Project Chronic

Recreation is Therapeutic

Miyabe — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 01:02:46 +0000

**DISCLAIMER** I’ve written these as if we’re hanging out just having a conversation. It is my opinion based on my experience as a scientist and as a part of our commuity.The information, including but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material contained on this website are for informational purposes only. No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

I am not a medical professional and so I have no place giving medical advice. I am an expert on the molecular interactions of cannabinoids and their targets in the brain/body; I make theoretical extrapolations into my own life/cannabis/psychedelics use all the time, but have no formal training in physiology or general pathology outside of molecular mechanism.

I have always believed that there is a huge therapeutic value, specifically for neurodivergent adults, in recreation – so much so that my first non-profit endeavor was building opportunities for recreational music for higher support needs neurodivergent adults.

Eight years ago I attended a small acoustic concert in a living room in Larry Bird’s old house in Chestnut Hill, MA (I remember wondering why there were all these pictures of a huge, tall white guy in this Indian family’s home). Laine had been teaching violin to an extremely talented young autistic musician and two of his friends, one who played guitar, and one who played rhythm tambourine and this was their debut set together. Two other musicians with disabilities opened the show with piano and guitar. The room was filled with energy and by the time Laine’s trio took the stage, it was clearly a very successful party.

The audience was made up entirely of neurodivergent friends and family. The freedom and openness of behaviors was something I’ve never experienced. I found myself stimming and feeling more comfortable, more myself than I ever had in any public setting. Seeing the trio perform for their friends was engaging; the joy in the room was physically tangible. I had never been so aware of my own emotions in a space.

Laine and I played a small classical music set to close the concert and then a potluck dinner was served. As the night wore on, more and more unique conversations and experiences were had. These were my people. I had found community in a neurodivergent space like never before. We started playing music all together and that was the beginning of my first non-profit: The Music, Unity, and Social Expansion (MUSE) Foundation.

Until now I’ve had a really difficult time even thinking about MUSE, because it was in many ways mine and Laine’s first child. We built the non-profit from scratch by not paying ourselves and working multiple jobs to support its growth. We dedicated the first three years of our marriage to its success.

And I was devastated by the way it ended for me.

I used to think I’d write about it way down the line and air all the dirty laundry. I used to think I would feel empowered by telling my side, our side, especially because I have a keen memory especially in conflict. But in reality there’s nothing to tell besides what happened. The direction I had worked for years to build was negated, possibly because my disability, possibly because I was the only person of color on the staff, in favor of the strong opinions of two cis-hetero white men. Laine and I, and eventually another core administrative staff, were pushed to leave – all of us queer, neurodivergent adults.

I don’t think anyone needs to hear the dirty details, because sadly it’s such a common occurrence.

But now years later, I look back upon the time that I spent in that community as a huge step in my healing and a giant piece of my understanding of neurodivergent communities and the value of recreation for neurodivergent adults.

Neurodivergent adults need community support to navigate this complicated society.

We are often not fully independent and need additional types of support, especially emotional support. Feeling seen in a group of peers and knowing that you have a place among friends is critical to living a high quality of life. Humans were meant to be social and neurodivergent adults don’t get as many opportunities for that.

On top of that neurodivergent adults struggle to make and maintain friendships. Or we have atypical friendships that have blurred lines into other categories of relationship, like family. This is made worse by any atypical childhood family experiences. It can be difficult for us to understand our place in society which makes community support more important.

Recreational outlets, including situations that involve substance use for the purpose of recreation like cannabis or psychedelics or alcohol, create opportunities for neurodivergent adults to access different levels of social reward, decreased anxiety, and social bonding. Substances have been a part of our joined social experiences from humanities earliest times, just like music, or often in combination with music.

As I move into this next chapter with this new non-profit, I am feeling compelled to honor this piece of my history and push for the therapeutic value of recreational outlets.

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The Boundless Unknown

Miyabe — Sat, 28 Oct 2023 02:35:21 +0000

I always knew I wanted to write a book, but it just never seemed to get enough momentum to make it to the finish line. I burn through my obsessions which often means they are bright, flashy, but not lengthy. I’ve made two other serious attempts at writing a book that never made it past the outline and first chapter.

It seems like it’s a theme for me that third time’s the charm.

This summer I had my first experience with dimethyltrypatmine (DMT) and, while I didn’t fully “break through,” it was life changing. It took weeks to process everything that I had been allowed to see. But I came away with a very well-defined purpose to share what I know and to create a space that uplifts others to do the same.

In the following months, I designed a completely new model for teaching science to neurodivergent adults, I wrote a book, I harvested my first ever outdoor photoperiod crop, and a I co-founded a cannabis reserach and advocacy non-profit. I feel driven by an undeniable purpose and it is absolutely exhilarating. I’m going to share some memories from this incredible and important time for me.

The post The Boundless Unknown first appeared on Project Chronic.

[DRAFT] from Ch1 “It Started in AP Bio”

Miyabe — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 00:51:04 +0000

Excerpt from my upcoming book (my goal is to finish writing by mid/end of September and published by mid November)!

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Getting high off my ass was the first time I felt like the world (and my existence) didn’t have to be so painful. It made me feel like I could continue on, like I had something to strive towards. “Maybe I could make my brain quieter like this all the time?” I thought to myself, “Maybe I could even like being alive.”

I remember the swish of those branches and when I looked up at their melodic dance, I smiled for real.

“So you like it.” A clear voice from across the way asked. His voice was a new one. We had never talked before. I brought my gaze down, partly to see who it was but mostly because when people talk to you they expect you to look in their general direction or else it’s considered rude. I usually aim for the forehead, because it is close enough to be almost indiscernible from true eye contact for the other person, but sometimes I miss and at that exact moment my motor skills were pretty affected.

I missed the forehead. I was in the danger zone and I noticed he was looking back at me, too. It was going to happen. And it did.

Our eyes fully met.

It took a moment to process that I wasn’t in pain. How unusual.

“You look surprised,” he smiled and gave a small laugh before he was the one to look down, a little awkwardly.

I was more than surprised. I was experiencing something I never thought would happen. I was looking someone in the eyes while they were talking to me without any pain. His eyes were a stunning mix of gray, green, and light copper. I smiled back at him.

“Yeah, I really like it.”

Everyone laughed and I felt something new stirring from deep within my core. I was sharing an experience and I was clicked into it with them; I was fully in it. Those gray eyes lit on me again and I laughed and laughed and laughed at the lack of pain. I spent a lot of time looking into that first pair of eyes. He became a lot of my firsts – my first love, my first loss, and my first cannabis mentor.

On one of our early dates, we smoked in his car before walking along the cliffs by the beach. I loved the feeling of the sand and filled my pockets with it so I could keep stimming, or repeating a movement that scratches an itch on the inside of my brain. I woke up the next morning, my jean shorts kicked to the end of the bed, with my bed full of sand. He never let me live that one down.

My first time would have been a fairy tale if I wasn’t so prone to anxiety, but there’s lessons to learn from the harshness of reality. The onset of smoking is fast, usually full effects are felt in less than ten minutes, and so I felt it almost immediately when I crossed my limit that very first time. My thoughts became fragmented, disorganized, and a sharp edge had returned to all the sounds around me.

The change happened suddenly and it felt as if everything that was light and airy had turned dark and scary. My stomach curled itself up into a ball, which was a telltale sign of worse things to come. I didn’t know what was happening, all I knew was that I was not feeling good.

I struggle to name emotions and rely upon a pretty complex analysis of the physical symptoms in my body and the greater context of the situation I’m in, a phenomenon called alexithymia. Anxiety for me is all stomach and clamminess. At a certain point I turn within myself and am forced to race around in my own brain in looping circular thought patterns that repeat over and over and over. It was getting difficult to speak and I became even more distressed.

The low rumble of a panic attack was gaining space around the bottom of my brain stem, a black, inky blotch spreading itself out and waiting for the right trigger to sever my control to my brain and body. Luckily the Hillcrest Crew was an experienced bunch. They identified I had become anxious, pinpointed that I wanted to be by myself, assured me that it would definitely pass quickly, and drove me home where I could become paranoid about my dad smelling me. In the state I was in, I rushed into what I thought the only solution could be… which was to shower… with all my clothes on.

In retrospect the damp clothes hanging in the bathroom were probably more suspicious than if I had just thrown them in the washer. The higher doses of cannabis can impair planning and critical thinking, especially in naive minds and/or combined with anxiety. But after the weirdly clothed shower and finding myself in a more familiar space at home, the paranoia and panic did pass. It took around an hour, which is the average peak duration of a smoking dose before it begins to come down.

A few more hours later and all of the impairment had slipped away. My brain’s main functionality returned to baseline, but the background humming was still lowered. I had found a new type of quietness from within that my brain lacked access to before. My thoughts felt like they were basking in a calm lake instead of being tossed around in the open ocean.

I woke up the next day feeling incredible, feeling undoubtedly changed, feeling like I had an option.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Cannabis gave me the ability to explore social situations with a new perspective and helped me gain new abilities. Building experience with other young stoners while under the influence of cannabis helped me to go on to forge the relationships that saved me.

Community support of friends and family is the single most important factor in dictating the success of a person’s recovery from trauma. I would not be here now if it weren’t for a very large array of people who have been there to provide me with the right support at the right time. I cannot stress enough how critical the role of cannabis was in my ability to create and maintain those relationships.

(It still is today)

The post [DRAFT] from Ch1 “It Started in AP Bio” first appeared on Project Chronic.

My Mystical Path to Farming

Miyabe — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 02:39:51 +0000

This is a multi-post series on my journey into urban agriculture as a focus point for natural medicine advocacy inspired by an interview with Emily Davis at the Community Agriculture Project.

Farming has closed the gap on quite a few unfinished stories in my life and one of them is that my college choice finally makes sense to me.

When I tell people why I chose to go to UC Davis, a university founded as an agricultural offshoot of UC Berkeley that grew into its own independence, I usually say it was about water polo – that it was the only school that would let me major in biochemistry and molecular biology while also playing D1. Which is both true and not true. I did play water polo, at least for a couple years, but I chose to go to UC Davis, because there was a sign from the universe and it was too loud to miss.

I usually lean away from talking about these feelings of mysticism openly, because in the past they’ve been leveraged against me in a clinical setting. Delusions and grandiosity are signs of both mood disorders and psychotic disorders, both of which I’ve been diagnosed with. But 2023 is authenticity so here it goes…

I have always had strong feelings of mysticism that persisted well beyond my childhood and without the addition of any substances. As a child, my grandma Kinu encouraged it, “it’s a gift,” she would tell me. “Never doubt it, and never deny it.”

Now over 16 years after I followed an otherworldly, ancestral push to attend a college that was founded as a farm and still maintains a lot of agricultural culture, it finally all makes sense. I was meant to find my way back to farming and I was meant to go through one of the most difficult times in my life at UC Davis that would force me to search through the pharmaceutical perspective before my return.

The answer often returns to community. The community and purpose that a farm creates is primal and touches deep roots that can transcend societal divides. It’s a route to sustainability; it’s the future for increasing access to foods and medicines. And we need to expand the protections and funding that go towards building small local farms for quality foods and medicines.

The post My Mystical Path to Farming first appeared on Project Chronic.

My Cannabis First Aid Protocol

Miyabe — Sat, 27 May 2023 19:24:16 +0000

COMBINE TOPICALS AND SMOKING (OR EDIBLES?) AT MAXIMUM TOLERABLE AMOUNTS FOR REDUCED INFLAMMATION IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING AN INJURY FOR AT LEAST 24 HOURS

I hurt myself often (on accident – if you didn’t know poor proprioception is a neurodivergent thing). Today I ran over my left foot with over 700lbs of soil at my local Home Depot, so I thought it was as good a day as ever to write about my acute injury protocol for cannabis. I’ve been honing this one over the past decade or so and believe that it helps to reduce my initial inflammatory response which speeds overall recovery.

I combine topicals with smoking for a two-pronged approach. The key is to prevent the body from reaching critical local thresholds of inflammation that can lead to positive feedback loops and ultimately exacerbate the injury, prolonging or complicating recovery.

First, I use the highest concentration topical I can find or make on hand. Today it was 1g of CBD isolate that I mixed into the minimum amount of olive oil (probably around 30mL total making 33mg/mL which is decent). Ideally I’d have something full spec at that concentration, but re-upping my topicals has been something I’ve been putting off for a while, because I don’t like to have to clean the dishes. Anyways, I put this topical on all over the site of injury as well as “upstream” leading to the spine. Reapply the topicals as often as possible, at least 3-4 times per day.

Next I smoke a combination (I usually always have my 40/40/20 mix pre-rolled). I smoke the maximum amount that I can be comfortable with for that next hour or so, then I try to maintain that maximum for the rest of the first day.

In the next 7-14 days following the injury, I continue to treat with both topicals and smoking at as high of doses as possible. But after the first 24-36 hours, it is less important and more maintenance to promote healing.

The point of following this protocol is to maximize the cannabinoids both locally at the site of the injury via the topical and systemically by smoking to reduce inflammation.

I know some of you are going to ask about edibles.. so I think that it’s possible they can be helpful in this context as well in lieu of smoking, but they are more difficult to dose up to the maximum for me. I dislike the feeling of being too high, and edibles are a fine line for me. I am able to better control that dosing through smoking, which is why I prefer it, but we all have our own best methods. In theory edibles would also circulate cannabinoids systemically.

I’ve found that cannabinoids are super helpful to reduce inflammation and promote healing this way on a myriad of common first-aid issues from minor bruises to poison sumac to second-degree burns, but probably the most useful for me is with blunt force injuries (like running over one’s toe at Home Depot). Without cannabis, the inflammation that can build in the first hour of an injury can take days to calm down. I much prefer preventing the inflammation in the first place.

One of my mentors, Dr. Bruce Hammock, once said that inflammation is all about thresholds and exponential growth. Each of us has a specific threshold where, once passed, our inflammation/immune system is completely out of control and explodes in an exponential fashion. My whole life has been constructed around keeping my baseline inflammation well below this threshold. But try as I might, I always seem to have something pro-inflammatory going on…

Just another reason for me to be grateful for this magnificent plant

The post My Cannabis First Aid Protocol first appeared on Project Chronic.

First LSA Experience – 4/18/20 Journal Entry

Miyabe — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 01:53:27 +0000

**DISCLAIMER** I’ve written these as if we’re hanging out just having a conversation. It is my opinion based on my experience as a scientist and as a part of our commuity. The information, including but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material contained on this website are for informational purposes only. No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

This site does not endorse the use and/or possession of any illegal drugs. The information contained in this website regarding legal or illegal drug use in not an endorsement of any such use. The legality of any drug or medication falls to the judicial system for determination and not this website. Please be educated about your local rules and regulations.

My first experience with LSA (the active ingredient in Ololuiqui) was 3 years ago today… It was the moment I knew I had to end my denial and come out as non-binary. It was the moment I first felt grateful for my entire self, which has allowed me to work towards expressing my entire self.

Even 3 years later, I don’t have the right words to describe the experience, but I do have my journal reflections from that day:

It’s weird to see a journal entry where I’m still calling Laine “Elaine,” but this trip was the beginning of that transformation. Both Laine and I have very complicated relationships with our names – for those of you who don’t yet know, Miyabe is my family name. I stopped going by my legal first name 20 years ago, but kept it legally because… it’s complicated.

That story is for another post, so back to this. I chose to color in the entire page in pastels to represent the sheer emotional intensity of the experience.

The title “LSA – HBMG” is for Heavenly Blue Morning Glory. “CWE” stands for cold water extract… I have yet to completely perfect what I’ve been doing, but I think I should have my own method finalized soon. My focus is on purity and preventing oxidation and/or other degradative transformations. It seems like there are a lot of them and particularly noxious stomach-bug like side effects from the byproducts.

I love that it ends like “Absolutely worth repeating,” because it marks the beginning of a different chapter in my spiritual transformation.

Here’s what I thought the next day:

The post First LSA Experience – 4/18/20 Journal Entry first appeared on Project Chronic.

Find Your Therapeutic Minimum

Miyabe — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 01:48:06 +0000

Therapeutic Minimum: The smallest amount of any molecule you can take and still receive beneficial desired effects.

Knowing your own therapeutic minimum will help keep tolerance down and build more conscious use practices into your daily behavior set.

Here are my approximate therapeutic minimums for molecules that are gifting me with a livable life:

- - - D9-THC – 1mg (edible), 10mg (~50mg of ~20% flower, smoked)
    - CBD ISOLATE – 200mg (edible), 10mg (dabbed, low-temp), 5mg (dabbed, high-temp with transformation)
    - CBD HEMP FLOWER <0.3% THC – 30mg (full spec edible), 250mg flower, smoked
    - CBG HEMP FLOWER <0.3% THC – 30mg (full spec edible), 250mg flower, smoked
    - PSILOCYBE FRUITING BODIES – 80mg (edible)
    - TOBACCO – do not know the minimum, because I use it as minimally as I can as blunt wraps (<2 per month) and occasionally a cigar (<2 per month)

This doesn’t mean that I don’t use more than this amount, but this is the lowest dose I can take of each while still receiving the benefits of anti-inflammatory pain reduction, reduction of GI inflammation, increased focus, improved sleep, and improved mental health.

Okay so here's how to estimate your own therapeutic minimums:

** DO THIS EXPERIMENT AS THE FIRST THING YOU ARE SUPPLEMENTING WITH THAT DAY **
Write down the following info in a way that is easy for you to understand at a glance:
1. 1. Date
  2. Time
  3. Best estimate of total amount of product (I suggest getting a digital scale that goes out to 0.00g and measures 5mg with up to a 2mg deviation)
Next take the starting hit or starting edible dose and wait to feel effects (15 min for inhaled, 20-75 min for edibles). Record your level of symptom relief from 0-10.
If you feel more than enough relief, stop the experiment. Repeat the experiment starting at step 1 the next day with half the starting dose.
If you feel enough relief, stop the experiment. Your therapeutic minimum is this dose; record it.
If you did not feel enough, take another hit or another edible dose starting at step #3 until you reach your level

**NOTE – for edibles, it’s not ideal to repeat more than twice due to the amount of time absorption may take. If after two doses, it’s still not enough, try again the next day starting with one higher than that dose.

I would never suggest that anyone try this without the consent and supervision of a medical professional (nurse, MD, DO, PsyD, etc) or therapist who can answer questions on a 1:1 basis. This giant gap in knowledge between scientists and public service workers who keep our society healthy and safe is a huge problem. And it’s a problem we are far too delayed in addressing and why I’m so passionate about sharing my information with everyone, including doctors, therapists, and, yes, even the police and politicians if they are open to learning about how these medicines can be powerful tools to help reduce harm in the community.

The post Find Your Therapeutic Minimum first appeared on Project Chronic.

Of Molecules, Music, and Mysticism

Miyabe — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 01:46:33 +0000

Over the past 9 years of performing together, our genre of original music has been described as “fucked up folk”… It’s fitting since we are compelled to write music about subjects/emotions that we cannot express in any other way. Laine and I found our life together through music, and even started a non-profit together providing the scaffolding for a social music scene for neurodivergent adults. The therapeutic benefits of music and a social music scene (community) are undervalued and understudied interventions for mental health with real neurological, molecular mechanisms.

By far the most accessible written work on neuromusicology (the study of music in the brain) is Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks, so I’ll defer the more general findings. But I will say that after all the research I did on the effects of both molecules and music on the brain – from ancient to modern and from casual, amateur jam sessions to rigid, classical or more clinical therapeutic settings – I am certain that music acts in a complex multi-molecular mechanism that is not reproducible by any combination of molecules, natural or pharmaceutical.

"Music can pierce the heart directly; it needs no mediation [...] And there is, finally, a deep and mysterious paradox here, for while music makes one experience pain and grief more intensely, it brings solace and consolation at the same time."

- Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia

It is, however, undeniable that certain molecules enhance musical experience and vise versa, music enhances the molecules. It’s well-documented by the intimate relationships many musicians have with specific molecules that can be tools for connectivity to the artist’s creative identity. I have yet to step on stage without cannabis and I notice very distinct changes in the physical (rhythm, pitch, resonance, etc) and emotional tone of creating music.

Psychedelics take that expansion of emotional connection past what feels possible to describe. Synesthesia and beautiful visual accompaniments create a sense of connection to the divine, to the deepest part of what it means to be human, to creation for the sake of creation, and to the power of forgiveness in the process of healing. During our first experience with San Pedro, Laine and I let go of half of our physical belongings and celebrated our liberation by writing a song we named after our favorite ever-transformative stone, labradorite (here’s the first recording from that day).

I’ve been circling this concept of mysticism (which some call magic others call divine or godly, and still others call delusion or grandiosity) for years, because while I can feel the distinct difference in the classic serotonergics, my first experiences with mysticism were through cannabis as a teenager. Blazed up in AP bio, I had a mystical feeling learning about the enzyme in plants that takes carbon gas out of the air and creates solid carbon that is the basis of all life (RuBisCo); five years later, I started my research career with the enzyme soluble epoxide hydrolase and seven years later, I completed my PhD on the endocannabinoid-metabolizing enzymes

After my PhD I swore I’d never go back to school again, but I should know by now it’s impossible to set boundaries on the universe. I am currently a student in The River Course led by Dr. Joe Tafur, MD where I am sharing a once-in-a-lifetime experience of molecules, music, and mysticism with an entire community of psychedelic health professionals, activists, and scientists who want to expand our understanding of what it means to heal.

Dr. Joe Tafur is not only a doctor from UCSD and UCLA, but a trained Shipibo curandero and a spiritual leader at the Church of the Eagle and the Condor. He is teaching my classmates and me of the intangible, unquantifiable aspects of psychedelic healing that touch our souls, the missing piece of mental and physical health that Western medicine at best ignores, and at worst intentionally devalues. He is teaching us that healing is slow magic. And I feel the most connected to the magnitude and weight of this topic when he is singing to us.

I have a complicated relationship with religion and see myself as a spiritual wanderer, a bit lost and disconnected. But hearing these songs in the safety of this new community has awoken something deep within, something from perhaps even before this lifetime. The music takes me away from myself and I can start to see what tethers me and what sets me free.

The post Of Molecules, Music, and Mysticism first appeared on Project Chronic.

I am awakened in the mountains – an homage to Dr. Arlene Blum, PhD

Miyabe — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 01:38:48 +0000

My first PI (the “Principal Investigator” is the “Big Boss” of research laboratories, in charge of all research direction of everyone else in their lab) was Dr. Bruce D. Hammock, PhD at UC Davis. Shortly after meeting me, he suggested I read the book “Breaking Trail” by Dr. Arlene Blum, PhD because he thought “I’d have a lot in common with her.”

It took me almost a decade and my entire PhD later before I made my first big climb – Mt. Webster and Mt. Jackson up in NH. Everything clicked and my wife and I have spent as much time as possible backpacking and hiking our way through the 48. We’re about halfway through now and I’ve spent a lot of time thinking back to “Breaking Trail”, thinking back to the parallels between myself and an iconic, inspiring scientist, activist, and mountaineer.

"Arlene . . . that child will amount to no good . . .Tears begin to blur my eyes. I curl up on the ground, hug my knees, and shake with silent sobs. I hate my aunts words. I hate my aunt. I hate myself."

- Breaking Trail, Arlene Blum

I almost stopped reading the book right then. It was too close to home. I think the only reason I continued onwards was the promise of a happy ending. I already knew that the sad, crying little girl would transform into the powerful scientist whose research in biophysical chemistry at UC Berkeley lead to safer regulations on children’s clothing, the activist who would co-found the Green Science Policy Institute, and the mountaineer who would lead the first successful American ascent (all women) of Annapurna.

When she was rejected for being a woman and told she didn’t have a place on a mountaineering team, she proved them wrong (and she did it with an all female team). I’ve been focused on channeling this energy with my current dilemma of coming out as non-binary professionally.

Coming out (again) is what spurred this rediscovery of Dr. Blum, because I liken it to summiting a mountain. It’s an exhausting uphill battle for what seems to be unending miles and when you reach the summit, there’s a temporary reprieve of ineffable beauty. But then you must come down.

The reality of my current situation sometimes scares me. I never thought I’d be in this position. When I first read of Dr. Blum, I didn’t think I would survive to pass “the 27 club” let alone have aspirations to parallel hers. And it’s all the little reasons why I have made this beautiful life doable that fuels these aspirations.

I never thought I would make it and I want to help others surprise themselves. I want to be a part of the change, because I do believe that there is a better way to go about our health and wellness. I believe it’s deeper than biochemical, it’s spiritual. And I believe if I share the things I’ve learned, others usually agree. So I do aspire to be a scientist, an activist, and, yes, a mountaineer.

But above all else, I aspire towards her mindset. She didn’t accomplish those ridiculously lofty goals to “be someone,” she did it because it was the only thing that made sense to her. It was her purpose and it drove her further and harder than any external factors.

My purpose is never clearer to me than when I’m at the summit. This journey is my attempt to honor and prioritize it.

The post I am awakened in the mountains – an homage to Dr. Arlene Blum, PhD first appeared on Project Chronic.

The Multi-Microdose Schedule

Miyabe — Sat, 04 Feb 2023 17:48:24 +0000

**DISCLAIMER** I’ve written these as if we’re hanging out just having a conversation. It is my opinion based on my experience as a scientist and as a part of our commuity. The information, including but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material contained on this website are for informational purposes only. No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Minimal doses of cannabis or psychedelics spread evenly 3X per day.

Purpose: To describe a dose schedule I have been using for years with cannabis, but only recently extrapolated to mushrooms that allows me to stay at a steady-state that is subtle, maximizes therapeutic benefit, and contributes minimally to tolerance building.

Background: In the pharmaceutical world, a steady-state is reached when the amount of drug in your body stays relatively constant all day. It is a standard dosing procedure used in many different types of medications, but especially mood-stabilizers, antidepressants, and anti-psychotics. It’s very common for prescription medications to be dosed multiple times per day to achieve this. I have found additional benefits from applying this theoretical knowledge to my life…

Protocol: Use your therapeutic minimum (the least amount of any substance you need to receive the main desired effect) 3X per day

EXAMPLE SCHEDULE (CANNABIS) –

- - 8:00AM – 3 hits of a 40/40/20 CBG/CBD/THC blend
  - 2:00PM – 2 hits of 40/40/20 ^^^
  - 8:00PM – 0.5-1g joint of 40/40/20***

*** I wind down with this 0.5-1g dose almost every day regardless of any schedule, but I do add in more THC for different situations (like socializing).

EXAMPLE SCHEDULE (MUSHROOMS) –

- - 8:00AM – 0.10 – 0.15g
  - 2:00PM – 0.10 – 0.15g
  - 8:00PM – 0.15 – 0.3g***

*** The reason I up this last one, because it helps overcome the increase in metabolic enzymes (monoamine oxidase) and feels fairly comparable to me by that point in the day.

NOTE – I rarely combine these two protocols and instead alternate them on a cycle as needed (on my mushroom days I do consume cannabis, but typically only at night as I’m winding down). A 7 day week for me could look like: Monday (cannabis), Tuesday (mushrooms), Wednesday (cannabis), Thursday (mushrooms), Friday (mushrooms or cannabis or nothing), Saturday (ad libitum/no schedule), Sunday (mushrooms or cannabis).

Discussion: I started experimenting with this protocol in late 2018, three whole years after I first introduced CBD into my medical cannabis routine and blasted everything I thought I knew about cannabis wide open. It took three years, because that’s how long it took me to finally feel comfortable understanding how CBD affects THC for me, and could feel confident moving forward without introducing too many other new variables.

The active molecules that make us feel things each have their own half-life, which is the amount of time it takes for half of the active molecules to be deactivated by our body. The longer the half-life, the longer the molecule will be actively circulating, the longer we will feel the effects.

The half-life of cannabis and mushrooms are both fairly low, meaning they fall below the amount needed to feel the effects after a few hours. Using low doses typically means the half-life is perceivably shorter, because you’re starting off at the threshold of feeling things to begin with.

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