UserWiki:David Hedlund/Misc

• use of psychedelics is associated with better mental health indicators during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Doctor Calls for "Temporary Approval" of Psychedelics to Treat COVID-19 Trauma
• Why to Take Psychedelics During the Corona Quarantine | DoubleBlind
• COVID-19 And Mental Health: How To Get Ketamine-Based Psychedelic Therapy From Home Using An App

Media news without peer reviewed medical report.

Some science journals that claim to peer review papers do not do so

Media news

LSD

Henry Suggitt

[I asked dancesafe.org to write an article about this case.]

https://metro.co.uk/2017/04/22/teenager-died-after-taking-fatal-dose-of-lsd-on-gap-year-6590132/ - "Henry was found to have 1.3 micrograms of LSD in his system, for every microlitre of blood and 31mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood."

The average adult has about 1.2 to 1.5 gallons (4.5 to 5.5 liters) of blood.

• 1.3 microliters LSD × 5 000 000 microliters blood = 6 500 000 microliters LSD = 6.5 g LSD
• 3.1 milligrams alcohol × 1000 ml blood × 5 = 15500 milligrams alcohol = 15.5 grams alcohol

Pilot studies

Stilton cheese

Possible lobbyist.

Stilton cheese can cause crazy or vivid dreams: "We also found evidence of a single, industry-sponsored laboratory study on the effects of food on dreaming (British Cheese Board, 2005). In 2005, the British Cheese Board conducted a study with 200 volunteers on the effects of eating cheese on dreams. The study purportedly found no evidence for the notion that eating cheese prior to sleep can induce nightmares, but did find evidence that different types of cheese can induce different types of dreams—for example, eating Stilton cheese often led to crazy or vivid dreams while eating cheddar cheese often led to dreams of celebrities. But although the results were widely reported in the media [e.g., “Sweet dreams are made of cheese,” Anonymous (Daily Mail), 2005], they were never published in a peer-reviewed journal, and the available information about the study is extremely sparse." - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4330685/ Note that 10 grams of Stilton cheese can cause a hypertensive crisis.

Bufotenin in Amanitas

Bufotenin (5-OH-DMT): One paper in 1953 (Wieland & Motzel) claimed to find bufotenin in A. muscaria extract but all subsequent research failed to confirm this result. Bufotenin is also not very potent when taken orally. Bufotenin is not believed to be present in the muscaria-class amanitas. - https://erowid.org/plants/amanitas/amanitas_info6.shtml

• Berkeley native Sasha Shulgin's fascination with the relationship between mind and chemical matter began, oddly enough, in the Navy during World War II. A severe infection on his left thumb required surgery. Before he went under the knife, he was handed a glass of orange juice, at the bottom of which he noticed some undissolved white crystals. Convinced it was a sedative, Shulgin drank the juice but resolved to stay alert. He promptly blacked out. Upon waking, he was surprised to discover that the knockout drug had been nothing more than sugar; his mind had tricked itself over the simplest of placebos. Shulgin resolved right then to devote his career to the relationship between drugs and the human mind." - http://www.eastbayexpress.com/gyrobase/2c-t-7s-bad-trip/Content?oid=1067358&storyPage=2
• Adrenaline caused a calm and relaxed state in volunteers told they were receiving a sedative. If told that the experimental drug was stimulating, volunteers felt the more typical anxiety and energy.^{[DMT, The Spirit Molecule, p30]}
• Niacin produces clear physiological changes and thus was used as a psychoactive placebo. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsh_Chapel_Experiment
• Rituals

   Nevertheless, indigenous ritual use indicates dose levels for T.
corymbosa, and I. violacea which are far lower than that perceived as
necessary to effect hallucinosis in members of modern Western cultures.
In Mexico, the only place in the world where the ingestion of morning
glory seeds has an established tradition of shamanic usage, a
hallucinogenic dose is said to be only thirteen seeds, a ritual amount
based on religious numerology rather than chemical analysis.
  To further confuse the issue, despite the higher concentration of
alkaloids in the Woodrose seeds, the trip is generally experienced by
Westerners as both somatically unpleasant and not particularly
psychedelic. In glaring contrast, Mexican shamans routinely ingest (to
us) subthreshold doses of a much less potent species to encounter
full-blown allies from the imaginal realm who aid them in their
diagnoses. What accounts for the discrepancy?
   Assuming good will and a desire for accuracy on the part of all
informants, one can only speculate on the significant disparities
separating the reports of Indians from Westerners. Perhaps the first
notable difference is that the Indians use their drugs ritually in a
religious and healing context, whereas Westerners are generally
recreationally or scientifically oriented. Perhaps there is some
relationship between religious belief, per se, and concepts relating to
homeopathic medicine which make the use of only thirteen seeds
effective in an indigenous context and not in Western settings. Then
there is the fact that the genetic make-up, as well as the growing and
harvesting conditions associated with each plant, often result in wide
variances in potency, considerations which apply to every species
discussed in this book.
  The presence of so many anomalies in the literature and folklore of
psychedelia favors an alchemical interpretation, that is to say, the
consciousness we seek to alter is at least as important as the substance
we use to alter it with. The same key may open many different doors,
but what might lie behind each portal will remain indeterminate until
entered.

^{[Psychedelic Shamanism, p145]}