Scientists Find Psilocybin Microdosing Can Boost Cognitive Creativity

Recent research on LSD indicates the drug has potential to treat mental disorders and improve our understanding of human consciousness. Meanwhile, studies in recent years have explored the effects of psilocybin—the psychoactive compound occurring naturally in magic mushrooms—on quitting smoking; lowering violent crime; treating depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder; and triggering spiritual epiphanies.

Now, an Oct. 25 study in Pharmacology—the official journal of the European Behavioral Pharmacology Society—adds to this growing body of knowledge. It examines another potential benefit of psilocybin. Researchers from Leiden University in The Netherlands studied the cognitive effects of micro-dosing psilocybin truffles (technically not mushrooms, but instead the hardened vegetative part of a fungus). They found that tiny doses can stimulate brain function and boost creativity without harming reasoning abilities.

Microdoses contain about 10% of the psychoactive components of a standard dose of psilocybin. The idea is to get the benefits but not the downsides of the drug, minimal effects that can stimulate thinking but not lead to extremes, like hallucinations.

For this study, the researchers tested the effects of about .035 grams of a psychoactive truffle on 36 subjects. (They later did a chemical composition analysis of the truffles to make sure psilocybin was evenly distributed throughout the truffles.) They investigated three types of thinking by presenting the subjects with different three tasks—developed by psychologists to test cognition—which was performed both before and after ingesting the drug. The scientists studied subjects’ convergent thought, which involves identifying a single solution for a single problem; their fluid intelligence, or reasoning and problem-solving; and their divergent thinking, the ability to recognize many solutions.

Read more at Quartz

What’s The Deal With Cannabis Capsules?

MedReleaf Corp. and CanniMed by Aurora received Health Canada approval to sell cannabis oil soft-gel capsules, and CannTrust Holdings Inc. announced a range of new cannabis oil, vegan-based, hard-shell capsules—Tilray had introduced the product in Canada last year.

One of the main benefits of capsules is that they include a pre-measured dose and are a viable option for cannabis consumers who are opposed to using syringes to measure their dose.

“Based on third-party research conducted by Cannabis Evidence, an online resource in the field of medical cannabis research, three in four patients out of 709 screened preferred alternative formulations to smoking cannabis. The majority of these patients prefer a capsule/tablet over other oral dosage forms like oils,” reports Kaivan Talachian, Pharm.D., and R.Ph, vice-president of professional services at CannTrust.

While capsules help ensure correct dosages, the complications of determining the appropriate dose for cannabis don’t end there. “Cannabis tends to impact people in different ways, and can’t be prescribed in the same way as traditional medicine. There is a need for continuous dialogue between patients and doctors to ensure that their cannabis therapy is working as intended,” cautions Dr. Mahabir.

Cannabis capsules offer a straightforward way to know precisely how much an individual has consumed, and can potentially be a healthier alternative to smoking cannabis and inhaling harmful carcinogens.

Read more at Growth Op

Federal Authorities Tight-Lipped on When Kratom’s Future Will Be Revealed

Kratom Powder

For months, the fate of the opioid-like plant kratom has hung in the balance. Will the US government make it illegal next year? Next week? With every fresh piece of news, scientists and kratom users alike tense up, ready for the hammer to fall. But the anticipated day hasn’t arrived yet, and it’s still not clear when it will. The moment seemed nigh on November 13, when Business Insider posted a story in which a US Drug Enforcement Administration spokesperson seemed to suggest that the decision to ban kratom extracts, powders etc would be announced any day now.

DEA spokesperson Melvin Patterson told Inverse that Erin Brodwin’s article for BI “wasn’t a very accurate portrayal” of his comments, though his telling of the facts outlined a distinction without a difference. “There’s no telling when the documentation will be submitted to the [Federal Register],” he said. “It could be next week, it could be the week thereafter, it could be the next month, it could be sometime next year.”

Whatever the timeline may be, the fact remains that a ruling is coming. Regardless of what Patterson really meant, the DEA’s stance on kratom raises serious questions about whether federal authorities are considering the latest research, the experiences of scientists, or the reality of illegalizing drugs when deciding the future of kratom, a controversial substance that has shown promise in helping people with chronic pain and opioid use disorder. The Federal Drug Administration submitted its recommendation to ban kratom powders & its extracts to the DEA in 2017, and researchers at the DEA have been reviewing the recommendation since then.

Continue reading at Inverse.com

The Problems with the UK’s Legalization of Medical Cannabis

Since last Thursday, medical cannabis has been legal in the UK. This means specialist doctors are now able to prescribe cannabis products for conditions where there is a proven medical benefit, potentially helping thousands of people suffering from severe forms of epilepsy, multiple sclerosis (MS), chronic pain, and nausea as a result of chemotherapy, among other ailments.

This landmark change in the law occurred after several stories came to light of sick children suffering under prohibition, including Billy Caldwell. The severely epileptic 12-year-old hit headlines earlier this year when the Home Office confiscated the Canadian-bought cannabis oil that made his condition manageable. Nationwide horror at the situation prompted Home Secretary Sajid Javid to order a review of the law, after which it was decided that cannabis should be changed from a Schedule 1 drug (no medical value) to a Schedule 2 (can be prescribed).

An MS Society statement said: “It’s likely that nothing will change in the short-term for the one in ten people who get relief from pain and muscle spasms by using medical cannabis. We’re calling for the interim guidance of prescribing medical cannabis to be urgently reviewed so that access to the treatment isn’t so restricted.”

Despite the limited scope laid out in the guidelines, Health Secretary Matt Hancock seemed to imply that doctors are being given a certain level of flexibility. He said: “Doctors need to use their clinical judgment, and having guidance in place helps. Ultimately, the need to treat a person and the responsibility for that falls on the shoulders of a doctor—that’s what they do.” Indeed, there will be no direct policy from a government that limits the conditions for which medical cannabis can be prescribed.

Read the full article at Vice

Report Says: More Women Are Using Marijuana During Pregnancy

Between 2002 and 2016, the percentage of pregnant women who reported smoking cigarettes while expecting fell significantly: from 17.5% to about 10%, according to a research letter published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. Alcohol use also fell modestly during this period, from nearly 10% to about 8.5%. But cannabis use among pregnant women — while still relatively rare — is on the rise, increasing from almost 3% of pregnant women to almost 5%.

Those figures were based on responses to the National Survey of Drug Use and Health. About 12,000 pregnant women ages 18 to 44 responded to the survey between 2002 and 2016; roughly 3,500 of these women were in their first trimester of pregnancy, a critical time for fetal development.

Meanwhile, the decline in smoking cigarettes while pregnant corresponds with an overall decrease in the number of Americans who smoke. The percentage of smokers in the U.S. hit a new low recently, dropping from 45.1 million cigarette users in 2005 to 36.5 million, or about 15% of the population, in 2015. The researchers did find, however, that decreases in smoking were less pronounced among specific subgroups of pregnant women, including black women, women ages 26 to 44 and those who did not finish high school.

There is far less research on the health effects of marijuana, but in general, the CDC and other public health organizations have warned expectant mothers not to use the drug while pregnant, due to potential developmental harms for infants. Similar warnings exist for smoking cigarettes while pregnant.

Time

Cannabis Extract Relieves Chronic Pain Minus The High

In the wake of cannabis legalization in Canada, a team of scientists has delivered encouraging news for chronic pain sufferers by pinpointing the effective dose of marijuana plant extract cannabidiol for safe pain relief without the typical “high” or euphoria that THC produces. The findings of their study have been published in the journal PAIN.

Cannabis indica and sativa are the two main cannabis strains that produce the pharmacological principles known as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). The team demonstrated that CBD does not act on the CB1 cannabinoid receptors like THC, but through the mechanism that binds specific receptors involved in anxiety (serotonin 5-HT1A) and pain (vanilloid TRPV1).

“In animal models of neuropathic or chronic pain, we found that low doses of CBD administered for seven days alleviate both pain and anxiety, two symptoms often associated,” says the study’s first author Danilo De Gregorio, a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University.

Lead author Gabriella Gobbi sees this as a new advancement for the evidence-based application of cannabis in medicine with CBD likely offering a safe alternative to THC and opioids for chronic pain, such as back pain, sciatica, diabetic, cancer, or post-trauma pain.

“Our findings elucidate the mechanism of action of CBD and show that it can be used as medicine without the dangerous side effects of the THC,” says Gobbi, a professor of psychiatry.

Despite widespread public usage, little clinical studies exist on CBD, which became legal in Canada on October 17, 2018, following the passage of Canada’s Cannabis Act.

Futurity

STUDY: Cannabis Oil Improves Crohn’s Disease Symptoms

According to a new study, cannabis oil can “significantly” improve Crohn’s disease symptoms.

“(S)tudies have shown that many people with Crohn’s disease use cannabis regularly to relieve their symptoms,” Dr. Timna Naftali, an Israeli gastroenterologist who also teaches at Tel Aviv University, said in a written statement. “It has always been thought that this improvement was related to a reduction in inflammation in the gut and the aim of this study was to investigate this.”

Crohn’s disease is a lifelong inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that can cause severe belly pain and chronic diarrhea.

Dr. Naftali, whose study is being billed as the first of its kind, found that an eight-week treatment with cannabis oil containing a four to one CBD to THC ratio produced clinical remission in up to 65 percent of individuals with Crohn’s disease. The randomized, placebo-controlled study involved 50 people with moderately severe forms of the disease. The group that received cannabis oil also reported significant improvements in their quality of life.

Read more at CTV News

Spanbauer: Modernize The War On Drugs

Canada just became the second country in the world to legalize marijuana on Oct. 17, making it “the largest national marijuana marketplace.”

In order to facilitate the demand on the new industry, Canadian recreational marijuana businesses are trying to lure inexperienced marijuana workers and their weed wisdom from states where marijuana is legal, such as Colorado. These offers come with the possibility of salaries reaching as high as $250,000 and the promise of a larger and undeveloped market to conquer.

The federal legalization of marijuana now seems eminently upon us as more states will vote on the matter in the upcoming November elections. Also, more than half the United States population is in support of federal legalization. However, looking at how far cannabis culture has come, it is clear that federal measures must be taken for reasons of equality.

America should take a page from Canada’s book and legalize recreational marijuana. This should be done for hundreds of reasons, the least of which being because over half of our population is in favor of it, and because it would introduce billions of dollars into our economy and open up new jobs. This needs to be done because marijuana is a harmless drug that should not be federally regulated in the ways that physically addictive and life-destroying drugs such as opioids are.

The focus needs to move from pot to the more serious drugs affecting our streets and taking the lives of young people across the nation. Once we can begin to reform drug legislation to fit these needs, our country will finally begin to heal.

Read the full article at Iowa State Daily

Magic Mushroom Drug Evolved to Mess with Insect Brains

There’s something odd about the many species of magic mushrooms: they’re not related to each other.

Usually, you’d expect such a complex and powerful chemical as psilocybin – the magical ingredient — to be produced by a closely related group of organisms whose common ancestor discovered it once.

But not in this case. Scores of mushroom species – one even lichenized — from five different distantly-related families make it. A team of American scientists wondered about that and had a hunch about why it might be.

Although mushroom-making fungi, considered sophisticated and complicated for the fungal world — have only rarely been caught sharing DNA this way, the fact that they have made an exception for these genes implies psilocybin is a seriously hot item.

In humans, psilocybin is converted to psilocin on ingestion, which activates one of the same receptors as feel-good neurotransmitter serotonin and produces the wild effects for which the drug is known. Serotonin, incidentally, is the same molecule on which antidepressant serotonin-reuptake inhibitors like Prozac act. However, serotonin is not the private preserve of humans. All animals with left-right symmetry – including insects — produce serotonin, as well as some plants and fungi.

A plant has an apparent motive for stockpiling a chemical arsenal: salad bar prevention. But what about mushrooms? The majority of psilocybin-producing mushrooms are either wood or dung decayers. In those environments, they are not only being eaten by insects but also competing with them for food. Termites are major fungal competitors inside decaying logs, but a variety of other wood- and dung-eating insects compete with fungi for food.

Psilocybin may help tilt the playing field in the fungus’s favor by causing insects to, I don’t know, maybe blank on what they went in that log for again? Another serotonin antagonist to a receptor called 5HT-2A causes Drosophila fruit flies to somehow neglect to eat the fruit they’re sitting on. Whatever they’re experiencing, though, is unlikely to be fun. Insects lack the dopamine-based reward systems also triggered by many of the drugs that make them so pleasurable and addictive to humans (although psilocybin acts on serotonin receptors and is non-addictive).

Read the full article at Scientific American

Ohio Board of Pharmacy wants to ban Kratom

The Ohio Board of Pharmacy wants to ban the herbal supplement Kratom.

If you’re not sure what that is, it’s an all-natural product that comes from the Kratom plant found in Southeast Asia, primarily Indonesia — and some use it as pain relief.

It can be purchased in several forms including powder, capsules and liquid extracts.

Hemptations owner E.R. Beach told WLWT his customers have been requesting Kratom for more than seven years and tell him it helps with anxiety and pain relief.

“We’ve seen an increase in business. Everyone from veterans that are trying to get off of opiates to people that are trying to use something all natural to help with whatever it is this may help them with,” Beach said. “Science hasn’t found that it is addictive in any way. But I believe it is giving pain relief to people.”

Click here to read what Beach told WLWT.

Coral Cove Cannabis Retreat Is Jamaica’s Best Kept Secret

It is a safe bet that anyone traveling to Jamaica on vacation is open to the experience of, if not directly looking for, an opportunity to legally consume cannabis. Cannabis tourism in Jamaica is taking off, as properties across the Caribbean island are highlighted for their ingenuity in the fast-growing industry. Coral Cove is the perfect example of one such retreat.

Originators of the cannabis tourism experience, Higher Way Travel carved out a niche by bringing cannabis tourists to Hawaii for the Cannabis Expo in 2017 and ensuing festivities. Run by April Black, wife of infamous pot personality Bobby Black, Higher Way Tours have since branched out into facilitating tourist experiences in Jamaica.

Coral Cove is off the proverbial beaten path. There are some unpaved roads and potholes on the way there, but the remoteness and seclusion of the location make it the antithesis of a tourist trap. The resort is named after the abundance of coral that is artfully incorporated into the masonry work on the property.

The retreat resides far away from prying eyes. People who want to walk around without winding up on social media or be gawked at by other guests will especially appreciate this homey hamlet, with its private, secluded waterfront cove. Although, the cove itself is heaven on Earth for aspiring influencers who are eager to snap selfies in exotic locales.

Continue Reading at Forbes

Magic Mushrooms? How Fungi Could Help Bees Fight Disease

“Colony collapse disorder” — or massive die-offs of bees — has caused international alarm in recent years, with experts blaming mites, viruses, and pesticides for the phenomenon.

The UN warned last year that bees were at risk of global extinction — but new research suggests fungi extracts could effectively inoculate bees against some of the most devastating viruses attacking them (AFP / Fred TANNEAU / MANILA BULLETIN)

Some countries have already moved to ban certain pesticides, and beekeepers use poisons to tackle mite infestations that can take out whole colonies.

But new research published Thursday in the journal Nature Scientific Reports suggests fungi extracts could effectively inoculate bees against some of the most devastating viruses attacking them.

The research was inspired by the observation that honeybees appear to feed on fungi in the wild, and a “growing body of evidence (that) indicates honey bees self-medicate using plant-derived substances”, the study says.

Mushroom extracts are already used against several viruses in humans and the authors reasoned fungi might have similar properties for bees.

Read more at Manila Bulletin

Giving Drugs to Animals Shows Similarity to Humans

When headlines appeared recently announcing that scientists had given the party drug ecstasy to octopuses, it wasn’t clear whether the more noteworthy behavior was on the part of the marine invertebrates or the humans. But there was a scientific reason for this small pilot study, which suggested that the drug has a similar effect on both species: making us friendlier.

While the brains of octopuses look very different from ours, and we have been diverging for more than 700 million years, we and these intelligent invertebrates share some of the same genes and molecular mechanisms for transporting signals around the brain and nervous system. We share, for example, a nearly identical version of a gene called SLC6A4, which codes for a protein that transports serotonin around the brain. This system, in us, is critical for regulating mood and social behavior and is the target to which the drug ecstasy binds. In humans, ecstasy, or MDMA, decreases inhibition and increases social behavior.

As a way to probe the similarity between species, researchers soaked octopuses in a bath containing the drug and observed their behavior in a three-chambered enclosure. Two spaces contained toys and the other, a male octopus.

When not on the drug, the animals avoided the male and went for the toys. The species studied, the California two-spot octopus, is not particularly social in the wild, and both sexes are particularly averse to hanging around with males. When on the drug, however, they preferred a male octopus to the toys.

Continue Reading at Bloomberg

Study Suggests More Older Women May Benefit From Bone Drugs

A bone-strengthening drug given by IV every 18 months greatly lowered the risk of fracture in certain older women, a large study found. The results suggest these medicines might help more people than those who get them now and can be used less often, too.

Broken bones are a scourge of aging. A hip fracture can start a long decline that lands someone in a nursing home. The risk is most common in women after menopause.

Estrogen keeps bones strong; they weaken after menopause when levels of that hormone drop. It often gets worse after 65, and women of that age are advised to have a bone mineral density scan — a low-dose X-ray to estimate bone strength.

If osteoporosis is found, treatment usually is Fosamax, Boniva or generic versions of these drugs, which help prevent bone from being lost faster than the body is able to renew it. Some people don’t stick with the pills or endure digestive side effects, so the medicines also can be given by IV, usually once a year.

More of this News at The Star

Coke Eyes Cannabis-infused Wellness Drinks As Market For CBD Beverages Expands

Coca-Cola is looking at pitching cans of cannabis-infused wellness drinks to consumers in the latest bid by a big beverage behemoth to tackle the budding market for potentially potent enhanced potables.

“Along with many others in the beverage industry, we are closely watching the growth of non-psychoactive CBD as an ingredient in functional wellness beverages around the world,” the company said in a statement issued in response to a report from the Canadian BNN Bloomberg new service.

BNN reported that Coca-Cola was in talks with cannabis producer Aurora Cannabis to make marijuana-infused wellness drinks. Aurora Cannabis did not confirm that it was in talks with Coke, but the company’s chief executive did acknowledge that it had been in conversation with several beverage makers over the last few months.

Drinks infused with either cannabinoid-like CBD, which has medicinal, pain-relieving qualities, and THC, which gets users high, have become popular in states in the U.S. where the drug is legalized and in Canada where it has been fully decriminalized nationally.

The experiments in better sales through new chemistry come at a time when demand for both beer and bubbly sodas is slowing. Beer is being supplanted by booze and wine among American consumers (or a rising number of teetotalers are eating into sales of both). Meanwhile, sugary drinks also have seen their popularity dwindle as new consumers reach for the kombucha rather than the Coke.

Continue Reading at TechCrunch

Opinion: Americans Must Understand Marijuana Danger

The marijuana industry is coming at us fast and furious, demanding we legalize another harmful drug. It’s an issue about to come before voters, and it will change our country. Every single state that has commercialized marijuana has seen a multitude of public health concerns.

Alcohol used to be the main culprit when it came to impaired driving, but that drug is getting a run for its money from marijuana. So much so that recently the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an awareness campaign.

In Colorado, a study by the state itself found of the 4,000 drivers tested for marijuana in 2016, 73 percent were found to have the drug in their system. That year alone more than 26,000 people were pulled over for DUI, but police say it was too expensive to test them all for pot.

Another study, by the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, found marijuana-impaired fatalities doubled from 2012 to 2016 and one in five drivers are under the influence of marijuana. That’s up from one in 10 before legalization.

Minorities aren’t the only targets of Big Marijuana, so is another vulnerable population: children. They are frequently exposed to enticing ads from the industry and the pot-infused gummies, candies and sodas are colorful and attractive to the young eye.

But it’s not just the edibles that kids are going for, they’re also hitting the more traditional means of getting high. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the rate of young people using marijuana has increased in states that have legalized the drug.

More of this news at Detroit News

FDA Approve ‘Magic Mushroom’ Treatment”

On Aug. 23, COMPASS pathways, a life science firm, finally got the thumbs up from the Food and Drug Administration to conduct clinical trials to treat patients who did not have luck with the other conventional treatments for depression.

Around 216 patients will partake in this trial in Europe and in North America starting in early September. The clinical study will actually need a smaller amount of patients and reduce treatment time up to an hour and a half.

Most physicians recommend treatments that do not necessarily work for some patients. This will give them a positive reinforcement that they will finally get the healthy help they have been longing. NOBODY wishes to feel as if they’ve been lobotomized from the prescribed medication that a physician has given you.

Since the early 60’s, the FDA has been apprehensive about the treatment of psilocybin due to its history of people in the past using it recreationally to experience these hallucinogenic trips.

Its mass hysteria caused it to be such a taboo subject in which any affiliation with these “magic mushrooms” is said to be thought-out as crazy or straight out rejected by any physician.

Previous research and studies show proof that a small dose of this agent can immediately assist the reduction of depression and other conditions such as drug addicts trying to become sober, terminally ill patients who suffer from anxiety because of thought of them dying and past ex-military veterans who experience PTSD.

Read the full article at Talon Marks

What is Marijuana Shake?

Have you ever bought weed and wondered why half of it was, essentially, scraps and dust? Or, better case scenario, you smoked most of your good buds, and you’re left with scraps at the bottom of the bag? While it might not be your ideal set of buds to pack your bowl, it’s not like it won’t get you ripped.

The proper term for your less-than-perfect scraps is shake. It is, at its core, the leftovers from your bud. But it can also be so much more.

What Is Marijuana Shake Used For?

So what is marijuana shake used for, exactly? Well, the same thing any type of pot is used for—smoking!

When it comes to marijuana shake, there’s really not much one has to know. Basically, when you’re storing a large amount of cannabis, it’s not going to stay perfect forever. Some bits of leaves, stems, or segments of the plant get lost in the mix. This, clearly, isn’t the best of your buds but the good news is, it’s actually quite usable. In fact, you might be smoking shake regularly without even knowing it.

The Pros And Cons Of Marijuana Shake

After reading the above and knowing the answer to the question “what is marijuana shake”, you’ve probably come to a crossroads—is marijuana shake a good thing, or a bad thing?

The short answer is both.

One of the pros of shake, is, again, it’s cheaper than nugs. If you’re going to be using it for rolling a bunch of joints, or even making edibles, where the consistency of the bud doesn’t really matter for extraction purposes, you might as well get the best bang for your buck.

There’s also an off chance that some of your shake is extra potent. If it’s sitting at the bottom of a vacuum-sealed bag for some time, it could accumulate some kief on top, making it stronger than regular weed. But if it hasn’t been in storage long enough to make that happen, then it’s less than likely that your shake is as strong as a regular nug.

Continue Reading at High Times

Is CBD Illegal In Ohio?

Under Ohio’s new medical marijuana law, which goes into effect on September 8, the Board’s clarification on CBD oil, which can derive from either marijuana or hemp, is illegal. The board says CBD oil must go through the same rigorous testing procedures and comply with the same rules as real cannabis.

CBD is not legal in all 50 states. According to the Agricultural Act of 2014 (AKA the farm bill), only CBD cultivated under state law “in which such institution of higher education or state department of agriculture is located, and such research occurs,” is legal. CBD that is not manufactured from hemp grown under a state pilot program or for academic research is not legal.

Additionally, according to Jo Ingles of WOSU public radio Ohio, “The board adds the only legal way to sell CBD is through a medical marijuana control program dispensary. The Ohio Department of Commerce approved 56 dispensary licenses, five of which are in Franklin County.”

Full article at Forbes

Nonaddictive Opioid Alternative Shows Promise in Monkey Study

With the opioid epidemic raging across America, many scientists are in search of an alternative painkilling drug — one that could be used in place of opioids, without the deadly side effects.

Now, a team of researchers in the U.S. and Japan say they’ve developed a promising new synthetic drug that could be as effective as opioids in relieving pain but without posing the risk of addiction. In a new study, the drug, called AT-121, successfully relieved pain in rhesus monkeys without resulting in harmful side effects or causing the monkeys to become addicted. Still, more research is needed before the drug could be evaluated in humans.

Although the number of opioids prescribed in the U.S. has decreased since its peak in 2010, the levels remain high. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that there were more than 42,000 deaths from opioid overdoses in 2016, up from 33,000 deaths in 2015, Live Science previously reported.

The fact that the drug was studied in a primate model, rather than in a mouse model as is done in many similar studies, means that the effects of the drug are likely much closer to what scientists would expect to see in humans, Roth said. And the monkeys didn’t experience any changes in respiratory health while taking AT-121, which suggests that an overdose would be unlikely to cause the harmful or fatal respiratory effects associated with an opioid overdose. “That would be a significant advance if that [result] is transferable to humans,” Roth added.

The scientists plan to continue their research by carrying out the safety and toxicology studies that are required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration before proceeding with human clinical trials. “We want to move as fast as possible because our results are exciting,” Zaveri told Live Science. The scientists are also researching other compounds that have a similar profile as AT-121, she added.

Live Science