Live data from Hacker News

Magic mushrooms are changing the lives of terminal cancer patients

thetyee.ca

101–110 of 204 posts

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

#101
post #89
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It just might be the same thing as everything someone is doing more then others. Like building legos in your lego cave, going golfing every week etc. etc. Yes the experience of LSD is shattering your own reality but for me, i'm very conscious to not promote it in something everyone needs to experience. Having a flashback on the toilet 4 weeks later and thinking 'does it ever go away, am i imprisoned now, did i break…

Eh, if I were slowly dying over the course of weeks, and I were given 50/50 odds: "this wild ameliorate your mortality salience, or break your brain and make you crazy" I'd still take that. Heck, if you're worried about being crazy, you are probably less worried about death.

I would probably prefer a high morphine dose though.

Lying in a hospital bed and tripping for the first time might just a little bit crazy.

NOT! Saying it should be illegal, i think the current laws are braindead.

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

#103
post #20

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…

I would argue it goes beyond "drugs are evil" for many people and is more of a vestige of the country's backwards puritanical past. It has little to do with medicine and is more closely related to the idea that pleasure is wrong and pulls one away from devotion to the church, tithing, etc. If presented with a hypothetical recreational drug with no side effects, people with this perspective will immediately say it should be banned, or that taking it would be morally wrong. As long as people can derive enjoyment, even as a side effect, they will oppose. This is the ideological appeal used by them pharma industry to, for example, highly process medicinal Marijuana products to ensure no one might inadvertently enjoy them.

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

#105
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest it is more harmful than beneficial, these drugs can have a short term side effect of racing thoughts, distorted reality, increased heart rate, paranoia, etc, these effects are well known but people like riding rollercoasters. Long term harmful side effects include onset of schizophrenia, bipolar and psychosis, lung cancer, etc. More people are using drugs like shrooms and weed recreationally than medicin…

Are these long term side effects as common with a single dose of psilocybin? Or are they mainly the result of stronger psychedelics given over multiple doses.

My friend developed a chronic mental illness after one bad trip. It is like playing Russian Roulette with your brain chemistry.

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

#106

For me it's summed up in one of the addict stories that I read somewhere, where the guy said the hallucinogenic "spirits" basically told him to get off hard drugs or they would kill him. He's been sober since.

Along these lines, psilocybin has shown promise in the treatment of alcoholism: https://www.mdedge.com/psychiatry/article/202630/addiction-m...

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

#107
post #77
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. That's tax payer money at work?

The notorious film Reefer Madness was actually privately financed by a church group. As an example of how forbidding something can make it attractive, it was re-cut into an "exploitation" film...

> privately financed

this means we have no clue who paid right? as in: it could still be tax money through the CIA or smth.

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

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 thin…

I acknowledge you're playing devil's advocate, so don't take this too harshly, but the truism that "Shrooms play with your brain" is meaningless as an argument against shrooms—more so when contrasting it to "just an addiction" . Where is an addiction anywhere but the brain? Of course opioids play with your brain. So do SSRI antidepressants for example, whose very name is based on their most commonly accepted mechanis…

Opioid addiction is a clear mechanical fact. We know exactly what one needs to do in order to overcome opioid addiction (or how to avoid it on that matter).

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

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

different people have different tolerances. clearly your sweet spot was "half a dose" dude.

I think people underestimate the value of bad trips. Sure it can be hell and very unpleasant / traumatizing. But for me it really helped me realize all the stress and anxiety that was just sitting there for the past ~20 years. It had been there for so long that it was my "normal" and couldn't even see it.

While that's true for me as well, I still think the 3rd time was too dangerous. It'd have been safe enough with a trip sitter.

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

#110
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha, that's an awesome story. To write something so off the scale . Like, you were an A-student! And you wrote something that was so unbelievably good, your teacher didn't believe it. That is pure gold. So I have to ask. Do you still have that essay? And can I (email in profile), or we (HN), read it? I get it if you don't want to. Just asking if you're open to it :) I think your story isn't properly finished ;-)

Alas, I don't have a single thing from my school days, except exam certificates :(

Ah, great story though :)
Post reply on HN