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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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Chinese Herb Sucks the Fun out of Blow
#7578804 - 10/30/07 10:42 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Chinese Herb Sucks the Fun out of Blow By Aaron Rowe October 30, 2007 - Wired News
A simple herb used in traditional Chinese medicine may be able to help crackheads kick their habits. Tetrahydropalmatine, a chemical from the plant, blocks the euphoria that would be caused by a dose of cocaine. Knowing that even the best blow would be wasted on them, addicts may find it easier to quit.
Researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Maryland trained rats to enjoy the effects of cocaine. When the rodents were given the ability to get themselves high by pressing a lever, low doses of the herbal chemical made them use even more of the illicit drug. However, high doses of the drug made them give up their hedonistic ways.
The results made perfect sense: Small amounts of the herbal medicine would not completely take the fun out of using the drug, but it would make it harder to get high. Thus, the rats would need to indulge in larger amounts of coke to feel any satisfaction. A full dose of the plant-derived compound must have completely prevented any pleasure – sapping the animals of their motivation to get high.
The herb, Corydalis yanhusuo, is not without drawbacks. It made the rats lazy. This is no big surprise because the active chemical is a sedative that has been used for decades to treat insomnia and chronic pain.
Zheng-Xiong Xi, along with collaborators at the Beijing Institute of Basic Medical Sciences and University of Wisconsin, reported their findings in the November issue of Neuropharmacology. They acknowledged that the soporific side-effects raise an important question: Does the herbal molecule work by making cocaine unenjoyable or by making the rats too sedentary to get high?
Since medium doses of tetrahydropalmatine actually increased the drug-seeking activity of their fuzzy friends, Xi was able to reason that sluggishness was not what kept the animals from pressing the lever that dispensed the drug. Furthermore, researchers are quite convinced that the natural buzzkill blocks at least two types of dopamine receptors, proteins in the brain that are responsible for receiving pleasure signals.
Scientists do not know exactly how the chemical works, or why it acts as a sedative, but it is safe to say that feeling drowsy is a small price to pay in order to beat a serious addiction.
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Visionary Tools



Registered: 06/23/07
Posts: 7,953
Last seen: 1 year, 7 months
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Re: Chinese Herb Sucks the Fun out of Blow [Re: veggie]
#7579674 - 10/31/07 07:55 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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I'll have to add that to Valerian in my pharmacy.
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implee
Cyber Hippie


Registered: 07/27/06
Posts: 5,833
Loc: Houston, Texas.
Last seen: 5 months, 19 days
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Re: Chinese Herb Sucks the Fun out of Blow [Re: Visionary Tools]
#7580072 - 10/31/07 10:25 AM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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In other news the crime rates have gone up. People are now stealing twice as much to pawn to get high.
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Bikerfool
Your Local Edgelord



Registered: 11/21/05
Posts: 1,577
Last seen: 5 months, 13 days
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Re: Chinese Herb Sucks the Fun out of Blow [Re: implee]
#7580594 - 10/31/07 12:38 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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This doesn't make any sense, no coke head is going to willingly take something that will destroy their high. It's a waste of money, and doesn't get at the root of the problem.If they're gonna quit it's gotta be with their own will power, cold turkey.
-------------------- Just an angsty teen contributing to the pubs decline with contentless posts.
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers



Registered: 03/06/03
Posts: 21,287
Loc: The Ocean of Notions
Last seen: 5 months, 23 days
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Re: Chinese Herb Sucks the Fun out of Blow [Re: Bikerfool]
#7580667 - 10/31/07 01:02 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Bikerfool said: This doesn't make any sense, no coke head is going to willingly take something that will destroy their high. It's a waste of money, and doesn't get at the root of the problem.If they're gonna quit it's gotta be with their own will power, cold turkey.
This just isn't true.
Plenty of alcoholics take medicines that make them vomit if they consume alcohol, and plenty of opiate addicts take drugs that block opiate effects.
Some people can't quit on willpower alone.
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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Groomies
Ghost



Registered: 08/16/07
Posts: 1,119
Last seen: 7 years, 1 month
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Re: Chinese Herb Sucks the Fun out of Blow [Re: Madtowntripper]
#7581195 - 10/31/07 03:06 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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a drug that makes you sober AHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
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blunt master
stranger



Registered: 08/20/07
Posts: 231
Last seen: 9 years, 7 months
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Re: Chinese Herb Sucks the Fun out of Blow [Re: Groomies]
#7581203 - 10/31/07 03:09 PM (16 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Groomies said: a drug that makes you sober AHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
lol thats funny if you think about it
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