Beer, Wine, Liquor, & Recreational Drugs

[Kriselda Gray]

I think the last time I had alcohol was probably 25 or so years ago. I was already a pretty light drinker. Even though I've always been quite heavy, my tolerance for alcohol is very low. I could get pretty drunk on about half of what it took most of my friends.

Then I started having to take anti-depressants and knew they don't mix well with alcohol, so I mostly stopped drinking all together and if I did drink, I'd only have one of whatever.

Not long after I got married, I started getting really bad headaches any time I drank red wines, and one night, I got so much of a headache we had to take me to the hospital. When I mentioned that I'd been getting headaches after drinking red wine, the ER doctor said it sounded like my body had developed an intolerance for tannins.

Not long after that, my regular doctor put me on both hydrocodone and morphine for my chronic pain. At that point, given I was now taking two types anti-depressants along with the pain pills, I chose to give up drinking all together to avoid an accidental overdose. I still miss being able to have a drink every now and then, but I think it was worth giving it up.

[Phoenix520]

One of our friends, an MD, has Parkinson’s. In discussions with his doc and others, psyllicybin came up. There’s anecdotal evidence it helps.

Our friend called the other day to ask if I know where to get micro doses. I’m looking into it does anyone here know anything about it? (My best guess -Slarti and/or danraft will know something)

[keith]

Not long after I got married, I started getting really bad headaches any time I drank red wines, and one night, I got so much of a headache we had to take me to the hospital. When I mentioned that I'd been getting headaches after drinking red wine, the ER doctor said it sounded like my body had developed an intolerance for tannins.

Headaches from even small amounts of red wine are not uncommon.

In Oz, the general consensus is that the main cause is sulphites added as a preservative mostly in low cost wines designed as a manufactured mass production product. Quality makers tend to avoid sulfites.

Recently another culprit has been identified - traditionally red wines have been 'fined' (clarified) using egg whites. If you have an alergy to eggs you may be reacting to sone minute leftovers. Many makers have stopped using eggs in order to be vegan compliant.

I havent heard of allergy to tannins, but I dont know everything.

[roadscholar]

Used to imbibe Raymond Vineyards Cabernet out of nostalgia, because I had helped install their high-pressure ammonia piping when they were building their winery.

I had been living at the Kripalu ashram “Kayavarohana” in St. Helena, but then moved in with some colorful locals, as my habits had grown distinctly un-Yogic.

While living there I developed a fondness for the free-running reds. Their colour was called “eye of the partridge” in France… the single-malt scotch of rosé wines. A lot of my buds worked The Crush, when the grapes were trucked to the wineries. Working around the clock for a few weeks, their winery paychecks mostly sustained them for a year.

We also sometimes worked in an illegal pot cookie kitchen. Someone brought 5-gallon buckets of a green goo, the extracted resin, down to us from the hills and we baked cookies. Chocolate, with an almond on top. We could eat one and still work, sort of, but two and you’d come to a complete halt staring out a window.

Then back in Baltimore actual single-malt scotch took over. There was a bar in Fell’s Point called Birds of a Feather, owned by serious fans of the stuff, that stocked like three hundred single-malts. They had rare old whiskies that cost $25./shot in 1985. Which I could afford like twice.

At my bottom I too drank Schnapps, but mixed with grapefruit juice because it reminded me of the candy sticks stuck in lemons we used to get at the State Fair. I would get a quart of juice and a pint of booze on my 1/2-hour lunch break and mix them, finishing it before 12:30 when I returned to work running an ancient spindle shaper.

Sobriety date: February 22nd 1988.

[chancery]

Mayonnaise is NOT a recreational drug!

[Kriselda Gray]

Thanks, Keith! That's very interesting. I don't have problems with eggs, so maybe it is the sulfites.

[keith]

Thanks, Keith! That's very interesting. I don't have problems with eggs, so maybe it is the sulfites.

Often shown on the label as "Preservative 220" (in Australia anyway)

All wine will naturally contain sulfites, all fruit actually. Its the added extra that is the problem.

[Danraft]

Well, there is more than just anectodotal evidence that magic mushrooms have potential. I suffered cluster headaches for many years. At the time, it was the only thing that worked.

There are some current journal articles (one crossed my feed today that was single use psilocybin for major depression) that I see. It’s a developing field.

I would guess there wouldn’t be much of a downside trying it with Parkinson’s, but it would be a guess. From what little I can pull out of my brain re the mechanisms of Parkinson’s and of psilopsybins, I’d be curious as to the how’s. I’ll peek around.

As to acquiring. Legally, there isn’t much room. One can legally purchase mushroom spoors in the US if it is for research (yeah yeah…. Much merriment is caused by that phrase. But, they never ever check. Then, you grow your own. The services are pretty sophisticated in that they are shipped in ready to sprout built packets that I think you just mist with water and close back up—mushrooms coming soon.

Or, illegally is to buy from some sketchy place (mostly in Amsterdam) and they’ll ship them in various forms— whole mushrooms to 10g doses ready to make tea with.

One of our friends, an MD, has Parkinson’s. In discussions with his doc and others, psyllicybin came up. There’s anecdotal evidence it helps.

Our friend called the other day to ask if I know where to get micro doses. I’m looking into it does anyone here know anything about it? (My best guess -Slarti and/or danraft will know something)

[John Thomas8]

Wonder how many people the "War On Some Drugs" have died/been damaged due to lack of valid research into the efficacy of "not corprate produced" pharmaceuticals.

I'm convinced MDMA would be a miracle for my son with combat PTSD, but the three letter entities won't even allow the research.

[MN-Skeptic]

A relative of a relative had a son born with "Malignant Migrating Partial Seizures in Infancy." It's an awful disease. The only thing that would help with his seizures was a product from marijuana. Fortunately Iowa was allowing the experimental use of that drug at the time he was born. It's obscene that governments would not allow the use of any product which would help the health of any individual.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

https://www.openculture.com/2022/11/mic ... -mind.html

Michael Pollan, Sam Harris & Others Explain How Psychedelics Can Change Your Mind

You may never have tried psychedelic substances. You may never have had an interest in trying psychedelic substances. But if you’re reading this, you do have a mind, and you’ve almost certainly felt some curiosity about how that mind works. As any engineer knows, one of the shortest routes to understanding how a machine works is to disrupt its normal operations. Psychedelics do just that for your brain, shifting your consciousness into a new perspective that can offer insights into your very perceptions of reality. Or at least they do it in the view of Michael Pollan, Sam Harris, Jacob Silva, Ben Goertzel, and Matthew Johnson.

The more familiar you are with current psychedelics research, the more of those names you’ll know. Pollan, who made his name writing about food, stars in the Big Think video above about the scientific renaissance of mind-altering drugs. “The brain is a hierarchical system, and the default mode network appears to be at the top,” he explains. That network is “the orchestra conductor or corporate executive. You take that out of the picture, and suddenly you have this uprising from other parts of the brain and you have networks that don’t ordinarily communicate with one another suddenly striking up conversations.”

The research on psychedelics seems focused on mental health rather than other diseases.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory ... k-97781342

Oregon closer to magic mushroom therapy, but has setback
Oregon is taking a major step in its pioneering of legalized psilocybin therapy with the graduation of the first group of students trained in how to accompany patients tripping on the psychedelic mushrooms

Oregon closer to magic mushroom therapy, but has setback
Oregon is taking a major step in its pioneering of legalized psilocybin therapy with the graduation of the first group of students trained in how to accompany patients tripping on the psychedelic mushrooms

SALEM, Ore. -- Oregon was taking a major step Friday in its pioneering of legalized psilocybin therapy with the graduation of the first students trained in accompanying patients tripping on psychedelic mushrooms, although a company’s bankruptcy has left another group on the same path adrift.

The graduation ceremony for 35 students was being held Friday evening by InnerTrek, a Portland firm, at a woodsy retreat center. About 70 more will graduate on Saturday and Sunday in ceremonies in which they will pledge to do no harm.

“Facilitator training is at the heart of the nation’s first statewide psilocybin therapy and wellness program and is core to the success of the Oregon model we’re pioneering here," said Tom Eckert, program director at InnerTrek and architect of the 2020 ballot measure that legalized Oregon’s program.

The students must pass a final exam to receive InnerTrek certificates. They then take a test administered by the Oregon Health Authority to receive their facilitator licenses.

“The graduation of the first cohort of students from approved psilocybin facilitator training programs is a significant milestone for Oregon,” said Angie Allbee, manager of the state health authority’s psilocybin services section. “We congratulate Oregon’s future facilitators and the training programs they are graduating from on this incredible and historic moment in psilocybin history.”

The health authority reported Friday that so far it has received 191 license and worker permit applications, including licenses for manufacturers of psilocybin and service centers where the psychedelic substance would be consumed and experienced.

Allbee said she expects students will soon submit applications for licenses, “which will move us closer to service center doors opening in 2023.”

Some classes in InnerTrek's six-month, $7,900 course were held online, but others were in-person, held in a building near Portland resembling a mountain lodge.

The students were told that a dosing session at a licensed center should include a couch or mats for clients to sit or lie on, an eye mask, comfort items like a blanket and stuffed animals, a sketch pad, pencils and a bucket for vomiting.A session typically lasts at least six hours, often with music. Trainers emphasized that the facilitators' clients should be given the freedom to explore whatever emotions emerge during their inner journeys.

“We’re not guiding,” trainer Gina Gratza told the students in a December training session. “Let your participants’ experiences unfold. Use words sparingly. Let participants come to their own insights and conclusions.”

Researchers believe psilocybin changes the way the brain organizes itself, permitting users to adopt new attitudes more easily and help overcome depression, PTSD, alcoholism and other issues.

Eckert said the graduating students will be prepared to help clients see the benefits of psilocybin.

“I feel like it’s a big moment for our culture and country as we collectively begin to reexamine and reevaluate the nature of mental health and wellness, while bringing real healing to those in need,” he said.

Another facilitator training effort in southern Oregon has left students upset and a lawyer in the Netherlands trying to figure out what happened.

Synthesis Institute — a company based in the Netherlands that has over 200 students in Oregon, according to an article in Psychedelic Alpha — was declared bankrupt Tuesday, Dutch court documents showed. The company's website, which as of Friday had not been taken down, shows tuition being $12,997. The students are trying to get refunds.

Moar on the Synthesis Institute bankruptcy in the General Law and Lawsuits thread.

[Foggy]

You don't need any silly "facilitator" to enjoy magic mushrooms.

Researchers believe psilocybin changes the way the brain organizes itself, permitting users to adopt new attitudes more easily and help overcome depression, PTSD, alcoholism and other issues.

Oh. I wonder how well that is documented.

[Annrc]

Our daughter grows these mushrooms legally in Oakland. The mushrooms are processed into micro dose gummies. The product is sold to psychiatrists who use the doses in their work with ptsd patients.

[Foggy]

Interesting.


When I took them, it was just for fun. Well, and PTSD prevention, probably.

[Annrc]

[Phoenix520]

Sprout has taken it medicinally a couple of times. Each times, he says, his anxiety goes away entirely for a few days.