Drugs

New Computer-Designed ‘Drug’ Prevents AIDS From Replicating

European researchers have used a computer to design small synthetic molecules capable of attacking the deadly AIDS virus where it hurts the most: its ability to produce the genetic material required for replication. It’s the first time in history this has ever been done. To date, HIV/AIDS has killed more than 28 million people worldwide.…

The congruence bias is why we all jump to conclusions and stay there

We like to think of ourselves as open-minded, but we’re not. The problem is not that, once we’ve found a solution to a problem, we refuse to think of alternatives. It’s that we don’t even realize that there are alternatives to consider. If you remember someone having a name “like Megan,” it’s going to be…

Timothy Leary Once Thought Orgasmic Brain Radios Would Replace Drugs

Counterculture icon Timothy Leary was a longtime advocate of drug use as a way to expand minds. “Turn on, tune in, drop out,” became one of his most popular phrases in the 1960s. But in 1987 Leary predicted that people of the 21st century wouldn’t need “old fashioned” drugs anymore. Instead, we’d all be using…

The Scientifically Best Time to Drink Coffee

Ever wonder what the best time is to drink your coffee? You probably know it is not a good idea to drink part of your daily dose of caffeine in the afternoon. Especially for those who have problems sleeping. But, do you ever drink your coffee and feel like it just didn’t work? I know…

I Pity The Fool Who Resurrected Silk Road

If there’s one thing cops don’t like, it’s being disrespected. So when some renegade launches a clone of Silk Road, the underground drug marketplace that Feds recently shut down, they’re just begging to get arrested. They even made the homepage a spoof of an FBI-seized domain. That’s disrespectful! A website identical to the Silk Road…

Uruguay will sell top quality marihuana at only $1 per gram

Next year, the fine people of Uruguay will be able to buy high quality state-produced weed at only one dollar per gram. For reference, high quality weed in the US goes for around $350 an ounce, according to this and this. That’s $12.36 per gram, which is more than ten times the price of Uruguyan…

Is it true that Oreos are more addictive to lab rats than cocaine?

An investigation into the potential addictiveness of high-fat and high-sugar foods has found that Oreo cookies activate more neurons in the pleasure centers of rats’ brains than cocaine. But does that really mean certain foods are more addictive than hard drugs? These findings, which will be presented by Joseph Schroeder at the Society for Neuroscience…

Scientists Found a Compound That Keeps Marijuana From Getting You High

Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the dopamine-boosting compound in marijuana that, technically speaking, “induces euphoria” — science jargon for “gets you high.” It also happens to work on the brain region involved in psychological addiction. Now, a team of researchers has identified a substance that blocks THC’s dopamine effect. Why is that important? Let’s have a…

Uh Oh, Silk Road Users Are Starting to Get Arrested

Welp, that settles that. Anybody who was wondering if authorities were going to keep going after the arrest of Silk Road kingpin Ross Ulbricht and start targeting users don’t need to wonder anymore. Multiple arrests have now been made worldwide, and it looks like more are on the way. This new wave of arrests knows…

Bitcoin Seized From Silk Road Is In A Highly Prankable FBI Wallet

Ross Ulbricht’s arrest last week included an FBI seizure of about 26,000 Bitcoins. But you can’t just stick Bitcoins under your mattress. Even if you’re the FBI they have to be in a wallet somewhere. And people know where. Internet denizens found the wallet and have been contributing tiny sums, we’re talking 0.00000001 BTC here,…

Synthetic cannabinoids, while legal, have been shown to have much more harmful effects than actual marijuana – but those effects can vary dramatically from person to person. Now, researchers led by University of Arkansas toxicologist Jeff Moran are working to understand the dangers of fake pot by studying how the body metabolizes two popular forms…

Feds Seize Silk Road, Everybody’s Favorite Illegal Drug Website

Once upon a time, you could sign on to Silk Road and buy everything from LSD to Moon Rock molly with Bitcoin. That time is now over because the FBI along with a few other federal agencies have seized the domain and shutdown the drug-dealing site. The only question is, what took them so long?…

Why the Movie Myth of Injecting Medication Into the Heart Is Garbage

Myth: Injecting medicine straight into your heart can be beneficial in some way. Ah, the dramatic scene that ends with an actor stabbing a needle straight into their heart, narrowly escaping death and magically curing whatever ailment just befell them. While very dramatic, it’s also very untrue and an exceptionally bad idea if your goal…

The unknown and surprising origin of the flesh-eating drug Krokodil

Back in the 1930s, American scientists were searching for a morphine substitute when they stumbled upon a new drug called desomorphine. Little did they know that they had invented a substance that would be used to turn people into near zombies in Russia—and Arizona—nine decades later. https://gizmodo.com/russias-flesh-eating-drug-krokodil-actually-has-origin-1411641798

Russia’s flesh-eating drug Krokodil actually has origins in America

Having spent the last decade wreaking havoc in Russia, Krokodil – the cheap, addictive, heroin-like opioid(that also happens to eat your flesh) – has made landfall in the U.S. According to reports from Arizona’s Banner Poison Control Center, two recently documented cases of the drug’s use are believed to be the first in America. But…

This Guy Tried to Float Across the Border On 50 Pounds of Marijuana

The United States Border Patrol busted a would-be Mexican smuggler attempting to float across the border on a 50-pound marijuana raft. In fact, he made it across the border, but didn’t get to land. The AP reports that he was a mere 600 yards from shore before getting busted. Where there’s a weed, there’s a…

The US Tylenol Problem, Visualized

In the last 10 years, 1,500 Americans died after taking too much of one of—nominally—the world’s safest drugs: acetaminophen or, as you might know it, Tylenol. This viz goes a long way to explaining why that’s the case. ProPublica has a wonderfully detailed feature about the overuse of acetaminophen. One of the most compelling points…

Requiem for a Dream: Drugs Are Bad, Mmmkay?

When I saw Black Swan, I thought to myself “welp, I guess I’m a Darren Aronofsky fan now.” And when I saw The Wrestler, I was sure. So when Requiem for a Dream finally came to Netflix Instant earlier this month, I completely was out of excuses to not watch it. Man this movie is…

New discovery brings us one step closer to preventing HIV infections

In a breakthrough six years in the making, an international team of researchers has determined the precise atomic structure of a cell-surface receptor that’s used by most strains of HIV to infect human immune cells. The finding could result in medicines that block the process. HIV researchers have been making great strides recently — and…

How much alcohol is too much?

Located somewhere between the craggy cliffs of Raging Alcoholism and the tranquil (if a tad repressed) planes of Stone-Cold Sobriety roll the pleasantly sloping hills of Moderate Booze-Consumption. It’s a nice, pleasantly buzzed place to visit – but getting there can be a little tricky. What does it really mean, after all, to drink in…