So, Like, We’re Watching the LSD Episode of The Fringe...

Lysergic Acid Diethylamide

So this guy I know? Like really, really well? He’s over at my place and we’re watching The Fringe on TV and smoking a bowl, excuse me, we’re vaping a bowl, he’s an older guy and all concerned with his health and shit. So we’re watching the Lysergic Acid Diethylamide episode of The Fringe, and Walter’s rapping away like a drunken monkey as usual, and they’re hardly underway before my friend is jumping up off the couch and saying no, that’s not what LSD was like…. I said how would I know, and anyway the clothes in those Sixties photos always looked so bad, they must have looked even worse when you were tripping on that stuff. The closest thing I’ve ever had to a psychedelic experience was that time that guy slipped a roofie in my Mimosa. But I digress. My friend says no, no, see, when you took acid, you didn’t suddenly get hurled into somebody else’s consciousness, which in this case seems to resemble some crowded city out of Inception, with your tripping buddy perched on a bus, waving at you. That’s just not fucking how it went. So then he pauses, gets kind of sheepish, says, well, actually, that did happen once, but that’s not the point. And then blah blah happened. And everybody could read everybody else’s mind. And from then on everything was blah blah blah. And peace reigned forevermore. Okay, that’s not fair, he’s really just complaining that they aren’t telling it straight, about how LSD really feels, and what you really see and shit. This notion about taking drugs and ending up in cities full of people wearing black clothing really cracked him up. So I go, when was the last time you took a walk down Lake Street and saw somebody wearing some other color? But he loved the black guy who accidentally dosed himself and then started comparing his stick of red licorice to Bernini's spiral altar at St. Peter's. But car chases? Elevators? The Twin Towers, for God’s sake? Where are the colors, the tracers, the melting edges, the fractal glow of a universe in constant motion? Or something like that. My friend wants to know how they thought they were going to get away with it. Turning it all into a cartoon. And not just any cartoon, but that awful rotoscoping shit that made him seasick when we rented “A Scanner Darkly.”  Like they thought nobody who had ever taken the stuff was going to watch their crappy show, anyway? Whatever. But I thought that last part was cool, the cartoon guys were running to catch a giant purple blimp, like an episode of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles—and chased by zombies!  And more car chases! Too cool! And my friend is laughing, and then he says yeah, well, something like that happened to him once, too….

Photo Credit:http://clatl.com/

MAPS Sponsors Psychedelic Confab

And J.R. will discuss his LSD trips with you.

The Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) has put together a roster of very big psychedelic guns, as well as a few surprises, for its mini-conference on December 12-13 in Los Angeles. On tap for the convocation are such luminaries as Stanislav Grof of Holotropic Breathwork fame; as well as Charles Grob, professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the UCLA School of Medicine and a psychedelic research of long standing who recently studied the effects of psilocybin on death anxiety in terminal cancer patients.

“Catalysts: The Impact of Psychedelics from Consciousness to the Clinic, and from Culture to Creativity” will feature presentations and discussions on “psychedelic science, the current state of psychedelic research, and clinical applications for therapeutic use.”

Other experts among the scientists, physicians, psychologists, writers, and artists expected to attend include Rick Doblin, the founder of MAPS, who has specialized in research on MDMA (Ecstasy) as a treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder. Another scheduled attendee, James Fadiman, was introduced to the field of psychedelic drugs by his Harvard undergraduate advisor Richard Alpert, who later became well known as Baba Ram Dass. Fadiman holds the distinction of being the last LSD researcher to be shut down by the U.S. government, when he was at San Francisco State University in 1972.

Also in attendance will be Julie Holland, an assistant professor of psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine, and the author of “Ecstasy: A Complete Guide,” and Clare Wilkins, director of the Pangea Biomedics Ibogaine Clinic in Mexico.

Special Bonus Appearance:

I can’t imagine that anyone under the age of 55 is likely to know who Larry Hagman is. Long ago, he was on a camp TV show about a Texas oil bazillionaire with nasty habits. Not only was he a big TV star, he was also old enough to have been around when LSD psychotherapy came to the couches of Hollywood analysts for a brief period in the 1960s and attracted some other odd ducks like Cary Grant and James Coburn. Hagman, Star of TV’s “Dallas” and “I Dream of Jeannie,” will discuss his experiences with LSD psychotherapy.

Earlier, he talked about his experiences in a 2003 interview with Rick Doblin, published in the MAPS journal and excerpted below:

Before I tried LSD, I'd been going to a psychologist for a couple of years…. I had been addicted to tobacco and Bontril, a mild form of amphetamine, doctor-prescribed of course….

I was backstage at a performance one time with Crosby, Stills & Nash and I was talking about it to David Crosby. David said, well, shit, man, here. He handed me a handful of little pills. I said what the fuck? He says this is LSD. It was the best going around at that time. This was before Blue Cheer and Windowpane. This was the original Owsley. He gave me about 25 pills. I said, well, how much should I take? He says, well, don't take more than one….

… my first acid trip was the most illuminating experience of my life. I would highly recommend it for people who study and prepare for it and who are not neurotic or psychotic. I don't know what it would do to psychotic people. I know what it does to neurotic people who can't handle that. They get terrified and do crazy things like jumping out of windows and stuff like that. That's happened to a couple of friends of mine.

Graphics Credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Hagman

Salvia: The Mystery Drug

Tripping with the kappa opiate receptor.

Over the past few years, a little known and highly unusual psychedelic drug has claimed the interest of drug users and drug scientists alike. Salvia divinorum, a green, leafy plant native to the Mazateca region of Mexico, provides its users with a short but intense hallucinogenic experience. A member of the mint family, it is not among the ornamental garden plants sold under the name Salvia at local nurseries.

The high is unlike that from LSD or psychedelic mushrooms, users say, nor is it anything like the experience of smoking marijuana. Salvia is not currently controlled by federal law, but dozens of states have moved to outlaw cultivation and sale of the plant, which is currently freely available for purchase on the Internet.

As an herb with psychedelic properties, Salvia divinorum is of pharmaceutical interest because of its uncommon affinity for opium/endorphin receptors—specifically the kappa opioid receptor. Most drugs with classical “psychotomimetic” properties, like LSD and MDMA, are highly selective for the 5-HT(2A) serotonin receptor.

Salvia is not one of these. Like ibogaine, another hallucinogenic shrub with a weak affinity for kappa opiate receptors, Salvia’s active ingredient--Salvinorin A--causes psychoactive effects not usually associated with stimulation of the brain’s internal opioid system. Previous research had identified a few such compounds, such as enadoline, which produced similar hallucinogenic effects.

The pharmaceutical industry has already taken a look at the kappa-opioid agonists in the ongoing search for new painkillers, and has so far discovered the usual psychedelic trap of too many unpredictable side effects for a commercial medication.

Classified as an “atypical” psychedelic, the salvia high is intense, dream-like, and short-lived, tapering off after about 30 minutes. An ounce of salvia in leaf form sells for as little as $40, but more concentrated liquid extracts sell for as much as $60 per gram.

Salvia’s addictive potential is low to nonexistent. No hallucinogen such as LSD or peyote has ever been found to be addictive in the classical sense.

Nonetheless, fearing that the inexpensive plant might become “the next marijuana,” as an Associated Press report put it last month, 24 states have passed, or are considering, legislation to restrict access to salvia. Elsewhere, sale of the drug has been restricted in Spain, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, Australia, and other countries. In the AP article, a Florida state legislator alleged—with unintended irony: “As soon as we make one drug illegal, kids start looking around for other drugs they can buy legally. This is just the next one.”

There are many reasons why Salvia divinorum is not likely to be “the next one.” According to drug expert Rick Doblin of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), salvia “tastes terrible” and is “not going to be extremely popular.” The popular drug information site EROWID describes salvia as “more scary than fun” for many users, concluding that, whether smoked or swallowed, the plant is “aversive for many who try it.” Like ibogaine, salvia is no party drug. It can result in confusion, dizziness, depersonalization, and all the other hallmarks of a “bad trip.”

A related question is the extent to which kappa opioid receptor boosters might reduce the craving for addictive drugs. Ibogaine has been touted for having precisely this effect on heroin addicts and others. However, an early study of kappa opioid receptor-active compounds did not find any reduction in self-administration of cocaine.

The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) is studying salvia. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), citing salvia as a “drug of concern,” is evaluating it.

Photo Credit: http://www.salvia-divinorum-extract-now.com/