Neil deGrasse Tyson might be best known as an astrophysicist whose expertise lies in the cosmos beyond. But he says there may be mysteries yet to be unraveled here on earth when it comes to undiscovered plant life with psychedelic potential.<\/p>\n
On an episode of his podcast StarTalk, Tyson and Harvard University neuroscientist Staci Gruber talked about marijuana has been used for its psychoactive properties for thousands of years. It got Tyson thinking: what kind of plants and fungi might still be out there with untapped psychedelic potential?<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many plants out there remain undiscovered simply because we don\u2019t have enough people saying, \u2018now, let\u2019s smoke that, let\u2019s smoke this, let\u2019s smoke this?’\u201d he mused. \u201cI mean, there\u2019s gotta be.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nGruber entertained the question, agreeing that there\u2019s \u201chuge potential in botanicals, and I think that we see that with some other things\u2014primarily these days, we hear about it in the hallucinogenic space like ayahuasca or these other sort of natural things, mushrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s tremendous interest in terms of therapeutic application,\u201d she said, adding that such interest has been evident for millennia.<\/p>\n
Of course, while cannabis has survived throughout human civilization, it stands to reason that many species that might have contained psychoactive have gone extinct. A study from 2019 estimated that nearly 600 species of plants have been lost in the past 250 years alone.<\/p>\n
Even so, more plants with potential therapeutic or psychoactive applications could still be out there, going undiscovered without a trepidatious human to consume them, Tyson half-joked. (The better course of action for undiscovered plants would be to subject them to significant phytochemical analysis before even considering clinical trials, but the point of the podcast conversation was to explore an entertaining hypothetical.)<\/p>\n
Tyson has made drug policy and science a consistent theme of his podcast. Late last year, for example, he also spoke with Gruber about the intersection of cannabis science, policy and sports. And he said that he wasn\u2019t surprised about President Joe Biden\u2019s opposition to marijuana legalization because he\u2019s from the \u201cReefer Madness generation.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Also last year, he wondered aloud on his podcast whether non-human animals willingly take psychedelic mushrooms<\/a>\u00a0and whether eating enough cicadas infected by hallucinogenic fungi would create a psychoactive effect.<\/p>\n Tyson also told TMZ in 2018 that he\u00a0doesn\u2019t think people should smoke marijuana in space<\/a>.<\/p>\n The popular scientific figure\u00a0first publicly endorsed cannabis legalization<\/a>\u00a0in 2017 in response to a question submitted by Marijuana Moment\u2019s editor, arguing that \u201crelative to other things that are legal, there\u2019s no reason for [cannabis] to ever have been made illegal in the system of laws.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Tyson has also said that he\u00a0doesn\u2019t partake in recreational use<\/a>\u00a0himself.<\/p>\n U.S. Army Wants To Make Sniper Uniforms Out Of Hemp<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Image element courtesy of NASA Goddard<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Neil deGrasse Tyson Wonders What Other Plants Can Get You High That People Just Haven\u2019t Tried Smoking Yet<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Neil deGrasse Tyson might be best known as an astrophysicist whose expertise lies in the cosmos beyond. But he says there may be mysteries yet to be unraveled here on earth when it comes to undiscovered plant life with psychedelic potential. On an episode of his podcast StarTalk, Tyson andContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[99,18,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55648"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55649,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55648\/revisions\/55649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Neil deGrasse Tyson Wonders What Other Plants Can Get You High That People Just Haven\u2019t Tried Smoking Yet<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"