Tag: psychoactive drugs

  • Cocaine in mummified brains reveals when Europeans first used the drug

    Cocaine in mummified brains reveals when Europeans first used the drug

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    Coca leaves have psychoactive and therapeutic properties

    Fabiano Sodi/Alamy

    The mummified brain tissue of two people found in a 17th-century crypt in Milan, Italy, contains traces of cocaine, revealing that the drug was being used in Europe 200 years earlier than previously recorded.

    Coca leaves, from which cocaine is derived, have been chewed in the plant’s native South America for thousands of years, but the drug only took off in Europe in the 19th century, when it was chemically isolated from the plant.

    Spanish conquerors learned of the psychoactive and therapeutic properties of coca leaves, but…

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  • Dutch police trial AI-powered robot dog to safely inspect drug labs

    Dutch police trial AI-powered robot dog to safely inspect drug labs

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    Spot robotic dogs have a range of applications

    CTK/Alamy

    Dutch police are planning to use an autonomous robotic dog in drug lab raids to avoid placing officers at risk from criminals, dangerous chemicals and explosions. If tests in mocked-up scenarios go well, the artificial intelligence-powered robot will be deployed in real raids, say police.

    Simon Prins at Politie Nederland, the Dutch police force, has been testing and using robots in criminal investigations for more than two decades, but says they are only now growing capable enough to be practical for more…

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