Author Ayelet Waldman expirements with micro-dosing LSD for 30 days to solve her health problems and achieve equanimity.

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KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• A microdose of a psychedelic drug is approximately one-tenth of a typical dose. 

• The illegal drug market is the most profitable commercial enterprise in the world—more profitable than Apple and Walmart.

• Research showed that children who participated in D.A.R.E. programs actually experimented with drugs at higher rates. 

• “Our lives may be no more than dewdrops on a summer morning, but surely, it is better that we sparkle while we are here.” -Lewis Carroll

• Buddhism teaches that you can intentionally create equanimity in your body by relaxing and letting sensations wash through you. You can create equanimity in your mind by letting go of negative judgments and treating yourself and others with loving acceptance. 

• “What if mood is a choice?”

• Only in 1875 was the first drug law passed, in San Francisco, and even that did not prohibit a drug but prevent a specific use: the smoking of opium in a Chinese opium dens. 

• Research shows that walking in nature, especially among tall trees, reduces anxiety and depression as effectively as SSRIs. 

• Cocaine was the official remedy of the Hay Fever Association, and bartenders dropped it into shots of whiskey for a little added boost.

• Coco leaf and Kola syrup were combined with cocaine to create what became, unsurprisingly, the most popular drink in the world. In fact, it wasn’t until 1929 that Coca-Cola became free of the drug. 

• More than 40% of arrests for a drug possession in this country are for a drug that 19.8 million of us have used in the past month. (Marijuana)

• White people are five times as likely to use drugs as African-Americans, yet Africans Americans are incarcerated for drug offenses at 10 times the rate of whites. 

• Blue light emitted by e-readers, laptops, or smart phones—interferes with circadian rhythm’s and with the sleep-promotion hormone, melatonin. It can take as much as 90 minutes longer to fall asleep after exposure to blue light. Even a glance at a screen can reduce and delay REM sleep, and make a person less alert the following day.