Room 531

A Children´s Story of Marijuana..

2007-01-25T06:27:00.000-08:00

Not your ordinary children´s book, "It´s Just A Plant" is an illustrated book for kids about.. ehm.. marijuana.

On paper that might not sound like the brightest idea (as a matter of fact it sounds more like an idea cracked at the end of a very long smoking marathon..) and one could easily call into question the wisdom of writing a children´s book on the subject on marijuana.
But in a world where kids from kindergarten age gets the state disinformation treatment when it comes to drugs, it might just actually be the medication that the situation calls for.

Still, it could all turn out to be be nothing more than an elaborated and ambitious hoax..

Be that as it will, in either way the book itself is recommended reading and can be read online or, until 14 feb, downloaded for free as a PDF-file.

Cannabinoids and the brain..

2005-10-18T07:44:00.000-07:00

A recent study, published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, has found that a synthetic cannabinoid called HU210 promotes neurogenesis in the hippocampus of rats.
That is, that it helps the brain cells in the hippocampus to renew themselves. This is a groundbreaking and fascinating discovery since many other drugs instead suppresses the neurogenesis in these cells. The study also suggested that HU210 acts as an anxiolytic and anti-depressant in rats.
This, of course, is good news since it opens up for the possibility that the same properties may be possessed by the naturally occurring cannabinoids as well and in the best case scenario act in a similar way on humans.

How intriguing all this very well may be it still isn´t an excuse for the incredibly bad way that these news has been presented in many places. For an example, BBC´s online article has the headline 'Cannabis' acts as antidepressan t and continues with "a chemical found in cannabis can act like an antidepressant", whereas Nature used the headline Marijuana may make your brain grow.

It is important to remember that these findings concerns a synthetic cannabinoid, not present in Cannabis, and that he studies was made on rats and not humans. So making claims that Cannabis is good for the human brain might turn out to be just a little bit premature.

Link to an abstract of the study at JCI.

On a side note: I´m guessing that these articles also will spark an interest for HU210 among recreational drug users. Not only because of it´s potential neurogenesis promoting effects but mostly because it has been described as ´100 times more potent than THC´.
I´ve yet to find anything published on HU210´s potential psychoactive effects but if there is any resemblance to that of THC I wouldn´t be surprised if HU210 would turn up on the illicit drug market sometime in the near future.

LSD Symposium: A Hofmann´s 100th birthday

2005-10-08T02:47:00.000-07:00

On the 11th january 2006 the creator of LSD - Dr. Albert Hofmann - celebrates his 100th birthday, in his honour the Gaia Media Foundation stages an International Symposium on LSD on this date.

The speakers, with few exceptions, make up an impressive list of people in the field and include among many others:
Dr. Albert Hofmann, Rick Doblin, Ph.D., Dr. Jochen Gartz, Ph.D., Dr. Charles S. Grob, M.D., Dr. Stanislav Grof, Ph.D. , Michael Horowitz, Dr. Ralph Metzner, Ph.D., Jonathan Ott, Dr. Christian Raetsch, Ph.D., Dr. Alexander T. Shulgin, Ph.D. and Ann Shulgin.

The topics discussed will cover among other things the history of LSD, its role in the counter culture of the 60´s, its therapeutical properties, its impact on design, art and music, the nature and meaning of the psychedelic experience, drug law reformation, psychedelics and religion, as well as several topics on other psychedelics drugs such as psilocybin, LSA, DMT and the numerous tryptamines and phenethylamines examined and/or discovered by Alexander Shulgin.

All in all this 3-day symposium promises to be one of the greatest events ever regarding psychedelics and their place in society and anyone with an interest in psychedelics would be wise to attend, unfourtantly it looks like my economy won´t allow me to go..

Link here, or click on the picture below

Soon very soon..

2005-08-22T03:10:00.000-07:00

My new pet project...