies in other groups, including alcoholics and people trying to quit smoking.

The two new studies were funded by the non-profit Heffter Research Institute.

USA Today

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A team of Johns Hopkins researchers is calling for magic mushrooms to be made legally available as medicine

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Drug danger chart shows which drugs you should never mix, and which you totally should

Vices September 10, 2018 By Eleanor Gray

Nobody is perfectly healthy. We all need drugs. Sometimes a combination of drugs. We get them from drug dealers.

Your indoor drug dealers — the ones who wear white lab coats, take payment by insurance, and operate under florescent lights — know about drug combinations: which drug combos are synergistic and heighten each other’s effects, which combinations you gotta be careful with. And which can kill you. They have apps and charts and books on it.

Your outdoor drug dealers, the ones who wear tie-dye shirts, take payment in beer, and operate under overpasses, don’t got jack. They’ll tell you that dilaudid and Benadryl will send you flying, or molly and caffeine is deadly, or Budweiser and vicodin makes Calculus II tolerable. This is how people aspirate and croak.

Well, the outdoor drug dealers are catching up in knowledge.

Read this amazing chart. It has twenty-five of the most popular scheduled drugs listed. Your safer drugs, like LSD, mushrooms and DMT, are on the top and left, and your more dangerous drugs, like opioids and benzos, are on the bottom and right.

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Canadian Researchers: Use Medical Marijuana Instead Of Opioids