Episoder
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Are you ready for a new drug? In this episode I interview neuroscientist Matthew Baggott about his new company, Tactogen, which is synthesizing and bringing to market new MDMA-like substances. We also discuss the pros and cons of the new psychedelic renaissance, what the mainstreaming of psychedelics might look like in the near future and how it might affect the underground culture, especially with the entrance of big money capitalists like Peter Thiel and the dreaded Compass Pathways.
Transcript of the Introduction
Hi everyone. In this episode I interview neuroscientist Matthew Baggott. Matthew has been a friend and colleague of mine for over twenty years. He was an early consultant for DanceSafe and heās recently founded a company, Tactogen, which seeks to synthesize and market new MDMA-like drugs, or entactogens. This is a fascinating interview. In it, we discuss the pros and cons of the new psychedelic renaissance, what the mainstreaming of psychedelics might look like and how it might affect the underground culture, especially with the entrance of big money capitalists like Peter Thiel and the dreaded Compass Pathways.
We talk about upcoming models for prescription psychedelics, including the potential for take-home prescriptionsā¦ what the lack of trained psychedelic therapists is going to mean for medical legalization, how the decriminalization movement and growing recreational psychedelic use, interfaces with the medical psychedelic movement, and a lot moreā¦
I did this interview a few months ago and whatās really interesting to me is that between then and now I actually had the opportunity to try a new entactogen that I had never taken before: 5-MAPB, or 5-methyl-amino-proply-benzo-furan. And I have to sayā¦. It was great! I loved it.
It was similar to MDMA, but unlike other entatctogens Iāve taken, I didnāt feel it was missing anything. It was a complete experience. And for me thatās different, because when I take other entactogens, like MDA (also known as Sass), or methylone (a cathinone class drug) ā¦ I always feel like I didnāt quite get where I wanted to be, as if the drug is trying to be like MDMA but just doesnāt quite get all the way there. So thereās always a feeling that somethingās missing.
But with 5-MAPB, I didnāt have that feeling. There was a kind of whole emotional component, a complete stress-free state like there is with MDMA. But the difference was there wasnāt that gushing, sort of overwhelming emotional empathy like there is with MDMA. It wasnāt mushy, in other words. There was a bit moreā¦ discernment I guessā¦ like you donāt feel compelled to tell complete strangers that you love them.
One way I like to describe it is that I used to think MDMA was just one effect, a continuous single effect. Call it the MDMA-entactogenic effect. And that other MDMA-like entactogens get you part of the way there. So like MDA or methylone always felt to me like ālesserā entactogens in this way. They only got you part of the way up the MDMA-like ladder, if you will.
But after taking 5-MAPB, I now realize there are two distinct effects from MDMA. Because 5-MAPB (to me at least) produces one of them in full completeness. And that would be the stress relief, and the sociability. The taking away of social anxiety. In this regard 5-MAPB felt exactly like MDMA. It wasnāt lesser in this regard. And this is something MDA and methylone donāt have. To me.
So if you can imagine two effects from MDMA. One the stress relief, and the other the mushy lovey-dovey part, 5-MAPB has all of one and none of the other. And given that I can no longer experience either with MDMA (because Iāve taken it too many times), I must say I am thrilled to have discovered 5-MAPB.
Anyway, when I did this interview with Matthew, I hadnāt had the 5-MAPB experience yet, and youāll hear I open with skepticism of him or anyone actually being able to find other entactogens similar to MDMA. He sort of convinces me in the interview that theyāre out there, but how strange that just a few weeks later I actually take one. And now Iām even more excited than ever at the potential to find even more, which is what Matthewās start-up is attempting to doā¦ with machine-learning algorithms, actually, which youāll soon hear about in the interview.
So Iām gonna keep this intro short. I do want to say that Iām beginning work on my documentary again after taking two years off, so thatās exciting. And the worst of covid MAY be coming to an end, at least in the US, which means we MAY see festivals start up again sooner than expected. So maybe life will get back to normal soon. But of course we have to watch closely whatās happening in India, and Brazil right now. Horrible. It shows that things can change quickly, and for the worse, as the virus mutates. So far the vaccines are amazingly effective, even with all the known variants, but we need to get them distributed fast, and globally, before even newer variants appear that may escape the vaccines. And while you or I canāt do much to speed up vaccine distribution, there is something we can do. And that is, get vaccinated. Mutations occur much more easily in non-vaccinated populations, so please, get your damn vaccine. I got mine. The risks of the vaccines are minuscule, whereas the risks of Covid are not as minuscule.
Ok enough of that. Letās get right to it. Hereās my interview with Matthew Baggott.
[Matthew's new company, Tactogen can be found here.]
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It's been almost a year since the pandemic ended mass gatherings. A year without live music and festivals has taken its toll on many of us. When will they start up again? In this episode I discuss the latest COVID science to try to find an answer to that question.
Rough Transcript
Hi everyone. Iām back, and once again . . . I know itās been a long time since my last episode. Iām not even gonna apologize this time, because in the end just gets ridiculous. All Iām gonna say is that I do INTEND to produce episodes more regularly. And I will at some point. But ā¦ so much has been happening in my life itās crazy. Iāll tell you about it briefly, and then weāll get into the episode, which is about covid and festivals. Basicallyā¦ when festivals are likely to start happening again.
Ok, but me firstā¦ Hereās whatās happeningā¦ A few months ago, in my last episode I told you about my mom and her dementia. And thank you everyone who wrote me with your sympathy and words of encouragement, and those who asked me how she was doing. Itās actually quite interesting. Sheās doing maybe 70% better, but she does still have dementia. It wasnāt all about the medication she was on. If you remember I was hopeful her problems were all about this one medication called pramipexole, and that once I got her doctors to discontinue it, she would get better. But it really wasnāt that.
It was another whole month before she improved. But hereās the thingā¦ I believe it was the covid that fucked with her brain, and that during those few months she had it, IT was responsible for wiping out her short term memory. I mean she couldnāt remember what we spoke about from moment to moment. Sheād literally say the same thing over and over, not realizing she just said it. But when she finally beat the covid, she slowly got betterā¦ I meanā¦ 70% better, which is hugeā¦ and that just doesnāt happen with typical Alzheimerās. With typical Alzheimers, itās a steady downhill. You donāt get better like that. You may have good days and bad days, but her improvement is dramatic. I really have my mom back. And I plan to visit her as soon as Iām allowed to travel internationally, and as soon I get a covid vaccine. She just got her first shot herself a few days ago.
But hereās why I think the covid affected her brain so much. You see, this virus can strike anywhere in the body, and thereās a lot of cases of people who get cognitive problems when they get covid, problems that can last a quite while. Youāve probably hear of post-covid brain fog. Thereās a lot of people talking about that, but thereās even covid-psychosis. Seriously. Some people who get covid literally become psychotic, as in full-on schizophrenia type psychotic. It doesnāt seem to be permanent, but these are people with no history of mental illness. Totally weird.
So we know this virus can affect the brain, and it can also produce lots of different symptoms all over the body. And soā¦ hereās my theoryā¦ Again itās just just a theory. But what I think is that some of these non-standard symptoms that some people getā¦ meaning more than a cough and fever and stuff, depend on the particulars of a personās immune system, and particularly, where that person might be experiencing inflammation. Preexisting inflammation.
Everyone has SOME degree of inflammation. Thereās so many toxins in our environment these days. So many foreign things getting into our bodies. And our immune system tries to recognize them and attack them, but sometimes it gets confused and attacks our own tissues instead, even after those toxins are gone. And this can cause chronic pain and disease. Inflammation is so common in fact that we take it for granted. Inflammation is the number 1 cause of pain and illness ā¦ by far. When it gets way out of hand people get diagnosed with autoimmune disorders, like ALS, multiple sclerosis, arthritis. You name it. There are so many. But ā¦ for the vast majority of us, inflammation remains mild. So we just take ibuprofen on occasion. But the thing isā¦ it tends to strike in the same place when it does. Wherever a person might get inflammation, thatās generally where it stays.
And so Alzheimers is correlated with brain inflammation. My mom was already in the early stages of Alzheimers when she got covid, which means she already HAD some inflammation happening in her brain. Then she got COVID and her main symptoms were in her brain. A total loss of short term memory.So I think whatās going on is that her immune system was already primed to attack the neurons in her brain. So when she got covid, the cytokines that attack foreign invaders, as well as that cause inflammation, mainly went there, and they went to town there.
So I think that covid is more likely to affect areas in your body if you already have inflammation going on there. And this is why itās hitting people with preexisting diseases so hard, because so many of them, like Alzheimers, are a result of inflammation, of the immune system being a bit out of whack.
Anyway, thatās my theory. And thatās my mom. Sheās doing so much better. Again thank you everyone who wrote me, with your love and support.
And let me just say one more thing before I move on from this. Remember in my last episode I gave a list of things you can do to prevent dementia. Well, hereās one more thing I learnedā¦ Tack this on to the list I gave in my last episode. And that is. Eat more fiber.
You see, fiber feeds the good bacteria in your colon that excrete anti-inflammatory molecules that prevent brain inflammation, molecules that sweep up cytokines and keep them in balance. And Alzheimers is highly correlated with low levels of these molecules.
This could be why Alzheimers is on the riseā¦ especially in the west, in the US and Northern Europe, because our diets suck and we donāt get enough fiber.So what are these bacteria in our colon that we need to keep happy? The first thing to know is they arenāt acidophilus and bifodus. Those are good bacteria also, and you can buy those in supplement form. Everyone knows about those. But weāre talking about different bacteria, lower down in your colon. And you canāt eat them for whatever reason. They canāt be put into supplements. So how do you increase them if you canāt eat them? And the answer isā¦ you feed them. Well, you could also get a fecal transplant where you stick some healthier personās poop up your buttā¦ and yes, this is really a thing. But letās not go there right now. And easier way to increase the number of these good bacteria in your butt is simply to eat fiber. Thatās what they live on.
So eat more vegetables people. I know I sound like your mom, but in this case your mom was right. Feed those good bugs in your poop and they will reward you by pooping out anti-inflammatory molecules in their poop, which will prevent dementia later in life. No joke. And remember to exercise and take your psychedelics regularly also.
So another reason I havenāt put out any new episodes in a few months is that ā¦ a few weeks after my last episode, I had to go to Florida, because the pandemic basically killed my family business and I had to go down there to shut it down. Itās a dry cleanersā¦ which has been in my family since 1937. My sister and I inherited it when our father passed away in 2012. But when covid hit people stopped going into the office for work, and so they stopped wearing dry cleanable clothes. So we lost 60% of our business almost instantly last March, and it hasnāt improved at all. So we basically had to close it, and Iāve been dealing with that, which is a lot of work.
But at the same time I wanna tell you something really good thatās happened in my life, and that has ALSO taken up a lot of my time. And that is Iāve met someone super awesome. Her name is Becky and she lives in Michigan. Sheās a friend of friend and we started chatting back in September and we really hit it off and so weāve been spending time together. She flew down to Florida when I was there and stayed with me in my RV and we took a trip around Florida and I just recently drove her back to Michigan, where I am right now. Soā¦ in the middle of all this trauma and death and financial collapse and NO FESTIVALSā¦ something actually really good happened to me in 2020.Anyway, thatās whatās been happening with me. Living in my RV. Mailing out fentanyl testing strips. Get them at DanceSafe.org everyone. Test it before you ingest it.
Okayā¦ letās get on to the episode! Festivals. When are they gonna happen again? And let me say first Iām talking here about commercial festivals. Iām not talking about small private events. Iām talking about the big festivals we all love. With music and drugs and port-potties and thousands or tens of thousands of people.I miss them so much! The last one I attended was Hulaween in Florida, back in October of 2019. And the last indoor concert I saw was Mark Farina in El Paso in early March. I took 2C-B and holy shit! We danced for hours in a packed nightclub wall to wall with tons of sweaty strangers. I mean, if anyone had covid in there we all would have gotten it.
But it was so much fun. Dancing to music on psychedelics with othersā¦ is my medicine. Like it is for so many people. And we havenāt been able to do that, really, in a year. And people are suffering because of it. Depression and mental illness are skyrocketing. Not just because of the lack of festivals, but the entire social distancing phenomena. A friend of mine just posted on Facebook today a photo of herself crying because of what she says has been the lack of human touch since the pandemic started.
I think Iāve faired better ā¦ emotionally ā¦ than a lot of people. I get so much of my social interaction online anyway, and verbal communication is really my mainstay. Speaking and writing. So Iāve been able to maintain that. I also donāt get depressed much anyway. Iām lucky in that regard. But I miss live music and dancing in groups. Dancing alone just isnāt the same. And recorded music isnāt the same as live music. Seriously thereās evolutionary, biological reasons for that. Iām actually gonna do a podcast episode about it one day. Humans ability to appreciate musicā¦ evolved in us for social bonding purposes. Itās really important for our mental health. And one of the problems in general with modern society in general is that those experiences are often limited. To begin with. Even before covid. But now itās terrible.
I miss festivals for another reason too. And that isā¦ usually, I attend festivals with DanceSafe, the nonprofit I founded ā¦ 22 years ago. I spend a lot of time at festivals at the DanceSafe booth testing drugs for people. Weād actually just finished fundraising for two spectroscopy machines that we were going to start bringing to festivals before covid hit. These machines shoot a laser into the powder ā¦ and because every molecule reflects a different spectrum of light, it can tell every drug in the sample with precision. Super cool drug checking technology. And right when we got the money to buy themā¦ Boom. Covid ends festivals.
The last event DanceSafe did was Gem and Jam in Arizona last February. That actually may have been the last big festival thatās happened in the United States. Almost year ago.
Iām also worried about the chapters. The DanceSafe national office is doing ok. People are still buying test kits. But because thereās no festivals, our local chapters around the country have nothing to do, and Iām really worried if this situation lasts another year, we may have to almost start all over again, organizing local chapters.
The festival culture ā¦ OUR festival culture ā¦ is beautiful. And I miss it so much. Burning Man, Lightning in a Bottle, Shambala, Symbiosis ā¦ My favorites. Electric Forestā¦ thereās too many to name. When are they going to start up again?Thatās what Iām gonna talk about now. And of course, itās all about the pandemic. So Iām gonna get into the science of covidā¦. Covid scienceā¦ virology, immunology, epidemiology ā¦ itās kind of taken over my intellectual life this past year. I been a non-stop researcher. Itās actually one of the reasons I decided to do this episode. To get some of it out of my system. Maybe then I can get back to making regular podcast episodes about drugs.
But anyway, hereās the main thing about when festivals will happen again. They wonāt happen again until theyāre safeā¦ until they wonāt become super-spreader events that lead to deadly covid outbreaks. And this applies to all mass gatherings. The most dangerous events of allā¦ the oneās that lead to the most fatalities in the long run, are large, mass gatherings ā¦ because you have thousands of strangers coming together, and then they go back to their respective communities, spreading the virus far and wide.
So when will mass gatherings no longer lead to deadly covid outbreaks? Or specifically, when will enough scientists, public health professionals, lawmakers, promoters and attendees, BELIEVE this to be the case. Because thatās really when theyāll happen again.
And so I think the general answer to thisā¦ or where the discussion begins is ā¦ when enough people are vaccinated. Itās more complicate than that, but letās start with that.Let me tell you about the vaccines first. The main thing to know about the two current vaccines out there, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, is that they likely wonāt prevent you from getting infected with covid and spreading it to others. They will only prevent you from getting a severe, systemic infection.
Fauci and the media arenāt really talking about this too much. I think they donāt want to turn people off from getting the vaccine, so they arenāt saying things that could be construed as negative. But many virologists doubt that the vaccines will prevent infections and transmissions. Why? ā¦ It has to do with the route of administration. The vaccines are injected into your arm. They contain messenger RNA that cause the muscle cells in your arm to temporarily produce molecules that resemble parts of the coronavirus spike protein. These molecules then stimulate your immune system to produce antibodies, which circulate in your blood.
But these antibodies donāt easily get into the epithelial cells in your upper respiratory tract. So what they think is that the coronavirus will likely still be able to take hold there, infect the cells in your nose and throat, and start to multiply. And then you can breathe those virus particles out and infect others around you.
Immunologists have actually known about the importance of vaccine route of administration for a long time. Itās the reason why the later polio vaccine was oral rather than injected. You seeā¦ the first polio vaccine prevented severe illness, paralysis and death, but it didnāt prevent people from actually getting polio and passing it on to others. And this is because the antibodies had a hard time reaching the epithelial cells in the gut, where polio first takes hold. Polio is spread from feces. Virus particles in feces can get onto food or in water in a number of ways and then when someone else ingests them, they bind to epithelial cells in the intestines, where the antibodies in the blood canāt easily reach.Epithelial cells, by the way, are the cells that divide the inside of us from the outside of us. Like skin cells. So theyāre at the periphery. The farthest place from blood flow.
So when scientists realized this was happening, they developed a second polio vaccine that you swallow. The weakened virus particles in the oral vaccine then hit the epithelial cells in the gut first, stimulating a direct, localized immune memory right where it needs to be. An immune response that involves T cells and B cells, which Iāll talk about soon, but the oral vaccine is the only reason weāve pretty much eliminated polio from the world today. Not entirely but almost.
So ā¦ why not make a covid vaccine that you inhale, or squirt up your nose? Well the answer to that theyāre too dangerous. Inhaled or insufflated vaccines, in animal studies, cause way too much inflammation in the upper respiratory tract. Many of the animals die or have severe complications. So weāre nowhere close to getting an upper respiratory tract administered vaccine. Itās gonna be an injection in the arm, and so itās likely only going to prevent severe covid infections.
I just read an article yesterday, btw, about the NovaVax vaccine, which isnāt available yet, but which seems more likely to prevent all forms of infection. Even mild infection. Even though itās also an injection in the arm. I need to research it more. But basically itās a different type of vaccine from the mRNA vaccine that causes triggers T-cell and B-cell adaptive memory more than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. So keep that in the back of your mind. Iām only talking here about the two vaccines currently available.
And what they indicateā¦ is that weāre not going to see vaccine festival passports. In other words, weāre not going to see festivals where you can go if you prove youāve had a vaccine. Because even though you and the other attendees arenāt likely to get severely sick, you will likely still be able to spread the virus around to each other, and then take it back home and spread it to people in your community.
So that means we really need to see enough people vaccinatedā¦ as in at least a few hundred millions people in the US, before ay mass gatherings will happen.
You know, everyoneās talking about this 80% figure to reach herd immunity, but herd immunity is a dubious concept with coronaviruses. There is no herd immunity with any of the other coronaviruses that produce colds, despite them being around for thousands of years and the entire population getting infected. And thatās because antibodies for coronaviruses typically fade away rapidly. And weāre finding the same this is true with this coronavirus. It looks like antibodies last about six months. Maybe more and maybe less for some people. But thereās already been hundreds of documented cases of people who have gotten covid twice.Thereās no herd immunity with the flu either. Right? So ā¦ covid, like the flu, and like other coronaviruses, may never go away. We may never eradicate it. And if not, thereās never gonna be herd immunity, despite what the media is saying. Weāll just have to learn to live with it. This is seriously something to consider.
One piece of good news here is that there is some t-cell and b-cell adaptive immune system memory that happens with natural infections. Not just antibodies. And that may mean, over time, subsequent infections get less and less severe. Some virologists think that the other coronaviruses, the other common colds, may have begun with more deadly viruses, and then became milder over time, after initially killing a lot of people. So that may happen with this one too. We donāt know. But either way, if that IS true, it would definitely take a long time.
The better news is that the vaccines seem to work well in preventing severe infections. So if enough people get the vaccine, and if they confer this immunity to severe infection for long enoughā¦ then festivals SHOULD be able start up again. Which leads to how long will it take to assess whether this is the case. But before I get to that, letās talk about the potential problem of all those people who arenāt going to get vaccine I the first place.
People have various different reasons for being skeptical of the vaccine. But in general thereās two large groups. This is from national surveys. The first large group are Republicans, Trump supporters most likely And the second large group are African Americans. The reasons these two groups are skeptical of the vaccines are probably different, but theyāre both because of political beliefs, not science. Republicans are generally more opposed to public health because they see individual liberty as paramount, which is why there is a large percentage of Republicans who oppose the vaccines. And African Americans have a long history of being experimented on medically. Including vaccines. Itās a horrible history and I wonāt get into it here, but that has caused some skepticism in a large percentage of the Black community.Of course youāve also got some people who are skeptical of the covid vaccines for scientific reasons. But thatās a much smaller number of people. Those first two groups are by far the largest. And soā¦ how many people are we talking about who might refuse to get a covid vaccine? And how is that going to impact the reopening of festivals?
Surveys show itās about a quarter of the population. Maybe up to a third. So weāre talking 25% to 33%ā¦ that puts us somewhere close to the 80% mark Fauci is talking about that we need for pretend herd immunity. I call it pretend because again, if they donāt prevent infections and transmissions, but just severe infections, then there is no herd immunity. But anyway, nobody knows whether weāll get to that 80% of the population vaccination figure.
Also, I donāt think the vaccine will be mandatory, at least not for many years. There are mandatory vaccines, of course. Measles, etc. But I canāt see the government making covid vaccines mandatory until they have a long enough tract record of safety and efficacy. Plus, covid doesnāt kill very many children, so unvaccinated people arenāt jeopardizing children. Thatās an important piece of this. Also, the vaccine may not prevent transmissions anyway, so unvaccinated people may not be different in that regard to vaccinated people. Anyway, the point is just that there isnāt going to mandatory vaccines. So how many people need to voluntarily get a covid vaccine to prevent festivals from causing deadly outbreaks?
Thatās a hard one to answer. But it might be the wrong question, anyway. Because I think that once the vaccine has been around long enough for anyone who WANTS to get vaccinated CAN get vaccinated, then at some point we just gotta say that anyone who refuses to get vaccinated is pretty much only putting themself at risk. I mean theyāre making that choiceā¦ and it doesnāt really impact others that muchā¦ right? Because children arenāt at high risk to begin with, and the vaccines themselves are likely NOT going to stop transmissions.
So one would think at some point down the line, when the vaccines have been available long enough to everyone who wants oneā¦ and if they remain as safe as they appear to be now, and if they protect from severe infection for a significant amount of time, say at least a yearā¦ then even if a quarter or a third of the population refuses to get oneā¦ at that point ā¦ we should be able to have festivals again. Right?
Maybe. I think the real determining factor is going to be the numbers, but before I get into that, I want to talk a bit about how covid is transmitted, and how infections happen, and how someone can protect themselves, and others, from severe infection. Because one big part of this is staying outdoors, and so you would think that because festivals are outdoors, they might be able to happen sooner than indoor mass gatherings. And they might. But itās more complicated than that.
I personally think being outdoors, with six feet of spacing between people, with masks, is 100% safe. This theoretically means outdoor music gatherings can happen right now safely if they mandate proper social distancing. And some events are doing that.
But obviously these arenāt mass gatherings. Theyāre small outdoor events. I donāt think large festivals could do this. Thereās just too many people. The dance floors are too crowded. Keep in mind it only takes 15 minutes to become infected if youāre standing outdoors within six feet of someone who is shedding, without a mask. Thatās what the CDC defines as exposure. Thereās no way most people are going to be able to avoid this kind of exposure at a festival. Masks might prolong the exposure time period, but then again weāre talking about people dancing, which means theyāre breathing way more heavily. And people never keep their masks on all the time. And you canāt enforce this.
And then you got the whole porta-potty thing.
So while I think itās possible to have socially distanced outdoor music events, I donāt think it applies to the kind of large festivals weāre talking about.
So letās talk more specifically about how covid is transmitted. The first thing to know is that the virus is airborne, and the vast majority if transmissions happen from breathing it in. In fact, there isnāt a single known case of surface to mouth transmissions. Iām not gonna say it canāt happen, but itās just never been documented. So itās not nearly as important to wash your hands as it is to avoid contaminated air. Restaurants that disinfect surfaces but donāt have ventilation and air filters arenāt doing anything to help. Thatās just theater.
And make no mistake. This virus is airborne in EVERY meaning of the term. It can become fully aerosolized and float around all by itself in the air, AND it can float around in micro droplets that come out of peopleās nose and mouth when they breath and talk. In the air in both senses of the term. We knew this back in April. Scientists knew it. And it was a scandal that it took the World Health Organization until the Summer to finally admitted it. But thatās another story I wonāt get into here.
The good news is that one particle isnāt going to infect you. You need to breathe in a large enough dose of the virus to actually get infected. Exactly how much, as in how many particles, nobody knows. Doing studies on this, called āchallenge studies,ā would be unethical. But the concept here is very important. And to understand why itās case, Iāll walk you through how an infection happensā¦
Soā¦ say your standing close to someone without a mask and they are infected and breathing out virus particles, or say youāre indoors where there are virus particles floating around in the air everywhere. You breathe these particles in and out your lungs, and depending on how many you breathe in, some of them get trapped in the mucus membranes of your nose, in your sinus cavities, and in your throat. Possibly some even get trapped in your upper bronchi, but thatās less likely because there isnāt much mucus in your lungs. Some of those virus particles die in the mucus, but some make their way through the mucus to the epithelial cells below them, and attach to ace-2 receptors where they can enter the cell.
If they do get in, the virus hijacks its DNA and gets the cell to start making more of itself. At least thatās what it WANTS to do. And if it gets that far, itās called an infection. But thereās a chance, if you get a light enough exposure, that your killer T-cells will kill them all off before they start replicating. Killer T-cells can recognize when a cell in your body has a virus attached to its surface, and they kill the cell. Killer T-cells are an important part of our immune system. They donāt kill the virus itself. They kill cells infected with a virus. And they can kill them quickly, potentially even before the cell starts replacing the virus.
This means you can be exposed to the virus without getting infected, if itās a light enough dose. And this can stimulate an adaptive immune response among your T-cells, which may be a bit helpful later on if you get exposed again.
And ā¦ you can also get MILDLY infected, where the virus DOES start replicating, but it doesnāt spread very far.
In fact, most infections appear to be mild like this. The killer T-cells kill the infected cells quickly, and antibodies kill the rest of the virus directly, before many other cells become infected.
To be specificā¦ You have killer T-cells that recognize when when of your own cells has a virus attached to it, and it kills the cell. Then you have helper T-cells which recognize the virus and tell the B-cells to create antibodies for it. The B-cells create the antibodies, which bind to the virus and mark it for destruction. Then other immune cells come along and destroy it.
So itās pretty complicated. Youāve got killer T-cells and helper T-cells. B-cells that make the antibodies. And then a bunch of other cells, called cytokines, that come along and kill any virus that has an antibody attached to it.
You really donāt need to remember all this. The important take-away is just that most infections are resolved naturally by T-cells, B-cells and antibodies in the upper respiratory tract. And some exposures are resolved by T-cells even BEFORE any antibodies are produced.
Thatās good news obviouslyā¦ so long as you get a light enough exposure. But youāre not out of the woods just because you got exposed once and had a mild case, or were asymptomatic. Having a mild or asymptomatic infection is a factor of BOTH your general state of health and your immune system AS WELL AS the amount of virus you were exposed to initially. The second time around you might get a gigantic exposure, which could overwhelm your immune system. We really donāt know how this will play out yet. Itās still too early.
But the point is that, just like with drugs, dose matters. So even if you are older, or have preexisting health conditions that make you more susceptible to a severe reaction, if you get a small enough initial dose you may be okay. And the reverse is also trueā¦ even if you are young and healthy with no preexisting conditions, if you get a massive initial dose. Like say your on a cruise shipā¦ Say your on Jam Cruise, and twenty people on the ship are shedding the virus, and all the air is being recirculated and youāre breathing in virus particles with every breathā¦ that many virus particles could overwhelm your T-cells and B-cells and antibodies and might make you sick, or kill you, even if youāre healthy.
Scientists call the initial dose the āviral inoculum.ā How much of the virus you get inoculated with. This is different from viral LOAD, which is the maximum amount of virus IN your body at a given time during the course of your infection, AFTER it has started replicating.
Virus inoculum is the reason indoor locations are the most dangerous places you can be, and itās why fatalities are skyrocketing now too, during the winter. Because people are spending more time indoors. Also the cold and dry air tends to evaporate respiratory droplets faster, releasing the virus and making it airborne more quickly, before the droplet can fall down to the ground, bringing the virus with it.
Winter increases not only transmissions, but the average dose people get, leading to more fatalities and raising the case fatality ratio.
This is why I try not to share indoor space with people outside my quaran-TEAM. Right now that means me and Becky. And this is also why masks remain so important. Masks reduce the amount of virus that gets into you. Remember those cruise ships early on where tons of people were dying? The case-fatality ratio on those ships was enormous. Like 15%. Then we had the initial lockdowns, and then later some cruises started up again, but this time with mandatory mask mandates. On these masked cruises that had outbreaks, the results are telling. They had pretty much the same percentage of infections. But the case-fatality rate was far lower. This is because masks reduced the amount of virus people were getting exposed toā¦ so even though they got infected, they were less likely to die. This is just one of many pieces of evidence that masks really do work.
Anyway, back to festivals and when are they gonna happen again? I think with all the science I just explained, as well as a sizable percentage of the population skeptical of the vaccines, itās gonna be a while. Theyāre definitely not gonna happen this year. Fauci says we may have enough vaccines rolled out for everyone by the end of the Summer. And technically thatās before Burning Man, and before Hulaween. But I donāt think theyāre gonna happen, because even if we get 75 or 80% of the US population vaccinated by then, we still donāt know how long the vaccines work. What if they only last six months? Like natural antibodies?
I think we need to know this first. And other things. So the real measure is in the numbers. Whatās really going to decide when mass gatherings can happen again are when we see the rate and number of covid deaths drop significantly, and stay down for a long time. Only this is going to demonstrate that the vaccines are working. Steady declining numbers.
How many daily deaths do we need to get down to, and for how long? I donāt know. But consider thisā¦ In a BAD flu year we have maybe 50,000 deaths. Weāre going on 500,000 deaths in the first year with covid, and thatās even WITH all the social distancing weāre doing. Without social distancing it would have been many millions. So Iād say weāre gonna need to see fatalities get down to more than 100,000 a year, or about 275 deaths a day, before anyone thinks we have the pandemic under control. Thatās a death rate about twice that of the worst flu year.
So if the national fatality rate can get down to under 275 deaths per day and stay there for say, six months at least, Iād venture to say festivals will start again. And for sure thatās not going to be until Summer of 2022 at the earliest.
Keep in mind also that other things will reopen first, like restaurants and movie theaters, long before mass gatherings. But if the fatality rate stays low during the reopening process, festivals and mass gatherings will follow. In fact they will symbolize the end of the pandemic.
Can we keep our culture together until then? I donāt know. I donāt even know if itās TOGETHER right now. We may need to start over to some degree. DanceSafe will likely need to create many new chapters from scratch. And what about all the other folks in the industry? Vendors, medical teamsā¦ A lot of them went out of business. Some may have new jobs. And with no profits for two years, will promoters even have the capital to hire enough staff right away? Seriously, it might take a while to build the culture back up. But weāll do it, right? I mean itās our culture. We love the music. We love the dancing. We love the drugs. We love the music and dancing and drugs TOGETHER with other people. Itās medicine. Itās in our genes. Nobody has ever been able to stop music and dancing and drugs.
So be patient. Weāll get there eventually. Right now we just need to stay safe. -
Manglende episoder?
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When Sasha Shulgin was at the end of his life, experiencing dementia, I had the privilege of interviewing him. Then both my parents got dementia. These experiences taught me lessons in life I won't forget, and I want to share them with you.
ROUGH TRANSCRIPT
Hi everyone. I really hate that I have to begin my show again, for the third time in a row, with an apology for how long itās taking me to produce new episodes. But Iāve really been 2020ād hard. Since the last episode Iāve had three people in my life die. My best friend from high school, Pat Welch, died in a motorcycle accident, my good friend and colleague, Kevin Zeese, who founded of the Drug Policy Foundation and served on the board of DanceSafe for a while, died of a heart attack, and just week ago my step father died of covid.
Andā¦ my mom also has covid, and sheās been in the hospital for the past two weeks. And for some unknown reasonā¦ it might be the covidā¦ right around the same time she got it, she lost virtually all of short term memory, and she canāt care for herself.
So for the past two weeks Iāve been on the phone with doctors, nurses, lawyers, and her friends in Englandā¦ to try to manage her care.
And Iāve been talking to her every day. And itās tragic, because when you lose your short term memory you canāt grieve. Her husband died a week ago but she keeps asking her nurses, āwhereās Jim?ā And she has to re-learn over and over again multiple times a day that he died. Itās like sheās being continually re-traumatized. You need to be able to encode new memories or you canāt grieve. I canāt think of anything worse, and itās really affecting me.
My mom has always been a smart, super competent, and highly motivated woman who took care of everyone around her, and now sheās in this horrible twilight zone hell of non-stop misery and I feel helpless to do anything about it.
The nurses arenāt allowed to tell me what medications sheās taking. She canāt remember obviously. All she does is cry and say, āwhat am I gonna do. I canāt live without him.ā Itās just awful.
And because of the covid, itās even worse. Sheās not allowed visitors. Sheās just alone in a hospital bed crying and confused. Even the doctors who might be capable of assessing her short-term memory issues arenāt allowed to see her. Iām not allowed to fly over there. Even if I did I couldnāt see her now. Iād have to quarantine for two weeks first. So I feel helpless.
FUCK YOU 2020! YOU FUCKING SUCK!
[MUSIC]
Hi again everyone. So I recorded that about a week ago. I donāt know what I was thinking, how I would possible have been able to record an entire show in the state I was in back then.
I t may have been because I started taking Adderall every day. I convinced myself it would help me manage my motherās situation, and maybe it did, but I think it really just added to my overall stress. And maybe minor mania too. There was no way I record an episode in that state. No way in hell. Why would I even want to? I think I felt guilty that yet again a month was ticking by with no new episodes, and I do feel a commitment to you all. My listeners.
But anyway, I think I can do it now, and Iāll tell you why. First, my motherās getting better. She finally tested negative for covid, and the past three days her memory is much better. Maybe it WAS the covid affecting her brain, but it also could have been this one medication she was taking.
After fighting with her nurses for a week I finally got a list of her medications, and sheād been on this Parkinsonās drug called Pramipexole. She doesnāt have Parkinsonās, but Pramipexole is sometimes prescribed for restless leg syndrome, this condition where your leg twitches when you try to fall asleep.
Anyway, as I was googling her medications, all these warnings popped up around Pramipexole about, I fucking kid you not, SEVERE SHORT TERM MEMORY IMPAIRMENT!
Are you kidding me? A twelve-year old could have discovered this about this drug, yet the nurses who were witnessing her memory problems on a daily basis were giving it to her every night.
So I fucking called them right away and told them to stop giving her that drug, and they told me they couldnāt without talking to her GP. In England a GP, or general practitioner, is like a primary care physician in the States.
I said, āwhat about a doctor thereā and they said the covid ward doctors couldnāt make a decision about anything other than covid treatment.
Jesus fuck! So then I realized I had to talk to her GP, but for the past month her friends in England had been trying to get a hold of her GP and they would never call back. My sister tried also about a week agoā¦ specifically to try to get a list of her medications, and they wouldnāt even put my sister (HER DAUGHTER) through. Everyone had been telling them that my mom had this sudden dementia and she needed to be assessed. I donāt know if it was the covid or bureaucracy or whatever, but her GP wouldnāt talk to anyone.
So I called and told the receptionist that I was a doctor in America, and my mother was likely suffering memory impairment from a certain medication she was on, and that we had been trying to get a hold of her doctor for a month, and the situation was critical now, and I want to the doctor to immediately call the hospital and have them discontinue this medication.
āRight away Dr. Sferios. Let me put you through to her doctor.ā
Same conversation with her doctor, with an added, ādidnāt you know Pramipexole has a common side effect of severe short term memory loss? Andā¦ why is it in England it takes a month to get through to a GP?ā
Well, he called and had this Parkinsonās drug discontinued right away.
And the next day, my mom seemed a little bit better. Yesterday too, and todayā¦ I just got off the phone with her, and sheās back. I fucking have my mother back.
Now, itās too early to know whether it will last. Maybe it was the covid. Maybe it was the medication, or maybe even sheās just having a good spell, which can happen with dementia. But either way, Pramipexole is contraindicated with dementia. You just donāt prescribe someone that drug if they are experiencing dementia, especially for an off-label use like restless leg syndrome.
I stopped taking the adderall, by the way. Canāt fucking do stimulants eery day. My blood pressure was high. It wasnāt good for me.
Drugs. This is a podcast about drugs. But look, if youāve been following me, you know I donāt compartmentalize my life. I talk about everything. So this is my personal life. But Iām telling you, as I always do, because itās who I am. Full honesty. Full authenticity. And I wanted you to know why, once again, I wasnāt putting out regular episodes.
But there are some drug lessons here, arenāt there. Other than watch out for adderall and high blood pressure, particular when you hit middle ageā¦ thereās also something obvious here, but I guess not obvious enough for my momā¦ whoās a hello a smart woman. And that isā¦ donāt ever let a doctor prescribe a drug for you without researching it first yourself.
You canāt trust doctors to know everything about every drug they prescribe. New drugs are released constantly and they get pens and paperweights sent to them by the pharmaceuticals with the new drugās name on them in order to convince the doctor to prescribe itā¦ FOR MONEY!
If you wouldnāt take a new research chemical without researching it, why would you take a pharmaceutical EVERY DAY OF YOUR LIFE, without researching it?
And I get it. Some people want to trust their doctors. They donāt trust themselves to know what the truth is. But even if you areāt the brightest egg, at least google and read the top five links, and if you see side effects that bother you, like āSEVERE SHORT TERM MEMORY IMPAIRMENT,ā at least ask your doctor about it?
Say, āhey doc I noticed this side effect of this drug you want me to take.ā
And if you doctor says, āIām not too worried about thatā then ask, āwhy not?ā And if you donāt get an answer that makes sense, you need to do a risk-benefit analysis for yourself.
Is a twitching leg at night worth losing all your short term memory?
Is a night of cocaine fun worth dying because you didnāt test it for fentanyl first?Weāre a drug happy culture, and Iām not against any drug, as Iām sure all of you know. But remember pushers have an interest in getting you on their drugs. This is capitalism.
And to be honest, illicit drug makers are FAR MORE ETHICAL than the pharmaceuticals. The NBOMeās have kind of disappeared. So have some of the dangerous cathinones. When a recreational drug comes out and people start dying, weāve seen a tendency for manufactures to stop selling them. The dark net these days is mostly filled with the good drugs. You used to be able to get anything. Now most of them have banned fentanyl, and the nBOMeās etc.
Pharmaceuticals wonāt do that. They will lie about their studies. They will coverup the dangers, so with pharmaceuticals you need to be even more vigilant.
The cartels of course are an exception when it comes to illegal drugs. Theyāre more like the pharmaceuticals than they are small underground chemists. Thatās why fentanyl is more prevalent than ever. Despite the dark net markets refusing to allow them, and small-time chemists no longer making it, giant Chinese labs in cahoots with Mexican cartels are still flooding our drug supply with fentanyl. So test your fucking drugs for fentanyl. Get your testing strips at dancesafe.org.
sighā¦
Memoryā¦ itās so fucking important. I remember when I saw Sasha Shulgin for the last time. I was interviewing him and and Ann for my documentary. This was a bout six weeks before Sasha died, and was struggling with dementia himself at the time.I asked him what it feels like from the inside to have memory issues like he was having.
In true Sasha fashion, he rubbed his chin and thought for a moment, then looked up and said, āI canāt rememberā with a big smile.
Sasha, the great lover of puns, couldnāt resist the opportunity for a good joke.
But hereās the real thing, and trust me on this. Iāve been talking to my mom now, whoās back remember, and I told her about everything that had happened over the past month, and she was kind of in disbelief.
Yes mom Jim died almost two weeks ago. Yes mom youāve been in the hospital over three weeks.
This may sound trite but Iāll tell you why itās not in a minuteā¦ WHEN YOU LOSE YOUR MEMORY, YOU CANāT REMEMBER. You donāt know it. When you lose your short term memory, you donāt realize it.
This is profound shit. You feel the same on the inside. You will be confused, but you have no clue itās because of memory. In the throngs of my momās short term memory loss, she kept saying, āwhat am I going to do?ā Over and over, and āI canāt live without him.ā
This is so unlike my mom. Her husband almost died of cancer ten years ago and when he was in the hospital having surgery with some chance oof death, my mom was calm and coherent. We talked about what she wanted to do when he died. Did she want to move back to the States and live with me? Would she want to live alone? She said she didnāt want to move back. She had a young grandson she loved, Liam, her husbandās grandson. Liam is now 13. She wanted to be near him.
But when her short term memory was gone, she was just in a panic. And she didnāt know why. She just knew on some intuitive level that she was confusedā¦ āI DONāT KNOW WHAT TO DO,ā she kept saying. That was true. But she didnāt know why. When I would tell her it was her memory, she denied it. āOh everyone is telling me the but my memory is fine.ā
When youāre in it you donāt realize it. You wonāt be able to remember that you canāt remember when you lose your memory. Short term or long term.
And what does that mean for us? Whatās the lesson here? Whatās the difference between Sasha, who was his jolly old self even though his dementia at the time I last saw him was worse than my momās, and my momās who was emotionally hysterical ā¦ for weeks.
Ok the obvious is that my mom had just lost her husband and was re-learning that over and over, whereas Sasha had his beloved Ann right nest to him the whole time. So you never know what situation you might find yourself in later in life. But still, I think thereās a lesson here. That means something we can learn about this situation that gives us practical information.
And so hereās what I think it isā¦ Both is if someone we love gets dementia. And if we get it.
If someone you love gets dementiaā¦ what I learned, from my motherās hopefully brief situation, to my father who died in 2012 after a year-long fight with dementiaā¦ is that you need to meet them where they are at. You need to do your own grieving as quickly as possible, over the loss of whatever you were attached to in regards to your loved one, and you need to realize they are still there. On the inside, no matter what is going on on the outside, THEYāTHEIR CONSCIOUSNESSāis still their. They still feel themselves exactly as they were. And you need to treat them with respect.
For me, with my mom, that meant trying to make her happy and calm her. I didnāt want to lie to her that Jim was still alive (although I have heard in some long-term cases when the short term memory doesnāt come back, some families choose to lie, and thatās ok. I just couldnāt write off that she wouldnāt get better, it was too early, and Iām glad I didnāt.)
So I kept telling her, āDonāt worry mom. Iām here and you have tons of people who love you and weāre going to help you through this. You donāt need to do anything. Weāre taking care of the funereal, and youāre going to see him and get to say goodbye very soon.ā
A minute laterā¦ āwhat am I going to do?ā
āYou donāt need to do anything, mom. Weāre taking care of everything. Youāre going to see him soon at the funereal and say goodbye.ā
For ten minutes it would go on like this. But it would calm her down.
I hope you never have to deal with this. But a lot of us will, as dementia affects more and more people. Like I said, I went through it with my father, and now my mother, and while I hope it was just the covid, or the medication that caused it, I donāt know.
And the fact that BOTH my parents might have some predisposition towards dementia, Iāve been doing a lot of thinking about what I can do NOW, so that if I get it, Iāll be more like Sasha.
And I do think thereās a lesson here. Maybe just a small one, because thereās a lot of unknowns, and of course factors we have no control over. But in general I think the lesson is to deal with your demons now, before they come back to haunt you.
And those demons are attachments. Literally, the things you think you need live or to be happy. For my mom it was her ability to take care of people. Her hysteria around her husbandās death wasnāt because of his death per se, but because she realized she was confused and on a basic level realized couldnāt plan the funereal or deal with the myriad other things she was used to doing. Again, she was the smart and competent one, and always took charge. And when she couldnāt (because of the memory impairment she was unaware of), it sent her into a panic.
This is attachment. Attachment to competency. To being able to take care of people.
āDonāt worry mom we are taking care of it for you now.ā
And Iām telling my mom all these things now that sheās able to encode new memories. And now she wants to be a part of the planning for the funereal, and her friends and the nurses and social workers helping manage it *are* involving herā¦ little be little.
But if she had remained unable to encode new memories, or if she reverts back, I worry she would be in distress constantly.
Was Sasha somehow able to let go of his attachments? He was a brilliant scientist. He lost his cognitive faculties. He could barely speak. Yet he mustered up a joke.
Yet take my father. He spent months terrorized with the delusion that his ex wife was having sex with the neighbors. He would stare out the window and think he saw her through the neighborās window. Then demand his home care giver drive him over there so he could confront the neighbor. We told his caregivers to drive him wherever he wantedā¦ except to the neighborās houses, obviously. He would become rageful, and scream and threaten his caregivers.
And supposedly delusions like this are common among men who get dementia. Faithful, loyal couples who love each other experience it often. If the man gets dementia, thereās a high chance he will start believing his wife is having affairs. Doctors donāt know why, but I think I doā¦ Itās attachment.
When you start to lose your memories and your cognitive functions, whatever you are attached to will haunt you. It will become your demon. And that includes attachment to the one you love.
In the end we have to let go of everything, including and especially what we love the most. To the degree we are unwilling or unable to do that, determines how much we will suffer if we get dementia.
So think about what you most fear losing. What is your most beloved. Your spouse or partner? Your competency? Your intellect? Your friends? You. Will. Lose. All. Those. Things. And when you do, you will still be there. The same you you have always been, on the inside. And if you havenāt let go of them, let go of your attachment to themā¦ you will suffer.
So if you want to prevent a constant state of suffering if you happen to be one of the unlucky ones to get dementia later in life, get in touch with who you really are, and dwell there. The more practice you do now in that regard, the easier itās going to be when you can no longer think or remember.
āā
Those are the lessons I got from my mom, and my dad, and Sasha Shulgin.
Of course we can also talk about ways to prevent dementia. And I think thereās four crucial things. Iāll tell you about them in a minute, but first I want to talk about my last episode on QAnon, because I have three people tell me they couldnāt follow it. They didnāt understand it. And one of those people is a good friend of mine who I never expected would fly over his head. He is Canadian though so he might not be familiar enough with American politicsā¦ and I realize there were a lot of names in there and some young people today listening to this episode might simply be too young to remember who all these people are.
So I just want to give a quick summary of the last episode. If you recall, my last episode wasnāt about drugs at allā¦ unless you think Adrenochrome is a real drug, and that Democrats and celebrities are harvesting it from the brainās of children to get high. But I donāt want to get into that. The QAnon conspiracy theory is filled with nonsense, and thatās the tuff people remember most, because itās the stuff thatās most easily debunked.
Itās fun to laugh at people who believe in crazy nonsense, but what I was trying to do in my last episode, is take your understanding of the QAnon phenomenon to the next level. Because there is overwhelming evidence that QAnon is not a joke, but it rather a deep state propaganda campaign. A psyop of psychological operation with an intended, manipulative purpose.
And the first thing you gotta realize if weāre going to get anywhere here is that there is a deep state, and there are conspiracies. If youāre someone who thinks all conspiracy claims nonsense and the government of the worldās largest empire runs openly (like open source software), youāre foolish, and well, I donāt know what to tell you. Read the Art of War by Tsun Su.
On the other hand, if youāre someone who does recognize that some conspiracies are real, then the most important thing you need to know is that despite that being true, the majority of conspiracy claims, are NOT true, and many of them are intentionally designed to manipulate you.
So this is the summary of my last episode:
Disinformation is a staple part of geopolitical warfare. All major governments of the world today have covert agencies who engage information warfare, releasing false narratives to manipulate and control both their enemies as well as their own populations.
In the United States, the OSS (office of strategic services) was the covert agency during World War II. They began mastering the art of disinformation, against the Naziās but also against the Soviet Union who they knew would become an enemy once the war was over. And when the war did end, the OSS wasnāt disbanded. They became the CIA and they greatly expanded their covert (and that means secret, and that means conspiracy) work. The Cold War was a hot war where the CIA paid and managed private mercenary armies around the world to fight so-called communism (but really any country that wanted to develop independently and didnāt want to sell itself out to Western corporations and banks, regardless of whether they were allied with the Soviet Union) was deemed communist and subjected to destabilization, disruptions and a great many times invasion. So although to many of the players in the CIA, it was about fighting communism, but to the smarter ones, they knew what it was really about was directing the flow of wealth around the world into the coffers os Western corporations.) Anyway, the Cold War was a hot war, but it was also a cultural and information war, including and especially here at home, where a growing socialist movement, workers movement, and a movement for a fair and equitable distribution of wealth and power, had to be crushed.
And there were all sorts of ways in which these cultural wars were fought. Defunding left economics in universities and replacing it with identity politics. Thatās really what has destroyed the left in the United States. Today what is considered the left is nearly empty of any economic analysis, and instead itās only about race, gender, abortion rightsā¦ important issues of course but issues the corporations donāt care about. They would rather keep us fighting over these cultural issues than organizing across race for a fairer share of the wealth and power.
Thatās important to understand, but thatās another storyā¦
Iām just bringing up examples of the ubiquity of covert operations within the cultural sphere. Hegemony requires controlling narratives. Itās information warfare. And the CIA was, and remains, the masters of this. There are many intelligence agencies these days, and they are the Central Intelligence Agency. Manipulation. Psychological warfare, is their speciality.
And one of the ways they manipulate with disinformation is in generating cover-ups for their covert operations. From assassinations to engineering coups in third world countries, from secret torture centers to experimental aircraft development in Roswell, New Mexico, the CIA has always invented false narratives to cover up what they are doing, to lead independent researchers astray, so nobody can figure out the truth, and organize against it. This is part and parcel of what they do. Itās what they have always done.
And starting in the 1950s, these false narratives began to take on the shape of what we might call today, āconspiracy theoriesāā¦ kind of crazy narratives on the surface seem silly, but that if you mixed a bit of truth in them you could get at least some people to believe. The idea is simply to disrupt and confuse anyone who is trying to prove that these clandestine operations were done by the CIA, whether itās overthrowing a government or assassinating a world leader. It wasnāt as important that everyone believe the official lie (like, the government was overthrown by its own people because it was a tyrannic government), as much as nobody could prove the CIA orchestrated it. So the false narratives they began throwing out there didnāt have to all be logical or consistent. They just needed to deflect. To make it impossible for anyone to prove the truth.
Send people down a rabbit hole, in other words, was effective enough. Some information warfare terms include honey traps, where you bait people with tempting answers in order to get them stuck in a dead end. False flags, where you blame an action on an outside entity, and limited hangouts, where you admit to a partial truth in order to make another lie associated with that truth, seem real.
So these false narratives began to get crazier. You didnāt need everyone to believe them. You just needed to bait, temp and confuse enough people who doubted the official story, so they could never know the real truth, and be able to organize an effective resistance to it.
This was the beginning of conspiracy theory culture. Understanding the historical connection between covert warfare, disinformation and modern conspiracy theory is crucial if you want to understand QAnon, and this is why I spent so much time on this history. Because despite conspiracy theory culture having taking on a life of its own, it began, and is still managed by the covert agencies. In the US, that principally means the CIA.
So my last podcast with investigative journalist Robbie Martin, basically traces the recent history of the origins of QAnon, proving I think without a doubt that QAnon is a CIA or deep state, operation.
The greatest irony is that the QAnon narrative pretends that Donald Trump is fighting the deep state. Heās not. Heās working right along with them. Mueller never intended find Russian collusion with the Trump campaign. There was no Russian collusion. Just like when Mueller did the anthrax investigation and blamed the attack it on a lone individual when in fact it was the CIA, the Mueller investigation, in the same way, was designed to deflect attention away fro the fact that it was the CIA who gave the DNC emails to Wikileaks. It was the CIA who wanted Trump elected. For whatever reason. But they are blaming it on Russia.
And Trump is pretending to be pro-Russia when everything he has done since entering office has been anti-Russia.
QAnon, is a deep state psyop, and the other thing about it, the thing thatās new in regards to QAnon, is that seemingly for the first time, conspiracy theory culture is being weaponized. QAnon is the first conspiracy theory ever that is attacking the left, fully partisan, and thatās creating an army of nazi-style brown shirtsā¦ who have already begun killing leftist protestors.
Rather than just deflecting people away from their covert operations, they are using conspiracy theory now as a weapon. They are manipulating masses of right-leaning people to hate anyone on the left, as if we are pedophiles.
All this is in my last episode with Robbie Martin. Listen to it if you havenāt already. Whatās happening today is different than anything Iāve seen in my lifetime, and it is dangerous.
And if youāve already listened to it and didnāt quite understand it, I hope now with this little history lesson and summary, if you listen to it again you will understand it.
And I fully realize that what Iām telling you is that QAnon is actually a deeper conspiracy than even those who expose it believe. And I realize if you are one of those people who think all conspiracy theories are nonsense, then youāre likely going to think that Iām even more crazy than the QAnoners. But you know what? I donāt care. If you dismiss all deep politics, donāt believe thereās a covert arm of the government with more power than congress or the executive branch, and you canāt see the difference between milking childrenās brains for adrenochrome, and real conspiracies, and you lump them all together as nonsenseā¦ just stop listening now and never listen to my podcast again. Because youāre as much of the problem as the QAnoners.
And if youāre a QAnoner, I hope Iāve at least got you top realize that not all conspiracy claims are real, and you need to WAKE UP, because you are being manipulated, and used as a weapon, and we could very easily see martial law, authoritarianism, and everything you hate come to pass because you think Trump is against the deep state, rather than a part of it.
And just in case you really need to hear this from meā¦ Yes, Biden is part of the deep state too. The answer to whatās happening is not the Democrats.
Jesus Fuck I didnāt mean to spend that much time on this. I really want to talk about how to prevent dementia, and yes, psychedelics have a role on it. And I will talk about it. Right now.
But one more thing about why it takes me so long to create these episodes, and how Iām going to try to change that. I really do appreciate all of you out there supporting me on my Patreon, and I really do want to honor you by releasing weekly episodes. You deserve it. So let me tell you whatās going on with me, and letās see if you can help me get over this humpā¦
Aside from real, personal issues that keep getting in the way, like my divorce a year and a half ago, and my mom getting covid and losing her short term memory, I also have always wanted my podcasts to be evergreen. That means in the end, when I die, my episodes are still going to be important and relevant. If you go back and look through them all, nothing has ever been dated, at least until the last episode about QAnon.
This desire of mine, to create episodes that will be educational and enjoyable for generations to come, make producing an episode REALLY FUCKING HARD. Iām not like a lot of podcasters who can just talk and talk about whatever. Thereās not a lot of chit-chat in my episodes. I recently learned Iām on the autism spectrum and that might be why I hate chit chat myself and I hate listenting to podcasts. (You like that, a podcaster who hates podcasts). I read non-stop and I want substance not frill. Information and emotional meaningfulness. Sure I like humor too. That has its place, but just pointless verbalizing, which so many podcasts doā¦ I canāt listen.
So anyway it typically takes me three 10-hour days to make one of these episodes. I first conceive of a topic, then find an expert to interview, then do the interview, then spend an entire day editing it to remove the superfluous stuff, a well as breaths and āumsā and ālikesā and āyou knowsāā¦ all those speech patterns that slow down the paceā¦ that takes more than a full day. Then I write my opening monologue and wait a day, re-read it and edit it because I always find things I want to change on the second day. Then I record it. Then drop it in front of the interview. I use Adobe Premiere to edit these things, btw.
Anyway, you get the ideaā¦ But hereās the thing.. this is the first podcast Iāve ever done where I just sat down and wrote a long monologue stream of consciousness. And Iām on track now to get this whole thing done in less than maybe eight hours. I wrote the first initial part about my mom and recorded it a week ago. But the remainder Iāve sitting here writing for maybe three hours. And I donāt intend to sit on it for a day and re-write things. Iām just going to record it as-is.
Itās kind of an experiment. Iām trying to see if this format is something that will work. And that mean something you like. Soā¦ I want to ask you top pleaseā¦ if youāve gotten this far, and if in the end you like this episode and you want me to do more of these free-form style rants, let me know. I just might be able to do this weekly, and provide you with steady content. You can write me at [email protected], or Facebook message me. Iām not hard to find. Or post a comment on the YouTube channel. I donāt care how you contact me, but let me know if you actually like listening to my stream of consciousness thoughts.
And again, thank you to all my Pastreon subscribers, and especially my newest subscriber, Dan, is giving $200 per month. I want to cry. Thank you Dan. Letās talk again soon. And Lys, whoās giving me 50 a month. Lys. I owe you a few video chats now. You have my number. Call me anytime. Letās do it.
Okay, letās get to the final section of the episodeā¦ The four most important things you can do to prevent dementia. And listenā¦ I know a lot of young people listen to my podcast, and you may never think about dementia, but trust me. It will impact your life some day. Whether itās a parent or grandparent or friend, or yourself. So donāt think this shit doesnāt apply to you. If you do these four things you will significantly reduce your chances of experiencing dementia later in life. I know this to be true, because Iāve studied it. And Iām on the autism spectrum. And people on the spectrum donāt stop researching a topic until theyāve exhausted every angle, and categorized all the data into properly labeled, little boxes with arrows that point to all the related boxes, cross-referencing all the claims and doing scientific experiments to test their validity until there is no doubt whatsoever.
Okay I donāt really know if all people on the spectrum do that, but thatās what I do. I did this research for a year back in 2012 when I was taking care of my father during his decline. And then Iāve been perseverating on it again, reading tons of new stuff over the past three weeks since my mother lost her short term memory. Iāve even been neglecting my DanceSafe work because of it.
But donāt trust me. Do you own research. Corroborate everything you hear. Trust has a place, but it only goes so far. You can figure out whoās more trustworthy with information, and you can lean on those people a bit. And if you lean on me for that thank you. Thatās a sign of appreciation and everyone likes being appreciated, but donāt trust me or anyone completely. People make mistakes. Doctors prescribe you the wrong medications. Q tells you bits of the secret truth with wallops of disinformation. You have to think for yourselfā¦
Okay, the four most important things you can do to prevent dementia are, not in any particular orderā¦
1.) Exercise every day, especially cardio.
2.) Eat fewer carbohydrates and more good fats.
3) Challenge yourself cognitively by learning and doing new things.
And 4) Take psychedelics regularly.
Now, Iām going to elaborate on all these things to try and convince you why they are important, and why this isnāt bullshit. And Iām not going to charge you any money for this advice. Iām telling you this because for my entire life, Iāve been the kind of person who learns and teaches. You can ask my high school friends. Itās just in my nature. I love communicating knowledge. Absorbing it and giving it away. In fact, thatās my attachment, so Iāve been practicing again letting go of that. There will come a time when I canāt communicate anymore. When I wonāt be able to learn more, nor share what Iāve learned. I might be dead what that time comes, but I might be alive with dementia, and I want to end up like Sasha, not my father.
Okay, firstā¦ exercise. Some might say it goes without saying, but nothing goes without saying. Why would you know exercise prevents dementia if nobody explained why. So hereās whyā¦ When you move your body, you get the blood flowing. It flows faster. Your heart beats a little fast to get the blood flowing into the muscles you are moving in order to carry the energy and nutrients and oxygen in the blood to feed the cells so you can keep doing the movement.
When you really move your body such that your heart rate goes up, the blood flows a lot faster, and it flows a lot faster in your brain as well. This carries more oxygen to parts of your brain that do not get that much normally. This causes new electrical signaling in your brain, because neurons fire that donāt normally, and the pattern of firing is stronger. This is why you experience new thoughts when you do cardio exercise. The new thoughts just come to you. You donāt even have to try to think them. Everyone who does intense cardio-vascular exercise realizes this. Iāve been a long distance runner my whole life because it gets me high. I feel amazing when I run, and for hours adfterwards, and if I donāt run for a while, I start feeling depressed. My brain doesnāt work as well. Even if you donāt experience depression, you still strengthen your brain when you exercise.
One thing about cardio-vascular exercise people forget is the vascular part. They think itās just about strengthening your heart. Itās not. The vascular part is equally as important. Your blood vessels carry oxygen and nutrients to every cell in your body. And as you age, the capillaries get old. Those are the smallest blood vessels that carry your blood to the farthest, hardest-to-reach parts of your body. Your toes and the deepest regions of your internal organs, including your brain. You want to get blood in there, to carry the oxygen and nutrients to the cells in there they connect to. This will help prevent not just dementia but cancer and other SUCKY diseases that result from cells dying.
Exercise.
Okay number two. Eat fewer carbohydrates and more healthy fats. Our species has been around for maybe 250,000 to 300,000 years, and that wasnāt even the beginning of us. Our pre-homo-sapien ancestors evolved for millions of years before that, and during that entire time, WE HARDLY ATE ANY CARBOHYDRATES! It was only about 5,000 year sago when agriculture formed that we started eating grains in large quantities, and over the last 100 years, especially in the West, sugar and fruit and other carbohydrates have come to dominate our diet. This has resulted in a diabetes epidemic, and yes, a dementia epidemic too.
Why? Iāll tell you why. There are only two types of energy our cells can use. Iām talking any and ever cell in our body. Carbohydrates and fats. And to be more precise, glucose and keytones. Whatever carbohydrates you eat, in whatever form, before they can enter any cell in your body, they have to first get metabolized down into the simplest carbohydrate of allā¦ glucose. Then, with the help of insulin, it can enter the cell.
But take noteā¦ why did we evolve to need a helper chemical to get this energy? Our pancreas produces insulin in order to allow the glucose to pass through the cell wall into the cell. Why did we need to evolve a whole new organ to get this energy? Why donāt our cells just allow the glucose in on their own?
Well, there are a number of reasons for that, but one of them is that ā¦ WE DIDNāT GET OUR ENERGY FROM CARBOHYDRATES FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS! We got them from fats. Fats get broken down into keytones, which enter the cell, giving it energy without needing insulin. This is where 99.9% of our cellular energy came from for 99.9% of our evolution, up until the modern industrial world.
Carbohydrates were consumed in such rare amounts that really the pancreas evolved to produce insulin NOT to help that glucose get into our muscles or neurons so we could function and do our daily activities. We had enough keytones, produced from enough fat, for that. Rather, the insulin helped get that glucose into our fat cells for storage.
Carbohydrates, when we did consume them during our evolution, became fat in our bodies, and then at times when we couldnāt get enough fat from, say, eating meat, that stored fat was released and turned into keytones, which entered our muscle and brain cells giving them energy.
The keto diet is a diet high in fat and low in carbohydrates, but you donāt need to go to any extreme to lower the amount of carbohydrates you eat. You just really went to get most of your energy from keytones, from fat, rather than from carbohydrates. You donāt need any carbohydrates if you enough enough protein and fat. But you will die if all you eat are carbohydrates. That should tell you something.
Also, and hereās where dementia comes in hardā¦ the brain prefers getting its energy from keytones. The keto diet, in fact, was developed for epilepsy. It prevents seizures as good or better than any anti-seizure medication on the market. When you eat carbohydrates and it turns into glucose and floods your blood, your body releases insulin to send that glucose into your cells for energy. That includes the neurons own your brain. Sometimes, though, too much insulin remains, and when your muscles and neurons and other cell of your functioning organs donāt need glucose anymore, the insulin sends all the remaining glucose into fat storage. At that point you can become sluggish, physically and mentally, because you donāt have anymore glucose around to feed your cells. And there arenāt enough keytones around because your body has not been in the habit of breaking down fats for energy.
This mental sluggishness is literally the result of your brainās neurons not able to function because it has no energy. If you were getting your primary energy from keytones, however, if you were eating enough fat and not eating too many carbs, then there would ALWAYS be enough energy ALL THE TIME, to feed your neurons.
Iām on the keto diet, and since I started a little over a year ago, I never get sluggish like I used to.
And the lack of energy for your neurons is just one way in which a high carb diet can contribute to dementia. The other is diabetes itself. And that is even worse, and is highly correlated with certain types of dementia. Type two or adult onset diabetes results when your cells, having been bombarded with insulin so much because youāre eating carbs and getting almost all your energy from glucose, become tolerant to the insulin, including your fat cells. And now you have excess sugar in your blood stream. This sugar can directly damage the blood vessels in your brain resulting in a type of dementia called vascular dementia.
Ok number threeā¦ Challenge yourself cognitively by learning and doing new things.
Your brain is a muscle. Use it or lose it. Specifically, what this means is that the electrical activity in your brain strengthens the neurons those electrical impulses pass through, and actually grows new ones. When a neuron receives chemical signals from nearby firing cells, they also grow new dendrites in order to receive more. Dendritic sprouting increases neural connections, allowing that cell to receive chemicals from nearby neurons that could reach it before. The number of interconnections grows whenever these electrical impulses take place.
If you only do the same thing over and over, you are only strengthening the neurons in your brain required to do those activities, and others can atrophy. You need to do NEW things, to challenge yourself to learn NEW and DIFFICULT tasks, in order to strengthen the parts of your brain that involve themself in learning. Learning is memory. So crossword puzzles, learning to play a new instrument is really good. Even learning new physical activities like snowboarding or if youāre old and too frail for that, learn to juggle. Even just memorizing lists of words or numbers can strengthen your memory and cognitive functioning, but thatās pretty boring.
But you get the idea. Use it or lose it. If youāre doing the same thing every day, if the tasks required of you are easy, happening from muscle memory only, and your mind just wandersā¦ if you just watch TV all the time, passivelyā¦ youāre neurons, especially as you age, are being culled. I donāt know how to say this any stronger. They will die. They actually shrivel up and go away.
And lastly, take psychedelics. Take them often. Take them in different contexts. Take smaller doses more frequently, but take large doses every once in a while too. Studies have shown that serotonin agonists, basically the psychedlics, stimulate dendritic sprouting the same way learning new tasks does. Why does this happen? Probably because the serotonin 2A receptor is mostly excitatory, which increases the action potential of the cell, causing the cell body, when it has itās 2A receptors activated to fire electrical signals more often.
Psychedelics cause neurons to fire that donāt normally fire without them. Neurons are involved in sensing but also interpreting. Feeling but also thinking and integrating. Like exercise and blood flow, like forcing yourself to learn new things, psychedelics force you to feel, interpret and think new things. They strengthen and increase neural connections.
And they also help you learn non-attachment. Thereās nothing like having your mind and identity blown open from a challenging LSD or psilocybin trip to get you to see things differently and stop clinging to who you think you are what you think you need. These challenges can be frightening, but if you move through them and donāt resist them, you just might learn that you are not your thoughts or emotions, or your memories. And you donāt need anything. You are the pure consciousness that exists behind all of that.
Could that be why Sasha Shulgin was not afraid, despite his mindās early departure?
Rest In Peace Sasha. And hang in there mom. I want to come visit you when this pandemic is over.
Thanks for listening everyone. And donāt forget to email me at [email protected] and tell me if you liked this new format. Should I do more episodes like this? They sure are a lot easier. I just write and then go back and read it while recording. Six hours rather than 30 hours to produce an episode. Seriously, I want to hear from you.
And finally, this episode is dedicated to my mom, obviously, but also Cody Jones, Victoria Clemente, Cheryl Ananda, Becky Krug, Casey Hardison, Eric Martin, and Greg, Lorie and Marigoldā¦ You should all know why. Much love.
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In this episode I break from the topic of drugs to discuss the most important issue of our times: QAnon and the rising tide of authoritarian fascism. I interview investigative journalist, filmmaker and podcaster, Robbie Martin. Robbie is an expert on QAnon, and he takes us through its history and origins inside US intelligence agencies as well as the Trump administration, warning us of the dire consequences that could result from the weaponization of conspiracy theory culture.
Click here and here to listen to Robbie's own two-part podcast episodes on QAnon.
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In this episode I interview Maia Szalavitz, author of Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction. In these pandemic times, problematic drug use is on the rise. Alcohol sales are skyrocketing, and more than ever we need to understand the root causes of addiction and how to help those who are suffering.
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In this episode I interview Frank Haines, who describes his experiences being held captive for more than a year in Florida's notorious anti-drug cult, Straight. Started by millionaire shopping mall developer and founder of the Partnership for a Drug Free America, Mel Sembler, in the 1980s, Straight was eventually shut down after numerous successful lawsuits exposed systemic violence, including physical abuse and torture.
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In this episode I interview Brian Pace, board member of Psymposia and co-host of the Plus Three Podcast, where we discuss the political rightās embracing and promotion of psychedelics. With fringe Nazi groups and corporate capitalists like Peter Thiel all getting involved in the new psychedelic renaissance, the mainstreaming of psychedelic drugs has opened up deeper questions into what we should value as a society and culture.
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In this episode of Drug Nonsense, Mason and I discuss lying cops, massive LSD overdoses, new psilocybin trademarks and other incidents of interest to druggies, reformers and those who love them. All new and now forever free, our Patreon podcast is open to the public.
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A live recording of Emanuel's talk at the Utah Psychedelic Society in Salt Lake City on February 22, 2020. Emanuel addresses the state of the drug policy reform movement, why the psychedelic community needs to embrace the decriminalization of all drugs, and why harm reduction is the argument that will build bridges with non-drug users and take us to the next level in the fight to end the drug war.
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In this episode I interview David Downs, Cannabis Editor at Leafly.com. We discuss the frightening truth about unregulated cannabis vape cartridges. VAPI, or Vaping Associated Pulmonary Injury, killed 52 people last year. It's real, and although the main cause, a thickening agents known as vitamin E acetate, appears to be on the decline, millions of contaminated vape carts are still out there.
We also discuss other serious risks with the unregulated vape market, and why we need government regulation over the industry. -
In this episode I interview Ilsa Jerome, clinical research and information specialist for MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. We spend an hour discussing tons of interesting questions pertaining to the neuroscience of MDMA, including how it induces prosocial behaviors and generates feeling of love and empathy, and what the science really says about the issue of neurotoxicity.
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In this episode we critique an Australian anti-MDMA video created by YouTube star, Josiah Brooks, popularly known as "Jazza." Perpetuating dangerous stereotypes around drugs and drug culture, Jazza is jeopardizing the lives of young people while believing he is doing the opposite.
This kind of anti-drug propaganda is worse than nonsense. It actually increases fatalities, and we need to start criticizing it. We call out Mr. Brooks for the harm he is causing young people in Australia and around the world.
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In this episode I interview Douglas Valentine, author of four books in the CIA, DEA and the DEA's predecessor, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics or FBN. As part of my "deep politics" series, Valentine exposes the long and sordid history of CIA involvement in the drug trade and why there's such a cozy relationship between US intelligence and brutal drug cartels. Buckle your seats because this one is a real doozy.
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In our comeback episode of Drug Nonsense, you'll hear about South Dakota's new anti-meth campaign, Joe Biden's gateway drug delusions, cocaine-snorting pigs, and much more!
Recorded in New Mexico with my new co-host, Mason Burks, don't miss out on the fun and shenanigans as we critique drugs in the media.
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In this episode I interview DanceSafe's current Executive Director, Mitchell Gomez, about everything from the DMT elves to the state of harm reduction and drug policy reform. It's a fun, fast-paced and enlightening conversation that is sure to transform your life. So don't miss out!
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In this episode I interview author and investigative journalist, Ben Westhoff, about his new book, Fentanyl, Inc. The result of four years of investigation, the book traces the origins and history of fentanyl and other new psychoactive substances, the impact they are having, and how governments, law enforcement and harm reductionists are attempting to respond to them.
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Last week Melania Trump spoke on the opioid crisis at Liberty University, the right wing Christian college founded by Jerry Falwell, the late fundamentalist evangelist. While claiming to be removing the stigma surrounding addiction, she and the other panelists couldn't conceal their moral judgment against drug users. In this episode we dissect the event, revealing the unconscious processes of scapegoating. And we interview the father of Integrative Harm Reduction Psychotherapy, Dr. Andrew Tatarsky, who teaches us what it really means to end stigma.
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35,000 people a year are murdered in Mexico in what the government refers to as drug war violence, but the militarization of the country also serves the interests of transnational corporationsāin particular the resource extraction industriesāwho have developed a symbiotic relationship with the country's paramilitary organizations.
In this Thanksgiving Day episode, we interview Dawn Paley, author of Drug War Capitalism, who reminds us of the elephant in the living room when it comes to drug prohibition.
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This episode follows our journey to Florida to volunteer with DanceSafe at the annual Hulaween festival. You'll hear interviews with volunteers from DanceSafe Florida and Georgia, listen to audio of live pill testing, discussions at the booth, and Kyle on ketamine. It's psychedelic fun in the sun on a different sort of episode of Drug Positive.
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Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed the world's first 3D molecular printer. Able to build complex molecules by attaching together atoms, it is only a matter of time before we all have the ability to print our own drugs from home. Yet technology in widespread use today may already provide the same benefits.
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Mike Power is the author of Drugs Unlimited. He is a freelance journalist living with his wife and son in London.
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