Latest / Dear Chelsea / Psychedelics and Drug Use with Ethan Nadelmann
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hi everybody. While I'm taking the month of September off
- 0:03Speaker 1: of doing stand up, I return on October one to
- 0:06Speaker 1: complete my Vaccinated and Horny Tour. October, November, and December,
- 0:11Speaker 1: I have new dates up. I kick it off in Saratoga, California,
- 0:15Speaker 1: and I'm coming to all parts of California, Long Beach,
- 0:18Speaker 1: Baker's Field. I'm going to Niagara Falls, Tucson, Arizona, Colorado, Minneapolis,
- 0:24Speaker 1: San Diego, Reading Pennsylvania, and Baltimore, Maryland, just to name
- 0:28Speaker 1: a few. There's also some Floridian dates in there, since
- 0:31Speaker 1: this will be my last year that I'm able to
- 0:33Speaker 1: go inside the state of Florida. So check out Chelsea
- 0:36Speaker 1: Handler dot com for more stand up dates for my
- 0:38Speaker 1: Vaccinated in Horny Tour. These are my last dates. Hi, Catherine,
- 0:43Speaker 1: how are you? I'm so good. I'm here in l
- 0:46Speaker 1: A and it's going to be a hundred and four
- 0:47Speaker 1: this weekend. I left l A because I don't like
- 0:50Speaker 1: that kind of temperature, and but I'm gonna see you
- 0:53Speaker 1: in my orcas soon. Catherine and I are going on
- 0:55Speaker 1: vacation together with Brad. We're going to become a throople.
- 0:58Speaker 1: We're gonna open up their related ship. That wouldn't be weird.
- 1:03Speaker 1: You're welcome in. We're really good at snuggling and after care.
- 1:07Speaker 1: I was just at a lunch. I'm in New York
- 1:08Speaker 1: City this week because I'm here to watch the US
- 1:10Speaker 1: Open because I wanted to watch Serena play for the
- 1:12Speaker 1: last time. So I went to the first night where
- 1:14Speaker 1: she fucking won and it was so special. I just
- 1:18Speaker 1: love that energy. I love watching people win. Yes, she
- 1:21Speaker 1: came out in like a glittery wrote like cape, like
- 1:24Speaker 1: a queen. Yeah, she had six layers to signify all
- 1:28Speaker 1: of the I guess six US Opens. She had one,
- 1:31Speaker 1: and she played this girl whose name, God, that's terrible,
- 1:35Speaker 1: I can't remember. But the girl was so good. It's
- 1:38Speaker 1: so funny to watch Serena play because, like her opponents
- 1:41Speaker 1: are always just running back and forth with such athleticism,
- 1:44Speaker 1: and Serena just stands there. She's just like here, I'll
- 1:46Speaker 1: return the ball from over here, like I'm not running anywhere.
- 1:49Speaker 1: It's pretty amazing to watch her play. She's such a
- 1:52Speaker 1: she's a beast. It's always amazing to see somebody who's
- 1:55Speaker 1: just at the top of their game, whether it's sports,
- 1:57Speaker 1: whether it's comedy, whether it's whatever it is. It's so
- 2:00Speaker 1: fascinating to watch somebody who's at the top of her Yeah, yeah,
- 2:03Speaker 1: I love it. I love the whole vibe of like tennis,
- 2:05Speaker 1: Grand Slams, Like I've been to Wimbledon. I think I've been.
- 2:08Speaker 1: I think that's probably it. Wimbledon and the U s
- 2:10Speaker 1: Open I've been to. But it's just such a vibe,
- 2:13Speaker 1: you know, like you can drink, you watch sports like
- 2:16Speaker 1: it's up close. You can see everything, no matter where
- 2:18Speaker 1: you're sitting in the stadium, you're just watching the court.
- 2:21Speaker 1: You know. It's not like a concert. We have to
- 2:22Speaker 1: watch on one of these big screens. And the US
- 2:25Speaker 1: Open is the biggest one out of the Grand Slams.
- 2:27Speaker 1: It's it holds the most seats and so it's massive,
- 2:30Speaker 1: and it's just it's. Yeah, my best friend Bitchy, she's
- 2:35Speaker 1: my sports friends. She knows, she's always got in roads
- 2:37Speaker 1: to any sporting event, so we always get hooked up.
- 2:40Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm having a great time and I'm and
- 2:43Speaker 1: then I'm going to see you in my Orca. Yeah.
- 2:45Speaker 1: And you've been saying all kinds of friends this week,
- 2:47Speaker 1: I know, because we're making plans last week. Oh my God,
- 2:50Speaker 1: I know, I'm not looking at my calendar. I'm like, fuck,
- 2:52Speaker 1: what the the funk is this? We have a podcast
- 2:54Speaker 1: recording it to this interrupts my lunch and mushroom at day.
- 2:58Speaker 1: I was so sorry to interrupt. Last night, though, I
- 3:01Speaker 1: had the most romantic night by myself. I went to first,
- 3:04Speaker 1: I got up and I worked out for two hours
- 3:07Speaker 1: because I shot this campaign and I had to really
- 3:10Speaker 1: get it together for well one week. That's how I
- 3:13Speaker 1: get it together, and then I just went off. Since then,
- 3:16Speaker 1: I've gained six pounds and I am just cruising through
- 3:18Speaker 1: Manhattan and I'm walking everywhere. Yesterday I met my sister.
- 3:21Speaker 1: I walked forty five minutes. I met her for launch,
- 3:23Speaker 1: Then my friend Pitchy came. Then I walked all the
- 3:26Speaker 1: way back, and then I walked back downtown. I got
- 3:29Speaker 1: in seven twenty seven thousand steps yesterday. And my goal
- 3:34Speaker 1: is just too. I love New York City for that reason.
- 3:37Speaker 1: There's nowhere I mean, I just wish I lived in
- 3:39Speaker 1: a city that was walkable, not in Los Angeles. Los
- 3:42Speaker 1: Angeles definitely is not. It's barely drivable. Yeah, but where
- 3:47Speaker 1: else have you been? You've been all over the place. Oh,
- 3:49Speaker 1: my gosh, I just got back from Greece and Vancouver Island.
- 3:54Speaker 1: I went from Greece to Vancouver Island. Warmed very cold.
- 3:57Speaker 1: It sounds like, yeah, well it wasn't very cold on
- 4:00Speaker 1: Vancouver Island. Greece was beautiful. I went to an island
- 4:02Speaker 1: called Leftcata, which I've never been to, with a bunch
- 4:05Speaker 1: of friends. We just got on a boat every day
- 4:08Speaker 1: and went to a different beautiful restaurant and drank white
- 4:10Speaker 1: wine and ate Greek salads and fish, and I could
- 4:14Speaker 1: not have been happier. I actually was able to protect
- 4:17Speaker 1: my face from the sun with this new hat I got,
- 4:20Speaker 1: so it looked like a dick, but I like, at
- 4:22Speaker 1: least my skin is not burned. And yeah, I was
- 4:25Speaker 1: on vacation with lots of different new people and some children,
- 4:29Speaker 1: so you know how that goes. Yes, I saw your
- 4:31Speaker 1: incest story is with one particular who I think was
- 4:34Speaker 1: your favorite. Oh yeah, she's my favorite. The ones who
- 4:36Speaker 1: can't really form sentences are my favorites, you know, Like
- 4:39Speaker 1: I like when they're beginning to talk but they haven't
- 4:41Speaker 1: really gotten the hamstered it. Yeah, that's when they get
- 4:44Speaker 1: a full personality. Is when I start to lose issuest. Yeah,
- 4:50Speaker 1: the like gibber jabber stage where they'll just like tell
- 4:53Speaker 1: you all about their day in total like jabbery English
- 4:57Speaker 1: is my favorite. Yeah. I had this four ar old girl, Mia,
- 5:01Speaker 1: who was just she was so she was like a
- 5:03Speaker 1: seven year old. So it was so funny. I'd be like, Okay,
- 5:06Speaker 1: let's play a game where we count all the boats
- 5:07Speaker 1: that are moving in the ocean. She's like, that sounds silly.
- 5:11Speaker 1: I've got another game. I'm like, oh my god, she said,
- 5:14Speaker 1: I don't think so. She was just so funny, just
- 5:18Speaker 1: like and this old British like she sounded like an
- 5:20Speaker 1: old British man. She sounded like this is doubtfire. I
- 5:24Speaker 1: love that traveling with children is another thing. You got
- 5:27Speaker 1: us to have your own timeline involved. I just don't
- 5:33Speaker 1: understand how people do it. How they have so many
- 5:35Speaker 1: children and then they have to pack up their car
- 5:38Speaker 1: and they have to put in the baby Bjorn and
- 5:39Speaker 1: their cookies and their whatever bottle, all of it. And
- 5:42Speaker 1: at every airport all you ever see is parents taking
- 5:46Speaker 1: their sippy cups and downing the liquid in the sippy
- 5:48Speaker 1: cups because the kids haven't finished it. Like I was
- 5:51Speaker 1: at Heathrow on a layover. Oh I was in London too.
- 5:54Speaker 1: I was at Heathrow and he throws like the strictest
- 5:57Speaker 1: airport in terms of like liquids and fluids. So basically
- 6:00Speaker 1: everyone who came through just had to sit there in
- 6:02Speaker 1: front of the t s A agent drinking their thermis
- 6:05Speaker 1: because no one had, you know, emptied out their thermis.
- 6:08Speaker 1: And I'm like, how do people not fucking know about
- 6:11Speaker 1: emptying out their thermis at this point? How did they
- 6:14Speaker 1: not even doing this for a minute now it's been
- 6:17Speaker 1: since yes, Oh my gosh. Yeah, I just don't think
- 6:23Speaker 1: I could have a kid and be the sort of
- 6:25Speaker 1: mom who like licks their kids pacifier to clean it
- 6:28Speaker 1: before giving it to them, or like like parents. Man,
- 6:31Speaker 1: I have a lot of respect, but I can't do
- 6:33Speaker 1: all that gross stuff. No, no, it's all yeah, it's
- 6:36Speaker 1: too much. It's just never ending. And some people make
- 6:38Speaker 1: it look easy, and I respect that because it's not easy.
- 6:42Speaker 1: Some people with many Nanni's. We have a very special
- 6:45Speaker 1: guest today. His name is Ethan Niedelman and he is
- 6:50Speaker 1: the former Princeton professor who built a political movement to
- 6:53Speaker 1: legalize marijuana, roll back the drug war, and treat drugs
- 6:57Speaker 1: as a health issue, not a criminal one. He is
- 7:00Speaker 1: now the host of the podcast Psychoactive about all Things Drugs,
- 7:04Speaker 1: now in a second season, And obviously I would like
- 7:07Speaker 1: to announce to all my customers this disclaimer that I
- 7:11Speaker 1: am not a doctor, I play one on a podcast,
- 7:13Speaker 1: that I would never ever encourage anybody to do drugs.
- 7:17Speaker 1: This isn't medical advice, this is my own personal therapy. Ethan. Hi,
- 7:22Speaker 1: it's so nice to have you. Well, it's a pleasure
- 7:25Speaker 1: to be on your show, Chelsea. I really appreciate it.
- 7:27Speaker 1: Oh well, thank you, thanks for being here. And you
- 7:29Speaker 1: know you've spoken to Catherine before. Yeah, Hi, Okay, So
- 7:34Speaker 1: I know you are a huge proponent of the legalization
- 7:37Speaker 1: of marijuana and basically I mean all drug use, right
- 7:41Speaker 1: or do you want to get specific about what drugs
- 7:43Speaker 1: you are for and what drugs you're against? Well, I mean,
- 7:46Speaker 1: let me be very specific. I mean most of my
- 7:48Speaker 1: life was about working to legalize marijuana and to end
- 7:51Speaker 1: the war on drugs, So that's where and I was
- 7:54Speaker 1: never called myself pro marijuana, although my personal life, I'd
- 7:56Speaker 1: say marijuana and I have had a great relationship for
- 7:59Speaker 1: a very long time. Amen to that. But when it
- 8:01Speaker 1: comes to the other drugs, you know, I'm sort of
- 8:03Speaker 1: a Merril wine and psychedelic exceptionalist, and that those are
- 8:06Speaker 1: the drugs that have been good in my life and
- 8:07Speaker 1: the other ones are not so crazy about. But the
- 8:09Speaker 1: principle that nobody should be punished for whatever drugs they
- 8:13Speaker 1: put in their body if they don't hurt anybody else,
- 8:14Speaker 1: I think that's the core principle we have to remember.
- 8:17Speaker 1: So that even if you love we love psychology, don't
- 8:19Speaker 1: like all the other sorts of things, it doesn't mean
- 8:21Speaker 1: that other people should get punished simply for using those things, right, absolutely,
- 8:26Speaker 1: And so what are your feeling about other sort of narcotics.
- 8:28Speaker 1: I mean, you're into psychedelics, and so I assume that
- 8:32Speaker 1: encompasses all of all psychedelics. Psilocybin, Well, you know, I
- 8:36Speaker 1: haven't tried all of them yet, right, I mean, you know,
- 8:39Speaker 1: mushrooms have been my kind of go to one for
- 8:41Speaker 1: a very long time. Ayahuasca has been good. I've done
- 8:45Speaker 1: mescaling once or twice. I've tried a few others. I
- 8:47Speaker 1: did to ceb m Dama, not really a psychedelic, but
- 8:50Speaker 1: that one was very nice in my life. Although it
- 8:52Speaker 1: doesn't really work for me anymore. But when it comes
- 8:55Speaker 1: to the opioids, I mean no, I just think they're
- 8:57Speaker 1: useful for pain and that one needs to be very
- 8:59Speaker 1: careful when you're using them. But I do know people
- 9:02Speaker 1: who use psyche, you know, who use opioids and have
- 9:04Speaker 1: led very successful lives even when using them regularly. So
- 9:07Speaker 1: I'm just it's always just very important that we not
- 9:09Speaker 1: demonize other people, even for using drugs that are more dangerous,
- 9:13Speaker 1: and even like cocaine. Like I've never really liked cocaine
- 9:16Speaker 1: that much. Mean for me, like having cocaine it's like
- 9:19Speaker 1: drinking too much coffee and having post nasal drip, right,
- 9:21Speaker 1: So it's never been a thing for me. I have
- 9:24Speaker 1: friends who love cocaine. I've had friends who got in
- 9:27Speaker 1: trouble with cocaine. I've had friends who just play with it.
- 9:29Speaker 1: So I'm not a big fan. I don't think it
- 9:31Speaker 1: brings out the best in people. You know, I wouldn't
- 9:34Speaker 1: want people I really care about getting into cocaine too much.
- 9:37Speaker 1: But it still means I don't like the law of
- 9:39Speaker 1: punishing anybody for using that stuff. So when you said
- 9:42Speaker 1: you used M D M A, but it stopped working
- 9:44Speaker 1: for you. What do you mean by that, because I've
- 9:46Speaker 1: heard that before from people. Well, I'll tell you. I mean,
- 9:50Speaker 1: you know, Chelsea, when I first started using early thirties,
- 9:52Speaker 1: it was in the context of my divorce. I think
- 9:55Speaker 1: it helped us land up on a softer landing. And
- 9:58Speaker 1: I've used it in romantic relationships since in my thirties
- 10:01Speaker 1: and forties, and it was good with friends and I've
- 10:04Speaker 1: been to raise But around I'm now sixty five, around
- 10:07Speaker 1: the time I hit my early fifties, I found that
- 10:09Speaker 1: the upside started waning and the downside started increasing, and
- 10:14Speaker 1: I start having the feeling like my body was telling me,
- 10:16Speaker 1: don't put this in you, And so I really miss it.
- 10:20Speaker 1: I mean it was. It served a valuable purpose for
- 10:23Speaker 1: me in terms, especially in romantic relationships, in terms of
- 10:25Speaker 1: being able to deal with issues and have communications and
- 10:29Speaker 1: otherwise difficult to do. Yeah, that's true. It is helpful
- 10:32Speaker 1: in relationships if you can have conversations, important conversations. Right,
- 10:37Speaker 1: Have you used it in that way? No, I haven't.
- 10:40Speaker 1: I've only used it, and I mean that's a good
- 10:42Speaker 1: idea though I've only used it to like have a
- 10:44Speaker 1: good time, you know. M D. M a that is,
- 10:46Speaker 1: but no, I haven't. I'd recommend it. I mean, it's
- 10:49Speaker 1: just because it gives people the ability both to listen
- 10:53Speaker 1: it more deeply than they normally worried. It dissolves the defenses,
- 10:56Speaker 1: and also to speak in a way that's more and
- 10:59Speaker 1: pathic in a way. And so I think, you know,
- 11:01Speaker 1: when it was first kind of when it's uses were
- 11:03Speaker 1: first kind of rediscovered the seventies, it was known as
- 11:06Speaker 1: the couple's therapy drug, and it was most famous for
- 11:09Speaker 1: that type of use. And now when we see it
- 11:11Speaker 1: emerging for use with respect to PTSD and things like that,
- 11:14Speaker 1: it really has a very valuable role to play. So
- 11:16Speaker 1: I strongly encourage it as long as it work well
- 11:19Speaker 1: for you. I should also say that I think when
- 11:21Speaker 1: it comes to stopping, I know a lot more guys
- 11:24Speaker 1: who says it doesn't work for me anymore. Whereas women
- 11:26Speaker 1: seem to get this is no no research on this,
- 11:30Speaker 1: just impressionistic. Women seem to get more value of it
- 11:33Speaker 1: for a longer time. Interesting, And what about tell me
- 11:36Speaker 1: a little bit about mescaline. I've never had any experience
- 11:38Speaker 1: with mescaline either, I don't think so well, you know,
- 11:41Speaker 1: you can get it in the refined version, which is
- 11:43Speaker 1: the way I did it. That other two ways is
- 11:45Speaker 1: it comes from the peyote cactus, which is the one
- 11:47Speaker 1: that's used in Indigenous ceremonies, Native American church, and now
- 11:51Speaker 1: people are mostly people are being discouraged from using payote
- 11:54Speaker 1: because there's a limited supply and you don't want to
- 11:56Speaker 1: deprive Native American church members and Indigenous peoples of having
- 12:00Speaker 1: access to it. But there's a plant called San Pedro
- 12:02Speaker 1: which is also a source of mescalin. So I would
- 12:05Speaker 1: say that I did at the one time I did it,
- 12:07Speaker 1: I found that a lot like a mushroom experience. It
- 12:10Speaker 1: can be maybe a little bit longer. It was before
- 12:14Speaker 1: the invention of LSD in the forties or just you know,
- 12:17Speaker 1: a creation of LSD in the forties, it was the
- 12:19Speaker 1: most popular of the psychedelics. I just interviewed somebody on
- 12:22Speaker 1: my podcast I Go Active. Mike j wrote a wonderful
- 12:24Speaker 1: history of this whole thing. Michael Pollen, who has written
- 12:27Speaker 1: that wonderful book changed and had to change your mind
- 12:30Speaker 1: about psychedelics. He has a new book where he talks
- 12:33Speaker 1: about his mescaline news. So I would say it's worth trying.
- 12:36Speaker 1: Some people may prefer it to LSD or two mushrooms.
- 12:41Speaker 1: I don't think it's radically different though. Okay, so it's
- 12:44Speaker 1: in that same family. And what about your experience, you said, Iowaska,
- 12:48Speaker 1: have you done that multiple times? You know? I did
- 12:51Speaker 1: it for the first time about twenty years ago. I
- 12:54Speaker 1: had a great experience, and I did it a fe
- 12:55Speaker 1: years later in the context of a religious ceremony something
- 12:59Speaker 1: the Brazilian church called Santo Dime. Although I did it,
- 13:01Speaker 1: you know, loft in New York, but in that modality,
- 13:04Speaker 1: and then since that time, I haven't really done the
- 13:06Speaker 1: full blowing ones. I've been at gatherings with a sort
- 13:10Speaker 1: of guide where they have low dose ayahuasca mixed in
- 13:14Speaker 1: with other things. I've never gone down all South America
- 13:17Speaker 1: to do it in the jungle. I saw you did
- 13:19Speaker 1: that for the TV show you did on Netflix. I
- 13:21Speaker 1: know a lot of people have done it that way,
- 13:23Speaker 1: so it's not been a drug I've gone back to
- 13:26Speaker 1: many times. Although I would definitely do it again. I
- 13:28Speaker 1: would definitely do it again. You know, I'm one of
- 13:31Speaker 1: the few people, like most people throw up when they
- 13:33Speaker 1: do it, you know, and you're supposed to throw up
- 13:34Speaker 1: because it helps to purge, but I didn't throw up.
- 13:37Speaker 1: I didn't throw up either. Oh no, I did throw up.
- 13:40Speaker 1: Sorry I did. Yeah, I thought you were talking about
- 13:43Speaker 1: the other outlet because they say you can sometimes, you know,
- 13:46Speaker 1: go to the backroom to with that. With respect to
- 13:48Speaker 1: that second time I did it, nothing happened during the ceremony,
- 13:50Speaker 1: but in following days that other outlet was quite active.
- 13:53Speaker 1: Oh well, that's good to know. Thank you for filling
- 13:55Speaker 1: me in. Yeah. Sure, do you find age at all
- 13:59Speaker 1: to be a prohibitor? Are in any of these drugs
- 14:01Speaker 1: we're talking about? You don't, I'll tell you. I think,
- 14:04Speaker 1: first of as I say, as I've got an older
- 14:05Speaker 1: m DNA is not really doing it for me. Marijuana
- 14:08Speaker 1: continues to be my friend after all these years. I
- 14:11Speaker 1: think if you don't have issues, like, for example, I
- 14:14Speaker 1: don't have any. You know, I'm very healthy for my age,
- 14:17Speaker 1: so I don't worry about cardiovascular issues. If you feel
- 14:19Speaker 1: vulnerable cardiovastro lee, you have to be careful with taking
- 14:22Speaker 1: a drug that could really, you know, get your heart
- 14:25Speaker 1: going in a serious way. I've never been on antidepressants,
- 14:28Speaker 1: but if you are, you know you can't be an
- 14:30Speaker 1: antidepressants and be doing ayahuasca because as I've got a
- 14:33Speaker 1: toxic combination. Like one thing I've gotten into in recent
- 14:36Speaker 1: years is doing LSD. Not at the macro dose with
- 14:39Speaker 1: the heroic dose, the big dose, and and not so
- 14:42Speaker 1: much at the micro dose, the five or ten micrograms,
- 14:44Speaker 1: but doing what I would call a mini dose of
- 14:47Speaker 1: like twenty or thirty micrograms, which is enough to make
- 14:49Speaker 1: you feel you're under the influence of something, but you're
- 14:52Speaker 1: not really having any visions, You're not way out there.
- 14:55Speaker 1: And I will say that the following day, I just
- 14:58Speaker 1: feel exhausted, and I think that maybe aging. But you know,
- 15:03Speaker 1: there are people who just keep doing it into their
- 15:05Speaker 1: eighties and older. I mean, my view on the psychedelics
- 15:08Speaker 1: has always been there kind of wasted on the young,
- 15:10Speaker 1: and I tend to think about them. I let's give it.
- 15:13Speaker 1: Gave a speech and I said, you know, I think
- 15:14Speaker 1: about doing psychedelics the way I think about ya keep poor.
- 15:17Speaker 1: You know, I'm Jewish, I grew up religious. Right now
- 15:20Speaker 1: I'm not that religious, but you know, once a year, yon'
- 15:23Speaker 1: kee poor fast twenty five hours, no food, no water,
- 15:26Speaker 1: because I think it's a good thing for getting more
- 15:28Speaker 1: in touch with that spiritual side. And I think the
- 15:31Speaker 1: same thing with psychedelics that a lot of times people
- 15:34Speaker 1: you know in their forties, fifties, sixties, seventy say, oh,
- 15:36Speaker 1: I did that when I was young. But my view
- 15:39Speaker 1: is it's a good thing to keep coming back to
- 15:41Speaker 1: at least once a year. It's a it's good for
- 15:44Speaker 1: stirring up the emotional sediment, the psychological sediment that builds
- 15:48Speaker 1: up as we get older. And I think the reason
- 15:50Speaker 1: that people get scared of it when they get older
- 15:53Speaker 1: is because it does mean stirring up that emotional sediment.
- 15:56Speaker 1: It does mean coming to grips with things, compromises you
- 16:00Speaker 1: made in life, things you've had to settle for. But
- 16:02Speaker 1: I actually think it's a healthy thing spiritually, emotionally, and
- 16:07Speaker 1: probably even physically to keep doing it as long as
- 16:09Speaker 1: one feels physically able. Wow, well, that's great. I love
- 16:13Speaker 1: to hear that because I always feel like you, in
- 16:15Speaker 1: a certain point, you have to stop the drugs, and
- 16:17Speaker 1: I think what you're saying is quite the opposite. As
- 16:19Speaker 1: long as you're continually evolving and exploring, there's no reason
- 16:23Speaker 1: to stop unless you know you have some health limitations.
- 16:26Speaker 1: Exactly exactly, And I seem to try to overcome those
- 16:29Speaker 1: fears that happen as we get over. So many of
- 16:31Speaker 1: my friends who used to do it with me back
- 16:32Speaker 1: in the day, now they're worried about it. They're scared
- 16:35Speaker 1: about it. Although the truth being that with all the
- 16:37Speaker 1: same arable media about psychedelics now, with Michael Collin's book
- 16:40Speaker 1: and all the other sorts of things, more and more
- 16:42Speaker 1: people are expressing interest in doing it who either haven't
- 16:45Speaker 1: done it in many decades or never did it. And
- 16:47Speaker 1: I think that's an encouraging sign, you know. I mean,
- 16:51Speaker 1: even with marijuana, if you think about it. I remember
- 16:54Speaker 1: when we started legalizing marijuana, first for medical and then
- 16:56Speaker 1: more broadly in the various states with all the ballot initiatives,
- 17:00Speaker 1: and people would say, you just you watch, adolescent use
- 17:02Speaker 1: is gonna skyrocket. And my response to them would be,
- 17:06Speaker 1: I don't think so, because teenagers already have easy availability
- 17:10Speaker 1: in marijuana and we're not legalizing it for them, So
- 17:13Speaker 1: why is it going to go up so much? And
- 17:15Speaker 1: I said, the real increase in use is going to
- 17:17Speaker 1: be among people in their fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties, and nineties.
- 17:20Speaker 1: And I'll tell you, you know, five ten years since
- 17:23Speaker 1: we started legalizing marijuana or in states around the country,
- 17:26Speaker 1: there's been virtually no jump in adolescent marijuana use, which
- 17:29Speaker 1: would be something you'd worry about. But meanwhile, among people,
- 17:33Speaker 1: like you know, people in their sixties seventies, there's like
- 17:35Speaker 1: a quadrupling of us because people are finding it valuable.
- 17:38Speaker 1: They're finding it, you know, that they find they prefer
- 17:41Speaker 1: to alcohol, They find it helps with sleep, or aches
- 17:43Speaker 1: and pains, or or maybe it helps to spice up
- 17:46Speaker 1: a sexual relationship with a person you've been married to
- 17:49Speaker 1: for decades, right, I mean, it's got all these sorts
- 17:51Speaker 1: of benefits. And so I think the benefits of psychoactive drugs,
- 17:55Speaker 1: and especially one it's like cannabis and psychedelics, I think
- 17:58Speaker 1: they're underestimated in terms of being positively connected with healthy aging.
- 18:02Speaker 1: Do you think that the dosage is important as you aged?
- 18:05Speaker 1: I mean, because the micro dosing is really what everybody's
- 18:08Speaker 1: on about now and guided journeys with whatever drug of choice,
- 18:12Speaker 1: whether it's a micro dose of LSD or psilocybin or ketamine.
- 18:16Speaker 1: Do you think that that has an impact. Well, it's
- 18:19Speaker 1: so hard to know. I mean with micro doc thing,
- 18:22Speaker 1: some people have claimed it's little more than a placebo,
- 18:26Speaker 1: and other people have claimed released significant benefit from MIKE
- 18:30Speaker 1: and micro doocing usually means taken between a tenth to
- 18:32Speaker 1: the twentie of the dose that would normally result in
- 18:35Speaker 1: a psychedelic trip. And so I would say the microdocing
- 18:40Speaker 1: thing is worth trying. It does not appear to be
- 18:42Speaker 1: much risk associated with it, although there's not long term
- 18:46Speaker 1: studies on it, and that can evolve doing it with LSD,
- 18:49Speaker 1: with mushrooms, it can even be done with ayahuasco or
- 18:51Speaker 1: even what I've even heard about microdocing Iba game, which
- 18:54Speaker 1: is a very powerful psychedelic out of West Africa from
- 18:57Speaker 1: the aboga plant that you know, people have found great
- 19:00Speaker 1: resulting during addiction. But I'm a little scared to try
- 19:03Speaker 1: with marijuana. Some people find that as they get older
- 19:06Speaker 1: that the brain changes in a way and so that
- 19:09Speaker 1: you need less to get high. So I think it's
- 19:12Speaker 1: a matter of just being attentive to what works and
- 19:16Speaker 1: and look hoo for people use it differently. I know people,
- 19:19Speaker 1: I know people, billionaires, enormously successful people. Every night, you know,
- 19:24Speaker 1: they'll take a couple of puffs off a joint, watch
- 19:27Speaker 1: late night TV and go to sleep. And they've been
- 19:29Speaker 1: doing that for decades. I know brilliant academics and intellectuals
- 19:33Speaker 1: who've been using marijuana, including for creative purposes. In my case,
- 19:38Speaker 1: I don't do marijuana daily, you know. I smoke it
- 19:41Speaker 1: periodically with friends or my partner or something like that.
- 19:45Speaker 1: And and then edible I'm getting into. Edible is more frequently.
- 19:48Speaker 1: In fact, for me, part of my healthy aging process
- 19:52Speaker 1: is once a week when I'm in New York, I
- 19:54Speaker 1: take ten dollograms of edible THHC, usually in a nice
- 19:58Speaker 1: chocolate bar, grab my headphones, and I go down and
- 20:01Speaker 1: get a multi hour massage, and I'm just floating and
- 20:05Speaker 1: Mari Wanta helps me get into my body. So I
- 20:08Speaker 1: think it's actually, when you're using any psychoactive drugs, the
- 20:11Speaker 1: key thing is to be using it consciously, not to
- 20:14Speaker 1: be using it unconsciously, and not to just be using
- 20:17Speaker 1: it habitually, and not to be using it just in
- 20:19Speaker 1: his escapest way is to use it consciously, to say,
- 20:23Speaker 1: this is a moment or a thing I'm doing where
- 20:25Speaker 1: I think, actually using this substance when hands what I'm
- 20:29Speaker 1: intending to do or wanting to do right now. The
- 20:32Speaker 1: circling back real quick to your m d m A
- 20:34Speaker 1: experience with your ex wife, you said that that helps
- 20:37Speaker 1: with issues in your marriage to have conversations while taking that.
- 20:41Speaker 1: I have heard that before, but not really the way
- 20:44Speaker 1: that you said it, because the dosage would have an
- 20:47Speaker 1: impact on your being able to actually have a conversation
- 20:50Speaker 1: like that in a serious nature, right, rather than just
- 20:52Speaker 1: not not really chose because you know, with m d
- 20:55Speaker 1: m A is pretty standard that people will do between
- 20:58Speaker 1: a hundred and a hundred fifty grants, and so when
- 21:01Speaker 1: you're doing m d m A, you know, nobody's hallucinating.
- 21:04Speaker 1: It's not a psychedelic experience. They call the drug used
- 21:07Speaker 1: to be called it in pathoging because it helps to
- 21:09Speaker 1: open up your heart. In fact, at some point the
- 21:11Speaker 1: nickname was originally gonna be like something like empathy. But
- 21:14Speaker 1: people realize, you know, who wants to market a druggle empathy.
- 21:17Speaker 1: There's not a big market for empathy. Let's call it ecstasy,
- 21:20Speaker 1: and so ecstasy became the nickname for m d m A.
- 21:22Speaker 1: But I think the key thing is that when the
- 21:24Speaker 1: drug comes on and it's two people and you're in
- 21:27Speaker 1: a relationship, the ability to process stuff, to process things
- 21:32Speaker 1: that have been bugging one or the other to talk
- 21:35Speaker 1: about them in a respectful way, an empathic way. It
- 21:39Speaker 1: basically causes defenses to melt in a way. And I
- 21:42Speaker 1: think that's it's great with with with my ex wife.
- 21:45Speaker 1: You know, we were in a very difficult spot, but
- 21:47Speaker 1: we did it together and we're able to talk and
- 21:49Speaker 1: we actually thought for a while, as did our marriage counselor,
- 21:52Speaker 1: that oh my god, our marriage is gonna be saved here.
- 21:54Speaker 1: And in the end, you know, it wasn't enough. But
- 21:56Speaker 1: I do think we landed up with a safer landing
- 21:59Speaker 1: and became and wonderful co parents and friends thereafter, and
- 22:03Speaker 1: subsequent relationships, you know, it was. It's always been valuable
- 22:06Speaker 1: in terms of dealing with the stuff that builds begins
- 22:09Speaker 1: to build up in a relationship, that that needs to
- 22:12Speaker 1: get processed, that needs to get talked about. So I
- 22:15Speaker 1: think just being there quiet place, have that conversation, and
- 22:20Speaker 1: while you're in the conversation, remembering that it's not the
- 22:24Speaker 1: kind of drug you can keep using over and over
- 22:26Speaker 1: and over and over over again. If the idea is
- 22:28Speaker 1: to as you're doing it and as you're having this heartfelt,
- 22:32Speaker 1: honest understanding and pathet conversation to be thinking about ways
- 22:36Speaker 1: in which you can get back to that spot the
- 22:38Speaker 1: next day and the next week and the next month
- 22:41Speaker 1: without having to use the drug repeatedly. Right, it's good
- 22:46Speaker 1: to come back and use it occasionally. I'm talking about
- 22:49Speaker 1: using it three, four or five times a year, not
- 22:51Speaker 1: using it weekly and never mind daily or something like that.
- 22:54Speaker 1: And it kind of depletes you right of your serotonin.
- 22:58Speaker 1: If you think about you know, prozac, they both act
- 23:01Speaker 1: on the serotonin level. That essentially, prozac is a mattress
- 23:05Speaker 1: and M D m A is a trampoline, And so
- 23:08Speaker 1: oftentimes the next day people can feel a bit depleted,
- 23:11Speaker 1: although I'll tell you the first time I did it,
- 23:12Speaker 1: I felt great the next day. Yeah. I always feel
- 23:14Speaker 1: it the next day in my system in a good way,
- 23:17Speaker 1: not a bad way, in a good way. Yeah. So
- 23:19Speaker 1: that's that's great. That's great. I think if I have
- 23:21Speaker 1: found this is just once again anecdotal, when I would
- 23:24Speaker 1: do with friends and the next day we all jump
- 23:26Speaker 1: on the plane's to go back home, I noticed that
- 23:28Speaker 1: a surprising number as we get a cold and we
- 23:31Speaker 1: get thick in the following days. So I think it's
- 23:34Speaker 1: it's good to understand that your system just to maybe
- 23:37Speaker 1: somewhat compromised the following day and just take it easy.
- 23:41Speaker 1: And like oft time telling that people don't do it
- 23:43Speaker 1: on a Sunday, do it on a Saturday. Make sure
- 23:45Speaker 1: you have a day to take off between the day
- 23:48Speaker 1: you take it and the day you're back and work,
- 23:50Speaker 1: because what I find is that it melts your defenses,
- 23:53Speaker 1: and the defenses don't just jump right back up to
- 23:56Speaker 1: so to throw yourself right back into work the next
- 23:58Speaker 1: day when your defense is they're still kind of down,
- 24:01Speaker 1: you know, and ships flying at you in the work environment,
- 24:04Speaker 1: you're not quite ready to deal with it. You need
- 24:06Speaker 1: that recovery time that at least a day of recovery
- 24:10Speaker 1: time after you do it. Yeah, and also it's good
- 24:12Speaker 1: to take BE twelve before doing it and after doing
- 24:15Speaker 1: it to help with that kind of they call it
- 24:17Speaker 1: like suicide Tuesday. It's not suicide, right, suicide I don't know.
- 24:22Speaker 1: It's usually two days after you take it that some
- 24:24Speaker 1: people can have like a depressive episode. Right. This doesn't
- 24:27Speaker 1: happen to everybody, but people can. It can happen. So
- 24:30Speaker 1: it's always good to take B twelve. Okay, Well, Ethan,
- 24:33Speaker 1: we're excited you're here today. We have a show where
- 24:35Speaker 1: we have people call in for advice. So you're going
- 24:38Speaker 1: to be our guest and Katherine's going to give us
- 24:40Speaker 1: the low down. But first we're going to take a break,
- 24:42Speaker 1: right Catherine. Yeah, We're gonna take a quick break for
- 24:45Speaker 1: an ad and we'll be right back with some colors. Okay,
- 24:53Speaker 1: and we're back. Fantastic. Well, we have really just all
- 24:58Speaker 1: drug questions today. What a nice what a nice episode
- 25:02Speaker 1: this is going to be. It feels so warm and fuzzy. Yes,
- 25:06Speaker 1: I mean, I do have to I do have to
- 25:08Speaker 1: preface this with I am a baby drug user. I
- 25:12Speaker 1: have not really tried a whole lot of things. Haven't
- 25:15Speaker 1: tried mushrooms, that sort of thing. Have minimally tried marijuana.
- 25:17Speaker 1: Just wait till you come to my orca, Katherine. Don't worry,
- 25:20Speaker 1: just wait. You have so much to look forward. And
- 25:24Speaker 1: with N d n A, I'm oftentimes most envious. I
- 25:27Speaker 1: call them the N d n A virgins because if
- 25:29Speaker 1: you've never done it before, the first time is often
- 25:31Speaker 1: times the best ever. So I'm kind of excited. I
- 25:35Speaker 1: do have to say I won the second place prize
- 25:38Speaker 1: in the Dare Essay writing competition in fifth grade, but
- 25:42Speaker 1: second place was better than first place because she got
- 25:44Speaker 1: like a tour of the police department and I got
- 25:46Speaker 1: a pizza party. So yeah, seriously, hello, prizes are in
- 25:51Speaker 1: the wrong order for that contest, exactly exactly. So our
- 25:55Speaker 1: first question comes from Jamie. She says, Chelsea, you were
- 25:59Speaker 1: talking think about CBD today when I was listening to
- 26:02Speaker 1: Glennon's episode. I've tried many CBD products and I don't
- 26:05Speaker 1: ever feel any effect. Can you recommend a specific amount
- 26:09Speaker 1: or brand so I can feel the effects. I try
- 26:11Speaker 1: to pop Brownie ones and it threw me into a
- 26:13Speaker 1: terrible panic attack. I don't want to feel bad again.
- 26:16Speaker 1: I just want to feel calm and sleep. Thanks Jamie, Well, CBD,
- 26:21Speaker 1: if you're not feeling anything, I would say not to
- 26:23Speaker 1: be opposed to adding a little th HC ratio to it.
- 26:27Speaker 1: I mean, if you're taking c I don't really feel
- 26:29Speaker 1: CBD when I take that by itself either. I'd usually
- 26:32Speaker 1: take that for when I'm skiing for pain management for
- 26:35Speaker 1: my knee, but I would say to throw in a
- 26:37Speaker 1: little th HC, like you don't you know? It could
- 26:39Speaker 1: be like two point five milligrams of t HC against
- 26:43Speaker 1: a higher percentage or higher ratio of cb D for
- 26:46Speaker 1: a little bit more of a buzz to help you
- 26:49Speaker 1: so you can actually feel it without overdoing it. Ethan,
- 26:52Speaker 1: what are your thoughts on this matter? Yeah, I really
- 26:55Speaker 1: don't know. I mean, I do do CBD. All the
- 26:57Speaker 1: stuff about the rub bombs and this and that, and
- 26:59Speaker 1: it drops. There's not a lot of evidence out there
- 27:02Speaker 1: about how using it in that form is actually helpful,
- 27:05Speaker 1: and it's usually not psychoactive. There are studies that show
- 27:08Speaker 1: that CBD has been helpful in some very serious medical conditions,
- 27:12Speaker 1: but a lot of it's been hype. It's hard to say. Now.
- 27:14Speaker 1: There is a website out there called Project CBD, a
- 27:17Speaker 1: guy named Martin Lee, who I think is one of
- 27:19Speaker 1: the most honorable you know. I don't think he's taken
- 27:22Speaker 1: money from anyone company to promote one or the other.
- 27:24Speaker 1: So I keep your eye on that Project CBD website
- 27:27Speaker 1: and they may provide some guidance about what are the
- 27:29Speaker 1: more reliable or less reliable both brands and ways of
- 27:33Speaker 1: taking it or not taking it. The idea that Chelsea
- 27:36Speaker 1: said about combining it with THHD and small amounts, I mean,
- 27:39Speaker 1: you know, the plant produces the marijuana plant produces both
- 27:42Speaker 1: th HC and CBD, and so that's why you see
- 27:44Speaker 1: a lot of the edibles. Sometimes we'll have a th
- 27:47Speaker 1: HC CBD combination. I think it's generally a good idea
- 27:50Speaker 1: to use th HC with some CBD. Sometimes people have
- 27:54Speaker 1: issues of marijuana and anxiety may find that if you're
- 27:57Speaker 1: using th HC with no CBD in it, and may
- 28:00Speaker 1: exacerbate the anxiety because CBD is supposed to be an
- 28:03Speaker 1: anti anxiety drug. So I'd say, no fantastic information out there,
- 28:08Speaker 1: but you can dig around and try to use the
- 28:10Speaker 1: drugs in combination. And what's the name of that website again,
- 28:14Speaker 1: I think it's called Project CBD or just google Martin
- 28:16Speaker 1: Lee CBD, which is what I just did. Yeah, you know,
- 28:19Speaker 1: I like the idea of combining it. There was a
- 28:21Speaker 1: time when I was using a lot of CBD. I
- 28:23Speaker 1: also didn't really feel anything. But Brad, my husband, and
- 28:27Speaker 1: I went to the beach and I had been using
- 28:30Speaker 1: like a CBD vape pretty heavily that day, and we
- 28:33Speaker 1: decided like, okay, we're gonna like take a couple of
- 28:35Speaker 1: hits of this very strong joint that we got as
- 28:38Speaker 1: a as a wedding favor at my brother Ethan's wedding
- 28:41Speaker 1: and we both took one hit and we're just I mean,
- 28:44Speaker 1: it was beyond It was way too much. It was
- 28:47Speaker 1: super super strong. And usually when I have too much marijuana,
- 28:51Speaker 1: I get very like unhappy, panicky. It activates all that
- 28:55Speaker 1: stuff for me. But since i'd had so much CBD,
- 28:59Speaker 1: I was very calm, even though I was like, I'm
- 29:01Speaker 1: way more stone than I want to meet. But it
- 29:03Speaker 1: really helps from that perspective of like, just gave me
- 29:05Speaker 1: a chill time. Hm, that makes sense. You know a
- 29:08Speaker 1: lot of times a lot of people have issues with
- 29:10Speaker 1: anxiety and marijuana. I think a lot of them I
- 29:13Speaker 1: find that the first time they did marijuana, they did
- 29:15Speaker 1: it in a social environment, oftentimes with people they were
- 29:18Speaker 1: not necessarily that comfortable with. And so I think the
- 29:21Speaker 1: best way to deal with that is when you're using marijuana,
- 29:24Speaker 1: either to overcome that fear of anxiety or using it
- 29:26Speaker 1: for the first time, try to do in a place
- 29:28Speaker 1: where you're either if either by yourself or with your
- 29:31Speaker 1: lover or close friends, where you're really comfortable, where there's
- 29:35Speaker 1: nobody you have to be on with nobody you have
- 29:38Speaker 1: issues with and if possible, do it not in like
- 29:41Speaker 1: the same place, like the TV room or whatever, but
- 29:43Speaker 1: trying to find a nice place outside, you know, whether
- 29:46Speaker 1: it's the woods or a lake or something that's not
- 29:48Speaker 1: your normal you know, sitting environment. Just alter it a bit. Well.
- 29:53Speaker 1: Our next question comes from Michelle. Michelle says, Dear Chelsea,
- 29:57Speaker 1: I'm going on a camping trip this month with my
- 29:59Speaker 1: husband and two other couples. We all plan on doing
- 30:02Speaker 1: mushrooms together. The other couples do this yearly and are
- 30:05Speaker 1: inviting us for the first time. I don't have much
- 30:08Speaker 1: experience with drugs. I smoked weed a bit in my
- 30:10Speaker 1: early twenties, and I've done coke once. I'm a little
- 30:13Speaker 1: nervous of the possibility of a quote bad trip. I
- 30:17Speaker 1: feel extremely safe with my friends, and I know they'll
- 30:19Speaker 1: guide me through the experience. I'm mostly nervous about my husband.
- 30:23Speaker 1: He's very experienced with drugs, although he has never done mushrooms.
- 30:27Speaker 1: But my main worry is his reaction if I do
- 30:29Speaker 1: have a bad trip. He would prefer me not to partake,
- 30:33Speaker 1: and I'm scared that my fear of his reaction could
- 30:35Speaker 1: make me have a negative experience. What's your advice to
- 30:38Speaker 1: have an enjoyable experience for my first time Michelle. Hi, Michelle,
- 30:42Speaker 1: I think first off, you have to stop telling yourself
- 30:44Speaker 1: you're not going to have a good experience, because that's
- 30:47Speaker 1: like a self fulfilling prophecy. You have to go into
- 30:49Speaker 1: drugs always like you're using the drug. The drug is
- 30:52Speaker 1: not using you. That's how I feel about any time
- 30:54Speaker 1: I take drugs. Anytime I'm not in control of the
- 30:57Speaker 1: situation is when I'm not in control of the situation.
- 31:00Speaker 1: So I would just say to do you know, if
- 31:01Speaker 1: you're worried about your experience, just do half of what
- 31:04Speaker 1: everybody's doing, and you're gonna have a good time. Mushrooms
- 31:06Speaker 1: make you laugh, they make you relax. They you will
- 31:10Speaker 1: be probably laughing the hardest you've ever laughed in your life.
- 31:12Speaker 1: That's usually what happens to people the first time they
- 31:14Speaker 1: do mushrooms. Ethan, what has you've been your experience with
- 31:17Speaker 1: people who have bad trips on mushrooms. I mean, so,
- 31:20Speaker 1: I think your advice to Michelle is right on the
- 31:22Speaker 1: Other thing I would tend to say is that Michelle
- 31:26Speaker 1: and her husband should have a conversation beforehand and maybe
- 31:29Speaker 1: with their friends there just think. Listen. I want you
- 31:33Speaker 1: to know, dear husband, that if I need some help
- 31:36Speaker 1: during this, I'm not expecting you to be there. Please
- 31:40Speaker 1: don't worry about me, and have one of the friends
- 31:42Speaker 1: saying we're in charge here. Say to the husband, you
- 31:45Speaker 1: can relax if you're having your own good trip, bad trip.
- 31:48Speaker 1: Don't feel an obligation. You want to be together, be together,
- 31:52Speaker 1: but don't get into a mode of needing this for
- 31:54Speaker 1: one of the other. And we the friends are here
- 31:57Speaker 1: to help in that and thereby take the pressure. So,
- 32:00Speaker 1: for example, it does You're right, it's highly unlikely to
- 32:02Speaker 1: go in the wrong direction. But if it does, that
- 32:04Speaker 1: the husband's not gonna feel guilty for not being president.
- 32:07Speaker 1: Is having the friends there the host, they're saying, we
- 32:10Speaker 1: got this. You relax. When she's a little better, you
- 32:14Speaker 1: guys can be together. Something along those lines. Yeah. And
- 32:17Speaker 1: just for the record, I know this is I mean,
- 32:19Speaker 1: I don't speak for the entire universe, even though i'd
- 32:21Speaker 1: like to. I would like to say that I've never
- 32:24Speaker 1: been around anybody who had a bad trip on mushrooms.
- 32:26Speaker 1: And I do them all the time. I've done them
- 32:29Speaker 1: dozens of times. I did have two trips that I
- 32:32Speaker 1: would regard as that we went into a very dark place,
- 32:37Speaker 1: um where I just began to feel enormously depressed. And
- 32:41Speaker 1: I used two different approaches to deal with it the
- 32:43Speaker 1: first time, and it felt a little bit light cheating
- 32:46Speaker 1: was that when into when it went into a very
- 32:48Speaker 1: dark place, I had some M D M A around,
- 32:51Speaker 1: you know, ecstasy, and I just took a little M
- 32:54Speaker 1: D M A and that just lifted it up into
- 32:57Speaker 1: a beautiful place. Again. It's one reason why sometimes people
- 32:59Speaker 1: can buy and mushrooms in M D M A, because
- 33:01Speaker 1: it both enhances the possibility will go into a beautiful
- 33:04Speaker 1: spot and it minimizes the chance of going into a
- 33:07Speaker 1: dark spot. Now the other way to do it and
- 33:09Speaker 1: the real possibility that it goes into a dark place.
- 33:12Speaker 1: And this I remember I was doing it with my partner.
- 33:14Speaker 1: We'ant a beat and it went into a very dark place.
- 33:18Speaker 1: Everything felt black and dark and crumbling and dying and
- 33:22Speaker 1: all this sort of stuff. And you can't The thing is,
- 33:24Speaker 1: you cannot run away from a bad trip. You can't
- 33:27Speaker 1: run away from it. And so what I did was
- 33:30Speaker 1: I almost envisioned that darkness of the bad trip is
- 33:33Speaker 1: like a huge wave and you know, when you swing
- 33:35Speaker 1: in the ocean and then you see also a big
- 33:37Speaker 1: wave coming, you can't run from it, because then you'll
- 33:39Speaker 1: get you know, crash on you, you'll tumbling, you might
- 33:41Speaker 1: hurt yourself. The only choice when a big wave is
- 33:44Speaker 1: coming is to dive into it, dive underneath it, dive
- 33:47Speaker 1: through it. And so I practically, like musically, almost dived
- 33:50Speaker 1: into the sand. But like you know, I mean, you know,
- 33:53Speaker 1: literally in a way or you know, a metaphorically, the
- 33:56Speaker 1: way was into the way of the darkness, and I
- 33:59Speaker 1: kind of came out of it. I came out of it,
- 34:02Speaker 1: and all of the things just lifted and it became
- 34:05Speaker 1: this magnificent trip for the rest of it. So I
- 34:08Speaker 1: would say, you're right to tell her, don't worry about
- 34:11Speaker 1: the bad one. It's highly unlikely. You have friends around
- 34:13Speaker 1: who can take care of you. Don't worry about your
- 34:16Speaker 1: husband's reaction. If it does go in a dark place,
- 34:19Speaker 1: there are ways to deal with it. And whatever case,
- 34:21Speaker 1: even if it is dark, you're gonna get better in
- 34:24Speaker 1: a few hours and you'll be fine the next day.
- 34:26Speaker 1: And many times people say they find that even going
- 34:29Speaker 1: into a dark place on mushrooms are ayahuasca they may
- 34:32Speaker 1: go through a terrifying place, especially with ayahuasca, and then
- 34:35Speaker 1: the next day they said, my god, that was the
- 34:37Speaker 1: most magnificent experience in my life because of how much
- 34:39Speaker 1: I've learned, how much I've benefited. Yeah, so I would
- 34:42Speaker 1: just say to lower the dosage compared to what your
- 34:45Speaker 1: friends are taking, you know, just for you in beginning,
- 34:48Speaker 1: Just take half so that you're not going to be,
- 34:51Speaker 1: you know, out of control, and then if you like it,
- 34:53Speaker 1: you can take more. Yes. Great, Well, we have our
- 35:00Speaker 1: first caller of the day today. This is Annie. Annie says,
- 35:05Speaker 1: dear Chelsea. I was diagnosed with complex PTSD about fifteen
- 35:09Speaker 1: years ago, but I've struggled with it for over twenty years.
- 35:13Speaker 1: I've tried many different forms of therapies, medications, and THHC,
- 35:16Speaker 1: which have helped some but never completely. My symptoms have
- 35:20Speaker 1: become much worse during the last few years, with running
- 35:22Speaker 1: from fires in California, COVID, and just the general ship
- 35:26Speaker 1: show that is our world. I'm now struggling to leave
- 35:29Speaker 1: the house, and I've been isolating myself to an extreme.
- 35:32Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure I'm bordering on agoraphobia. Even my work
- 35:36Speaker 1: zooms have become a source of anxiety. I'm planning to
- 35:39Speaker 1: email my doctor to talk to him about some beta
- 35:41Speaker 1: blockers to help with the short term issues. I heard
- 35:44Speaker 1: you talk about this on your show the other day,
- 35:46Speaker 1: and I have never tried them before. My question to
- 35:48Speaker 1: you is, I'm considering some alternative treatments, including micro dosing, psilocybin,
- 35:53Speaker 1: m D m A, or therapeutic ketamine. I've read that
- 35:56Speaker 1: in some instances they are curing PTSD with these treatments,
- 36:00Speaker 1: which I had been told would never be possible. I'd
- 36:03Speaker 1: rather try psilocybin, but that seems less legal at the
- 36:06Speaker 1: moment and harder to come by. I feel lost in
- 36:08Speaker 1: trying to figure out who to talk to about this.
- 36:11Speaker 1: My doctor is pretty judgmental, and I would never bring
- 36:13Speaker 1: this up to him. Do you have any advice on
- 36:15Speaker 1: resources to learn more about these types of treatments. I've
- 36:18Speaker 1: obviously googled it, but I'm not sure who to trust.
- 36:21Speaker 1: I can't be the only one whose symptoms have become
- 36:23Speaker 1: much worse during this COVID apocalypse time. Thank you both
- 36:27Speaker 1: for doing what you do. Your show has been a
- 36:29Speaker 1: great source of comfort and much needed laughter. Annie. Hi, Annie, Hi,
- 36:33Speaker 1: Annie h that's Ethan he's our guest today. I'm so
- 36:38Speaker 1: sorry that you're dealing with this. Annie. Oh thank you,
- 36:42Speaker 1: But just know that this is temporary. You're not going
- 36:44Speaker 1: to feel like this forever, and you're not alone. So
- 36:46Speaker 1: many people feel like this after COVID and have anxiety,
- 36:50Speaker 1: and you know there are ways to fix it. But Ethan,
- 36:52Speaker 1: do you want to start with some resources, because you're
- 36:55Speaker 1: probably the man for that. Just a few things. I mean,
- 36:58Speaker 1: first of all, I think when it comes to microdo
- 37:00Speaker 1: is saying with mushrooms or something like that, if you
- 37:02Speaker 1: can get a hold of them, even just you know,
- 37:04Speaker 1: not even pure philocide mushrooms, there's relatively little risk with
- 37:08Speaker 1: doing that at a very very low level. I mean,
- 37:10Speaker 1: maybe it helps, maybe not, if there's not much evidence
- 37:13Speaker 1: on it. I think the place I'd start is with ketamine,
- 37:16Speaker 1: because ketamine is legal, and I think the first place
- 37:19Speaker 1: I probably the godfather of ketamine assisted psychotherapy as a
- 37:23Speaker 1: fellow named Phil Wilson up in Marin County in California,
- 37:26Speaker 1: and he's got a whole bunch of websites, So just
- 37:29Speaker 1: Google and Phil Wilson and kennamine. One of his top
- 37:31Speaker 1: proteges is a doctor in the New York area. Gita
- 37:34Speaker 1: bade I actually interviewed her on my podcast Psychoactive not
- 37:37Speaker 1: long ago, and she speaks about the art of doing
- 37:40Speaker 1: psychotherapy assisted by ketamine, and because that's legal, it's going
- 37:44Speaker 1: to be easier to access the challenges to find the
- 37:47Speaker 1: best therapists, and I think starting up with Phil Wilson
- 37:50Speaker 1: is a way to go. Now, m d m A
- 37:52Speaker 1: is probably going to get approved by the Food and
- 37:55Speaker 1: Drug Administration the FDA sometime later this year next year
- 37:58Speaker 1: for treatment of Pete s D. So there are already
- 38:02Speaker 1: research programs they're emitting patients. So if you just google PTSD,
- 38:06Speaker 1: m d m A Psychedelic Therapists something like that, you'll
- 38:09Speaker 1: probably see people popping up. The organization maps, which is
- 38:13Speaker 1: the Multi Disapline Associated Psychologic Studies, has been the one
- 38:16Speaker 1: driving this process for with the FDA, and they're training
- 38:18Speaker 1: people all around the country to be therapists. So that's
- 38:21Speaker 1: probably the other place I would look. And once you
- 38:24Speaker 1: start nosing around, then people will start to recommend to
- 38:28Speaker 1: you therapists who are using m d m A assisted psychotherapy,
- 38:32Speaker 1: not fully legally yet, but where it's becoming more and
- 38:36Speaker 1: more common. Okay, thank you, do you know have you
- 38:40Speaker 1: heard of maps, Annie, I have heard of MAPS. I've
- 38:42Speaker 1: done some reading about it. I just yeah, it doesn't
- 38:46Speaker 1: seem like it was widely available yet. So well, they
- 38:50Speaker 1: basically have research programs now, so sometimes if you can
- 38:53Speaker 1: still get into one of those. But once you start
- 38:55Speaker 1: calling around, people will let you know about psychotherapists who
- 38:59Speaker 1: are provide being this sort of help, either using psilocybin
- 39:02Speaker 1: or m D M A, but starting off with ketamine
- 39:05Speaker 1: simply because it's legal. Just finding the right therapist I
- 39:07Speaker 1: think really is the way to go. Okay, perfect, thank you.
- 39:11Speaker 1: And what state are you in, Annie, I'm in California.
- 39:14Speaker 1: Oh okay, Well that's easy to find in California guided
- 39:17Speaker 1: kenemine trips. I have a few friends that are doing that.
- 39:20Speaker 1: Oh okay, I didn't know that that was really a
- 39:23Speaker 1: thing here. I've seen it like in southern California, but
- 39:27Speaker 1: I'm in northern California. Phill Wilson is right up in
- 39:30Speaker 1: Marin and he's the godfather of kenemine. So definitely check
- 39:32Speaker 1: out his website and see what you can find out there. Okay, great,
- 39:36Speaker 1: thank you, Yeah, and you know, try and in the meantime,
- 39:39Speaker 1: Beta blockers. If you get those prescription, that's a short
- 39:42Speaker 1: term solution, but it also does kind of the neuropathways.
- 39:45Speaker 1: It changes those. In my experience, I've taken beta blockers
- 39:48Speaker 1: and you don't have to take them all the time.
- 39:50Speaker 1: You take them and it kind of sets up a
- 39:51Speaker 1: new pattern of thoughts so that you don't get that
- 39:53Speaker 1: nervous energy. I do look at it as a short
- 39:55Speaker 1: term solution. I think that the ketamine and everything else
- 39:58Speaker 1: is a deeper, more spiritual solut san to you know,
- 40:00Speaker 1: the anxiety and the discomfort you're feeling. Yeah, there's also
- 40:04Speaker 1: a brilliant doctor writer think her name Julie Holland, who
- 40:07Speaker 1: talks a lot about this stuff. So just google Julie
- 40:10Speaker 1: Holland and I think you'll come across some interesting information
- 40:13Speaker 1: as well. Thank you. Okay, Annie, take care. Let let
- 40:16Speaker 1: us know how it go. Yeah, let us know how
- 40:18Speaker 1: it goes. Okay, Well, thank you so much. Sure, all right, Well,
- 40:23Speaker 1: our next question comes from Katie. Katie asks, dear Chelsea
- 40:28Speaker 1: on the show, I heard you talking about micro dosing
- 40:31Speaker 1: chocolate mushrooms. I'm an elementary school special ed teacher, and
- 40:34Speaker 1: my weed and zan X intake increased substantially over the pandemic.
- 40:39Speaker 1: I talked to her a little bit about it, and
- 40:40Speaker 1: her zanex increase was really linked to a really high
- 40:43Speaker 1: stress job that she had. I'm looking to take a
- 40:46Speaker 1: break from the weed, but I know I'll be very unpleasant.
- 40:49Speaker 1: I'm curious about the chocolate fung guy and where it
- 40:51Speaker 1: can find them safely. Thanks Katie, and she's actually here
- 40:55Speaker 1: with us on the phone as well. Hi Katie, Hi there. Yeah,
- 41:00Speaker 1: I think mushrooms are a great pivot for you. Are
- 41:03Speaker 1: mushrooms legal? What? What states legally sell mushrooms? Ethan? No,
- 41:07Speaker 1: there's no place where its legal, although if you figure
- 41:10Speaker 1: out a way to grow it, there's all these sort
- 41:12Speaker 1: of guys to growing you at home, and so large
- 41:14Speaker 1: numbers of people are doing that now. I'll also tell
- 41:16Speaker 1: you I don't know where you are, but like here
- 41:18Speaker 1: in New York City where they have all these marijuanna
- 41:20Speaker 1: delivery services that are still illegal, but nobody's going after
- 41:23Speaker 1: them anymore. More and more of them are selling chocolate mushrooms.
- 41:27Speaker 1: I mean, I've now seen these menus which used to
- 41:29Speaker 1: just be different types of marijuana edible and smokable, and
- 41:32Speaker 1: now they're including you know, mushrooms in little powders and
- 41:35Speaker 1: mushrooms and chocolate. So you know, if you if you know,
- 41:38Speaker 1: where do you live. I live in New England and
- 41:42Speaker 1: I use a delivery one of those you know, same
- 41:45Speaker 1: type of things, so I'll have to check that out.
- 41:47Speaker 1: I haven't even bothered to look at their edibles. M hmm. Yeah.
- 41:51Speaker 1: Just ask your delivery service if they happen to vide
- 41:53Speaker 1: mushrooms and if they don't, if they know somebody who does.
- 41:55Speaker 1: Because I'm amazed and how much this it is taken
- 41:58Speaker 1: off in the marijuana delivery world, that you're carrying these
- 42:00Speaker 1: things as well. Yeah, that's been my biggest issue is
- 42:04Speaker 1: being you know, old enough to know that online is
- 42:07Speaker 1: not where it's at to be trusted necessarily, and then
- 42:11Speaker 1: not being young enough to really know anybody that's still
- 42:15Speaker 1: growing or got stuff like that around, And so I
- 42:18Speaker 1: was kind of stuck. And my doctor was more concerned
- 42:22Speaker 1: with the xan x used leading to Alzheimer's more than
- 42:27Speaker 1: anything else, which kind of scared me. And then that
- 42:30Speaker 1: was kind of like, Okay, I really like to back
- 42:32Speaker 1: off of that and not need it so much. So
- 42:35Speaker 1: if I had a different option other than the weed
- 42:38Speaker 1: that would be great because at this point I just
- 42:40Speaker 1: smoke all the time. What about with weed? I mean,
- 42:42Speaker 1: because the Zannex is the one from a health perspective,
- 42:44Speaker 1: it has a lot more risks, and weed has relatively
- 42:47Speaker 1: fewer risks. And it might be a matter of changing
- 42:50Speaker 1: the way you're consuming weed or the you know, maybe
- 42:53Speaker 1: shifting to a drink couple of self with low THHC
- 42:56Speaker 1: content in it, and those can be kind of nice.
- 42:58Speaker 1: I don't already tried that. Yeah, my issue is that
- 43:02Speaker 1: I my consumption is just off the charts, and like
- 43:06Speaker 1: I'd make my own tincture that's a hundred twenty milligrams
- 43:10Speaker 1: per melo leader and make my own gummies and sometimes
- 43:14Speaker 1: feel them. Chelsea talked about chocolate mushrooms as as an alternative,
- 43:20Speaker 1: and I was really curious about it. Yeah, I think
- 43:23Speaker 1: what Ethan said is pretty accurate. Though, Like anyone who's
- 43:25Speaker 1: delivering weed is also delivering mushrooms because they're everywhere. Everywhere
- 43:29Speaker 1: I go, somebody hands me mushrooms. I wish I could
- 43:32Speaker 1: hand them to you right now. I want to go
- 43:36Speaker 1: to there. But yeah, but yeah, you you should investigate
- 43:40Speaker 1: and if it's not that we delivery service, that you're using,
- 43:42Speaker 1: look for some other ones, because I guarantee you'll find
- 43:44Speaker 1: them there. You know. Just don't overdo it when you're
- 43:47Speaker 1: trying mushrooms for the first time. Again, make sure you're
- 43:49Speaker 1: just doing like a half a dose to see how
- 43:52Speaker 1: what your reaction is. And then once you're comfortable with it,
- 43:54Speaker 1: you know how to tightrate or increase or whatever you're after,
- 43:58Speaker 1: which is relief. Yeah, I was gonna say, what is it?
- 44:02Speaker 1: How would you describe that feeling well with mushrooms? I
- 44:05Speaker 1: find that I just have a lot of clarity and
- 44:07Speaker 1: I feel up. If I take chocolate mushrooms, Like with
- 44:09Speaker 1: my girlfriends, I'll take more to laugh, you know, and
- 44:12Speaker 1: just be silly, but mostly I take them, you know.
- 44:15Speaker 1: I took one yesterday. My friend had some mushroom morning mushrooms,
- 44:18Speaker 1: and it had like all these other ingredients in it
- 44:21Speaker 1: that we're just like wake up natural ingredients and and
- 44:25Speaker 1: herbs and stuff like that. So and that stuff is
- 44:28Speaker 1: just so minimal. You just feel a little bit more
- 44:30Speaker 1: clarity and just a little sharper, you know, on it,
- 44:32Speaker 1: and upbeat and ready to go, kind of like a
- 44:35Speaker 1: cup of coffee without it. I was just gonna say,
- 44:38Speaker 1: my TikTok algorithm locked on into sending me mudwater. Is
- 44:42Speaker 1: that something similar to what you're talking about? Yeah, the
- 44:45Speaker 1: mudwater is. I love it. I think it's very tasty,
- 44:48Speaker 1: but it's a little bit more of like a coffee
- 44:49Speaker 1: substitute rather than Yeah, it's like adapt to gen mushrooms
- 44:54Speaker 1: for health and and that sort of thing. But it's tasty,
- 44:57Speaker 1: it tastes like ty t you know, but not gonna
- 45:00Speaker 1: get you high. No. So here's one more question too.
- 45:05Speaker 1: Would you both suggest that she sort of tapered down
- 45:09Speaker 1: the marijuana use before trying the mushrooms or use them
- 45:12Speaker 1: in conjunction with each other. Well, what's the negative effect
- 45:16Speaker 1: of the marijuana use now? For you? I mean my
- 45:19Speaker 1: bank account? Um, but I have a home garden with
- 45:24Speaker 1: all a bunch of tomato plants and then one one
- 45:26Speaker 1: lovely little sativa. So I'm, you know, trying that way.
- 45:29Speaker 1: But other than the fact that I'm spending a lot
- 45:31Speaker 1: of money and don't really get high anymore unless it's
- 45:35Speaker 1: you know, what people would consider way overdoing it, Like
- 45:38Speaker 1: I went through like a half an ounce in the
- 45:40Speaker 1: last week. Yeah, so your tolerance is pretty high. Yeah,
- 45:44Speaker 1: because some people use marijuana as heavily as you do,
- 45:48Speaker 1: it's because you're getting some medical benefit from it. I
- 45:51Speaker 1: mean it may be serving this anti anxiety purpose definitely
- 45:54Speaker 1: is trying to pull back on the zanys and maybe
- 45:57Speaker 1: figuring out a more cost effective way, the most cost
- 46:00Speaker 1: effective way to be consuming the marijuana. And I think
- 46:03Speaker 1: if you're gonna do the mushrooms, I don't know that
- 46:05Speaker 1: you need to cut back on the marijuana. You know,
- 46:07Speaker 1: it's there are different substances. They operate differently on your brain.
- 46:11Speaker 1: And if you're doing is Chelsea you suggest doing with
- 46:13Speaker 1: a little micro dose thing or smaller dose try it.
- 46:16Speaker 1: I mean, look, for me, the advantage of not using
- 46:18Speaker 1: cannabis every day is that when I get high, I
- 46:21Speaker 1: really enjoy getting high. Yeah, I miss that. I think
- 46:23Speaker 1: I'd more look at it through that lens to see
- 46:25Speaker 1: if you, in fact you can taper off on cannabis
- 46:27Speaker 1: or have some you know, a cannabis free day or
- 46:31Speaker 1: like each week or something like that, and just see
- 46:33Speaker 1: what that feels like. And then you can decide whether
- 46:35Speaker 1: you want to try something like a low dose mushroom,
- 46:38Speaker 1: either on your off marijuana day or even on the
- 46:40Speaker 1: days you're doing marijuana. Okay, I'm definitely curious. I might
- 46:45Speaker 1: now that I know it's it's in New York. I'm
- 46:47Speaker 1: I'm ahead of there in a couple of days, so
- 46:51Speaker 1: I should tell you New York they haven't actually opened
- 46:53Speaker 1: up the doors for legal sale until the beginning of
- 46:57Speaker 1: the year, so so it would still be a deliver
- 47:00Speaker 1: Your service will be delivery. Some places are opening up
- 47:02Speaker 1: anyway and sort of daring the cops to addrest them
- 47:05Speaker 1: so you can find them. Yeah, I mean, they've got
- 47:08Speaker 1: better things to do at this point, really exactly. Yeah,
- 47:11Speaker 1: but you can easily find a delivery service. I mean,
- 47:13Speaker 1: that's what everybody in New York City does, you know,
- 47:16Speaker 1: if you get it delivered, So whoever you're staying with,
- 47:18Speaker 1: you could figure that out easily. Awesome. That's so great
- 47:22Speaker 1: to know. Well, I really appreciate your your advice, and
- 47:25Speaker 1: you know, it was cool to get to chat and
- 47:28Speaker 1: something that I wouldn't normally get to have a conversation
- 47:32Speaker 1: with on like an educated level. So that's pretty cool.
- 47:34Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Awesome, Awesome, Good luck to you. Keep
- 47:37Speaker 1: us posting alright, alright, by well, our next question really
- 47:44Speaker 1: fits well into what we just talked about with Katie
- 47:47Speaker 1: Carrie wrote in She Says, Dear Chelsea. I've been dating
- 47:50Speaker 1: my boyfriend for four years now. We're in our late twenties.
- 47:53Speaker 1: He's always very openly loved smoking weed. I don't personally
- 47:56Speaker 1: partake very often because it makes my anxiety worse, but
- 48:00Speaker 1: lots of my friends and family do, so I'm very
- 48:02Speaker 1: familiar with being around it. In the early years of
- 48:04Speaker 1: our relationship, I saw no problem with his smoking because
- 48:07Speaker 1: we were young. It seemed less destructive than drinking, and
- 48:10Speaker 1: I didn't feel it was my place to judge. However,
- 48:13Speaker 1: he's almost thirty now and he smokes every single day.
- 48:15Speaker 1: He'll smoke right when he gets home from work, and
- 48:17Speaker 1: again multiple times throughout the night until we go to bed.
- 48:20Speaker 1: On the weekends, he smokes almost immediately after waking up.
- 48:23Speaker 1: Often he can't even eat without it because he's used
- 48:26Speaker 1: to relying on it to induce hunger. To his credit,
- 48:29Speaker 1: his personality isn't altered much when he smokes. He doesn't
- 48:32Speaker 1: get quiet or sleepy as I know some people do.
- 48:35Speaker 1: I still enjoy being around him, even though he sometimes
- 48:37Speaker 1: does have a bad memory because of it. My question is,
- 48:41Speaker 1: how do you know when smoking we becomes a problem.
- 48:44Speaker 1: We're approaching the age where we make more serious commitments
- 48:46Speaker 1: like marriage and kids, and this feels like the elephant
- 48:49Speaker 1: in the room. I've spoken to him multiple times about this,
- 48:52Speaker 1: but rather than having a conversation, he shuts down my
- 48:54Speaker 1: concerns as me having an outdated and biased view of marijuana.
- 48:59Speaker 1: In his opinion, there are no bad side effects, it's
- 49:01Speaker 1: more widely becoming legal, and there's really no reason to
- 49:04Speaker 1: stop or slow down. Since you openly enjoy weed more
- 49:08Speaker 1: than I do, it might be interesting to have a
- 49:10Speaker 1: perspective on when and if marijuana use can go too far.
- 49:13Speaker 1: Carry ethan, why don't you hit that out of the park. Okay?
- 49:17Speaker 1: What I would just say to her is basically, if
- 49:21Speaker 1: he's not really seeing any problems with his youth, And
- 49:26Speaker 1: then she said maybe his memory isn't as good because
- 49:29Speaker 1: he's smoking weed. But I think the bottom line is basically,
- 49:33Speaker 1: don't worry about it. Getting older is not an issue.
- 49:37Speaker 1: He's getting defensive in the relationship with you is not
- 49:39Speaker 1: going to be productive. He's already indicated he can hear
- 49:42Speaker 1: criticism of that side of his life. Is quite possible
- 49:46Speaker 1: that he's using this in a way that's more medical
- 49:48Speaker 1: than anything else, since he's probably really not getting very
- 49:51Speaker 1: high anymore. He's just using it on a very regular basis.
- 49:55Speaker 1: So I can understand feeling a little irritated by the
- 49:58Speaker 1: fact that that thing is always in life and it's
- 50:00Speaker 1: not something you share much, and maybe even feeling a
- 50:03Speaker 1: little jealous of it in some respect. But unless you
- 50:06Speaker 1: can pinpoint problems with it, I would just leave it alone.
- 50:10Speaker 1: And it's quite possible that the day will come and
- 50:12Speaker 1: the moment will come when he comes to the conclusion
- 50:15Speaker 1: that maybe he wants to stop doing it. But if
- 50:17Speaker 1: he's got his backup, because you're getting more and more
- 50:20Speaker 1: critical about it, I don't think that's going to go anywhere. Good. Yeah,
- 50:24Speaker 1: I would say the exact same thing. There's no reason,
- 50:26Speaker 1: you know, it is kind of an outdated stance on it.
- 50:29Speaker 1: I mean, it is becoming legal everywhere he likes using it,
- 50:32Speaker 1: And again what Ethan said is perfectly accurate. At this point,
- 50:36Speaker 1: he's probably not getting that much benefit from it, unless
- 50:38Speaker 1: it is a health benefit, because he's certainly probably not
- 50:41Speaker 1: getting high at this point. I know when I over
- 50:43Speaker 1: consume marijuana, it takes so much to make me high,
- 50:46Speaker 1: So yeah, you gotta kind of just like get rid
- 50:49Speaker 1: of that way of thinking and you know, just be happy.
- 50:52Speaker 1: It's not something like drinking or another drug. That would
- 50:55Speaker 1: be a situation if somebody came home and they relied
- 50:58Speaker 1: on that. You know, marijuana pretty benign and it's helpful
- 51:02Speaker 1: to a lot of people. So you don't know what
- 51:03Speaker 1: kind of anxiety he might have or what other body
- 51:07Speaker 1: aches he might have that this is helping him with that.
- 51:10Speaker 1: He might not even be aware of himself. It might
- 51:12Speaker 1: just be to for him to equalize. So I would
- 51:15Speaker 1: just try and say, be a little bit more open
- 51:17Speaker 1: hearted and open minded. Let him do his thing, and
- 51:19Speaker 1: then you do your thing. Yeah, and there's that old
- 51:22Speaker 1: thing of when do you know something is addictive or
- 51:25Speaker 1: becoming a problem, and it's when you have negative consequences.
- 51:28Speaker 1: It sounds like he's not really having negative consequences. You know.
- 51:31Speaker 1: We've had people call into the show and and say,
- 51:34Speaker 1: you know, I really want to taper down my marijuana
- 51:36Speaker 1: use or or that sort of thing. So I feel
- 51:38Speaker 1: like if someone thinks that they do, then like, go
- 51:41Speaker 1: for it. Definitely, your body is telling you something, your
- 51:44Speaker 1: mind is telling you something. But it sounds like he's
- 51:46Speaker 1: not having any any negative consequences other than this relationship issue. Yeah,
- 51:50Speaker 1: I liked what you said that. My definition of addiction
- 51:53Speaker 1: is addiction equals dependence plus problems. So if you're dependent
- 51:58Speaker 1: on a drug, whether it's off you to get up
- 52:00Speaker 1: in the morning, whether it's a statin for your cholesterol
- 52:03Speaker 1: or a heart drug, whether it's method on because you
- 52:06Speaker 1: were once addicted to heroin, it's not an addiction so
- 52:10Speaker 1: long as that dependence on the drug is not a problem.
- 52:13Speaker 1: And it sounds quite likely that with this guy, it
- 52:16Speaker 1: sounds like it's basically a dependence, a serious dependence, but
- 52:19Speaker 1: not really causing any problems. In fact, it sounds like
- 52:22Speaker 1: the biggest problem is it could become a problem in
- 52:24Speaker 1: his marriage, even if it's not causing him any problems
- 52:26Speaker 1: in his own personal life. Apart from that. Well, on
- 52:30Speaker 1: that note, we will take our break and we'll be
- 52:33Speaker 1: right back with Ethan Nadelman and Chelsea. We're back, fantastic. Well, Ethan,
- 52:44Speaker 1: did you have any advice you'd like to get from Chelsea? Wow, Chelsea,
- 52:47Speaker 1: you know I was thinking about that. The first piece
- 52:50Speaker 1: of advice, and if you is not specifically about drugs.
- 52:53Speaker 1: You have this very successful podcast, and I have my
- 52:56Speaker 1: podcast like a active which I'm trying to turn into
- 52:58Speaker 1: a much bigger thing. So if you've got any advice
- 53:01Speaker 1: about how to get a building audience for a podcast
- 53:04Speaker 1: that talks about the whole spectrum of drugs and drug
- 53:08Speaker 1: wars and drug policies and drug use, I'm all ears
- 53:11Speaker 1: for advice about doing something like that. Well, I mean,
- 53:15Speaker 1: you should book a couple of celebrity guests. I'll volunteer
- 53:17Speaker 1: to come on and talk to you about drugs. That
- 53:19Speaker 1: will help the first thing, Yeah, to make it a
- 53:21Speaker 1: little shiny. But I've what I've learned about podcasts. How
- 53:24Speaker 1: long have you had your podcast? I'm in the second
- 53:26Speaker 1: season now, so we started just over a year ago. Yeah.
- 53:29Speaker 1: What I've learned is that it takes a couple of
- 53:31Speaker 1: years for anybody, whether you're a famous person or less
- 53:34Speaker 1: famous or whatever your platform is, that it takes a
- 53:37Speaker 1: few years to really build and grow. But when you
- 53:39Speaker 1: have a subject matter that's so many people are interested
- 53:42Speaker 1: right now and it's such a part of our zeitgeist.
- 53:45Speaker 1: I mean, I have no I mean, you've got a
- 53:47Speaker 1: great title, and you're very knowledgeable obviously, so I would
- 53:51Speaker 1: imagine that people are very interested in hearing more of
- 53:54Speaker 1: what you have to say. So I know that certainly
- 53:57Speaker 1: our listeners have plenty of them, will be interested in
- 53:59Speaker 1: that too. So I would just say, yeah, just keep
- 54:01Speaker 1: doing it. That's how you accrue more listeners, you know,
- 54:04Speaker 1: you just it happens slowly over time. Okay, great, Well
- 54:08Speaker 1: I have one other question for you, which is, you know,
- 54:10Speaker 1: when I used to be a professor and I wrote books,
- 54:12Speaker 1: academic books and a lot of writing. But in the
- 54:15Speaker 1: last and twenty years, I've been writing less and less,
- 54:17Speaker 1: and now I want to write a book about my
- 54:19Speaker 1: life and about drugs, and I'm kind of blocked. And
- 54:22Speaker 1: I see that you've had like five or six best
- 54:25Speaker 1: sellers and a lot of them about your life. So
- 54:27Speaker 1: how did you actually get those books done and out
- 54:31Speaker 1: with a lot of cannabis? Quite frankly, that's really that
- 54:36Speaker 1: that that is the best use of cannabis that I've
- 54:38Speaker 1: ever had. When I have a task at hand, a
- 54:40Speaker 1: creative task, and I do all the work, but when
- 54:44Speaker 1: I have to go in and polish and deliver is
- 54:46Speaker 1: when I use cannabis and or mushrooms. Mushrooms also micro
- 54:50Speaker 1: docing mushrooms helps me focus. But yeah, because you get
- 54:53Speaker 1: organized and then you get hyper focused. Cannabis helps me
- 54:57Speaker 1: lose myself in something, but I have to have the
- 54:59Speaker 1: subject there, you know what I mean. Like if I
- 55:01Speaker 1: go work out, I can lose myself and working out.
- 55:04Speaker 1: If I'm writing, I can lose myself and writing. If
- 55:06Speaker 1: I'm sitting on my bed, I'm gonna lose myself on
- 55:08Speaker 1: my phone. But you just I like to choose the
- 55:11Speaker 1: activity that I'm going to lose myself in. But I
- 55:12Speaker 1: would definitely say cannabis has been a huge contributor to
- 55:15Speaker 1: my the success of my books. Wow. Wow, Well, I'll
- 55:19Speaker 1: tell you I keep meaning to start kind of microdocing
- 55:21Speaker 1: mushroom routine, but I keep forgetting to do it. So
- 55:24Speaker 1: it maybe that that maybe the answer for me, because
- 55:27Speaker 1: sometimes I found with cannabis like I find a hard
- 55:29Speaker 1: time writing with it because I sort of forget, like
- 55:31Speaker 1: I lose my train of thought, you know, I forget
- 55:33Speaker 1: what it was I wrote just it was just thinking
- 55:36Speaker 1: a few minutes ago. It's one reason I don't like
- 55:38Speaker 1: giving a speech or doing interview under the influence of cannabis,
- 55:41Speaker 1: because it's problematic in that way, whereas mushrooms can be
- 55:45Speaker 1: more focusing so I maybe have to make more of
- 55:47Speaker 1: a serious effort there. Yeah, just put it together as
- 55:50Speaker 1: your responsibility to get your book done right. You're right,
- 55:53Speaker 1: and you need to start your mushroom routine. Sounds good.
- 55:56Speaker 1: Sounds good, Ethan, thank you so much for being on
- 55:59Speaker 1: the podcast today. I loved everything you had to say. Well,
- 56:02Speaker 1: I look, I love doing it. It was great to
- 56:04Speaker 1: team up with you on answering those questions, Chelsea, and
- 56:07Speaker 1: I really admire so all the ways that you've been
- 56:09Speaker 1: out there on the drug issue and on so many
- 56:11Speaker 1: others or politics aligned very much and I appreciate both
- 56:15Speaker 1: your courage and sort of really speaking, I saw you
- 56:17Speaker 1: were speaking out about this drug stuff before marijuana was legal,
- 56:20Speaker 1: and you were speaking about psychedelics and doing episodes about
- 56:23Speaker 1: it on Netflix and all those where when this was
- 56:25Speaker 1: not quite so cool and hips, so you were one
- 56:27Speaker 1: of the pioneers and getting this out and I really
- 56:29Speaker 1: do appreciate that. Thank you, Thanks, Sad, Thanks Okay, bye
- 56:32Speaker 1: bye bye. So if you'd like advice from Chelsea, just
- 56:37Speaker 1: send us an email at Dear Chelsea project at gmail
- 56:40Speaker 1: dot com. Dear Chelsea is a production of I Heart
- 56:44Speaker 1: Radio Executive produced by Nick Stuff produced by Catherine Law
- 56:48Speaker 1: and edited and engineered by Brad Dickert.