Comments on: Harvard Scientists Build a Device to Smoke Weed During Brain Scan

Harvard Scientists Build a Device to Smoke Weed During Brain Scan

prostyle — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:09:43 -0800

It's not often one gets one's bong in the scientific literature, let alone one designed to allow you to smoke weed inside an MRI scanner...

Most studies on the neuroscience of marijuana have used pills or injections of THC, the main active ingredient, but this is quite different from smoking - both in the way it reaches the brain and because of the fact that burning the plant creates many other chemicals which also get inhaled. A team from Harvard Medical School are interested in how smoked marijuana affects the brain, but have come to the inevitable conclusion that it's actually quite hard smoking a joint when you're lying on your back being brain scanned. [via]

By: Plutor

Plutor — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:18:38 -0800

"Displaying skills that would put MacGyver to shame, Frederick constructed a makeshift water pipe inside of a picnic cooler, then ran 2.4 meters of tubing to a plastic facemask that rests inside of the scanner." That's run-of-the-mill pothead ingenuity if you ask me.

By: empath

empath — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:19:45 -0800

Bong hits for science!

By: JibberJabber

JibberJabber — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:21:29 -0800

Marijuana Resonance Imaging?

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:25:44 -0800

I'm sure they'll get around to writing a paper about it. Sometime.

By: Avenger

Avenger — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:27:03 -0800

The inside of an MRI machine strikes me as a totally bad place to get a buzz.

By: Cool Papa Bell

Cool Papa Bell — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:30:09 -0800

4:20 ... gigawatts, man!

By: Bearman

Bearman — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:30:51 -0800

Metafilter: it's actually quite hard smoking a joint when you're lying on your back being brain scanned.

By: caution live frogs

caution live frogs — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:31:40 -0800

The comments crack me up. Not a lot of science majors in the crowd.

By: solipsophistocracy

solipsophistocracy — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:33:30 -0800

The inside of an MRI machine is actually a really cool place to be stoned. All those weird noises going on. However, I'm a little disappointed that the most complex bong in the world has a wooden bowl on it.

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:33:37 -0800

Next up: fMRI capable gravity bong.

By: bondcliff

bondcliff — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:37:25 -0800

Sadly, 60% of the test subjects choked to death while eating Doritos lying down.

By: Dr-Baa

Dr-Baa — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:37:41 -0800

Dude.... wait... what?

By: ninjew

ninjew — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:37:50 -0800

"The researchers suggested using stronger weed to achieve more realistic effects." "Dude, this shit is weak. We're never buying from that guy again."

By: Poolio

Poolio — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:40:26 -0800

Have you ever had an MRI... on weed?

By: vhsiv

vhsiv — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:42:59 -0800

By: Pope Guilty

Pope Guilty — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:47:57 -0800

vhsiv, would you rather have data about an idealised use of marijuana or would you rather have data that refers to the reality of marijuana use?

By: cortex

cortex — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:48:02 -0800

there are better, more dependable ways of getting the information than putting some contraption into the mRI machine, much less getting the technicians contact-high. None of which would give the technicians an awesome excuse for a contact high. Stop harshing the mellow, man.

By: Cool Papa Bell

Cool Papa Bell — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:49:27 -0800

Why does this MRI machine have Deadhead stickers all over it?

By: brain_drain

brain_drain — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:55:19 -0800

Dude! Check out my brain, man!

By: brain_drain

brain_drain — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:55:26 -0800

Eponystericality unintended.

By: vhsiv

vhsiv — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:56:23 -0800

Pope Guilty, if I were a scientist I'd want the iealized results, but as a patient I'd only be concerned about the results.

By: uncleozzy

uncleozzy — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:57:04 -0800

MR-high?

By: schyler523

schyler523 — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 11:01:06 -0800

Yea, why are they not using a glass bowl...seems that the burning wood would affect the integrity of the smoke... But, awesome! i would love to be 'tested.'

By: Greg Nog

Greg Nog — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 11:02:09 -0800

Oh, sweet! This is just like that T. Rex song! Get it on Scan a bong Scan a bong! As usual, Marc Bolan's prophecies come to pass with frightening accuracy.

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 11:05:34 -0800

It came with his hubcap diamond star halo. Still, bold day for science!

By: Maias

Maias — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 11:13:18 -0800

Btw, if you read the actual link, the bong was actually specially designed to *avoid* contact highs for the lab techs and the the next experimental subjects. However, I have to say that "contact high" is more likely a placebo effect than a pharmacological one...

By: quin

quin — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 11:14:06 -0800

20th century toy, I wanna be your boy

By: kcds

kcds — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 11:29:08 -0800

Dude, that was my skull!

By: krinklyfig

krinklyfig — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 11:29:41 -0800

vhsiv writes "This strikes me as bad and unnecessary 'science'. Wouldn't you get better results if you got an individual and titrated up the amount of THC in him or her (over an interval of hours, days, weeks or months), and THEN take the MRI so you wouldn't screw-up the scan?" There are quite a few compounds that are ingested when cannabis is smoked, far more than THC alone. I think seeing the effects on the brain as it's ingested would make a difference.

By: c13

c13 — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 11:30:39 -0800

This strikes me as bad and unnecessary 'science'. Wouldn't you get better results if you got an individual and titrated up the amount of THC in him or her (over an interval of hours, days, weeks or months), and THEN take the MRI so you wouldn't screw-up the scan? if I were a scientist I'd want the iealized results, If you were a scientist, you would get at least a little bit familiar with the subject of the conversation before commenting. In this case, you would actually read the linked articles or, at least, the complete post. I'll make it easy for you and put the relevant stuff in bold: Most studies on the neuroscience of marijuana have used pills or injections of THC, the main active ingredient, but this is quite different from smoking - both in the way it reaches the brain and because of the fact that burning the plant creates many other chemicals which also get inhaled.

By: krinklyfig

krinklyfig — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 11:33:49 -0800

vhsiv writes "Pope Guilty, if I were a scientist I'd want the iealized results, but as a patient I'd only be concerned about the results." I would think a scientist would want results which duplicated real-world usage, rather than lab usage.

By: Citizen Premier

Citizen Premier — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 11:36:15 -0800

Oxygen deprivation, I think, is one of the reasons people prefer smoking to get their fix rather than pills or patches or gums. As we learned on Metafilter, even babies will choke themselves to experience this high, so this is probably a crucial part of pot and tobacco usage. Not to mention coughing speeds up the blood flow.

By: It's Raining Florence Henderson

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 11:39:31 -0800

For $50 I will send you complete plans to the new and improved "Steam Room Jacuzzi Bong 3000." THC? You're soaking in it!

By: christopherious

christopherious — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 11:39:44 -0800

I'm positive there is a PKD joke (or at least a reference) in here somewhere. I just can't remember it.

By: rtha

rtha — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 11:43:16 -0800

I would've volunteered for that. I mean, have you ever really looked at your brain?

By: Rancid Badger

Rancid Badger — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 11:53:16 -0800

The first paragraph in the Wired article ties pot with addiction, yeah right. It seems like they are interested in how the brain goes from a normal state thought intermediated steps, lighting up as a person ramps up to being fully stoned. Long ago we made a bong out of a reversed chest tube drainage system, it took a 1/4z just to get it going. It was exciting, rumbling with lotza of bubbles shaking it as the chambers filled up with smoke. I quit smoking long ago but still find it really stupid that:(1) it is a crime,(2) that there are restrictions about what I can do with my body, kinda like abortion,(3) Huuuuuh I forgot.

By: krinklyfig

krinklyfig — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 12:01:01 -0800

Citizen Premier writes "Oxygen deprivation, I think, is one of the reasons people prefer smoking to get their fix rather than pills or patches or gums. " It's also a combination of cannibinols. THC by itself is nice, but it's not the same. It's one of many psychoactive compounds found in cannabis, and the levels vary according to strain and method.

By: It's Raining Florence Henderson

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 12:02:27 -0800

MRI Q&A Theatre Harvard Scientist: This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions? Volunteer Dude: Yeah, uh... Got any Doritos?

By: tadellin

tadellin — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 12:14:23 -0800

Hey, this is illegal. I'm calling 5-0.

By: chlorus

chlorus — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 12:42:54 -0800

Are they using the same strain for each test? Otherwise, how can it be statistically significant? I mean, is it sticky shit? Because a heady buzz is a lot different than ... **wanders off**

By: solipsophistocracy

solipsophistocracy — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 12:46:17 -0800

Citizen Premier, I've always been under the impression that smoking pot acts as a bronchiodialator and thus leads to increased rather than decreased exposure to oxygen. Even if this isn't the case, when you inhale smoke, there's still a fair amount of regular air in the mix.

By: the Real Dan

the Real Dan — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 12:50:42 -0800

Citizen Premier, people prefer use smoking (or recently, vaporization) because it is the easiest way to titrate your dose, and because the onset of the drug effect is the most rapid of any of the commonly used methods. vhsiv, there is certainly value in your approach, but the method described in the article allows researchers to see what is essentially the same brain, with and without the effects of marijuana. There is little confounding by the things that happen to a brain during the weeks that your study would take.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 13:21:16 -0800

As someone who's spent a fair amount of time in one of those machines, I'm just sayin'... And wouldn't you have rather had a bong in there with you?

By: vhsiv

vhsiv — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 14:14:19 -0800

> And wouldn't you have rather had a bong in there with you? LOL! Both before and after getting my ass handed to me upthread, yes. (And I tend to meditate while I'm in there, so there's probably not much difference...)

By: doctorschlock

doctorschlock — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 14:40:06 -0800

It would have been waay cooler if they put a couch and a television in there. Now that's what I'm talking about.

By: Citizen Premier

Citizen Premier — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 15:07:00 -0800

doctorschlock, they're studying addiction, not brain damage.

By: emelenjr

emelenjr — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 16:22:02 -0800

Guys... GUYS. Do you realize that, thanks to that invention, it's totally possible to smoke your mind? Smoke. Your. Mind. Wait... what?

By: haunted by Leonard Cohen

haunted by Leonard Cohen — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 16:49:46 -0800

The medical school where I work reimburses study participants for their time. So I can legally smoke pot and get paid? d00d This some previous stoner conversation from the late eighties being played out in real life. Deja vu man...deja fucking vu.

By: BitterOldPunk

BitterOldPunk — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 18:04:05 -0800

I suspect that the findings of this study will be along the lines of "OMG! People who smoke pot experience changes in brain chemistry, and now here's Some Dude From The Government to tell you why that's bad bad bad!". Studies that attempt to quantify cannabis' utility in treating pain, wasting, and tremors don't get funded in the US. That this one did makes me think that its results will become grist for the Drug War propaganda mill. Or maybe that last hit made me paranoid.

By: DamnYouSerpico

DamnYouSerpico — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 18:34:37 -0800

i'm happy with my vaporizor, thank you. haha

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 19:06:50 -0800

solipsophistocracy: it's the long hold after the puff, then the subsequent coughing fit that puts your head in the spin. [Holding isn't necessary; apparently almost all the THC is absorbed within mere moments.]
[Hacking isn't necessary: buy a vaporiser.]
[Get paid? Hell, I'd pay to be in that study. Way cool. I'd love to see before-and-after pictures of my brain.]

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 19:08:38 -0800

Actually, the one fear I'd have of an MRI is of perplexing or exciting the technician who interprets it. If there's some whopping great hunk missing out of it, or if it's lighting up in bizarre ways, I don't think I really want to know it. Ignorance is bliss sometimes.

By: dejah420

dejah420 — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 19:12:18 -0800

Plutor: That's run-of-the-mill pothead ingenuity if you ask me. Indeed. We once turned my sister's Volvo into a bong. The gear shift was the bowl. It was brilliant. Her husband, my friend and I spent hours and hours perfecting our Volvo-hooka. As it turns out, my sister was not really all that pleased, but we found that after a short and fragrant time, she forgave us. As revenge though, she let the guys into my house and they retrofitted my brass bed into a 6 person hooka. (Apparently she thought it would annoy me. Me, I just thought it was a convenience.) Ah...Austin in the 80's...it was the best of times...

By: Peecabu

Peecabu — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 19:15:38 -0800

I think BitterOldPunk is right. This study will no doubt be used to "prove" how bad pot is.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 19:37:17 -0800

The picture shows a nice glowing orange spot in the guy's skull. Is that where the THC activation is happening? That'd be the spot to do an intracranial injection of hash?

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 19:40:31 -0800

yakketty me would also like to add: I am disappointed they did not make a skull bong, just for the sheer beauty of self-referential experimentation.

By: BitterOldPunk

BitterOldPunk — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 19:40:33 -0800

OMG. Seriously. OMG. I'm not the only person on the planet who has turned a brass bedframe into a smoking device. I can't tell you how important it is to share this thread with my ex-wife right now. OMG.

By: emelenjr

emelenjr — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 19:48:21 -0800

Magnetic Resinance Imaging

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 20:21:04 -0800

LOL@BOP

By: dreamsign

dreamsign — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 22:10:41 -0800

Hey, don't bogart the, mmm, equipment.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 22:19:53 -0800

Bedknobs and Broomsticks was a tale about children using their big brass bed as a bong, isn't it?

By: Goofyy

Goofyy — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 00:33:52 -0800

I had an MRI once, in Germany. The crew who did it were disgusting incompetants. No warning at all about the noise, no headphones. I can't express how bad that would have played out, had I been stoned! These days, who expects high-tech to sound all mechanical and noisy?! I feared the thing was going to fly apart on my head (seriously, I had to force calm upon myself). I'd like to see the results with this setup when someone is played some seriously tripfull music.