Coursea To Offer 'Drugs and the Brain' Course

On December first, a free (as always) Drugs and the Brain course will be starting on Coursea. It is being taught by Cal Tech professor, Dr. Henry Lester and lasts for five weeks. It might be a good way to keep your brain fresh over the long winter break. You won't receive any college credit upon completion, but you do receive a certificate stating that you satisfactorily completed the course.

LSD as a Treatment for Alcoholism

I am a huge fan of the Joe Rogan Podcast. However, after regurgitating something I heard from the show over dinner with other international students, I decided to do some fact checking. In an episode Rogan mentions an LSD study where 90% of the subjects had no desire to drink alcohol after being administed the drug. This is incorrect; however considering Rogan releases two to three episodes of his show a week, often lasting up to three hours in length, mistakes are going to happen.

The study, which was conducted by Teri Krebs at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, found that 59% of the subjects reported that they used less alcohol after being administered 50 mcg of LSD. More importantly, 38% reported using less alcohol after receiving a placebo! Even if it is expected, I guess I am excited to see actual placebo results from a recreational drug. This is sure to make a great party trick!

Nevertheless, there were no statistically significant long term results (defined as follow-ups after six months). On top of that, there are perceived problem with running a study like this. For example, results simply being reported can be misleading as the subjects could simply lie. The sample size, which is barely over 500 participants is a little small. The study also notes that while research with LSD has been done before, the few studies that have been done almost all use different dosage amount (with the median dose being 500 mcg). Almost all of the studies also report that a small portion of the subjects had an "adverse reaction" to the LSD.

On the other hand, the short term results are still impressive, and the authors note that a single dose of LSD "compares well" with other medications given to alcoholics (naltrexone, acamprosate, and disulfiram), if LSD can stop patients from relapsing into alcohol dependency then more research need to be done. For example, instead of daily doses of the aforementioned drugs, what if a patient only needed to receive a dose of medication every three months instead? The article also notes that LSD had been used before in conjunction with psychosocial intervention by "eliciting insights into behavioural patterns and genersating motivation to build a meaningful sober lifestyle".

The most important thing to take away from this study are two quotes given in the discussion section from previous psychedlic studies:

"It was rather common for patients to claim significant insights into their problems, to feel that they had been given a new lease on life, and to make a strong resolution to discontinue their drinking."

"It was not unusual for patients following their  LSD experience to become more self accepting, to show greater openness and accessibility, and to adopt a more positive, optimistic view of their capacities to face future problems."

This suggests to me that there are much more, and possibly greater, clinical (and non-clinical) uses for LSD outside of alcoholism. 

Krebs, Teri S., and Pål Ø Johansen. "Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) for Alcoholism: Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials." Journal of Psychopharmacology (n.d.): n. pag. Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) for Alcoholism: Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. 8 Mar. 2012. Web. 13 June 2012.

Coffee Drinkers May Have Lower Risk of Death

I love coffee. In fact right now I am gulping down a hot cup of (unfortunately) instant coffee. However a few months ago I tried to quit drinking coffee all together, and the results were, simply devastating. Two weeks ago I picked it up again, and came to the conclusion that after drinking coffee heavily, I am an addict; only reassured by the fact that I will hopefully never have to suck cock in a dark alley way for my Folger's instant.

While browsing online for academic articles on coffee  I found this academic article; "The Association of Coffee Drinking with Total and Cause-Specific Mortality" (citation at bottom of post) which suggests that coffee drinking is correlated with lower mortality.

402,260 subjects were assessed twice, once in 1995 and then again in 2008.While it was originally found that there was an increased risk of death for coffee drinkers, it was also found that the coffee drinkers were more likely to smoke, and adjustments were made for in relation to this. After the modifier was applied, an inverse assosiation between coffee consumption and onset of mortality (with the exclusion of cancer) was found. The results were simmilar to those that had reported that they never smoked.

This study doesn't suggest why coffee drinking is associated with living a little longer; however it suggests that antioxidants many play some sort of role in this. It could be just as likely that "coffee drinkers" lead some sort of different "lifestyle". Honestly I would have thought the results would be the opposite considering caffeine is a stimulant. 


Freedman, Neal D., Yikyung Park, Christian Abnet, Albert R. Hollenbeck, and Rashmi Sinha. "The Association of Coffee Drinking with Total and Cause-Specific Mortality." New England Journal of Medicine (2012): 1891-904. Print.

Documentaries

Dear Readers,

I have been hard at work with the college guide, and the first draft will be sent out to be proof read soon.With all of my time normally dedicated to the site going towards this side project, I decided that the site is long overdue for an update. While you wait, here is a list of documentaries that I have not only seen, but highly recommend:

American Drug War
Film produced by Kevin Booth, long time friend of comedian Bill Hicks.It concerns partially with the issue of the CIA bringing cocaine into the coutry in the eighties.
link.

Beer Wars
Independent documentary about microbreweries in the US.
link. (US only)

Cocaine Cowboys
About the rise, and fall of cocaine runners in Miami.
link.

Ecstasy Rising
Narrated by Peter Jennings before his death. About how Ecstasy helps in curing port traumatic stress disorder. Also discusses what the perceived health risks of ecstasy were, to what they turned out to actually be.
link.

FrontLine: Anything
Frontline covers a plethora of trending subjects, and allows you to watch them all for free on their site.
link.

Good Copy Bad Copy
About mash-up culture. Contains interviews with Gregg Gillis.
link.

GG Allin - Hated
Documentary on the "Shock Rocker" GG Allin done as a NYU film project. Shows many of the vulgar things that he was known to do.
link.

Guerrila: The taking of Patty Hearst
Comprehensive doc on the Patty Hearst case. I used this as a starting point on learning about it for a project I did on this legal case.
link.

Louis Theroux's America's Most Hated Family
I highly recommend any documentary by Louis Theroux. In his Weird America series he lives with American families, or persons that he, or the British people find of interest. In this case it was the notorious Westboro Baptist Church.
link.
 
Hunt for General Tso
This is actually a short TED Talk about the history of General Tso's chicken, and Ameircan Chinese food in general. I was thinking about saving for a post on lectures I recommend, but if I ever do that, I will probably post it again because I like it so much.
link.

Into The Wind, The Story of Terry Fox
About amputee marathon runner Terry Fox. It's what I suggest to anyone who says they could never run a mile in their life.
link.

Making a Killing: The Untold Story of Psychotropic Drugging
Fair warning, this one is alarmist documentary. However, I think it makes a good point of showing the pharmaceutical companies as just another drug dealer.
link.

OUTFOXED: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism
Criticizes the Fox News channel, and accuses it of consumer fraud.
link.

The Two Escobars
Shows how Pablo Escobar was directly involved in the rise of Columbia's national soccer team, and the role his life played in the shooting of soccer player Andres Escobar.
link.

The Union
Doc about the marijuana industry.

link.

VBS TV: Anything
Vice TV's Travel Guide is more provocative than anything I have ever seen in the mainstream media; specifically the North Korea, Liberia, episodes.
link.

Waco: Rules of Engagement
Makes a strong argument that the United States government outright killed the Branch Davidians.
link.