For decades, endorphins have hogged the credit for producing “runner’s high,” that fleeting sense of euphoria and calm that many people report experiencing after prolonged exercise. Who among us, after an especially satisfying workout, hasn’t thought, “ah, my endorphins are kicking in.” Endorphins are the world’s sole celebrity peptide.

Endorphins first gained notoriety in exercise back in the 1980s when researchers discovered increased blood levels of the substance after prolonged workouts. (Endorphins, for those who know the word but not the molecules’ actual function, are the body’s home-brewed opiates, with receptors and actions much like those of pain-relieving morphine.) Endorphins, however, are composed of relatively large molecules, “which are unable to pass the blood-brain barrier,” said Matthew Hill, a postdoctoral fellow at Rockefeller University in New York. Finding endorphins in the bloodstream after exercise could not, in other words, constitute proof that the substance was having an effect on the mind. So researchers started to look for other candidates to help explain runner’s high. Now an emerging field of neuroscience indicates that an altogether-different neurochemical system within the body and brain, the endocannabinoid system, may be more responsible for that feeling.

[Thanks Sam Hell!]

Good morning Dave. It has been a few days since you took your medication. Would you like to talk about it?

From Newsy.com.

Yowsa - Erik Davis alerts us to a highly interesting Esalen workshop on the horizon:

I wanted to let you know that the writer Mitch Horowitz (The Occult in America) and I will be reprising our workshop on the history of mysticism and magic in America at the Esalen Institute over the weekend of Friday, March 25 to Sunday, March 27. Esalen is a spendy place, but a beautiful and rejuvenating one as well, and the last time we did the workshop, it was a blast. I had planned to show Kenneth Anger's film Lucifer Rising, and who showed up for our workshop? None other than Marianne Faithful, who has a role in the film. Talk about mystic koinky-dink!

We'll cover a great range of topics, from colonial-era occultism and the Age of Spiritualism to the dawn of America's alternative religious cultures up through the emergence of the Aquarian Age and beyond. Along the way we'll have lively discussions about alluring personalities, such as Madame H.P. Blavatsky and Manly P. Hall, and we'll take lots of remarkable byways, from the history of Ouija to the stories behind California's weird and wonderful spiritual architecture. I cannot promise that any rock stars will show up, however.

There is no evidence that ecstasy causes brain damage, according to one of the largest studies into the effects of the drug.

Too many previous studies made over-arching conclusions from insufficient data, say the scientists responsible for the research, and the drug's dangers have been greatly exaggerated.

The finding will shock campaigners who have claimed ecstasy poses a real risk of triggering brain damage. They have argued that it can induce memory loss, decrease cognitive performance and has long-lasting effects on behaviour.

The study was carried out by a team led by Professor John Halpern of Harvard Medical School and published in the journal Addiction last week. Funded by a $1.8m grant from the US National Institute on Drug Abuse, it was launched specifically to avoid methodological drawbacks that have bedevilled previous attempts to pinpoint whether or not ecstasy users suffer brain damage.

Originally published in 2011 ‘Psychedelic Healing – The Promise of Entheogens for Psychotherapy and Spiritual Development’ comes at an important time in the reinvigorated psychedelic research field. Written by Dr. Neal M. Goldsmith, the book explores some of psychedelic therapy’s history, while at the same time introducing and outlining the fundamentals of Goldsmith’s own approach.

In many respects John Halpern wraps up what feels like the central theme of the book when he wrote in his foreword that it is a “consultation from a specialist.” The specialist, Dr. Neal Goldsmith, goes to great lengths to underline his credentials and his gentle guidance through the mechanics of his psychotherapeutic method can, in one’s active reflection of the text, feel like a consultation. Autobiographical detail is, as always, an essential component in works on psychedelics; it has seemingly become the benchmark for the acceptance of writers on the topic, even in the scientifically-minded works. Goldsmith’s experience as a tripper, psychotherapist and policy researcher underlines his credentials.

A new Economist poll shows overwhelming support for the legalization of marijuana in America:

The data (see chart) reveal some interesting patterns. In every age group, more people favour than oppose legalisation. Predictably enough, the young are very strongly in favour, but babyboomers are almost as strongly so; and even those over 65 are narrowly in favour as well. Breaking the poll down by party, one finds that Republicans as well as Democrats are in favour, though the former much more narrowly so.

Secretary Clinton is receiving criticism and backlash in the wake of a recent interview where she's pressed for characterizing the increasing narco violence in Mexico as an "insurgency", and implying that money is the major factor in keeping drugs illegal.

In what is now being dubbed one of the most incoherent and nonsensical statements to be made by a politician in recent days concerning the "drug war", U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently told Mexican reporters that drugs like marijuana can never be legalized because "there is just too much money in it." Displaying a complete lack of understanding concerning basic economics and simple common sense, Clinton foolishly tried to claim that legalization would benefit criminal drug lords, despite the fact that simple supply and demand proves otherwise.

I think she's trying to imply that legalizing drugs would make the drug industry too powerful. Say what? Drugs are already the most powerful industry in the world. You can read the original interview here, and reason.tv responds with this video:

More crazy fallout from Mexico's narco-war. A total sense of lawlessness pervades, and is spreading south into Central America.

Here we go again, a new year and a fresh new wave of narco-war porn to go along with it. The new year has only meant more violence, more drugs and more black SUVs shooting it out in the streets, 3-sided full-bore firefights between rival narco gangs and the army, pretty much like a Michael Bay movie.

Life in Monterrey right now is like living in the set of Bad Boys 2. Non-stop car-chases and multiple shootouts, but no point to it, no reason for the apparently random, senseless violence. Shit, MTV should make a reality show based on Monterrey or even better, a "Tampico Shores" show, only in this version we get to watch the entire cast having their bodies dissolved in acid...

Warning, graphic images of senseless violence follow...

According to Potter, this is hard evidence this game is not rigged! LOLs for days.

MindHacks has a brief overview of a journal of Substance Abuse article detailing two reported cases of being bitten by a snake as a new form of recreational high. From one of the case studies:

Mr. PKD, a 52-year-old married male with a history of substance use for past 34 years started taking alcohol at the age of 18 and over the years he added cannabis, benzodiazepines, and opioids over different periods of time and in varying combinations to produce the desired effects.

Two months before contacting our center, the patient learned of the intoxicating effects of snake venom through some of his friends and, as reasoned by the patient, he decided to try it in order 'to experience the kick the other substances now lacked.'

With the help of the nomadic snake charmers common in India, the patient subjected himself twice to the snake bite over his left forearm over a period of 15 days. There was no local tissue injury at the site of the bite apart from the bite marks.

The patient described a feeling of dizziness and blurred vision followed by a heightened arousal and sense of well-being lasting a few hours; a more intense state of arousal than he would experience with pentazocine injections. The patient was not able to identify the snakes used but was apprehensive about the risks involved in the process.

I want to see this on the next Tosh.0.