Rescheduling marijuana enables defamation defenses

20 Responses to Rescheduling marijuana enables defamation defenses

1. Servetus says:

   August 22, 2026 at 1:39 am

   Social media platforms publishing pro-cannabis marketing that reaches adolescents is criticized by a study conducted and funded by the NIDA:

   19-Aug-2026 – Brands that market hemp-derived, intoxicating cannabinoid products are capitalizing on lack of oversight on social media platforms to reach consumers, according to Rutgers Health researchers.

   Since the passage of the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill, use of these products — Delta-8 THC, HHC and THC-P delivered as edibles, beverages, vapes, concentrates and extracts — has been on the rise throughout the United States. Brand marketing on social media, which is largely underregulated, may contribute to this growth.

   The study, published in the journal Addiction, evaluated the marketing features used by leading brands on social media to inform consumer protection and youth prevention strategies, as well as public health policy responses. […]

   The researchers analyzed 837 Instagram posts published by accounts representing nine leading brands between February 2024 and February 2025. They evaluated the posts for key marketing themes, including product descriptions, recreational appeals, imagery oriented for youth 18 and younger, health claims and safety warnings.

   They found the brands placed an emphasis on lifestyle and recreational marketing, with minimal attention given to consumer safety warnings. Product description and imagery were featured in 75% of posts and 52% showed recreational images that depicted hemp-derived, intoxicating cannabinoid products as part of daily routines and social or leisure experiences. Youth-oriented imagery, such as memes, cartoons and pop culture references, were present in nearly 50% of the posts.

   The marketing approach varied by product type. Cannabis beverages were the most heavily promoted product category, with 97% featuring product imagery, 84% emphasizing recreational themes, 57% using youth-oriented appeals and 40% focusing on brand positioning. Youth-focused themes also were prominent in posts marketing vapes and cartridges (54%) and edibles (49%). Recreational themes were common in posts for edibles (61%) and pre-rolls or blunts (53%). […]

   “Although this study focused on Instagram, similar indirect marketing practices warrant closer examination on platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and TikTok,” said Chen-Sankey, a co-author of the study.

   Approximately half of the posts included youth-oriented elements, such as cartoon imagery, memes, and influencers, is notable given the reported increase in hemp-derived, intoxicating cannabinoid product use in youth, the researchers said.

   “Although many states prohibit youth-appealing marketing strategies, these restrictions do not explicitly extend to hemp-derived, intoxicating cannabinoid products or to social media platforms, where regulatory oversight and enforcement remain limited,” said co-author Kathryn La Capria, a research associate at Rutgers Institute for Nicotine and Tobacco Studies. “Age restrictions limiting who could view brand social media content and notices that products were for adults aged 21 or older were rarely observed, leaving much of the content accessible to underage users, potentially increasing youth exposure to content that normalizes use among young people.” […]

   AAAS Public Science News Release: Leading hemp-derived cannabinoid brands lean on lifestyle and youth appeals on social media — Rutgers researchers find frequent recreational and youth-oriented themes, but limited safety information, in Instagram marketing

   Addiction: Marketing features of derived intoxicating cannabinoid product brands on Instagram: A content analysis

   Authors: Kathryn La Capria, Siyan Meng, Alisa A. Padon, Kayla K. Tillett, Scott I. Donaldson, Jon-Patrick Allem, Matthew E. Rossheim, Cassidy LoParco, Carla J. Berg, Kristina M. Jackson, Julia Chen-Sankey.

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2. Servetus says:

   August 25, 2026 at 9:20 pm

   Gallup Poll, U.S. marijuana smoking at record high, cigarettes at low:

   Gallup: Record High

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3. Servetus says:

   September 2, 2026 at 11:27 am

   Addiction disorder studies aided by a new atlas of the brain’s striatum developed at MIT:

   1-Sep-2026 — A region of the brain called the striatum is critical for many cognitive and motor functions, including decision-making, control of movement, habit formation, and processing of reward. It also plays a role in addiction and is significantly affected by Huntington’s disease, schizophrenia, and other disorders.

   In work that could help scientists devise new treatments for those diseases, MIT researchers have generated a new atlas of the neurons found within the striatum. Using single-cell RNA sequencing and other techniques, they were able to identify 31 subgroups of neurons based on which genes they express.

   These groups include neurons that are involved in addiction, depression, and schizophrenia. The researchers also discovered why some neurons of the striatum are more vulnerable to Huntington’s disease. All of these results, the researchers say, could help scientists develop new drugs to combat these conditions.

   “We see this as the foundation that will allow more studies in our Huntington’s disease and opioid use disorder projects. We needed a roadmap of what is there,” says Myriam Heiman, the Picower Professor of Neuroscience and director of MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. […]

   The striatum, located deep within the brain, receives diverse inputs from the cortex, midbrain, hippocampus, and other regions, which it uses to coordinate planning, movement, and decision-making, as well as processing reward. In this study, the researchers focused on the most populous cell type in the striatum, a type of inhibitory neuron called the medium spiny neuron, which responds to dopamine.

   Most of these medium spiny neurons belong to either the direct pathway, which helps to promote movement, or the indirect pathway, which suppresses unwanted movements. These pathways are distinguishable by what type of dopamine receptor they express — dopamine receptor 1 (D1) or dopamine receptor 2 (D2).

   Beyond these two divisions, scientists knew that there were many subpopulations performing different roles, especially in the anatomically ventral (lower) regions of the striatum. However, it has been difficult to generate a consensus on how to classify these cells, in part because prior studies focused on specific subregions, meaning that overarching principles of striatal cellular organization were lacking.

   To overcome that challenge, the researchers worked closely with brain banks in the United States and Canada to collect postmortem striatal samples representing diverse anatomical regions. […]

   Using these techniques, the researchers were able to identify 31 different subpopulations of neurons, including nine types of medium spiny neurons. Among their medium spiny neuron types are two “outlier” populations that appear to play important roles in schizophrenia, substance use disorder, and depression.

   One of those populations, known as D1 outliers, showed high expression of genes involved in addiction and substance use disorder, especially genes related to opioid response. Another population, called D2 outliers, showed high expression of genes that respond to antidepressants. And, both populations appeared to respond strongly to clozapine, an antipsychotic drug used to treat schizophrenia. […]

   The researchers found that dorsal populations of medium spiny neurons express higher levels of the genes MSH2 and MSH3, which play a role in increasing the number of CAG repeats found in the huntingtin gene. As more of those repeats accumulate, the mutated version of the huntingtin protein becomes more harmful to cells.

   The researchers also found that a rare population of medium spiny neurons that forms island-like structures in the ventral striatum was more resistant to the accumulation of CAG repeats. Further study of this class of cells might help researchers learn how to induce other medium spiny neurons to become more resistant to the disease, Heiman says.

   “Looking at the genes that these neurons express or don’t express might give us some clues as to how to make other medium spiny neurons resilient like them,” she says. […]

   The researchers also compared their findings from human tissue samples to samples from mice and found several differences, especially in the expression of genes related to drug response and substance use disorders. One such gene, which encodes the mu opioid receptor (OPRM1), is highly expressed in the human D1 outlier population, but not in the corresponding population of neurons in mice.

   This means that standard mouse models may not fully capture the biology of opioid responses, and that engineering mice to express this receptor in a similar manner to humans could make those models significantly more accurate.

   “Some of the diversity we’re seeing in the human ventral striatum is species-specific and has implications for modeling substance use disorder in rodents,” Heiman says. “Now that we understand better the species differences, we can use the rodent models for specific questions that apply for conserved genes, but we could also think about humanizing some models.”

   The researchers hope that this map, built from tissue contributions by brain donors and their families, and assembled across disciplines and institutions, will provide an important starting point for researchers pursuing new treatments for some of the most difficult-to-treat brain disorders. […]

   AAAS Public Science News Release: Atlas of the brain’s striatum could guide researchers to new drug treatments — a new study reveals insights into populations of neurons affected by Huntington’s disease, schizophrenia, addiction, and other disorders

   Cell: Cross-species single-cell atlas of the striatum defines cell-type and subregion disease vulnerabilities

   Authors: Raleigh M. Linville, Benjamin T. James, Kyriaki, Li-Lun H, Jung Hoon Shin, Esaria Oliver, Stuart B. Fass, James C. Cameron, Brent E. Fitzwalter1, Roland Bock, Erin M. Murray Mathilde Louçã, Oluwamayowa Okel, Charlotte Wang, Erica Engelberg-Cook, Michael DeTure, Vanessa Farrell, Sergio Sebastian Pineda, Suphinya Sathitloetsakun, Xinyue Liang, Bertha Madras, Dennis W. Dickson, Deborah C. Mash, Gustavo Turecki, Vanessa C. Wheeler, Veronica A. Alvarez, Dana Gabuzda, Manolis Kellis, Myriam Heiman.

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4. Servetus says:

   September 3, 2026 at 9:41 pm

   Psilocybin offsets chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN):

   3-Sep-2026 — A psychedelic compound best known for its effects on the brain may help prevent one of chemotherapy’s most debilitating side effects – chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), researchers report. In mouse models, as few as two doses of psilocybin given before treatment durably prevented CIPN through multiple cycles of chemotherapy, while preserving both nerve function and the therapies’ tumor-killing effects. No previous studies have examined the prophylactic potential of psilocybin for CIPN, the authors say. CIPN is a common and often debilitating consequence of platinum-based cancer treatments. Affecting more than 60% of patients, CIPN causes persistent pain, burning sensation, and numbness. This condition often limits or interrupts potential lifesaving cancer treatment and can greatly reduce the quality of life of survivors. […]

   CIPN is linked to failures in mitochondrial function and the progressive degeneration of the farthest-reaching portions of sensory nerve fibers. Previous research has suggested that psilocybin promotes neural plasticity through the 5HT2A receptor. Because 5HT2A receptors may also influence mitochondrial production and sensory pain pathways, Heles et al. hypothesized that psilocybin could potentially produce lasting remodeling and protection within the nervous system. In tumor-bearing animals undergoing repeated, clinically relevant cycles of platinum- and taxane-based chemotherapy, the authors showed that psilocybin administration before chemotherapy durably prevented CIPN through as many as six chemotherapy cycles without reducing chemotherapy’s antitumor effects. […]

   “The challenge now is to translate these mechanistic insights into carefully designed clinical trials…” she says. Maiarú also notes that the effect of the findings extends beyond chemother­apy-induced neuropathy in terms of potential for disease-modifying approaches to chronic pain.

   AAAS Public Science News Release: Psilocybin prevents chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in mice

   Science: Psilocybin prevents chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy through mitochondrial trafficking preservation

   Authors: Mario Heles, Lilach Pasvolsky, Hinduja Sathishkumar, Shorook Naara, Yen Vu, Caitlyn L. Stewart, Tongxin Xie, Frederico O. Gleber-Netto, Pengyu Zhu, Megan L. Uhelski, Jordan Chatwin, Andrew Lara, Danielle L. Stolley, Michael R. Migden, Z-Hye Lee, Shiyanth Thevasagayampillai, Preethi H. Gunaratne, Kaoutar Ait-Ahmad, M. J. Kuykendall, Sebnem Ece Eksi, Patrick M. Dougherty.

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5. Servetus says:

   September 4, 2026 at 5:17 pm

   Cannabis marketers may promote marijuana in connection with intimacy:

   1-Sep-2026 – PULLMAN, Wash. – Alcohol advertisers have long faced industry guidelines discouraging them from linking drinking with sexual success. Cannabis marketers have no comparable industrywide guidelines and may promote cannabis in connection with sex and intimacy. A new Washington State University study suggests such messages may influence young adults’ intentions to use cannabis before sex, with potential implications for sexual decision making and consent.

   …the study found that college students who interpreted advertisements as suggesting cannabis use resulted in better sex – whether the ads featured sexual themes or not – were more likely to expect those benefits and to say they might use cannabis before sex. […]

   “We know from alcohol advertising that sexualized appeals can make a difference in how people understand the information presented,” said Jessica Fitts Willoughby, a professor in WSU’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication and the study’s lead author. “Cannabis is a little different because there really aren’t rules saying you can’t tie it to sex.” […]

   Simply seeing a sexual or romantic ad did not consistently predict viewers’ answers. What mattered more was how they interpreted it. Those who believed an ad was promising better sex were more likely to expect cannabis to improve their own sexual experiences or reduce nervousness. They were also more likely to say they might use cannabis before sex.

   “It wasn’t as simple as seeing a message and automatically being influenced by it,” Willoughby said. “The stronger connection appeared when someone interpreted the ad as saying cannabis makes sex better and then they thought it might do the same for them.”

   The study also found differences between men and women. Men who wanted to be like the men shown in sexual or romantic ads – who were typically physically fit, attractive and masculine – were more likely to say they intended to use cannabis before sex. Women who thought the ads raised concerns about sexual consent were less likely to say they would use it before sex. […]

   AAAS Public Science News Release: Cannabis ads may shape viewers’ expectations about cannabis and sex

   SAGE Journals – Communications Research: Sex, Romance, or Recreation? An Experiment Testing the Effects of Cannabis Brand-generated Social Media Ads on College Students’ Expectancies and Intentions to Use Cannabis Prior to Sex

   Authors: Jessica Fitts Willoughby, Stacey J. T. Hust, Leticia Couto, Jiayu Li, Soojung Kang.

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6. Servetus says:

   September 4, 2026 at 5:25 pm

   NIDA research to determine if psilocybin can be used to treat cocaine addictions:

   4-Sep-2026 — Albert Arias, MD, chief of addiction psychiatry at Carilion Clinic, has received an award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to research how psilocybin, a psychedelic compound being studied for several psychiatric and substance use disorders, can offer a new approach for people with cocaine use disorder.

   The initial $623,000 award is part of a phased project to evaluate whether psilocybin can help reduce cocaine use when administered in a carefully controlled clinical research setting combined with structured psychotherapy. Subsequent funding to support the larger clinical phase of the research could bring the total award to $3.5 million. […]

   The first phase of research will examine safety, tolerability, feasibility, dosing, and early signals of efficacy. If successful, the project will move into a larger clinical trial designed to test efficacy and better understand why some patients may respond better than others.

   The NIDA award expands Carilion’s growing research in addiction psychiatry and reflects the health system’s commitment to investigating new approaches for patients affected by substance use disorders.

   “Research is especially important when patients and clinicians have limited treatment options,” Arias said. “Our goal is not to assume that psilocybin works, but to ask the question carefully, scientifically and safely. If we find evidence of benefit, it could provide the foundation for larger studies and, eventually, new treatment options. […]

   AAAS Public Science News Release: Carilion Clinic researcher receives NIH award to study use of psychedelics to treat cocaine addiction – initial award could grow to $3.5 million to support larger clinical research phase

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7. Servetus says:

   September 7, 2026 at 7:19 pm

   LSD is stripped down to the base features responsible for its hallucinogenic and therapeutic effects:

   7-Sep-2026 – In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers whittled away at LSD’s core multi-ring structure and synthesized new, simplified versions of it to probe its functionality. The researchers successfully developed several compounds with reduced hallucinogenic and cardiotoxic effects while also identifying one compound that produced antipsychotic-like effects.

   “By systematically deconstructing LSD, we have identified simplified cores that are better starting points for medicinal chemistry efforts,” said study corresponding author David E. Olson, director of the Institute for Psychedelics and Neurotherapeutics and a professor of chemistry, and biochemistry and molecular medicine at UC Davis.

   LSD is among the many psychedelic drugs that researchers are investigating due to its ability to spur growth of neurons and strengthen connections between them. A host of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by these connections withering.

   “We’ve known the structure of LSD for a long time, but the complexity of its core has really limited our ability to engineer optimized drugs based on its structure,” said Olson. “If you can only modify a couple of spots, you’re limited in what you can do.” […]

   The research focused on LSD’s ergoline core, which is a structure of four fused ring-like shapes that act as its base molecular scaffold. This structure interacts with a suite of serotonin receptors in the brain, including serotonin receptors 5-HT2A, 5-HT2B and 5-HT2C, to produce LSD’s various positive and negative effects.

   “We found that when you start deleting portions of LSD’s molecular structure, you can retain some properties and eliminate others,” Olson said. “By systematically deleting these rings, we can figure out what rings are important for what effects.”

   Olson described LSD’s molecular framework as a mixture of the two major families of psychedelic compounds, the tryptamine family and the phenethylamine family. Molecularly, LSD possesses physical characteristics of both. […]

   When the researchers removed the tryptamine-like parts, the molecule retained its ability to stimulate the 5-HT2A receptor, producing hallucinogenic effects. But when the researchers removed other parts of the molecule, the hallucinogenic effects were reduced, as were the cardiotoxic effects. The cardiotoxic effects are mediated by the 5-HT2B receptor.

   In total, the research team synthesized nine modified versions of LSD’s ergoline core, two of which showcased these improved safety profiles, with reduced hallucinogenic and cardiotoxic effects.

   The team named these compounds UCD0094 and UCD0076. […]

   When tested in mouse behavioral assays, UCD0076 produced antipsychotic properties.

   “It’s interesting that you could take LSD’s structure, chop off a part of it and you’re left with a molecule that is fundamentally antipsychotic,” said Olson, noting that compounds that activate 5-HT2C receptors are being explored as treatment options for epilepsy and substance use disorders in addition to schizophrenia. “This is a great starting point for those conditions.” […]

   AAAS Public Science News Release: Deconstructing LSD for therapeutic discoveries — molecular autopsy uncovers features responsible for hallucinations and therapeutic benefits

   Phys Org: Stripped-down LSD reveals structural features linked to hallucinogenic and therapeutic effects

   Authors: Eds. Gaby Clark and Robert Egan

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8. Servetus says:

   September 7, 2026 at 11:11 pm

   Psilocybin protects against nerve damage from chemotherapy:

   September 3, 2026 — Chemotherapy is brutal. The cancer treatment is often lifesaving, but it comes with serious side effects. Some are shorter-lived, such as hair loss, nausea and fatigue, but others can last long after treatment is over and even for life. That’s the case with peripheral neuropathy. This painful side effect, which can cause tingling and numbness in the hands and feet, can be managed with ice and painkillers or opioids. But for the most part, it is unpreventable.

   That could soon change: New research in mice suggests psilocybin, an active ingredient in magic mushrooms, may protect against this kind of severe nerve pain. The results, published on Thursday in the journal Science, show that mice that were given two doses of psilocybin were protected against nerve damage caused by chemotherapy for as many as six cycles of treatment.

   “This is the first time where psilocybin has been used as a neuroprotective agent,” said Patrick Dougherty, one of the paper’s co-authors and a professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, at a press conference ahead of the paper’s release. […]

   “For the first time, we’re looking at pain—a somatic symptom—and we’re actually showing a really significant efficacy, not in treating that but in preventing that,” he said.

   The discovery was something of an accident. One of Amit’s colleagues noticed that mice that had been given psilocybin avoided nerve damage after chemotherapy. But Amit didn’t believe it—not at first.

   “Do it again,” he recalled telling her. “So she did, again and again and again.”

   “We did it so many times with tumor, without tumor, different types of chemotherapy. And consistently, we did not see the development of neuropathy, whether we gave those animals just one cycle or even six consecutive cycles,” Amit said. “This is unparalleled.”

   The reason why seems to have to do with how energy-producing structures called mitochondria move through nerve cells. Chemotherapy attacks “microtubules,” which are different structures in nerve cells that help transport mitochondria like a “railroad system,” Amit explained. With psilocybin, cells were able to maintain mitochondria’s movement along this “railroad.” […]

   Scientific American: ‘Unparalleled’ study finds psilocybin protects against nerve damage from chemotherapy — the findings, which were made in mice, may offer a new way to prevent a common chemotherapy side effect that can last well beyond treatment

   Authors: Jackie Flynn Mogensen, edited by Claire Cameron.

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9. Servetus says:

   September 10, 2026 at 5:41 pm

   Use of betel nut by humans emerged 25,000 years ago:

   9-Sep-2026 — A team of Griffith University archaeologists has uncovered evidence that humans were using mind-altering substances much earlier in time than previously supposed.

   Led by Professor Adam Brumm from Griffith’s Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution (ARCHE), and involving ARCHE colleagues Associate Professors Carney Matheson and Michelle Langley, the team combined biochemical and archaeological evidence to trace the prehistoric roots of one of the world’s most popular addictive stimulants, “betel nut”, an ancient drug used throughout much of the Asia-Pacific region.

   The group’s research, conducted in collaboration with Indonesian archaeologists from Makassar’s University of Hasanuddin and the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), shows that the use of betel nut as a drug emerged among some Indonesian communities by up to 25,000 years ago, moving beyond the previously suggested Neolithic or Bronze Age (~3500 years ago) start times. […]

   Presently, it is thought the world’s first traditions of psychoactive drug use arose after the Neolithic advent of farming, beginning with the innovation of fermented alcoholic drinks (barley beer) about 13,000 years ago in Israel.

   “However, this theory fails to account for the possibility that very ancient drug-taking lies at the roots of our most commonly used psychoactive substances,” Professor Brumm said.

   Professor Brumm’s investigation focused on the origins of betel nut usage, a near-universal tradition among hundreds of millions of people between India and the South Pacific (about one in 10 of the modern global population).

   Consuming betel nut induces a sense of mild euphoria and heightened alertness, among other effects.

   “Although poorly known in western societies, it is the world’s fourth most widely used psychoactive substance, after alcohol, caffeine and nicotine,” Professor Brumm said.

   Modern users take the betel drug by mixing a processed seed of the Areca catechu palm (the betel “nut”) with slaked lime – commonly made by grinding burnt shells into a fine powder – and other ingredients to form a “quid”, which is then chewed to get high.

   “Slaked lime is an essential ingredient because it causes a chemical reaction that releases the nut’s psychoactive compounds into the bloodstream more rapidly,” Professor Brumm said. […]

   …the Griffith team reports the discovery of extremely rare skeletal remains of two early human foragers from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, one dating to 25,000-16,000 years ago, the other to 7600-6300 years ago.

   Both hunter-gatherers display a highly unusual dental-wear pattern (deep, rounded tooth grooves), a novel bioarchaeological marker the researchers established was caused by a previously unknown drug-use behaviour: habitual sucking of whole betel nuts.

   Previous reports suggested the main neuroactive alkaloid in betel nut (arecoline) was released by chewing the processed nut in a prepared quid with slaked lime, with the latter converting arecoline into a free base form, thereby increasing its bioavailability.

   “But our team conducted experiments in which we soaked betel nuts in artificial saliva and tested the resultant broths against a panel of cloned human receptors expressed in frog egg cells, including specialised proteins that act as molecular switches, regulating neural activity,” Professor Brumm said.

   “This showed that just sucking on intact betel nuts will release arecoline in sufficient amounts to have a physiological effect, altering brain function.”

   In addition, biochemical analyses carried out by Associate Professor Carney Matheson detected the presence of arecoline in the dental tissues of the foragers, providing strong evidence for betel nut ingestion.

   Taken together, the findings suggest early foragers in Sulawesi engaged in an ancient and longstanding practice of habitually sucking betel nuts, resulting in dramatic alterations to their teeth. […]

   AAAS Public Science News Release: Ice Age origins of one of humanity’s oldest drug habits

   ScienceAdvances: Betel nut sucking is the earliest recorded evidence for the habitual use of a neuroactive plant drug

   Authors: Adam Brumm, Melandri Vlok, Roger L. Papke, Carney D. Matheson, Budianto Hakim, Clare Stokes, Basran Burhan, Suryatman, Andi Muhammad Saiful, Michelle C. Langley, Pratiwi Yuwono, Delta Bayu Murti, Sofwan Noerwidi, and Marlon N. R. Ririmasse.

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10. Servetus says:

    September 16, 2026 at 7:57 pm

    FDA hearing conducted for psychedelic drug trials:

    the FDA recently awarded priority review vouchers to two companies studying psilocybin for major depressive disorder and treatment-resistant depression, as well as a third voucher for methylone — a derivative related to midomafetamine (MDMA) — for PTSD. Additionally, the FDA allowed an early-phase clinical study of noribogaine hydrochloride to proceed under an investigational new drug application for alcohol use disorder.

    The meeting built on the FDA’s finalized clinical guidance for psychedelic drug developers published in July. That framework was featured in a New England Journal of Medicine commentary by four agency employees who highlighted the difficulty of maintaining double-blind integrity in psychedelic trials.

    “This absence of expected effects not only compromises blinding integrity but may also induce a disappointment effect, wherein participants experience negative outcomes because they believe they received an inactive treatment,” the FDA authors wrote. […]

    “Studies with psychedelics cannot be placebo-controlled to the extent of more traditional therapeutics,” said Mark Rasenick, PhD, of the American Brain Coalition. “Expectation bias is difficult to overcome. The role of monitors and therapists is difficult to assess, and not in the traditional province of the FDA. Yet published results are exciting and can’t be ignored. There’s already evidence that psychedelics are effective therapeutics.” […]

    Safety advocates countered with calls for strict guardrails. Kevin Sabet, PhD, of the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions, cited rising non-fatal emergency calls involving ketamine, referencing the high-profile overdose death of actor Matthew Perry.

    “We need to make sure we have approval first, and then access,” Sabet said. “When considering harms, we need to look at psychosis, visual disturbances, mania, suicidal thoughts, heart problems, misuse, and therapist misconduct.” […]

    Experts also cautioned against broad, heavy-handed regulatory frameworks that may limit patient access.

    “Not all psychedelics have similar abuse potential, and the safety profiles of the various psychedelics are not the same,” said former FDA deputy division director Lawrence Goldkind, MD. “I strongly urge the FDA not to use a templated class labeling and REMS for all psychedelics. Labeling and REMS should be tailored to the specific drug based on the data.” […]

    MedPage Today: Psychedelic Drug Trials, Patient Safety Take Spotlight at FDA Hearing — Agency heard public testimony about psychedelic treatments for severe mental illness

    Author: Kristen Monaco

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11. Servetus says:

    September 16, 2026 at 9:57 pm

    Clinical trials for psychedelics need more convincing placebo treatments:

    16-Sep-2026 — UC San Francisco researchers are weighing in on one of the biggest challenges in psychedelic science, arguing that clinical trials need more convincing placebo treatments to better measure the drugs’ true effects.

    The debate hinges on “masking,” the clinical trial gold standard that keeps patients and researchers from knowing who receives the active drug or a placebo. Because psychedelics produce such distinctive effects, participants can almost always tell whether they got the real thing. That makes it hard to separate a drug’s effects from the power of expectation, including the disappointment patients feel when they realize they did not receive the psychedelic.

    In a perspective published Sept. 16 in JAMA Psychiatry, researchers from UCSF, UC San Diego, and Stanford University call for a more aggressive approach to preserving masking in psychedelic clinical trials. The paper arrives as psychedelic research gains momentum and regulators face growing pressure to decide how these treatments should be evaluated and approved.

    Instead of relying on active placebos such as niacin, which can cause flushing but little else resembling a psychedelic experience, the researchers propose carefully designed combinations of approved drugs to create a more convincing placebo. They also recommend limiting what participants are told about the study, making it harder to guess which treatment they received. […]

    AAAS Public Science News Release: Can psychedelic clinical trials be better? Researchers say yes

    JAMA Psychiatry: The Case for More Aggressive Masking in Psychedelic Trials

    Authors: Kevin H. Yang, MD; Boris D. Heifets, MD, PhD; Andrew Krystal, MD, PhD; Josh D. Woolley, MD, PhD.

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12. PicWav says:

    September 18, 2026 at 8:44 pm

    A very timely and legally astute analysis on how federal rescheduling shifts the landscape for state-level defamation claims and commercial standing. In legal commentary and public policy advocacy, turning complex legislative timelines, court filings, and archived document snapshots into concise video explainers using Create Photo to Video helps legal educators communicate nuanced regulatory impacts with greater public clarity. Excellent legal insight!

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13. Servetus says:

    September 20, 2026 at 3:59 pm

    Peruvian Andes 3000-year-old temple was used for mind-altering drug rituals:

    CHAVÍN DE HUÁNTAR, PERU—The subterranean corridor was lit only by eerie light that filtered down narrow ventilation shafts and reflected from polished stone. Priests huffed on decorated conch shell trumpets, sending deep blasts echoing against the cut stone walls of the narrow gallery. Using a bone tube, an attendant blew a powerful psychoactive snuff up the nose of a pilgrim, launching the recipient on a brief but explosive internal journey.

    Archaeologists have long believed this 3000-year-old temple complex in a high and remote valley in the central Peruvian Andes was a center of drug rituals such as the scenario above. Carved friezes depict psychoactive plants and stone heads illustrate humans transforming into serpents, raptors, and jaguars. Trumpets made from Ecuadorean conch shells have been found near a circular plaza designed to amplify the sound of water rushing through an underground channel. Beneath the collection of stone buildings, excavators found an intricate network of galleries with the remains of dozens of polished graphite mirrors, as well as a 4.5-meter-tall granite stela of a fanged deity.

    Such finds strongly suggested the practice of mind-altering rituals, but in 2016 a team led by Stanford University’s John Rick began to unearth what he calls “the smoking gun.” They uncovered a new gallery and spent two painstaking seasons excavating its floor. “It was crazy, we started to find all this material, including 21 bone tubes,” recalls Oscar Espinoza, a Ph.D. student at Tulane University. He led analyses of the tubes, which yielded traces of tobacco and something considerably more potent: seeds from the vilca tree, which contain bufotenine; dimethyltryptamine (DMT); and 5-MEO-DMT, a combination that produces short-lived but extremely intense visions. […]

    Drug-based rituals, it is now becoming clear, played a central role in the emergence of Andean civilization. Rick believes Chavín’s ritual leaders invited elites from other regions to take part in elaborate ceremonies centered on ingesting powerful substances amid a dramatic sound and light show. In so doing, “they harnessed the process of mental alteration to establish powerful levels of authority.”

    Chavín’s success spawned imitators throughout the region. In subsequent centuries, the Tiahuanaco and Wari peoples built on these traditions to cement political, social, and religious power as their territories expanded to encompass vast swaths of western South America. Widespread ritual drug use fell into decline only when the Inca rose after 1200 C.E.; Spanish conquerors suppressed remaining practices after their 1532 invasion. Although psychoactives remained in use for medicinal and small-scale religious purposes—many can still be found for sale in open-air markets—their powerful and pervasive influence on Andean society was relegated to the shadows. […]

    Scattered evidence suggests early societies along the Peruvian coast experimented with psychoactives as early as the third millennium B.C.E. More solid evidence is found at Chavín, which emerged 150 kilometers to the north by 1200 B.C.E. The temple complex remained in continuous use until decline set in after an earthquake around 550 B.C.E. Notably, it lacks defenses, palaces, or signs of an organized military. Chavín was not the center of a political state, but a pilgrimage site that for centuries drew visitors from afar.

    “This system was not based on coercion,” Rick says. He envisions a series of nested secret societies overseen by shaman-priests who welcomed devotees from across the central Andes. An outer circle would have participated in public rituals in the large open-air square plaza in front of the main temple, whereas an elite entered a more intimate circular plaza ringed with friezes that include images of the mescaline-producing cactus. An even smaller circle might have ingested vilca in the underground galleries. Pottery found in some of these galleries comes from distinct regions around northern Peru, suggesting specific spaces were set aside for the exclusive use of visiting elites. […]

    Science: High culture — how psychoactive substances helped spur Andean civilization

    Author: Andrew Lawler

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14. Servetus says:

    September 25, 2026 at 8:49 pm

    Cannabis leaves are discovered to contain rare flavoalkoaloids with possible medical potential:

    September 25, 2026 — Scientists studying the chemistry of Cannabis leaves have uncovered something that had never been documented in the plant before: evidence of a rare group of natural compounds known as flavoalkaloids.

    Analytical chemists at Stellenbosch University (SU) made the discovery while examining the complex mixture of chemicals found in commercially grown Cannabis from South Africa. Their findings suggest that the leaves, which can be treated as low value plant material or waste, may contain a much richer collection of potentially useful compounds than previously recognized. […]

    In the new analysis, the researchers detected 79 phenolic compounds across three strains of Cannabis grown commercially in South Africa. Of those, 25 had never previously been reported in Cannabis.

    Sixteen of the compounds were tentatively identified as flavoalkaloids, providing the first evidence that this rare class of chemicals occurs in Cannabis leaves. Even more strikingly, most of the flavoalkaloids appeared primarily in just one of the three strains. […]

    …studying plant phenolics can be especially difficult.

    These compounds are often present at very low concentrations, and their chemical structures can vary enormously. That makes it challenging to separate, identify, and distinguish one compound from another within an already complex plant sample.

    “Most plants contain highly complex mixtures of phenolic compounds, and while flavonoids occur widely in the plant kingdom, the flavoalkaloids are very rare in nature,” she explains.

    The chemical complexity of Cannabis made the results particularly surprising. The plant is already known to contain hundreds of metabolites, a broad term for small molecules produced through biological and chemical processes inside living organisms.

    “We know that Cannabis is extremely complex – it contains more than 750 metabolites – but we did not expect such high variation in phenolic profiles between only three strains, nor to detect so many compounds for the first time in the species. Especially the first evidence of flavoalkaloids in Cannabis was very exciting.” […]

    Much of the scientific attention surrounding Cannabis has historically focused on cannabinoids, the group of compounds that includes substances responsible for many of the plant’s well known pharmacological and mood effects.

    De Villiers argues that the new findings show how much remains to be learned about the plant’s non-cannabinoid chemistry.

    The leaves in particular may deserve closer scrutiny. Plant material that is currently regarded as waste could contain phenolic compounds with properties that make them interesting for future biomedical research.

    “Our analysis again highlights the medicinal potential of Cannabis plant material, currently regarded as waste. Cannabis exhibits a rich and unique non-cannabinoid phenolic profile, which could be relevant from a biomedical research perspective,” he concludes. […]

    Science News: Don’t toss cannabis leaves … scientists found rare, previously overlooked compounds in Cannabis leaves that could reveal new biomedical potential

    ScienceDirect: Comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatographic analysis of Cannabis phenolics and first evidence of flavoalkaloids in Cannabis

    Authors: Magriet Muller, André de Villiers.

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15. Servetus says:

    September 30, 2026 at 8:36 pm

    Pamphlet published in 1967 by Lisa Bieberman called “Session Games People Play: A manual for the use of LSD”, is still being referred to by modern users of psychedelics:

    29-Sep-2026 — BUFFALO, N.Y. ­— As psychedelic drugs such as LSD gain new momentum as a therapeutic treatment for severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and even headaches, a University at Buffalo researcher is exploring safety education for recreational users.

    Daniel Kruger, PhD, research associate professor in the School of Public Health and Health Professions, looked back more than half a century for best practices on harm reduction.

    In the 1960s, when Harvard psychology lecturer and psychedelics proponent Timothy Leary was advising people to “turn on, tune in, and drop out,” a young Radcliffe College graduate was quietly focused on another aspect of hallucinogens — safety.

    Lisa Bieberman, who had been a Leary follower, established the Psychedelic Information Center in Cambridge, Mass. In February 1967, she published the $1 pamphlet, “Session Games People Play: A Manual for the Use of LSD,” which recommended best practices for the use of all types of psychedelics, especially for first-timers. She also addressed what might go wrong during an LSD or psilocybin (“magic”) mushroom trip.

    “Bieberman highlights a number of games that may be better avoided during a LSD session, such as running away from your companions and believing that you have unlocked the deepest truths of the universe and need to tell the world about them,” Kruger says. “She also recommended that users stay with people they like and trust, avoid going out in public, and clear their minds of negative emotions.”

    He launched a study with Paul Gillis-Smith, program lead at the Center for the Study of World Religious Studies at Harvard Divinity School, in which they surveyed almost 600 self-identified psychedelic users. Their findings, which showed that participants agreed with 18 of 19 pieces of Bieberman’s advice, were published in the Aug. 12 edition of the journal Psychedelics. […]

    Psychedelics have even been used to treat physical conditions such as cluster headaches, which are so painful that some sufferers have reported suicidal ideation.

    “The clinical trials show people are getting better for a range of conditions,” he says. “Some report finding more meaning in life, having greater spiritual connections, and improving their relationships.”

    While these trials may offer promise to millions of people, Kruger notes that the majority of those experimenting with psychedelics are doing so outside of a regulated context and with little prevention education.

    “As a public health professional, I believe we need to protect these users,” he says. “When Lisa’s pamphlet was published, there were few resources for novice users. Although the term ‘harm reduction’ was decades from entering the vernacular of drug use education and safety, we propose that ‘Session Games’ and Bieberman’s larger collection of work are precursors to this approach.” […]

    In regard to how to best prepare for a psychedelic experience, the majority of respondents agreed with the statements: “Be with people who know, like, and trust each other,” and “Be aware that, even with a guide, you have to do most of the work yourself.”

    For overall advice, the strongest agreement was with the statements, “Recognize that the experience will eventually end,” and “Recognize that you may experience anxiety, which does not mean that something is wrong.” […]

    AAAS Public Science News Release: Study: Obscure 1967 guide for LSD use still relevant as psychedelics gain in popularity — survey participants agree with 18 of 19 tips from Lisa Bieberman, largely unknown acolyte of acid guru Timothy Leary

    Psychedelics: Highlighting the legacy of a psychedelic harm reduction pioneer: Assessing contemporary agreement with advice in Lisa Bieberman’s 1967 “Session Games” manual

    Authors: Daniel J. Kruger, Paul Gillis-Smith, Jacob S. Aday, Julie Barron, Moss Herberholz, Kevin F. Boehnke.

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16. Servetus says:

    October 3, 2026 at 10:27 am

    Addiction genetics and biological mechanisms of addiction will be the focus of researchers affiliated with the new Polysubstance Addiction Research Center at UC San Diego:

    30-Sep-2026 — Researchers from the University of California San Diego have received a $12.6 million award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to establish the Polysubstance Addiction Research Center (PARC), a multidisciplinary center designed to uncover the biological factors that contribute to addiction across multiple substances. The five-year award will bring together researchers from psychiatry, medicine, obstetrics and gynecology and reproductive sciences, computational biology and bioinformatics, as well as the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System.

    “Addiction research has traditionally been divided into separate areas — alcohol research on one side and drug research on the other,” said Olivier George, PhD, professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine and director of PARC. “But that division doesn’t reflect how addiction occurs in the real world. People often use more than one substance, so we need to understand what these substances have in common, as well as what makes them different.”

    Substance use disorders remain a major public health challenge, yet much addiction research continues to focus on one substance at a time. PARC will instead study cocaine, oxycodone, alcohol and the combination of cocaine and oxycodone using a coordinated research strategy.

    “Bringing psychostimulant drugs – a type of drug that speeds up the central nervous system, such as cocaine – opioids and alcohol research together in one center allows us to look across these boundaries and identify biological mechanisms that may be shared across substances,” added George. […]

    The center will examine why some individuals develop more severe addiction-related behaviors than others by looking at multiple biological systems at once. Researchers will study behavior alongside changes in brain networks, gene activity and processes involving the immune system, metabolism and the gut-brain connection. Researchers will then compare findings with human genetic, brain imaging and other biological datasets to determine how changes at one biological level relate to changes at another.

    “We’ve known for decades that genetic differences among individuals contribute to risk for addiction,” said Abraham Palmer, PhD, professor and vice chair of basic research in the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “PARC is using cutting-edge techniques to understand how these individual differences shape addiction risk at the molecular, cellular and brain circuit levels.”

    This approach is organized around the center’s “One-Individual Multiscale Atlas,” which will integrate information ranging from genes and individual cells to brain circuits, peripheral organs and behavior. Researchers will then compare findings with human genetic, brain imaging and other biological datasets. […]

    “We want to go one step further than simply finding a biological difference associated with addiction,” George said. “We want to test whether changing that biological process changes addiction-related behavior. That could help us identify targets that are more likely to translate into new treatments.”

    The third aim will establish infrastructure to accelerate addiction research beyond the center itself. PARC will expand its addiction biobank, which currently contains more than 40,000 specimens collected from studies of addiction-related behaviors involving cocaine, oxycodone and alcohol. The biobank has already supported 75 external research projects.

    PARC will also provide researchers with access to standardized behavioral models, computational tools and shared datasets. Data will be made available through National Institutes of Health repositories to support reproducibility and enable other researchers to build on the center’s findings. […]

    AAAS Public News Release: UC San Diego receives $12.6 million award to launch a new polysubstance addiction research center — new center will bring together researchers across disciplines to study the underlying biology of addiction and relapse

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17. Servetus says:

    October 3, 2026 at 10:48 am

    Study reveals large gaps in care for youths with opioid use disorder:

    2-Oct-2026 — One in 100 adolescents and young adults in the United States has an opioid use disorder (OUD) and, with the rise of fentanyl in the drug supply, overdoses in this age group have risen sharply since 2019. A new study by investigators from Mass General Brigham asked whether Medicaid-enrolled 13-to-25-year-olds with OUD receive evidence-based, reliable treatment. Using eight years of national data from 229,847 adolescents and young adults, they found only half began treatment, one-third engaged in care, one-sixth received medication, and 1 in 32 continued medication for 180 days or more. […]

    “Untreated opioid use disorder in young people has both immediate and lifelong consequences, and overdoses and poisonings have become a leading cause of death in this age group,” said lead author Scott Hadland, MD, MPH, Chief of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Mass General Brigham for Children. “Our findings suggest large gaps in care that are keeping this population vulnerable to premature death and poor health outcomes.”

    Using health insurance claims data, researchers found that within 14 days of diagnosis, 50.7% of adolescents and young adults with an OUD initiated treatment and 32.9% engaged in care by attending two or more additional treatment sessions in the 34 days after initiating care. Of those that engaged in treatment, 46.3% began medication. The three most prescribed medications were buprenorphine, methadone, and extended-release naltrexone. Only 3.1% of adolescents and young adults with an OUD were still on a medication after 180 days, a timeframe that has become a key quality of care measure given that longer treatment is associated with better outcomes. Additionally, younger adolescents and racially minoritized youths had consistently lower progression through the stages of care. […]

    AAAS Public Science News Release: Study reveals large gaps in care for youths with opioid use disorder — retrospective cohort study led by Mass General Brigham researchers of Medicaid-enrolled 13-to-25-year-olds with opioid use disorder shows most patients do not receive timely, evidence-based treatment

    JAMA: Opioid Use Disorder and Evidence-Based Care Among Medicaid-Enrolled Youths

    Authors: Scott E. Hadland, MD, MPH; Ijeoma Opara, PhD, LMSW, MP; Vicki Fung, PhD; Dandi Dong, MSPH; Sitara Weerakoon, PhD, MPH; Jonathan Rodean, MPP; Marie-Abèle C. Bind, ScD; Bonnie T. Zima, MD, MPH; Meredith Glass, MPH; Margarita Alegría, PhD; George Karandinos, MD, PhD; Arthur Robin Williams, MD, MBE.

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18. Servetus says:

    October 3, 2026 at 11:39 am

    Study reveals brain cells that can help drive anxiety after cannabinoid exposure:

    2-Oct-2026 — CHICAGO — For the first time, Northwestern scientists have identified a set of neurons — cells in the brain — that play a role in generating anxiety after exposure to cannabinoid drugs, especially under stressful conditions. Cannabinoids are a class of substances that includes THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.

    In the study, the scientists exposed mice to a threatening odor. Before being exposed to the scent, derived from fox urine, the mice either received a placebo or a synthetic cannabinoid drug.

    When they received the drug, the mice froze more often and spent less time investigating the predator odor. These anxious behaviors, the scientists found, were linked to the drug’s activation of a small group of cells — known as somatostatin neurons — in the brain’s central amygdala, a region that processes fear and stress.

    Importantly, when the scientists genetically silenced these somatostatin neurons, the drugged mice did not avoid the predator scent as much anymore.

    “The results of this study could explain why a good trip can turn bad pretty quickly if people consume too much cannabis or the situation they are in turns stressful or scary,” said study senior author Dr. Sachin Patel, chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. […]

    Cannabis use in the U.S. has steadily increased in recent years and so have emergency department visits related to adverse effects from the drug. Previous studies have also found an association between cannabis use and increased risk of anxiety in the long term. What’s more, anxiety and mood disorders are also on the rise globally.

    “Understanding how cannabis affects brain function to generate its psychoactive effects could ultimately reveal new ways to counteract negative consequences should they arise in some people,” Patel said.

    Patel also noted that the findings could have implications beyond cannabis. “Suppressing the activity of somatostatin neurons in the central amygdala could represent a final pathway for reducing anxiety symptoms, not just in the context of cannabis side effects,” he explained. […]

    AAAS Public Science News Release: What happens in the brain when cannabis makes you anxious? — Mouse study reveals, for the first time, brain cells that help drive anxiety after cannabinoid exposure

    Nature Communications: Cannabinoid modulation of central amygdala population dynamics during threat investigation

    Authors: Farhana Yasmin, Saptarnab Naskar, Danyal Zaidi, Isaac Kandil, Michelle Kwon, Luis E. Rosas-Vidal & Sachin Patel.

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19. Internet Magazin md says:

    October 5, 2026 at 4:14 pm

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20. Servetus says:

    October 8, 2026 at 10:39 pm

    Lithium treatments for PTSD illustrate the therapeutic effects on the brain due to the quantum properties of isotopic forms of lithium and perhaps more nuclear complex chemicals such as the therapeutics found in psilocybin, ibogaine, or cannabinoids:

    7-Oct-2026 — While lithium has been used as a first-line treatment for the long-term management of bipolar disorder for more than 70 years, scientists still do not fully understand how it produces its therapeutic effects in the brain.

    …Surrey researchers used computational chemistry and quantum simulations to investigate whether part of the answer could lie in ‘nuclear spin’ – a quantum property that makes an atom’s nucleus behave like a tiny magnet, allowing it to influence nearby electrons and potentially change the outcome of chemical reactions.

    The study focused on the two stable isotopes of lithium – lithium-6 and lithium-7. Although chemically almost identical, their atomic nuclei have different quantum spins, and previous in vivo studies have found that this means they can produce different biological effects, including differences in their ability to reduce hyperactivity in rats.

    The team modeled whether this difference could influence a chemical reaction involving flavin, a vitamin B2-derived molecule that helps proteins transfer electrons, and a radical derived from vitamin C (a form of the molecule with an unpaired electron). Vitamin C is abundant in brain cells called neurons and helps protect the brain against oxidative stress, while its radical can retain its spin state for relatively long periods, giving quantum effects more time to potentially influence the reaction.

    Simulations showed that lithium-6 and lithium-7 could affect the reaction differently because of their different nuclear spins. The size of the predicted isotope effect was similar to that derived from previous animal studies comparing the behavioural effects of lithium-6 and lithium-7. […]

    AAAS Public Science News Release: Quantum study offers new insights into lithium’s effects in the brain

    PLOS One: Lithium isotope effects and magnetic interactions in flavin–ascorbyl radical pairs

    Authors: Amina Mouhamed, Jim Al-Khalili, Marco Sacchi.

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