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Evidence suggests that driving high may be less dangerous than driving drunk, but driving stoned is still driving impaired — and assuming otherwise could get you killed. More »
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Why haven't we cured cancer yet? It seems like almost every day, we hear about another miraculous advance in cancer treatment. Drugs that cause tumors to shrink, gene therapies, and even a possible vaccine. And yet, our loved ones keep dying of cancer. More »
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British pharmaceutical company GW Pharmaceuticals has developed a medical marijuana drug called Sativex. The drug is delivered orally via a spray pump, and is the first of its kind to be produced by extracting high-inducing cannabinoids like THC (pot's primary psychoactive ingredient) from the cannabis plant itself. More »
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Scientists this week published a study that reveals what the human brain looks like under the influence of psilocybin, the hallucinogenic chemical found in magic mushrooms. More »
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Is intelligence related to an increased likelihood of recreational drug use? It's an interesting hypothesis, and one that's been gaining momentum in recent years. More »
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People attempting the arduous task of quitting smoking often turn to "nicotine replacement therapies" like patches and gum. These help with the physical aspect of withdrawal and the whole "quitting the actual smoking" part. Well, that's the theory anyway. According to a new study published in the journal Tobacco Control, these nicotine replacement therapies don't help. At all. Their research of almost 800 smokers attempting to quit in Massachusetts saw the same relapse rate regardless of if they use NRTs or not. Regardless if they were light or heavy smokers or if they received counseling or not, chewing the gum or using the patches didn't seem to help. More »
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Score another victory for the tokers in the audience. A study into the long-term effects of marijuana smoking on lung function has shown that it's not nearly as bad as many have assumed. Despite having many of the same constituents as tobacco smoke, the long-term effects of marijuana smoking on breathing is poorly understood, which this study has at least partly rectified. More »
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If you've ever seen strange geometric patterns while on drugs, you might have wondered what on Earth caused you to see these hallucinations. What mechanism is behind this weird effect? More »
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The pharmaceutical industry spends untold millions of dollars trying to discover the next wonder drug. The potential profits from a breakthrough drug can be counted in the billions of dollars — and a great new medication can improve the lives of countless people. More »
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A man painted green like the Hulk and sporting "fancy dress" was arrested last spring for selling drugs outside of a nightclub in Coventry, England. Explains The Coventry Telegraph of the Hulk's run-in with the police: More »
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The last few years have seen the appearance of a number of drugs sold under the false flag of "bath salts" or "plant food". Generally mephedrone and methylone, their abuse has lead to a number of hospitalizations in the last year. And that's led to increased pressure to understand how they work, and just how safe they really are. More »
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When pharmaceutical companies get a patent on a new molecule, they have 20 years to recoup the cost of developing a drug out of it. Two decades sounds like a long time, but clinical trials eat several of those years, leaving only a handful of years to earn back the money spent bringing the drug to market. So pharmaceutical companies look for loopholes in the law. Here are three shady things these companies do to extend their patents - and rake in more cash from consumers. More »
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If Breaking Bad's central conceit — that a harried high school chemistry teacher and his former student team up to enter the lucrative world of methamphetamine production — seems too outlandish to you, here's a strange case that demonstrates just how life can mirror art. More »
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Drugs play a huge role in our lives, but it's hard to find in-depth research on how people take them and what effect it has on their lives. Here's your chance to help change that. More »
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It's our chemical all-star team of death. We've got historic poisons that have claimed the lives of millions in a sinister manner, along with a couple of chemicals that might be in your home. Contact with any of these, in the right dose, will send you running for a hastily scribbled bucket list. More »
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Yesterday's article got you down on coffee? Looking for another daily stimulant? Coca leaf tea, or mate de coca to the locals, has been used in many South American countries for millenia and is more prevalent in the region than coffee. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5861654&view=rss&microfeed=true Blame it on boredom, peer abuse, curiosity, or anything else, but it appears that smarter children tend to get into illegal drugs later in life. An analysis of data from the 1970 British Cohort Study, which tracked 8,000 people over more than 30 years from their childhood onwards, looked at their IQ when they were young and then experimentation with drugs later in life. More »
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Yesterday we discussed the horrors of the Russian drug krokodil. This flesh-eating heroin-like substance may seem like the most nightmarish of all nightmares, but there are plenty of other toxic (and just plain grody) substances out there, ready to be consumed for no good reason. Here are 10 more intoxicating things that would give McGruff the Crime Dog angina.

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It sounds like a direct-to-Netflix horror movie plot — a cheap, addictive drug available in a foreign land, that turns the user's skin a scaly green color. Soon it rots the flesh, causing the user's skin to emulate that of a crocodile, leaving bone and muscle tissue exposed to the world. But the Russian drug known as krokodil is real. More »
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News about anti-obesity drugs is pretty common, but many of them never make it past the testing stage in rodents. Now, a new fat-fighting drug has passed the primate test: it's proven to be successful with obese rhesus monkeys. It just might be appropriate for us, too. More »
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Not all weed is created equal. Some members of the Cannabis genus pump out tetrahydrocannabinol (aka THC, the plant's main psychoactive chemical) like nobody's business, while others produce very little of the mind-altering molecule. But the genetic basis for why some plants excel at getting you high while others are best suited for, say, their use in textiles has long been a mystery. Until now. More »
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At Incheon Airport, the Korean Custom Service has turned to seven cloned pooches to sniff out drug mules. These golden Labrador Retrievers are all the genetic duplicates of Chase, a retired drug-sniffing dog whose nose was among the most discerning Incheon had ever seen. More »
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In this Hanna-Barbera-produced anti-drug spot from the 1970s, the protagonist goes on a jovial jaunt to an outer borough of Drugachussets and then is attacked by a bunch of ghouls in a cosmic medicine cabinet. I would have totally watched a full-length version of this ad, à la The Herculoids. More »
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Don't have a job with health insurance benefits? Lose your job and can't afford a COBRA plan? Regardless of the situation (and even if you are insured), you can still get care, and you should. What you may not have realized is that your local health department provides a level of basic care for a nominal (or free) cost – let's take a look at what is provided in many cases.

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]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5844718&view=rss&microfeed=true Cigarettes and booze are either two crippling addictions that often go hand in hand, or two great tastes that taste great together, depending on who you ask. People who have problems with both are often labelled "addictive personalities" but it turns out there might be something in our brain chemistry that ties both of these addictions together, and might give us a way to fight it. More »
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The Chu Valley between Kyrgyzstan and Kazkhstan is the home to an extremely hardy type of marijuana that resisted Soviet-era efforts to stamp it out. Law-breaking marijuana farmers in the region harvest the crop normally, but they also procure their stick-icky using a tried and true method that's been around for centuries: nude equestrianism. More »
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The besieged Mexican government has a new tool in the info war against drug cartels: animated, online propaganda comics set to electronic beats. More »
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This is, for obvious reasons, not suitable to try at home. Nor possible, since no technique is described in detail. But should you want to add accuracy to your next steampunk story, or entertain/terrify any guests in your garden, allow me to explain just how heroin is made from poppies. More »
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There are stories that have come to light, over the years, that make the Central Intelligence Agency look like a collection of Looney Tunes shorts. The violence, the slapstick, and the over-the-top ridiculousness of the experiments that have been conducted over the years boggle the mind. They came from the (slightly-boggled) mind of one man: Sidney Gottlieb. More »
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Human beings aren't the only creatures who use substances to escape from reality. Animals the world over drug themselves as eagerly and regularly as any college sophomore with a 'Legalize It' t-shirt. Find out how animals manage to get themselves ready for a Pink Floyd laser light show. More »
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The Cannabis sativa genome has been sequenced by a team of scientists in Amsterdam (yes, really). The raw genetic sequence was posted yesterday to Amazon's EC2 cloud computing service by a company called Medicinal Genomics — just in time for the weekend. More »
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Scientists have been tinkering with memory-altering drugs for years, discovering substances that can make you forget that you crave cocaine, and change the emotional weight of traumatic memories as you recall them. But the prospect of swallowing a pill that erases your past has troubling implications. Many ethicists say we simply shouldn't develop these substances at all. More »
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Which movie character has had the worst trip of all time? This excellent compilation of 50 of our favorite drug-induced freak-outs begs you all to take a brain holiday. More »
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Disney has punched out dozens of educational shorts throughout the years, and not all of them conform to that clean-cut, animal-sidekick-and-singing-princess salubriousness audiences have come to expect from the studio. Here are some of the Mouse House's odder forays into edutainment.

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College Roomies from Hell!!! creator Maritza Campos has unleashed her crazy brain in a new webcomic Power Nap, which depicts a future where no one sleeps and everyone works — all the time — and one man who can't keep his eyes open. More »
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Rehab isn't a reliable way of getting off drugs, so neuroscientists are investigating ways to create drugs that will prevent you from getting high in the first place. Now a new discovery promises to make your brain totally immune to the effects of cocaine. More »
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All humans crave salt once in a while. The desire is hardwired into an ancient part of our brains, the hypothalamus, because we need it to keep our bodies working properly. Now it looks like some of the more addictive drugs out there could be co-opting this neurological system — which means our desire for salt is what underlies our cravings for everything from heroin to coffee. More »
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Every day, we look for ways to be happy. We do terrible things, or seek great achievement, or search for true love, or sometimes take on deep spiritual quests. Because happiness can be found within — literally. Your body provides itself with many chemicals that make you happy for no good reason. Take a look at all the ways that you live better through brain chemistry. More »
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Scientists have found out why people can put the brakes on eating sugar, but will go through an entire bag of potato chips, followed by a plate of fries. It turns out that fats get us stoned. More »
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That's the question currently before the Church of England, as an archaeologist has proposed examining William Shakespeare's remains. If nothing else, this is our chance to find out whether Shakespeare wrote the greatest works in the English language...on weed. More »
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