Drug usage

[Nihilego]

Just logging on to say that I'd advise against mixing drugs with medication. SSRIs act by increasing the concentration of serotonin in the synapse. Psilocybin is metabolized into a serotonin receptor agonist meaning that it will enhance the activity of serotonin receptors just as your SSRIs are meant to do (although not in the same way). Maybe you could confirm by further research, but it would occur to me, at a first approximation, that shrooms could interfere with the activity of your medication.

SSRIs don't strictly directly enhance the activity of serotonin receptors - they just inhibit serotonin transporters, which shrooms don't touch, although you could argue that the net effect is the same. However it is true that there are a lot of reports of hallucinogens and SSRIs not being a great idea together due to overstimulation of serotonin receptors (from raised availability of serotonin in addition to psilocybin's effects on them) so it's probably not the safest idea ever. Lots of reports out there of nothing much at all happening too so it's probably not worth it, although I'm admittedly not altogether sure why it wouldn't work.

If you're going to make such a claim, it'd be best to back it up with some kind of explanation. In the absence of confirmation and the presence of higher than average risk (considering that you already have a high dosage of SSRIs affecting your serotonin pathways), I advise caution. This is definitely not professional advice, but a simple search on wikipedia would confirm what I'm saying here.

Spiff is entirely correct, and also should not be required to provide an explanation for something that's common knowledge among drug users. MDMA's effects are significantly lessened by SSRIs, and those taking SSRIs are also at far greater risk from serotonin syndrome when using MDMA. All-in-all a bad idea.

...not sure why you're trying to discredit someone's advice not to mix drugs, though.

edit: wait, are you referring to Spiff's advice re: shrooms or ecstasy here? If the former then disregard this bit.

 

[Kanzler]

SSRIs don't strictly directly enhance the activity of serotonin receptors - they just inhibit serotonin transporters, which shrooms don't touch, although you could argue that the net effect is the same. However it is true that there are a lot of reports of hallucinogens and SSRIs not being a great idea together due to overstimulation of serotonin receptors (from raised availability of serotonin in addition to psilocybin's effects on them) so it's probably not the safest idea ever. Lots of reports out there of nothing much at all happening too so it's probably not worth it, although I'm admittedly not altogether sure why it wouldn't work.

I wrote a response which I accidentally refreshed out so poo here's a rehashed and shorter version.

My point is that both SSRIs and shrooms, although through different mechanisms as you've pointed out, ultimately lead to increased activity of serotonin receptor-carrying neurons, which might be undesirable, perhaps in Harley's case of taking medication in order to modulate the activity of said neurons. I think we agree that overstimulation of serotonin receptors should be avoided.

Spiff is entirely correct, and also should not be required to provide an explanation for something that's common knowledge among drug users. MDMA's effects are significantly lessened by SSRIs, and those taking SSRIs are also at far greater risk from serotonin syndrome when using MDMA. All-in-all a bad idea.

...not sure why you're trying to discredit someone's advice not to mix drugs, though.

edit: wait, are you referring to Spiff's advice re: shrooms or ecstasy here? If the former then disregard this bit.

I think you're talking about SSRIs dampening the the experience of MDMA (which perhaps pushes towards OD of MDMA because you're not getting the same high you would be without SSRIs?), but I'm more concerned with MDMA's effects on the activity of serotonin receptor-carrying neurons which Harley's SSRIs have been prescribed to address.

In any case, I felt Spiff's comment of "it shouldn't" (in response to whether SSRIs would affect anything) was ambiguous and I don't want anybody reading this thread to take away the message that SSRIs won't be affected by shrooms. As I said before, we both agree that they will be, and that's a risk that people who aren't taking SSRIs don't have to consider. As for MDMA, I'm not sure at all.

But just because two drugs directly affect the activity of two different neurotransmitters, does not mean that we should assume that they will not affect one another. Neurotransmitter pathways are connected to one another, and that means a drug that affects, say, dopamine, could affect serotonin as well. To speak nothing of the consequences, which could include tolerance to an SSRI leading to higher doses or changed prescriptions and the accompanying side effects and so on and so forth if things get bad enough.

I'm not saying this with the presumption that you don't know what I'm talking about, I just want to get it out there because our central nervous system is pretty damn complex and I don't want to see anyone get hurt because they didn't appreciate that enough.

But yes, the tl;dr is don't mix drugs because shit is complex and interconnected as it is.

 

[acatfrommars]

Marijuana lowers your IQ, so when I say that people who take marijuana are stupid I mean it in a completely literal sense. Smoking also causes lung cancer and it's not just harmful for you, it's harmful for everyone who inhales around the person smoking. So there's a mini-PSA so that you won't wreck, screw up, do anything to your life without knowing the harmful effects.

Oh wait, really? I've smoked for almost 5 years and I'm about to go to Pharmacy school.

 

[acatfrommars]

Marijuana lowers your IQ, so when I say that people who take marijuana are stupid I mean it in a completely literal sense. Smoking also causes lung cancer and it's not just harmful for you, it's harmful for everyone who inhales around the person smoking. So there's a mini-PSA so that you won't wreck, screw up, do anything to your life without knowing the harmful effects.

Oh wait, really? I've smoked for almost 5 years and I'm about to go to Pharmacy school.

Weed can be a really bad drug if you smoke it for like 3 hours every day. However, drugs don't automatically make one stupid.

 

[Alexander Nicholi]

Oh wait, really? I've smoked for almost 5 years and I'm about to go to Pharmacy school.

Weed can be a really bad drug if you smoke it for like 3 hours every day. However, drugs don't automatically make one stupid.

Really stupid people can graduate with Master's degrees. College doesn't equal intelligence.

My father began smoking marijuana when he was fifteen. As a teenager myself who shares an almost frighteningly long list of similarities with him, there are life lessons, pieces of wisdom, and things to do with maturity I'm learning now at 16 and 17 that he never learned at all. A lot of these things are things a lot of people tend to "figure out" in adulthood and he's magically unbeknowingst to them. I'd say pot had something to do with that, and that in a lot of ways he still acts like a teenager. In one of our fights a police officer said our recording sounds like "two fifteen-year-olds bickering," her unaware of his addiction. Take what you will of that.

Marijuana also causes cancer when inhaled, like all smoke. So yeah.

 

[SiriusAlpha]

Well, it don't if you just do it once, but too much can be bad and people act like fricking idiots when they're high. Besides, smoking in general is bad, it develops tar on your lungs, it worsens asthma, it causes cancer, it's really rude, etc. My science teacher would do a better job of explaining, I suck at that.

 

[Nihilego]

The only way pot can be dangerous is if it's laced with chemicals, however, if it's completely clean, as in no additives in it (Which is usually only from growing it yourself), it's completely safe to use.

Very arguable depending on your definition of "dangerous". Physiologically it's not hugely harmful but psychologically it absolutely can be. One of the biggest misconceptions about it is that there is no such thing as marijuana dependence which is objectively untrue. There is an absolute ton of work done on its prevalence, treatment, and it is even defined as a mental disorder in the DSM-V. While it's not as severe as with many other drugs, it also needs to be taken into account that impaired judgement, co-ordination and coherency while under the effects of marijuana can be dangerous. It's a huge jump to call it "completely safe" to use.

If anything, it has scientific merit in that it stunts cancerous growths, which is why it's able to be prescribed by doctors.

Fair point - there is some work that says this (really interesting work, to boot, although much of it's fairly inconclusive. Kanzler if you're seeing this, you might like to give this a read). And thank you for saying that it "stunts growth" rather than "cures / kills / etc. cancer" which has much less evidence to it and is generally clickbait nonsense. Although that does need to be considered alongside the raised risk of lung and throat cancer by smoking (especially with marijuana where you need to inhale much more deeply than, say, a cigarette) - but that doesn't exactly make it unique next to other treatments, haha. Worth bearing in mind though that there is still really poor understanding of how this works on the whole and that these results have mostly been achieved in highly controlled and specific lab conditions - so their reproducibility in real life, especially with a drug where the amount consumed can vary so widely, is questionable.

I wrote a response which I accidentally refreshed out so poo here's a rehashed and shorter version.

My point is that both SSRIs and shrooms, although through different mechanisms as you've pointed out, ultimately lead to increased activity of serotonin receptor-carrying neurons, which might be undesirable, perhaps in Harley's case of taking medication in order to modulate the activity of said neurons. I think we agree that overstimulation of serotonin receptors should be avoided.

oooo. Okay now that I see why you wrote it that way, it makes sense now. Yeah we're in agreement here, haha.

I think you're talking about SSRIs dampening the the experience of MDMA (which perhaps pushes towards OD of MDMA because you're not getting the same high you would be without SSRIs?), but I'm more concerned with MDMA's effects on the activity of serotonin receptor-carrying neurons which Harley's SSRIs have been prescribed to address.

In any case, I felt Spiff's comment of "it shouldn't" (in response to whether SSRIs would affect anything) was ambiguous and I don't want anybody reading this thread to take away the message that SSRIs won't be affected by shrooms. As I said before, we both agree that they will be, and that's a risk that people who aren't taking SSRIs don't have to consider. As for MDMA, I'm not sure at all.

It's partly that people take more to try to achieve the same high, and partly because MDMA causes very rapid serotonin release - which on top of heavy dosage of SSRIs can very easily tip over to being too much due to there already being a lot of released serotonin in the first place. I see now though that you weren't talking about what I thought you were, haha, so you can as good as disregard my last post.

 

[Lucid]

Why do you even care?

No drugs are completely safe. None. Zero. Unless you grew or cultured it yourself, but no. None. I've done weed, prescription pills, 2C's, 2CI's, 2C2, 2CABCfuck, ect, a lot, I honestly don't remember and don't feel like googling them or looking into them, I'm stupid and used to take whatever, cocaine, mushrooms, pcp, ketamine, a bunch of MDMA rip offs cramme into "X" pills... Uhh. That's pretty much it. I've said it once, I'll say it again, you can't buy LSD anymore from your local dealer. Prescription pain killers are by far the most addictive. My ex was hooked on them and he was a monster. I've never even heard of anyone addicted to hallucinogenics, speed can be super addictive too, duh.

Don't try any of it. Really, it's all over rated. After fucking around with this shit for the past 10 years, I'm not impressed. A lot of stuff really disagrees with some people, especially if you're on anti-depressants. Most X pills you take now will fuck your levels to hell and put you in a worse place then you were emotionally. You will want to peel your skin off the next morning, you'll just feel dirty and sad coming down. If they're good, you'll feel okay, still burnt out, like all the vitamins have been sucked out of your body. Trips will do you the same, but I've known a few people to have allergic reactions with everything outside of mushrooms. Fever, bad trips, inflammation, ect. They're get red all over. Tripping is fun, but no one does that shit regularly. It gets old quick. Most everything else is hyped up or over rated. Weed is the safest way to go, it's fun and pleasant, it feels great, but nothing out of this world. If you can't get it legally, don't bother. I mean I'm a fairly small female and I've had a gun pulled on me over $50. It's stupid.