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Magic mushrooms are changing the lives of terminal cancer patients

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Re: Magic mushrooms are changing the lives of terminal cancer patients

#11

Post by throwYAWZA123 »

xyzal wrote: post #2

Anecdote: I have suffered from anxiety since I can remember. I had the opportunity to take psilocybe a few times (always took about quarter of a dose than my trip-mates, out of fear of a bad trip, and most of the times had just subtle perceptual distortions), and the following days/weeks always seemed unusually serene.

Of similar background, I've expected to feel something but honestly felt nothing. Maybe a little hot on the cheeks. Reading about it more afterwards, seems regular taking of SSRIs may prevent the effects of shrooms.

Did you take SSRIs or similar medicine at the time? Did you feel the same effect in the first time?

Re: Magic mushrooms are changing the lives of terminal cancer patients

#12

Post by colechristensen »

rich_sasha wrote: post #6

I don't understand the controversy. We know full well the natural world is full of substances with significant impact on our bodies. Many such substances can even on average be harmful, but when used correctly, they are beneficial. Opioids come to mind first and foremost. It's not controversial to give e.g. serious accident victims a shot of morphine. Why are investigations into medicinal use of shrooms or marijuana…

Some of it is basically racist propaganda that entered the public consciousness and became "true".

Hallucinogens though... aren't just drugs that change something a little. They can give people profound religious experiences. Some people become an unsettling kind of prophet for a religion of the drug. In the 60s-ish era there were people that wanted to change the world with the drugs with plans to dose populations and leaders to effect major changes. They are very powerful things and with them minds can be rewritten... any sufficiently powerful tool is dangerous. Some early signals and bad actors (basically parts the drug culture that separated from the early scientists studying the drugs) scared the shit out of many in the established society and the propaganda machine turned on and turned them and drugs in general into an evil.

Sort of a knee-jerk stupid reaction that had some basis in real issues but was distorted and exaggerated by people who didn't know much of anything and just got on the bandwagon. (remind you of any other societal issues?)

Re: Magic mushrooms are changing the lives of terminal cancer patients

#15

Post by xyzal »

throwYAWZA123 wrote: post #11
xyzal wrote: post #2

Anecdote: I have suffered from anxiety since I can remember. I had the opportunity to take psilocybe a few times (always took about quarter of a dose than my trip-mates, out of fear of a bad trip, and most of the times had just subtle perceptual distortions), and the following days/weeks always seemed unusually serene.

Of similar background, I've expected to feel something but honestly felt nothing. Maybe a little hot on the cheeks. Reading about it more afterwards, seems regular taking of SSRIs may prevent the effects of shrooms. Did you take SSRIs or similar medicine at the time? Did you feel the same effect in the first time?

I was AD free at the time.

Re: Magic mushrooms are changing the lives of terminal cancer patients

#17

Post by heavenlyblue »

rich_sasha wrote: post #6

I don't understand the controversy. We know full well the natural world is full of substances with significant impact on our bodies. Many such substances can even on average be harmful, but when used correctly, they are beneficial. Opioids come to mind first and foremost. It's not controversial to give e.g. serious accident victims a shot of morphine. Why are investigations into medicinal use of shrooms or marijuana…

Playing the devils advocate, and I think this is a pretty strong point against shrooms: while opioids cause harm, their harm is incredibly mechanical (it’s just addiction) and can be managed well.

Shrooms play with your brain. We barely know how that works and quite frankly a lot of the research into managing the depressive episodes with shrooms may just be that you become more stupid and therefore less prone to thinking in the first place.

Re: Magic mushrooms are changing the lives of terminal cancer patients

#18

Post by coldtea »

colechristensen wrote: post #12
rich_sasha wrote: post #6

I don't understand the controversy. We know full well the natural world is full of substances with significant impact on our bodies. Many such substances can even on average be harmful, but when used correctly, they are beneficial. Opioids come to mind first and foremost. It's not controversial to give e.g. serious accident victims a shot of morphine. Why are investigations into medicinal use of shrooms or marijuana…

Some of it is basically racist propaganda that entered the public consciousness and became "true". Hallucinogens though... aren't just drugs that change something a little. They can give people profound religious experiences. Some people become an unsettling kind of prophet for a religion of the drug. In the 60s-ish era there were people that wanted to change the world with the drugs with plans to dose populations an…

>They can give people profound religious experiences. Some people become an unsettling kind of prophet for a religion of the drug.

Like 0.01%?

For every McKenna, Timophy Leary, etc, there were millions doing LSD in the 60s.

And the "prophets" were mostly a fashion of the era too.

When that died, in the 80s, and 90s and so on, you still had LSD, and shrooms, and Ecstasy, and others, but no "prophets".

Re: Magic mushrooms are changing the lives of terminal cancer patients

#19

Post by 3np »

blkknightarms wrote: post #3

Which psychedelics (shrooms, acid, peyote, salvia, ketamine, ayahuasca) would be best for endogenous, treatment-resistant depression? If there are any with a proven effect, do they have to be taken periodically?

Ketamine is not generally considered a psychedelic. It's a disassociative.

I don't think I've ever seen a study comparing this in the way you describe, but from piecing together other papers I recall seeing I would say probably psiloc(yb)in, possibly DMT ("ayahuasca"), with LSD and mescaline (peyote/san pedro) being qualitatively similar. All of these are primarily serotonergic.

I'd be surprised if Salvia does jack shit in that domain, regardless of how trippy the experience can be. It acts very differently.

Re: Magic mushrooms are changing the lives of terminal cancer patients

#20

Post by fsloth »

rich_sasha wrote: post #6

I don't understand the controversy. We know full well the natural world is full of substances with significant impact on our bodies. Many such substances can even on average be harmful, but when used correctly, they are beneficial. Opioids come to mind first and foremost. It's not controversial to give e.g. serious accident victims a shot of morphine. Why are investigations into medicinal use of shrooms or marijuana…

I presume the main reason for the controversy is the prevailing dogma "Drugs are evil".

This dogma has been used to enact countless bills of legislation in most rich countries, which in turn have encumbered the justice and police system, which in turn have put thousands upon thousands of people into to the correctional system for years.

After all that busywork, lives destroyed and taxpayer money wasted, it is really hard to suddenly jump ship and say "Nah, you know what... after all these lives destroyed and billions of tax money spent ... you know, we were wrong, let's rethink this".

Drug abuse should be handled as a public health issue, not a criminal issue. And it takes time and effort to rebalance the current status quo to a more humane and sane approach.

This vox article discsusses the political history of war on drugs:

https://www.vox.com/2016/3/29/11325750/nixon-war-on-drugs

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