[ Tony's voice is muffled slightly by the fact that his phone is in the front pocket of his button-down shirt. Sounds of someone opening and closing a refrigerator can be heard in the background as Tony attempts to assemble a sandwich in the X-Mansion kitchen. BTW the bottle of scotch on top of the fridge is empty. If one of those Harry Potter types could "accio" up another one, that would be super. ]
Okay. Okay. So. I've been thinking. We've been looking at ways to counteract each aspect of the toxin because there are several different chemicals in the aerosal, right?
I was thinking about this episode of House --- I know, I know, it's not real medicine, but I remembered this one thing from it --- anyway, there's this scene where he's taking LSD for a migraine, and then he takes a fistful of anti-depressants to combat the effects of the LSD, and it stops the hallucination right in its tracks. Which, again, not real medicine, but anyway. I was thinking about it, and so-- right. We know MAOIs will stop the response to LSD, but since MDMA is actually a stimulant, you can't use it with an MAOI because it would literally kill you. And it would be pretty dangerous with the dopamine anyway. But even small doses of certain SSRIs do diminish the effects of LSD. Not all of them, though, which is weird -- I think it's mostly fluoxetine that -- anyway. The only problem with those is that they also inhibit the reuptake of dopamine, which is already half of the problem. Because on the one hand, dopamine storm can cause spontaneous orgasms, and on the other hand, the can cause, you know, death. And that's at least 50% bad news. Right? Right.
[ Voice garbled slightly by sounds of sandwich being eaten, frustrated rustling through several bags of potato chips most of which are EMPTY and that is very sad.]
SO. I was thinking about the pharmacology of psilocybin, and how it doesn't actually break down before you excrete it, it just passes through your system. And then I thought, well, what if we stop trying to counteract each ingredient in the fear cocktail, and we just [ Insert science here - something about blocking the adenosine receptors that respond to the chemicals in question and control the production of dopamine/norepinephrine/something or other. Insert carbon monoxide vs. oxygen comparison here, except resulting in the opposite of death. And/or something about an element that could safely bond with those chemicals to create a compound that is both relatively safe and water soluble. I studied Art History and Classical Latin in college, guys. What do you want from me? Just pretend this is all real science. And totally workable. ] And that should just allow it to pass harmlessly through a person's system without generating the fear response.
We could work that, right?