Hello.
r norman wrote:
> I tell you that this is the right place and then abandon you. I am
> sorry. But Thanksgiving weekend was filled with relatives including
> an incredibly adorable first grandson who seemed to occupy far too
> much of my waking hours.
Ah, no problem, I can understand. Kids take time. ;)
As a matter of fact I was just looking trough some texts relating to
hyperactivity and have begun to speculate about the relation between
hyperactivity and the simplicity of neural responses. As simple and
short, these responses would be less taxing on the neurons and thus let
the brain respond more quickly, resulting in the hyperactivity.
But leave that debate for another time. ;)
> You are correct that there is a blood-brain barrier that blocks most
> drugs from moving from the blood stream into the extracellular
> environment of the brain and so be able to influence brain function.
> And anything that influences the integrity of this barrier could allow
> all sorts of very nasty effects. However changes in this barrier are
> not generally associated with phenomena like drug tolerance, the
> phenomenon you describe. And, yes, tolerance to MDMA (ecstasy) is
> very real.
Actually I was looking at a fenomena that is directly inverse of what
"drug tolerance" normally is. That is, with drug tolerance, you need
ever bigger doses to reach the same effect, but with damage to the
barrier, ever smaller doses would be needed as the drug would have
progressed to damage the barrier, allowing ever easier access of drug
chemicals to the neurons.
I have found an article on MDMA, saying that the substance did indeed
alter the barrier, so that it becomes passable to the MDMA molecules,
with the given possibility that this alteration might cause permanent
damage to the barrier.
That's what I have checked with people I know who do / have done in the
past with drugs (but not MDMA). They said the first time they took a
drug, it would take a much longer time for the drug to start taking
effect. In subsequent hits this time would become ever shorter (the
diffirence would be observable within the first few shots).
Perhaps the drug tolerance is counteracting the effect I have described
making it less evident? In any case I find this very interesting and am
curious wether drugs (e.g. the legal ones) are tested to confirm they do
not damage the barrier. I assume they are and if so I would be very
interested to hear which drugs (legal or illegal) cause damage of this kind.
> Frankly, there are far better and safer illegal psychoactive drugs
> that you should use if you insist of messing yourself up that
> seriously. And there are quite legal ways of deriving enormous
> pleasure and satisfaction from life that have absolutely none of the
> damaging side effects. But it's your life (or that of your friends).
Yes it is... Actually I'm a Geek, I don't actually need drugs to feel
high. Besides, still not knowing what causes these mild migranes, I'd
rather not find out if drugs do it too. As for my friends, I do preffer
to keep them out of it if I can...
It's just that it is most interesting how drugs that are not actually
supposed to be addictive, have a psychological memory-perception related
effect that prevents the drugtaker from realizing that what he is doing
is not really good for them, but wrong and damaging.
Currently I've played on the emotional notes to get them out of it, I
guess saying "The drug makes your brain more vounrable to infections for
life every time you take the drug, are you SURE you wish to do this?"
would be much more universially effective. Of course it would have to be
true for a start.
--
Model: INFJ
Primary function: Coprocessor
Secondary function: Cluster commander
Yes I'm a therian:
http://www.wikitherian.org
Q: Are you guys for real?
A: Oh, my, yes; we are very much for real.
-- KatmanDu
