When Abstrax started its recent research project, I doubt anyone could have imagined it would discover a whole new universe beneath our still-evolving knowledge of cannabis compounds. Now, they’ve released research suggesting how we understand how weed tastes or smells might just be the tip of the iceberg. Working with 710 Labs, SepSolve Analytical, and Markes International, the research team opened a portal into a world of rare and unseen flavor and aroma compounds in cannabis.

Founded in California in 2017, the Abstrax team calls themselves pioneers in botanical flavor technology. Its main business is to provide terpene-driven flavor solutions for industries such as cannabis, beverage, and fragrance. By studying the complete chemical makeup of a cultivar, Abstrax goes through a rigorous process to map out, select, analyze, refine, formulate, optimize, test, reformulate, test, and package before offering companies the truest strain-specific flavors they can produce. It does so through its three divisions: tech, which researches and creates terpene blends for various markets; labs, which conducts botanical testing and offers extraction/analytical technologies; and hops, providing research, products, and services to the brewing sector.

Using two-dimensional gas chromatography, a sophisticated separation technique that offers higher resolution than traditional chemical analysis, Abstrax was able to detect pockets of “hidden compounds,” which they believe have a significant impact on odor and can shape the course of how we classify or even shop for weed.

Abstrax researchers published the results of their findings in a white paper posted on their website and in the peer-reviewed journal ACS Omega. The research points out that one of the main driving factors regarding how consumers choose cannabis has to do with THC percentages. The battle over whether something is better because it’s stronger has caused more than a few amazing strains to become lost to time. However, another key factor in what someone purchases is and has always been how something smells. Despite restrictions across many states on cracking open a jar and letting someone take a whiff, this obsession with smell has led to terpenes, or terps, becoming the second most important factor that the study identifies when consumers decide which cannabis to buy. Now, packaging lists the most dominant terpenes on the label and uses them as a guide to tell consumers what they can expect.

Abstrax and the research team see this as a partial response to the modern pushback to the classic indica, sativa, and hybrid classification system we’ve leaned on up to this point. As the cannabis industry develops more modern ways of labeling and portraying the different varieties of cannabis, it’s looking for new terms to replace indica and sativa, and smell has emerged as a dowsing rod as competitions divide strains between candy, citrus, and gas. Much of the marketing focus on educating base-level consumers past sativa and indica has shifted toward trying to describe to shoppers what these aromatic compounds mean concerning the taste, smell, and psychoactive effects of a strain. It makes sense since, as the research points out, they appear in high amounts, making them a seemingly perfect identifier for classification.

Contrastingly, the research asserts that we might be trading one generalization for another in our use of terpenes, pointing to an additional study—“The phytochemical diversity of commercial cannabis in the United States,” published in PLOS One in May 2022—which concluded that in the United States, all cannabis falls into one of three terpene-dominant categories: terpinolene/ß-myrcene, D-(+)-limonene/ß-caryophyllene, or ß-myrcene/pinene.

The authors point out that through this system, strains with very different smells ended up in the same groups together. With its skunky, woody aroma, Dogwalker OG wound up next to Tropicana Cookies and Purple Punch, two cultivars with very contrasting smells. Meaning that you can’t always assume something will smell a certain way due to high percentages of certain terpenes.

“Taken together, these results strongly suggest that while aroma is a key property in differentiating cannabis varieties and user preferences, the importance of terpenes appears to be overstated,” researchers wrote.

The team concluded that terpenes had less of a correlation with the sought-after attributes of a lot of “exotic” cannabis strains and that it must be these alternate classes of compounds at work.

The study identified a wide variety of aroma classes, each with diverse functionality, that are responsible for some of the most desirable aromatic qualities found in modern cannabis. Two such classes include tropical volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs), which are responsible for the citrus notes in Tropicana Cookies or Tangie, and heterocyclic compounds like indole and skatole, which produce the rich, intense scent in strains like GMO. They also identified a class of chemicals called flavorants that includes alcohols, ketones, and esters, that go beyond terpenes in affecting the smells and tastes of cannabis. Though found in small amounts, they believe these compounds play a major role by combining to create many of the diverse tastes in modern “exotic” strains like Apple Fritter or Zkittlez.

“The discovery of these compounds will play a crucial role in validating cannabis’s authenticity and accurately classifying cannabis varieties in the future,” says Max Koby, CEO and co-founder of Abstrax.

Koby also said that utilizing these previously undiscovered cannabis compounds would allow Abstrax to create “the most flavorful and authentic cannabis flavors,” which will elevate the level of the terpene blends and isolate it sells, but also benefit everyone in the space. Consumers can finally have a better toolkit to identify what flavors and feelings they enjoy most. Cultivators, breeders, and brands could someday use this knowledge to better understand which plant components drive these sweet fruit flavors versus the savory ones.

“This research helps us better understand flavor in the cannabis experience, allowing us to better educate our customers and select phenos for our genetic library,” says research co-author Brad Melshenker, co-CEO of 710 Labs.

One of the more exciting benefits that Abstrax identified for this research was its ability to provide a jumping-off point for researchers and packagers to discover the best way of preserving these specific compounds and provide cannabis with a better shelf life.

With additional research planned, Abstrax has announced a partnership to create educational content that helps tell the story of the revelations brought about by its discoveries. Somebody reach out to Paul Rudd. Just like Antman explored and expanded upon the understanding of the microscopic quantum realm the technology employed here shows us there’s so much more happening inside the plant than we’ve ever imagined.

Abstrax believes “we stand at the dawn of a new era in cannabis understanding” and that the microcosm of additional compounds inside these plants is part of a secret roadmap researchers are just now learning to draw. This new research will allow us to look for and provide solutions to many of the problems that have arisen from the swift evolution of cannabis from evil weed to essential service. Maybe someday, in a galaxy far, far, away, an android will extend a glass jar to smell the nugs instead of watching an image spin on a budtender’s holopad.

This article was originally published in the February 2024 issue of High Times Magazine.

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Big Tech is a hotbed for psychedelic microdosing—especially among the highest ranking thought leaders. So-called “tech bros” are gulping down microdoses of psychedelics, be it LSD, ketamine, psilocybin, 5-MeO-DMT, or other drugs, and the trend is spreading like wildfire throughout Silicon Valley. Microdoses of psychedelics aim to improve mood and wellbeing without inducing hallucinations and strong psychoactive effects.

The Independent reports April 26 that what began as a turning point for Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, the use of psychedelics for therapeutic purposes, now extends to the top tech magnates in the world today. 

A “tech bro” is someone, usually a man, who works in the digital technology industry. They are also sometimes called “brogrammers” or “technocrats.” Tech Bros are gravitating towards psychedelics in order to survive the daily grind in a highly competitive industry.

Many of the top tycoons in the industry are openly sharing their experiences with microdoses of psychedelics. They’re also experimenting with psychedelic retreats, meditation, weird diets and even food deprivation (see Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.) In 2022, Wired called the phenomenon “The ‘Shamanification’ of the Tech CEO.” These approaches to well-being are being explored more often in the industry.

SpaceX founder and billionaire Elon Musk opened up about his experiences with ketamine in June last year. He argued that the psychedelic is better than the alternative, which is antidepressants that often cause side effects such as even worse depression. “Depression is overdiagnosed in the US, but for some people it really is a brain chemistry issue,” Musk tweeted. “But zombifying people with SSRIs for sure happens way too much. From what I’ve seen with friends, ketamine taken occasionally is a better option.”

He’s also open to the benefits of other psychedelics. “A lot of people making laws are kind of from a different era,” Musk said at the 2021 CodeCon conference. “As the new generation gets into political power, I think we will see greater receptivity to the benefits of psychedelics.”

A few years ago, billionaire and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel backed psychedelic start-up Atai Life Sciences which makes ketamine-based drugs.

Then Google co-founder Sergey Brin opened up about microdosing psilocybin. Psilocybin microdosing is the repeated self-administration of mushrooms at doses small enough to not induce hallucinations but with reported effects on feelings of wellbeing. It’s being explored for the treatment of conditions like depression.

“There really is a critical mass of intelligent people collectively coming together to say that we need to change policy around mushrooms—that we need to take them from the underground and put them into the mainstream in a safe and responsible way,” Dennis Walker, a mushroom podcaster and business adviser, told The Independent. “Because these are profound and effective treatments for many indications, and they’re also the birthright of human beings.”

Tech Bros Have Been Doing This for Decades

The late Apple tycoon Steve Jobs and billionaire Bill Gates—arguably the OG “tech bros”—paved the way by openly discussing their experiences in the past with LSD. 

Jobs especially liked talking about the world’s most potent hallucinogen, and suggested it played a role in the invention of personal computing and other innovations. “LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin,” Jobs said, adding “and you can’t remember it when it wears off, but you know it.” 

This aligns with a recent analysis of psychedelic drug use among American adults that has indicated that business leaders and managers seem to be dropping more acid than their subordinates. 

The study, published last October in the peer-reviewed journal Substance Use and Misuse, analyzed data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health and looked at trends related to use of LSD.

Researchers looked at data from over 168,000 adults over the course of the years 2006-2014 and found that people who identified themselves as managers in their field had experienced a notable increase in LSD use in the last year of the study, significantly more so than other full-time employees who did not identify as managers. 

“The results suggest that the prevalence of past year LSD use increased over time at a greater rate among business managers than non-managers and that this difference cannot be accounted for by changes in business managers’ perceived risk of LSD use or general substance use relative to non-managers,” the study said. 

Study participants self-reported their own drug use which included information on psychedelics including LSD. Researchers used this information to form correlations and they found that business managers and leaders experienced a .07% increase in LSD use over the last year of the study whereas other full time employees who were not in a leadership position only increased by .02%.

Trends show that tech billionaires are helping to normalize the use of psychedelic microdoses for therapeutic purposes.

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As New Jersey approaches the two-year anniversary of its recreational cannabis market launch this April and adult-use revenue continues to rise, regulators recently announced a new incentive for residents to secure their medical cards.

The New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (NJ-CRC) announced last week that signup and renewal for its new digital medical cards will be free. According to the commission, the new digital cards will begin rolling out in a few weeks and were introduced to prioritize patient accessibility and convenience.

The digital cards can be presented on a mobile device, eliminating the risk of losing or damaging a physical card while also enhancing accessibility, the commission says.

Changes to New Jersey’s Medical Cannabis Program

Those who would still like a physical medical card are still in for a bargain, as the NJ-CRC also recently reduced its physical registration fees to $10 — they will not be required to pay again until renewal two years later, which is also a $10 fee.

The entire announcement touches on a number of other topics related to New Jersey medical cannabis, with the last header hitting on “Satisfaction Among Program Participants.” It notes a recent survey, conducted by the commission, that found less than 9% of 1,000 surveyed patients said they were unsatisfied with the service they received after contacting Patient Services at the NJ-CRC.

“While many respondents shared concerns about the health care provider fees, product prices, and product availability, more than half said they participate in the program to enjoy the lower price they get from regular patient discounts and not having to pay state taxes, and to have access to the strains and products available only to patients,” the commission states in the announcement.

It also encourages readers to look out for dates for medical cannabis program registration clinics, which are set to be held across New Jersey in the coming months.

New Jersey’s Declining Medical Cannabis Market

Looking at New Jersey cannabis sales trends, the reduction in registration and renewal fees may not come as a shock. New York similarly waived its $50 medical cannabis fee in 2022, the year after it legalized recreational cannabis.

And as New Jersey’s recreational cannabis market has continued to blossom, boosting overall sales numbers, its medical sales are gradually declining.

In April 2022, when recreational sales launched in New Jersey, there were 128,548 total patients in the state. That number in January 2024 was only 88,670, approximately a 31% decrease in less than two years.

While medical sales numbers for 2023 Q4 are not yet available, looking at year-over-year comparisons of Q3 also provides some context for just how stark this change is. Medical sales for 2022 Q3 came to about $61.1 million, while 2023 Q3 was less than half that amount at approximately $29.2 million. 

Conversely, recreational sales year-over-year for the same periods increased from approximately $177.7 million to $206.1 million, for 2022 and 2023’s third quarters respectively.

Potential Incentive for Patient Enrollment

While the NJ-CRC did not make any explicit mentions of sales trends and the decline of medical cannabis sales numbers, it’s likely that these moves were made in part to encourage more residents to take advantage of the state’s medical cannabis program.

As regions introduce their own legal recreational cannabis markets, allowing access for anyone over 21 years old with a valid ID, consumers in legal cannabis states often wonder about the need for a medical card. 

One of the main perks for many is avoiding the taxes levied on recreational products, as mentioned by the commission in their announcement. 

In New Jersey, recreational cannabis products are subject to the standard 6.625% sales tax, along with the Social Equity Excise Fee which changes based on the average price of cannabis — as of Jan. 1, 2024, the fee was updated to $1.24 per ounce. Municipalities can also charge a 2% transfer fee on cannabis sales that occur within their borders.

These taxes may not seem extreme given the additional taxes in some other states — Washington State has the highest cannabis taxes in the continental U.S. with its 37% excise tax, for example.

While the tax rates may not be the highest, New Jersey infamously has some of the most expensive recreational cannabis in the country. Aside from the tax relief, medical programs tend to have cheaper pricing along with specialized products, higher dosage options and more. 

Whether these efforts will actually reverse New Jersey’s medical cannabis market trends remains to be seen; the decline in medical sales and program enrollment numbers tends to be a recurring theme in medical-only states that legalize recreational cannabis.

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Images taken using radar technology of an area near the equator of Mars have revealed what appears to be massive deposits of ice buried underneath the surface of the Red Planet.

According to a press release from the European Space Agency, if the radar images do turn out to be water ice, it would be enough to cover the entire planet in a shallow ocean of water anywhere from 1.5 meters to 2.7 meters deep. This could potentially prove an extremely useful discovery for future human exploration and potential occupation of Mars.

The European Space Agency’s Mars Express Orbiter was responsible for the discovery. The Mars Express was launched in June of 2003 and has been used to research the fourth planet from the sun ever since 2004. Since that time it has found striking evidence of current or past presence of water on Mars including the discovery of hydrated minerals which, according to NASA, form only in the presence of water. 

This is not the first time evidence of ice has been found on Mars, but the new discovery represents the largest potential deposits of ice found thus far in an area known as the Medusae Fossae Formation, which was studied about 15 years ago for its deposits which were not able to be clearly seen at the time. 

“We’ve explored the MFF again using newer data from Mars Express’s MARSIS radar, and found the deposits to be even thicker than we thought: up to 3.7 km thick,” said Thomas Watters of the Smithsonian Institution USA, lead author of both the new research and the initial 2007 study. “Excitingly, the radar signals match what we’d expect to see from layered ice, and are similar to the signals we see from Mars’s polar caps, which we know to be very ice rich.”

The MFF is an area of Mars known for its massive amounts of dust which can create harrowing dust storms all around the planet. When the Mars Express originally identified images of the deposits 15 years ago, it was suspected the deposits might just be more dust, but researchers have said that the new images show greater evidence that the deposits appear to be water ice. 

“Here’s where the new radar data comes in! Given how deep it is, if the MFF was simply a giant pile of dust, we’d expect it to become compacted under its own weight,” said co-author Andrea Cicchetti of the National Institute for Astrophysics, Italy. “This would create something far denser than what we actually see with MARSIS. And when we modeled how different ice-free materials would behave, nothing reproduced the properties of the MFF – we need ice.”

The discovery was made from an orbiting spacecraft far above the surface so it will likely be several years, decades even, before we can find out for certain but the European Space Agency emphasized the importance of the discovery as crucial information to a well-rounded understanding of the planet which very well could house humans one day.

“This latest analysis challenges our understanding of the Medusae Fossae Formation, and raises as many questions as answers,” said Colin Wilson, ESA project scientist for Mars Express and the ESA ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO). “Unfortunately, these MFF deposits are covered by hundreds of meters of dust, making them inaccessible for at least the next few decades. However, every bit of ice we find helps us build a better picture of where Mars’s water has flowed before, and where it can be found today.”

In the event that a human-occupied spacecraft lands on Mars, it’s near impossible with current technology to land near the polar caps of Mars, which have been known for a while to contain water ice. If the MFF deposits do turn out to be water ice, it would be a much easier area to access based on proximity to potential landing zones for humans to access water. 

“How long ago did these ice deposits form, and what was Mars like at that time? If confirmed to be water ice, these massive deposits would change our understanding of Mars climate history. Any reservoir of ancient water would be a fascinating target for human or robotic exploration,” Wilson said. “Together, our Mars explorers are revealing more and more about our planetary neighbor.”

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Pharmaceutical researchers in the United Kingdom are using the artificial intelligence tool AlphaFold to develop new psychedelic drugs, according to research released last month.

The research, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, shows that using an AI tool is as useful as experimentally produced protein structures, which can take up to years to investigate. The findings give further evidence of the utility of AlphaFold, an artificial intelligence tool developed by DeepMind in London.

“AlphaFold is an absolute revolution,” Jens Carlsson, a computational chemist at the University of Uppsala in Sweden, told Nature. “If we have a good structure, we should be able to use it for drug design.”

AlphaFold, a public database that holds structure predictions for nearly every known protein, has proven to be a significant advancement in biological research. With the tool, pharmaceutical companies can use the protein structure of molecules implicated in disease to identify and improve promising new drugs. But not everyone is sold on the AlphaFold AI technology as a tool for developing new drugs.

“There is a lot of hype,” said Brian Shoichet, a pharmaceutical chemist at the University of California, San Francisco. “Whenever anybody says ‘such and such is going to revolutionize drug discovery’, it warrants some skepticism.”

Shoichet noted that more than 10 studies have shown that predictions made by AlphaFold were not as useful as protein structures obtained with experimental methods such as X-ray crystallography when used to identify potential drugs in a modeling method called protein–ligand docking.

Protein-ligand docking is a method commonly used in the early stages of drug development that uses modeling to determine how hundreds of millions or even billions of compounds interact with key regions of a protein to identify substances that alter the protein’s activity. Previous studies have shown that when structures predicted by AlphaFold are used, the models do not do a good job of identifying drugs that are already known to bind to a particular protein.

Shoichet and Bryan Roth, a structural biologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, led a team of researchers who came to a similar conclusion when they tested AlphaFold structures of two proteins implicated in neuropsychiatric conditions against known drugs. The researchers hoped to determine if small differences from experimental structures might cause the predicted structures to miss certain compounds that bind to proteins, but also make them able to identify different potentially useful compounds.

The researchers tested the hypothesis by using experimental structures of two proteins to virtually screen hundreds of millions of potential new drugs. One of the proteins, a receptor that senses the neurotransmitter serotonin, was previously determined through cryo-electron microscopy. The other protein’s structure, called the σ-2 receptor, had been mapped with X-ray crystallography.

The researchers ran the same screen with models taken from the AlphaFold database. They then synthesized hundreds of compounds deemed to be the most promising identified by either the AI-predicted or experimental structures and measured their activity. Significantly, the screens with predicted and experimental structures identified different drug candidates.

“There were no two molecules that were the same,” Shoichet said. “They didn’t even resemble each other.”

The researchers noticed, however, that the proportion of flagged compounds that altered protein activity in a significant manner –known as the hit rate– was almost identical for the two groups. AlphaFold structures identified the drugs that activated the serotonin receptor most strongly.

LSD, the drug commonly known as acid, works in part by activating the serotonin receptor. Many researchers are trying to identify drugs that work similarly without causing hallucinogenic effects so they can be used as antidepressants.

“It’s a genuinely new result,” said Shoichet.

Carlsson and his team of researchers found in research that has yet to be published that AlphaFold structures had about a 60% hit rate class of target called G-protein-coupled receptors. He said that having a tool that can reliably predict protein structures would be revolutionary for the drug development industry.

“It would be very convenient if we could push the button and get a structure we can use for ligand discovery,” he said.

But AlphaFold will not take the place of other methods of discovering new drugs. Predicted structures can be helpful for some but not all drug targets, and which applies is not always readily apparent. 

“This is not a panacea,” says Karen Akinsanya, president of research and development for therapeutics at Schrödinger, a drug-software company based in New York City that is using AlphaFold.

AI is not likely to replace experimentation for new drugs, but researchers say the value of AlphaFold and similar tools should be recognized.

“There’s a lot of people that want AlphaFold to do everything, and a lot of structural biologists want to find reasons to say we are still needed,” says Carlsson. “Finding the right balance is difficult.”

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For the past few years, artificial intelligence, usually referred to as AI, has been making major waves across the globe. Some love it, claiming it will open up new frontiers for business and automation, leaving the menial jobs to the robots. Others fear and hate it, claiming it is going to take over jobs and calling it out for replacing artist’s work. 

And now, there’s a new concern floating around. Terrifyingly, some experts think that there is a small but significant chance that AI could actually make humanity go extinct. But is that mere speculation, or an actual concern we need to be worried about? 

The findings in questions come from a 2023 survey of 2700 AI researchers who have published work at top conferences, and it is the largest compilation of such information. The survey asked participants about technological milestones, and the impact it will have on society, either good or bad. Nearly 58% of researchers said they consider there to be a 5% chance that AI could either cause human extinction or other catastrophic consequences for humanity. 

“It’s an important signal that most AI researchers don’t find it strongly implausible that advanced AI destroys humanity,” says Katja Grace of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute in California, who authored this study. “I think this general belief in a non-miniscule risk is much more telling than the exact percentage risk.”

Yep, this sounds very concerning to us, but not all experts are worried. Émile Torres of Case Western Reserve University in Ohio claims that many AI experts, in their words, “don’t have a good track record” when it comes to making AI predictions.They also said that AI researchers are by no means experts in forecasting the future of AI, and points to this 2016 survey that she says did a “fairly good job of forecasting” what things could look like for AI in the future. 

Compared with the same survey when completed in 2022, many AI researchers made wrong predictions. They predicted AI would hit certain milestones earlier than previously predicted. This was likely spurred on by the release of ChatGPT in 2022 and the rush to make programs like that available once there was high demand. 

The researchers from the survey predicted that within the next decade, there is a 50% or greater chance that AI will be able to tackle most of the 39 sample tasks that have been laid before them, including perfectly copying a pop song and coding a payment processing site. These are very different and complex tasks, but the researchers claimed that other things, like solving math problems that have plagued mathematicians for years or installing electricity in a home, could take longer. 

The 2016 survey further predicted that there was a 50% chance AI would be able to outperform humans on every task by 2047, and that there was a 50% chance that human jobs could become fully automated by 2116. This was 13 and 48 years, respectively, earlier than the 2023 survey predicted. 

This, of course, speaks to the overall fear that AI will take our jobs and make humans obsolete, which seems to be the biggest concern folk have right now. But again, Torres claims that a lot of these predictions should be taken with a grain of salt. 

“A lot of these breakthroughs are pretty unpredictable, and it’s entirely possible that the field of AI goes through another winter,” they say, referencing what happened in the 1970s and ‘80s. During this time, funding and corporate interest dried up, as the technology was seemingly stalled. If advances don’t happen fast enough, either in line with predictions or what people think AI should be, that could happen again. 

Researchers also warn that, while the far-off threat of human annihilation may seem like the scariest thing to consider, there are more immediate worries to keep in mind. Over 70% of AI researchers said that more immediate threats are deepfakes, manipulation of public opinion, engineered weapons, authoritarian control of populations, and worsening economic inequality. 

The weapons and control sound terrifying, but we’re already starting to see issues with deepfakes and public opinion, so those threats seem very spot-on. Torres especially points out that AI can contribute to misinformation around issues like politics or climate change, which also seems like a more immediate thing to be concerned with. 

“We already have the technology, here and now, that could seriously undermine [the US] democracy,” Torres adds. “We’ll see what happens in the 2024 election.” 

In this sense, Torres seems spot-on. We are already seeing concern over the 2024 elections and what they will bring out in our society, so the added fuel of AI misinformation definitely does not seem positive. 

So, the consensus seems to be that the future could be scary, but the AI threats are likely more immediate and mundane, rather than some far-off dystopian future scenario. 

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A 3D printed chip which mimics human organ systems may allow for drugs to one day be tested without harming animals.

Pharmaceuticals are often if not always tested on animals before ever being administered to humans, though many drugs never make it that far in the process. In fact, when I interviewed Willy Myco the notorious YouTube educator on all things shroom-growing, he told me that he left a high-ranking position with a top pharmaceutical company to pursue YouTube content creation because he saw a room full of animals in cages who were slated to be incinerated after the tests were complete. 

This practice may eventually be a thing of the past thanks to a particular new invention created by in vitro pharmacology p.H.D. student Liam Carr and his fellow researchers at the University of Edinburgh. The 3D-printed device, which loosely resembles a translucent Connect-4 set, is referred to as a “body-on chip” and reportedly is able to replicate the way different medicines move through the human body by utilizing a process known as positron emission tomography or “PET scanning.” This essentially means that small radioactive chemicals are sent into the device which transmit images to small cameras. 

“This device is the first to be designed specifically for measuring drug distribution, with an even flow paired with organ compartments that are large enough to sample drug uptake for mathematical modeling, Carr said to the Guardian. “Essentially, allowing us to see where a new drug goes in the body and how long it stays there, without having to use a human or animal to test it.”

Now while this all may be too fancy of medical language for this humble journalist to fully grasp, Carr said the way the device works almost perfectly matches the rates at which drugs are taken in by different organ systems, allowing for accurate mathematical data to be gathered without the need for humans or animals to actually take the drug. 

“Using mathematic modeling, we have found that the rate of transfer into the organ compartments and the uptake of nutrients in vitro mimics in vivo organ results,” Carr said in a University of Edinburgh press release. “It’s been really exciting to be able to use PET imaging to modify the device and produce even flow through all organ compartments.”

According to PETA, over 110 million animals including “mice, rats, frogs, dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, monkeys, fish, and birds” are killed every year in pharmaceutical testing. Many of these animals are subjected to barbaric forms of what most humans would consider torture as well including having holes drilled in their skulls, being forced to inhale toxic fumes, being immobilized in restraints for several hours at a time to name a few. Carr’s supervisor said in a press release that this new device could drastically reduce that number of animals over time, especially considering that a very low percentage of drugs actually progress past animal trials. 

“This device shows really strong potential to reduce the large number of animals that are used worldwide for testing drugs and other compounds, particularly in the early stages, where only 2% of compounds progress through the discovery pipeline,” said Carr’s supervisor Dr Adriana Tavares of the University’s Centre for Cardiovascular Science.

Carr and his fellow researchers have received funding in the form of £260,000 (which equates to a little over $287,000 USD) from the Medical Research Council to continue testing the device using sterile materials. The device can also reportedly be used to test other substances beyond pharmaceuticals such as aerosols, food and household products. 

“We’re delighted to be supporting Liam and the CVS team in the development of this ‘body-on-chip’, and we look forward to seeing the impact this novel device has on testing and progression of new compounds and drugs in the future,” said Dr Susan Bodie, Head of Business Development for the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine at Edinburgh Innovations.

It was not immediately clear based on the press release when/if the device may be distributed or when, if ever, the number of animals used in experiments may begin to dwindle but as with all things medicine it is safe to assume it will be a little while before use of this device becomes widespread. But for the sake of the animals, consider my fingers crossed. 

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In last week’s seventh annual Cannabis Start-Up Competition at Boston University (BU) in Massachusetts, on the same night Ohio became the 24th state to legalize adult-use cannabis, a stoner-friendly app JoinME took home the grand prize. It enables users to locate and meet up and join with stoners who share the same goals and interests.

Now in its sixth year, the BU alumni-founders behind Green Lion Partners sponsored an annual start-up competition for current BU Terriers and alums who are developing innovative cannabis-adjacent companies. BU Today reports that student- and alumni-led teams pitch their business concepts Shark Tank–style to a panel of judges for a chance to win $10,000 and free consulting services.

After listening to a series of speakers, each team had six minutes to pitch their start-up concept, and judges had six minutes to ask questions. Former judges include Shaleen Title, Kris Kane, and Jaime Lewis.

This year’s winner was JoinME, an app designed to meet and toke up with other stoners, “the brainchild of Marco Rotella and Claudio Bettini,” BU Today reports, who became friends a few years ago attending BU Italian Students Association meetings. 

“We are very proud of what we are doing, and hopefully with everybody’s help we are able to develop our idea even more,” Bettini said after accepting the award and the oversized check.

“We’ve put a lot of work into the app so far, and we’re happy it showed tonight,” Rotella added.

“We have identified two main problems: cannabis consumers want and need partners,” Rotella said. “Social consumers have a much lower correlation with psychological side effects, such as social anxiety and agitation.” 

Cannabis advocate, author, and local Peter Grinspoon, M.D., tweeted in support of the competition winner on X.

The application period for the competition closed Oct. 8, and the finals took place last week at the Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences and Engineering at the BU campus.

The event is co-organized and sponsored by Green Lion Partners, a cannabis-industry business strategy firm founded by former BU classmates Jeff Zucker and Mike Bologna. Green Lion Partners is a Denver, Colorado-based business strategy firm focused on early stage development in the regulated cannabis industry. 

BU student- or alumni-led ancillary cannabis start-ups are eligible to enter the competition, so long as they don’t touch the cannabis plant. 

Zucker said the cannabis industry is built on the “backs of advocates, people fighting against the War on Drugs. So many people have gone to jail over this plant, yet there are these thriving businesses that are being built around it,” he noted. “I always want to [remind] everyone involved how important it is to be involved in advocacy, continue to work to end the War on Drugs, continue to end racially disproportionate enforcement around cannabis. It’s been great to have this platform, and that BU has been supportive of our vision for the industry.”

Attendees also heard from previous competition winners Marion McNabb, president and cofounder of the Cannabis Center of Excellence, and Carl Palme, founder and CEO of Boundless Robotics. 

The Next Steps

Rotella and Bettini plan to set up a university ambassador program and advertise in local smoke shops and dispensaries, BU Today reports. They also plan to monetize their app.

The topic of social equity entered the conversation, something the judges wanted to see in the roster of aspiring start-ups.

“I think you guys had a great presentation and immediate application in terms of what you’re offering,” said Kim Napoli, one of the night’s three judges. Napoli is an industry consultant and advocate, a Massachusetts Cannabis Advisory board member, and chief diversity officer at Soulstar Holdings, LLC. “If I can make one point, it would be to ensure that those pieces of inclusivity and diversity happen, that you hire someone to be the prime accountability position for diversity inclusion within the app and within your company as well.” 

The other finalists were software company GreenCloud, developed by Eloise De Jarne; hemp company IPNPC, created by Ziwei Huang, Zhe Huang, and Xingxin Gu; and cannabis delivery service Smoking.com, created by Ethan Davidman and Bradley Magram. 

The university is adopting cannabis business with open arms. Boston University defaults to federal law on campus, so cannabis use is illegal on campus, per its drug policy. But rapidly changing laws are pushing the school towards change.

Boston University School of Law Professor Jay Wexler’s new compelling book, Weed Rules (University of California Press, 2023) argues that now cannabis has been legalized in nearly two dozen states, it needs to be normalized.

The university is also involved in medical cannabis research to some degree, while not allowing it on campus. Meanwhile, researchers from Boston University joined other researchers from Brown and the University of Minnesota to find data to suggest that cannabis improves physical activity from people living with HIV.

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A prestigious science award has been given to a man who created a new generative AI language model capable of identifying the exact chemical structure of designer drugs, even drugs that have not been tested on humans yet. 

The winning entry for the 2023 NOMIS & Science Young Explorer competition was a new AI language model trained by Princeton biologist Michael Skinnider. This new AI model can reportedly identify the chemical structure of research chemicals or “legal highs,” terms which refer to any number of chemical compounds which produce psychoactive effects but have not yet been scheduled by the FDA. The speed at which these compounds can be synthesized has created a legislative loophole where chemists and labs can more or less sell and ship dangerous drugs to people with a label on it that says “not for human consumption” without fear of legal repercussions. 

As a result of this loophole, law enforcement professionals are often faced with a situation wherein they suspect someone is carrying dangerous drugs but can’t prove it, or someone is experiencing adverse effects from a drug that they are unable to identify and thus, unable to properly treat. Traditional field testing kits can’t identify the drug because traditional field testing kits only look for the most commonly used psychoactive compounds (heroin meth, cocaine, the usual suspects), whereas Skinnider’s AI model is reportedly capable of generating and identifying entirely new chemical structures on the fly. 

“Conventional drugs of abuse such as cocaine or methamphetamine still dominate the market, but enterprising chemists have realized that with slight chemical modifications to these drugs, they can create new derivatives that are completely legal,” Skinnider said in an essay on Science. “And because these synthetic drugs have never been tested on humans, they can have unpredictable and damaging side effects.”

Skinnider began his work by first training an AI language model on a simplified molecular input line entry system, otherwise known as SMILES, which is a fancy way of saying he taught the language model a new language which is used to represent different complex chemical structures in a simple text-based format. 

Skinnider taught the AI model a way of then identifying chemicals using a process called “mass spectrometry” which, god help me I’m probably butchering this, but according to Waters, mass spectrometry is a process of measuring the different ratios of electrical charges at the molecular level of whatever you want to test, drugs in this case, to determine the exact molecular weight of the particles in the sample. These molecular weights are used to identify and map the chemical compound. 

“As a MD/PhD student, I saw firsthand how patients could present with devastating symptoms of designer drug intoxications, but emergency physicians had few options to treat them. I wondered whether artificial intelligence could help,” Skinnider said. “Specifically, I asked whether AI could automatically elucidate the chemical structures of new designer drugs from mass spectrometry data. Scientifically, this was a tall order.”

Skinnider then used information from existing research about commonly used designer drugs to further educate the AI model, using 1,753 known examples of such. What he found was the program could then generate examples of entirely new chemical structures that might have similar effects. Not only that, but it could also be used to predict what undiscovered chemicals are most likely to become popular in the future based on what drug users have responded well to in the past. 

Skinnider intimated that these advancements in drug identification technology have very practical real world applications in identifying and responding to drug crises. He also said his technology has already been used to identify new and dangerous psychoactive compounds. 

“I have now applied this technology to tens of thousands of patient samples and used it to discover several new designer drugs, such as a new analog of fentanyl that emerged last year. Currently, I am working with the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control to implement this AI technology in routine clinical practice to automatically discover new drugs as soon as they are introduced into the population,” Skinnider said. “Ultimately, my dream is that first responders, emergency physicians, and public health officials will all be able to take advantage of generative AI to make more informed decisions when treating patients and managing outbreaks.

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Meta Platforms Inc., aka Mark Zuckerberg’s tech giant behind social media giants like Facebook and Instagram, has chosen to ignore advice from its ethics watchdog regarding how the platform manages posts connected to psychedelics.

The drama dates back to a 2022 “paid partner” post that promoted a ketamine treatment as a “medicine” and a “magical entry into another dimension,” Bloomberg reports. The post yo-yoed on the platform, like a law implemented, then overturned, then reinstated, depending on which party is in the White House. 

Ketamine, discovered in 1956 and approved in 1970, is a dissociative anesthetic with psychedelic traits. It first became famous in battlefield settings like Vietnam for its ability to maintain stable blood flow, gaining a reputation as a safer anesthetic than opioids and being listed on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines. Besides being an alternative to opiates, recent studies highlight its potential for treating depression, PTSD, and other mental health conditions, making it the only legal psychedelic medicine at the federal level. While it can certainly help transform someone’s life, the drama boils down to whether it’s a good idea to promote it as a medicine that could provide a magical entry into another dimension. Is that just a nice way to describe a medically induced k-hole, or is it irresponsible for IG to allow it to be posted?

Fast forward to August of 2023, and Meta’s Oversight Board didn’t just overturn Meta’s decision to keep the post alive, but also used it as a jumping off point for more sweeping recommendations. The board expressed concerns over what they termed “inconsistently enforced” guidelines about the selling or promoting of substances that sit in the gray areas of legal medicine and recreational fun, such as ketamine, which doctors prescribe off-label for depression and other mental health conditions.  

However, despite members of the psychedelics community believing that Meta is far too strict, censoring content, they responded to the board’s recommendation with resistance. While they agreed to the board’s suggestions regarding clarifying “paid partnerships,” they chose to ignore the stricter guidance on users posting about ketamine and other psychedelic medicines.

Regarding the audit that the board’s been championing, Meta used the tried-and-tried technique of procrastination. They responded that they would “assess the feasibility” in 2024, responding that their current “machine-learning automation” already does a good job at flagging potentially dangerous content in violation with their boundaries.

Meta’s surprising but welcome (for the psychedelics community) decision came after input from about 15 different parties, including Mindbloom, the telehealth company that prescribes ketamine at-home. Mindbloom has been lobbying for Meta to chill and allow posts containing psychedelic content. But the board isn’t happy.

“The board is concerned about inconsistent enforcement of Meta’s policies with regards to pharmaceutical and non-medical drugs,” Dan Chaison, an Oversight Board spokesperson, said in an email, writes Bloomberg. “It stands by its recommendation that Meta should clarify the policy language around content that admits to using or promoting pharmaceutical drugs. The board will closely monitor Meta’s progress toward the recommendations from this case.”

The standing policy permits content that “admits to using or promotes the use of pharmaceutical drugs,” even if it might induce a “high,” provided it’s framed within a “supervised medical setting.” The board emphasized the need for Meta to be clearer about what this setting entails.

In the past, the Oversight Board, funded by Meta, has tackled topics such as COVID-19 misinformation. But Meta isn’t bound to follow its recommendations, and perhaps felt that sharing information, even magical, about ketamine, is different than allowing people to promote faux remedies for a potentially fatal illness such as COVID-19. Companies such as Mindbloom would have lost out on opportunities to promote their mail-order ketamine services. Michael Petegorsky, Mindbloom’s General Counsel, expressed, “This decision is a big win for people who use ketamine therapy and other psychedelic medicines.” He believes it paves the way for individuals to “speak freely about these emerging mental-health treatments using their own words, and without revealing private health information.

However, playing devil’s advocate, as the research behind ketamine’s use for depression is still rolling in, there are those who would make the case that posts calling ketamine magical for depression, which is also a deadly disease, is also irresponsible. Ketamine’s side effects vary based on factors like dosage and how it’s taken. Generally speaking, users might experience feelings of being out of their body, dizziness, altered perceptions, and euphoria (which is usually welcome). Nausea and vomiting are among the most reported negative side effects. While overdosing on ketamine is rare, people must be careful to avoid activities like driving post-intake. Notable, excessive consumption can lead to bladder, urinary, and kidney issues. Responsible providers will share all of this information with patients before they begin treatment, but as it exists in a legal gray area, and considering that not all medical providers have their patient’s best interest at heart, deciding how and where ketamine should be promoted as a treatment for depression and other mental health conditions is sure to be a continued hot topic not just for Meta, but for the psychedelic community. 

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