What Could Go Right? The psychedelic renaissance

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Psychonautic science

Long stigmatized and still broadly illegal in most countries, psychedelics have garnered renewed interest in recent years, sparking a flurry of research into their use as treatments for mental illness and addiction. While some of that research is bound to end up in the “hype only” bin, there have been a number of encouraging advancements in psychedelic studies recently. We take a look at a few of them below.

Research into psilocybin, a compound found in psychedelic mushrooms that has shown promise in treating depression, found that the substance may also be effective in treating alcohol addiction when combined with psychotherapy. In a study of people with alcohol dependence, participants given psilocybin-assisted therapy reduced heavy drinking by 83 percent within an eight-month period, compared to 51 percent among those who received an antihistamine placebo. Eight months after their first dose, 48 percent of participants who received psilocybin stopped drinking entirely, compared to 24 percent in the placebo group.

Like psilocybin, ketamine and mescaline have both emerged as potential treatments for depression and are now in clinical trials. Researchers found that more than half of participants in a study responded positively to ketamine therapy, with their scores on a depression questionnaire falling after the therapy by 50 percent or more. According to Nature, “Of the 356 participants who had previously had suicidal thoughts, 73 percent experienced a reduction in them.” For many, that effect was a lasting one. On average, people who responded to the ketamine treatments had around an 80 percent chance of still experiencing relief after four weeks, and a roughly 60 percent chance after eight weeks. 

In a separate article on the medical value of mescaline, Nature says that at least two-thirds of survey respondents “who had depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder or drug-use disorder reported improvements in those conditions following their ‘most memorable’ mescaline experience.”

The potential benefits of psychedelics extend to other mental health improvements as well. In another recent study, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine researchers found similar, positive shifts in attitude among people who had gone through near-death experiences as well as those who had had psychedelic experiences with LSD, DMT, psilocybin, or ayahuasca. “Almost 90 percent of both groups reported decreased fear of death following the experiences,” Roland Griffiths, director of the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins, told Inverse. “Both groups rated the experience very high for personal meaning and spiritual significance, and both groups reported persistent positive changes in personal well-being, life satisfaction, life purpose, and life meaning.”

For those interested in the mental health benefits of psychedelics minus the trip, rest assured—scientists are already looking into the efficacy of non-hallucinogenic versions of the drugs. As they do, a growing list of cities and states are moving to ease regulations on some psychedelics, including San Francisco, which just voted to decriminalize plant-based psychedelics like psilocybin, ayahuasca, and mescaline.

Nutritious human waste

In a win for proponents of the circle of life, California has become the fifth state to legalize human composting, joining Washington, Colorado, Oregon, and Vermont. Under the new law, Freethink reports, residents “can now opt to have their bodies turned into nutrient-dense soil after their deaths, rather than being buried or cremated.”

“For each individual who chooses NOR (natural organic reduction) over conventional burial or cremation, the process saves the equivalent of one metric ton of carbon from entering the environment.” – @AsmGarcia https://t.co/sPCmEHuPRn

— Freethink (@freethinkmedia) October 5, 2022

While some see human composting—also known as terramation or natural organic reduction (NOR)—as a more natural method of “disposition,” others are more drawn to the environmental benefits. “This is an alternative method of final disposition that won’t contribute emissions into our atmosphere and will actually capture CO2 in our soil and trees,” Cristina Garcia, the California lawmaker who drafted the bill, told Freethink. “For each individual who chooses NOR over conventional burial or cremation, the process saves the equivalent of one metric ton of carbon from entering the environment.”

For a look inside one of the world’s first human composting facilities, The Verge has a fascinating new feature on Washington state’s Return Home center.

Before we go

Remember the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge that went viral in a now-unrecognizable world around 1,000 years ago 2014? Well, it turned out to be a huge success, with $2.2 million raised from the challenge going to fund the development and trial of the new ALS drug that was approved by the Food and Drug Administration last week. The drug, Relyvrio, doesn’t cure the neurodegenerative disease, but it does slow its progression.

This bionic pancreas—which uses an algorithm to calculate carbohydrate consumption, then automatically releases insulin when needed—could help people with type 1 diabetes to manage their blood-sugar levels more easily.

I am digging The Progress Network Member Robert Wright’s new “extended experiment in book-Substack synergy.” Wright is researching and writing a book about the radical power of cognitive empathy, and this draft of the book’s intro chapter (paywalled, but with a solid preview) has me stoked. 

And finally, let’s all pause for a moment of humor and reflection: The Onion has filed a Supreme Court amicus brief defending the right to parody and supporting a man who was prosecuted for parodying his local police department on social media. The man later filed a civil lawsuit claiming his constitutional rights were violated, but that case was dismissed when a federal appeals court granted the police officers qualified immunity. The Onion‘s brief, which is both very real and very satirical, is ultimately genuine, and we’re keeping an eye on it as it aims to persuade the Supreme Court to examine qualified immunity and free speech rights.

Anyway, congratulations, reader. You made it to the end of the internet.

Below in the links section, factory-restored coral in the Bahamas, Zoom weddings for same-sex couples in China, loads of money for electric school buses in the US, and more.

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Why Is Violent Crime Rising?

This week on the What Could Go Right? podcast: Is Italy returning to fascism? Are we closer to a cure for cancer? And why is the violent crime rate climbing in the US? Economist Jennifer Doleac talks us though her research on the economics of crime and discrimination. | Listen to the episode

Progress, Please

(Found good news? Tweet at us @progressntwrk or email.)

Other good stuff in the news 🚌

Environment:

• China is betting big on another gas engine alternative: methanol cars | MIT Technology Review
• This 100% solar community endured Hurricane Ian with no loss of power and minimal damage | CNN
• 40% of the electricity produced in the US in 2021 was derived from non-fossil fuel sources | US Department of Energy
• The aspiring ‘coral factory’ restoring reefs wrecked by climate change | The Washington Post

Science & Tech:

• Same-sex couples from China are getting married in Utah over Zoom | Rest of World
• Meta’s new AI can turn text prompts into videos | MIT Technology Review
• Open-source tool lets anyone automatically stop websites from tracking them | Vice
• The era of fast, cheap genome sequencing is here | Wired
• Cloudflare takes a stab at a captcha that doesn’t suck | Wired
• Could a ‘flying’ electric ferry be the perfect zero-carbon transport solution for busy cities? | Euronews
• Citroen unveils ‘oli,’ an all-electric concept car that could also help power your home | Euronews

Politics & Policy:

• EPA doubles money for electric school buses as demand soars | AP
• Michigan lawmakers approve early absentee ballot processing | AP
• For more than 20 guaranteed income projects, the data is in | Bloomberg
• Oregon to cover health-related climate expenses | AP
• New York to mandate zero-emission vehicles in 2035 | The Hill
• Australia’s most-polluting coal plant to shut decade earlier than planned | BBC
• In groundbreaking plan, California allows affordable housing on some commercial properties | Los Angeles Times
• Australian state unveils $40B clean energy plan to slash reliance on coal | Reuters
• India’s top court legalizes abortion regardless of marital status | Reuters

Public Health:

• A public health success story: Revisiting the subject of Covid and racial inequities | The New York Times
• Insomnia: We are finally waking up to its causes and how to treat it | New Scientist

Society & Culture:

• In a first, Brazil elected two trans women to its national Congress | Them
• ‘This girl has united us all’: Women’s rage mobilizes Iranians | The Christian Science Monitor
• More than twice as many Americans support the #MeToo movement than oppose it | Pew Research Center

Economy:

• Want a career saving the planet? Become an electrician. | The Wall Street Journal
• US jobless claims hit lowest level in five months | The Wall Street Journal
• Women are returning to (paid) work after the pandemic forced many to leave their jobs | NPR

TPN Member originals 🧠

(Who are our Members? Get to know them.)

• Should Americans be scared of Putin’s nuclear threats? | Avik Roy 
• Is Russia-Ukraine spinning out of control? | Robert Wright 
• How to promote yourself, even when you’re uncomfortable doing it | Jason Feifer 
• Threats to free expression | Suzanne Nossel 
• Twilight of environmental idols | Ted Nordhaus 
• Is the world on the verge of fragmentation? | Ian Bremmer 
• The crisis of men and boys | David Brooks 
• Technology can make your relationships shallower | Arthur C. Brooks 
• Financing clean energy in developing economies | Jason Bordoff 
• 5 reasons Americans may be getting along better than you think | Eboo Patel 
• From racial reckoning to race abolition | John McWhorter 
• Why racial progress is not zero-sum | Heather McGhee 
• Putin is trying to outcrazy the West | Thomas L. Friedman 
• How one trans activist author found truth and acceptance in Maine | Jennifer Finney Boylan 
• The best way to end mass incarceration is to catch more criminals | Matthew Yglesias 
• The two fiduciary duties of professors | Jonathan Haidt 
• Gas-powered leaf blowers are going away. Really. | James Fallows 

Upcoming Events

• Restitching the Fabric of Our Democracy | Eboo Patel & Manu Meel | Today

Until Next Time

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If you don’t have twitter blue, Twitter randomly changes “you’re” to “your” and vice versa, making you look like an ignorant rube

— John Horton 🇺🇦 (@johnjhorton) October 5, 2022