How bad is COVID now? Current NB.1.81 feels much worse than a cold: sore throats, fevers, headaches, exhaustion, body aches. Flu is similar. Shots won’t make you bulletproof but slash risk of hospitalization + long-term complications. We are currently experiencing a surge in cases.

Check out this new review of preclinical, human lab, and clinical studies to advance treatment of cannabis use disorder, with recommendations on where the field might go next (hint: define efficacy by considering what patients are asking for in treatment, which is typically not abstinence)

i wrote an essay for @thetransmitter.bsky.social about what it feels like to serve on an NIH grant review panel (study section) right now www.thetransmitter.org/craft-and-ca...

Join us virtually on October 16-17 to learn more about the latest science re. cannabis/cannabinoids and the gut-brain access

Symptoms often improve over time in RCTs. Without a placebo comparison, it’s impossible to tell what impact cannabis has on these symptoms.

If you missed out on a spot at the other neuroscience/psychoactive drug GRCs this summer, we still have spots open at the Cannabinoid GRC with an exciting program ranging from clinical to pre-clinical to big data to society! Register today! grc.org/cannabinoid-... RT please!

So grateful to receive this @cpddorg.bsky.social award in honor of my mentor, Marian Fischman-a pioneer in human lab models of #SUDs and a wonderful person. To be nominated by my former mentee, @zivacooper.bsky.social and colleagues @williamstoops.bsky.social and Sandy Comer made it very special.

The findings at the recent trial and today's Columbia chaos is pushing me to the edge. I just sent the following email...

Trump's military parade will cost $25-45 Million dollars, while federal funding for science is slashed, public servants are fired, and life-saving programs are ended, presumably to save money. Got it. I'll be saying what I think about that at @indivisible.org #NoKingsDay tomorrow. #StandUpForScience

Always a pleasure talking to the esteemed Dr. Igor Grant about cannabis science. Subscribe to this podcast!

This apparently has to do with the fact that Grants Management Specialists now have to justify every payment (not just every grant, but every reimbursement) and the process for managing this is not yet set up (or at least that it my current understanding)...

So grateful for the hospitality and overall great time that you showed me. I ❤️ Calgary

Let’s go, Steve!!

From interview of Lee Bollinger, 1st Amendment scholar who served as dean of @UMichLaw, president of @UMich, and president of Columbia University. www.chronicle.com/article/were...

leaving my blue bubble to drive across this ‘great’ country. Going to tally the middle fingers vs the thumbs up. Crossing a lot of enemy territory!

Love to see the Guardian state outright that continuing to block posting to the Federal Register is in violation of court orders. So who are we holding in contempt here? If there isn't another move to force compliance then what good is our legal system? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Today, my office is in court to keep up our efforts to stop Trump's National Institutes of Health funding cuts that will slow down lifesaving medical research.   We're urging the court to continue to block these funding cuts as we keep fighting this reckless abuse of power.

If the block on the Federal Register isn’t removed in the next few months, I fear a majority of labs will close within a year. This small procedural wrench has the power to kill US science indefinitely, losing an entire generation of discovery and innovation.

I've been stalking NIH Reporter to see if any new R01s fund at the 15% F&A rate, but... no new full R01s have funded since 2/10/2025, not a single R01 - across all of NIH - since 2/08. Only 18 grants have been newly funded - I am happy for the F31/F32/F30, R35, K99 trainees who have received $$.

What these nihilistic vandals are doing to dismantle science & medicine—generations of expertise & public service & life improving benefits—is cultural revolution level national self harm. No foreign foe could inflict such brutal damage & senseless suffering on US so fast & effectively & unresisted.

An absolutely scorching OpEd by Harold Varmus, Nobel laureate, on Trump's destruction of the vaunted US scientific & biomedical enterprise & on Trump's kooky picks to lead the US health & science agencies Gift link to share far & wide www.nytimes.com/2025/02/14/o...

I guess all upcoming research grants need to be entitled ‘Rich, Fat, White Men: Factors influencing Their Superiority”

🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.

Updated list of companies committed to DEI Costco, Meijer, Kroger, Giant Grocery, Ben & Jerry’s, Ulta, Macy’s, Old Navy, Nordstrom’s, TJ Maxx, GoTo Foods (includes Moe’s Southwest Grill, Mcalister’s, Auntie Anne’s, Jamba, Cinnabon, and more…), Dollar Tree, Walgreens, Wegmans

The entire website for the NIH Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH) is very nearly stripped bare. This is so, so devastating. orwh.od.nih.gov/research/fun...

Trump advisor: "The White House’s flood of orders and news is designed to disorient already despairing Democratic foes, leaving them so battered that they won’t be able to mount a cohesive opposition." www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Up until today I had been really focused on the shutdown of the NIH from a scientist perspective and today as I sat as a patient at the cancer center receiving my infusion I thought about it from the patient perspective.

Sickening

Trump hits NIH with ‘devastating’ freezes on meetings, travel, communications, and hiring | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

The bad news is that the world is unpredictable and uncontrollable. The good news is that we are not helpless, and we shouldn’t feel hopeless. We can save ourselves and one another. Here’s how.

New rule: ANYONE that uses the word toxic about a substance or exposure must include at which dose and route of exposure and whether that applies to humans. Yes -every media outlet - I am looking at you too. Example: water is TOXIC if you drink 5.2 liters at once.

Most fitting that my first post will be where my scientific career started-graduate school with Klaus Miczek. RIP. rdcu.be/d1wbR