Trip-killers: a concerning practice associated with psychedelic drug use

Psychedelic drugs such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and psilocybin (‘magic mushrooms’) induce hallucinations and distort thought-processes. The intensity of a psychedelic ‘trip’ can cause distress, agitation, and even psychosis. A recent report showed that at least 8.4% of drug-related presentations to European emergency departments involve psychedelics. This proportion may increase as the clinical use of these agents expands.

There are multiple ways to control a ‘bad trip’ and avoid hospitalisation. One is to take psychedelics under the supervision of a ‘trip-sitter’—a non-intoxicated friend who can provide psychological support. Another is to use additional psychoactive drugs—‘trip-killers’—to attenuate or prematurely end the psychedelic experience. Trip-killers are not new, but have received increased attention on social media in recent years.

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Big Tobaccos Playbook for Marketing to the Young: Campaign for Tobacco Free KidsTobacco companies are deploying a suite of tactics to reach young people and create an immersive, “surround sound” marketing effect on social media... For nearly 75 years, tobacco companies have understood the importance of influencer marketing. In 1949, Philip Morris outlined its marketing strategy for college students stating that they needed to: “‘get ‘em’ young, train ‘em right’ ” recognizing that college students “are widely copied by others. They set styles…[and] because they’re young and if we sell them, we have customers for a long time. ”

Two of the world’s largest publicly-traded tobacco companies — British American Tobacco (BAT) and Philip Morris International (Philip Morris) — are exploiting the popularity of social media to market addictive products to young people.

“Vaping can effect your whole life – not just your lungs.”

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Vaping renders immune cells unable to move to meet threats

Even moderate exposure to nicotine-free vapour causes suppression of neutrophil’s typical activity.

Inhaling vapour from an e-cigarette may be stopping frontline immune cells from working typically, as a new study shows that even moderate smoke exposure suppresses cell activity. 

The findings are published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and suggest that inhaling e-cigarette smoke could be damaging neutrophils, the first line of defence the human immune system has. The findings are important as previous research has shown that damage caused to neutrophil by cigarette smoking can lead to long-term lung damage.

Researchers from the University of Birmingham took blood samples from healthy donors who had never smoked or vaped. The team then exposed neutrophils taken from the blood to 40 puffs of unflavoured vape, which previous studies have shown is a low daily exposure; with half of the samples were exposed to nicotine-containing vapour while the rest to nicotine-free alternatives.

E-cigarettes are a proven, lower-harm, tool to help smokers quit smoking but our data adds to current evidence that e-cigarettes are not harmless and highlights the need to fund longer-term studies in vapers.

Dr Aaron Scott, Associate Professor in Respiratory Science at the University of Birmingham

Results of the tests showed that in both the nicotine and non-nicotine groups, the neutrophils remained alive but were stuck in place, rendering them incapable of effectively tackling threats to the body.

Further experiments with neutrophils exposed to e-cigarette vapour suggest a build-up of a microfilament within the cells which are unable to re-arrange themselves properly is driving the suppression of the cells normal function. 

Actin is usually found as small filaments within cells and rearrange themselves into a network to help a cell change its shape. This function is used by neutrophils so that they can move towards and surround threats to destroy them. 

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