The War on Drugs hasn't just destroyed cities and families by imprisoning millions while enriching organized crime syndicates: it's also denied millions more access to promising therapies for crippling psychological and physiological ailments. <\/p>\n
As former UK drugs czar David Nutt documented in his landmark book Drugs Without the Hot Air, the early years of psychedelics were a bonanza for psychological research, with paper after paper showing replicable beneficial effects from their use in a variety of contexts. That research -- and those therapies -- were buried for a half-century after the War on Drugs was declared, and they're only now starting to come back to light. <\/p>\n
A nonprofit called Fundamental has just launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise the capital for controlled, rigorous trials -- including one by Nutt himself, trying to sort out the real effects of LSD microdosing. You can choose the therapies and experiments you'll fund. <\/p>\n
Another beneficiary of the crowdfunded cash will be Rick Doblin, executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. Over the last three decades, MAPS has raised some $40 million for research into the therapeutic potential of psychedelics. But its not enoughphase three of Doblins study into using MDMA to treat PTSD will set the group back $25 million ($10 million of which theyve pulled in from two overachieving donors). And theyre not expecting much help from the governmentthough they did once get a $2.1 million grant from the state of Colorado to study PTSD with marijuana. <\/p>\n
This isnt MAPSs first tango with crowdfunding, either. It has used Indiegogo to fund a psychedelic harm reduction program at Burning Man, and again for a study that tested MDMA on traumatized veterans. But those campaigns were asking for total commitments of tens of thousands of dollars, not millions. <\/p>\n
With its cut of this new, larger round of crowdfunding, MAPS plans to bring sufferers into a clinic for three sessions of supervised dosing, after which the patient stays for the night. This is combined with 12 hour-and-a-half-long psychotherapy sessions. In a similar study published by the group in 2013, researchers found that doses of MDMA helped participants improve their PTSD symptoms long-term. <\/p>\n
Scientists Want You to Give Them Money to Study Psychedelics [Matt Simon\/Wired] <\/p>\n
report this ad <\/p>\n
These SolarGaps prototypes are interesting ways to harness sunlight as its being blocked. Note: the video is heavy on the promotion and light on the tech specs, but its a neat idea. <\/p>\n
While THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, seems to cause memory and learning impairment in young mice, surprising new research suggests that it actually reverses cognitive decline in elderly mice. From Scientific American: Researchers led by Andreas Zimmer of the University of Bonn in Germany gave low doses of delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, marijuanas main [] <\/p>\n
Wireds Rhett Allain built a rig with a laser and light sensor to study fidget spinner physics and determine how long it will spin based on the starting angular velocity. Allains article will make a great teachable moment for my kids, as in Ill ask them to read it and explain it to me. From [] <\/p>\n
There still isnt one unified AC power standard. Although USB power is definitely making plug convergence much more likely to happen down the line, plenty of older buildings still have whatever outlet made sense at the time they were wired for electricity. Since international travel will definitely require power adapters for the foreseeable future, anyone [] <\/p>\n
You probably get too much email. And its not because your spam filter isnt working. Every digital receipt you get, and each online service you use automatically puts you on any number of mailing lists. Throttle Pro lets you avoid hunting around for those minuscule unsubscribe links by preventing services from ever collecting your contact [] <\/p>\n
You know the feeling. The clock strikes 2:30, and all you have to show for your day is a lingering lunch coma, a growing stack of unread emails, and an empty document taunting you with its endlessly blinking cursor. It kind of feels like a panic attack, but its way more boring and no one [] <\/p>\n
report this ad <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
See original here:<\/p>\n
Crowdfunding controlled experiments with long-neglected ... - Boing Boing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The War on Drugs hasn't just destroyed cities and families by imprisoning millions while enriching organized crime syndicates: it's also denied millions more access to promising therapies for crippling psychological and physiological ailments. As former UK drugs czar David Nutt documented in his landmark book Drugs Without the Hot Air, the early years of psychedelics were a bonanza for psychological research, with paper after paper showing replicable beneficial effects from their use in a variety of contexts Continue reading