Magic Mushrooms Can Help Smokers Kick the Habit (npr.org) 80
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: New research shows that psilocybin might be an effective treatment for diseases such as depression and addiction. While the work is still in its early stages, there are signs that psilocybin might help addicts shake the habit by causing the brain to talk with itself in different ways. "These brain changes lead to, oftentimes, a sense of unity," says Matthew Johnson, an experimental psychologist at Johns Hopkins University. It all may sound a little "woo-woo," he admits, but it seems to be working. Early results suggest that psilocybin, coupled with therapy, may be far more effective than other treatments for smoking, such as the nicotine patch.
Psilocybin seems to work because it temporarily rewires the brain, according to Johnson. Sections that don't normally talk to each other appear to communicate more, and parts of the brain that normally do talk to each other talk less. Johnson's small initial psilocybin study was extremely promising. So now he is doing a larger, more rigorous trial comparing the nicotine patch to psilocybin. Results are still coming in, but right now, half of the people who took psilocybin are smoke-free after a year. That's about twice as effective as the patch. Nutt, who's now conducting his own follow-up trials on depression treatments, is impressed with Johnson's work. Nutt believes psilocybin potentially also could be used to treat other addictions, such as alcohol and opioids. But there are some reasons to be cautious. First of all, the amount of psilocybin Johnson administers in his trials is considered a high dose, and it's paired with months of counseling. Bad trips can be common for those using the drug for treatment of diseases, and memories and experiences brought up by the drug can be challenging and disturbing.
Second, the treatment is really expensive and the whole process takes months. Finally, not everybody should use psilocybin. People with predispositions for schizophrenia and other psychotic illnesses may be harmed by taking the drug.
Psilocybin seems to work because it temporarily rewires the brain, according to Johnson. Sections that don't normally talk to each other appear to communicate more, and parts of the brain that normally do talk to each other talk less. Johnson's small initial psilocybin study was extremely promising. So now he is doing a larger, more rigorous trial comparing the nicotine patch to psilocybin. Results are still coming in, but right now, half of the people who took psilocybin are smoke-free after a year. That's about twice as effective as the patch. Nutt, who's now conducting his own follow-up trials on depression treatments, is impressed with Johnson's work. Nutt believes psilocybin potentially also could be used to treat other addictions, such as alcohol and opioids. But there are some reasons to be cautious. First of all, the amount of psilocybin Johnson administers in his trials is considered a high dose, and it's paired with months of counseling. Bad trips can be common for those using the drug for treatment of diseases, and memories and experiences brought up by the drug can be challenging and disturbing.
Second, the treatment is really expensive and the whole process takes months. Finally, not everybody should use psilocybin. People with predispositions for schizophrenia and other psychotic illnesses may be harmed by taking the drug.
Yo BeauHD! (Score:1, Funny)
EditorDavid: Maaannn, these Al stories are sooo cccooolll man, you know the robots already took over the world, nobody realizes it yet. It's so full circle, maaaann. [ssssssp! *cough* *wheeze*]
BeauHD: Man, I just saw a crazy thing about how iOS has a bunch of Al in it to detect your cancer with its
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Not enough ? Holding them wrong ?
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Been effed up on shrooms many times, but...
still smoke.
Perhaps the months of therapy is the key?
I keep hearing ads on the radio station in my area "For just $49.95 you can quit smoking and/or takeoff weight with Kenda Summers and AnnaRose Anderson, Certified Professionals who are qualified, experienced, and who’s only job is Hypnosis and helping people."
Since it's "and/or", I should probably start smoking AND put on weight just to get my moneys worth. That way I can tell my friends and/or family that I quit smoking AND lost a ton of weight.
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When you took the mushrooms, did you want to stop smoking? Sorta kinda thinking about quitting smoking? Just wanted to trip?
Did you couple the mushrooms with a concerted effort to quit or did you think of a cigarette the next day and declare defeat and light up.
Couldn't find the cigs (Score:3)
After smoking the mushrooms, they couldn't find their cigs, or remember how to use a lighter.
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Psychedelics can wipe away all of these shortcuts and let you start with a fresh perspective. Kind of like cleaning a chalk board.
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Sure. That's why I question if OP actually wanted to quit smoking when he took the shrooms. An aid to behavior modification won't help if you don't want to modify the behavior. Kinda like just picking up a hammer doesn't make every unused nail in your house find something and drive itself in to it, but it really helps if your objective is to drive a nail.
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When you took the mushrooms, did you want to stop smoking? Sorta kinda thinking about quitting smoking? Just wanted to trip?
Did you couple the mushrooms with a concerted effort to quit or did you think of a cigarette the next day and declare defeat and light up.
Anecdotal but Psilocybin helped me quit marijuana. People take drugs (or continue to take drugs) because they are hurting, or because stopping would cause hurt (withdrawal). Psilocybin eased my burden and by the time the "afterglow" faded away (a month or so) I had gone through the withdrawal symptoms of weed and could more easily quit. I take about 3.5g every 4-6 weeks now to manage my mental issues.
Some more advantages- Psilocybin is rarely included in drug tests, it is not included in 13-panel uri
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I'd argue that the vast majority of them do it purely for recreational reasons.
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Personally, I'm not surprised. I was simply questioning OP's claim as being quite possibly a case of I took shrooms with no intention to quit smoking and somehow they didn't make me quit smoking.
Re:Been effed up on shrooms many times, but... (Score:4, Informative)
still smoke.
Dumbass. This isn't aversion therapy, the idea is to try not to smoke when you're taking them.
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Probably more to do with that you like to chemically enhance yourself recreationally. I believe treating people that don't might have more benefit.
Using Drugs is Culture for Some (Score:2)
Where I grew up it's kind of like you are supposed to use drugs and no one really cares. Some Native Americans had drugs as culture for a very long time.
I will say this, that in modern society, drug use is not in line with a successful pathetic, but to some cultures, getting high all the time is the successful path. I've always felt that doing drugs all day every day isn't really that bad of a life, it's actually fun except for the way non users and the law hates on you, but what happens is most users wil
Or may you think you have quit smoking (Score:2)
Researchers have assured us that the evidence is indisputable.
But when asked for their research they keep holding up a 1993 Yellowpages (Yellowpages were the Google for businesses before the internet)
Schedule I drugs (Score:5, Insightful)
There should not be any drug so dangerous that it is considered out of bounds for investigating medical uses, which is what defines a Schedule I Drug such as psilocybin. It's the dose that makes the poison. Just because a drug is something that is far too easy to overdose on doesn't automatically make it medically useless. Maybe there are a few drugs that should be considered unacceptable for medical use. In this case the drug should indeed be exceedingly difficult to use safely, and there should always have a process to make exceptions for exceptional cases. Such exceptions should be for investigating the medical use.
The idea of scheduling drugs was to allow for an administrative means to change the classification of a drug by a process far easier than having to pass legislation. As far as I know there's been no such drug that has been officially moved on this schedule administratively. Part of the problem is that any rescheduling must be approved by both the DEA and FDA. While the FDA might be fine with a drug being moved the DEA will not agree to this, as this could set a precedent that could make their job disappear. Which just shows that maybe the DEA should not exist, and all work they do now rolled back into the FBI and ATF.
Even though the federal regulations on marijuana has not changed the federal government is not enforcing the law on it's ban. This is a mockery of what defines a Schedule I drug. This makes the scheduling of any drug suspect. If a state can defy federal law without consequences then what other federal laws can states defy? Can a state simply declare that the citizens in the state don't have to pay income taxes? Are gun laws up for a state to defy as well?
In the article they mention psilocybin as something being considered to be legalized in a number of states, like marijuana this is a violation of the Schedule I status of the drug.
The Controlled Substances Act as a whole might need to be redone, or just tossed out, not just the status of marijuana and psilocybin. Heroin is a Schedule I drug, which is nonsense. Heroin is not the chemical name for the drug, in clinical settings it's called diamorphine, and outside the US it is prescribed regularly. This is because it is cheap to produce and has similar effect on the body, gram for gram, as hydromorphone, oxymorphone, and morphine. Fentanyl, a far more potent drug by about 10 times per gram, is a Schedul II drug, making this available for prescription.
Here's a chart on the equivalent doses for opiates: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
The war on drugs is a war on inexpensive, affordable, and effective medications. We have states that allowed for the recreational use of psilocybin, and the recreational use of marijuana is now well established as something the federal government is either unwilling or unable to do anything about.
What's next? Will states start to consider the legalization of heroin? I don't know if I would be surprised if they did.
Re: Schedule I drugs (Score:2)
It's *really* difficult to overdose on psylosiblin in a way that's going to do real harm. Just a bad time (or really good one).
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What's next? Will states start to consider the legalization of heroin? I don't know if I would be surprised if they did.
Heroin is not fully legal anywhere, but is semi-legal in many jurisdictions, so addicts can get prescriptions for legal heroin and avoid the dangers of overdoses and dirty needles. This also diverts money away from drug traffickers.
We should do the same in America. Legalization/decriminalization of heroin is not a panacea, but it is a big improvement over current policy. Heroin addiction should be treated by medical professionals, not the police.
Re:Schedule I drugs (Score:5, Informative)
Schedule I is already a mockery. It is supposed to be reserved for only the most abusable drugs that have no recognized medical use. The fact that doctors in good professional standing have prescribed marijuana anywhere in the country by definition makes it not a schedule I drug, yet there it sits on the list.
Even cocaine, methamphetamine, and PCP aren't schedule I because there have been a few cases where they have been legitimately used in medical practice.
We even lost the use of the perfectly good and specific term "narcotic" because the DEA was too medically illiterate to understand that stimulants are not narcotic.
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The war on drugs is a war on inexpensive, affordable, and effective medications. We have states that allowed for the recreational use of psilocybin, and the recreational use of marijuana is now well established as something the federal government is either unwilling or unable to do anything about.
What's next? Will states start to consider the legalization of heroin? I don't know if I would be surprised if they did.
And now the government is pushing hard to make the one already popular, proven less harmful than smoking, and relatively low cost method of getting people off tobacco illegal: Vaping.
I guess that would put too many people in the anti-smoking/smoking cessation sectors out of a job. Too many States would also be missing out on MSA payments from Big Tobacco along with those sweet, sweet tobacco taxes that most of those States took out bonds against based on future expected income from tobacco.
Many States need
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A fatal overdosing on psilocybin mushrooms? Yes, that is extremely difficult. The sheer quantity of mushrooms you'd have to eat effectively prohibits an overdose.
With that said however it's very easy to harm your psyche if you don't understand just how much of an effect mushrooms have, and if you don't understand what's going on harming the psyche can be very dangerous, though not exactly for the reason you might think.
Some say it's the ultimate achievement - killing your "self" without dying, ie. ego death
Re: Schedule I drugs (Score:2)
> As far as I know there's been no such drug that has been officially moved on this schedule administratively
MDMA was. It was in wide use by psychiatrists when DEA moved it to Schedule I. A DEA administrative court judge even recommended it not be rescheduled but a Reagan politicial appointee did anyway.
Recent research has demonstrated that MDMA is the only known cure for treatment-resistant PTSD, as suffered by rape victims and war veterans (in conjunction with medication-guided therapy) through amygd
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Ibogaine, a derivative of the Iboga root is a shamanistic drug that can cause hallucinations
It was available legally in the 1960's with a small-dose gum available in France that acted as a mild stimulant
It was placed on the Schedule 1 as a result of American politicians deciding that all potential hallucinogens are dangerous and have no benefit
We are now discovering that Ibogaine can reverse opioid addiction, and Ibogaine is legal for use as a opioids aversion therapy in many countries, including the EU, Ca
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It was placed on the Schedule 1 as a result of American politicians deciding that all potential hallucinogens are dangerous and have no benefit.
Fun fact, there are now quite a few psychedelics that are not explicitly scheduled, but instead fall under the Federal Analogue Act. This makes them legal to possess so long as they are not for human consumption.
A lot of this research into psychedelics and depression and addiction used to use good old LSD. Therapists switched to psilocybin since the experiences are of much shorter duration, 4 to 6 hours instead of 8 to 12. An unfortunate change in my opinion as I believe LSD is much more effective than
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LSD has become a pariah primarily due to the abuse of patients by the CIA with LSD in the MK Ultra experiments
IMO, any use of hallucinogens should employ 'training wheels', i.e. a guide and a very safe/familiar environment
My introduction was in high school and usually involved driving, rock climbing, and numerous activities that could have easily sent me to the Darwin bin
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There should not be any drug so dangerous that it is considered out of bounds for investigating medical uses
We apparently believe this for Botox, which is derived from Botulinum toxin. Quoting Wikipedia, "Botulinum is the most acutely lethal toxin known", and the whole world's supply of Botox can be manufactured using "less than one gram of raw botulinum toxin".
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We already did legalize drugs and handed out opiates like they were candy, you know what happened, people died, lots of them (70000 in one year). There were also significant costs to the health care system. Entire counties were decimated in the US. Almost everyone in the US knows some one who has overdosed with legal prescription painkillers. This is what happens when people use drugs. We need less people using drugs, not more.
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Funny thing, not all drugs cause fatal overdoses
The US just went for profits over safety
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The war on drugs is a war on inexpensive, affordable, and effective medications.
Furthermore, it does nothing to promote nuclear power plants.
Electroshock therapy (Score:2)
this can also help with smoking cessation. Same with Methamphetamines-- they help with both smoking and weight loss.
Actually there is truth in this! (Score:5, Interesting)
I quit smoking cigarettes after having an epiphany at the height of a fungal fugue.
I smoked half a new cigarette, threw it on the kitchen floor and never touched another cigarette. That was 30 years, 1 month, 13 days, 9 hours and 51 minutes ago, and i haven't thought about smoking even once since then.
From the age of 18 til that night, I'd been smoking 20-30 cowboy killers a day.
After my epiphany, sleep seemed like a good idea, so up to bed I went. I crawled under the covers for a bit of tossing and turning (as one does) and after a time I heard this horrendous crash from downstairs. I bolted down the steps just in time to see a guy covered in blood diving out my window and running across the backyard with my television. It seemed at the time like a diabolical test of the decision I'd just made because after that, well, fuck! I needed a cigarette. I didn't smoke one though, and haven't smoked one since.
So yeah, I totally see this working. I'm no head shrinker, but shrooms and the like allow the user the luxury of conscious control of threads that would otherwise be autonomous and automatic.
So when I told myself i no longer needed cigarettes, I no longer needed cigarettes. It was actually pretty easy.
Nothing comes for free though. After a couple weeks of not smoking and another epiphany, ;I became addicted to frozen yogurt from the shop across from where i'd been working. I was able to kick that, eventually, without any extra help :)
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Re: Actually there is truth in this! (Score:3)
I used to be really really arachnophobic after being bitten by a red back (Australian black widow) as a kid. When I was around 29 I took LSD with some friends and spent 3 hours talking to a giant friendly spider who might have actually been my friends confused Labrador. After that no more Arachnophobia at all.
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So you've thought about smoking at least twice since then.
repeating research from the 60s and 70s (Score:2)
No surprise... (Score:3)
And makes you jump out of the window (Score:1)
as even a 4 story high jump doesn't seem that crazy to escape them millipedes!
Too many tourists in Amsterdam though that they could fly.
Re: And makes you jump out of the window (Score:1)
That has been debunked over and over again, but sure, let's take whatever the government (especially the spineless Dutch one) says *without* a grain of salt -- history teaches us that they are extremely trustworthy.
There's plenty of serious research on psilocybin, none of it mentions anything about anyone believing they can fly.
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Re: Take more (Score:1)
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as even a 4 story high jump doesn't seem that crazy to escape them millipedes!
Too many tourists in Amsterdam though that they could fly.
As Bill Hicks pointed out, if someone believes they can fly after taking LSD, but doesn't start by trying to take off from the ground first, then we're not likely to be losing a cure for cancer when they do hit the tarmac.
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And then, smoking will help you quit... (Score:1)
The only way to stop smoking is cold turkey (Score:1)
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cold turkey, with mushrooms.... and cranberry frozen yogurt!
"experimental psychologist" (Score:2)
Now I know which profession I should have aspired to! Too late for occupational retraining now, I suppose....
Ate them a few times (Score:1)
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Once while tripping on mushrooms I felt like there was something deeply wrong with the world. The feeling lasted for the longest time.
I’ve been feeling something like that since late 2016, and I’ve never done mushrooms (except the edible kind they put on pizza).
Why not? We've known since the '60s ... (Score:2)
New research shows that psilocybin might be an effective treatment for diseases such as depression and addiction.
Why not? We've known since the '60s that LSD could cure a case of alcoholism in a single session. (Quite possibly by the same mechanism.)
the treatment is really expensive and the whole process takes months
Which may just mean it's an early experimental proof-of-concept by people spending enormous amounts of time and effort on red tape and interminable "counseling". Once it's been researched som
Cause LSD is too unpredictable. (Score:2)
LSD appears to extremely accelerate your neural plasticity. Meaning any sensory input will very quickly change you. For the better or for the worse.
I agree that that is an amazing tool, and we should move heaven and earth to make it safely usable. But right now, even a single thing triggering you with a bad memory might also competely ruin you for good. I knew guys like that from German/Dutch raves.
That is why it is recommended, to be in your own, known, safe environment, when doing LSD. And why any lingeri
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Re: Cause LSD is too unpredictable. (Score:2)
old story (Score:1)
1. Addiction you mean! 2. Vapers can do that! (Score:2)
It's not a "habit"!
Cigarette (not just nicotine) addiction is right up there in addictiveness in its own special category with Heroin and such. Things that you're chemically addicted to. Not just mentally.
So calling it a "habit" massively (and deliberately) understates its addictiveness.
Also, e-cigarettes are exactly so successful, at least here in Europe, because 1. switching to them is easy, 2. the liquids usially do not contain the apparently 600+ addiction-"enhancing" substances that make cigarettes so
...aaaaand it's illegalized. (Score:2)
A state built on freedom and bravery must accept that brave people are not free to medicate themselves. Or any other consenting, competent and informed adult.
Freedom doesn't mean you're free to do things to yourself in your own bedroom out of your own choice. /sarcasm off
One toke over the line (Score:2)
Best Pay As You Go (Score:1)
I've taken several "heroic" doses. (Score:1)
I was bored. What does that mean?
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Ingest more.
Tried that. Was twice as bored is that is at all possible.
Not New! (Score:2)
I've seen hallucinogens being considered (Score:2)
for other things as well.
Speaking as someone that dabbled twice when young, the things you see are pretty profound. I was reading an article about the use of psilocybin for treating depression and it talked about how even though people knew the things they saw weren't real they felt real, like dreams can. I can 100% concur with that observation. I had a great time the two times I did it and can see a benefit if their use can be coupled with an "advocate" aka, someone to aid them while under the influence
White mushrooms are even better. (Score:2)
Destroying Angel mushrooms are 100% effective in smoking cessation.
Bit of research, and a hint where to start. (Score:2)
For different drugs, there were different excuses. For Marijuana, I suggest you give Jack Herer's Emperor wear no clothes [jackherer.com] book.
The other drugs were banned for different reasons. If you research psychodelic drugs such as Mescaline, Peyote
Not new (Score:2)
Psychedelics being used to cure addictions is nothing new. It works with LSD against alcoholism too.
There are plenty of successes, both anecdotes (you can probably find them on erowid) and scientific literature (ex: https://journals.sagepub.com/d... [sagepub.com]).
And the issue is always the same. Psychedelics are very unstable, you can't give a well defined treatment and expect well defined results. And while they can do seemingly miraculous things, they can also fuck some people up. And we didn't find a reliable way to
This has been known for a long time (Score:1)