It’s always fun, in a peculiar way, to look at video of the debate between Jerry Lettvin and Timothy Leary, held in 1967 at MIT, and broadcast on public television station WGBH. This was about whether it was a bad idea or a good idea to use psychedelic drugs to “drop out” of mainstream society. […]
Tag: drugs
Meth is Nothing to Sneeze At: A Possible Anti-Influenza Agent
Drugs almost always have more than one effect on the body. Witness this new study: “Methamphetamine Reduces Human Influenza A Virus Replication,” Yun-Hsiang Chen, Kuang-Lun Wu, Chia-Hsiang Chen [pictured here], PLoS ONE 7(11): e48335. (Thanks to investigator Ron Josephson for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at the National Health Research Institutes in Zhunan, […]
The German physicians’ ‘Body packer’ conundrum
If you were, say, a German surgeon performing an operation to remove illicit drugs from the body cavity of a ‘body packer’, what would be your options for disposing of the drugs – without breaking the law or transgressing ethical boundaries? Just such a conundrum is described in a 2004 article for the German medical […]
Theory ‘o Everything: Rats, Coffee, Drugs, Booze, Decisions
A new study involves rats, coffee, amphetamines, booze, decision-making, and lots more. It answers a good percentage of the questions you might care to ask about psychology or anything else. The study is: “Sensitivity to Cognitive Effort Mediates Psychostimulant Effects on a Novel Rodent Cost/Benefit Decision-Making Task,” Paul J Cocker, Jay G Hosking, James Benoit […]
Atmospheric Cocaine: The Italian Experience
“Are You Inhaling Secondhand Coke?” asks Elizabeth Norton’s report in ScienceNow, going on to say; We’ve all seen those color-coded air-quality charts on the news—warnings about smog, ozone, and pollen. Now it may be time to add a new alert to the list: illegal drugs. Researchers have found that regions with greater cocaine and marijuana […]
Toss expired medicines into a test tube?
There may, conceivably, maybe be a use for medicines that have become too old to use, suggests the celebrated inventor Prakash Vaithyanathan, a high school teacher in Chennai, India. On the Enexions web site he sketches his idea for an experiment: DISPOSAL OF EXPIRED MEDICINES Just out of curiosity I tried experimenting with just one […]
Reducing Vulnerability to Ecstasy
A US government document about the so-called “RAVE” act: Reducing Americans’ Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act of 2002 : hearing before the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, One Hundred Seventh Congress, second session on H.R. 5519, October 10, 2002.
Able on drugs and sex
Ernest L. Abel, one of the Detroit doctors who say the letter “D” foreshadows death, is the same Ernest L. Able who compiled and edited the highly stimulating (in its time) book Drugs and Sex, ISBN-13: 978-0-313-23941-0, 129 pages, Greenwood Press, 1983.
Able on marijuana
Ernest L. Abel, the Detroit doctors who say the letter “D” foreshadows death, is not only the same Ernest L. Able who compiled and edited the highly stimulating (in its time) book Drugs and Sex, ISBN-13: 978-0-313-23941-0, 129 pages, Greenwood Press, 1983. He also wrote the highly provocative (in its time) book A Marihuana Dictionary, […]