Salvia divinorum is a soft-leaved green plant, native to Southern Mexico, which contains a powerful psychoactive chemical known as Salvinorin. S. divinorum has been used traditionally in Mexico for healing and divination and became available in the underground psychedelic culture around the world starting in the early 1990’s. S. divinorum is also known as “la pastora” / “the shepherdess”, “the leaves of the shepherdess”, “diviner’s mint” or “diviner’s sage”, and in context simply as “Salvia”. There are many species and varieties within the genus ‘Salvia’ and plants commonly found in garden stores are almost certainly not S. divinorum unless specifically labeled as such.
YouTube: Notice they check his heart rate and he grabs the electric heater. Luckily the heater appears to be off. Like many of the effects of hallucinogens, people can react in ways that can cause them great harm. All drugs are dangerous.
The family of a Minnesota woman who died of an alcohol overdose after a night of drinking to celebrate her 21st birthday is suing the bar and friends who provided her with alcohol, KARE-TV reported Feb. 29.
Amanda Jax died with a 0.46 blood-alcohol content after a night of drinking with friends at the Sidelines Bar and Grill in Mankato, Minn. She reportedly drank two beers at home before consuming a pitcher of Long Island Ice Tea, five shots of liquor, two more beers, and a mix of cherry vodka and an energy drink at the bar.
There is little doubt among responsible researchers that marijuana–although it is addictive for some people–is sometimes a clinically useful drug. However, there is little incentive for commercial pharmaceutical houses to pursue research on the cannabis plant itself, since they cannot patent it.
The use of marijuana in the treatment of glaucoma is well established. As for the relief of nausea caused by chemotherapy, the precise “antiemetic” mechanism has not yet been identified, but several studies show that marijuana works at least as well as the popular remedy Compazine for controlling nausea. Cancer patients have used marijuana successfully to increase appetite and combat severe weight loss.
Q: My friends say that smoking out of a hookah (or shisha) is safe and not bad for you like cigarettes are. What are the health facts on smoking out of a hookah?
A: Tobacco smoked out of hookahs (also known as shishas or Arabic water pipes) involves the same risks as smoking tobacco in any other form, including increased risk of developing lung cancer and other respiratory-related health problems. Be cautious when tobaccos sold for hookahs claim to contain no tar, as the tar is only produced when the material is smoked. Sometimes, people smoke herbal fruits or flavors out of hookahs, but there exists no research on possible effects from smoking non-tobacco material.
Milwaukee’s Best is running a series of commercials asking men to be “real men”. But what does this mean? According to MBL, it means showing no concern for your health and not showing any emotion that deviates from the very limited list they offer as “male”. What implications does this have on how young men develop their own identities about becoming a man.? Being male is not a choice, becoming a man is.
Did you know there were 500 new energy introduced into the consumer marketplace last year! I know they are all the rage right now. I can’t go to a school without seeing somone with a Red Bull or Monster in their hand. But hold on a second, health researchers have not kept up with the research on what we know about the effects of that much caffeine and sugar on growth and mood. Don’t underestimate caffeine as a drug. It is powerful. In addition, mixing energy drinks with alcohol ups the danger. Check out my brief podcast on energy drinks. Listen below.
The original advice of liquor before beer is usually given to people who are beginning drinkers or those who drink infrequently. A 120 pound female who drinks for the second time in her life would probably get drunk and sick if she were to drink a few beers and then do a few shots. That is because of the rate of absorption of the alcohol. A common mistake is that while teens or inexperienced people drink, they feel like the alcohol is not doing anything for them. Then, by doing shots or making stronger drinks, they try to “catch up” to their friends. As a result, they can go from a relative buzz to being belligerent because of the amount of time it takes for the alcohol to enter your bloodstream. By then, it is usually too late. The person may have the spins, vomit, black out, pass out, suffer from further alcohol poisoning, or even die.
An oldie, but a goodie. This video came out when I was in high school. At the time, it was classic scare tactics, easily dismissed as typical anti-drug propaganda. Yet, hold on a second. New research coming out of Duke University is telling us that regualar alcohol use and heavy alcohol use by teens can have dramatic neurological effects. Briefly, alcohol primarily interferes with the establishment of new memories rather than the recollection of previously stored information. Alcohol produces what is referred to as a continuum of encoding deficits - just writing that made me fall asleep. Let me put it another way, as the dose of alcohol goes up, the magnitude of the memory impairments go up too. There is mounting evidence that repeated exposure to alcohol during the teen years can lead to long-lasting deficits in cognitive abilities - including learning and memory.
I’m sure you are tired of hearing about internet safety - blah, blah, blah…however, I thought this video/ad was a creepy reminder that we all - me included - need to think about what we post about ourselves.
