Get off my lawn

Posted on June 4, 2020 by Pete

Maybe I’m getting old, but it makes me just a little bit cranky to see everybody on Facebook finally “discovering” that our criminal justice system is broken.

SMH

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25 Responses to Get off my lawn

  1. Servetus says:
    June 5, 2020 at 10:02 pm

    A natural solution exists that exceeds the reach of the territorial imperative as well as the drug war. It exceeds the ubiquitous drug hoax that infects the body politic by making the contemptible activities of the US Justice Department clearly perceptible through the magic lens of a psychedelic chemical. Drug counterwarfare–drugs versus government–is what society needs at this critical moment in history. Thankfully, the current pathological christofascist sadomoralist drug agenda can be thwarted employing a mere fungus such as psilocybin, recently discovered at John Hopkins to reduce neural activity in the claustrum:

    5-JUN-2020 — Perhaps no region of the brain is more fittingly named than the claustrum, taken from the Latin word for “hidden or shut away.” The claustrum is an extremely thin sheet of neurons deep within the cortex, yet it reaches out to every other region of the brain. Its true purpose remains “hidden away” as well, with researchers speculating about many functions. For example, Francis Crick of DNA-discovery fame believed that the claustrum is the seat of consciousness, responsible for awareness and sense of self.

    What is known is that this region contains a large number of receptors targeted by psychedelic drugs such as LSD or psilocybin…. To see what happens in the claustrum when people are on psychedelics, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers compared the brain scans of people after they took psilocybin with their scans after taking a placebo. […]

    The scans after psilocybin use showed that the claustrum was less active, meaning the area of the brain believed responsible for setting attention and switching tasks is turned down when on the drug. The researchers say that this ties in with what people report as typical effects of psychedelic drugs, including feelings of being connected to everything and reduced senses of self or ego. […]

    Because of its deep-rooted location in the brain, the claustrum has been difficult to access and study. Last year, Barrett and his colleagues at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, developed a method to detect brain activity in the claustrum using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

    For this new study, the researchers used fMRI with 15 people and observed the claustrum brain region after the participants took either psilocybin or a placebo. They found that psilocybin reduced neural activity in the claustrum by 15% to 30%. This lowered activity also appeared to be associated with stronger subjective effects of the drug, such as emotional and mystical experiences. The researchers also found that psilocybin changed the way that the claustrum communicated with brain regions involved in hearing, attention, decision-making and remembering. […]

    AAAS Public News Release: Psychedelic drug psilocybin tamps down brain’s ego center

    Original Article: Psilocybin acutely alters the functional connectivity of the claustrum with brain networks that support perception, memory, and attention. Authors Frederick S., Barrettab, Samuel R. Krimmel, Roland Griffith, David A. Seminowiczc, Brian N. Mathure.

  2. NorCalNative says:
    June 6, 2020 at 3:06 pm

    @Servetus, Imagine the World-changing effects of an MK Ultra experiment on the Great cheeto.

    Kill the ego, save the free world.

    • Son of Sam Walton says:
      June 7, 2020 at 10:51 am

      Then some white dude above the age of 45, dressed like Gordon Gecko must drop LSD in his drink. This kind of looking person already floats in their water. You must look like a Shark. Trump might be SAVED.

      And did I read right: Magic Mushrooms are going Public on Wall Street?

      And Michele Alexander’s work is mind blowing.

  3. Servetus says:
    June 7, 2020 at 11:48 am

    If Trump were drained of his ego by magic mushrooms he’d be reduced to a mere wisp of orange vapor that gets blown away in a breeze. Or like the wicked witch of the west, “I’m melting, I’m melting….”

  4. Servetus says:
    June 10, 2020 at 7:54 pm

    Can cannabis receptors become saturated? CU Boulder researchers say marijuana potency levels don’t track intoxication levels:

    June 10, 2020 — Smoking high-potency marijuana concentrates boosts blood levels of THC more than twice as much as smoking conventional weed, but it doesn’t necessarily get you higher, according to a new study of regular users published today by University of Colorado Boulder researchers.

    “Surprisingly, we found that potency did not track with intoxication levels,” said lead author Cinnamon Bidwell, an assistant professor in the Institute of Cognitive Science. “While we saw striking differences in blood levels between the two groups, they were similarly impaired.” […]

    For the current study, the team assessed 121 regular cannabis users. Half typically used concentrates (oils and waxes that include the active ingredients without the leaves and stems). The other half typically used flower from the plant. Flower users purchased a product containing either 16% or 24% [tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)], the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. Concentrate users were assigned to a product containing either 70% or 90% THC.

    On test day, researchers drew the subjects’ blood, measured their mood and intoxication level and assessed their cognitive function and balance at three time points: before, directly after and one hour after they used.

    Those who used concentrates had much higher THC levels at all three points, with levels spiking to 1,016 micrograms per milliliter in the few minutes after use, while flower users spiked at 455 micrograms per milliliter. (Previous studies have shown that THC levels hover around 160 to 380 micrograms per milliliter after marijuana use).

    Regardless of what type or potency of cannabis participants used, their self-reports of intoxication, or “feeling high,” were remarkably similar, as were their measures of balance and cognitive impairment.

    “People in the high concentration group were much less compromised than we thought they were going to be,” said coauthor Kent Hutchison, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at CU Boulder who also studies alcohol addiction. “If we gave people that high a concentration of alcohol it would have been a different story.”

    The study also found that, among all users, balance was about 11% worse after using cannabis, and memory was compromised. But within about an hour, that impairment faded.

    “This could be used to develop a roadside test, or even to help people make personal decisions,” said Bidwell.

    The researchers aren’t sure how the concentrate group could have such high THC levels without greater intoxication, but they suspect a few things are at play: Regular users of concentrates likely develop a tolerance over time. There may be genetic or biological differences that make some people metabolize THC more quickly. And it may be that once compounds in marijuana, called cannabinoids, fill receptors in the brain that spark intoxication, additional cannabinoids have little impact.

    “Cannabinoid receptors may become saturated with THC at higher levels, beyond which there is a diminishing effect of additional THC,” they write.

    The authors caution that the study examined regular users who have learned to meter their use based on the desired effect, and does not apply to inexperienced users. Those users should still be extremely cautious with concentrates, said Hutchison. […]

    CU Boulder Today: Marijuana concentrates sharply spike THC levels but don’t necessarily get users higher

    JAMA Psychiatry: Association of Naturalistic Administration of Cannabis Flower and Concentrates With Intoxication and Impairment

    • darkcycle says:
      June 12, 2020 at 1:08 pm

      Actually makes sense. I recall a study done a few years ago that indicated it wasn’t the presence of THC that caused intoxication, but the RISE in THC levels in the bloodstream (and hence at the synapse). That rise, they speculated, caused the notable sensation of impairment, not simply the presence of THC. Those researchers found that even people who used large amounts of cannabis and claimed it no longer affected them still got “high” when the Blood level rose by a given amount in a short period of time. Those researchers also speculated that those folks who weren’t claiming to get intoxicated were unconsciously titrating their doses. So, yeah…makes perfect sense.

  5. Servetus says:
    June 20, 2020 at 12:53 pm

    A newly identified fifth member of the opioid receptor family, ACKR3, has led to a novel molecule, LIH383, that can be useful for chronic pain, stress, anxiety, depression, as well as for use in cancer therapy. Development of ACKR3 based compounds is anticipated to produce a therapeutic strategy to deal with the opioid epidemic:

    19-JUN-2020 — Specifically, LIH383 works by targeting and blocking the atypical chemokine receptor ACKR3, which the LIH researchers had shown to be a new opioid receptor with negative regulatory properties. The scientists demonstrated that ACKR3 possesses a high affinity for a variety of opioids, namely those belonging to the enkephalin, nociceptin and dynorphin families. However, the interaction between ACKR3 and these opioids does not generate the typical pain-relief or tranquillising ‘messages’ that arise when opioids bind to the so-called ‘classical’ opioid receptors.

    “Interestingly, we found that ACKR3 does not trigger the distinctive chain of molecular signalling events that results in painkilling effects. Instead, ACKR3 functions as a ‘scavenger’ that sequestrates the opioids that would otherwise bind to the classical receptors. In other words, ACKR3 is an atypical opioid receptor that traps the secreted opioid peptides and reduces the levels that can interact with traditional receptors, therefore mitigating their action and acting as a negative regulator of the opioid system”, explains Max Meyrath, co-first author of the study.

    “Our findings essentially brought forward a new and previously unknown mechanism to fine-tune the opioid system and modulate the abundance of natural opioids by manipulating the fifth member of the opioid receptor family, ACKR3. We therefore set about developing a molecule that would be able to tightly bind to and block ACKR3, with the aim of potentiating the natural beneficial effects of opioids on pain and negative emotions. This is how LIH383 was conceived”, says Dr Martyna Szpakowska, co-first author of the publication. The team subsequently carried out a proof of concept of the efficacy of LIH383 in modulating ACKR3 activity and filed a patent application in April 2020.

    These results open up alternative options for the treatment of chronic pain, stress, anxiety and depression, but also for cancer therapy. Indeed, aside from its newly-described role as an opioid receptor, ACKR3 was originally known as a chemokine receptor for its ability to also bind to chemokines — small proteins secreted by immune cells which mediate immune responses but which have also been shown to be involved in tumour initiation and metastasis. Specifically, ACKR3 is expressed abundantly in tumours such as glioblastoma – a highly aggressive type of brain cancer – and breast cancer, and its presence correlates with increased tumour growth, metastasis, resistance to chemotherapy and poor prognosis. “As an ACKR3 modulator that interacts and ‘interferes’ with ACKR3, LIH383 therefore also holds promise for the treatment of metastatic cancers, leveraging on our remarkable discovery of the dual chemokine-opioid ‘scavenging’ activity of this receptor”, underlines Dr Chevigné. “We expect LIH383 to act as a precursor for the development of a new class of drugs against pain and depression, thus offering an innovative and original therapeutic strategy to tackle the opioid crisis”, he adds. […]

    AAAS Public News Release: Renewed hope for treatment of pain and depression: Novel molecule targets a newly discovered opioid receptor with atypical properties and holds promise for alternative therapeutic strategies

    Nature Communications publication: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16664-0

  6. Servetus says:
    June 26, 2020 at 7:11 pm

    CBD as a treatment for Covid-19 diseases:

    May 27, 2020 — …Olga and Igor Kovalchuk from the Canadian University of Lethbridge happen to be operating on cannabis research since 2015 and have collected different varieties worldwide from which new kinds and extracts have been derived. These goods have revealed certain curative properties previously. Now, due to the international outbreak, both researchers have again looked at the outcomes of their job and are convinced that they have found promising approaches in the fight from the corona virus. They have begun to study the special receptors and proteins which the virus controls so as to join the body. As a result, a research paper has been submitted where the ramifications of health cannabis on Covid-19 were researched. The Kovalchuks say that, based on the preliminary data and pending additional research, anti-inflammatory cannabis extracts high in CBD content may modulate receptor levels in highly relevant tissues such as the mouth, lungs and intestinal cells. It has already been demonstrated that one of the receptors, called ACE2, is an integral portal through which the covid 19 virus enters the body.[…]

    https://cyber.harvard.edu/difficultproblems/CBD_is_of_Attention_for_a_Treatment_for_Covid-19_diseases

  7. NorCalNative says:
    June 27, 2020 at 1:05 am

    @ Servetus, this is more investor pitch than vetted science. A molecular biologist working for Care By Design in Santa Rosa breaks down the work at Lethbridge and why it’s not what it seems.

    Project CBD has his critique in a June 10, 2020 article. It’s worth reading. Apparently these folks have a cannabis mouthwash they want to bring to market.

    • Servetus says:
      June 27, 2020 at 11:49 am

      Cannabis mouthwash? Wouldn’t a Corona beer work just as well? Much thanks for the Project CBD referral.

    • DdC says:
      June 27, 2020 at 11:56 am

      Profits are the Prophets. I’ve kept research since March on Cv19 and Ganja or CBD. Nothing conclusive, lots of potential and CB properties that would aid relief, if not cure. Hemp cbd is all that is legal federally. Hemp seed oil is in grocery stores. Expectorant properties can help, I assume I’m preventing lots of stuff but I’m not a guinea pig and this one sounds nasty on older patients.

      Mar 18, 2020 – Jun 17, 2020
      CANNABIS AND THE CORONAVIRUS

      Colgate to acquire brand with new CBD line of toothpaste, mouthwash
      Colgate to acquire brand with new CBD line of toothpaste, mouthwash. Oral hygiene giant Colgate Palmolive is joining the ranks of major U.S. companies entering the hemp and CBD space, with one of its soon-to-be brands launching a line of cannabidiol-containing toothpastes, mouthwashes and lip balms.

      Colgate® Calming Clean with Hemp Seed Oil
      Toothpaste provides soothing comfort with a refreshing feeling. This anticavity fluoride toothpaste, infused with an herbal mint fresh taste, is perfect for strengthening enamel and providing clinically proven cavity protection.

      • darkcycle says:
        June 27, 2020 at 12:16 pm

        Seriously, Den. COVID is a no messin’ around disease. Keep yourself and your patients safe, buddy.

        • DdC says:
          June 28, 2020 at 11:32 am

          What made you think I’m not? I’ve been pushing sheltering since February or early March SC shutdown. State is trying to start but spikes in the red counties are keeping me from beaches. Or protests. Pretty simple, Cv19 is not alive, only we can spread it by not distancing. I tell the trump deniers a mask is like a the wall they whine about. Like I said…

          I assume I’m preventing lots of stuff but I’m not a guinea pig and this one sounds nasty on older patients. (me)

          I’m presently semi-retired kicking back the summer with most things delivered. Still have a wheel chair van to give rides if necessary. Got Medicare and starting SS. May take a road trip later.

          Problem is I feel obligated to warn maga idiots gathering in protest for their rights to take grandmas liberty not obeying safety guidelines. Not easy keeping out the thoughts that these racist, prohibitionists lapdog flag jerking gunuts are still Americans.

          Next Mass Suicide for Independence!
          https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EbkAtNhU4AMU3op?format=jpg&name=small

  8. Servetus says:
    June 28, 2020 at 12:50 pm

    A useful list of the 100 most cited cannabis and cannabinoid-related studies (from a year ago, June, 2019):

    https://jcannabisresearch.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42238-019-0004-y/tables/2

  9. Servetus says:
    July 9, 2020 at 11:10 am

    Risk takers and high-sensation-seeking personalities are more likely to enjoy bitter ales:

    9-JUL-2020 — Penn State sensory researchers … conducted a study that involved blind taste tests and personality assessments. […]

    “Traditionally, most researchers find that people who experience bitterness more intensely avoid bitter food or drink — so with heightened bitterness, they like it less, and therefore consume it less,” he said. “But here, we find that people who seek higher sensations and are more risk-taking, they like bitter beer such as India pale ales, if they also have greater bitter taste perception.” […]

    The connection between food liking and personality has been seen before, noted Hayes, … In a study spearheaded by one of his former doctoral students, his research group in the College of Agricultural Sciences found robust links between the liking of spicy foods and the high-sensation-seeking, risk-taking personality traits. Studies done in Mexico and Italy also have revealed similar findings…said Molly Higgins, who will receive her doctoral degree in food science this August.

    “Our data contradict the classic view that bitterness is merely an aversive sensation that limits intake. We found that increased bitterness perception does not always lead to decreased liking and intake — rather, it’s a positive attribute in some products for some consumers.” […]

    “Avoidance of bitter foods can impact health negatively, because bitter foods such as cruciferous vegetables, green tea and grapefruit contain healthy compounds like flavonols, which are reported to have antioxidant and anticarcinogenic properties,” she said. […]

    AAAS Public News Release: Sensation seekers, risk-takers who experience more bitterness apt to drink IPAs

    Related Journal Article: Personality traits and bitterness perception influence the liking and intake of pale ale style beers Authors Molly J.Higgins, Alyssa J.Bakkeab, John E.Hayes

  10. NorCalNative says:
    July 9, 2020 at 12:57 pm

    During the lockdown, I’ve been enjoying a local Humboldt double IPA @ 8.6%. Mad River Slammin Salmon out of Blue Lake, CA.

    • Servetus says:
      July 10, 2020 at 10:47 am

      I’ve enjoyed those brands. Slammin Salmon doesn’t kid around. The owner at my local corner store knows I like to try out different ales so he often stocks new brands for me to sample.

  11. Servetus says:
    July 16, 2020 at 8:06 pm

    CBD is found to reduce the cytokine storm in Covid-19, as well as partially or totally treating “lung tissue overgrowth, scarring, and swelling,” in a mouse study at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University:

    16-JUL-2020 — Cannabidiol, or CBD, may help reduce the cytokine storm and excessive lung inflammation that is killing many patients with COVID-19, researchers say. […]

    …COVID-19… researchers at the Dental College of Georgia and Medical College of Georgia have early evidence it could help patients showing signs of respiratory distress avoid extreme interventions like mechanical ventilation as well as death from acute respiratory distress syndrome. […]

    Our laboratory studies indicate pure CBD can help the lungs recover from the overwhelming inflammation, or cytokine storm, caused by the COVID-19 virus, and restore healthier oxygen levels in the body, says co-author Dr. Jack Yu, physician-scientist and chief of pediatric plastic surgery at MCG. […]

    Their model, which takes advantage of the large, unique genetic structure of the novel coronavirus, produced classic symptoms of ARDS like the overwhelming, destructive immune response, then CBD significantly downregulated classic indicators of the excess, like inflammation-promoting cytokines as it improved oxygen levels in the blood and enabled the lungs to recover from the structural damage.

    A major problem with SARS-CoV-2 is instead of just killing the virus, the over-the-top immune response can quickly disable the lungs, transforming them to a place where virus is replicated, rather than a place that makes oxygen available for our bodies and eliminates potentially harmful gases like carbon dioxide.

    Mechanical ventilators can take over these vital functions for a while, and enable critically ill people to use less energy to just breathe and have more energy to fight infection, while ideally the lungs recover from the assault. However evidence suggests 30-50% of patients who get to the point of mechanical ventilation, don’t survive. […]

    They looked at objective measures of lung function in mice like levels of proinflammatory cytokines, oxygen levels in the blood before and after treatment, as well as temperature, an indicator of inflammation. Oxygen levels went up, while temperatures and cytokine levels went down with CBD therapy. Days later, a more detailed analysis of the lungs, reinforced reduction of key indicators of destructive inflammation, which their model, like the virus, drove way up including reduced levels of IL-6 and infiltrating neutrophils.

    In fact, both clinical symptoms and physical lung changes resulting from ARDS were reversed with CBD treatment, they say. […]

    CBD quickly improved the clinical symptoms, then later detailed studies of the lungs showed damage to their structure, like tissue overgrowth, scarring and swelling, also had totally or partially resolved. Their next steps include doing similar studies on other organs impacted by COVID-19 including the gut, heart and brain, Baban says. […]

    AAAS Public Press Release: CBD may help avert lung destruction in COVID-19

  12. NorCalNative says:
    July 17, 2020 at 12:25 pm

    I’ve yet to see a study on cannabinoids that shows “Pure” single molecules are superior to whole plant synergies.

    CBD isolates do not have equivalent medical properties to whole plant. Any person with dispensary access can self medicate without having to wait for FDA trials and approval.

    This immunosuppressive feature is something that NIDA has portrayed as harmful. Seems the endocannabinoid system knows when to suppress the immune system and when not to.

    Hippie culture is way ahead of Big Advertising, aka Big Pharma on this.

    Lately when I hit reply to a comment I get kicked down into a new box. Is this a phone versus computer issue?

    • Servetus says:
      July 17, 2020 at 3:12 pm

      I don’t know about your reply icon, but here’s a study that uses cannabis obtained from the NIDA that reduces sickle cell disease pain, potentially displacing opioid prescriptions. Has the NIDA finally turned?

      17-JUL-2020–Cannabis appears to be a safe and potentially effective treatment for the chronic pain that afflicts people with sickle cell disease, according to a new clinical trial co-led by University of California, Irvine researcher Kalpna Gupta and Dr. Donald Abrams of UC San Francisco. The findings appear in JAMA Network Open.

      “These trial results show that vaporized cannabis appears to be generally safe,” said Gupta, a professor of medicine on the faculty of UCI’s Center for the Study of Cannabis. “They also suggest that sickle cell patients may be able to mitigate their pain with cannabis – and that cannabis might help society address the public health crisis related to opioids. Of course, we still need larger studies with more participants to give us a better picture of how cannabis could benefit people with chronic pain.”

      Opioids are currently the primary treatment for the chronic and acute pain caused by sickle cell disease. But the rise in opioid-associated deaths has prompted physicians to prescribe them less frequently, leaving sickle cell patients with fewer options.

      The double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized trial was the first to employ such gold-standard methods to assess cannabis’s potential for pain alleviation in people with sickle cell disease. The cannabis used in the trial was obtained from the National Institute on Drug Abuse – part of the National Institutes of Health – and contained equal parts of THC and CBD. […]

      AAAS Public News Release: Cannabis shows potential for mitigating sickle cell disease pain: Clinical trial co-led by UCI professor is first of its kind to use gold-standard methods

  13. NorCalNative says:
    July 17, 2020 at 6:15 pm

    @Servetus

    Has NIDA finally turned? I’d have a better guess for an answer if I could locate the amount of THC in the 1:1 THC/CBD vaped NIDA supplied weed.

    Were patients vaping hemp or terpene and flavinoid-rich flower with THC and CBD in equal amounts?

    History would suggest that if NIDA did in fact turn, it would be due to the opportunity to support a low, or non-THC product.

    I’m a longtime fan of Donald Abrams at UCSF. He’s been a great ally to the MMJ movement.

    • NorCalNative says:
      July 21, 2020 at 4:36 pm

      @Servetus

      I found the THC content used in the study. I came across it in the 2015/2016 Winter issue of 0’shaugnessy’s. Donald Abrams chose the NIDA-supplied pot with 5% each of THC and CBD.

      The article is titled – Dr. Abrams recruitment problem: patients already know treatment helps.

      “In general the FDA has been very cooperative and supportive of everything that I’ve done,” says Abrams, “but when we submitted the IND (Investigational New Drug) to study this CBD-THC cannabis, they said I couldn’t proceed until I gave them two animal pulmonary histopathology studies showing the effects of inhaling CBD on the lungs.

      They said that cannabidiol was an NME — a novel molecular entity that had not yet given to people. I said What?” FDA also gave Abrams the option of enrolling patients previously exposed to CBD “so you’re not putting them at any greater risks then they’ve put themselves,” he was told.

      “And then they made us add that CBD could cause sterility in men!”

      So couchies, did NIDA turn?

      • Servetus says:
        July 22, 2020 at 11:33 am

        It’s a bad sign when the government interferes in scientific research as the NIDA did with Dr Abramson. Political agendas within science never have a happy ending. Lysenkoism is an example. Another was Nazi Germany.

        Hitler was an 11th grade dropout who held intellectualism in contempt, including science. He considered science a frivolous pursuit, best done after all the important war business had been concluded. He especially singled out “Jewish science” for disrepute. German science education, once the best in the world, suffered mightily. Experts on the matter, such as Dr Sam Goudsmit who headed project ALSOS, a group assigned at the end of the war to determine how far the Nazis had come to building an atomic bomb, found little to no progress had been made. Had Hitler not run all the Jewish scientists out of Germany where many ended up working on the Manhattan Project, the Nazis might have succeeded.

        The government most likely to engage in this kind of conduct is one that’s totalitarian. The type of people most likely to cause trouble are fascists. Despite their menacing authoritarian demeanor, fascists tend to be extraordinarily frightened of well-educated people who can easily see through their façade, people like the scientists now working at the EPA or DoE under the Trump administration. Hence the need by fascists to suppress information and/or promote misinformation.

        Fascists in the US even have their own misinformed world view available online. It’s called Conservapedia and was created by Phyllis Schlafly’s son, Andrew. Among other things the site claims that Einstein’s theories of relativity are wrong.

  14. DdC says:
    July 18, 2020 at 10:18 am

    Study: U.S. Government Marijuana Has So Little THC, It’s Closer to Hemp

    Report: Federal Monopoly Obstructs Medical Marijuana Research
    https://t.co/z8cx4AvsQw?amp=1

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