Mere hours before Trump's 8pm Tuesday deadline yesterday, Pakistan's government contacted Iran with a US-written proposal for a two-week ceasefire, explicitly stated to also include Lebanon, during which they would negotiate a permanent end to the war on the basis of Iran's 10 Points. Among other things, these points include 1) maintaining strict control (joint with Oman) over Hormuz, complete with a toll; 2) the end of sanctions on Iran; 3) keeping their enriched uranium; 4) a withdrawal of US forces from the Middle East [stated by the Supreme Leadership Council but not in the 10 Points, so who knows], and 5) some plausible guarantee that Iran would never be attacked again. I've heard rumors that China may have prodded Iran to accept these terms.
In theory, these are relatively confident and maximalist demands. In practice, Iran has already achieved military and economic control over Hormuz and the withdrawal of many US troops and bases from the region, so at least a few of Iran's demands are, to a greater or lesser extent, already achieved, and with little hope for an increasingly exhausted US to undo these achievements short of nukes.
A couple hours after the ceasefire, the Zionist entity began a wave of airstrikes in Lebanon, killing hundreds of civilians, as well as flying drones into Iranian airspace. This was a strange move to make even if you assume - very sensibly - that the US is completely agreement non-capable: why not agree to the ceasefire and simply pretend to negotiate for two weeks while regrouping/repairing what assets you can and then start hitting Iran again?
One theory is that the Zionists are testing to what degree Iran is actually willing to have solidarity with Lebanon and Hezbollah. While the Resistance has been relatively united since October 7th, the formation of separate peaces instead of negotiating terms as a united front has been a major exploitable weakness. Alternatively, it's been proposed that the US didn't even consider using the ceasefire to regroup and deceive Iran, and that Trump merely wanted a way to chicken out of his threat on Iran's electrical grid - the fact that US officials have since stated that Iran's 10 Points were not the same ones they agreed to is a point supporting this, I suppose. If the conflict resumes and Trump does not deliver another 48 hour deadline (and/or makes it something silly like a month from now) then this could be the explanation.
From Iran, I am getting the sense that a lot is happening behind the scenes. Statements from top officials like Araghchi have stated quite plainly that there will be no ceasefire and no negotiations unless the Zionists stop attacking Lebanon, but as of ~24 hours after the ceasefire began, there has been no significant military response from Iran yet. There have apparently been phone calls between Araghchi and numerous regional officials, but it is unknown to what end. All the while, the global economic situation continues to deteriorate. Over the next week or two, the last tankers that left Hormuz before it closed will arrive at their destinations. If the missile exchanges begin once more, then the West, much like most of the rest of the world, will be experiencing all sorts of fuel, energy, food, and product shortages while trying to justify why they broke the ceasefire to kill more Lebanese civilians.
Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the RedAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on the Zionists' destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
I want to preface this by saying I smoke more different than anyone, my shit is legitimately better than the stuff I tried in India, but I'll give it all up for this. I want to be free so bad. Targeting the amygdala specifically in a way to replace weed? I love China dawg, they're getting the libertarian firstoid vote w this one
Chinese scientists unlock potent, addiction-free pain relief – CGTN [2026-04-15]
Expand article
Cannabis has long walked a fine line between medicine and abuse. While it has shown potential for relieving pain and regulating mood, cannabis-based drugs are strictly controlled worldwide due to side effects such as tolerance, addiction and cognitive impairment. For years, scientists have sought a solution that could preserve therapeutic effects while eliminating these risks – a truly "safe and effective" approach.
Professor Li Xiaoming (2nd from left) and his team. /Zhejiang University
Professor Li Xiaoming (2nd from left) and his team. /Zhejiang University
A collaborative team from the School of Medicine and College of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Zhejiang University has rationally designed a series of small-molecule drugs. These compounds offer potent pain relief while effectively bypassing the risks of addiction and drug tolerance. The study, recently published in the international flagship journal Cell, represents a significant leap forward for chronic pain sufferers worldwide seeking safer, non-opioid alternatives.
Targeting the brain's pain and emotion centers
Previous studies from the team revealed that stress and other negative stimuli can trigger abnormal activity in the amygdala, a key brain region for emotional regulation. Reduced expression of type 1 cannabinoid receptors (CB1) contributes to this imbalance, potentially leading to anxiety and depression. Activating CB1 in the amygdala with exogenous cannabinoids can restore emotional balance, while CB1 in the thalamus influences pain thresholds, making it a critical target for central analgesic effects.
Molecular "surgery" and the bio-switch
CB1 receptors signal through two pathways: the Gi/o pathway, which mediates therapeutic effects like pain relief, and the β-arrestin pathway, which is linked to side effects such as addiction and tolerance. Conventional CB1 agonists activate both pathways, leading to undesirable consequences.
Comparison between traditional CB1 agonists and rationally designed biased small molecules. /Zhejiang University
The Zhejiang University team applied structure-activity relationship analyses to rationally design small molecules that selectively activates the Gi pathway while minimizing β-arrestin signaling. This "biased signaling" approach allows pain relief without the typical side effects of cannabinoid drugs.
Reviewers praised the study for its innovative approach. One noted, "This work is the first one to make a rational use of the differences in the binding pocket between G protein and arrestin coupled receptors." Another added, "The study is a tour de force presentation of structure-based design of CB1 agonists that appear to prefer G protein signaling over β-arrestin1 recruitment."
Promising results and the road ahead
In animal experiments, these compounds provided robust analgesia across multiple pain models, without evidence of addictive behavior or declining effectiveness. They also reduced side effects on motor activity and body temperature, successfully avoiding the central nervous system complications associated with conventional cannabinoids.
The Leading researcher, Professor Li Xiaoming, said the team is optimizing these compounds and conducting systematic validation in preparation for clinical trials.
"Our goal is to start from clinical needs, uncover disease mechanisms through basic research, identify therapeutic targets and develop drugs that genuinely improve patients' quality of life," said Li.
As research continues, this biased-signaling strategy could open a new era of precision medicine, offering transformative therapeutic possibilities not only for chronic pain but also for a wider range of complex disorders.
I usually find science articles lacking because they're almost always sensationalized headlines with seriously flawed conclusions. This one is actually really cool.
They basically used classical forward drug design and took advantage of mechanistic understanding to develop a selective agonist. This is peak drug design and it's pretty much what every small molecule drug project aims to do (with like a 0.1% success rate).
The big unspoken thing here that makes it very interesting is that the US drug development pipeline was literally designed to do this. It's not some off the wall approach or massively technologically gated finding, it's exactly what we do but we explicitly do not do it for "narcotic" drugs. We could have developed something like this 20+ years ago if we would have allowed it. China has historically been even more zero-tolerance than the US but clearly something has changed and they've gotten over their hangup while we're stuck in the 1700's.
Science has been begging the US to allow for the study of psychoactive drugs (and not in the MKUltra sense) for at least 50 years now and this is exactly why. If you understand how a substance meditates its full range of effects you might be able to design an analog that exhibits only/mostly the positive ones. This is a massive shift in scientific philosophy from China that will undoubtedly leave the US in the dust at the same time that we're putting the final nails in the coffin of US research and they're doubling down on funding.
It makes perfect sense for China. If you have a non-addictive, no-mind-altering, no-negative consequences legal alternative to narcotics that relieves pain then you disincentivize use of drugs and the drug trade for some amount of users.
It's made perfect sense for the US for forever, but unquestionably since the dawn of molecular medicine. We are just a puritan hellscape and refuse to pursue recreational drug research. China was equally opposed to research on recreational drugs and socially they're much more conservative than us when it comes to hard drugs. Imagine if we had a massive domestic chemical manufacturing capacity like China does, that shit would leak out into the population like a sieve. They don't let that happen, they keep that shit on lock. It makes sense for China to continue being stubborn just like us and refuse to engage with the field, so this work shows how much more rational and flexible the country is compared to the US and points toward a more productive scientific future.
I have to reiterate, this work is nothing new, nothing groundbreaking, it could have easily been published decades ago. It is absolute S-tier work on a well-worn path, but the only innovation it required was the state allowing for research to be performed on a controlled substance.
Considering recreational drug use was a cornerstone of the Century of Humiliation, I can understand their hardline attitude.
Precisely
More fent for the gweilo
excuse me people were partying back then. the world is instead stuck in nancy reagan's mind palace
Sounds tentatively good. Avoiding tolerance and other side effects could be big.
But marijuana isn't physically addictive, and psychological addiction can literally happen with anything that makes you feel good or better. So it seems like this is buying into shitty anti-drug propaganda in order to make the breakthrough sound better. Especially in the title.
Maybe I misunderstand what it means here, but I thought marijuana was physically addictive, at least in the sense that someone’s physiological tolerance increases with repeated use, and odds for withdrawal symptoms increases after stopping repeated use
Marijuana stays in the body for a longer period of time than the harder drugs which decreases the chemical dependancy you have on it.
It’s very easy to go cold turkey as it tapers off naturally.
Harder drugs cycle through the body quickly, so once your body starts seeing it as a chemical need to fulfill, you have to keep feeding that need if you don’t want to experience withdrawal symptoms.
I'm sorry, but this is dangerous misinformation.
A drug lingering in the body can affect the timing of withdrawal or how to best taper if ceasing, but it does not determine whether a person becomes tolerant or dependent on it. Benzodiazepines are one of many examples, some of them are very long-acting drugs that remain in the body for days, (like diazepam aka valium can linger over a week) yet tolerance and dependence of benzos is notorious, partly because of how severe, even deadly, the withdrawal can be. You can die from suddenly stopping a significant benzo habit. You cannot die from suddenly stopping even a massive cannabis habit, yet some benzos linger in your metabolism much longer than cannabinoids or their metabolites. The length of time a drug is active with the receptors in your brain definitely does effect withdrawal profile, but it is a comparatively small factor in what is capable of causing dependence. The fact that it's easy to go cold turkey off of marijuana has essentially nothing to do with its metabolic duration but rather how differently it acts (its pharmacology) on your brain compared to hard drugs.
I'm begging hexbears not to spread drug or medical information they have heard as if it is fact without verifying that it's true.
Thanks for the correction
Tolerance increase yes, but I'm not aware of any withdrawal. When I took a break after daily use I did get a hankering for a day or two, but after that literally no feeling of compulsion. YMMV
Yeah. With opiates, withdrawal makes you sick. In extreme cases it can even be life threatening, without proper care and management. Pot has nothing like that.
then there is alcohol
You feel the same way whenever you stop doing anything that had become a habit you enjoyed, whether it's an activity or something you consume. If you enjoy eating chocolate every day and suddenly you stop, of course you're gonna get cravings for a while, but that doesn't mean it's addictive in a physical chemical sense.
Well, I disagree it's not addictive enough to be annoying, it obviously belongs to a totally different category than opiods & shit, there's been a lot of bad messaging about it I agree. I think it becomes much more addictive when you're out of shape & stressed, but that was a good portion of my life, very skinny & underslept.
Setting that aside, can we agree pain relief without cognitive impairment is worthwhile? "Shitty anti-drug propaganda" is a pretty hot take, it's mild considering the history of marijuana in East Asia + SEA. Lotta ppl got killed, these things take time.
I don't agree with most drug legalization libertarian messaging, I just choom. See, social science sucks. In America, they're totally blind to the effects of corruption & imperialism on anti-drug campaigns. As crazy as it sounds, large-scale pot farms can be completely stamped out, leaving only modest gardeners. 👨🌾🤫 Plus, rehab programs are a lot more effective when they're not like, Synanon-influenced cult shit (don't think people who smoke weed need rehab programs just saying their ineffectiveness is another wedge for total legalization campaigns). Do you follow or is this just rambling? I was out for drinks so excuse me lmao.
That's what I refer to above as psychological addiction. Many, many things can become addictive under those stresses. Including things like television, video games, and even dieting and exercise (the "addiction" there being people insisting on doing it even when it is detrimental, such as causing malnutrition, exacerbating injuries, and getting in the way of one's social relations).
Absolutely. I wasn't claiming everything about this was propaganda; just the "non-addictive" framing.
Dieting & exercise is not an addiction, the dysfunctional + destructive kind is fueled by body dysmorphia + poor social skills (I recommend Martin Berkhan, one of the only good chuds, he's too stupid to even be a chud, someone gave him 12 Rules for Life & he pretended to read the first chapter, then wrote a negative review).
You're describing reward systems & how they interact with hyperpalatable food. This is how people ended up framing the consumers of human trafficking videos as the real victims (not roping you into that just saying). Cannabis is a lot better than that stuff, nobody has sex & eats a hot dog to get over shooting someone. Well, they do, but then they annihilate their families (they don't make a mixtape).
Okay, here's an experiment, try not smoking for a few days & look for the following: insomnia, irritability, decreased appetite, nausea, anxiety, & a return of any pain you were better-ignoring with increased sensitivity. If you smoke constantly you will even get reduced gastric emptying, which can lead to constipation. There are all very desirable factors of addiction to avoid. (Why I stick to ¼-½ gram 5 days apart, someone in the thread was going through 1 cart every 3 days, which is like 3-5 grams of my shit.) Is it hypocritical for people to ban marijuana (which I believe should be done medically through a sane system, very pie-in-the-sky I know) when alcohol causes physical withdrawal symptoms I am experiencing as we speak? Yes, but I just think boiling it down to physical withdrawal symptoms is a reductive view of chemical dependency.
Described in the most general way possible, yeah I could be "addicted" to Death's Dynamic Shroud #goodmusicalbums, but I can feel that weed is changing so much shit about how my body works, it's not as passive as "I didn't listen to Transcendence Bot & eat soup recently, maybe that's why I have less Joy", it's like oh fuck my work performance is severely inhibited. It's an amazing tool for creativity & weightlifting recovery & I am skeptical any treatment can fully replace that, specifically the way psychedelics form links between the mind & body in uhhh uh "higher definition" (???)
Using terminology as a bridge between social science, pop psychology, & medicine is extremely fraught so I apologize for leaning on anecdotes to the contrary at parts (I think it's time for unc to take a nap 🧘♂️)
first rat is literally me
Its over i have depicted you as the cataleptic traditional CB1 agonists rat and myself as the redesigned CB1 agonist rat
Shit that's no fun
Think of it this way, you can operate a forklift while getting the benefits of smoking weed on the clock, such as not wanting to gnash at people (I would never do this, just saying hypothetically, you know). A promising treatment option.
spoiler
I used to smoke and operate all kinds of forkliftsThat's really interesting. Apologies for getting personal & posting #different in the news thread, but I must ask: With that level of tolerance, were you still able to get the #visions when smoking & have dreams at night? Sweet spot is 3-5 days depending on quantity IMO which means sober in work environment aside from the stress reset. I need the long wizard dreams or I get crabby, & the way it impacts reading comprehension past that frequency is totally unbearable. I keep it Stalin mode
Since I know there are like, people who do DIY HRT on here, maybe some of you are able to figure out how to buy tianeptine online? That's a really good antidepressant if you just kind of follow a normal treatment regimen & don't sell it as gas station dickpills (how it got banned for you)
Also weird recommendation but I was able to make my actual urges to smoke weed disappear by supplementing potassium chloride/citrate + magnesium glycinate. I would also credit protein & creatine no joke, although I don't think there is much to support creatine supplements actually helping your brain, so it might be an indirect thing related to less stress in the body overall due to better-hydrated muscles. Protein powder with BCAAs is so noticeable I felt like I took an edible first time I tried it. Maybe that's thermogenesis tho?
I don't really dream, no. I smoke way more now than I did. Concentrates and vape carts exclusively. I don't know what you mean by visions but I have a very different reaction to smoking weed than most people I've encountered. My specialist thinks it's because I have 10/10 ADHD levels but idk my tolerance levels are beyond mortal comprehension
I go through 1g of distillate in about 3 days if I'm working. I have accidentally a whole 1g cart in a day off before, though. I don't really go for shatter much anymore because it's hard to do on the down-low with a kid. I never want to hear "daddy what's the blowtorch for?" I've taken the odd tolerance break but otherwise I've been on the pot every day for 10+ years now.
I'm currently reading hitch-hiker's guide to the galaxy for the first time and I can easily pick it up after a week of neglecting the e-reader and still remember what's going on. My comprehension may just be poor due to a lack of post-secondary education lmao
If these big science words are available OTC I will try it out. I basically have 0 drive to quit even when I think I want to quit. My mind is amazing at arguing in favour of THC time.
I used to hit vape carts pretty hard but they ramp up your tolerance too much for my taste, and I’m of the mind that vaping is probably the unhealthiest way to have your weed. I mostly eat edibles and smoke the occasional joint nowadays.
Edibles plain don't work unless i eat like 500mg and then it all hits me at once 2 hours later. Shatter ramped up my tolerance faster but the convenience factor of carts i think makes you correct in the long run
500mg? That’s an absurd amount. Has that always been the case or is your tolerance just that bad now? A 10mg edible is enough to have me coasting for an entire night.
with regard to edibles I have some sort of slow metabolism. I have a similar effect to alcohol where I don't have a 'tipsy' phase. I feel nothing and then at some point i'm drunk and if I did a silly and kept drinking until I felt drunk it was frow up night night time.
I respond poorly to orally ingested chemicals i suppose?
@acute_engels@hexbear.net Interesting my issue is that I become really socially uninhibited too, so either suddenly mute because I stopped GAF or crazy tangents like this which are inappropriate w most work people. Even when I was high tolerance that was a side effect. By #visions I mean you get a huge flash of insight of the past couple days, particularly resurfacing creative ideas for music, coding, & work writing, accompanied by closed-eye visuals which have a connection to the more verbalizable thoughts. Sort of a toned down version of what acid & shrooms did (suddenly seeing a Diablo-style grayscale map of my surroundings even with my eyes open, shit like that).
Yes it's all easily available online, I don't recommend pricey supplement stores, & supermarkets are unlikely to have it. The science words are my attempt to cut through the garbled Hitler-Kundalini shit surrounding health, because they are right that vitamins in the US completely lack those 2. Magnesium oxide just makes you poop, & for some reason potassium supplements are limited to 2% DV. Eating 50 expensive cellulose pills a day is not economical.
Citrate is sour, chloride is salty & can be found as "low-sodium salt" but usually with salt in tow. &questionably-raised chickens in powder form, in the case of boullion. Great in a water bottle for reducing fatigue, gives you the wizard dreams. You probably don't need to add salt but some people do it.
Glycinate just gets absorbed better. It will make it easier to get full nights of rest.
Thermogenesis is just a fancy way of saying loss of calories due to digestion. It can be 20-35% calories of long-chain proteins & complex carbs. So that would be a good thing to add to diet math btw. It can activate THC stored in fat. Workouts make people with a weed habit get high, since so much is stowed away.
I really do not like depression & I see it as the root of weed habits along with issues in the body's endocannabinoid system (people smoke weed more to make up for lack of healthy meal afterglow, which feels the same to me) from stress + other shit
Also completely agree on the blowtorch, while I associate it with pleasant gays & college students, it was also a mainstay of all hard drug environments. You don'r want to normalize it 👍
Addiction is the not fun part of drugs btw